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The free agency frenzy doesnt begin until March 12.
Tell that to general managers who have begun flooding the market with veterans they have cut guys who can sign with any team at any time.
Joining that group Friday were such former Pro Bowl players John Abraham and Michael Turner, released by Atlanta along with cornerback Dunta Robinson.
Also available is 2009 Defensive Player of the Year Charles Woodson; the Green Bay Packers let the defensive back go last month.
While players whose contracts have expired cant change addresses for another 11 days, the so-called street free agents now out on the streets can join teams immediately. Thats already happened with former Buffalo safety George Wilson, who signed with the Titans, and it certainly could occur again before the likes of Mike Wallace, Jake Long, Reggie Bush and Greg Jennings on offense or Dwight Freeney, Anthony Spencer, Paul Kruger and Cliff Avril on defense become available.
Wilson was coveted by Tennessee for reasons that stretch beyond the field, and Woodson also could fall into that category. Listen to what Titans general manager Ruston Webster said about Wilson, who twice was Buffalos Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee:
George is a quality veteran player. He will contribute for us on the field, but his contributions also will come off the field, in the locker room and in the meetings rooms. He was respected as a football player and a leader during his career in Buffalo, and he will bring that veteran presence to our team.
The 36-year-old Woodson would be a nice fit in a young secondary needing a boost of savvy and physicality, most likely as a safety. Such landing spots as New England, Cleveland and Indianapolis could work.
Abraham has a history of nagging injuries, and hell most likely be a situational pass rusher at age 35 next season. Still, any club looking for such a boost could do worse than Abraham, who had 10 sacks as a part-timer when the Falcons went 13-3 last year.
Turner no longer seems capable of being an every-down back, but his power and quick feet could help a team that has an established starter but no proven backup or an offense with a speedy running back and not much inside presence.
Oft-injured Ahmad Bradshaw, late of the Giants, also fits that category. No one competes harder, but that has been a detriment for Bradshaw, too, because his style makes him vulnerable to getting hurt.
Tennessee, Cleveland and Green Bay could find them attractive at the right price, which, of course, is a major reason these players are unemployed right now.
Atlanta saved about $16 million in cap space with its three cuts Friday.
The New York Jets freed up $31 million when they released linebackers Calvin Pace and Bart Scott, safety Eric Smith and tackle Jason Smith last month.
Naturally, there are other factors, including age, health, depth at a position, a change in coaching staffs and, of course, production.
Players such as Packers center Jeff Saturday and Carolina defensive tackle Ron Edwards simply might be at the end of the line.
Kansas City tight end Kevin Boss got onto the field for only two games in 2012.
The Saints David Thomas was expendable because Jimmy Graham is among the best tight ends around, and New Orleans prefers to load the field with wideouts along with Graham.
Philadelphia released defensive tackles Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson when Chip Kelly was hired as coach.
The Jets Pace and Scott and Chiefs receiver Steve Breaston became overpriced when their on-field contributions dramatically slipped.
Oddly, many of those players currently available figure to be left waiting until weeks into full free agency before they find new homes.
And dont be shocked to see a few of the current free agents wind up back where they started for much less money.
ENGLEWOOD Peyton Mannings blindside protector will get a big pay raise next season.
The Denver Broncos placed their franchise tag on All-Pro left tackle Ryan Clady on Friday, ensuring the three-time Pro Bowler a salary of $9.828 million in 2013.
Thats almost triple the $3.5 million Clady made last season when he allowed just one sack in more than 1,100 snaps during Mannings comeback season.


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Lately we've been spotting an awesome new trend: the embellished sweatshirt. We're loving this trend, because we can wear our coziest sweatshirts while still staying stylish. All of these embellished sweatshirts are totally DIYable, too! Just add sequins, gems, lace, or an applique to jazz up your sweatshirt and make it instantly chic. Check out some of our inspiration below.
2 thoughts on "DIY Inspiration: Embellished Sweater"
I really love the rhinestone sleeves. So luxe looking.
The lips are my fav.

subset: commoncrawl


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Mary Pletcher assumed the position of Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital and Diversity on June 3, 2013. In this capacity, Ms. Pletcher provides leadership and executive oversight for Interior's Human Capital programs including human resources; civil rights; youth partnerships and service; employee and organizational development; and occupational safety and health. Prior to this role, Ms. Pletcher served as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, supporting the Assistant Secretary in the implementation of management initiatives and transformation efforts.
Ms. Pletcher joined the Department of the Interior in April 2006. From April 2006 to February 2009, Ms. Pletcher was the Department's capital planning and investment control program manager. In this capacity, Ms. Pletcher led the efforts to enhance the Department-wide processes and procedures for selecting and managing the nearly one billion dollar annual information technology portfolio. Beginning in February 2009, Ms. Pletcher served as the Deputy Recovery Act Coordinator for Interior. In this role, Ms. Pletcher supported the Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Economic Recovery in the implementation and oversight of Interior's $2.9 billion Recovery Act program composed of over 3,400 projects across eight bureaus and offices. From July 2010 to November 2011, Ms. Pletcher served as the Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Interior Business Center which provides a variety of payroll, human resources, financial management, accounting, procurement, and other administrative shared services to the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies.
Before joining the federal government, Ms. Pletcher led the information technology strategic consulting practice for an 8(a) company. She also was a project manager for a leading government strategy and technology firm and was responsible for client delivery, customer satisfaction, staff management, subcontractor management, quality assurance and schedule and cost management.
Ms. Pletcher received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida. She received her Juris Doctor, with honors, from the American University Washington College of Law. Ms. Pletcher was nominated and selected as a 2011 Service to America Medal Finalist.


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Very Eerie: Famous Victims Of Freak Accidents
- By Bossip Staff
6 of 10
Famous Celebrity Freak Accidents
We all have to deal with freak accidents to ourselves and/or loved ones. While our stories get hidden, these celebrities' stories have been told the world over. Here are some of them…
Owen Hart – He's the WWE star whose harness broke when he was being lowered to the ring. He died in the middle of the ring.


