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More than 150 blue shopping carts are lined up outside, but there are few shoppers inside the cavernous store on a weekday autumn afternoon. An appliance salesman in a white shirt and khaki pants leans back against a dishwasher drumming his fingers on the lookout for customers. A middle-age woman in a yellow windbreaker is frustrated that she can't find a pair of pumps in her size for an upcoming wedding. She leaves empty-handed.
Sears Essentials--the combination of Sears brands in former Kmart stores--was supposed to be the future of Sears Holdings Corp., the $55 billion retail Goliath formed by the March 2005 merger of Sears and Kmart. But as the one-year anniversary of the merger arrives, the outlook for Sears is dismal.
- At Sears' core chain of nearly 900 department stores, sales were down more than 8 percent in 2005 and plunged by 12 percent during the crucial holiday season.
- Sears Holdings' debt is rated "junk" by all three major rating agencies, a far cry from the A credit rating the old Sears earned for decades.
- Sears and Kmart are opening few new stores while competitors such as Wal-Mart unveil more than 300 new locations a year.
The man calling the shots on merchandising and marketing is Sears Holdings Chairman Edward Lampert, a 43-year-old hedge fund operator with no retail experience who gained control of Kmart while it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
By rushing Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003 and then using the still-struggling discounter to launch a bid for Sears in 2004, Lampert has stretched himself and vastly expanded the borders of his retail empire.
Lampert's supporters, and there are many in the investment community, believe he will be able to hold on to his prize. In a vote of confidence, they bid up Sears Holdings stock to more than $130 a share last week.
His critics wonder if he hasn't overextended himself. They also warn that Lampert's willingness to give up market share to fatten profit margins is shortsighted and self-defeating.
"What has been done is not sustainable," argues Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment banking firm in New York. "The reason your sales dropped 12 percent is you cut promotions, you've increased prices, you've handed your customers to J.C. Penney, Kohl's, Target and everybody else."
Stuck in the middle
Sears finds itself stuck in the middle, its brand associated with stodgy merchandise and dated stores, despite its repeated attempts to update itself. These days, Sears "doesn't stand for anything," says Tim Calkin, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "It's not really cheap and it's not really good."
Where Sears fits in the retail world is the big question, and it goes unanswered partly because Lampert is a bit of a mystery. He rarely gives interviews and declined several interview requests from the Tribune. Stock analysts get the same cold shoulder.
Lampert hates to fly and always goes to bed at 9:30 p.m., even when he is entertaining guests at his home, according to an acquaintance familiar with his routine. He surrounds himself with bodyguards because he was the victim of a kidnapping in 2003. Lampert talked his captors into letting him go by promising to leave $40,000 in a trash can behind a Wendy's. The kidnappers were apprehended and are serving jail terms.
Adding to his air of mystery, Lampert is calling the shots at Sears from Greenwich, Conn., where ESL Investments Inc., a bare-bones 20-person operation, is headquartered. He is addicted to his BlackBerry, and when he messages Sears executives, they stop everything they're doing to tap out a response.
Wearing suits perfectly tailored to his small frame, Lampert could easily be mistaken for a freshly scrubbed MBA graduate. But in a few short years, he has become one of the best-known investors in the country, and few people are willing to bet against him.
Lampert ranks 61st in Forbes' 2005 listing of the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth put at $3.5 billion.
Favoring companies with strong cash flows that had fallen out of favor with Wall Street, Lampert likes to compare himself with the country's most famous investor, Warren Buffett. No surprise. Lampert has studied Buffett--No. 2 on Forbes' list--like a scholar poring over a newly discovered ancient text.
Unlike Buffett, who generally takes a hands-off approach to operations, Lampert has earned a reputation for aggressively managing the companies he invests in. He focuses on reducing overhead and trimming capital investment, and he is unabashed about using cash flow to buy back shares.
He also is skeptical about investing in new stores and store remodeling. Last year, Sears and Kmart cut their capital expenditures in half.
Lampert acknowledges knowing little about retail other than what he gleaned as a teenager when his mother went to work as a clerk for Saks Fifth Avenue after his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 47. His death left the family with little savings.
Lampert's lack of retailing experience hasn't discouraged him from acting as Sears' de facto chief merchant. Since September, managers handling merchandising, product development, advertising, the Internet site and the Lands' End division have been reporting to him. He has fabric samples sent to him in Connecticut, according to former Sears executives.
Some observers are skeptical Lampert has the skills to lead a turnaround at Sears.
"Lampert is a stock picker. Does that make you a good CEO or chairman of the board of a company? Usually no. They are different skills," said James Schrager, professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
"If Sears is going to bring in a new line of clothes, the CEO has to pass judgment on the stuff. A finance guy can ask classic finance questions such as, `What are the terms from the vendor?' `How fast will the inventory turn and how attractively can we price it?' `What is the margin?' These are not bad questions.
"But a retail merchant will take a holistic, completely different point of view. Psychologists call it instinct. We now know it is learned behavior, built from years and years of fighting in the trenches," Schrager said.
An outside consultant who has worked at Sears on management issues shares Schrager's concern. "They make the fatal assumption that if you're smart, you can figure it out. People say the same thing about sports, but Michael Jordan didn't make it in baseball, and you don't find much better athletes than him. In business, everybody is a specialized animal, but no one wants to admit it."
Keeping score
In the business world, it's easy to keep score. Increases in revenue, profit or return-on-equity are positive indicators. Decreases are not good.
Retail and restaurant companies have an additional way to measure themselves: same-store sales, the percent change in sales at stores open at least a year. In the retail world, same-store sales are a closely watched indicator of financial health and shopper enthusiasm.
From 2000-2004, Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s same-store sales declined each year. Results have worsened since the merger. In the 2005 holiday season, a make-or-break period for most retail chains, Sears' sales fell 12 percent, the worst showing of any major retailer.
Sears said its fashion offerings flopped with customers, but it also ran fewer promotional events, a deliberate strategy by Lampert to boost gross profit margins. Profit margins did go up and that was reflected in Sears' better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
"We are not focused on sales or sales growth as an end in itself. Nor will we spend capital on stores simply because we have the capital available to invest or because everyone else does it," Lampert wrote in a shareholder letter last week.
Beginning in April 2005, a month after the merger closed, 780 Sears employees were laid off, most of them at Sears' Hoffman Estates headquarters. During private meetings with their managers, they were handed packets with terms of their severance packages, which were less generous than Sears employees had received in previous downsizings.
`We're losing money'
"We're losing money," Sears' communication specialist Rose Bertini told the Tribune last spring. "I don't mind them laying me off, but to not pay me what they said they were going to pay me, I don't understand."
Some departing Sears executives felt the same way.
Beryl Buley had been the executive in charge of managing and opening new stores at Kohl's Corp. when he was wooed away by Sears in 2003. Within a year, he was overseeing operations at Sears' 870 full-line stores and was responsible for the rollout of such new concepts as Sears Grand and Sears Essentials.
After the merger with Kmart, though, Sears Grand and Essentials were taken away from him, and Buley was told his operational team would be cut about 40 percent.
Buley asked for a severance package under the "change in control" provision of his employment contract, which entitled him to a generous payout. The salary and bonus alone would have added up to $1.7 million.
Sears refused to pay him.
Buley sued Sears in Chicago's federal court in June, alleging the company had "engaged in a pattern and practice of using discretion in an arbitrary and capricious manner in failing to provide proper severance benefits to similarly situated executives."
The case has since been settled.
Plenty of other top Sears executives have headed for the exit, too. Mindy Meads, CEO of the Lands'End division, was fired in August; Catherine David, the senior vice president in charge of Sears Essentials, Sears Grand and the Great Indoors, left in September; Luis Padilla, Sears' top merchant, departed in October; and Sears' apparel chief Gwen Manto left in December.
Left at the top are Sears' former CEO Alan Lacy, who was demoted by Lampert in September, and Aylwin Lewis, a former fast-food executive with no retail experience before he was named Kmart's CEO.
"Aylwin would say I'm a quitter, but I'm smart enough to know I didn't want to be on the team," said David, who spent 13 years at Target before joining Sears in 2004. "It would have been harmful to me to stay."
At Sears' headquarters, easy chairs scattered throughout the buildings have been removed. A satellite snack bar has been closed and the cafeteria's hours of operation shortened. When Sears staffers show up for 6 a.m. meetings, coffee is no longer routinely served.
Travel budgets are Spartan. The company will reimburse employees $25 a day for meals: $6 for breakfast, $7 for lunch and $12 for dinner. Hotel costs also are monitored closely, and in at least one case, Sears executives were prohibited from staying at a New York hotel where the company was holding an event because it cost too much.
Lampert's frugality also extends to his retail concepts. A Sears task force concluded it would take about $3 million per store to convert 50 old Kmarts to Sears Essentials. Lampert told them to make a go of it with $2 million per store. Almost three-quarters of that was spent on back-end functions customers don't see, like the information technology systems, leaving only about $500,000 for all the things they do see--new flooring, shelves, lighting and shopping carts, according to sources close to Sears.
Sears recently announced it was dumping the Sears Essentials format because of poor customer response and was changing the name of the stores to Sears Grand.
The real strategy
It's become conventional wisdom that Lampert began buying up the debt of Kmart Corp. because he recognized the underlying value of Kmart's extensive real estate holdings around the country. If Kmart couldn't make money at hundreds of its store locations, maybe somebody else would pay Kmart a premium for its parcels and turn them into retirement villages, office space or another retail chain--one having more cachet with shoppers.
That view appeared to be validated when Kmart sold about 100 stores to Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Home Depot in the summer of 2004 for almost $1 billion, close to what Lampert paid to acquire all of Kmart, which had 1,400 stores remaining.
But in the year since he acquired Sears, Lampert has done little to show that liquidation is, indeed, his strategy.
Lampert has said that Lands' End, the preppy catalog company that Sears acquired in 2002, is not for sale. Rather than selling off the company's majority stake in Sears Canada, Lampert has announced he will buy out the outside shareholders and make the operation wholly owned by Sears Holdings.
Several sources who have spoken with Lampert say it was never his intention to hold a vast real estate auction. From the beginning, he bought into Kmart and later Sears, intending to fix them and run the chains as more efficient and profitable retailers, they say.
Lampert has said the same thing himself, repeatedly.
"I bought Kmart to make money, and I felt the best way to make money was to have it be a viable retailer," he told Tribune reporters the day the merger with Sears closed. "Allen Questrom came out of the retail business, and people gave him four or five years [to turn around J.C. Penney Co.] We've been at this for two years, and people have been selling us short from the beginning. We've accomplished a lot in two years."
Retail consultant Cynthia Cohen, for one, takes Lampert at his word.
"I don't believe the real strategy is liquidation," said Cohen, the president of Strategic Mindshare, a Florida-based retail consulting firm. "If you look at his involvement at AutoZone, he wants to create shareholder value through the operations of the business. I think that's very clear. He wants to win and make it work."
If Lampert has a plan for rejuvenating Sears, he has not unveiled it. One year after the merger deal, he describes Sears Holdings as a "$55 billion revenue, 350,000-person start-up" and characterizes his retail strategy as a work in progress.
"We are a learning company that analyzes, tests and adapts as appropriate," Lampert wrote in a December letter to shareholders. "While we are clear on our vision, we recognize the importance of being flexible and quick to change if the situation warrants. We will not rely on a single grand strategy but will respond to customer desires and market opportunities."


