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For obvious reasons, the idea that you can snag hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for next to nothing has become exceptionally popular with today's debt-ridden, budget-strapped masses. But does the "extreme couponing" popularized on TV actually pay off?
Of course not. The idea seemed unlikely in the beginning and seems even more so now that more shoppers have tried to mimic the astounding money-saving acrobatics displayed on the TLC show Extreme Couponing.
There's a strong argument to be made that utilizing couponing as something of a part-time job is pointless because, considering the amount of time that's required, you'd wind up making (or saving, as it were) far more money with an actual part-time job. What's more, a paycheck is generally considered superior to, say, a stockpile of 50 jars of tomato sauce. Some of the couponing strategies shown on TV have also been proved to be bogus. As a result, even if you had the time and inclination to go "extreme," supermarkets aren't likely to play along and let you snag 400-plus rolls of toilet paper for free.
(MORE: Why Holiday Season 'Self-Gifting' Is Such a Huge Retail Trend)
At least with something like toilet paper, it'll get used by a family — perhaps not for five years, but it'll come out of the pantry at some point. In her MoneyCrashers' post explaining why she quit extreme couponing after three years of active participation in the "sport," Christy Rakoczy wrote that the biggest problem is that couponers' homes grow cluttered with goods they don't need:
When you do the extreme couponing and your goal is to save as much as you can, it's not really so much about getting useful products as it is about getting products that you can get for free.
That's how Rakoczy, who doesn't have diabetes, wound up in possession of 60 or so diabetes monitors.
NPR recently interviewed Rakoczy about how she gave up her couponing habit, which comes across as an unhealthy obsession, perhaps even an addiction. The reformed couponer described how she acted during the height of her "extreme" behavior:
I didn't have a lot of free time because I was going to stores whenever I had spare time on my hands to try to get, you know, the next deal. A lot of the stuff, the coupons would expire, so you feel like you have to go before they are going to expire. And if the stuff sold out, well, you got to go back again the next day and see if you can find it.
(MORE: Brand Names Just Don't Mean as Much Anymore)
Dr. Phil's "Ten Key Signs of Having an Addiction" include several that'd apply here, such as:
• Giving up or limiting social, occupational or recreational activities because of the behavior.
• Preoccupation with the behavior or preparatory activities.
• Frequently engaging in those behaviors to a greater extent or over a longer period of time than intended.
In any event, she quit cold turkey, after coming to the conclusion that "buying something you don't need — or even acquiring it for free — isn't a bargain."
(MORE: Top 10 Conspicuously Expensive Purchases)
By definition, extreme couponing isn't for everyone. It's extreme, as opposed to mainstream. Nowadays, Rakoczy does what most shoppers do. She clips the occasional coupon, using it only to save a bit on things she'd be buying anyway. She no longer bothers spending hours week in, week out to strategize ways to get freebies — especially not when she has no need for what's being "given" away.


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Construction was begun on 0.8 percent more homes in February than in January, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development say. Their report is another in a series of signs in recent months that the housing sector's rebound continues.
The number of "housing starts" was up 27.7 percent from February 2012.
Bloomberg News adds that "building permits climbed to the highest level in almost five years, adding to signs of progress in the housing market that's helping boost the economy. ... Confidence is being restored to the housing market as property values stabilize, the employment outlook brightens and mortgage rates hover around record lows."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

subset: commoncrawl


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In this course, you'll learn about the key components of health care, and the economics behind their principles and pricing strategies. Professors Ezekiel Emanuel of Penn Medicine and Guy David of the Wharton School have designed this course to help you understand the complex structure of the health care system and health insurance. Through study and analysis of providers and insurance through an economic lens, you'll learn how basic economic principles apply to both principles and payment methods. By the end of this course, you'll be able to identify different types of health care providers and understand the dynamic between the providers and patient so you can employ best practices and maximize profit for your health care organization.


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A possible national default loomed closer on Monday as the partial government shutdown lingered, rattling markets in the U.S. and overseas. A gridlocked Congress betrayed little or no urgency toward resolving either of the threats.
Stocks got a case of the jitters on Wall Street, and halfway around the world China stressed the importance for the international economy of raising the U.S. debt limit.
"Safeguarding the debt is of vital importance to the economy of the U.S. and the world," Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. China holds $1.277 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, second only to Japan.
At home, the political rhetoric was unchanged — and generally uncompromising — while a new poll suggested Republicans are paying a heavier price than Democrats for the deadlock.
President Barack Obama said the House should vote immediately on ending the partial closure of the federal establishment. He accused House Speaker John Boehner of refusing to permit the necessary legislation to come to the floor because he "doesn't apparently want to see the … shutdown end at the moment, unless he's able to extract concessions that don't have anything to do with the budget."
Boehner, in rebuttal, called on Obama to agree to negotiations on changes in the nation's health care overhaul and steps to curb deficits, the principal GOP demands for ending the shutdown and eliminating the threat of default.
"Really, Mr. President. It's time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk," the Ohio Republican said in remarks on the House floor.
Obama said he would talk with the Republicans on those topics or virtually any others. But the White House has said repeatedly the president will not negotiate until the government is fully re-opened and the debt limit has been raised to stave off the nation's first-ever default.
White House aide Jason Furman told reporters that if Boehner "needs to have some talking point for his caucus that's consistent with us not negotiating … that's not adding a bunch of extraneous conditions, of course he's welcome to figure out whatever talking point he wants that helps him sell something."
The current standoff is the latest in a string of clashes over the past three years between Obama and a House Republican majority that has steered to the right with the rise of the tea party.
Most Democrats and many Republicans have assumed the GOP will pay a heavier price for a shutdown than the Democrats, since that was the case in 1996.
And a survey released by the Washington Post-ABC said disapproval of Republicans was measured at 70 percent, up from 63 percent a week earlier. Disapproval of Obama's role was statistically unchanged at 51 percent.
In the Senate, where majority Democrats forced approval of legislation before the shutdown aimed at preventing it, officials said Majority Leader Harry Reid was drafting a bill to raise the current $16.7 trillion debt ceiling before the Oct. 17 deadline when Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said the government will reach its borrowing limit.
The measure would allow the government to meet its borrowing needs through the 2014 elections, officials said, although few details were immediately available.
Assuming Democratic support, the bill could pass the Senate quickly if Republicans merely vote against it as they press for concessions from the White House. But passage could be delayed until Oct. 17 if the GOP decides to mount a filibuster.
Separately, a White House aide said Obama would be receptive to an interim, short-term measure to prevent default.
In the House, Republicans declined to say when they would put debt limit legislation on the floor for a vote.
Instead, the public agenda for the day consisted of legislation to reopen the Food and Drug Administration, the latest in a string of measures to soften the impact of the partial shutdown. The measure was approved 235-162.
Earlier House-passed bills would end the shutdown at national parks, the National Guard and Reserves and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, and ease effects for the Washington, D.C., government, among other locations. Each of the measures cleared the House with some Democratic support.
Yet each is under a veto threat by the White House, and Reid opposes them in the Senate as far less than the full restoration of government services that most Democrats favor.
Still, the shutdown eased over the weekend, when about 350,000 civilian defense workers were recalled as the result of legislation Congress passed and Obama signed after the shutdown began.
That left an estimated 450,000 federal employees idle at agencies responsible for domestic programs, ranging from the Departments of Education to Energy, and including Labor, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation and more.