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R&D Expenditures for the U.S.: A Frascati to System of National Accounts Application to U.s. Data
This paper translates research and development expenditure data organized based on the Frascati Manual for the U.S. to a measure of gross output consistent with The System of National Accounts 1993. A set of detailed tables translates U.S. survey data on the performance of R&D from the National Science Foundation for 2001.
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|May 2006
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- P. D. Chwelos & E. R. Berndt & I. M. Cockburn, 2008.
"Faster, smaller, cheaper: an hedonic price analysis of PDAs,"
Applied Economics,
Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(22), pages 2839-2856.
- Paul D. Chwelos & Ernst R. Berndt & Iain M. Cockburn, 2004. "Faster, Smaller, Cheaper: An Hedonic Price Analysis of PDAs," NBER Working Papers 10746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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As hard as it may be to believe, it seems that John Mayer and Katy Perry have broken up again.
That's right — let it all out. Have yourself a good cry.
RadarOnline reported Monday the couple have called it quits — again.
The singers dated through the first couple months of summer, until Mayer realized if he kept this up, he might have to buy her a birthday present, which might make her think he was about to propose. So they broke up.
Then they started dating again last month. Now there's a chill in the air and Mayer senses the holidays are coming and that whole buying gifts thing is closing in.
See you in January, kids.
Despite their best efforts, the relationship just wasn't working, according to RadarOnline's insider source, who said Mayer has a bit of a commitment problem (NO!) and kept "luring Katy back with promises that he was going to change, but then he didn't."
According to the source, Perry was looking for a more serious relationship than Mayer was willing to provide, and eventually she decided to stop wasting her time. Reports of the latest breakup come just a few weeks after Perry was said to have tried to take things to the next level, and gave Mayer a key to her Los Angeles home.
Big deal. Like she hasn't given us all one of those at some point.
Perry's divorce from Russell Brand was finalized in July, and she briefly dated Florence + the Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd, before taking up her romance with Mayer.
Contact Tony Hicks at email@example.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks.


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Assessing Abdominal Abscesses (AAEP 2010)
- Mar 29, 2011
- Topics:
A variety of equine conditions can present with clinical signs that include colic pain, fever, decreased appetite, and weight loss. Similar signs occur with abdominal abscesses, making them challenging to diagnose. At the 2010 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 4-8 in Baltimore, Md., Carolyn Arnold, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, clinical assistant professor of veterinary medicine at Texas A&M University, discussed data from a retrospective study of 61 cases of abdominal abscesses in adult horses.
Arnold defined an abdominal abscess as an encapsulated structure within the abdominal cavity that contains an exudate (pus). Veterinarians diagnosed the abscesses on ultrasound, during surgery, or at necropsy. Horses in the study ranged from 1-23 years old, and there was roughly equal distribution between male and female. The predominant clinical signs detected in association with these abdominal abscesses were abdominal pain (67%), depression (57%), lack of appetite (51%), fever (46%), rapid heart rate (46%), and weight loss (30%).
Precipitating events in these cases included recent castration, a penetrating wound, previous abdominal surgery, or exposure to Streptococcus equi bacteria. One affected mare had suffered a vaginal laceration subsequent to foaling. Twenty-five percent presented with acute clinical signs, such as colic, whereas 75% displayed chronic clinical signs despite ongoing treatment by referring veterinarians.
Veterinarians identified a mass on rectal exam in a quarter of the affected horses. Ultrasound via rectal scan or external scan along the abdomen identified an abscess in 56% or an abnormal amount of abdominal fluid (ascites) in 45%. Most horses (47) had a single abscess; the rest had two or more abscesses present.
Surgery confirmed the diagnosis in half the cases and provided access to remove the abscess. Arnold reported finding a gastrointestinal foreign body in 15 horses--wire was the predominant material, which the horses likely consumed when eating wire-baled hay. Three-quarters of the 61 horses were euthanized because of poor prognosis related to peritonitis (abdominal infection), adhesions, or an owner's financial constraints. Of the 18 horses that continued treatment, veterinarians administered antimicrobials, with length of treatment dependent on infection severity and number of bacteria isolated from abscesses. A variety of pathogens were cultured from three-quarters of these horses under treatment. Fifteen of the 18 horses survived and were discharged from the hospital.
Arnold concluded that helpful diagnostic information in abdominal abscess cases can be obtained through ultrasound and rectal exam, cytology of abdominal fluid, and abdominal exploratory surgery.
About the Author
Nancy S. Loving, DVM
Nancy S. Loving, DVM, owns Loving Equine Clinic in Boulder, Colorado, and has a special interest in managing the care of sport horses. Her book, All Horse Systems Go, is a comprehensive veterinary care and conditioning resource in full color that covers all facets of horse care. She has also authored the books Go the Distance as a resource for endurance horse owners, Conformation and Performance, and First Aid for Horse and Rider in addition to many veterinary articles for both horse owner and professional audiences.
Related Content
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Infectious Disease: EPM (AAEP Convention 2012)
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Managing Emergencies (AAEP Convention 2012)
Reproduction (AAEP Convention 2012)
Joint Injections (AAEP Convention 2012)
Equine Dental Care (AAEP Convention 2012)
Stem Cell Therapy (AAEP Convention 2012)
Top Equine Studies of 2012 (AAEP Convention 2012)
Veterinary Ethics (AAEP Convention 2012)


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BRISTOL, Tenn.—Rodney Childers is leaving Michael Waltrip Racing and is expected to be named the crew chief for Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing next season.
Childers confirmed he was leaving Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
"As far as next year, it's actually not 100 percent done but I think everybody has a good idea what it is," Childers said.
MORE: Earnhardt Chase | Newman future | Bristol picks | Danica-Ricky rookie race
Childers had joined MWR in 2009 after spending three years at Gillett Evernham Motorsports. He currently is the crew chief for the No. 55 team, which has used multiple drivers—Mark Martin, Brian Vickers and Michael Waltrip—the last couple of years.
He has three Cup victories, including one this year with Vickers at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Vickers will drive the car again this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Childers is expected to be named the crew chief for Harvick, who has 21 career victories in a 13-year career at Richard Childress Racing but will leave that organization at the end of the year for SHR.
Stewart-Haas officials confirmed their interest in Childers but said no deal is done yet.
"We love Rodney, we think a lot of him, he's been a friend of mine for awhile," SHR Competition Director Greg Zipadelli said. "We have talked to many people and he is on our radar, but we have no commitments, nothing signed. … We would love to make him a part of Stewart-Haas, but we're not there yet."
Martin, who left MWR this week to fill in for the injured Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas, is not surprised that Childers is in demand.
"Rodney Childers is an amazing person. … He's a very, very smart and very dedicated and an incredible crew chief," Martin said. "It's funny how things work out. My mission in February was to help him secure a championship-caliber sponsor and driver for 2014 so he could race for a championship in the 55. My how things change over time.
"I feel like we still accomplished that, it's just that he may have an opportunity to do (something else). I would assume that the whole garage would be after Rodney Childers. Last year he did a one-year deal because he wanted to wait and see what transpired after our year together. He wanted to work with me and Brian and Michael in 2013 and wait and see what 2014 brought. He's in that position now to look at all options."
Childers said it simply was time for him to move on after leading MWR's No. 55 team the past two years.
"There was no one big thing that stood out at all," Childers said of his decision to leave MWR. "Everybody at MWR has treated me great for five years and really has had no issues at all. It's just is a personal decision, and I've thought about it for a long time. I just woke up one day and that's what my heart told me I should do so hopefully it works out."
Whether Childers finishes out the season with MWR is to be determined, but it's likely that MWR wants to pair a crew chief with Vickers—the full-time driver of the No. 55 car in 2014—before the season is over.
"We're not exactly sure yet," Childers said. "We're just going to play it day by day and talk things over and see what's best for MWR. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this team a winning contender when I leave."
Childers and Vickers have known each other since they were kids.
"The part with Brian is the hardest part, for sure," Childers said. "We've had a long relationship together. It will be difficult doing the next few races together but hopefully it will work out."
Vickers, speaking after qualifying Friday, said that no team is built around one individual, including himself. He said he was anxious to see who would be his crew chief for 2014 and seemed a little miffed the notification of the change came on a Friday of race weekend.
"I was certainly surprised by it," Vickers said. "I don't know the reasons of his decision. I'm only upset and disappointed with the way it was handled with the team and me personally. But at the end of the day, if someone wants to leave, they should leave.
"If they want to be somewhere else, they should be somewhere else. The last thing anyone would ever want is someone on your team who doesn't want to be there, whatever the reason is or someone that is always looking over the fence or always thinks the grass is always greener. At the end of the day, everybody has to find their own path. He's got to find what's right for him."