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When I ask IT people what they see is the biggest problem on the net today, the most common response is spam. When I ask non-techies the same question, I always get the answer: spam.
There's not much we can do at the moment to combat spam except install filtering software that keeps an eye out for common spam terms (I don't want to list them here because there's a good chance your filtering software will trash this newsletter).
There's an alternative to filtering that's being discussed when ISPs and other technical folk gather: challenge-response messaging. With this e-mail technology, senders will receive a challenge e-mail message the first time they send a message to an e-mail account that has enabled challenge-response security. If the sender appropriately responds to the challenge, the original message is then delivered to the recipient, and future messages sent to the same e-mail account will also be delivered.
This process verifies the sender's return e-mail address and adds the address to the recipient's white list, the tally of addresses from which e-mail messages may be received.
Dave's Opinion
At first this sounds like a good idea; however, there are a few limitations to the system. The first is that challenge-response white lists may allow all e-mail from the sender's domain to be delivered. If email@example.com responds appropriately to a challenge, then not only will his future messages be delivered but also firstname.lastname@example.com, and email@example.com.
The second problem I see is for e-zine (e-mail newsletter) publishers, including me. Challenges that are sent in response to the newsletter will result in the recipient's being unsubscribed from the newsletter. Bounced e-zine messages are usually automatically removed from the subscriber list. This isn't just a problem for publishers but also for readers who may not realize why they're no longer receiving their newsletters after the challenge-response system has been installed by the corporate IT staffer.
And worst of all, the challenge-response system adds at least two additional e-mail messages traversing the net and corporate e-mail servers each time a new relationship is created.
Let's solve the spam problem at it's root by continuing to work through the legal system to stop spammers. In the mean time, do your part to make the spamming less enticing: don't buy anything from spammers and don't reply to their messages, you're only confirming that they've reached a valid e-mail address.
Call for Comments
What do you think? Leave your comments below.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cisco Establishes Tech Fund to Explore New Areas for Innovation
Disruptive innovation and the creation of new technology markets have been at the heart of what Cisco does since 1984 when our founders pioneered the first multi-protocol router. Twenty eight years later, Cisco continues to obsess about finding better ways to solve networking and communications problems.
We invest the bulk of our resources in enhancing the platforms, protocols and devices that our customers already know and trust, as you might expect. However, we're also continually looking for new product and service ideas that can entirely disrupt the status quo in existing markets, or open up new markets by solving problems with better, more convenient, or simply cheaper approaches to problem solving.
It's in that spirit that Cisco has introduced the Technology Fund, a new multi-million dollar innovation fund designed to nurture disruptive ideas inside Cisco that are currently nowhere on the company's radar…but which might become another TelePresence, Catalyst or Jabber ten years from now.
With a multi-billion dollar R&D budget, why does Cisco need a separate Technology Fund, I hear you ask.
As Joel Bion, SVP of Advanced Research and Development at Cisco, and overseer of the new Tech Fund, puts it: "If you're the general manager of a business unit at a large company, you're constantly making choices about developing features that can generate revenues almost immediately, or with investing in the development of products and services that may not generate revenue for years, or which may never generate revenue."
Both are important, of course, but the Cisco Technology Fund ensures that long term breakthroughs are not sacrificed in the pursuit of near term revenues. It does so by providing senior Cisco engineers with the funds, resources, equipment and people needed to explore and investigate those ideas which may still be years away from being ready for incubation in Cisco's Emerging Technologies organization or from integration into existing business units.
In the video below, Joel Bion explains more about the Fund and how it works.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


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Lyrics:First verseDid you hear it? were you near it? If you weren't then you've yet to fear it; Once you've met it, you'll regret it, Just because you never will forget it. If you ever wake up from your dreaming, A-scheming, eyes gleaming, Then if suddenly you take a screaming fit, That's it!ChorusThat mysterious rag While awake or while you're a slumbering, You're saying keep playing That mysterious drag, Are you listenin'? Are you listenin'? Look! Look! You're whistlin' That mysterious rag Sneaky, freaky, ever melodious, mysterious rag.Second verseAny minute they begin it, E'er you know what you're about you're in it; Then a feeling, most appealing, Comes a-stealing, Comes a-stealing, sets your brain a-reeling. When it's late and ev'ryone is yawning, Good morning day dawning, Then if suddenly you hear a warning shout, Look out!(Chorus)
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.


text:
Page Not Found (Error: 404)
The page you're looking for isn't here.
This might be because:
- The page has moved
- The page no longer exists
- The page is temporarily unavailable
Please try browsing our sitemap or starting from the homepage to find what you were looking for.
Visit Our Store
Within the last couple of years Kelley has built a 2000 ft retail store in which to display the incredible merchandise.


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You've heard us go on before about Beem Plus, the dedicated Digitally Imported music streaming client and its new brother, Beem for SKY.FM. The apps are polished, well designed and deliver top quality music to your Windows Phone. Indeed, behind Pandora, Beem Plus is our most used music app (set it on Trance and hop on an elliptical for 40 minutes…it's a good time).
Both apps usually fetch for a minuscule and well-worth-it $0.99 but the developer behind them, Den Delimarsky, is feeling generous as he's dropped the price down to $0. And remember folks, once you "buy" an app for free, it's yours forever.
We rarely tell you "you must get this!" but if you like electronic music, then get Beem Plus and if you like to stream just regular 80's, Russian Pop, Jazz, Solo Piano, classical and more, grab Beem for SKY.FM.
Seriously, if you don't at least try these apps out, Sam and myself will look down on you with shame!
Both apps feature the ability to record the stream and upload to your SkyDrive (!), share the track to your Last.FM account or social networks, link to the Xbox Music Store to buy the track, pinnable stations and favorite to Last.FM (scrobbling).
Heck, you can even copy the track name with one click in case you wanted to add it a note or another app. And if you have the paid "Premium" accounts for either SKY.FM or Digitally Imported (higher bitrate streaming, no ads in the stream), it even supports that.
Pick up Beem Plus (Digitally Imported) here in the Store and Beem for SKY.FM here. All Windows Phones supported.


text:
shot some great items from gap from their spring collection! i am in love with the leather totes… and the suede shoes are too good. the shirt is gap too, and a great classic boat-style light tee. check out gap's spring campaign styld.by!
fashion week started yesterday! i'm shooting a few collection previews this week and will link to them when they're posted! x
Gap Boatneck top, Leather tote, Oxfords


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Addie Stasny of College Station, TX is looking for death/burial information for her great grandfather Thomas N. Dison (Dyson) who moved to "Rains County, Texas and moved around in that area…Wood County, Alba, Commerce…He went where the work was." The last record she has found for him was the 1900 census where he is enumerated as "Dixon, but the "J" in the person's name above his came down into the "S" of his last name and made it look like an "X". "He was born In Alabama June 1850 and came to Texas in the late 1890's…his 2 last children by his 1st wife were born in Texas. Apparently she died, cause in 1897 he married a younger woman, he was 46 and she was 20…they had 3 more children together.
They lived in Rains County, Hopkins county, Hunt County…and all areas north east Texas…he went where the work was.
His last child by 2nd wife was born in 1901…so between 1901-1905 he disappeared with is wife…cause they were raised by their Grandparents…on one of the girls obit…it says they were orphaned at an early age.
Just wanted to visit a grave site or close to it. I can't seem to find an death index on him…and Texas started theirs in 1902."
Addie would be thankful for any help and also wonders if there is anyone in the area who does family research work for hire. She can be contacted by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Filed under: Queries | Tagged: Dison, Dixon, Dyson, Stasny |