The shutdown was felt unevenly, however, because of bewilderingly complex rules and the ability of senior officials to declare some projects essential and therefore allowed to remain open.
Some routine food checks by the FDA were suspended, but the Department of Agriculture's meat inspections continued uninterrupted. Much of the nation's space agency was shuttered, although work continued on plans to launch a robotic probe to Mars, which has a once-every-two-years launch window.
Despite the order returning civilian Pentagon workers to their government jobs, defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced it would furlough about 2,400.
Top defense officials noted that despite the recall of most civilians, and the resumption of many activities across the Defense Department, there are critical programs and benefits that remain halted, according to a Pentagon report on their meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
For example, the department does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities for the survivors of service members killed in action – typically a cash payment of $100,000 paid within three days of the death of a service member.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, where Obama visited, served as a demonstration for the variable impact of the partial shutdown.
Officials said the agency had furloughed about 86 percent of its workers, then had recalled about 200 of them last week to prepare for the threat posed by Tropical Storm Karen in the Gulf Coast region.
With the threat passed, Obama said at least 100 of them have been re-furloughed.
"That's no way of doing business," he said.
Whatever the shutdown's inconveniences, it was easily rivaled by the warnings over a default, in which the United States would not be able to pay all its bills.
"A default would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic," a Treasury report said. "Credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, U.S. interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world."
Private economists generally agree that a default on the U.S. debt would be extremely harmful, especially if the impasse was not resolved quickly.
Lew has said that while Treasury expects to have $30 billion of cash on hand on Oct. 17, that money would be quickly exhausted in paying incoming bills given that the government's payments can run up to $60 billion on a single day.
Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger, Jim Kuhnhenn, Donna Cassata and Alan Fram contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Associated Press
(AP) - "The Twelve" (Ballantine), by Justin Cronin
The middle book in a trilogy faces a striking challenge. It must match the interest and appeal created by the first book while advancing the story with enough surprises that readers will believe their investment of time and emotion will pay off in the final installment.
Justin Cronin's "The Twelve" walks a fine line in meeting that challenge. It returns us to a horrible, fascinating future dominated by vampirelike creatures called "virals," created by a military experiment gone wrong. As in "The Passage," published in 2010, Cronin presents multiple storylines, one as the virus takes hold and civilization falls apart and others a few generations later as the world tries to redefine what's normal.
Reading "The Twelve" without the benefit and background of the first book would be as unwise as venturing out at night, the prime feeding time for the virals. "The Passage" brilliantly creates a bloody dystopia, and its sequel cannot help but be a continuation, however welcome, instead of a revelation.
At first, a been-there, done-that quality tempers "The Twelve." As in the initial book, a familiar if exciting opening section follows a particular group of survivors as they try to cope with the first wave of the virus. Then, some eight decades later, battle-hardened veterans take on the core virals and their minions in an effort to end their reign over what had been the Midwest _ an echo of the climax of the first book.
Yet "Passage" fans shouldn't be dismayed _ not at all. At one point the story takes a turn that leaves such familiarities far behind. What remains in the forefront is the fine storytelling, particularly in its attention to character, that turned Cronin's first book into one of the year's best.
Whether Cronin can achieve an apocalyptic hat trick with the trilogy's final volume will leave readers anxious. It's going to be tough going _ but then, what isn't in viral America?
Douglass K. Daniel is the author of "Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks" (University of Wisconsin Press).
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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The administration is wrong to promote so-called "free-trade" deals.
Published in Dissent.
With recent revelations about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, it is now safe to say that President Obama has surpassed George W. Bush as a champion of the flawed and offensive ideology of corporate globalization.
This argument requires some explanation. Here's the backstory: As the Bush administration commenced in the early 2000s, many argued that his foreign policy represented a continuation of the Clinton-era approach to promoting "free trade" neoliberalism overseas. However, I contended that, especially after the launch of the Iraq war in 2003, the unilateralist bullying of the neocons represented a split from past practice.
No doubt, big arms and big oil had their needs met by the Bush agenda. But his administration was wary of multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, which were central instruments of U.S. policy under Clinton. The Bush approach relied on our-way-or-the-highway, coalition-of-the-willing hard power. This made a significant portion of corporate America uncomfortable, especially businesses trying to navigate and expand in foreign markets. It also left the soft-power agenda of "free trade" in an uncertain state.
This was essentially the thesis of my 2008 book, How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy. Around the time the book came out, I wrote:
"In October 2007…the Wall Street Journal reported that the [Republican] party could be facing a brand crisis as "[s]ome business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don't share."
When it comes to corporate responses to [Bush's] Global War on Terror, we mostly hear about the likes of Halliburton and Blackwater—companies directly implicated in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and with the mentality of looters. Such firms have done their best to score quick profits from the military machine. However, there was always a faction of realist, business-oriented Republicans who opposed the invasion from the start, in part because they believed it would negatively impact the U.S. economy. As the [Bush administration's] adventure in Iraq has descended into the morass, the ranks of corporate complainers have only grown.
The "free trade" elite have become particularly upset about the administration's focus on go-it-alone nationalism and its disregard for multilateral means of securing influence. This belligerent approach to foreign affairs, they believe, has thwarted the advance of corporate globalization. In an April 2006 column in the Washington Post, globalist cheerleader Sebastian Mallaby laid blame for "why globalization has stalled" at the feet of the Bush administration. The White House, Mallaby charged, was unwilling to invest any political capital in the IMF, the World Bank, or the WTO….Frustrated by Bush's failures, many in the business elite want to return to the softer empire of corporate globalization and, increasingly, they are looking to the Democrats to navigate this return."
My concern back then was that a Democrat (either Obama or Hillary Clinton) would be elected to office and then abandon the overt militarism and "imperial globalization" of the Bush administration, but embrace a subtler, more multilateralist "free trade" neoliberalism—reclaiming the agenda of corporate globalization. I would have been pleased if this prediction had proved wrong. Sadly, Obama has provided irrefutable evidence that he has boarded the corporate globalist bandwagon.
At the end of the administration's first year, I gave Obama a "B" for trade policy on a report card for Foreign Policy In Focus. While there was some rumbling about resurrecting stalled bilateral trade deals with Korea, Panama, and Colombia, the administration hadn't done much to push things forward. Things were quiet. And given the kind of trade deals that Washington has brokered in the last couple decades, no news is good news in this arena.
Unfortunately, by 2011, the administration was pushing these so-called "free trade" deals hard. It succeeded in passing them through Congress and then signing them into law last fall.
Obama's trade policy grade was plummeting, but new information shows things to be even worse. In the past month the president has officially failed out of "fair trade" class. On June 13, Public Citizen released a leaked document showing that the TPP—a trade agreement being negotiated between the United States and eight Pacific countries under considerable secrecy—is shaping up to be as bad as NAFTA or worse.
Public Citizen wrote in a press release:
"Although the TPP has been branded a "trade" agreement, the leaked text of the pact's Investment Chapter shows that the TPP would:
—Limit how U.S. federal and state officials could regulate foreign firms operating within U.S. boundaries, with requirements to provide them greater rights than domestic firms;
—Extend the incentives for U.S. firms to offshore investment and jobs to lower-wage countries;
—Establish a two-track legal system that gives foreign firms new rights to skirt U.S. courts and laws, directly sue the U.S. government before foreign tribunals and demand compensation for financial, health, environmental, land use and other laws they claim undermine their TPP privileges; and
—Allow foreign firms to demand compensation for the costs of complying with U.S. financial or environmental regulations that apply equally to domestic and foreign firms."
