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Estonia, country in northeastern Europe, the northernmost of the three Baltic states. Estonia's area includes some 1,500 islands and islets; the two largest of these islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, are off mainland Estonia's west coast.
Estonia has been dominated by foreign powers through much of its history. In 1940 it was incorporated into the U.S.S.R. as one of its constituent republics. Estonia remained a Soviet republic until 1991, when, along with the other Baltic states, it declared its independence. The Soviet Union recognized independence for Estonia and the other Baltic states on September 6, 1991, and United Nations membership followed shortly thereafter. Estonia set about transforming its government into a parliamentary democracy and reorienting its economy toward market capitalism. It sought integration with greater Europe and in 2004 joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU).
Situated in northeastern Europe, Estonia juts out into the Baltic Sea, which surrounds the country to the north and west. To the east Estonia is bounded by Russia—predominantly by the Narva River and Lakes Peipus (Peipsi; Russian: Chudskoye Ozero), Tyoploye, and Pskov—and to the south it is bounded by Latvia.
Relief and drainage
The Estonian landscape is largely the product of glacial activity. The south is covered with moraine hills, and the central part of the country abounds in elongated hills with flat tops. Northern Estonia is characterized by long narrow swells consisting of deposits left by glacial rivers that formed during the melting of ice. Extensive sandy areas mark what was once the glacier's edge. Estonia's relief is thus generally undulating, with small hills and numerous lakes, rivers, and forests lending a mild and picturesque aspect to the scene, particularly in the south.
The mean elevation is 164 feet (50 metres) above sea level; only about one-tenth of the territory lies at elevations exceeding 300 feet (90 metres). In the southeast is the Haanja Upland, containing Suur Munamägi (Great Egg Hill), which, at 1,043 feet (318 metres), is the highest point in Estonia.
Estonia abounds in rivers, which flow to the Gulf of Finland, to the Gulf of Riga, and into Lake Peipus. The longest river, the Pärnu, stretches for about 90 miles (145 km); other important rivers are the Pedja, Narva, and Kasari. The country's largest lake is Peipus, with a surface area of about 1,370 square miles (3,550 square km), which is shared with Russia. Lake Võrts is situated in south-central Estonia.
The temperate and humid climate of Estonia differs sharply from the climates of regions to the east (in Russia) at the same latitude. The country lies in the path of air masses borne by cyclonic winds that originate in the North Atlantic Ocean and carry warm air in winter and cool air in summer. The northern and western coastal areas tend to be milder than the country's inland regions, while the eastern and southeastern regions tend to have a continental climate. The mean temperature is 17 to 23 °F (−8 to −5 °C) in January and 61 to 63 °F (16 to 17 °C) in July. Annual precipitation is about 24 to 28 inches (600 to 700 mm), which, coupled with negligible evaporation and low relief, leads to waterlogging. The Estonian climate is generally favourable for agriculture.
Plant and animal life
Mixed forests, with about 90 native species of trees and shrubs, cover almost half of Estonia's territory. Most widespread are pines, firs, birches, and aspens; less common are oaks, maples, elms, and ashes. Scots pine is the most common native tree. Meadows occupy a large area, as do marshes and swamps, where one-quarter of Estonia's 1,500 plant species are found.
About 60 species of mammals live in Estonia. The largest of these is the elk; roe deer, red deer, and wild pigs also are found. In the deep forests of the northeast, bears and lynx are encountered. Foxes, badgers, otters, rabbits, hare, and—along the riverbanks—mink and nutria (coypu) are fairly common. Fish (cod, herring, salmon, eel, plaice, and others) are of commercial importance. Birds are numerous and migratory; more than 300 species have been identified, few of which are year-round residents.
With the restoration of the independent republic in 1991, Estonia made strides in improving the health of its environment. Air and water pollution have been reduced, and the percentage of forestlands has been enlarged. About one-tenth of the country is set aside as a nature preserve.
Ethnic groups
Compared with other European countries, Estonia has a large percentage of foreign-born residents and their children. Only about two-thirds of the population are ethnic Estonians. Russians are the most significant minority, comprising about one-fourth of the citizenry. Prominent among other ethnic minorities are Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Finns. There are some regional linguistic and cultural differences among the ethnic Estonians; notably, the Seto people in southeastern Estonia speak a distinct dialect of Estonian and are part of an Eastern Orthodox religious tradition, while the islanders of the Muhu archipelago in the west also have their own dialect and share a number of cultural affinities with the people of Scandinavia.
Estonian, the official language of the country, is a member of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. More than two-thirds of the populace speak Estonian as a first language; about an additional one-fourth speak Russian as their first language (mostly in the northeast), though few Estonians over age 60 or under age 20 speak the language.
There is no state religion in Estonia, and many of the people are either nonreligious or atheist. The Christian majority includes a large slice of unaffiliated Christians, along with significant Evangelical Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox communities, as well as lesser numbers of Baptists, Methodists, and Roman Catholics.
Settlement patterns
As in the other Baltic states, Estonia's population is predominantly urban (more than two-thirds). Ethnic Estonians make up the vast majority of the rural population, while the urban population has a preponderance of non-Estonians. Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest cities, though Helsinki, across the Gulf of Finland, is closer to Tallinn than Tartu is. Other cities of significance are Narva, Kohtla-Järve, and Pärnu.
Demographic trends
During the last half of the 20th century, Estonia experienced both considerable internal migration and, following Soviet annexation in 1940, extensive immigration from the other republics of the Soviet Union, especially Russia. In the process, the population in the industrially advanced northern part of the country increased appreciably at the expense of the southern and western regions, which remained primarily agrarian. Following independence, immigration slowed greatly, and many Russians left the country. Moreover, as the birth rate slowed dramatically at the end of the 20th century and life expectancy increased, Estonia's overall population began to age.
As part of the interrelated Soviet economy, Estonia was basically an industrial region, with agriculture making a smaller contribution. Industry and agriculture remain important components of the economy of independent Estonia, but their portion of gross domestic product (GDP) and of the labour force have declined, while those of commerce and the service industry have grown. The Estonian economy experienced an initial downturn during its transition to a market economy (characterized by declining production, inflation, and unemployment), but by the mid-1990s it had rebounded, with some improvement across the decade following. Moreover, the Estonian economy has been cited as one of the most liberal in Europe; it has a balanced national budget, flat-rate income tax, and very few customs tariffs. Estonia was among the first eastern and central European countries with which the European Union (EU) started accession negotiations. It gained membership in 2004. Privatization of state-owned businesses was virtually complete by the beginning of the 21st century, though government controls remain over some energy and seaport activities.
Resources and power
The country's most important mineral is oil shale, of which Estonia is a significant world producer. Reserves and production of peat also are substantial, and large deposits of high-quality phosphorites, limestone, dolomites, marl, and clay exist.
Electric power generation has great significance both for the economy of Estonia and for the surrounding region. Estonia supplies much of the power requirements of Latvia and parts of northwestern Russia. Most of the electricity produced in the country is generated by thermal power plants fired with oil shale. Two of those plants, located near Narva, account for much of the electricity produced for the Baltic states. There is also another major power station, the peat-fired plant at Ellamaa, as well as other smaller stations. Like the power industry, the large shale-processing industry is a major employer in Estonia. It produces great quantities of fuel gas, much of which is transported to Russia by pipelines extending from Kohtla-Järve to St. Petersburg. There has been, however, growing concern about the environmental impact of both groundwater pollution from oil shale mining and sulfur dioxide emissions from the Narva power plants. Similarly, the phosphorite-mining industry has become the focus of environmental concerns. Oil shale satisfies about nine-tenths of Estonia's electrical needs, with alternative energy (peat, wood, and biomass) providing most of the remainder.
Agriculture and forestry
During Estonia's tenure as a Soviet republic, its agriculture was collectivized. Instead of some 120,000 small peasant farms that existed in 1945, there were by the 1990s about 190 collectivized farms and more than 120 state farms. Decollectivization became a government goal in the post-Soviet period, and privatization proceeded quickly. Within the first year, Estonia had twice as many private farmers as either Latvia or Lithuania. Agriculture is the foundation of Estonia's significant food-processing industry. Principal crops include potatoes, barley, and hay. Livestock farming, notably of cattle and pigs, is also important.
Timber and woodworking constitute one of the oldest industries of Estonia, and the country's wood products include paper, pulp, plywood, matches, and furniture. The main production centres are Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Pärnu, Kehra, Kuressaare (Kingissepa), and Viljandi.
Like agriculture, industry in Estonia underwent a period of adjustment during the transition to a market economy. Raw materials, previously inexpensive owing to the Soviet system, are now acquired at world market prices. In addition to imported raw materials, Estonian industry uses local resources, such as those that provide the base materials for the construction industry, including cement, mural blocks, and panels made from either shale ash or reinforced concrete. The main centres of this industry are Tallinn, Kunda, Tartu, and Aseri.