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Bishop Nicholas Offers Blessings to St. Vladimir's Class of 2013
Seventeen graduates from St. Vladimir's Seminary are now being sent out as priests, deacons, and lay ministers in service to the Church. At the Saturday May 18 Commencement Exercises, the Seminary awarded diplomas in three programs: 1 Master of Theology, 8 Masters of Divinity, and 8 Masters of Arts degrees. Graduates represented a broad range of ecclesial jurisdictions and included both Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians; four priests and one deacon were among the graduates. Antiochian graduate Mr. Richard Mitry Ajalat received a commendation for service to the community.
Additionally, the Board of Trustees awarded three honorary degrees to accomplished Orthodox Christians, two of whom are members of the Antiochian Archdiocese. The Right Rev. Bishop Nicholas (Ozone), auxiliary bishop for Brooklyn, Antiochian Archdiocese, presented the degree to Anne Glynn Mackoul, a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America. Over the years, Mrs. Mackoul has held various positions with the Antiochian Archdiocese, including North American Humanitarian Coordinator for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Women, and member of the Board of Trustees.
Additionally, Igumeni Ines Ayau Garcia (Mother Ines) of the Hogar Rafael Orphanage in Guatemala received an honorary doctorate as well. In 1993 Mother was received into Orthodoxy by Archbishop Antonio Chedraoui of Mexico City and elevated to Igumeni in August 1994, and in 1995 the Antiochian Orthodox Church was formally founded and recognized in Guatemala. Hundreds of orphans have been adopted around the world through the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage, and many have found a new home and family there. In 2007 the beautiful Holy Trinity Monastery Church was consecrated and this past year saw the completion of the new home for children on the monastery grounds.
On the Saturday morning of Commencement, May 18, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and Bishop Nicholas concelebrated the Divine Liturgy. The Commencement was held in the afternoon in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium on the Yonkers campus. President of the Alumni Association Board and member of the Antiochian Archdiocese Gregory Abdalah, presented each graduate with a cherry wood frame to display their diplomas, and welcomed them to the St. Vladimir's Alumni Association. "You join over 2000 alumni spread over 20 countries on six continents," noted Mr. Abdalah. "Just like the Apostles went out and preached the Gospel to world, you act as ambassadors who carry on their legacy, as you take St. Vladimir's into the world."


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Hi all,
I'm wondering if you call something from a dll ( written in c++ ) from a c# class, does it matter if the c++ has pointers in it?
What I'm unclear on is if C# uses "unsafe" for pointers, how does a C++ class ( with pointers ) play into that?
Thanks in advance,


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Did you know? NLCS Game 5
By Paul Casella / MLB.com
Though Jaime Garcia gave up six runs in four innings against Milwaukee in Game 2, the run he conceded on Friday was a bit of a rarity. Corey Hart's RBI single in the fifth marked the Brewers' first earned run against Garcia at Busch Stadium since June 6, 2010. It snapped a 30 2/3-inning streak that spanned five home starts for the left-hander.
Milwaukee starter Zack Greinke snapped a streak of his own in the bottom half of the fifth inning. With two outs, Matt Holliday swung and missed at a 92-mph fastball, marking Greinke's first swinging strike of the night. It came on the right-hander's 68th pitch of the night, and it was one of just two swings-and-misses on Greinke's 95 total pitches.
Greinke recorded no strikeouts for just the second time in his 200 career starts (including the postseason). The only other time he failed to tally at least one strikeout was June 28 of this season, when he lasted just two innings against the Yankees.
Even though half of it came after Garcia was out of the game, the Cardinals gave their starter the run support he is accustomed to receiving in 2011. The Brewers did not do the same for Greinke. During the regular season, Greinke received an average of 7.50 runs per game (third in the National League) and Garcia received 7.49 (fourth in the NL). Milwaukee had scored a combined 18 runs for Greinke over his first two postseason starts.
The Brewers did have one bright spot offensively, though, as they finally came through with a two-out RBI. Entering Game 5, Milwaukee was the only team without a two-out RBI in either LCS, and the Brewers were actually hitless (0-for-19) with runners on base. After going hitless in their first two such at-bats Friday, they notched back-to-back two-out base hits with runners on in the fifth, including Hart's run-scoring single.
One area that continues to haunt the Brewers is their pinch-hitting. Nyjer Morgan grounded into an inning-ending double play in the seventh, Taylor Green popped out in the ninth and Craig Counsell popped out to end the game. Milwaukee pinch-hitters have yet to record an RBI in the postseason and are hitting just .059 (1-for-17) overall. In the NLCS, Brewers pinch-hitters are 0-for-10, while their pitchers are 2-for-8.
With Cardinals starters failing to pitch into the sixth inning of any game in this series, the bullpen has nearly caught the starters in innings pitched. Through five games, St. Louis starters have a 6.04 ERA over 22 1/3 innings, while its bullpen has a 2.07 ERA through 21 2/3 innings of work.
The Cards have won each of their past 16 games immediately preceding travel days. The last time St. Louis dropped a contest before catching a flight to its next destination was Aug. 3 in Milwaukee.
The last three teams to hit the road with a 3-2 series lead in the NL Championship Series have gone on to win the series, including the 2006 Cardinals. Five years ago, St. Louis dropped Game 6 against the Mets at Shea Stadium, but bounced back to close out the series in Game 7. Teams that go on the road with a 3-2 series lead are 26-17 in best-of-seven series all-time.
Of the previous 52 best-of-seven series that were tied 2-2, the team that won Game 5 went on to win 36 of them. In LCS play, teams that win Game 5 of a previously tied series are 10-3.
Paul Casella is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Candara™ Family is a casual humanist sans with verticals showing a graceful entasis on stems, high-branching arcades in the lowercase, large apertures in all open forms, and unique ogee curves on diagonals. Candara Family's texture is lively but not intrusive, and makes for a friendly and readable text. The Candara Family is great for any project.
Candara Character Set: Latin-1, WGL Pan-European (Eastern Europe, Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish). 1,119 glyphs per font. OpenType Layout features: smallcaps, stylistic alternates, localized forms, standard ligatures, uppercase-sensitive forms and spacing, oldstyle figures, lining figures, smallcap figures, arbitrary fractions, superscript, subscript.