In the weeks since that leak, it has been reported that Mexico and Canada will both be joining TPP talks, setting the stage for the creation of a behemoth trading bloc. This bloc will operate based on rules backed (and often concocted) by corporate lobbyists.
It didn't have to be this way. It was not preordained that President Obama would become Corporate-Globalizer-in-Chief. The base of the Democratic Party has aligned itself firmly against the "free trade" agenda—so much so that both Obama and Clinton campaigned in 2008 against the NAFTA model and in favor of a "fair trade" alternative. In fact, going into the 2012 elections, there's evidence that Obama's betrayal of earlier vows could be a significant liability among voters and a bitter pill for key constituencies the president needs if his campaign is going to overcome the enthusiasm gap between progressives and the Republican faithful.
Yet instead of taking the chance to redefine American interests in the world as something other than securing profits for U.S. businesses, Obama has allowed an ingrained pro-corporate obsequiousness to permeate the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of State.
It's not the unilaterist hubris of the Bush administration. But it's still a detestable foreign policy—and a sorely missed opportunity for something better.
Photo credit: Pete Souza / White House.


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Bin Laden spokesman due in NY court on plot charge
Published 12:00 am Friday, March 8, 2013
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was born in Kuwait and was a member of bin Laden's inner circle, was captured in Jordan over the past week, authorities said.
Abu Ghaith was to appear Friday morning in federal court in Manhattan to enter a plea to one count of conspiracy to kill Americans. There was no immediate response to phone and email messages left with his attorney.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced the capture of the international fugitive on Thursday, saying "no amount of distance or time will weaken our resolve to bring America's enemies to justice."
The case marks a legal victory for President Barack Obama's administration, which has long sought to charge senior al-Qaida suspects in American federal courts instead of military tribunals at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But it runs counter to demands by Republicans in Congress who do not want high-threat terror suspects brought into the United States.
The Department of Justice said Abu Ghaith was the spokesman for al-Qaida, working alongside bin Laden and current leader Ayman al-Zawahri, since at least May 2001. Abu Ghaith is a former mosque preacher and teacher.
The day after the Sept. 11 attacks, prosecutors say, he appeared with bin Laden and al-Zawahri and called on the "nation of Islam" to battle against Jews, Christians and Americans.
A "great army is gathering against you," Abu Ghaith said on Sept. 12, 2001, according to prosecutors.
Shortly afterward, Abu Ghaith warned in a speech that "the storms shall not stop — especially the airplanes storm" and advised Muslims, children and al-Qaida allies to stay out of planes and high-rise buildings. In one video, he was sitting with bin Laden in front of a rock face in Afghanistan. Kuwait stripped him of his citizenship after Sept. 11.
In 2002, under pressure as the U.S. military and CIA searched for bin Laden, Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan, prosecutors said.
Abu Ghaith's trial will mark one of the first prosecutions of senior al-Qaida leaders on U.S. soil. Charging foreign terror suspects in American federal courts was a top pledge by Obama shortly after he took office in 2009, aimed, in part, to close Guantanamo Bay.
Republicans have fought the White House to keep Guantanamo open. Several GOP lawmakers on Thursday said Abu Ghaith should be considered an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo.
Generally, Guantanamo detainees have fewer legal rights and due process than they would have in a court in America but could potentially yield more information to prevent future threats.


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Black Clay, La Chamba Garlic Roaster
About the piece
Care and Use
How they are Made
Our exclusively designed Garlic Roaster is a great addition to our product line and a must have to complete any great La Chamba collection. The even heating qualities of the clay make it the perfect vessel to slowly roast up to four garlic heads, allowing the garlic cloves to slowly caramelize. It is so easy to use; anyone can enjoy the aroma, and use the roasted garlic in recipes such as soups, sauces, pizzas, or simple spread on toast.
Item Number: | COL-7035-07 |
Dimensions (inches): | |
Length: | 7.0 |
Width: | 7.0 |
Height: | 4.5 |
Diameter: | 7.0 |
How we measure |
About Black Clay, La Chamba, Cookware
Black Clay, La Chamba Cookware, is well-known and used throughout Colombia in restaurants and homes for preparing and serving traditional dishes such as Ajiaco. Its origins can be traced back at least 700 years to vases and pitchers found in pre-Columbian archaeological sites. It is still made in the traditional manner, by families in a small village on the banks of the Magdalena River in Central Colombia. The pieces heat very evenly and retain heat for a long period and can be used in the oven, the microwave or on a gas or electric stovetop. They can go directly to the table for a sophisticated presentation.
Because the pieces are unglazed, they are completely natural and safe and contain no toxins or lead. The porous nature of the unglazed clay allows the slow evaporation of steam resulting in using less liquids and fats while cooking which that produces food that is healthier and tastier!
To roast garlic in the oven using a ceramic garlic roaster is simple.
Submerge the clay roaster in water for about 15 minutes. This will aloow the clay soaks up the water and creates moisture while the garlic roasts for a smooth, spreadable end product! Do not peel the skin off the garlic. Simply slice the top portion of the garlic head off, approximatley 3/4 of an inch, enough to make sure every tips of clove on the garlic is exposed. Drizzle olive oil all over the top of the head of garlic, making sure to cover all the cloves and letting some oil run down the sides. Place the cover and put the roaster in a cold oven. Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes.
Black Clay Cookware is not only beautiful, but it is also quite sturdy and will last many years with proper use and care. The pieces can be used in the oven, in the microwave or a stovetop, and can go directly to the table for a sophisticated presentation. The pieces can be used directly on a gas or electric range, however, it is recommended to use a heat diffuser on electric ranges. The heat diffuser (which can be used with gas stove as well) has the added benefit of distributing the heat slowly to prevent foods from burning. Clay cookware can also be used on induction cooktops with the use of an induction cookware interface disk.
The pieces must not be submitted to drastic changes in temperature. The pieces should be allowed to adjust slowly to heat, letting them slowly heat up until they are hot, either on the stove or in the oven. Likewise, you should also allow the pieces to adjust to room temperature before washing or storing them, and never sit a hot pot on a cold surface such as granite or tile.
For cleaning, avoid using the dishwasher, hand washing is recommended. After each use, fill with warm, soapy water, allowing to soak briefly if heavily soiled, then scrubbing lightly with a sponge or soft cloth.
Do not use metal or abrasive pads as they may scratch the surface and avoid strongly scented soaps which can flavor the clay. Use wooden utensils with the pieces as metal utensils can scratch and damage the inside.
As with most handmade products by artisans around the world, the pieces may have slight imperfections in the form or finish of the materials. Sometimes sizes of same model pieces may also vary slightly, however, these imperfection do not compromise the aesthetics or functionality of the pieces and are considered normal and to be expected. Likewise, although lids are made individually to match each pot, they do not always fit perfectly as the two parts may shrink differently during the firing process.
You may observe with certain use that your pieces may change in color, especially on the bottom where there is direct contact with heat. This is normal and does not affect the pieces in any way.