Much of the industrial labour force is engaged in the food-processing and forestry industries, machine building, and energy production. The chemical and mining industries, once significant employers, have declined in importance. On the other hand, Estonia's information technology and telecommunications industries began to blossom at the end of the 20th century. Among consumer-goods industries, textiles are highly developed, though they provided a diminishing share of total exports in the early 21st century. Still, most of the cotton cloth produced in the Baltic states is manufactured in Estonia. The country also produces wool, silk, linen, knitted and woven garments, and shoes.
In the period immediately following independence, Estonia continued to use the Russian ruble as its currency. Beginning in June 1992, the republic issued its own currency, the kroon, which was replaced by the euro in January 2011. At the centre of the republic's banking system is the Bank of Estonia (extant before the Soviet period and reestablished in 1990). In addition to a number of commercial banks, there is also the state-owned Savings Bank, and the Estonian Investment Bank offers financing for private companies. Sweden and Finland are the biggest foreign investors, providing three-fourths of external investment in the early 21st century. There is a stock exchange in Tallinn.
The introduction of the kroon contributed to the stabilization of foreign trade, which was initially focused overwhelmingly on Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States but later expanded to include nations of the EU. Estonia's major trading partners are Finland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, and Latvia. Principal exports include machinery and equipment, timber, textiles, metal and metal products, and processed foodstuffs. Principal imports include machinery and equipment, vehicles and transport equipment, and chemicals. The Russian oil industry, which makes heavy use of Baltic ports, distributes large amounts of oil through Estonia to the rest of Europe.
In addition to membership in the EU, Estonia had joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999.
By the early 21st century the service sector was the largest component of the Estonian economy, employing about two-thirds of the workforce and contributing about two-thirds of the annual GDP. Following independence, foreign tourism grew steadily, primarily from Finland and predominantly in the summer months.
Labour and taxation
During the Soviet era, trade unions were official organs of the state. In 1990–92 the groundwork was laid for the creation of independent labour associations with the formation of the Association of Estonian Trade Unions and the Estonian Employees' Unions' Association, the country's two main trade unions. Although the constitution, adopted in 1992, allowed employees to freely join and form independent unions, legislation enacted in 2000 cemented these rights and provided guidelines for trade union activities. Estonia employs a flat income tax rate (both for corporations and for individuals), a value-added tax (VAT), and property taxes but has neither inheritance nor gift taxes.
Transport and telecommunications
Major highways link Tallinn with St. Petersburg and Riga, Latvia. The majority of the republic's freight is carried by road, but freight also is transported by rail and sea. Estonia's main rail lines connect Tallinn with Tartu and Narva. There are three commercial ports near Tallinn and another inland port at Narva. Estonia has a state-owned shipping company and a state-owned airline. The country's major airport is at Tallinn, but there are also airports at Tartu and Pärnu. River transport is of local significance only.
At the beginning of the 21st century, cell phone use was high in Estonia, and Estonians, like Lithuanians, were more likely to own cell phones than were citizens of many other European countries. On the other hand, Estonians were less likely than many of their European neighbours to have personal computers.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
Among the many initiatives of the Estonian government after independence from the U.S.S.R. was declared in August 1991 were preparation of a constitution, including the protection of minority group rights; proposed negotiations with Russia over territory lost during border adjustments following the Soviet occupation of 1940; and the development of legislation that would assist in the conversion to a market economy. A new constitution, based largely on the 1938 document that provided the basis for Estonia's pre-Soviet government structure, was approved by voters in a June 1992 referendum and came into effect in early July.
Guaranteeing the preservation of the Estonian nation and its culture, this document established a unicameral legislature, the Riigikogu (parliament), whose members are directly elected through proportional representation to four-year terms. The president, who serves as the head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces, is elected to not more than two consecutive five-year terms by the Riigikogu. Executive power rests with the prime minister, who is nominated by the president, and with the Council of Ministers. The government is responsible for implementing domestic and foreign policies and for coordinating the work of government institutions.
Local government
Estonia is divided into 15 maakonnad (counties), which are further divided into vallad (parishes). In addition to parish governments, there are administrative bodies for a number of towns and independent municipalities. The parishes are further divided into külad (villages) and asulad (townships).
The judiciary comprises rural, city, administrative, and criminal courts, regional and appellate courts, and the National Court, which is the court of final appeal. A legal chancellor is appointed by the Riigikogu to provide guidance on constitutional matters.
Political process
Estonia has proportional representation and universal suffrage at age 18. In 1990 the government—no longer under the domination of the Communist Party of Estonia, which previously had controlled all aspects of political life—approved a multiparty system.
At the forefront of the many political groups formed in the postindependence period was the Estonian Centre Party (an offshoot of the Estonian Popular Front), the organization whose leader, Edgar Savisaar, was independent Estonia's first prime minister. It was soon joined by a wide variety of parties from across the political spectrum, including a number of single-issue parties. Shifting coalitions of these parties came to dominate not only the formation of governments in the Riigikogu but also the slates organized to contest elections. Since 2005, however, the centre-right Estonian Reform Party has led coalition national governments, most prominently in partnership with Pro Patria and Res Publica Union. Among the other important parties are the generally conservative Estonian People's Union, which includes many former communists; the Social Democratic Party; and the Estonian Greens.
Although military service is compulsory for men aged 19–28, women may choose to serve in the military. Volunteers can join at age 17, and reservists are eligible until age 60. The Estonian military includes land, air, and naval forces. Estonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004.
Health and welfare
Benefiting from their country's advantaged position in the Soviet economic system, from comparatively high levels of productivity, and from very low rates of net natural population increase that suggested a tendency to trade increased family size for material benefits, Estonians had the highest monthly salaries and the highest per capita housing allocation in the Soviet Union on the eve of independence. Moreover, during the Soviet period health care was available free of charge and was administered by the executive branch of the government. After independence a new law on health insurance (1992) established a decentralized system of medical funding under the aegis of the Riigikogu that operated primarily on the county and municipal level.
A law enacted in 1993 restructured education in Estonia and raised the level of compulsory attendance to age 17 or completion of the 9th grade. Education is conducted primarily in Estonian, but Russian continues to be the language of instruction in a number of schools. Higher education, which under the 1993 law was restructured along Western lines, is both public and private. Notable institutions include Tartu University (founded 1632) and Tallinn Technical University (founded 1918). Scientific research has been centred at the Estonian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1938.
More than two-thirds of Estonian households live in apartment buildings. About five-sixths of the housing stock in Estonia was built after World War II, and of that about one-fourth was constructed after 1981.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Baltic states: The conquest of Estonia and LatviaIncursions by Scandinavian Vikings into the coastal areas of the Estonians and the Kuronians began in the 9th century. East Slav pressure had also appeared by the beginning of the millennium. As early as 1030 the southeastern portion of present-day Estonia was…
Protestantism: The expansion of the Reformation in Europe…Baltic states of Livonia and Estonia were officially Lutheran in 1554. Austria under the Habsburgs provided no state support for the evangelical movement, which nevertheless gained adherents. In Moravia, as noted earlier, the Hutterites established their colonies under tolerant magnates.…
Eastern Orthodoxy: The Balkans and eastern Europeof Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the Orthodox minorities established themselves as autonomous churches. The first three joined the jurisdiction of Constantinople, and the Lithuanian diocese remained nominally under Moscow. In Poland, which then included several million Belorussians and…
oil shale: Discovery and early application…the oil shale mined in Estonia is burned for electricity generation, but production of shale oil has increased significantly over time. An oil shale processing operation that opened in 1929 in Fushun, northeastern China, also is still producing. The retorts at Fushun and other locations in China yield an estimated…
Slavic religion: Principal divine beingsIn Estonia the prophet Elijah is considered to be the successor to Ukko, the ancient spirit of lightning. Similarly, the prophet Elijah replaces Elwa in Georgia and Zeus in Greece. It is therefore probable that, among the Slavs also, Elijah is to be considered a successor…
More About Estonia8 references found in Britannica articles
Assorted References
- major reference
- electronic voting
- oil shale retorting
- physical geography
- population and demography
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Reformation
- Slavic religion


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Instructions on Filling & Refilling Epson Compatible T781, T0782, T0783, T0784, T0785 & T0786 ink jet cartridges with ARC (auto-reset chips).
The refillable cartridges for T0781, T0782, T0783, T0784, T0785 & T0786 contain an auto-reset chip. Once ink level falls to a predetermined level the chip automatically resets to near full capacity.Cartridges have a 10+ml capacity per cartridge.
These cartridges are of a 2 plug design, but not pressure filled as previous 2P cartridges were.One plug is used as a fill hole while the other is a vent plug. The image on the right shows the two plug locations.
Filling & Refilling:
- Remove clear rubber fill hole plug
- Fill injector with desired color ink.
- Insert injector needle into cartridge
- Slowly inject ink. Make sure you do not push needle all the way to the hub (yellow plastic portion of needle.) Inject ink slowly
- When completed injecting ink replace original clear fill hole plug.
Before attempting to use any cartridge make sure you have ALL cartridges filled.Cartridges do not work independently. The printer will show an error message of only one - five refillable cartridges are installed.