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Originally published March 29, 2000:
The Oreos are stacked on the end of an aisle at Safeway, designed to tempt wayward shoppers.
And at $2.50 a bag, they're a relatively cheap indulgence in a valley where the idea of treating yourself frequently involves a foreign luxury car.
So, since the folks at Nabisco have done such a fine job making Oreos, why would anyone bother doing anything other than tearing open a bag and twisting said cookies apart to scrape the filling off with his or her teeth?
But when Silicon Valley expatriate Elana Kehoe, living in Ireland, wondered about making Oreos, recipes flooded in from Home Plates readers. As usual, you guys love any chance to thumb your nose at the big boys.
There's something about a knockoff recipe that says we're wise to corporate America, that we could survive without Nabisco and Hostess if we had to. A recipe for Oreos is a little inner-sanctum knowledge, despite the fact that the ingredients just might cost more than a bag of the real goods.
Gloria Pitzer and Todd Wilbur are the gurus of knockoff recipes, and perhaps there's a certain irony that their recipes are copied, passed around from neighbor to neighbor and distributed willy nilly on the Internet.
For a fun look at Wilbur's work, Elizabeth Rhein suggests you check out www.topsecretrecipes.com
Unfortunately for Kehoe, she'll have to find a Duncan Hines cake mix to re-create her beloved Oreos. And just for fun, here is Pitzer's recipe for knockoff Twinkies, submitted by Josephine DeFranco.
From Todd Wilbur's "More Top Secret Recipes, " submitted by many readers
Oreo wannabes
Makes 2 dozen cookies
1 18.25-ounce Duncan Hines dark Dutch fudge cake mix
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons shortening
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 tablespoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Blend cookie ingredients with electric mixer, then knead with hands until it reaches the consistency of dough. Form dough into balls about 3/4-inch in diameter and press flat, 1/2 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake 4 to 6 minutes, or until crunchy.
Let cookies cool on sheets. As they cool, combine filling ingredients well with electric mixer. With hands, form filling into balls about 1/2- to 3/4-inch in diameter. Place filling ball in center of flat side of cooled cookie and press with another cookie, flat side down, until filling spreads to edge.
Gloria Pitzer, from reader Josephine DeFranco
Hopeless Twinkles
Makes 24
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
To make filling: Cream butter 5 minutes at medium speed. Add shortening a little at a time. Cream 3 to 4 minutes. Add sugar a little at a time. Mix milk and vanilla, and add to mixture, scraping bowl frequently. The longer you beat mixture, the better it becomes.
To make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch square cake pans or baking dishes or use a 13-inch by 9-inch by 2-inch pan. Beat eggs and vanilla together for 1 minute, then add other items one at a time, beating a minute after each addition. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes (40 to 45 minutes in oblong pan), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan.
It's best to use cake when it is slightly frozen. About 30 minutes in the freezer works best.
Cut cake into 1 1/2-inch by 3 1/2-inch bars. Put bottom side of each bar on wax paper, spread half of the bars with filling and top with unfrosted bar, sandwich style. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks; freeze up to 1 year.


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Send Brad Davis to the MLS All-Star game this summer. Davis is already a 5-time MLS All-Star and is the Dynamo career leader in games, starts and assists. This season he has had three goals and three assists. Lets make Davis a six-time MLS All-Star by voting for him in two different ways.
1) Online at MLSSoccer.com
2) Via text message. Text Davis to 22442.
The 2013 MLS All-Star Game begins at 8 p.m. CT at Sporting Park in Kansas City on July 31. Fan voting ends at 2 p.m. CT on July 2. Check out Davis's highlights from this season in the video below.


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The Salvation Army has long been a holy-day season fixture in front of my local supermarket, providing some Christmas sounds and cheer as it raises money to serve the poor. But when I went grocery shopping a couple of days ago, a difference was apparent: there was an SA volunteer and collection pot on the premises, but no trademark bell-ringing. So I asked the man why — even though I already knew the answer.
You might have read the recent news stories concerning complaints about the SA bells. And, sure enough, the volunteer at my supermarket confirmed that these grinches' griping was the reason they'd been silenced. So now another element of the Christmas season is no more, at least in my area.
Of course, some may say that any continual noise can be irritating. But this raises questions: why didn't people seem to find the SA bells as annoying 25 years ago? Is it any coincidence that increasing irritation with them seems to hew closely with the growth of our society's secularist-grinch constituency?
Advertisement – story continues below
It goes without saying that some people must have found the bells annoying decades ago as well. Most everything irks someone and everyone is irked by something (with me, it's the grating, purposeless noise emanating from liberals' mouths). Yet we tend to often tolerate things that annoy us, realizing that dealing with such comes with the territory of living among other beings. And tolerance is the relevant factor here because, clearly, it is only growing intolerance that could explain complaints intense enough to instigate the change in question.
Before proceeding, I'll point out that "tolerance" is almost universally misunderstood today. While we often conflate it with affection or sympathy, the word actually implies the abiding of a perceived negative. We wouldn't tolerate a fine car, delectable meal, or a beautiful work of art; we relish those things. But we would have to tolerate bad weather, a cold, or a Nancy Pelosi speech. Could you imagine someone asking not about pain, but "How much pleasure can you tolerate?"?
TRENDING: LiAngelo Ball Tells Truth About The Day He Said 'Thank You' To President
Read More at thenewamerican.com . By Selwyn Duke.