Before a Black Clay, La Chamba Piece is used for cooking the first time; it should be "cured" to seal the pores. Most pieces, since made with the best quality clay, will likely not need curing and can be used after light wash and slowly boiling some water, however, It is still a good idea to seal and cure the piece.
Every culture has different methods of sealing and curing their clay cookware. The most traditional method used in Colombia is to warm the clay piece slightly, then thoroughly rub the inside with a ripe plantain (a regular banana will do), leaving a thick coating on the clay. After drying for a bit, the piece can then be lightly washed to remove the residue.
The sealing can also be done with almost any oil, or even as easily as filling the piece with a mixture of milk and water and boiling it for a few minutes. During the boiling, some seepage may occur which is quite normal, however, the boiling action will eventually seal the pores.
Finally, to cure the piece, start sautéing some onions or garlic with a little oil or butter. This will finish the process and you are then ready to begin cooking.
In a small village on the banks of the Magdalena River in central Colombia, live entire families of talented artisans that make Black Clay, La Chamba Pottery. Like their ancestors have done for 700 years. The process of making Black Clay, La Chamba Pottery has remained virtually unchanged since before the Spanish conquest. Still today, there are no mechanical wheels and each piece is made entirely by hand. It is a laborious process of molding, polishing, and firing.
The entire community is dedicated to the production of these ceramics and it is how the community sustains itself. Rather than one artisan completing an entire piece, families or individuals specialize in certain steps of the process, which make the creation of each piece an entire community affair. After each step is completed, the pieces are then transported by burros, motor bikes or even on top of their heads to other families or individuals who complete other steps and so on until the pieces are completely done and packaged.
Three different types of clays from local mines are used in the making of these ceramics. They are dissolved in water and strained to remove little stones and other impurities. The interior of the ceramics are made with a mixture of a smooth, grey clay that gives the piece its strength and body, and a sandy grey clay that makes it easier to mold. The exterior is then "glazed" with a watery red clay which gives the piece a smooth surface, and allows for the polishing.
The process begins by flattening a ball of clay and forming it around a mold specifically made for each model. This "shell" is then smoothed and trimmed using tools fashioned from bamboo and plastic pieces. The pieces are then left to air dry, receiving a light polishing during the drying to make sure they have a smooth surface and free of sand. The pieces are then transported to other artisans that specialize in adding rims and/or handles. The handing off progression continues with other artisans which specialize in the production of the lids, which are custom made for each piece. Even the knobs on the lids are made by artisans who specialize in only adding knobs to lids.
After each step the pieces are laid out to dry in the scorching La Chamba sun. Sometimes the process is delayed due to rains which prevent the drying of the pieces. When it begins to rain, the entire community is mobilized to quickly cover drying pieces that were outside in various production stages. The pieces are then lightly polished with a soft sponge to ensure a smooth exterior, and they are then taken to artisans that glaze each piece with the watery red clay. The glaze is not let to dry completely to allow for the next step of polishing, which is probably the most laborious part of the process, the polishing.
The hand polish, a process known as burnishing, is done by rubbing the entire piece with semiprecious stones until it has a uniform brightness on the surface. Depending on the size of a piece, the polishing can take up to half an hour to an hour. Originally, this polishing was done with smooth river rocks from the bottom of the Magdalena River, but is now done with agate stones brought from Brazil which are stronger. With use, the stones grind down even creating grooves from corners and edges.
After the pieces are polished and fully dry, they are taken to be fired in conically shaped, wood burning ovens, although some artisans now use custom made gas kilns which make the process somewhat easier and faster.
To start the firing process, the pieces are placed inside metal drums, with smaller objects first going inside larger earthenware pieces. These metal drums are then placed in wood burning ovens, usually late in the day so as to minimize the heat to the workers. The firing process takes approximately three hours, with the furnace reaching approximately 750°C. This high heat, together with the glazing and burnishing process, result in utilitarian pieces strong enough to withstand rough treatments and make them ovenproof.
After the firing comes probably the most interesting part of the entire process and is what gives the pieces their unique black color. The metal drums are pulled out of the ovens with the help of long sticks.
Processed vegetable materials in the form of saw dust, rice husks, or other materials are then added to the metal drums with the white hot clay pieces still inside. The materials immediately catch fire and begin to smoke. The drums are then covered to extinguish the flames but keep the material smoking vigorously for quite some time. The smoke penetrates the pieces giving each piece the black color that so characterizes products from La Chamba.
The entire village and artisans are extremely proud of their products, as we are bringing them to you.
Roasted Garlic
With our Black Clay, La Chamba Garlic Roaster, anyone can enjoy the aroma and smooth flavor of roasted garlic. The roasted garlic can be used in many recipes including soups, sauces, pizzas, or just as a spread. Our exclusive design is a great addition to any La Chamba collection. The evenly heating qualities of the clay make it the perfect vessel to slowly roast up to four garlic heads.


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How to choose an operating system for your computer and how to run it there.
9 Sept 2011
Does Linux Community Need Corruption?
It was good time for some external investors to take over the company. And there were such investors. Investment fund NGI bought a stake in Mandriva. Since then, things have changed in the company.
Let's look what is NGI. This is Russian-owned investment fund where Mr.Leonid Reiman has control. Same fund, by the way, controls another Russian company PingWin, but we'll come back to that later.
First, let's look at Mr.Reiman himself. Who is he?
Leonid Reiman was Russian Minister of Telecommunications (later Minister of Transport and Communications) and then Presidential Counsellor. During that time he was several times accused in bribery, holding a stakes in Russian telecom companies and other illegal affairs. Some of those affairs leaked as far as Wall Street Journal. During reign of Mr.Reiman relatively small company North-West GSM transformed into Russian market leader currently known as Megafon. It is the company from the "big three" of Russian GSM operators. Mr.Reiman, of course unofficially, held own interest in NW GSW / Megafon.
There is no secret either that Russian government is very corrupted. There are very few decisions which are made with clear concious. Most of the decisions are made for someone's lobbied interest. But actions of Mr.Leonid Reiman were too much even for Russian government. That's why he was moved from Government to Presidential Counsellor position, and later abruptly resigned.
So, ex-Minister invested his money into Mandriva. At the same time he started new Russian company ROSA Laboratories. And same fund NGI also acquired another Russian company PingWin.
If you look at sites of ROSA Labs (English version using Google Translate) and PingWin (English), it is easy to notice, they are located at the same address in Moscow: number 14 at Presnensky Val. Do you need any more proofs of their affiliation?
Now let's come back to Mandriva. Recent release of this Operating System, called Mandriva 2011 Hydrogen, was very revolutionary, if not say more. Mandriva dumped all the Desktop Environments, except for KDE. Distribution itself grew in size more than twice. And even KDE itself was reworked significantly with help of... surprise-surprise: ROSA Labs. As a result, we got monster operating system with oversized distribution, slow performance and very arguable interface. Reading all the reviews of Mandriva 2011, I have found no one where reviewer would be absolutely happy with new release.
But was happiness of users the task of Mandriva and ROSA Labs? Maybe answer is in another area? Let's look at another asset of NGI fund: PingWin. What does this company do? It promotes Free Open Source software, and one of the targets is... Russian public sector (English version): ministries, municipal and federal organisations and so on! Who can promote company among public sector better than ex-minister, especially if we talk about Russia?
And Russian is not alone in the scope of NGI-owned companies. Another target is Brazil. Mandriva was chosen as a vendor for Classmate PC project.