Replace any cartridges already in the printer with a complete set of refillable cartridges.
Once all cartridge have been inserted remove the vent hole plug from the cartridge.The vent hole plug is the color plug. On the image to the right the two leftmost cartridge plugs have been removed.
After removing all six plugs hit the ink cartridge button.Printer will begin to run an initial cartridge prime, the same as when any new cartridge is installed.After prime has been completed run a print test.IMPORTANT INFORMATION
As with the OEM cartridges, refillable cartridges may not appear on the Epson Print Status window at all times. (image on right). If you open your printer properties window you can see the current status of the ink levels.(image on left of picture). This usually only occurs when running multiple print job without breaks in between.
Once a break in the print occurs your ink level will appear in the Print Status window once again.The ink level not appearing in the Status window is not an aftermarket related issue, but a printer related issue. This occurs on both OEM cartridges as well as aftermarket.
Never install less than 6 refillable cartridges at one time. Printer will not recognize the Epson cartridges when one of the refillable are installed.
Cartridge Chip auto-reset
These cartridges will reset automatically. There is no hitting cartridge change button or turning printer on and off required. Cartridge will all auto-reset at same time. It is advised that all cartridges be refilled at this time to prevent any cartridge running out of ink.Some cartridge may contain a good deal more ink than others depending on the first cartridge that requires reset. In most cases this is black. (under testing of 5 sets using of cartridges on 1 each R260, R380 & RX580).
RefillingAfter initial fill when you are ready to refill return allplugs back to cartridge. Remove cartridges from printer and repeat fill process. There is no difference in refill from the initial fill.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rutgers Restricted Access
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"Deep indexing" categorizes data, variables and other content represented in tables, maps, photographs and other figures. It allows users to search and retrieve information from these resources typically embedded in scholarly publications. Applicable journal article records are enhanced with thumbnails showing the tables and figures contained with that article.
A Help link is available in the upper right corner of every screen.
For help using these indexes see: How do I find an article on my topic?
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RSS feeds and alerts; RefWorks citation tool; ProQuest My Research account to save, tag, organize and share research.
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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Israeli President Shimon Peres last week inaugurated a new science park in the southern city of Beersheva. The highlight of any visit to the park is a model of Israel's nuclear reactor core in the nearby desert town of Dimona.
The exhibit is the first public display of Israeli nuclear technology.
The sprawling science park covers an area of 17 acres, and features spectacular exhibits where children of all ages can play and learn about the scientific inventions, discoveries and developments that Israel has been a part of.
Students from schools across southern Israel will start to add a visit to the Beersheva science park to their regular curriculum.
The nuclear exhibit, put together by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Nuclear Research Center of the Negev and the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, is designed to remove fears of nuclear radiation, and provide a closer look at how Israel's nuclear reactor works as well as the "secrets of the atom."
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The sun's blinding rays at the moment (12/31/12) are just a glimpse of 2012's magnificent display of winter's quiet, springtime's blushing budding magic, summer's ultra radiant bloom and autumn's rainbow ballet show. We've used these images to enrich our hopes and dreams this year at Get Over Yourself Please. The backyard's illuminating ways and the sunlight's warmth have given us "the feeling" of hope in what seems to be inevitable chaos. We've shared insights on our own ways to divinity, to the state of happy detachment, while getting over our reactive crazy, haven't we?
We've enjoyed rainfall cocktails with a snap dragon twist never to forget. We could not get enough cherry blossom candy, yellow kissed daffodils and pink peony coolers and still want more! We started the summer with the June bells Parade and ended with the Monarch butterfly dance party, which was the experience of a life time!
We've observed heaven on earth right outside the window. The happy butterfly of a black goldfish, the sad yet delightful cries of October's Blue Jay and our unforgettable Robin's determination and ubiquity. Lastly, I cannot leave out the ringing and chanting of my loving cardinals who bring me closer to god with every song. Let's hear it for the backyard!
- "The birds and flowers give me hope."--Susan Campisi
- Where the birds songs illuminate us, there is light (8/21/12).
- The garden is happy today (7/20/12).
We have thanked our amazing Joseph Campbell (Author of The Power of Myth) for helping us understand that we are in charge of our hearty adventure (in darkness and in light). We have referenced at great length, my favorite Hindu, Deepak Chopra (whose reflections have had positive influence on my behaviors ), our adorable Dalai Lama's Kindness Policy (which is not easy from where he resides) and our determined and radiant Mother Theresa. She says, "Keep loving and then keep loving more."
On a dimmer note, we have re-addressed the missing girls of India (WTF), the genocide taking place in Darfur that George Clooney is determined to repair by going after the money that is funding this fucking horror show. We've expressed our disappointment on Women's Rights prior to this election and continually reiterate our disbelief with the US involvement in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Lastly, we have discussed the audacity of fracking which is another charade concerning our country's love with affair with money, never mind oil.
We have thanked NPR (National Public Radio) for a fresh perspective. We have honored our environmental hero, the Oyster. We've saluted our Military Dogs and donated to Give2The Troops. We have advertised the benefits of Recycle.com. We have celebrated the abolitionist President Abraham Lincoln, the game changer Steve Jobs, the life coach giant, Tony Robbins and lastly our beloved naturalist, John Muir a pioneer on preservation of all things green and dear to us.
We have learned that others' happiness is a driving force in human nature and that doing what is asked of us (no matter what) can build monumental trust with those we admire. We have made it clear that respect is a gift like no other, we have discussed in length the ways to finding our bliss by letting go. We have always said that attaching to others actions is an unproductive use of time (during my very first speaking engagement No Ego Tonight on 11/13/12) and agree that I am what you say I am today, which is bad ass, don't you think? We addressed the irony of accepting apologies without forgiveness, and best of all --the topic of sincerity. If we are not sincere, then there is not point to anything--at all, right?
- My ego failed me today, but tomorrow will be better (9/3/12).
- How did your reactive crazy behavior navigate you today? Oh dear.
- "I am what you say I am today."--unknown tweet of 2011
- How is your sincerity working for you today?
As the solstice got its blaze on and early summer got its golden on, we endured a very desperate loss of our family member, baby lamb Samantha Boyle (28 years old), a SF friend from the past, David L. Stone (49 years old) and Super Storm Sandy, that I still do not have the worlds to describe.
- How will we illuminate the world today?


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Glenn Collins, head of ACCA UK technical advisory, take a look at how the new changes to child benefit affect you
The child benefit charge on 'high income' families is now part of our legislation. Section 8 and Schedule 1 to the Finance Act 2012 introduces a new Chapter 8 (sections 681B – 681HI) into Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA 2003), which is the part of the Act that taxes social security benefits. The new legislation comes into effect for 2012/13, although it only applies from 7 January 2013.
It is an income tax charge intended to ensure that child benefit is effectively removed from persons earning in excess of £50,000.
The charge is the 'appropriate percentage' of the total child benefit received by either partner in the fiscal year. Where the adjusted net income is £60,000, the appropriate percentage is 100%: [section 681C] and the total benefit is clawed back.
What is a partner?
Taxpayers are partners if:
- they are a man and a woman who are married to each other and are neither separated under a court order, nor separated in circumstances where the separation is likely to be permanent
- a man and a woman who are not married to each other but are living together as man and wife
- the persons are two men, or two women, who are civil partners of each other and are neither separated under a court order, nor separated in circumstances in which the separation is likely to be permanent
- the persons are two men, or two women, who are not civil partners of each other but are living together as if they were civil partners.
Adjusted net income
Adjusted net income is defined in section 58 Income Tax Act 2007. It is net income after deduction of (gift aid grossed up), pension scheme contributions and losses etc.
Week means a period of seven days beginning with a Monday; it is in a tax year if, and only if, the Monday with which it begins is in the tax year. As the charge is by reference to weeks, it will apply only to those weeks of a fiscal year for which a partnership exists.
On 6 April 2013 Frances is a sole parent entitled to child benefit of £33.70 per week for her two children. Her annual adjusted net income is £55,000.
Percentage charge: (£55,000 – £50,000) / 100 = 50%
Frances is liable to a charge of 50% x £1752 (after rounding down). The charge would be £876. Note that this is the tax, not the assessable amount.
If child benefit is being paid, and a couple start living together, the charge will arise from the time the couple live together.
If a partnership breaks up the higher earning partner will only be liable from 6 April until the date the partnership breaks up.
There is an exemption if one partner had previously claimed child benefit on the basis that they were living with the child and after a period of less than 52 weeks, resumed the claim on the same basis. This would occur when a parent moves away temporarily or work purposes and leaves the child with a family member until they return.
Vicky and Andy are married, with three sons. Vicky receives child benefit for Ashley (£20.30), Daniel and Josh (£13.40 each). From 7 January to April, she receives (20.30 x 13) =£263.9 + (£13.4x2x13) = £348.4: rounded down to £263 + £348 total £611.
Andy earns £55,000 and Vicky earns £5,000.
Percentage charge: (£55,000 – £50,000) / 100 = 50%
Andy is liable to a charge of 50% x £611 (after rounding down).