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WFAN's "Fantasy Phenom Challenge" finals were held on Friday at Bar A, in Lake Como, New Jersey. Five finalists vied for the Grand Prize of a chance to host a once a week air shift on WFAN for one year.
The "Fantasy Phenom" finalists are all local to the New York Metropolitan area and were chosen from over 2,000 fans and loyal listeners who showed up at the auditions. Tryouts were held at area malls this July, as well as at local Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurants throughout New York and New Jersey. The opening round of candidates were narrowed down to 50 semi-finalists and eventually to the five finalists. The semi-finals were also held at area Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurants.
WFAN wants to thank the thousands of listeners and potential broadcasters who participated in our "Fantasy Phenom Challenge".
Voting for the "Fantasy Phenom" is now closed. Our grand prize winner will be announced by Mike Francesa at 5 p.m. today.
Here are the five finalists:
1. Otis Harper, Roselle, New Jersey
2. John Shea, Wantagh, New York
3. Patrick Creighton, Bethpage, New York
4. Gregg Sussman, Manalapan, New Jersey
5. Al Renauto, White Plains, New York
"It's been quite an exciting summer as we've heard from so many people who are looking to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity to host a weekly radio show on New York's pre-eminent sports station, WFAN," says Vice President of Programming, CBS RADIO New York and WFAN Operations Manager Mark Chernoff.
"We've seen a lot of talent in the New York area and hope that everyone who participated enjoyed the experience, and also found that it's not as easy as it might seem to be a sports talk show host. Our own Joe Benigno began his radio journey through a WFAN contest back in 1995 and we're excited at the prospect of finding another star in the making. We thank Buffalo Wild Wings and all of our sponsors for their participation in the WFAN Fantasy Phenom challenge."


text: You look for top-quality erotic photos and films of perfect models, babes, and hot young women? Then this is the site for you. Hailed by many reviewers as the finest erotic site on the web, Hegre-Archives.com features thousands and thousands of daily-updated images, plus over 300 films, all of which contain some of the finest looking females in the world.


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I would like to run two VPN clients at the same time: one Cisco client and one VPNC client. For now I have my VPNC client configured to route only some known IPs to the VNC interface and would like to add the same thing for the Cisco client at the same time. Is it possible ?
Do I need a Cisco client to connect to a Cisco server or can I use an other client such as VPNc ? I installed the cisco one because it was the one suggested but I am wondering if this is mandatory ?


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Sarah Michelle Gellar SeaWorld Pictures
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charlotte Make New Friends at SeaWorld
Sarah Michelle Gellar and her daughter, Charlotte Prinze, spent Friday together in San Diego. The girls ventured out to SeaWorld, where they met Nanuq, a beluga whale. During their visit, SMG and Charlotte also met sea lions, sharks, pelicans, and a dolphin. They were the latest animal friends Sarah Michelle has made — SMG got cozy with a snake at the LA Zoo in June too.
Sarah Michelle and Charlotte have been spending a fun Summer together so far. With the news that SMG's show Ringer was canceled, she can now focus full time on family. That also means prepping for the arrival of Charlotte's little brother or sister, who will arrive later in the year for SMG and her husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.


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Results from the Commerce Lady Tigers softball season opener Tuesday afternoon at Banks County were unavailable at press time, but Coach Pam Canup said she'd use the game to firm up her lineup before the Commerce Invitational Tournament this weekend.
The Lady Tigers will host Towns County, Banks County, Athens Christian, East Hall and Gainesville for the tourney which starts at 10:00 a.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park.
By then, based on Tuesday's game in Homer, Canup hoped to solidify her outfield.
"We are replacing the whole outfield, and figuring out exactly who is where and who the backup is," said Canup. "We have some good speed and have been working on some base-running."
For more on this story see the Aug. 19 edition of The Commerce News.
Lady Tigers' outfielder Alexis Knox gets under a low pop fly during practice Monday afternoon. Photo by Justin Poole
Lady Tigers Host Tourney Sat.
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i was talking about the existence of Jesus Christ, is he real? why should i believe him? where is he now?
Views: 2274
Let's follow the advice of Samuel Taylor Coleridge for moment (from his treatise on how to enjoy fiction), suspend our disbelief, and say that he does - he has a lot to answer for.
This, from my friend Onyango, from his site, Random Thoughts:
A VERY powerful film, and well worth 75 minutes! The most memorable line in the film, for me, was, "God is not good. We pray to him, not because he is good, but because he is on our side."
OK - tossed my cookies (not a metaphor Blaine, my computer cookies) and now all of my TA features are fully functional again! Yay!
Get your mind out of my gutter!
You don't smoke, do you?
Boobquake, which took place on April 26, 2010, was devised by Jennifer McCreight, a blogger who was then a senior in the Purdue University College of Science, in response to news reports that Iran's Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi had blamed women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. On April 19, it was reported that Seddiqi advised his listeners that "Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes" and Iranians should "adapt their lives to Islam's moral codes" to avoid being "buried under the rubble".
The day that Seddiqi's comments were reported, McCreight encouraged her blog's readers to help her poke fun at Seddiqi by dressing "in your immodest clothing to represent Boobquake", an invitation then extended to the world via Facebook. She described Boobquake as a scientific experiment: "With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble."
One year prior to Boobquake, McCreight had begun keeping a blog in which she describes herself as an atheist and a feminist. On April 19, McCreight announced a protest against Seddiqi's comments on her blog, asking for participants to avoid "hateful or anti-Muslim or anti-Iranian messages".
An estimated total of 200,000 people participated in Boobquake on April 26, 2010. The so-called "epicenter" of Boobquake was a light-hearted two-hour gathering at 1:00 pm at the Purdue Bell Tower in West Lafayette, Indiana. Participants' attire included push-up bras, unbuttoned shirts, short dresses, as well as other "racy costumes" and "risqué clothing". They also held signs with slogans such as "Cleavage for Science", "Amnesty", and "God hates Boobs". Purdue's student newspaper reported that the female participants were outnumbered by male spectators.
Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle was the site of another gathering at noon. The Washington gathering was attended by a dozen women and drew the attention of BBC Persia.
Other notable gatherings were reported in New York City[20] and Vancouver.[12] In Vancouver, it was reported that most attendees at the event were hundreds of men using camera phones to take pictures, especially of a small number of women who were topless.
That morning, at 10:59 am (2:59 am GMT or 10:59 pm on April 25, Indiana time), a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck 195 miles off the coast of Taitung, Taiwan, at a depth of 6.2 miles. Upon hearing of this, McCreight said that it alone was not statistically significant, but that she would continue to monitor seismic activity for the next 24 hours.[15] Other participants mentioned that the earthquake in Taiwan occurred early in the morning, prior to the official start of the experiment.
After April 26 had ended in all time zones, McCreight began to conduct rigorous statistical analysis. McCreight pointed out that dozens of earthquakes occur daily, and that the goal of her analysis was not to see if all seismic activity would cease, but to determine whether the number or severity of earthquakes increased during the experiment. By compiling data from the USGS website, McCreight determined a 95% confidence interval of zero to 148 daily earthquakes. During the course of the Boobquake event, only 47 earthquakes were reported. She also calculated that an earthquake of the magnitude of that in Taiwan had a 37% chance of occurring on that day. McCreight also said that the mean magnitude of seismic activity during the "Boobquake" event was actually slightly below average. As a result of this analysis, McCreight concluded that the immodest clothing worn during Boobquake had no significant effect on earthquake frequency or magnitude. Although McCreight admitted that there were some flaws with the experimental procedure, and that she doubted it would have any impact on Seddiqi's opinions, she believed that the event fulfilled its original intentions of being "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking".
Now THAT'S the Scientific Method in action!
Boobs cause earthquakes, Wow, if only we did have that much power, how cool would that be. One could ask, one bare breast, or two - depending on how much devastation one would want to cause. What would it take to bring on a tsunami, I wonder.
Maybe this:
What are they, nuts? Who takes off their clothes on a glacier, for cryin'out loud?!! I'm sitting in front of a roaring fire and I'm still cold, just thinking about it!
(I don't have a fireplace - I suppose I should put that out before it spreads to the rest of the house --)
1) The existence of Jesus Christ, is he real? Perhaps he existed, but the bible accounts are all hearsay and much, if not all, of his description is not unique to Christianity.
2) Why should I believe him? Who, Jesus? Perhaps you shouldn't given the scant evidence and remarkable (unbelievable, imo) claims about his life.
3) where is he now? If he lived, he's dead
4) How can you say that God didn't exist? Define god
5) Does God exist? Which one?
Messages found on the marquees in front of various churches:
For Christ's sake, please stop
asking us about the Mayan thing -
that's a whole different apocalypse
Gov. Perry? God here. Those voices
in your head? Not me! Take your meds!
Do not criticize your wife's judgement,
look who she married --