Having governments of these two countries in the pipeline for the projects, who would bother with rest of Mandriva user base? Definitely not the person who took his own interests above the public (remember the Megafon story).
And now it is time to ask a question to you, Linux users: does Linux community need this type of distribution? The one which is led by people with doubtful reputation? The one which puts its own interests above the community?
About DarkDuck DarkDuck is a person with whole life spent in IT area. It does not mean only Linux, but also SAP systems. Learn more about him here. |
48 comments:
good grief, you, whoever you may be, make it sound like some company established a global illegal monopoly in the OS market, and all with the help of their morally and otherwise corrupt government (squeezing small countries into submission and into spending crazy amounts of money on Microsoft products from their impoverished budgets). now that would be interesting, mr. quack.
ReplyDelete- Anonymous12 September 2011 at 12:15
In all fairness, has any reviewer ever been 100 per cent happy with a new distro?
As it is Open they are free to do what they want with it. The difference is we are free not to use it if we do not want to.
Good luck to PingWin is they can persuade a government department that an open system is better than a locked down proprietory system where they are then at the mercy of the company.
If they want to be a world player, they will have to lead and continually develop and more importantly give back to the world their changes. If they don't or are slow to do so, they will be sidelined.
You say oversized? In what way? does it have lots of packages or is each piece of it full of bloated code?
"very arguable interface" - Have you tried Unity? Even Linux calls Gnome 3 and "unholy mess". The desktop is a personal thing so if you don't like KDE they you will hate it and vice versa.
I have not tried Mandriva since it was Mandrake but I think I will now give it a go. Thanks everybody who already took part in discussion.
The question is, whether Linux needs distribution which is far from the best in design, but still being pushed to the users with administrative methods.
From one hand, this will definitely help to convert/teach users. From another, there is a high risk this will frighten most of them from using Linux whatsoever.@Anonymous:
>If they don't or are slow to do so, they will be sidelined.
I am afraid, this is not the case. Once contract with government is in place, they can continue for quite significant time without much improvement.
>You say oversized? In what way?
In the way that Mandriva 2011 weights twice more than Mandriva 2010. But there is not much improvement in functionality, except for new menu and taskbar from ROSA labs. Indeed, I even saw reduction of functionality: b43 drivers for WiFi card are excluded.
>"very arguable interface" - Have you tried Unity?
Yes, I have tried Unity and GNOME3. In this way new ROSA menu is 3rd part of trilogy.
>if you don't like KDE they you will hate it
I like KDE. It is my personal choice. But I like menu style of KDE3 more than KDE4, and the new menu from ROSA Labs is the last thing I would consider to vote for.The Russian government is likely more corrupt than most. That is an assertion that I would agree with. But the reality is that corruption follows power and for that reason it is present to one degree or another in all governments and in all large corporations. That is one major reason that Linux purists are attracted to Debian. Even in the case of Debian based Ubuntu there are shades of minor degrees of "corruption" in terms of ulterior motives on the part of "management". So I think that your point is definitely valid. BUT ... in the midst of corruption, there is also that factor of power, and typically money to throw away. And in that crucible, good things *can* happen. The huge value of Mandriva under ROSA is that a huge amount of innovation *is* happening even though the immediate result may be crap. This is the magic of the GPL. As Mandriva pushes forward with endless amounts of development capital and political connections, other smaller distros, including Mageia, can swoop in and harvest the fruit. Thus Mandriva becomes a test platform for forced innovation. In the process they are spewing out GPL source code that others will be able to mine and turn into gold. And also in the process, there are plenty of users out there who are actually attracted to this process and to Mandriva under ROSA. But one final point for Dark Duck. Russia, as corrupt as it may be, doesn't have a monopoly on corruption. During the darkest days of the energy company scandals here in the USA, one of our federal legislators made a bold comment about how it is difficult for one to differentiate between "corruption and clever business management" as if what one person might negatively call corruption, another might admire as being superior business management skills. So, when it comes to business management *anywhere* in the world, many seem to value "moral decadence" as an asset.
ReplyDeleteYou would prefer the corruption to lead to Windows being selected instead of Linux? At least the corruption, assuming it is an issue as you say, can't take away the GPL (most) everything is licensed under.
Your comments about the new release being bloated or having a radically different GUI... how does that differ from several other of the newer top distro releases?
Do we need a corrupt distro? Heck yeah, it wouldn't hurt Linux to get a foot in the door even if there were some sort of unfair political influence going on. That's basically how most everything works so why should Linux be pure and lose out every time?
But seriously, this is a story if and only if one or more governments or projects get switched over to some sort of commercial contract with Mandriva. At least one would hope that such a thing would put Mandriva on solid financial footing for a while, which is definitely something they have been needing.- Anonymous12 September 2011 at 18:38
US government mostly uses Windows. Russian government strongly promotes Linux. Now you can know who is more corrrupt.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous12 September 2011 at 18:51
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete @ghmitch:
Thank you for another long and detailed comment on my blog!
I am sure that Russia is not the only country with flourishing corruption. And there is always thin line between "corruption" and "clever management".
But does this behavior of Mandriva / Rosa / NGI show Linux community in good light to potential users? Are we sure that purpose always justifies methods?@Scott Dowdle:
>new release being bloated or having a radically different GUI... how does that differ from several other of the newer top distro releases?
Other systems (I think you mean Fedora and Ubuntu with Unity here) do not grow in size twice just to accommodate new interface. Indeed, Unity and GNOME2 come in single CD for Ubuntu 11.04.- Gmasterboots12 September 2011 at 23:28
I think it's interesting to have Mandriva under the control of an extremely rich person who is not Mark Shuttleworth. I say let's see what happens, could be good or bad. I agree that the latest Mandriva release is disappointing and overstuffed with bling, but I think ROSA Labs have some promise. And anyway, Mageia is there for those who want old Mandriva with new packages.
ReplyDelete @Gmasterboots:
The difference between Shuttleworth and Reiman is that Shuttleworth has never been a minister. He does not use administrative resources to push his company. He is in more or less competitive market acting equally with others, though he has some good starting point.
Looking at Reiman, I can't guarantee true competition.- Gmasterboots13 September 2011 at 00:04
Yes, that is the big difference (and I couldn't think of any other distributions with billionaire sponsors), that is why I said it will be interesting to see how Reiman manages things. If Linux is all about many different strategies all competing for attention, then this a new experiment. Whether it succeeds or fails, we (the ever-present Linux community) will learn how a new type of owner changes things. I hope, though, that it doesn't result in the loss of a distro, or messy GPL litigation. - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 00:20
Mandriva 2011 twice as big as 2010 is a major problem for me, and I've been a Mandrake/Mandriva user since before Red Hat decided not to distribute a community desktop (passing the torch, so as to say, to Fedora). When did this happen? 2002?
Anyway, I'd much interested in a "diff" between Mandriva 2011 and 2010.2, just to know what has disappeared (I cannot believe a missing wi-fi driver and a new launch panel would fatten it that much).
OTOH, I'm very worried about what has entered my favourite distribution. Maybe some packages for desktop management in corporations? (like Windows SMS, for instance)
Let's no forget some products rely on size to appear more respectable (aka featuritis). Also, as of lately, desktops have grown to be somewhat massive, KDE being a perfect example with semantic search and more complex displays... it's even harder to understand for me (and I am a KDE4 user!) I'm a tad upset about Linux desktop surpassing W7 and Mac OS X in capabilities... and these two certainly are not lean systems!