The charge would be £305.
One of the major problems with this is the requirement for both partners to disclose their income. This caused a lot of difficulties prior to the introduction of separate assessment in 1990/91.
Election not to receive child benefit
Another potential problem arises from the election not to receive child benefit. If a partner's income is in excess of £60,000, it may be preferable to disclaim the benefit in order to avoid the charge. The election takes effect in relation to weeks beginning after the election is made.
If the claimant decides to elect not to receive the benefit, because the expected income is over £60,000 and the higher income partner finds that this is not the case, the claimant can revoke the election.
The legislation provides that this can only be backdated up to two years, provided there would be no high income child benefit charge (because the income was less than £50,000). Therefore, if your income falls between £50,000 and £60,000, you would be worse off if you had elected not to receive the child benefit.
The practicalities
Child benefit should be claimed, normally when a child is born. This provides the entitlement to child benefit. Making the claim, even if the parents plan to elect not to receive the payments, is important if the parent wishes to obtain the National Insurance credits for state pension entitlement. It also guarantees that the child will be issued with a National Insurance number once they reach the age of around 15.
New claimants will be told about the new high income child benefit charge when they make their claim, to enable them to decide whether to make an election not to receive the child benefit and avoid the charge.
Existing claimants and their partners are not so easy to identify. HMRC need to get in touch with everyone who may be in the over £50,000 income bracket and either be a claimant or in a relationship with a claimant.
The charge
Child benefit itself is not liable to tax and the amount that can be claimed is unaffected by the new charge. The charge is levied upon the member of the household with the highest income.
On 6 April 2013 Lisa is a sole parent entitled to child benefit of £47.40 for her three children. Her annual adjusted net income is £55,000.
On 6 January 2014, Lisa lives with Johnny as man and wife. Johnny's adjusted net income is £200,000.
For the period 6 April to 5 January, the child benefit received by Lisa will be clawed back by reason of her income. As there are 39 weeks in that period, the total child benefit would be £1848.60. As her income at £55,000 is between £50,000 and £60,000 there will be a charge to pay. This will be 50% x £1848, i.e. £924.
From 6 January, she is in partnership with Johnny and the benefit charge will be levied on him. This would be 100% x 13 x £47.4 = £616.20.
In certain circumstances, a person can claim child benefit even though the child is not living with them. This would occur then the person is paying for the child's maintenance at least to the extent of the child benefit claimed.
Exemptions apply:
- When an election has been made to disclaim child benefit
- After the death of the child.
If you are ensure about how you may be affected by the new law you should consult a qualified accountant as every situation is different. More information can be found on the HMRC website


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Body types are entirely determined by genetics, but instead of blaming your parents for the features you have inherited (height or bone structure), you can try to change your body shape (fat vs. muscle mass) with the right exercise routine and following healthy eating tips.Balanced Exercises for Hourglass Body Shapes If you are symmetrically curvy with a small waist, then you have an hourglass shape. Your workout routine should be focusing on both cardio and resistance exercises to maintain a balance between your upper and lower bod... Read More


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BENEFITING: Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
ORGANIZER: Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
EVENT: Pittsburgh Marathon 2016
EVENT DATE: May 01, 2016
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank wrote -
Thank you for choosing to RunSOME!
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, a member of Feeding America, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1980 that distributes more than 29 million meals annually throughout a network that exceeds 400 member agencies across 11 counties in south-western Pennsylvania.
Our mission is to feed people in need and mobilize our community to eliminate hunger. Our vision is a hunger-free southwestern Pennsylvania.
You may choose to participate in one of the following categories:
Cost: (commitment to fundraise)
The Full Dick's Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon $550.00 (Provides 2,759 meals)
UPMC Health Plan Half Marathon $400.00 (Provides 2,000 meals)
Fed-Ex Ground Relay (5) runners $1,000.00 @$200 each runner (Provides 5,000 meals)
5K $200.00 (Provides 1,000 meals)
Toyota Kids Marathon $50.00 (Provides 250 meals)
Thank you for running So Others May Eat!!


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When you give to Goodwill®, you become a job creator. In 2017 alone, 288,000 people earned a job with Goodwill's help — that's one person every 25 seconds of every business day. Your generous financial gifts help us create opportunities for people to build skills, earn credentials and advance their careers. Learn more about how we make the most of your contribution and give a one-time gift or a recurring monthly donation online.
When you make a planned gift to Goodwill, you secure your status as a job creator in the years to come. Continue the great work you have initiated in your life by empowering Goodwill Industries International or one of our 160 local Goodwill agencies to assist individuals in need by naming us in your will, giving us an insurance gift, declaring us a beneficiary of your 401(k), 403(b) or IRA plan, or creating a Charitable Remainder Trust.


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Hoya 55mm PRO1 DMC UV
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Product Highlights
- Digital Multi-Coated
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Have you found the perfect item but are unable to afford it? If you cannot afford to pay for the item, do not let that slip from your fingers. You can use DT Sales Layby Payment option and make payment in bits and pieces. The prime advantage is that your chosen item gets booked and you can get it once the payment is made. You can pay as per your convenience. It can be weekly, or on a monthly basis. Your chosen goods will be shipped to your doorsteps. By chance you forget to make the payment, Layby experts will inform you about the payoff.
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Key features of Pro1D filters:
* Digital Multi-Coated. These filters greatly reduce the appearance of lens flare and ghosting caused by reflections.
* Black Almite Frame. The black matte aluminium satin-finish Almite frame reduces reflections.
* Black Rimmed Glass. This reduces light reflection around the filter edge.
* Low Profile Frame. Ultra-thin filter frames to help avoid vignetting on super wide angle lenses. Also designed to hold a lens cap.
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* UV Protected Case. Filter cases are UV protected to further lengthen the life of filters.
This Pro1D UV filter is a multi-purpose fine-weather filter. It absorbs the ultraviolet rays which often make outdoor photographs hazy and indistinct. Suitable for both colour and black and white photography. The filter also serves as a permanent lens protector.
|Filter Factor
Reduces excessive blue; Cuts through haze and can improve image clarity; Protects front element of lens.
Digital and traditional photography; Helpful when photographing mountain and marine scenes, where increased haze threatens to make your photographs indistinct in color and clarit
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1 Sausalito - San Francisco Ferry Bldg #28, San Francisco, CA 94111, United States
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Stonehouse California Olive Oil
Stonehouse California Olive Oil is proud to be a part of the farmer's market revolution in the United States, one in which both farmers and citizens benefit, to the betterment of both. As high-quality foods are often expensive to produce, being able to sell our products directly to our customers enables us to keep our prices as low as possible, while maintaining sound farming and fair labor practices. Our California Extra Virgin Olive Oils have won many prestigious awards, including gold, silver and bronze medals at the annual L.A. County Fair, which hosts the largest olive oil competition in the world, and is certified Extra Virgin by the COOC, the most reputable certifying agency in the country. When you purchase a bottle of Stonehouse California EVOO, you are literally buying one of the best olive oils in the world. We hope you enjoy it in good health, and with pleasure.


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Lion Dancer
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Your order will ship on or around the release date
Six-year-old Ernie Wan is about to perform his first Lion Dance in the Chinese New Year celebration in New York City. Along with his sister, Jenny, Ernie has been studying martial arts at his father's kung fu school in Chinatown in order to prepare for this very special event. The Lion Dance will scare away evil spirits and bring good luck for the New Year, as well as bring honor to the Wan family if Ernie dances it well.
Folklorist Madeline Slovenz-Low and author/librarian Kate Waters have combined forces to provide a detailed text about the customs and rituals leading up to the Chinese New Year celebration, as well as an intimate look at a Chinese household. The brightly lit, colorful photographs of documentary photographer, Martha Cooper, successfully capture the warm and lively atmosphere of the Wan home, as well as the streets of Chinatown during the holiday. Each step of Ernie's preparation (including background on his neighborhood and the special Chinese school where he learns to read and write Chinese on Saturdays), and everything from the traditional Chinese New Year foods to the custom of giving red envelopes full of money is well-documented.
Readers will enjoy learning about Chinese culture while cheering Ernie on during his first Lion Dance. A Chinese lunar calendar is presented at the end of the book with an explanation of its cycle. Use this realistic photo book to spark conversation about customs and traditions handed down within various cultures.
RELATED SUBJECTS: Martial Arts , Dance , Ceremony and Tradition , Chinese and Chinese American , Honor
Lion Dancer
Paperback Book 6.99


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In a time when hunting is misunderstood as violent and inhumane, author David Petersen draws clear and important distinctions between true hunting and contemporary hunting behavior. While traditional hunting encompasses environmentalism, conservation and preservation, the modern hunting industry advertises new tools and weapons to excess, and antihunting groups decry the conditions of animals without understanding how large groups can negatively impact the environment. In this excerpt from Heartsblood (Johnson Books, 2000), author David Petersen explores the problems with initiating new, young hunters and explains that the solutions to these problems lies within recognizing hunting's faults and educating the public and future generations. This excerpt is taken from Chapter 16, "Should Kids Hunt? Reflections on the Past and Future of Hunting."