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Magma Hot Plate
Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
- Summary
Doubling as a trivet and a hotplate, this unique microwavable stand has a ceramic core that retains and releases heat for up to one hour. A heat-resistant base makes it safe to place on the dining table or buffet.
- Keeps dishes warm for up to one hour without electricity, batteries or flame.
- Ready to use after just 2–3 minutes in the microwave.
- Ideal for hot foods, coffee carafes and teapots.
- Ceramic core retains and releases heat at the optimal temperature.
- Encased in heat-resistant silicone and polymer, the sides and bottom stay cool.
- Can be placed on a countertop or table without a trivet or hot pad.
- Insulated base and sides make it safe and easy to handle.
- Matte black finish.
- Dimensions & More Info
- 8" sq., 1 1/2" high.
- 2 lb.
- Made in China.
- Use & Care
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Happy Holidays!
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Denver Parties, Schwag Equally Lame
You stuck in New York doing, like, real work while your colleagues party it up in Denver? You jealous? Well honestly, man up. Because you can just keep on partying like usual while they are all stuck going to lame sponsored bullshit parties in Denver. Our man in Denver reports that the Planned Parenthood party was massively overbooked, the GQ/Maker's Mark party was unexciting, and apparently the party featuring Bill Maher was lame. Yes, but what about the awesome schwag, you're probably not saying! According to Wonkette, it's dismal. Something called "Joint Juice" seems to be the highlight. But there's also hand sanitizer and a free ringtone card! Seriously, why do people go to this? Are journalists so bored and nerdy that the prospect of a hotel party in Denver excites them? It is like the School Band Trip of the National Press Corps, isn't it? We got a better schwag bag at some weird Time Out party we went to this month. It had condoms and Stuff White People Like. We have no use for either of those things but it's still better than Post-It notes!