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HI Jim: Believe it or not I have just noticed your message from May about awning fixing(you must think me ill mannered). I don't need it but thank you for your kindness and am more than happy with the awning.
Regards: Duncan
Hi Jim. The Rutland windcharger doesn't work well unless it's sited well, it needs at least 15 knots of steady wind. 15 to 20 knots and I think it's producing about 2 amps but it'll do that all night long if your camping on the coast. I use the windturbine mostly when I'm on a kitesurfing tour and I'm camped right in the clear. Then it works well, I use a 60 watt solar panel plus the turbine. If it's windy and sunny I figured I'm producing 120 watts on the odd occasion.
The next size up produces a lot more current but it's noisy like a generator.
In the photo I'm camped right on the dunes up in the north-east of Scotland, the turbine kept us charged-up for TV in the evenings and whatever the water pump uses for showers. We hardly used any lighting and I'm all LED.
Yes I would like to buy your awning,I live in Newcastle West(Lemington:just near A1 bridge).My phone is 0191 2646428,if you could ring I'll sort out collection/payment with you.
Regards: Duncan
Hi: I could be interested in buying your awning,if still for sale,depending on price & colour.
Regards: D.R.
Hi Again,
Don't know how to pm on this site, but you can e-mail me on firstname.lastname@example.com and I'll give you my phone number. Perhaps then I can convince you of my ability to bring influence on things and give you some examples. I just tried writing it all to you, but the message was about four times longer than permitted. Please do get in touch as we obviously share an interest and it would be good to chat to you.
ps Moi aussi, j'aime bien les chiens. Mon nom Caspar, c'est le nom de mon chien!
Hi Maingate,
Hope you read my post before admin closed it - I believe it to be pertinant. Good luck with your future camping - the offer of a public meeting still stands as long as it is amicable and professional - that's how I work! All the best, Caspar
Hi Maingate have just sent you an e-mail with a list of dogging sites you requested!!
hi there i live in gateshead just bought my first camper van looking farward to traveling when weather gets warmer having problems with the heating at the minuite need to get it sorted my camper is a talbat express auto sleeper rapsodey hoping to have some good times with it just getting to now some places to go me and wife love traveling so going to give motor home a go
nice pussy lol
lol, I find brake cleaner to be very effective, but not the sort of thing I would really suggest on a public forum ;)
Full Member
Free Member
Full member


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Does simulation work?
Healthcare training has traditionally relied on a "see one, do one" approach to teaching. Teaching in this context focuses on imparting knowledge. Simulation-based training makes that knowledge come alive—alive in a setting designed to imitate real clinical encounters and lifelike experiences where clinicians can refine their individual and team skills without posing risk to real patients.


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Jacob Prasch
Abortion Vs Science - The Sanctity Of Life. Sept 2018
Christian Greetings.
As requested I have carefully read Randy White's article with its summary dismissal of all Discernment ministries.
* As with most deceptive agendas , the opening paragraphs of his article reveal his motive:
He is attempting to misrepresent his heretical view as a non essential (Gnat instead of a Camel) ,
when in fact it is a fundamental distortion of the scriptural Gospel as per Galatians chapter 1: 6-9.
Urgent prayer for Brother Warren Smith - May 23, 2017
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request urgent prayer for Brother Warren Smith who suffered a coronary and is requiring a surgical procedure. Please pray for his healing and for God's wisdom to guide his physicians. Warren is an essential voice in addressing New Age toxin infiltrating the Western Church and we ask The Lord for a speedy recovery.
Prayer for Pastor Jack Hibbs
German judges sanction Jew hatred
This from the Israeli newspaper, The Times of Israel
Vatican undermines abuse reform: Aust body
AUSTRALIA: The Pope may be retreating from his crackdown on paedophile priests as Vatican bureaucrats do all they can to undermine reform efforts, a senior Australian Catholic official has warned.
The Catholic Church in Australia could end up as a "marginalised rump" unless there is real change to an institutional culture hell-bent on self-protection and self-preservation, Truth Justice and Healing Council CEO Francis Sullivan says.
Sullivan, who has led the Australian church's response to the four-year child sex abuse royal commission, points to very disturbing recent developments in Rome including reports Pope Francis is starting to go light on some paedophile priests.
"You have to seriously wonder whether this isn't the Pope backsliding on what has been a strong and determined crackdown on offending priests and the circumstances that allowed abuse to take place," he said.
Pope Francis has told bishops around the world to adhere to a zero tolerance policy for clergy who sexually abuse children but has reportedly reduced sanctions against some offending priests.
Sullivan said another concerning development is Irish clerical abuse survivor and advocate Marie Collins' resignation from the Vatican's child protection commission, citing resistance from the Vatican. ''Together these two developments paint a picture of the Vatican establishment, its bureaucrats and courtiers, doing all they can to either undermine the Pope or driving an agenda that is about maintaining the status quo and protecting the institution."
It is a very dangerous time for the Catholic Church in Australia, Sullivan said.
"If the church in Australia doesn't see continuous, concerted change from our leaders driven and hacked by an active and demanding Catholic community, then our church as a religion will become a marginalised rump, stripped of credibility and relevance, left to preach to an ever ageing congregation with eyes on an ever dimming hereafter."
A total of 1880 priests, religious brothers and sisters, and lay people have been identified as alleged perpetrators in abuse claims made to the Australian Catholic Church by 4445 victims.
STEPHEN SIZER EFFECTIVELY FIRED BY C of E FIVE WEEKS PRIOR TO RETIREMENT FOR VIOLATING TERMS OF REMAINING IN MINISTRY AMIDST RENEWED ANTI- ISRAEL RANTS.
Urgent Prayer Request - Feb 26th, 2017
Our sister and colleague, Carol Champion is still in need of our prayers.
Alongtime servant at Moriel she is suffering from a whole host of medical problems — the latest adding to her woes is going into afib and she currently has cellulitis in both legs.
May God bless her and heal her.
Urgent Prayer Request - Jan 27th, 2017
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request urgent prayer for our colleague Carol Champion who is hospitalised and battalion serious immune disease (not HIV) affecting her eye sight and breathing.
The matter appears medically complicated and difficult.


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Client success
Thousands of feet below the surface, IoT data and insights enable Sandvik to provide smarter, safer operations for their customers
Gathering insights from real-time IoT data, French rail operator SNCF boosts the quality, security and availability of its trains
An IoT-based, connected insurance experience enables Groupama to create new business models with customers in the driver's seat
Enterprise asset management
Bring the power of analytics, the IoT, and AI to your enterprise operations to reduce risk, lower costs and improve efficiency
Real estate and lease management
Make more informed business decisions by better understanding your facilities through the use of data, analytics and AI
Requirements management
Avoid rework and project delays, reduce costs and time to market while improving quality and client satisfaction with a single platform
IoT platform
Manage your IoT landscape and make better business decisions using secure, globally distributed data, analytics, cloud and edge capabilities
Featured: AI assistant for industry
Use the power of AI and IoT to give your brand a voice. Embed Watson Assistant Solutions in any "thing," like a car, hotel room, retail store, office space or electronic device, to create the digital assistant experience your customers want.
Why Watson IoT
Market-leading AI and analytics
Apply AI to the data you generate to learn continuously
Deep industry and domain expertise
Drive growth and business transformation with proven IoT strategies
Open and flexible solutions
Gain a fully integrated view of all assets with equipment agnostic solutions
Trusted security and dedication to privacy
Protect your clients' data and the insights you glean from them
News and views
IBM named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Industrial IoT Software Platforms, Q3 2018.
Industrial "things" produce industrial-sized outcomes.
IBM is named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Asset Management Software 2018, positioned highest for ability to execute and furthest for completeness of vision.
Explore how IoT transforms asset-intensive industries
Industrial equipment
Step up to Industry 4.0 with flexible, AI-powered technologies that deliver insights to reduce downtime and maintenance
Accelerate change to smarter vehicles of the future, from concept to operation – and maintain your own data
Optimize building design, operations and occupant experiences with IoT and AI-driven insights


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Apostles' Creed
Philip Schaff, in his Creeds of Christendom, writes of the Apostles' Creed, "As the Lord's Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue is the Law of laws, so the Apostles' Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order--the order of revelation--from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting." 1 The simple doctrinal statements within this creed are clear and concise, and their meaning cannot be misconstrued.
I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell
The third day he rose again from the dead
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead
I believe in the Holy Ghost
I believe a holy catholic church; the communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting. Amen.
1 Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 1: The History of Creeds, pp 14-15.(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books) 1983.