"Does it help them connect with their elders and the outdoors; to respect the power of weapons and the realities of life and death, as hunters believe? Or does killing animals, as hunting's opponents claim, damage young psyches, making children indifferent to suffering and ready to see deadly violence as acceptable behavior?" — Lance Morrow
IT'S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY—that recruitment of young people to hunting has fallen off in recent years. Some cheer this news, proclaiming that children should not hunt. In fact, one of the favored tactics of "animal rights" hunt-disrupters is interfering with special introductory hunts for kids. (Like in-your-face heckling at abortion clinics, this practice is now illegal in most states.)
Others meanwhile—not only hunters but bio-wise nonhunters as well—fear that a continued decline in young hunters bodes ill not only for the future of hunting but for the wildlife and wildlands that hunting helps perpetuate, as well as for all those young Americans who will never know the natural joys and personal epiphanies that only true hard hunting can bring.
Why is this happening? And what, if anything, can be done to reverse the trend? Or should it be reversed?
If we want to influence the future, and do so wisely, we must start by looking back.
WHEN I WAS A YOUNGSTER just learning to hunt, my challenges were to decipher the daily lives of wild animals and the subtle secrets of the places they live; to master woodcraft and ancient hunting skills; to shoot a rifle steady and true with iron sights only (and a stickbow with no sights at all); to read and rely on map and compass; to interpret the prescience of clouds and the stories writ in animal spoor—and so much more. Until recently, this is how it was for all young hunters, and it all was good.
Perhaps hunters of my generation were motivated as much by a limited availability of gadgets as we were by preference. From the distant vantage of middle age, I can't really say ... I just know I'm grateful that it was as it was. An old dog now, I still prefer "primitive" hunting tools and self-reliance to store-boughten crutches. And I know of no one who takes more pleasure from, or finds more meaning in, the hunt than low-tech "traditionalists" like me ... nor, for what it's worth, whose freezer is more consistently filled with wild meat.
Most important, then as now, I am acting on, acting out, and satisfying an instinctive yearning for a true, traditional hunting challenge—an ancient, innate itch that can be scratched only by making the least of stuff and the most of self. I believe culturally unadulterated youngsters, whether they know it or not, share this same visceral need to "go wild." And it's an itch that contemporary hunting, with its market-driven focus on off-the-shelf shortcuts and body-count "success," largely fails to satisfy. Techno-hunting is just too much like the rest of modern culture—escaping which, after all, is a prime attraction of all wilderness endeavor.
THIS IS NOT AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. If it were, I'd have bored you from the start with my childhood experiences. I can justify the anecdotes from those formative years, which I'm about to drop on you now, only insofar as they provide a personal backdrop for the opinions I'm about to express—and, to a lesser degree, because here, near the end of my thoughts on hunting, they help bring us full-circle, back where we began, providing something approaching closure.
BORN AT THE WEEDY EDGE of a large city, from childhood I longed for field and stream, river and lake, mountain and canyon, forest and flat. My father, who worked too much and had yet to learn to relax and enjoy life, was little help. Happily, there were other hunters in the family who were able and, to varying degrees, willing to play part-time mentor.
My maternal uncle Charlie Harper was a reluctant one of these. On cherished rare occasions, Uncle Charlie would allow me to tag along, safely unarmed, as he prowled the fringes of farm field and pasture, his wiry pointer, Dick, ranging ahead, nose working, tongue lolling, hot on the trail of bobwhite quail.
Back home, if I nagged him long enough, Uncle Charlie would bring out rifle or revolver or shotgun, check to assure it was empty, and allow me to handle the steely-blue icon: feel its form, heft its weight, inhale the aromas of cordite and powder solvent, aromas that to this day induce nostalgia. And it was Charlie who first introduced me to the culinary pleasures of wild meat: quail, pheasant, venison.
But on reflection, this reluctant mentor's greatest gifts to me were his retellings of wilderness mule deer hunts in Colorado and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain West. This quality of outdoor adventure, I knew even then, though I was not yet ten, was something I must experience.
Where Uncle Charlie left off, Cousin Harlis began. If I was ten at the time, Harlis Harper was not yet twenty. On frequent weekends—equipping me, incrementally, as I learned to respect firearms, with a BB gun, a pellet rifle, a single-shot 20-gauge shotgun, and a bolt-action .22 rifle—Harlis would lead out across grassy fields and in amongst thorn-tangled woods in search of wild meat and adventure ... and some subtle something more.
Harlis was a patient hunter, and he patiently taught me to be the same: walking slowly and quietly, pausing often—standing still as statues, listening, looking, breathing deep the clean country air, then tiptoeing on. When we did spot game, unless immediate response was called for, Harlis (and I by example) would freeze for long memorable moments and just watch: studying, admiring, looking to learn, learning to love.
There were others as well, friends and fathers of friends, who occasionally pitched in. And thus did a precious few mentors, singly and together, expand and bless my life forever. Assoon as I was old enough to drive, having worked and saved to buy my first car, I took to going fishing and hunting on my own, at every opportunity—fishing usually with friends, and hunting likewise if birds or small game were the object. But for the serious, magical business of big game hunting, then as now, I went by preference almost always alone.
How clearly I recall the excitement of fall Fridays during archery deer season, when I'd drive too fast for an hour after school to reach my happy hunting grounds, where I'd pursue ghostly, gray-bodied whitetails with an Osage orange longbow and a back-quiver bristling with hand-fletched wood arrows. Come dark, I'd heat and eat a can of stew, then crash in the cramped back seat of my '53 Chevy with coyotes yodeling all around. Then up again before sunrise to hunt all day Saturday. Sunday the same. And I loved it all, as I do yet today, mild misery and prolonged frustration notwithstanding.
It took four years of hard hunting to win my first deer: a plump November white-tailed doe that walked beneath the live oak limb upon which I was tenuously perched, shivering in my boots. My arrow took her through both lungs and she died on the run, just five heartbeats later. I remember being at once elated and saddened, whooping and weeping—a bittersweet emotional tug-o-war I've since come to expect and respect, and which all true hunters know all too well.
I am no longer young. Yet the years fall away and precious memories revive each time I see veteran and initiate afield together-moving slowly, stopping often, talking in whispers if at all, the eager youngster emulating the elder's every move. Harlis Harper and me. Your mentors and you.
Poor Mentoring Discourages Young Hunters
MENTORS. Even if we've never encountered the term before, we've all had them, bad as well as good. The original mentor was a teacher in ancient Greece, friend to Odysseus, charged with the education of the hero's son, Telemachus, while the boss was off enjoying his odysseys. Not coincidentally, this prototypal mentor's name was ... Mentor.
A mentor, simply put, is a teacher, a role model, a guide—for better or worse. My own outdoor mentors were both. Consider Mr. Thorp. I was about fourteen when I met Thorp through his son, another Dave, who invited me to join him and "the old man" for a three-day weekend of fishing. I recall the elder Thorp as thirty-something, ruddy of complexion, small of body, intense, indolent, and creatively profane. What Mr. Thorp was good at was catching catfish. What he was bad at, I was to learn, was life. For openers, what should have been a two-hour drive to a nearby stretch of river, less than a hundred miles away, required most of a day, with the two Daves left to broil alongside a stenching five-gallon bucket of fishbait in a black station wagon while our leader took hour-long "rest breaks" at every roadside tavern we passed. And there were plenty.
When we finally reached the river—appropriately named the Muddy Boggy—Thorp's first and last physical act was to rig a hammock in the shade and drag an ice chest up beneath it. From this prone throne, he instructed Dave and me—expertly, I must say—in such essential bank-poling skills as selecting and trimming thumb-thick osiers for bank poles and attaching just the right length of braided line, just the right amount of wheel-weight lead to nullify the river's current and hold the bait under, then tying on huge treble hooks and gobbing each one, just so, with a catfish banquet of chicken guts and dead minnows.
For two days, while Dave and I patrolled the brush-choked banks of that cottonmouth-infested river, servicing a score of bank poles and lugging our considerable catch back to camp for cleaning and cooling, Mr. Thorp lay plastered in his hammock, a Falstaff always at hand.
At night, between pole patrols by Coleman lantern, we squatted 'round a campfire purposely made smoky to hold the mosquitoes at bay while a rallied Thorp, nocturnal by nature, entertained us with slurred tales of heroic drinking binges, bar fights, honky-tonk angels, and "serious meat fishin'''—a quaint provincial practice involving a rowboat, a Ball jar of moonshine, and a supply of blasting caps—or, for really big jobs, a part-stick of dynamite, which toy Thorp referred to fondly as a "fish-cracker." Poaching deer was another favored Thorpean pastime.
The implied moral of Mr. Thorp's boozy monologues, it seemed, was that when we boys grew up, we too could enjoy such manly sport as boozy bar-crawling, toilet-hugging hangovers, whoring, fish-bombing, and jack-lighting deer. Sadly, this too is mentoring.