Regarding corruption, well, that's certainly not a problem exclusive to Russia. Newspapers even hack phones to have a better view of other people's secrets, and Wikileaks is getting famous for surprising revelations about supposedly honest governments. I trust community driven software development yield better results, because I've seen proprietary software approaches and the results are akin to disastrous (on many levels), so if there's got to be corruption, at least that the software be F/OSS. It's one less evil...
BTW, thank you very much for the heads-up; another good article about a sensitive issue: well done!
I'm hoping to stay with Mandriva for my newer computer acquisitions, but depending on what comes inside I might change my opinion.
Also, writing is not just about orthography; style counts a lot and you certainly write in a non-boring way. - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 00:21
You should also mention the dirty trick played by Mandriva to their shareholder :
- place all debts on a company that is owned by Mandriva.
- declare bankruptcy
- fire everybody in that company
- do not pay the 4 millions euros of debts
- reduce the share to the minimal value ( ie from 30 cents to 1 cent, which is the minimal value )
and then start again to hire people with investement coming from a fiscal paradise.
Your analysis regarding who own Mandriva is correct, the money come from NGI, owned by Arthur Akopyan and Rosalabs is managed by Dmitry Komissarov, who was the director of PingWin Software.
It is also worth noting that despites having money, the worker are all fleeing to another free software related company, which is kinda worrying for most people. - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 02:17
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 02:29
Removing a post just because it criticizes the corruption schema active in US and UK shows how much freedom of speech and opinion is important for you, and how much you actually side with this corruption schema.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 02:32
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete - Anonymous13 September 2011 at 02:41
The support of Russian (and North-Korean, and Chinese, and Cuban etc.) government to Linux is very well known and documented. Looks like you are a bit outdated about your own country. An since the US government support to Windows is equally well known, then you can know where corruption is stronger.
ReplyDelete - Grishnakh13 September 2011 at 05:58
How on earth is this "corruption"? Is the ex-minister actually handing bags of money to people in government to get them to select Mandriva for government computers? If not, then there's no corruption. It sounds to me like he's invested in Mandriva by contributing software to them from his own company, and then working on getting the government to select Mandriva, and that he's doing it using his contacts (i.e., he personally knows lots of people in the government). That's not corruption, that's called "networking". For it to be corruption, someone in the government has to be getting paid off to make a choice that's not in the government's best interest. There's nothing wrong with networking; people naturally like to work with people they already personally know, because there's a level of trust there that you don't have with strangers.
If you want to see a government that's really corrupt, and probably the most corrupt in the world, look at the USA.
And finally, what is all the vague BS about Mandriva being too big?
">You say oversized? In what way?
In the way that Mandriva 2011 weights twice more than Mandriva 2010."
Huh? Are you saying the Mandriva DVD actually has more mass than a standard DVD? I don't think that's possible. What'd they do, add a layer of lead to it?
Or are you just talking about the software included by default? Software doesn't weigh anything. And who cares anyway? With everyone having 1TB hard drives, I fail to see what the problem is. More software doesn't make anything "bloated", unless you're actually running the software. One thing I usually do when I install a new distro version on my desktop PC is to install most of the games available (which is a LOT on a Debian-based distro), plus tons of other stuff I may or may not use. Why not? A few GB of hard drive space is nothing to me, and it doesn't slow down the system. Have you actually done a diff to see what was added, and what its real impact will be? You could make a really "lightweight" distro by leaving out Firefox, Open/LibreOffice, and many other useful and popular apps, but what's the point? Users will have to immediately download and install these apps to make their systems useful to them. A bigger install media (CD/DVD) with more software means less stuff they have to download. @Anonymous who continues:
This is my own blog and nobody told you it is a place for free speech. If you continue pushing your dirty messages here, I'll impose manual approval for comments. I think other readers won't be happy about this.
For you and for anyone else.
The USA is not the only country in the world. Americans is not the only nation in the world.
Any negative comment mentioning people of other nations or leaving in certain countries (Jews, Israelis, Russians, Bulgarians, Australians...) can hurt honest and modest people leaving there. That's why I will never tolerate this behaviour and will always delete such comments.@Anonymous:
>The support of Russian (and North-Korean, and Chinese, and Cuban etc.) government to Linux is very well known and documented.
Support of American government to "democracy" is well know and documented (Vietnam, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan).
Don't believe propaganda. Trust facts. And I have already mentioned at least couple of them where FOSS was not priority for Russian government.
I also know that at least some of Russian ministries use Windows as their desktop and server solution without any plans to change.
Both US and Russian (and many other) governments use Linux. RedHat in US Ministry of Defence, Alt Linux in some Russian schools etc.
Truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.
That's why I started this discussion.@Grishnakh:
Have you seen many cases when corruption cases for top politicians were proven?
Will you believe that big powerful people will do anything "just for networking" when it concerns allocating of big piece of government budget? It is not necessary direct bag of money. It can be "roll-backs", indirect bribery, presents etc. Are they legal?
My term "weight" relates to amount of kilobytes/megabytes for the distribution. In this case, Mandriva 2011 has 1.6Gb while Mandriva 2010.2 was less than 700Mb. I did not do detailed difference check, but top-level showed nothing strategically new, except for new taskbar and menu.
Your comment about terabytes is not very valid. You won't believe, but many people still use computers with 1-2 Gb of memory running with 1.5-2GHz processors, 60-100GB hard drives or even less. Also, not everyone has unlimited fast internet connection. Some areas of Russia, say, still only have dial-up connection as the only available option. That's why distribution size matters. If you like to stuff your HDD with tons of additional software, it is your preference. I don't judge you for this, but don't push your experience and habits to others.
And anyway... thanks for your comment! I think every comment in this discussion matters!- Grishnakh13 September 2011 at 19:29
@darkduck: As I said before, the more popular software a distro sticks on its install media, the less people have to download. So if you're stuck with dial-up, you want a distro that stuffs as much software on their DVD as possible (and you definitely don't want to waste time with a CD), so you can just use that and not waste time downloading apps over dial-up. In fact, a multi-DVD package would be even better. But just because they're on the install media doesn't mean you have to actually install them all. All you seem to have talked about here is the size of the install media, which is utterly irrelevant; what's important is how much software is actually being installed, and what is it? Is it software you actually need for the system to run, or is it just extra junk you can uninstall?
As for hardware, if you have a 100GB drive, that's still plenty for installing everything from a 4.7GB DVD and having 80-90% of your disk space free.
I'm not pushing my habits on everyone, but you seem to be pushing your preferences on everyone by demanding a minimalist distro when there's no reason for one. If you don't want a lot of extra software from the install DVD, just don't install it. It's there for people who do want it and don't want to download it. @Grishnakh:
Let me again disagree with you.
Why do I need to download DVD if I don't need most part of it?
Also, I'd like to mention that I have not noticed much changes or additions in Mandriva 2011 compared to Mandriva 2010.2 in terms of pre-packaged software. The only change is taskbar and menu. That makes me very suspicious if all these additional Mbs are just price for new doubtful functionality, and if they were pushed to Mandriva 2011 by wish of new Mandriva management?- Anonymous14 September 2011 at 11:20
Once upon a time, we the Russians sincerely believed that our country was the world greatest and the hope of all Humanity. Now we sincerely believe that our government is the most corrupted, our mafia is the most cruel, and our destination is more doomed than any other. Thus, I tend to agree with each and every word of the article.