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James was found wandering. He's a young kitty who is sweet and ready to be a permanent member of a family. For more information on James or any of the animals at Hilton Head Humane Association, call 681-8686 or go to www.hhhumane.org.
Mocha's family moved and didn't have room for her. She is a 4-year-old Mastiff and Lab mix. For more information on Mocha or any of the animals at the Hilton Head Humane Association, call 681-8686 or go to www.hhhumane.org.
Pilgrim is a 7-month-old Beagle and Terrier mix. He is as sweet as a dog can be, and is the perfect family dog. He loves people, children and all animals. He is vaccinated, neutered, house- and crate trained, micro chipped and heartworm negative. Call Noah's Arks Rescue at 540-6755 for more information.
Arnold is available for adoption at Jasper Animal Rescue Mission. At six years old, he is available through our Seniors for Seniors program. Call 726-7799 or go to www.JARMission.org for more information.
Hooch is a 4-year-old Mastiff and Boxer mix. Someone tight some wire around his legs and left him behind. He still has another surgery to go. We are taking now applications for him. He is an incredible dog, sweet and playful. Before we will get him into a home, he will be professionally evaluated and temperament tested by our trainer. He is vaccinated, neutered, house- and crate trained, micro chipped and heartworm negative. Call Noah's Arks Rescue at 540-6755 for more information.
Ellie Mae is a playful 3-month-old black Lab female. For details, call Maranatha Farm 816-6676 or go to www.maranathafarm.org.
Meet Emmy. Emmy is almost two years old. She is spayed, microchipped and current on vaccinations. You can meet Emmy Monday through Saturday at the Palmetto Animal League Adoption Center in Riverwalk Business Park. For more information, please call 645-1725 or go to www.palmettoanimalleague.org.
Let mother cats take care of their kittens
It is kitten season and the Hilton Head Humane Association encourages the public to allow the feral mothers to address their babies. Mother cats are the best source of survival for their kittens.
When the kittens are old enough, (usually 6-8 weeks), volunteers will provide all the medical necessary for the feral mother before releasing the kittens for adoption or release. Bottle feeding kittens is used as a last resort because the mother has been injured or killed.
Often times the mother cat will have to leave her kittens to find food for herself. It is during these times that the public come upon the kittens. They are not abandoned, and we encourage the public to allow the mother cat to return and care for her kittens. If you should find kittens without a mother, call the shelter for advice before moving them.


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My experiences in education vary and I have worn many hats in the field including teacher (PreK, Middle School, and long-term Elementary sub), parent educator, professional development provider, school consultant, anti-bullying specialist, handwriting specialist, grant writer, curriculum writer, and researcher. Right now I am the owner and director of Curriculum Solution Center where I focus on creating quality professional development for teachers as well as curriculum and assessment services for schools.
Constructivist, experiential, inquiry based, thematic, project based
Gannon University Graduate Studies Award for Excellence in Education
M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction (Gannon University), B.A. Elementary Education (Mercyhurst University) Childcare Administration - Director's Credential (Point Park University)
Curriculum Solution Center is the result of living my dream. Check it out online at: www.curriculumsolutioncenter.com.
PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, Higher Education, Adult Education, Homeschool, Staff, Not Grade Specific
English Language Arts, Creative Writing, Reading, Specialty, Math, Basic Operations, Geometry, Measurement, Numbers, Other (Math), Science, Anatomy, Basic Principles, Biology, Environment, Physics, Social Studies - History, Arts & Music, Visual Arts, Other (Arts), Special Education, Other (Specialty), Education, Geography, Life Skills, Gifted and Talented, For All Subject Areas, Literature, Classroom Management, Professional Development, School Counseling, Character Education, General Science, Writing, Child Care, Holidays/Seasonal, Products For TpT Sellers, For All Subjects, Informational Text, Occupational Therapy, Handwriting, For Administrators, Coaching, Early Intervention, School Psychology, Engineering, Classroom Community


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Washington | RV and Camping Travel Tips
Top Picks | Strange Places to Visit in The USA
- Article Information
- Category: Top Picks
Top 10 | Strange Places to Visit in the USA
The United States is filled with strange and unusual places to visit. Some of these places are tourist attractions and others are just the creations of people and their own personal interests. Here are some of these strange places across the United States that make great destinations.
More Articles...
- Guide to State Parks | Top North Carolina State Parks
- Top Picks | Irish Pubs
- Top Picks | Wine Country Vacations
- Top Picks | Top 10 Hot Springs
- Road Trip | Washington Coastal Drive
- Camping Gem | Best Off The Beaten Path US National Parks
- Leavenworth, WA – A Bavarian Wonderland
- Dog's Guide to Washington, DC
- Urban RV Adventures
- Washington Coast
- Skagit Valley, Washington
- Blake Island, Washington
- The Heart and Soul of America - Washington, D.C.
- Experience the Past – Try History Camping


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ACPL Genealogy Center
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014
Residents of Indiana and surrounding states have a unique opportunity in less than a month to hear nationally-known genealogical lecturer J. Mark Lowe, CG*, present here at the Allen County Public Library. Mark will give four lectures at the Indiana Genealogical Society Conference on Saturday, April 5.
Mark is a Board-certified genealogist from Robertson County, Tennessee, who works full time as a researcher, author and lecturer. He did research and was featured on camera in the hit genealogy program "Who Do You Think You Are? and has also worked on the television programs "African American Lives 2" and "UnXplained Events." He is an engaging and popular speaker and very knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics. His presentations for this conference will be:
A second track of lectures for the day is technology-based and will feature:
The cost is for the day is $30 for IGS members and $40 for non-members. Interested individuals may register online at http://www.indgensoc.org/conference.php, or print the form and mail it to the society.
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text:
Welcome to Awebpage.com ...
If you just started looking for a web designer in your local area or on a regional or national level, you are probably surprised to see that there are hundreds offering web design services. Their services can range from boilerplate websites that everyone has, to full multimedia e-commerce sites with streaming music and video. Your options are endless... but what you will need in particular is a website designer that can build a custom site that is eye catching graphically, is easily navigated for your customers to browse through, and can be done at a very reasonable cost. Awebpage can do this for one "fixed price".
It's important to remember that your website is a direct reflection of your company and product. If a potential customer is comparing your company to your competitor, they may go with the company with a more appealing website.
How to get started...
Answer a few questions about your business
Click Submit and you are DONE
In 3 to 4 days we will email you when your web page sample is ready
You are under NO obligation to accept it
If you like it... then just email us saying so and we move ahead
Go here to get started
Answer a few questions about your business
Click Submit and you are DONE
In 3 to 4 days we will email you when your web page sample is ready
You are under NO obligation to accept it
If you like it... then just email us saying so and we move ahead
Go here to get started
This web page sample is unique to your particular business... we never use "templates" or canned graphics... all of our custom designed web page samples are original work.
Based on the information you provide to us we will lay out the design elements of what we think you are looking for and upload it to our server. Once that is done you will be able to access your web page via the Internet where you can view it in real time. This method will be used throughout the design phase so you can monitor the progress being made at any time. And if you like what we have done then we all work together to change, modify the design to your specific requirements.
If you would like to have us incorporate some of your own pictures or graphics you can email them to us. If you have seen a particular web site that has design elements you like and would like to see some of it in your own site then provide the web site address and we will emulate (not copy) what you are looking for. This is a no obligation offer to business and professionals in the U.S. and Canada... and you only pay our fixed cost fees when your site is completed.
We accept payment in either Visa / Master card / Discover Card.


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Mi SciELO
Servicios Personalizados
- Citado por SciELO
- Accesos
Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política
versión impresa ISSN 0797-9789
VAIRO, Daniela. "Together but not married": the effects of constitutional reform inside political parties.Traducido porLucía Tiscornia, Mateo Porciúncula. Rev.urug.cienc.polít. [online]. 2008, vol.4Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 0797-9789.
In the year 1996 Uruguay carried out a constitutional reform that introduced substantial changes in the previous electoral system. From an institutionalism perspective, it could be expected that those changes affected the actors' incentives and strategies. Within this logic, this article inquires into the possible effects that modifications of some electoral rules may produce in the patterns of intraparty cooperation and competition. The aim is to register the change in the incentives of the actors at the local level, in order to cooperate with the actors at the national level in legislative and presidential elections. This analysis is done through a case study: the leaders and local groups from Partido Nacional in the district of Maldonado (1994-2005).
Palabras clave : Electoral System; Reform; Parties; Cooperation.


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Richard Roger "Dick" Morse, 69, of Springfield, Ill., died May 28 at St. John's Hospital. He was born Feb. 24, 1944, in Pampa, Texas, to Roger H. and Marie (Stover) Morse.
He grew up in Marion and graduated from Marion High School in 1962. He earned a bachelor's degree in art history from Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., and a master's degree in architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Mass. He married Nathela Chatara in 1973 in Ashland, Ill.
He formed Melotte-Morse Architects with Ralls Melotte in 1978. The partnership grew to become Melotte Morse Leonatti Parker.
He was involved in organizations focusing on architecture, environmentally friendly building, history preservation, schools, and general community service.
He is survived by his wife, Nathela Chatara of Springfield; one daughter, Eteri of Carlsbad, Czech Republic; two sons, Nicholas of Prague, Czech Republic, and Michel of Chicago; one sister, Jean Slater of Canon City, Colo.; and two grandchildren.
Visitation was Friday at Boardman-Smith Funeral Chapel in Springfield. Services were Saturday at First Presbyterian Church in Springfield. Memorial funds have been established for Rotary District 6460 Youth Exchange and the Acorn Legacy Campaign, Lincoln Memorial Gardens.