Happily for me, that was the last I ever saw of Thorp. Later that same summer, he and a companion in crime blew themselves to Kingdom Come (or wherever) while "meat fishin'." Though no witnesses survived to testify, stories abounded. My mind's eye pictures a rowboat, an empty Ball jar, a lighted "fish-cracker" fumbled and dropped into the bilge, a frantic, drunken attempt at retrieval, a mighty Ka-whump! . ..
The lesson being: If a young person has even a modicum of native sense and the will and freedom to call his or her own shots—as I did by distancing myself from the Thorps after that initial misadventure—even the most blatantly negative mentoring can redound to the positive. But what if—like young Dave Thorp—the negative exemplar is your father or someone else in such a profound position of influence and authority that you lack the freedom, or guts, to "just say no"?
What appeared to be just such a scenario unfolded on a recent August morning, the opening of Colorado's pronghorn archery season. In full dark, longbowman Milt Beens and I hied to preselected ambush sites overlooking separate pools in an intermittent creek on public land. As the sun appeared, so did a husky, high-horned pronghorn buck, grazing alongside a dusty road a quarter-mile below me. But watching him briefly through binoculars would be the only pleasure I'd get that morning—for within minutes came the first in an all-day parade of road "hunters."
These weren't motorized spot-and-stalkers—an accepted practice among pronghorn chasers everywhere, insofar as the distances involved are usually considerable, neither depriving the hunter of the challenge of a long stalk on foot nor the prey of a chance to escape. Rather, these were motorized dilettantes, seated comfortably in lawn chairs in the open beds of pickup trucks, shopping for easy meat. In a variation on that loser's theme, the group that was about to spoil the day for Milt and me—and for that big prongy buck were packed like pickles into a van with big—city plates and the sliding side door open.
Here in Colorado, it's illegal to shoot, with firearm or bow, from any motorized vehicle, moving or stationary, or from or across any public road. Yet little matters the law to the lawless, and when our heroes spotted the big buck, they sped up in an attempt to overtake him. From the back seat, a tall man leaned out the open door, compound bow in hand and arrow ready. As the van neared the buck, the animal veered off perpendicular to the road. That's when the van slid to a stop in a cloud of dust (cowboy style).
As the shooter leapt out, he gave a loud whistle, halting the buck's retreat at something around a hundred yards. (Spooked wild animals often can be stopped, if only briefly, with a yell, whistle, or other loud noise that whets their instinctive curiosity.) Feet firmly planted in the middle of the road, this paradigm of sportsmanship tilted his weapon skyward and mortared a hopeful missile toward the ridiculously distant target.
From my catbird seat on the nearby hillside, eight-power binoculars in hand, 1 could see all of this clearly. What I couldn't see was where the arrow landed. The buck didn't flinch, kick, or otherwise indicate he'd been hit, but exploded into flight. Flashing back across the road close in front of the van, the prongy rocketed for the safety of the tree-trimmed creek corridor, between Milt and me. There he disappeared and might have taken any of several erosion gullies climbing from the creek to the timbered ridge above. I never saw him again, nor did Milt.
Meanwhile, down on the road, the shooter was yelling "I hit him, I hit him!" plenty loud enough for Milt and me to hear. Now more bodies spilled from the van, including a lanky teenage boy whom the shooter (still yelling, bonkers on adrenaline) addressed as "Son."
Without bothering to search for his arrow or a blood trail, the shooter hurried toward the creek, where "his" buck had last been seen. Son trailed behind. From near Milt's blind, the man directed Son to search up one wash while he took another. The van, meanwhile, rolled on down the road, side door still open, a new shooter in position, resuming the "hunt."
For the next hour, father and Son ran amok along the ridge just above us, the man yelling out queries and commands punctuated by piercing whistles (his specialty, it seemed). I'd had more than enough and rose to leave. When I stepped into the open, the man spotted me and hollered down, "Hey, guy, you seen a big ol' antelope with an arrow sticking out?"
"Two," I replied in sign language, waving a matched pair of erect middle fingers in his direction.
Bottom line and the point being: What was Son's response to all of this? Was he a willing participant, already ruined—or, as it appeared, trapped by the will of a Thorpean father? Did he leave that place with worry working in his guts that something wasn't right about this "hunting" business—an anti in the making—or was he fooled into believing this is how it's done?
Either way, Son loses.
And so does hunting.
AS AN ADULT, I've been largely an outdoor loner. Doubly so when bowhunting for elk—my passion of passions. Alone is the way I do it best, and alone is the way I like it best. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the hundreds of days I've spent ghosting after elk through bright September woods, gloriously alone, have been among the most enjoyable, satisfying, and indelible of my life. For me, companionship is an evening pleasure; during the actual hunt, company distracts and dilutes—like three on a date. Consequently, nobody was more surprised than me when I became a mentor.
I first met Jamin Grigg, then seventeen, at a bookshop reading of A Hunter's Heart. Straightaway he impressed me with his love and knowledge of nature, his concern for the welfare of wildlife and wilderness, his ability (rare in teenagers almost to the point of nonexistence) to ignore peer pressure and dance to his own drummer, and, all tallied, his sober maturity; another Harlis Harper, this one. Jamin was an experienced small-game and deer hunter, anxious for his first taste of wild turkey, then on to elk. I volunteered to help.
Following a long, warm April afternoon of walking and calling, Jamin and I finally found a turkey-talker. When the tom came in to my horny-hen yelps, he was in fact three toms—a big boss gobbler and two yearling satellite males, or "jakes." With the trio of nervous birds smack in his face and bunched together in an unshootable wad, Jamin sat tight as any pro. Lying prone several yards behind him, I could not offer advice, but only watch and hope that he wouldn't let the excitement goad him into taking a stupid shot.
Soon enough and predictably, the big tom sensed a rat in the woodpile, spat an alarm putt, and streaked for the cover of nearby brush. One jake followed like a shadow, but the other lagged a little behind. That's when Jamin's 12-bore shattered the silence.
"I can't believe it," my young friend stuttered as he stroked and admired his bird. "My dad has friends who've hunted all their lives and never killed a turkey, and I get one my first time out! This will blow Dad's mind. He's really going to be proud of me."
Dad was proud, of course. And so was I.
Within a week of that hunt, Jamin had mastered turkey calling and was teaching a high school friend. The following spring, he "guided" his father, sociology professor Kalin Grigg, to his first turkey. Today, four years later, father and son hunt turkey and elk together every chance they get, and have never been closer. In the mentoring business, one-plus-one equals many. Thoughtful mentoring, as I've come to learn, makes more and better outdoorsmen—and women. As a bonus, by introducing others to the skills and values of ethical hunting, you strengthen those skills and values in yourself. Students are often the wisest teachers.
Other Factors That Discourage Young Hunters
GIVEN SUCH INVITING, EXCITING CIRCUMSTANCES as I and so many others enjoyed in our midcentury youth, with hunting grounds and mentors everywhere, what red-blooded youngster, boys in particular, could resist the adventurous call of the wild? And, icing on the cake, hunting back then was a cheap date.
But such traditional scenarios—ceremonies of passage—are becoming increasingly rare across increasingly concreted North America: increasingly difficult to arrange. Today's neophyte nimrods are made to feel they must amass and master catalogs full of expensive toys—in the process neglecting traditional skills and self-reliance, stifling personal satisfaction, and minimizing the twin values of effort and ethics. Increasingly in these frenetic and confused times, in hunting as in life, it's less the trip and more the destination, less the game and more the end score.
As C. L. "Chip" Rawlins, poet and reluctant meat hunter, recently observed from his home in rural Wyoming: "More and more, for most of the people who come here from the cities during deer season, it appears that hunting is just an excuse to buy a lot of junk, hop in the truck and go cruising backroads with buddies."
In fact, the market's control of modern hunting is prominent among the reasons we're failing to recruit tomorrow's hunters at yesterday's rates: To all but the least among today's youth, not yet wholly warped by our virtual culture, materialism lacks instinctive appeal in the out-of-doors. What they want, what they need, is meaningful personal challenge: rites of personal passage.
FURTHER STIFLING RECRUITMENT, today far more than yesterday, aspiring young hunters must concern themselves with finding a place to hunt as wild nature gets bulldozed farther away from every city, every day; then finding the means and money to get there; then most likely having to share their hard-earned hunting grounds with others, not all of whom are nice people.
Additionally, today's youth must qualify for and purchase a growing number of certificates, licenses, and permits, compete for increasingly limited draw tags—and, perhaps most daunting of all, struggle to explain their "senseless killing" to a suspicious nonhunting public, some of whom view young hunters as incipient schoolyard killers. And most telling, these critics often include family and friends, many of whom, in their nature-estranged innocence, view wild meat as unclean and (as we've seen) associate hunting with foggy Freudian fantasies of sublimated male aggression.
Whatever your age, you can hardly have forgotten the tremendous weight of influence wielded by friends when you were young. No teenager wants to be considered uncool. And that hasn't changed: peer pressure remains the single greatest sculptor of adolescent attitudes and behavior. And increasingly that pressure either goes staunchly against hunting or could not care less.