However, I am surprised to see that the phone carriers here are better than there, including the US, and even our Internet access is second only to that of the Asian Tigers. We do not know what a locked phone is, BTW.
So, corrupted or not, Reiman has real achievements and proven abilities. Will it help Linux or not remains to be seen. - Grishnakh19 September 2011 at 20:14
@DarkDuck: If you're stuck with a slow connection, why are you stupidly downloading a whole DVD? Ever heard of the postal service? Just buy a DVD with your favorite Linux distro burned on it. Surely there's plenty of places that offer DVD-Rs with Linux for cheap prices. The postal service has far, far, far greater bandwidth than any network connection. The latency isn't so great though, but for installation DVDs that's not important.
ReplyDelete @Grishnakh:
You are very right about option to buy DVD from many available on-line stores. You won't believe, but I run one of those: Buy Linux CDs.
But from user's perspective, why should he need to buy/download whole DVD, if most of it is not needed?- Anonymous21 November 2011 at 22:28
Hi from the UK. Gotta agree with DarkDuck here. Poor download speeds will test a users patience for obtaining a full featured OS over the interwebs.
I personally advocate a 'best of the field' choice selection (no dupes) of included software, no matter what the ISO size. This is fine for those with good BB of course, but postal service? Well okay if the infrastructure is that bad, but a minimal OS does allow easy, bandwidth friendly, selection of required apps.
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text:
NEWTOWN, Conn. — Since escaping a gunman's rampage at their elementary school, the 8-year-old Connors triplets have suffered nightmares, jumped at noises and clung to their parents a little more than usual.
Now parents like David Connors are bracing to send their children back to school, nearly three weeks after the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. It won't be easy — for the parents or the children, who heard the gunshots that killed 20 of their classmates and six educators.
"I'm nervous about it," Connors said. "It's unchartered waters for us. I know it's going to be difficult."
Classes are starting Thursday at a repurposed school in the neighboring town of Monroe, where the students' desks have been taken along with backpacks and other belongings that were left behind in the chaos following the shooting on Dec. 14. Families have been coming in to see the new school, and an open house is scheduled for Wednesday.
An army of workers has been getting the school ready, painting, moving furniture and even raising the floors in the bathrooms of the former middle school so the smaller elementary school students can reach the toilets.
Connors, a 40-year-old engineer, felt reassured after recently visiting the new setup at the former Chalk Hill school in Monroe. He said his children were excited to see their backpacks and coats, and that the family was greeted by a police officer at the door and grief counselors in the hallways.
Teachers will try to make it as normal a school day as possible for the children, schools Superintendent Janet Robinson said.
"We want to get back to teaching and learning," she said. "We will obviously take time out from the academics for any conversations that need to take place, and there will be a lot of support there. All in all, we want the kids to reconnect with their friends and classroom teachers, and I think that's going to be the healthiest thing."
Teachers are returning as well, and some have already been working on their classrooms. At some point, all those will be honored, but officials are still working out how and when to do so, Robinson said.
"Everyone was part and parcel of getting as many kids out of there safely as they could," she said. "Almost everybody did something to save kids. One art teacher locked her kids in the kiln room, and I got a message from her on my cellphone saying she wouldn't come out until she saw a police badge."
After the evacuation, teachers grouped their children at a nearby fire station, Robinson said. One sang songs, while others read to the students, she said.
Julian Ford, a clinical psychologist at the University of Connecticut who helped counsel families in the days immediately following the shooting, recommended addressing it as questions come up but otherwise focusing on regular school work.
"Kids just spontaneously make associations and will start talking about something that reminds them of someone, or that reminds them of some of the scary parts of the experience," Ford said. "They don't need a lot of words; they need a few selective words that are thoughtful and sensitive, like, 'We're going to be OK,' and 'We really miss this person, but we'll always be able to think about her or him in ways that are really nice.'"
It will be important for parents and teachers to listen and be observant, Ford said.
"Each of the boys and girls are going to have different reactions to different aspects of the environment, different little things that will be reminders to them," he said.
Parents might have a harder time with fear than children, Ford said.
Before the shooting, a baby sitter would take Connors' children to the bus stop. But Connors said he'll probably take the third-graders to the bus the first few days.
"I think that they need to get back into a normal routine as quickly as possible," Connors said. "If you're hovering over them at all times, it almost intensifies the fear for them."
His children, who escaped unharmed, ask questions about the gunman.
"It's hard for us to say why," Connors said. "That's kind of what we tell them. This person wasn't well, was sick and didn't get the help he needed."
Connors said his children are excited to go back to school but predicted they might be nervous as the first day approaches. He hopes the grief counseling services continue, he said.
"It's going to be a long road back," Connors said. "Back to what I guess is the biggest question. Everyone keeps throwing that word around the new normal. What does the new normal look like? I think everybody kind of has to define that for themselves."


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text:
Republican Sellout Invites Stagflation
While it may not be a surprise that the Republicans are preparing to yield on their vow to oppose tax hikes, it should raise investor concerns the world over that an upcoming budget agreement will likely involve a Congressional surrender of its authority to set the federal debt ceiling. In exchange for this, it appears that the Republicans have simply done nothing to halt, or even curb, the dangerous federal spending trajectories or the current drift towards greater state control of the economy. President Obama has politically outmaneuvered the Republicans, even going as far as evoking the Newtown massacre as a reason for quickly concluding a deal. As a result, it is likely that the GOP will bear the blame for any breakdown in fiscal cliff negotiations. They could wear such an outcome as a badge of honor, but nothing indicates that they have the political courage to do so.
Given the drift in Washington, those who had hoped for a significant improvement in the United States fiscal prospects will have nothing but lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings. At the same time, the Fed continues to hold its foot to the floor with increased quantitative easing that will pump massive liquidity into the system (see Peter Schiff's latest commentary for more on this). The combination can lead to stagflation and a debased U.S. dollar.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner has indicated a willingness to accept new taxes of $1 trillion, despite his party's pledge to halt tax increases. Diverting a trillion dollars out of the wealth-generating private sector into the government's coffers can only hurt corporate investment, particularly the venture capital sector that is so vital to the flow of new ideas and technology that stand at the core of America's highly profitable international technological lead.
But far more momentous than his capitulation on taxes is his agreement to pass debt limit power to the president. This decision removes any chance that the United States will ever do anything meaningful to address its fiscal imbalances.
Following the establishment of the Federal Reserve, the House of Representatives' approval of the Federal debt limit was needed to restrict a profligate government from endangering the credit of the United States and encumbering future generations with an unbearable level of debt service. But in order to pander to voters, both Republicans and Democrats have paid little heed to this important duty and have rubber-stamped continued increases in debt. In recent years, when Federal debt began exceeding GDP, Republicans finally withheld the stamp in order to force a real budget discussion. But a combination of their own hypocrisy and political mishandling has rendered those attempts futile.
In the meantime, both parties have avoided making any meaningful cuts in government spending and have instead offered accounting gimmickry as a poor substitute. Neither party appears willing to risk votes in order to curb the profligate and economically suicidal growth in out of control entitlement expenditures.