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That would be...
1.6 million potential Android users in six months time then...
Microsoft and its hardware partners shifted a mere 1.6m Windows Phone 7 handsets during the first three months of 2011. So says market watcher Gartner, which also noted that a total of just under 101m smartphones shipped worldwide in the same period. And compare WinPho 7 shipments to 16.9m iPhones, 13m BlackBerrys and 36.3m …
1.6 million potential Android users in six months time then...
Can you imagine how glorious it will be in the future when Microsoft are bankrupt and Google own mobile and Apple own the desktop and Sony own gaming?
Three wonderful trustworthy friendly companies instead of mean nasty old "M$".
It's like some kind of a dream...
Surely Nintendo will own gaming. :P
bwahah, Apple is worse than M$
worse bug fixing history
worse support
more conniving and controlling
tries to eliminate user's freedom to bolster their own profits
tries to eliminate user upgrades in every area:
(Among many other things, Apple started using proprietary HDD interface, so you can't even upgrade the harddrive in your Apple computer (see earlier The Reg report)
Tries so hard to protect their "we underestimated our user's stupidity" customers from themselves, you're essentially being kept in a cage.
Have you noticed that Apple products are not for creatives anymore, they are for the consumer masses who's comprehension tops out at the toaster level, who try to appear smart and buy some prestige by shelling out for an Apple logo on their stuff.
No, having Apple own the desktop would be an Orwellian Nightmare.
The only thing worse I could imagine would be Larry Ellison "owning the desktop"
Luckily, none of what you said is going to happen.
We actually have a few years of more competition (more advances) coming, especially with the CPU race becoming interesting again, between Arm, Intel, Nvidia and AMD, things are starting to get a little more interesting again...
We do need Apple - grudgingly, they do their part to aid overall competition. So I thank everyone who buys Apple gear, just don't overdo it...
"Can you imagine how glorious it will be in the future when Microsoft are bankrupt ..." .
Personally I'd much prefer a Microsoft which lives and competes based on using and contributing towards an open source code stack available to everyone else to a dead Microsoft in these markets. Most of the Linux contributions come from major corps these days, such as Intel, IBM, HP, Sony, Google etc, so it's clear that freedom doesn't hurt their bottom lines. At least with Free Software (as in freedom), you can have genuine competition at every point in the stack. So if you don't like the Linux kernel you can have much the same functionality for the same application stack provided by Solaris or BSD. At the desktop layer you can have KDE or Gnome, or Unity etc. At the applications layer you can have Firefox or Konqueror or Chrome browsers, and there is competion for mail clients and office software and amongst server programs etc. Then at the distribution layer, if Ubuntu produces an overbuggy release, Mint and Fedora still work very well thank you. If you don't like Android there is Meego. There are always competitors waiting in the wings within this increasingly valuable ecosystem, and always will be.
"Personally I'd much prefer a Microsoft which lives and competes based on using and contributing towards an open source code stack available to everyone else..."
Personally I'd like a girlfriend with 44 inch breasts who owns two Lamborghinis, a chain of pubs and a box at Wembley Stadium, but that ain't gonna happen either.
The main problem with MS is lack of innovation. Better put; innovative thinking. They had Windows XP and so a "look alike" OS had to be put onto the mobile devices (Windows CE). With the taskbar, menu and all. And obviously hardly any options for updates. However; that which works on a PC doesn't have to work on a mobile platform.
Yet that's something they apparently can't comprehend too well.
I'm really pleased with Win7; it really allows me to get stuff done. Yet as much as I enjoy working on Windows 7 I wouldn't dream of getting a Win powered mobile device, esp. given the negative experiences I've had in the past.
I think their main problem is lack of backwards compatibility. Say you bought some software for your current (Windows CE) phone. Guess what? You can now throw it all away because it won't run on the new Win phone any longer.
Is it really that hard to imagine that a lot of people will then start looking for alternatives ?
If you find WIndows 7 to be useful on the desktop, you might be surprised if you gave Windows Phone 7 a chance, especially after the myriad of new features being added in the fall to all Windows Phones. WIndows Phone was rebooted and specifically with a focus on removing all of the previous annoyances of Windows Mobile. SInce Windows Mobile was feature-rich, though unstable and largely disliked, we're talking about taking the strengths of Microsoft's experience with a mobile operating system for over a decade and a half now and combining the good parts of that with a new mindset of what the consumer (that's you) wants out of a phone - and I think they've delivered AND are in it to win it, determined to continue drastically improving on what they've already accompllished with the new phone OS.
M$ is plenty innovative. What about Blinky(tm)? Or the Ribbon UI?
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed a pattern around here lately?
techSage, you joined The Register today and yet you have already replied 5 times to a single post, each time desperately trying to persuade us that MS has turned the corner with WinPho and all will be well.
This has definitely happened several times now with names I've never seen before trying to shout down any dissenting view by posting multiple replies to a single thread. I thought astroturfers were supposed to be intelligent and subtle in their manipulations. I mean at least make an effort, please....
Microsoft brought a Porsche Boxster to a Ferrari race...that started 2 hours ago.
Chances of catching the leaders? Nil.
Except that the Ferrari drivers were doing donuts on the track the whole time thinking they were so cool.
...into the Boxster shell?
Given that the quoted figures leave 27 million phones unaccounted for, does this mean there is some sort of dark matter?
Can we look forward to future election results being reported on the reg without mention of the second largest party?
Where are the Symbian figures? Nokia are still selling shitloads of Symbian smartphones in comparison to WinPho, yet you failed to give any figures.
I want to know if Nokia are killing Symbian for even less market share!
Well Nokia shipped 24.3 million smartphones in Q1 2011, more than any other handset manufacturer and if we take of the number of Meamo handsets thats...24.3 million Symbian phones.
Numbers from IDC - http://mobile.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12858_IDC_smartphone_shipment_figure.php
"The pecking order among operating systems was significantly different during the first three months of this year than it was one year previously. In 2010 Symbian held pole position with 44.2% of sales, followed by Android with 9.6%. During the first quarter of this year, Android had 36%, followed by Symbian with 27.4%,
Microsoft's share was 3.6%, down from 6.8% "
Then decide.
And, in Gartner mode myself, I predict that in 2014 MicroNokia will have 5% of smartphone sales, and less than 25% of dumbphone sales. And in 2016 Redmond will shut down or sell the corpse of Nokia to Samsung.
Just you wait until Nokia start churning'em out and there's a WinPho7-only version of Skype then it'll be a whole diff'rent ballgame. Either that or the chairs will be flying in Redmond.
yet i can't watch tv shows like bones or castle with seeing how super fabulous the crappy winpho7 is? this weeks castle episode had the lead take a picture and email it with beautiful close ups of him sending via outlook. wtf?! i was sending pics via email from my nokia n70 6 years ago. could have done it on my 3650 before that but the images were crap and data too expensive.
how much are they spending to advertise this crap again?
and as for nokia helping their sales numbers? nokia hasn't been able to write good software for 3-4 years. people aren't going to hand in their current symbian devices and replace it with winpho7 in any great number. most people i knew with symbian had gone symbian because they didn't want a winmobile device.
Probably nowhere near as much as Cupertino's fruit-based marketing department are spending plugging their wares on virtually everything that comes out of Hollywood
Actually I bought a Nokia Symbian phone because they're the only ones that can record phone-calls.
Your comment "nokia hasn't been able to write good software for 3-4 years". I disagree. I find Symbian ^3 actually pretty good. It's quite stable (runs faster on my 680MHz C7 than WinMO on my 634MHz Samsung SGH-i900, though the latter has a low-res screen). In fact starting up my navigation software for example is way faster than on my previous Acer Neotouch (1GHz Snapdragon cpu).
I'm pretty happy with Nokia so far.
Anyway from the looks of it. It seems MSFT better use Symbian for their smartphones than the other way around. Also many Nokia high-ranking employess seem to fail that indeed many Symbian users bought Nokia's because they didn't want a WinMo/WinPhone. I also can't see them embracing a Nokia running Windows Phone. I certainly wont.
Funny how a handset maker which sells +24 million handsets is being regarded as a "failure"
Looks pretty lame to me.
And in one the previous series Castle got... drum rolls... Netflix! On a Windows phone! I cannot believe it.;-)
Actually, they have never been able to write good software, it's just that until Blackberry, then iOS followed by Android came along nobody really noticed, the only competition being, uh, MS Windows Mobile, which was arguably even worse.
I was up for a winpho7 phone until Miccy buddied up with Nokia and world+dog saw that this meant any other hardware manufacturer was going to get 2nd rate treatment (read: crap).
If they are going to be half assed then why should they not expect sales to be similar.
...I have to wonder. What are the figures for the first three months of life for all the other Smartphone platforms?
Apple and Google were new to the smartphone game when they introduced the iphone and android. Microsoft has been in the smartphone business longer - WP7 is just the successor to WinMo 6.5.
Well, we do know that it took Android 6 months to reach 1 million (look it up, people!), so there's part of your answer.
Think Batman Begins. Better yet, Dark Knight after Batman Begins paved the way. Look out for the Fall/Winter update to Windows Phone and start planning on an exit strategy from whatever phone you're using now, because as someone actually keeping up with what Microsoft is doing instead of sitting on the sidelines poking fun and scratching my itchy parts, I can see what they've actually done so far with Windows Phone and where they're headed with it.
>Apple and Google were new to the smartphone game when they introduced the iphone and android.
Apple's reality distortion field would have it so, but they actually entered the mobile phone market with the E1 [a hybrid Apple/Motorola Smartphone] a couple of years prior to iPhone. Video of SJ launching the E1 from the beeb site below.....