In a 1997 survey, Responsive Management polled American teenagers regarding their interest in hunting. "Fifteen percent said they were very interested, 16% said they were somewhat interested, and 18% said they were a little interested. Over one-half (52%) of Americans aged thirteen to twenty years have no interest at all in hunting."
And even among those young people who would love to give hunting a try, where do you find a mentor? Most Americans are living in cities, and in many families both parents are working and fewer adults are hunting. These days, Uncles Charlie and Cousins Harlis are increasingly hard to come by.
ALL THIS AND MORE CONSIDERED, if you were a young person considering hunting today—short on access, money, guidance, tradition, and, most important, inspiration—would the shallow rewards of techno-hunting justify its growing social and material costs? It's easier to continue watching TV; cruising Main Street, and haunting shopping malls with your friends, fitting quietly in.
In sum: The recent radical shift in hunting emphasis—from traditional, inexpensive, close-to-home personal challenge to pricey, distant, ethically questionable, and spiritually bereft big-ticket gadgetmania—has clearly contributed to the recent drop in youthful recruitment, engendering the disdain not only of the youths themselves but of the "significant others" who in previous generations would have been prime recruiters.
In RM's words: "It takes a hunter to make a hunter. Almost all hunters are initiated into hunting before the age of twenty, usually by a father or other father-figure."
Yet the hunting "community" seems surprised, searching everywhere for excuses, except within.
A Plan to Preserve Traditional Hunting
YOU CAN'T DEFEND the indefensible, no matter how loud and long you yell, not even to the ingenuous young. As Paul Shepard warns, modern hunting "is an easy target: the commercialization and perversion of the hunt, the game hogs, the drunks, the shooters of cows, the facades of camaraderie, make the war against the hunt both easy and facile."
The writing is on the wall. Yet few hunters read it and fewer yet heed it, preferring instead—egged on by extreme elements among hunters, hunters' groups, industry, and media—to hunker down in bunkers of denial while chanting those old losers' mantras: "Right or wrong, we won't give a bloody inch!" and "If you're not completely with us, you're completely against us!"
What to do? As a beginning, I offer the following Four C's: Confess, Clean Up, Coach, and Conserve.
Confess hunting's flaws. When so many—including youthful would-be hunters—can see so clearly what ails modern hunting, today's bunkers of denial may become tomorrow's graves. Too often, hunters hear the charge that for one hunter to publicly criticize the ethics and behavior of another is "divisive," even "treasonous." Not only is such an openly censorial attitude profoundly un-American, it's ultimately self-defeating. Hunters have got to understand and make it clear to the nonhunting public that all hunting is not the same—by supporting ethical hunting while decrying abhorrent hunter behavior. This distinction is a necessity for gaining and holding public support. To defend the indefensible is to swell the ranks of both slob hunters and antihunters—at the same time turning off and turning away the ethical youngsters and women that hunting needs to attract. To criticize the bad is our duty to the good. Hunters with the ability to recognize—and the courage to denounce—morally offensive hunter behavior are neither dissemblers nor traitors; they are heroes.
Clean up our ranks from within—thusdepriving our critics of the joy of doing it for us. I'm speaking here of putting heat not only on unethical hunters but also on those elements within the hunting industry, media, and organizations who abuse their positions of trust and influence in order to distort hunter values for personal gain, dividing our ranks and eroding our honor in the doing. These are the traitors among us, peddling their perverted "war against wildlife" mentality. We must let these spoilers know what we think—by writing letters of protest and withholding our purchases, subscriptions, memberships, and votes. At the same time, we must increasingly support those outdoor marketers, media, and organizations who demonstrate high ethics and openness to essential reform.
Coach. Become a mentor. Find ways to help people of all ages get started in true, traditional hunting—ways that fit your own personality, qualifications, and situation. For some, this means volunteering to teach hunter safety and ethics courses or Becoming an Outdoors-Woman classes. For others, like myself, it's taking young people (and adult women, and even middle-aged men; better late than never) into the woods, one-on-one, and teaching them, by example as well as words, not only how it's done and how it's not, but why. If today's best hunters won't do this essential seeding work for tomorrow, who will? If we don't care, who should?
Conserve wildlife habitat. Looking back across the century, it's clear that no other segment of society has done so much to restore and preserve wildlife habitat as hunters. Yet, most of the hard work has always been undertaken by a handful of committed individuals. Meanwhile, the rest of us do little more than buy the required licenses and pay the levied taxes, sometimes even grumbling about that. For hunting to survive as the great American democratic tradition it has always been, this must change. What good are "hunter's rights" if you find yourself one day without a place to hunt or anything to hunt for? If we can set aside sufficient public-access wildlands—as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and other conservation groups, both hunter-sponsored and cosmopolitan, are striving so heroically to do—we'll always have game to hunt and lively, lovely places to hunt in, as will our children and theirs. And should we choose not to hunt, through the good work of good hunters we'll still have wild animals and wild places to enjoy, each as we choose.
Yet the percentage of hunters (and nonhunters) who belong to mainstream conservation groups is dismal—even as more and more hunters send off contributions to a growing stable of Chicken Little "hunters' rights" groups with scarcely hidden anti-environment agendas. For democratic hunting to survive in North America, hunters must learn to put superficial differences aside and become hard-core conservationists. It sickens me to hear hunters speak of environmentalists as the enemy. Environmentalism, conservation, preservation—these do not equal antihunting. Rather, they defend the very wilderness and wildlife values upon which hunting and fishing depend.
Whether hunting prospers or dies in this new millennium—or becomes an exclusive private-preserve sport for the rich and privileged, as in Europe and a growing number of elsewheres (including Texas)—will be decided not nearly so much by the big scary antihunters as it will by hunters: through the examples we set for our children; through our ability to admit our faults and our willingness to change when change is necessary; and through our commitment to big-picture, long-view wildlands and wildlife conservation—even when, on rare occasion, such efforts may step on a few of our toes.
LAST WINTER, Colorado hunter Lane Eskew took his ten-year-old nephew, Gavin, and another youngster on their first deer hunt—in a snowstorm, as it happened. Lane was bowhunting, and the boys tagged politely behind. A few days later, Gavin sent this letter to his own "Uncle Charlie":
Dear Uncle Lane,
We very much enjoyed hunting with you! This experience will last a lifetime. I hope that we could go hunting again sometime soon. It was better—way better than sitting at home watching the bube-tube all day. Watching you scout around and get down to shoot the deer was awesome. Kool as you would say.
Hunting was one thing, but de-gutting it and skinning it was a whole new experience. Holding a heart in my hand was, well, unexplainable. Touching a stomach—a real stomach, and my hands in the blood, and tonight, when I went out to dinner, I was actually thinking about what I was eating, witch was ribs.
I was also wandering for my own benefits if you could tell me when I could get my hunters safety card, or whatever. Also if you could tell me when I could get a small game license and all of the little details.
The main reason that I wanted to tell you is that I had to thank you. Call me the next time you need a partner to hunt with! I would even be glad to go ice fishing, or maybe just even fishing. I guess that I am one of those nature people.
Your nephew,
Gavin Wisdom
P.S. Hope to see you soon!!!
Fund for Animals vs. Orion, The Hunter's Institute: How Antihunting Groups Fail to See the Bigger Picture of Environmental Conservation
Thoughtful hunters will cheer my friend's mentoring efforts. To others, however, fearful that his malleable morals have been badly bent by evil Uncle Lane, young Gavin's letter will prove alarming. As Heidi Prescott, national director of the strident antihunting group Fund for Animals (FFA), observes in a recent Time story titled "Should Kids Hunt?" … "Both sides are going after the same target—the kids."
Indeed they are. And Ms. Prescott's FFA is in there fighting hard for what it believes, following the old environmentalist's strategy of thinking globally while acting locally. Witness FFA's "Jackson Hole [Wyoming] Bike Bribe," chronicled in a well-researched article written by Jackson resident Ted Kerasote and published in Bugle, the journal of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. "The ad in the October 8, 1997, Jackson Hole News," writes Kerasote in his opener, "caught everyone's attention: 'Hey Kids! Save An Elk, Win A Bike!'"
Background: Each year, the National Elk Refuge, literally in the bustling Old West tourist town of Jackson, holds a "control" hunt to reduce the number of elk migrating from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and adjacent high country into the federal wildlife preserve for the winter—upwards of eleven thousand animals some years. That's two to four times as many of the half-ton (or bigger) ruminants as the refuge's twenty-five thousand acres of irrigated pasture can support, necessitating costly (and, some fear, biologically and behaviorally dangerous) supplemental feeding. While only one or two hundred elk are actually killed in most years' control hunts, many others are turned back. While the hunt often isn't pretty, it helps.