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The furnace is used for smelting, which is a fancy word for burning blocks to turn them into other items. Smelting is required for creating certain building blocks like glass and creating refined ore to make armor. It can also be used to make certain dyes for wool and other items.
Furnace in action:
Furnace Fuels[edit]
The furnace only works when the bottom slot is filled with one of a handful of optional fuels. Coal and charcoal are the longest-lasting fuels (per unit), excluding lava. The "Power" rating in the table below is based on the output of each fuel--the higher the rating, the more items you can smelt per unit of fuel. Additionally, wood based items (such as wooden stairs, trapdoors, etc) also can be used as fuels, but they are not very efficient.
| 8
|Must be mined, somewhat common
| 8
| Smelt wood to get charcoal, making it very common
| 1.5
| Any item made of wood will do except ladders (wood block, fence, wooden tools, etc.), very common
| .5
| Sticks have same power, fairly common
| Lava inside of a bucket, smelting does not consume the bucket, common at lower depths.
|Blaze Rods
|Blazes drop can drop 1 when killed, but is not guaranteed.
- Use coal for your furnace instead of torches, except when starting out, this will allow you to have extra fuel in the future. Make torches out of charcoal instead.
- When usinglLava in a furnace make sure to stick around and throw more items into the furnace to maximize the fuel.
Smelting Recipes[edit]
- Iron Ore; smelts into Iron Ingot
- Gold Ore; smelts into Gold Ingot
- Wood; smelts into Charcoal (same as Coal, different name)
- Sand; smelts into Glass
- Raw Food; cooks into Cooked Food
- Cobblestone: smelts into Stone
- Cacti: smelts into Cactus Green
- Netherrack: smelts into Nether Brick
- Clay: smelts into Bricks
Was this guide helpful?


text: johnsyn Thursday, 07/19/12 09:11:29 AM Re: None Post # of 68 Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. : Diamond Offshore Declares Special Cash Dividend of $0.75 Per Share 07/19/2012 | 06:05am US/Eastern Also Declares Regular Cash Dividend of $0.125 Per Share Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (NYSE: DO) announced today that the Company has declared a special quarterly cash dividend of $0.75 per share of common stock and a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share of common stock. Both dividends are payable on September 4, 2012 to shareholders of record on August 1, 2012. The Board reiterated its stated policy of considering paying special cash dividends, in amounts to be determined, on a quarterly basis. Any determination to declare a special dividend, as well as the amount of any special dividend that may be declared, will be based on the Company's financial position, earnings, earnings outlook, capital spending plans and other relevant factors at that time. ABOUT DIAMOND OFFSHORE Diamond Offshore provides contract drilling services to the energy industry and is a leader in deepwater drilling. Diamond Offshore's fleet of offshore drilling rigs consists of 31 semisubmersibles, seven jack-ups, and one drillship, in addition to four ultra-deepwater drillships and one deepwater semisubmersible currently under construction. For additional information and access to SEC filings, please visit the Company's website at www.diamondoffshore.com. Diamond Offshore is a 50.4% owned subsidiary of Loews Corporation (NYSE: L). FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected by management of the Company. A discussion of the important risk factors and other considerations that could materially impact these matters as well as the Company's overall business and financial performance can be found in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and readers of this release are urged to review those reports carefully when considering these forward-looking statements. Copies of these reports are available through the Company's website www.diamondoffshore.com. Given these risk factors, investors and analysts should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based. Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. Darren Daugherty, 281-492-5370 Director, Investor Relations


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Let's meetup for Cash Cash!
Enter our promo code: RAVESAVE for 10% OFF 👉http://j.mp/CashCashTime629
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Please text 2135596307 for guest list & bottle service inquiries.
DOORS OPEN: 9:00pm
ADDRESS: 1875 Newport Blvd. B245, Costa Mesa, CA 92627
PARKING: Parking garage adjacent to Time
DRESS CODE: Upscale casual. No athletic wear, tank tops, shorts, backpacks, baggy or ripped jeans. No overly designed or offensive graphics. Well groomed appearance is encouraged. Management reserves the right to make all final dress code decisions & can refuse entry for any reason.
MEETUP INFO: Please comment below & make arrangements to meet up with our members.
Enter Our Promo Code: RAVESAVE at checkout for 10% OFF your tickets at these upcoming shows at Time Nightclub 👉http://j.mp/TIMEOC
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Time Nightclub
1875 Newport Blvd
Costa Mesa, US


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Archive for Friday, May 13, 2011
May 13, 2011
A 37-year-old Tonganoxie man pleaded guilty to child rape and three other counts Friday for molesting a girl when she was first 6 years old, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said.
Edward Everitt Peel Jr. entered the pleas in Leavenworth County District Court, and Thompson said Peel is expected to be sentenced to serve 23 years in prison.
On the rape and two aggravated indecent liberties counts, Thompson said Peel molested the girl multiple times between June 2002 and December 2004, when she was between 6 and 8 years old, while the girl was visiting other children at a Tonganoxie residence. Peel also pleaded guilty to soliciting the child several years later when she was 14 years old.
Thompson said the offenses occurred prior to Jessica's Law passing in Kansas, under which defendants can face a life sentence for child sex crime convictions.
Peel's sentencing is scheduled for June 24. Assistant county attorney Cheryl A. Marquardt prosecuted the case.
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text: The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The beloved characters from the original X-Men film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from X-Men: First Class, in an epic battle that must change the past -- to save our future. X-Men: Days of Future Past has wrapped filming, and stars Hugh Jackman (Prisoners), James McAvoy (Filth), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Michael Fassbender(Shame, The Counselor), Ian McKellen (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies), Omar Sy (The Intouchables), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Halle Berry(Monster's Ball, Cloud Atlas), Adan Canto (The Following), Fan Bingbing (Bodyguards and Assassins), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Evan Peters (Kick-Ass, American Horror Story), Daniel Cudmore (Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn), Ellen Page (Inception, Super) & Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1). Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, X2) directs the film in theaters May 23, 2014!


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BNDES rules require three major components — out of blades, towers, hubs and nacelles — must be made in Brazil in order to qualify for state finance.
The access to BNDES' Finame financing is considered essential for turbine manufacturers to offer equipment at competitive prices for wind developers in Brazil, which has one of the world's lowest wind power prices at around $60/MWh.
Last year, Acciona announced plans to build a hub factory in the Bahía district of Simoes Filho.
In May, Acciona was handed a 210MW deal by developer Voltalia for two projects in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte.
The deal was for 70 of Acciona's 3MW AW3000 turbines. Of these, 29 will be the class 3 version featuring a 125-metre rotor, while the remainder will be the 116-metre rotor, medium wind versions.


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Alfa 4C
The rear-drive, two-seat coupe 4C is a car Alfa Romeo enthusiasts have dreamed of for almost two decades.
The small sports car is expected to weigh in at less than 1,000 kgs and deliver 240 hp from a turbocharged, direct-injected four-cylinder engine. Alfa says the mid-engined 4C will go on sale late in 2013, at a cost below 60,000 euros. Only 1,000 are earmarked for sales in Europe.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Super Bowl is the biggest stage in all of sports. A year ago, more than 111 million viewers tuned in to watch the New York Giants edge the New England Patriots, 21-17, in Super Bowl XLVI.
It was the most-watched television show in U.S. history.
As Super Bowl XLVII — that's No. "47" for you non-Roman numeral aficionados — approaches on Feb. 3, we can collectively wonder: Which player on either the San Francisco 49ers or the Baltimore Ravens will lead his team to a memorable victory?
Maybe it will be one of the well-known stars. Or, perhaps someone you've never heard of will put his mark indelibly on Super Bowl lore.
Through the years, we've heard about the heroics of the all-time greats, such as Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman. They have become synonymous with Super Bowl glory.
But what about the other guys? These are the obscure players who came into our consciousness on the wings of a great Super Bowl moment or a dominant game.
Technology has changed the way we remember sports heroics. Fame is no longer fleeting. A player who is known for his one great catch can be immortalized. In this media age of YouTube, Google and Wikipedia, a memory can last a lifetime for the improbable icon and his fans.
What makes the 10 players on this list unique is that they came to be defined by their Super Bowl exploits. (The date of the game is denoted in parenthesis. The names appear in alphabetical order.)