Think Jaws 3. Think U571. Think Plan9 from Outer Space.
Look out for any WinPho 7 updates and plan an exit strategy now.
Or scratch your itchy parts with your WinPho...
Your numbers are completly incorrect. For your information T-Mobile reach the 1 million figure with G1 until March 2009. And only in the USA!
Since the first commercial phone was the HTC Dream in October 2008 go figure...
However you can't compare one million units sold nowadays with one million in the period from October 2008 and March 2009!
What you can compare is the share and in first 6 months Android reach from 0 to more than 6% of the USA market!
And why I mention USA?
Because the Android platform practically hadn't yet arrived to other markets.
Compare this with the 11% figure Windows exhibit in the same period - March 2009...
Accelerate momentum?
I'm shuddering now from the abuse of physics.
I don't doubt it. But acceleration can have either a + sign or a -sign.
Oh, like Apple has now that Android is the new flavor of the week? There's always room for a new flavor. Maybe the next one is Windows Phone. Think about Playstation versus Xbox. And without the usual Sony fanboyism.
How, after essentially spamming this article and downvoting anyone that has anything negative to say about Microsoft or their phone, do you have the chutzpah to call *anyone* else a fanboy? Android, by the way, has butchered RIM, Nokia and WinMob 6 sales. Take your own advice and "look it up"...
They need to make Windows Phone 7 attractive to business, and then market it as a business phone. If Microsoft can make WP7 a viable alternative to RIM then they'll sell them by the bucket load.
It may well be worth them investing in building a WM6 virtual machine for the WP7 to allow legacy applications to run.
If they keep marketing it as a consumer device then they've already lost the battle.
With the reboot that Microsoft did for Windows Phone, it was important to focus on making a starting with a phone that was fun to use again and then add everything else that everyone wants. They've already begun doing this with support for Sharepoint and Exchange at launch and are continuing it with Visual Voicemail, Office 365 Support, Sykdrive Support, 3rd Party Multitasking, Linked Inboxes (think Universal Inbox w/ a twist), Pinnable Email Folders, Threaded Email, management via System Center, Lync (Microsoft's Unified Communications Platform), Exchange Server email search, enhanced security and information rights management, and support for hidden WiFi networks, Group Messaging and more. That's just the Enterprise oriented features they've already announced or that have been leaked. Once they have these things in place, then it is the right time for them to market to the Enterprise as well and add to all of the other avenues of growth that they are exploiting.
They're (largely) useless for business because they're aimed at kids with the playschool appearance interface and repeated heavy marketing focus on xbox-live, social networking and everything else that _most_ business users neither need or especially care much for.
To make matters worse, bespoke apps that used to run on the old OS won't run on the new so that quickly shot down a lot of potential business upgrades to WinPho7 in a flash as few businessess want to fork out even more now for existing (legacy) applications to be ported to a new system and in the meantime concurrently run and supporting both old and new versions.
The old WM6 phones were horrible to use and often barely successful as functioning as a phone. Part of this was the daft idea of trying to cram a windows (95/3.1!) interface into a mobile, the unsuitability of the underlying OS to support reliable, smooth telecoms and the awful applications and operator shovelware that tended to push the poor things over the edge. However their MS-centric side of them made them a good choice for businesses... and would probably have been very successful if RIM hadn't already sewn up the market years earlier with good phones which were streets ahead of normal devices and had the centralised configuration and management tools that made deploying and supporting the things almost a pleasure. Almost. Don't forget that most businesses provide phones through their ICT department and the staff there have to deploy and support these things and anything that comes with the tools that makes this process easier is likely to get picked in preference to devices that don't or can't.
Now MS's marketing spin department is trying perform an about turn to shove a playschool user interface at businesses with built in "pocket this", and "pocket that" but are hanpered by the continuing strong marketing push of the device as a "toy".
Notice how most of the marketing for the other smart phone OSes is more targetted, carefully chosen and / or appropriate? Apple's marketing shows the device in potentially useful scenarios that could happen to anyone, business or personal, and covers scenarios from gaming and photos through to useful navigation and information tools and even for the gaming tends to show it in situations other than teen-brat usage. Android's marketing is similar to Apples which given the similar target audience is inevitable and in Europe, at least, RIM's is very solidly business and productivity orientated however this is beginning to change slightly. MS's marketing, on the other hand, is either "toy / games" or "office / outlook" with no real hint of it even being averagely useful or doing anything especially interesting or anything in between.
Arg!!! Please, if you're going to be a blatant and obvious MS-marketing drone, at least admit it openly.
All you've done so far is spout MS's marketing rhetoric repeatedly without any real discussion or sense to it. At least pretend to follow the topics and respond to them appropriately without coming up with paragraphs of text lifted straight from MS's marketing resources.
Most of the list of "features" you've come out with are just what MS is currently trying to push / foist / sell (take your pick) to whoever happens to be in their way at the time. It doesn't matter what device or service MS are meant to be promoting at the time, all they do is repeat the push for the current hot marketing items over and over again. It gets tiresome when you're meant to be looking at, for example, sharepoint and you're having lync, office 365 and other junk (*) thrown in your face repeatedly.
* topics of immediate marketing interest, not necessarily what you're interested in at the time.
I agree, I was sold a HTC Pro 7 as a business phone, I have over 1000 contacts and cant even search my contacts by business/company, if you could do the search on win 6.5, why have they taken a step backwards
WinMo6.x was a business phone, WinPho7 is a consumer phone.
When they released the new OS they stopped making 6.5 devices and pissed off a lot of businesses who run custom apps which will not work on 7. It was a dumb move.
How do I know this? The 200 WinMo6.5 handsets in the cupboard behind me that were snapped up the week production ended. I would not be surprised to hear 6.5 is outselling 7.
I used to have an iPhone, then I got an Android phone. Although Android is more open, the user experience infuriates me at times (lock screen doesn't respond, screen never wakes back up), and the UI is less than polished.
So I'm seriously considering making my next phone W7 or WebOS. Neither are quite as open as Android, but they're more open than iPhone. All I need now is for Nokia to actually make a phone (always liked their hardware, hated the software) and for HP to maybe try and make WebOS more of contender. Wishful thinking, I know...
Just a few years ago (2004 or 2007 i believe), Gartner predicted that by 2010 windows mobile would totally dominate the mobile market...
Having failed in the market it's hard to see how the presence of Nokia Windows Phones will make a difference. All the vendors that sell phones are pretty much scared off the product already. They only have so much shelf space and it's better to stock things people might want.
Here Android just marched right in and ripped the heart of of everybody except Apple. From 9.6 percent to 36 percent in one year? That's unheard of.
If WP7's growth rate were accelerating this might not have been a bad start. But it's not. It's clearly tapering off in a market that's growing. Look for the tab "cumulative growth chart" on the graph here: http://j.mp/gl6Fom
Before you draw any comparisons to Android's start, Android didn't have a history of 6 prior versions in the market. It didn't have established relationships with every cellular carrier and consumer electronics store on Earth. It didn't have a committed half-billion dollar marketing budget. And yet here it is on top of global smartphone OS distributions, just by being wonderful.
sure, with the (false) pretence of being open.
Well, it's at least more open for telecoms and manufacturers to tamper with the devices and lock users in. A fact made worse that once you moved everything from your local stored outlook/PIM to the Google cloud, there isn't any going back (without too much hassle). Not to mention Android gives these companies the same lock-in capabilities that Apple has with iOS but instead of the OS-developer being in control (in Apple's case), THEY are in control. Plus licenses are cheaper (because part of the OS is open source). So you can make a ridiculously cheap crappy chinese device without the "with Google"-banner and away you go. Selling to punters who wouldn't buy a smartphone previously and who are buying one now using a tiny portion of its features. just look at the best selling (cheap) android phones, they're the slow ugly ones.
Android is fighting on 2 fronts. User lock-in through telecom/manufacturer-control and price.
No wonder that every jack-shit produces Android phones. They're cheap to produce and quick to sell.
You're comment "Android didn't have a history of 6 prior versions in the market". It weren't exactly 6 versions but I do remember 3 version at one time on the market (1.6, 2.1 & 2.2) Sometimes even in one manufacturer's catalogue.
I actually like the win 7phone, I find it a lot easier to use then the android i had. And I can believe that 6.5, is still selling coming from a bussiness angel MS dropped the ball with the EAS client on the phone, were it does not implement all the features required for a lot of company users (encryption ). But then that's the same with apple, android etc to leaving win 6.5 stll required by business, or they have to use a blackberry .
I do agree that WinPho7 is pretty easy to use and fairly polished in use, it's just that it looks so awful and toy / plasticy especially compared to the polish that is available on iPhones and, to a lesser degree, Android phones.
Up until about a week before I got my WP7 I would never have thought that I'd get an MS phone, and I generally like MS' software. I tried it out and really liked the UI, not the prettiest, but very functional. When I got it home, my partner, a non-techie Andriod user, said how ugly it looked and that she wouldn't have bothered. After a week of playing about with it when she thought I wasn't looking, she now says that she still thinks the UI looks ugly, but it's way more easy to use and consistent that her 'droid.