In 1997, as usual, many of the locally cherished control-hunt permits, issued by lottery, went to eager youngsters. And even as migrating elk were the young hunters' targets, the Fund for Animals had its sights trained on the kids, offering in their ad to give "a brand-new mountain bike, up to $1,000 in value," to the first twelve- to seventeen-year-old who relinquished her or his elk license and promised not to hunt that season. To FFA's great dismay, not one of the seventy teenagers holding hunt permits took the bike bribe. As Ted Kerasote recounts the incident: "The inventor of the ad, Andrea Lococo, 44-year-old coordinator of the Fund's Jackson office, a former philosophy professor from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and a newcomer to the Rockies, expressed surprise that none of the young hunters had been interested in her offer. 'Were they simply carrying out the desires of their parents?' she asked rhetorically, when interviewed by the News."
Well, yes and no. Yes insofar as their parents almost certainly wanted the meat. But no insofar as none were likely coerced into joining the hunt. Kerasote notes: "Virtually everyone I know in the valley hunts elk for meat and has a deep emotional, even spiritual investment in getting an elk in the freezer; elk meat is the Eucharist of this place." (Even as it is of this place, my home, nine hundred miles to the south.)
Yet, seemingly undaunted, Ms. Lococo, attempting to import eastern urban values to the rural West, reaffirmed her loyalty to what Kerasote aptly describes as her "mission." She told the News that she intended to charge full-ahead in her "battle for the hearts and minds of children," continuing her efforts to convince them that "you can't love what you kill."
To thoughtful hunter/conservationists like Ted Kerasote, a major flaw in the animal rights worldview and strategy is their patent unwillingness to invest any of their bulging antihunting war chests in programs that directly benefit wildlife or wildlife habitat. Here, thought Ted, was a chance to confront that stubbornness head-on in a spirit of conciliation.
"Given that the connection between more habitat and less supplemental feeding seems obvious to all," Kerasote writes in Bugle, "I made a proposal to Andrea. As a board member of Orion: The Hunter's Institute, a Montana-based organization dedicated to ethical hunting and its role in culture and conservation, I had been asked to suggest that the Fund For Animals donate the $1,000—which would have been used to buy a mountain bike—to a habitat-purchase or restoration project of their choice within the Jackson Hole ecosystem." When Ms. Lococo registered disinterest in Orion's proposal, Kerasote phoned FFA national director Heidi Prescott in New York City. Ms. Prescott's response was unyielding: "We'll try again with the bike."
In a finale so bold that few outdoor magazines other than Bugle would likely print it, a calm Kerasote summarizes his frustration:
Perhaps someday people in the animal rights movement might come to view hunting in the same light that many of them see abortion: as a profound matter of individual choice. As eaters of wild meat, some individuals take life directly, through bullets and arrows; as vegans, others take the lives of animals indirectly, through combines, pesticides, and habitat loss. Neither is irreproachable. They are choices, and like choosing to bear a child or not to bear a child, are different ways of living in an imperfect and imperfectible world.
Meanwhile, the battle for the hearts and minds of young hunters grows ever hotter—as evidenced by the fact that such a heavy-hitter as Time would make a cover story of it. That story (November 30, 1998), written by Lance Morrow et al., is arguably the most informed, realistic, and balanced examination of hunting ever to see print in a major mainstream magazine. Above all, it resists the usual temptation to take cheap shots at what Paul Shepard identifies as the "easy target" too many modern hunters make of themselves.
In his introduction, Morrow posits the central question in this philosophical war: "Does [hunting] help [children] connect with their elders and the outdoors, to respect the power of weapons and the realities of life and death, as hunters believe? Or does killing animals, as hunting's opponents claim, damage young psyches, making children indifferent to suffering and ready to see deadly violence as acceptable behavior?"
After presenting a plethora of pros, cons, issues, and examples, Morrow concludes by circling back to his opening. Once again he asks the central question:
But is hunting safe for children's minds and emotions? Does it, as Lisa Lange says, speaking for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, "teach children that life is not valuable"? ... Terri Royster teaches a class in juvenile crime and behavior at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and for years has studied correlations between childhood cruelty to animals and later criminal behavior. While many serial killers were found to have tortured animals as children, she says, she knows of no research that links hunting and violence against humans .... Similarly, Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center ... has studied characteristics of children who kill at school, and says flatly that "the notion that anyone who hunts is violent is nonsense."
In conclusion, says Time's Morrow, "teachers and counselors report that kids who are taught to hunt responsibly are generally among the more mature and better-mannered—and saner—adolescents in the wilds of modern American culture."
Could this be, I wonder, because these young hunters, with help from their adult mentors, are taking full advantage of Paul Shepard's advice to adopt, in our estranged modern existence, all possible "accessible Pleistocene paradigms"—those genetically engraved map-pieces to a good and natural life?
Could it be that a wisely guided initiation to hunting helps to develop young people's ability to distinguish between a virtual world of cultural made and a living world of nature born?
If so—and I believe in my heart this is true—then we need all the young hunters, and all the old mentors, we can get. They, both and all of them, are the past and the future of humanity.
Excerpted from Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality and Wildness in America, by David Petersen (Raven's Eye Press, Durango, CO; 2010).


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MITM Video of the Day – Beautiful and Touching Commercial About a Mom and Her Son
I have a hard time sitting through a 30 second commercial, but this commercial is around 5 minutes long and I watched it all. Then after drying the tears, I watched it again.
This is beautiful and heartbreaking and heartwarming, and it's the Merrell in the Morning Video of the Day.


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Nomura's biggest film inspiration is Baz Lurhmann! The king of style over substance! Well, that explains a lot.
Oh man,.... is that for real? Because that would explain Advent Children almost entirely. Freud can hit on the "OKA-SAN!!" part.
By the way, I have to ask... do we have absolute confirmation that X/X2 HD will have the International content for both games?
I don't see why they'd cut it from FFX/-2 but not from Kingdom Hearts HD. Unless the rumor about selling Last Mission/Int'l as DLC is true. Which would be dumb, since that would require actual effort to remove.
Destructoid says it's the vanilla content. I'm hoping he made a mistake, but Dale North seems pretty confident about it.http://www.destructoid.com/hd-happiness-kingdom-hearts-and-final-fantasy-x-255800.phtmlYou've probably heard this by now, but this HD upgrade is a straight port of the western release, meaning that we're not getting that International Version that some series fans were hoping for.
Translation: Skip it.
Quote from: Aeolus on June 17, 2013, 02:11:58 AMTranslation: Skip it.Not if you want to give hope to the idea of having XII remastered.
No dice.


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Remember that 2-hour 'Dunya TV Special' yesterday where Meher Bokhari and Mubasher Lucman conducted a joint 'grilling' of property tycoon Malik Riaz, currently at the centre of what has been variously termed 'Bahriagate' and 'Familygate'? Well, here are the behind-the-scenes from that marathon that some conscientous soul at Dunya has put up on the net for all to see. You need to watch this if you haven't already, trust me. After this, only an idiot could possibly take Pakistan's 'investigative' television media seriously.
Part 1:
Part 2:
So, basically we find out the following things:
1. This was a total set-up of an interview, with planted questions.
2. Malik Riaz is not only told the questions before-hand, he is fed some of the answers too and prompted by the intrepid interviewers to say things he might have forgot to mention.
3. The Prime Minister's son Abdul Qadir Gilani is in the know and involved, as are the Sharif brothers in a slightly different way.
4. There are instructions from Dunya TV management 'not to interrupt' Malik Riaz, even if it means going over time. Obviously, Dunya TV is more beholden to him than anyone could have guessed.
5. There actually were plenty of ego-clashes between the Bokhari and Lucman, even more than what was visible on air yesterday, over how much time each was getting to ask their questions. At one point, Malik Riaz tries to placate them both by telling them that they should put aside their squabbles because this programme is a matter of life or death for him. Meher tells Lucman to "be professional." You are allowed to laugh.
6. Other than providing an unembarrassed and shameless platform to someone well known for buying off the media in the shape of a fake 'grilling', the main thrust of the interviewers is to clear their own names as people bought off by Malik Riaz by throwing up smokescreens of asking hard-hitting questions. "Do you want to clear our names here?" asks Bokhari of Lucman while trying to decide the schedule of questions.
I don't really think you're going to ever clear your names after this, Ms Bokhari and Mr Lucman. Same goes for Dunya TV and its politician owner Mian Aamir Mahmood for that matter.
: : : Update : : :
1. For those who cannot understand the Urdu, here is a good summary of the videos.
2. According to Dunya TV sources, Mubasher Lucman has either been 'suspended' or fired for saying during the show that he was being pressurised to do the show by Mian Aamir Mahmood and Malik Riaz.


text: Thanks in advanced. I have a new server with ISPConfig 3 and i did few test accounts (clients with web and ftp). I am looking to reset the client database to start from scratch again instead of continuing the client count. For example: I Removed all clients and web information from ISPconfig 3 and all fields are empty. i also when into the database to remove all information there of all the clients. Also, i removed everything releated to the clients in /etc/passwd /etc/groups. Then i created a new client with site and domain. Instead of giving client1 group1 web1 it gave me client5 group5 and web5. How can i reset and start from scratch? Thanks