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PER: Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad
versão On-line ISSN 1727-3781
PER vol.15 no.5 Potchefstroom Dez. 2012
The Future of African Customary Law by Fenrich J, Galizzi P and Higgins TE (eds)*
N Moosa
BA (Law), LLB, LLM, LLD (UWC). Professor, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
In the abstract of "The Future of African Customary Law" the editors state that it
...is intended to promote discussion and understanding of customary law and to explore its continued relevance in sub-Saharan Africa...[It] considers the characteristics of customary law and efforts to ascertain and codify customary law, and how this body of law differs in content, form, and status from legislation and common law. It also addresses a number of substantive areas of customary law including the role and power of traditional authorities; customary criminal law; customary land tenure, property rights and intestate succession; and the relationship between customary law, human rights and gender equality.1
This book is very timely and succeeds admirably in its aim to be a valuable contribution to and lens through which to view African customary law. The authors of the various chapters, and especially the editors, are to be commended for compiling an academic work that will serve as an overdue and essential text for graduate and post-graduate students, lecturers and persons generally interested in understanding African customary law. Indeed, it encourages the offering of an advanced course in comparative African law and is comprehensive enough to serve as a primary handbook for such a course.
The book provides rich insights into legal pluralism and customary law and contains several historical, contemporary and, as alluded to in its title, possible future scenarios relevant to sub-Saharan Africa in general. It also focuses on at least ten countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda and Tanzania, and even in the final chapter extends its scope to ancient Egypt. Of a total of 21 chapters, four focus on Ghana. At least another four chapters are written from a South African perspective, and there is a chapter on each of three neighbouring countries, namely Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.
The headings under which the topics unfold in the book, and as listed in the quotation above, are dealt with in six parts. Part One of the book presents a comprehensive and objective discussion, with useful insights, of the nature and future of African customary law. In the first chapter Goodman's 'Survey of Customary Laws in Africa in Search of Lessons for the Future' introduces the relevant topic well, and with a fresh perspective reaffirms the opinion that customary laws in Africa are still relevant in the modern nation-state. The topics are also well dealt with in some of the more general contributions in other parts of the book, such as those of Higgins and Fenrich in Part Six (dealing with the tension between the operation of traditional legal systems and the gender equality commitment among African states, eg Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa), of Bond in Part Six (dealing with the Women's Convention CEDAW and the African Charter on Human and People's Rights), of Oba in Part One (engaging in a grounded discussion on the nature of African customary law in the colonial and post-colonial eras) and of Joireman in Part Four (who addresses the land question in Africa and considers how land has sustained the authority of customary leaders), to mention a few.
Interactions between modernity, as represented by constitutions, statutes and other 'common laws', and what remains of or has become of traditional African customary law obviously dominate the book. Some chapters also deal with international and regional instruments, especially from a gender perspective. The concluding chapter in Part Six ventures into the academically controversial world of beliefs about the 'ancient past'. The chapter focuses on ancient Egyptian laws and practices which the author (Camara) compares with customary laws in West African countries.
As is also evident from its comprehensive index, among the traditional beliefs and (human rights) values discussed in the book are ubuntu (which is roughly translated as 'showing one another humanity') and reconciliation, 'indigenous "reasonable man" tests' and 'ethnic vicarious liability', various types of female genital mutilation, and magic, witchcraft and cleansing rituals. Used in at least three of the chapters, the 'repugnancy standard' is a useful descriptor to capture some of colonial and post-colonial Africa's legal history. South Africa's current Constitution and its Bill of Rights2 is to some extent continuing in the same vein.
Ubink's chapter lays the foundation for Part Two. Focusing on Ghana, it deals with the application of customary law in African state courts. The two other contributions on Ghana deal with the following topics: the rule of customary law in the administration of justice and the ascertainment of customary law (Akamba and Tufuor); and, concluding the discussion in Part Three on the role and power of traditional authorities, Abotsi and Galizzi engage in an exciting discussion on the coexistence of traditional leadership and constitutionally established authorities and their roles. Chapter Nineteen examines the relationship between customary law and women's human rights in Uganda. The author, Twinomugisha, presents a contemporary understanding of the relationship between customary law and women's human rights in Uganda. While he challenges the traditional view that women's human rights and customary law are irreconcilable, he is cognisant of the fact that certain customary norms affecting women do not conform to the Constitution of Uganda and therefore qualifies his initial opinion.
The fact that no general answer is readily available to the question of whether more or less African customary law (including its Traditional Authorities) has been recognised since 'decolonisation' is apparent from some of the contributions, for example, Morapedi's discussion of the resurgence of the institution of chieftaincy in Botswana (where the institution remains relevant). That predictions about the future of African customary law also depend upon many variables which make it difficult to offer recommendations is also evident from some contributions, such as Banda's chapter in Part Four 'Romancing Customary Tenure', which examines contemporary developments affecting customary tenure in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the author presents some suggestions for reform, these are not however discussed in sufficient detail.
Moving away from the land and tenure debate, in the last chapter of Part Four the authors Rautenbach and Du Plessis deal with another important aspect of customary law, namely intestate succession. A lot of attention is given in this chapter to recent South African legislation and case law. Relying on the South African example, the authors provide good examples of how a constitution and the courts can protect and promote customary law.
While Higgins and Fenrich in Chapter Eighteen conclude that the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, 1998 'falls short of providing protections that are sufficiently robust to satisfy constitutional and treaty-based commitments to gender equality', in Chapter Two, at the other extreme, Himonga pleads for 'living customary law' to be 'the major area to which African customary law scholarship should be directed'. Concentrating on living customary law in a South African context, she maintains the argument that customary laws remain relevant in modern African society and African legal systems and that living customary law can be an important tool for the protection of human rights in Africa. The author does not, however, supplement her arguments with a discussion of the practical solutions that African states can implement to overcome the challenges of integrating living customary law into national legal systems.
One of the two further South African contributions that are most timely is that of Bennett (in Part Five), in his coverage of 'Customary Criminal Law', wherein he discusses the Traditional Courts Bill (B15-2008) of South Africa and the noted absence of customary criminal law therein. The chapter is very relevant, especially in view of the fact that the 2012 version of the Traditional Courts Bill is currently being discussed at public hearings and also presents new avenues for developing a comprehensive framework to curb the rising crime rate in South Africa. The other contribution (in Part Three) is Koyana's critical discussion of traditional courts and the major role that they play in the South African justice system, in which he echoes the South African Law Reform Commission's view of the 'advantages' and 'disadvantages' of traditional courts.
Juma's discussion in Chapter Six focuses on Lesotho's customary Code of the Lerotholi. He concludes that the Code has been somewhat of 'a wasted effort'. This is in stark contrast to Hinz's coverage in Chapter Seven of the process of 'self-stating customary law' efforts by a number of Namibian traditional authorities. The author bases his discussion on the Traditional Authorities Act 25 of 2000, which authorises traditional authorities to make and to ascertain customary law applied in the communities. He also points out the potential conflict between the Act and the Namibian Constitution.
Other interesting contributions include those by Mgbako and Baehr on 'Paralegal Organizations and Customary Law in Sierra Leone and Liberia' (Chapter Eight), who, while acknowledging the problems presented by the dualist system of formal and customary law, advocate for the harmonious application of both systems. While their position provides a learning experience for paralegal organisations in Africa, due regard must also be paid to the diverse legal, political and socio-economic conditions prevailing in different African states. In Chapter Seventeen, Haveman writes passionately on the Gacaca court system in Rwanda and critically assesses whether the Gacaca today has retained the characteristics that defined it before the genocide. The chapter undoubtedly enhances understanding of customary criminal law and of a system which possibly can be considered a landmark of customary criminal law in Africa. Chapter Five by Ochich provides a detailed analysis of the position and application of customary law in Kenya. The author points out that while customary law in Kenya was gradually eliminated, the post-colonial governments have not been proactive in changing the status quo, and also challenges the legislature to direct the future development of customary law in Kenya. In so doing the author opens the door to the generation of further debate in the area, especially on the role that the different players, including the executive and iudiciary, have in the development of this body of law.
Last but not least, the book undoubtedly abounds with useful examples of the interaction between modernity's historical challenges to African customary legal systems, together with some views about the future, which are to be seriously considered. The book is indeed a great contribution to customary law studies and legal scholarship generally.
I wish to thank my retired colleague Prof F De Villiers, who taught customary law locally at both undergraduate and post-graduate level for many years, and doctoral student Mr T Kyepa, who is familiar with customary law in Uganda, for their invaluable input and their respective views on the book from an academic and a student perspective.
* Fenrich J, Galizzi P and Higgins TE (eds) The Future of African Customary Law (Cambridge University Press New York 2011).
1 This excerpt, although mentioned under the label 'editorial' reviews but taken directly from the abstract of the book, can also be found on two websites, namely Amazon.com at www.amazon.com/Future-African-Customary-Law/dp/0521118530 (date of use 14 Feb 2012) and Cambridge Catalogue at www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780 521118538 (date of use 14 Feb 2012).
2 Chapter 2, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.


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L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is coming to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 next month, Rockstar said this morning.
Like the already announced PC version of L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition, the console version will come with all of the previously released downloadable content for L.A. Noire, including the "Nicholson Electroplating" Arson case, "Reefer Madness" Vice case, "The Consul's Car" Traffic case, "The Naked City" Vice case , "A Slip of the Tongue" Traffic case, The Badge Pursuit Challenge, and all weapons and outfits released to date.
The game will hit North America on November 15 and internationally three days later, according to the press release.
Rockstar Games Announces L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition for Consoles [Take-Two Interactive]


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Template talk:Science
Umm... do we really need articles on some of these things? Library of Alexandria? Overview of mathematics? Fibonacci sequence? How are these related to apologetics? - dcljr 05:05, 22 April 2011 (CDT)
- Agreed. I'm guessing that the author of the template threw in a bunch of stuff to make it look bigger. I agree that the items you mentioned don't belong in here. --Arensb 08:42, 22 April 2011 (CDT)