Last week, The Economist magazine published a list of 80 countries, ranked in order of quality of life as determined by such elements as economic well-being, intrusive government and crime. The United States has now fallen to sixteenth position (with Switzerland in first position). The combination of $1 trillion of new taxes and the likelihood of increased financial and commercial regulation will likely push the U.S. further down the list.
It is time for politicians, and particularly Republicans, to put the nation before their individual careers. Should they fail in this great patriotic call, they will be sentencing their fellow Americans to a future of falling living standards, currency decline and poverty.
But while the US struggles with its political and economic morass, other regions of the world do present more promising opportunities for investors. Due out early next month, Euro Pacific's Global Investor Newsletter will feature a wrap-up of global markets in 2012 and a preview of 2013. Subscribe for free today.
John Browne is Senior Market Strategist at Euro Pacific Capital.
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Goat Cheese And Fresh Berries Tarts
Bill says that he is over the whole "birthday week" idea and that he's been feeling that way since his last 30th birthday. Good thing I am not because as it gives me the opportunity to post about these Goat Cheese and Berries Tarts that were part of his dessert table a couple of weeks ago. Actually, I made these on three separate occasions prior to his birthday. Each time they disappeared as fast as the donuts.
They are good. They are pretty. They are a breeze to make. Simple pleasure. Sexy too. Indeed, as soon as I put these on the table the other day, our dear friend T. exclaimed "sexy tarts for SPOC!" And this is where I have to backtrack a little and explained why the entire room bursted out laughing, except Bill.
A couple of years ago, my dear husband was voted "SPOC", short for Sexiest Professor On Campus, by the College newspaper. (makes me wonder if the writers of Star Trek had something else in mind). That evening, Bill walked through the door furiously waving the paper in the air, red as a carp and exclaiming "I am SPOC! I am SPOC! I am ruined!"
I picked up the paper from his hand and started reading, half smiling, half laughing the whole way through. Actually, I thought it was pretty darn cool! I was married to the Sexiest Professor On Campus! Hello?!! Mine is what younger women refer to as "seasoned gentleman", you see. Told him I totally agreed with their hotness rating and that it was just a light topic to read during exams. No one said it was international news they were writing about. I could not figure why he was so upset.
"People voted for my looks and not my academic capabilities. How will I ever be taken seriously by my peers now? Looks over content! That's terrible!" (notice the drama bit here). He went on and on like that for a couple of minutes until I broke his rant by saying "Is that all? You don't find it demeaning? You don't feel cheated, cheap?" He looked at me completely surprised by my last comment, adding "well, geez! Thanks! You sure know how to make me feel better!"
I called him over to the kitchen, handed him a slice of cake and said "Dude! First, by looking at the other professors in the running, they would have been out of their minds not to pick you! Second, it's all meant in good fun. Third, well, shiz Bill, you are sexy so shut up and eat! Dang you make it really hard to pay you a compliment!"
I thought we were done with this mini crisis (Oy! My girlfriends' seem easy all of a sudden!) until his bestfriend T. put his hands on a copy of the paper, circled SPOC in red, framed the article and presented it to Bill for his 50th birthday that same week. We knew it was meant as a joke but I could hear Bill sigh as he tore open the wrapping paper. I quickly brought over a piece of cake, said "shushh and eat up! You sexy thing" and made a popping "SPOC" sound with my hand and my mouth. He did not find funny. At all.
To this day, whether we want to brush his ego or push his button, depending on the mood and occasion, we all insert SPOC anywhere we can in the conversation and make popping SPOC sounds whenever we can throughout the day. And most often we like to add "shushh and eat up!" And you know what, even after a gazillion desserts, Bill still retains his sexy figure. Men…Not fair!
One thing he asks me to make about every other week is these tarts, filled with a mild goat cheese mousse and topped with berries during the Spring and Summer or caramelized apple during the winter (they would be great with roasted quince too, come to think of it). We love goat cheese and berries together, especially goat cheese ice cream and cherries so we tend to use medium bodied cheese but if you are hesitant regarding the final taste, try with a mild one first. I have tried all sorts of different pastry doughs for these but I always go back to a short crust. It tends to stay crisper longer while filled with moist cheese or mousses.
Two years ago: Marbled Ricotta Cheesecake Brownies
Goat Cheese And Berries Tarts.
Makes 4
For the pate sablee:
2 tablespoons (20gr) slivered almonds
1/4 cup (50gr) cup sugar, divided
1/2 stick (56.5gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch of salt
3/4 cup (90gr) all-purpose flour
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the goat cheese mousse:
200 ml heavy cream, cold
4 oz (120gr) goat cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons (25gr) to 1/4 cup (50gr) sugar, depending on your preference
juice and zest of half a lemon
2 cups assorted berries such as raspberries, red currants, blueberries, etc…
Prepare the pate sablee:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place almonds and 2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar in a food processor. Pulse until the nuts are finely ground. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, vanilla bean seeds, ground nuts and salt on medium speed until well-combined. Slowly add remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and flour and mix well. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Shape the dough into a ball and flatten into a disc. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.
Place the dough in between two sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper and roll it out to about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out four 6- inch rounds and fit them inside four 4- inch tartlet rings, patting the dough in with your fingertips if it breaks on you as you transfer the rounds. Gather the scraps and set aside.
Prick the dough with a fork and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Place a piece of parchment paper inside the tart shells, fill with beans or pie weights. Bake the shells for 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on wire racks and remove the pie weights.
Prepare the goat cheese mousse:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream to medium stiff peaks and reserve it in the refrigerator while you prepare the mousse.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the goat cheese and sugar with a spatula (if the goat cheese is soft enough there is no need to put your mixer to use on that one). Add the lemon zest and juice and mix thoroughly until incorporated.
Carefully fold the reserved whipped cream into the goat cheese base by placing your spatula in the center of the bowl, scooping the bottom over the top. Give your bowl a 45 degree turn and repeat until the batter is smooth. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse and divide it evenly among all tart cooled tart shells.
Divide the berries evenly over the mousse and refrigerate the tarts until ready to serve.


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Our leather on leather rank insignia is made exactly like the originals of WWII. The rank devices are precisely cut and shaded either silver or gold depending on the rank. These are then mounted onto thin leather backings which allow them to be stitched onto the garment.
These can be ordered loose or sewn to your jacket order. Use the insignia builder tool on the jacket product page if you wish to have insignia sewn to your jacket.
There are 7 products.


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These photos of whites torturing and lynching black men present a side of U.S. history that most history books ignore. They provide one of the many reasons why blacks (and Indians) hold a different view of U.S. history than whites. Notice the carnival atmosphere prevailing as these crowds of U.S. citizens watch the completely lawless and most inhumane executions imaginable.
In the U.S. we often pass judgment on people in other countries: Germany, for the Holocaust; Japan, for its war crimes in Asia; Stalin for his purges.
We conveniently forget our own past, however. A past in which we enslaved hundreds of thousands of blacks -- beating them, working them in inhumane conditions, and killing them.
There are many photographs, showing crowds of U.S. citizens attending the most inhumane butchery imaginable, and getting away with it. If you'll notice, they seem to be enjoying themselves.
This page is a reminder that the beast dwells within all of us -- Americans, Germans, Japanese, Russian and all other nationalities. The urge to participate in butchery is not unique to any nation -- it is a universal affliction.
If we forget that fact, the beast may prevail.