text: just an insprired reader. Well I've read a few now and I'm thinking I may be a little obsessed ;) but hey I'm not the only one! Jeez spending more and more time on here, some authors are just too good. Well bit the bullet and decided to write myself! Nothing on here tho as I'm sorry to say it's a brand new idea and not HP related, still blank with ideas to write on here as most things I think of have been covered, so if anyone has an idea let me know and I'll try to write it. I have written before so not to much of a novice :) Well I have written my forst fan fic, thanks to P.R the idea! Any more ideas? All welcome!


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Summaries of EU Legislation
Summaries of EU legislation: direct access to the main summaries page.
- Archived: true
Tax governance in developing countries
Developing countries wish to improve their tax systems and public finance management. National taxes are essential to finance public services and public goods. It is for this reason that the European Union (EU) proposes to support tax reforms in these partner countries as part of its development policy.
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee of 21 April 2010 – Tax and Development Cooperating with Developing Countries on Promoting Good Governance in Tax Matters [COM(2010) 163 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
The improvement of economic and social conditions in developing countries is related to good tax governance and the strengthening of their tax systems. Furthermore, good international financial governance should allow funding destined for development to be mobilised and used more effectively.
Thus, the European Union (EU) encourages both tax cooperation with developing countries and the fight against tax evasion and avoidance.
Tax governance in developing countries
Development aid policies should contribute to the effectiveness of tax systems and an increase in tax revenue in EU partner countries. Taxes are essential for sustainable development, the legitimacy of the State, economic stability, and the financing of public services and infrastructures.
However, developing countries are subject to several types of difficulty, particularly due to:
- the fragility of their economic structures and their low level of competitiveness;
- their political instability, bad governance and the weakness of the rule of law;
- bad tax management and unequal tax burden distribution among taxpayers;
- the weakness of tax administrations lacking means and skills.
Furthermore, in the context of globalisation, several international factors form barriers to the effectiveness of national tax systems:
- the implementation of domestic tax rules becomes difficult in a world with a high geographical mobility of taxpayers, high volumes of trade and capital flows and the use of new technologies for fraudulent purposes;
- the transition from revenue systems largely dependent on customs revenue to broader and more modern ones;
- a wish to attract sustainable foreign investments;
- the use of bad tax practices, including in developed countries.
In order to overcome these tax reform difficulties, partner countries should:
- distribute the tax burden fairly, particularly by balancing direct and indirect taxes;
- take account of the specific nature of the informal economy (i.e. non-structured economic activities) and support micro and small enterprises;
- stabilise the legal framework and improve the transparency of tax systems;
- enhance the skills and capacities of administrations collecting taxes and reporting expenditure.
Transparency and international tax cooperation
The international context should also be improved by promoting and adopting international principles and standards as regards transparency and the exchange of tax information. This action should be taken in order to combat tax evasion and avoidance, money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorism. It is also important to enhance the participation of developing countries in international fora dealing with tax governance issues.
The Commission also wishes to carry out its action as part of regional cooperation partnerships with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, Latin American and European Neighbourhood regions.
Using European Union instruments
Each partner country is to define their policies and reforms. Development aid should be adapted to each country according to its economic situation, international position and policies. Several aid instruments can be used to support these reforms:
- budget support programs and public finance management tools;
- technical cooperation with tax administrations;
- regional cooperation with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, Latin American and European Neighbourhood regions;
- support for the capacities of oversight bodies, national parliaments and Non-State Actors in developing countries in the field of tax.
These instruments must be established as part of existing programmes (the European Development Fund (EDF), the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI), or the European Neighbourhood Policy and Partnership Instrument (ENPI)).
In addition, the Commission encourages donor coordination in each partner country, as well as closer international cooperation when international standards on tax cooperation are defined. These standards should take into account the needs and capacities of developing countries.
The Commission's action is in line with the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration adopted by the UN.
The second amendment to the Cotonou Agreement takes account of good tax governance principles.
Last updated: 28.07.2010


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Braves right fielder Jason Heyward could be returning to the Braves' dugout as early as Monday after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in April.
"We'll leave it up to him," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez told the AJC. "Today he calls Walk (hitting coach Greg Walker) and says, 'guess who I faced first time back? A knuckleballer."
Heyward's return would be a boost of hitting power to the Braves offense going into the team's three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks next week.
The McDonough native has been under rehab while playing with Triple-A affiliate, the Gwinnett Braves.
During his first start, Heyward went 0-for-5 with a walk and three strikeouts.
Heyward has had a rocky start to the 2013 season thus far batting .121 (7-for-58) with two home runs, five RBI's and a .519 OPS.


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BRUNSWICK, Ga. - The mother and aunt of a 17-year-old accused of killing a toddler have each been arrested on charges of lying to police, and a weapon has been recovered in connection with the killing, according to Brunswick police.
Karimah Elkins, 36, the mother of De'Marquise Elkins, and Katrina Elkins, 33, the teen's aunt, were each arrested Tuesday morning. They're charged with making false statements or writings, and concealing facts or fraudulent documents in matters of government.
Karimah Elkins posted $1,104 bond. Katrina Elkins also posted bond but was being held in jail on an unrelated out-of-county warrant.
De'Marquise Elkins (on right in photo) is one of two teens charged with murder in the shooting death of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago last week.
The teens made their first appearances in court Monday.
Investigators said De'Marquise Elkins shot and killed the child as his mother pushed him in his stroller.
Katrina Elkins told police De'Marquise was with her the morning of the killing. Investigators did not elaborate on what the women told them that was not true, but they did say the two were questioned again and gave statements that were inconsistent with their previous statements.
What they said led police to other witnesses, and it was one of those witnesses who led police to a saltwater pond at U.S. Highway 17 and Golden Isles Parkway about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said in a phone conference Tuesday.
Police said they recovered a handgun in the pond, and they said the gun was being tested to see if it was used in the killing. The gun was removed from the pond in a container of saltwater to preserve the environment, police said. It will be tested for fingerprints and ballistics by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Police in Georgia say an anonymous tip helped them make arrests of the teen suspects. The Brunswick Police Department said it got a tip that someone was crouched in the backseat of a vehicle as it drove away from the shooting Thursday. The Glynn County detective's division spent hours following up on the tip and eventually arrested the 15-year-old suspect. The boy's statements led them to Elkins, according to police.
Santiago's mother, Sherry West, said she was pushing her son in a stroller Thursday morning when Elkins and the younger boy approached and asked her for money. She said she told them she didn't have any, and said Elkins shot Antonio in the head. West said he also shot her in the leg.
Elkins' family said he did not shoot the child.
Police said West is not a suspect. They did not say if she knew the suspects and was a target or if the killing was random.
Police said they are still investigating a motive.
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text: The KPS88 and K90 are my favorite frames but I would like a MP in the bag. The only one that really intrigues me in the IG Prestige Pro. I'd like to know any of your thoughts if you have experiences with the Prestige and Wilson mids as well as what I should expect.. Also, The Prestige Pro is actually a 95 not a 98 right? Some background info: -The only MP frame I ever loved was the Volkl Tour 10 VE MP -I like open string patterns -I have never used a Head frame -I also like the PB10 Mid -I'm a lefty


text: the description says it all. could you guys give me some input about these shoes? the only thing rare about them is the color way. they dont even have the same soles or the federer signature on the shoes. they are retailing for 1000 bucks...but recently went down to 200 bucks which is a little more reasonable. worth it or not? let me know thanks guys