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Holy Cow! has a Facebook page meant for those among us who want to let loose on animal rights, animal cuteness, animal smarts, animal cruelty issues and, of course, veganism. This week, I opened what seemed a thought-provoking but harmless enough (or so it seemed) discussion on a recent declaration by actress and famous vegan Alicia Silverstone that when she's at a party and drinking and comes upon a platter of cheese, she gives in to temptation and takes a little bite.
Is that so egregious, I asked?
"To me it sounds like she is being real," said one commenter, Nicole. "It's not like she is living in some vegan nation surrounded only by vegans. Sometimes you are in the real world, in a non-vegan situation and you are hungry and there is no other solid food around."
To which Priya retorted: "When the only options at a gathering are non-vegan, I choose to go hungry because I don't consider animal products "food"… I completely understand that when people are transitioning, they may consume animal products. But don't call yourself a vegan until you stop doing so."
And so on and so forth went the comments, some downright outraged, others not so much.
I wasn't surprised by those who condemned Alicia– I understand them completely because my first reaction was very similar. We vegans tend to be a pretty ethical lot who firmly believe that it is wrong to contribute, in the smallest way, to animal suffering, and we know that some cow suffered for that teeny bite of cheese. We know we can eat deliciously and healthily without hurting animals, and we spend our lives showing the world that ours is not a difficult choice — just the intelligent one. Therefore it just follows that those among us who do stray once in a way make us all look like we are just secretly salivating for all that animal food we chose to give up.
Then I got to thinking about Alicia's argument that she's only human, and that she doesn't want to be seen as icy and rigid. But if that is indeed how everyone perceives us vegans– as unbending and rigid– maybe we need to do something about changing those perceptions instead of grabbing at the cheese.
To me, that means showing the world how effortless eating vegan is– and how delicious. But it also means not making it appear that veganism is an enclave where a few of us exist in ethical splendor and no one who strays even a tiny bit is welcome.
When I go out to eat with non-vegan friends, I try not to make a big deal about finding a place with a large vegan menu, because I know I'll find something delicious I can eat at almost any restaurant. I'll order the veggie burger without cheese and mayo, for instance, but I won't quiz the waiter on every last ingredient in the bun. When my non-vegan friends take a bite of the food, they're surprised at how delicious it is. I've noticed now that more of my friends tend to order vegetarian food when they go out because they don't think it's the hardest thing in the world, and also because they know it is delicious. Most people, I think, by now have a good idea about the tough lives of animals raised for food, and they are willing to try and do their bit. And that, in my opinion, counts.
Along the same vein, I try to share healthy and delicious recipes with you on this blog, many of them animal-free versions of traditional favorites. Among my readers are many carnivores who have written to me saying they enjoy making these recipes for family or friends who are vegetarian, or for their own health. Although they are not about to give up their animal-based diet completely, it makes me happy that they do see the value and deliciousness of a vegan meal, and make a difference to the animals — however small–with that one meal.
So let's stop beating up on Alicia and any vegan out there who makes an occasional choice to eat dairy or another animal product. As long as they remain committed to a cruelty-free lifestyle for the most part, they are still making a positive difference and they deserve credit for it.
What do you think?
Come fall, there's bound to appear– on almost every food blog– a recipe for butternut squash soup. It's easy to see why, given that this is the season when squashes of all sizes and shapes start putting in an appearance in the markets. Besides, there's just something about fall that makes one crave warm, soothing, orange soups.
I have already posted my Butternut Squash Soup with Lima Beans recipe in the years gone by, but last week I found a recipe that included cinnamon and I jumped at it because just the idea of marrying velvety-sweet squash and warm, spicy cinnamon made my tastebuds want to sing.
Luckily I had a butternut squash sitting in my kitchen (they last for weeks at room temperature). Once I'd gone through the tough job of peeling and chopping up the squash the rest of the soup was breezily easy to put together.
Here's the recipe. Serve it with some warm, wholegrain croutons and some avocado salad on the side and then go snuggle in bed under the warm covers.
Butternut Squash Soup With Cinnamon Cream
- 1 medium butternut squash , peeled, seeded and chopped into 1-inch chunks
- 1 onion , chopped into a fine dice
- 1 medium carrot or about 5-6 baby carrots , diced
- 2 tbsp grated ginger
- 1/2 tsp
- ground cinnamon
- , plus more if desired for garnish
- 1 tbsp
- ground coriander
- 3 cups water or
- vegetable stock
- 1 cup
- soymilk
- 1/2 tsp
- ground black pepper
- Salt
- to taste
- 1 tbsp
- olive oil
- Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and saute until the onion becomes golden-brown.
- Add the ginger and coriander and stir to mix, then add the squash and carrots and cinnamon.
- Cook, stirring, about 5-8 minutes until the squash starts to brown.
- Add the water or vegetable stock and half the soymilk and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, and cover the saucepan.
- Cook until the squash is tender, about 30 minutes.
- In a blender, or using an immersion blender if you have one, process the soup until it turns smooth and velvety. Be careful while handling the hot ingredients and liquid.
- Return the soup to the saucepan and add the rest of the soymilk. Warm until heated through.
- Ladle into a bowl, sprinkle some more cinnamon on top.
- Enjoy!
(C) All recipes and photographs copyright of Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes.


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|[European News Bulletin] Special Issue, 11 September, 2013
|[European News Bulletin] Special Issue, 11 September, 2013
|Quinta, 12 Setembro 2013 20:21
Keynote address at the International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: the Endgame for Tobacco New Delhi, India 11 September 2013
Excellencies, honourable ministers, distinguished scientists, representatives of civil society, ladies and gentlemen,
I thank the government of India for hosting this International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century, with its intriguing sub-title: the endgame for tobacco. WHO is proud to be the technical co-sponsor of this event.
Public health has very few opportunities to end threats to health in a definitive way. Most of our work is never-ending. Every new wave of babies needs to be immunized. Bednets wear out. Mainstay medicines develop resistance. One generation learns the importance of safe sex. The next generation forgets.
Disease eradication is one clear opportunity for a definitive end to a health threat. A tobacco endgame is another. Both have tremendous appeal. They promise to improve the world in a permanent way, offering every future generation the perpetual gift of freedom from major diseases.
Speculation about a possible endgame for tobacco has been going on for at least a decade, often expressed as wishful what-if scenarios. For example, what if the tobacco industry simply did not exist?
Tobacco use claimed an estimated 100 million lives during the previous century. On current trends, tobacco use is projected to cause a billion deaths during the 21st century. Think of all the lives saved, the suffering avoided, and the costs averted if the tobacco industry simply ceased to exist.
Another argument goes like this. If all the harms caused by tobacco were known earlier on, tobacco products would never have been approved as safe for human consumption, could never have been marketed and sold like any other consumer product.
Is it really too late to correct this grave historical error? Could tobacco use somehow be eliminated through a brave new plan that responds, retrospectively, to a great mistake?
Concrete proposals expanded last year, when Tobacco Control issued a supplement devoted entirely to an exploration of tobacco endgames. Some striking proposals were put forward, as were some warnings and words of caution.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me also offer some advice.
First, be very precise in your definition of what is meant by a tobacco endgame. We learned the importance of doing so when global goals were set for disease eradication or elimination. Progress towards any ambitious goal needs to be measured convincingly. Precise definitions help.
Second, anchor endgame strategies in impeccable science. Arguments for taking action need this water-tight support. Experience tells us that industry will challenge the science, distort the findings, or fund its own studies with a predictable bias. An impeccable scientific foundation is the best defence.
Third, back up goals and strategies with solid feasibility studies. This is another lesson from the eradication experience. Governments need to know what commitment to an ambitious goal really means in practical terms and what the likely pay-backs will be, for economies as well as societies. Good feasibility studies build confidence, and confidence inspires commitment.
Fourth, recognize the diversity of factors that drive the tobacco epidemic in different economic and cultural contexts. These contexts also create their own unique barriers to success. A diversity of endgame strategies, as opposed to a single global strategy, might be needed to accommodate these different contexts. Provision of a menu of strategic and policy options might be another wise way forward.
Fifth, be realistic. Your scientific programmes will consider how the drive for sustainable development and concern about NCDs can bolster support for tobacco endgames. Doing so is promising, yet also faces some challenges.
Concern about NCDs creates a receptive environment for tobacco endgames. Time and time again, ministers of health from the developing world have told me that prevention of NCDs must be the cornerstone of their response. The costs and demands of chronic and acute care are beyond their reach. Prevention is the best option.
My reply: full implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control would deal the greatest single preventive blow to all of these diseases.
A different situation exists in many wealthy countries, where effective control measures and changing social norms have seen smoking prevalence drop by 50% or more. In these countries, tobacco use is increasingly concentrated in sectors of society with lower levels of education, income, and engagement in the political process.
In other words, the very success of tobacco control has reduced the visibility of smoking as a problem demanding urgent attention. In some cases, obesity is now the most visible epidemic that needs to be stopped.
Success is always good, but must not be allowed to conceal the fact that the job of tobacco control is far from done.
Making tobacco endgames part of overarching development strategies has great policy appeal. In rapidly growing parts of Asia, evidence suggests that the huge costs of NCDs can cancel out the benefits of economic gain. A tobacco endgame makes very good sense as a boost to both health and economic development.
But what are the realistic chances of success?
I see two main barriers to success. First, most of the proposed endgame strategies depend on a strong capacity for regulatory control and enforcement. Throughout much of the developing world, this capacity simply does not exist at present.
Second, tobacco control requires cooperation from multiple sectors of government, from trade, finance, agriculture, education, law enforcement, and the judicial system. Unfortunately, many countries give more importance to tobacco as an issue for trade and commerce than as a severe threat to health.
The tobacco industry ruthlessly exploits this appeal to commercial interests, everywhere. The most recent example concerns efforts on the part of Philip Morris to sabotage the vote on a strong European Directive on tobacco.
A massive army of lobbyists has been deployed to delay or block passage of the law until the European Council presidency moves to Greece, where the company has opened a huge hub for the production and distribution of cigarettes throughout Europe.
Here, industry is counting on the historical pattern, where economic and commercial interests trump public health concerns time and time again. Such tactics give tobacco endgames further appeal as a strategy for putting industry out of business. They deserve it.
My last advice is this. Be careful.
As I said, nearly all endgame proposals require a very high level of legislative and regulatory support. In most cases, this support goes beyond the capacities needed to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Make sure that these proposals do not play straight into the hands of some long-standing and effective industry arguments, actually firing up the level of alarm. I am referring, in particular, to arguments that strong tobacco control measures represent interference of the Nanny State with personal liberties and freedom of choice.
I am referring, too, to arguments that tobacco control interferes with trade and economic policies.
Expect well-orchestrated, well-funded, and aggressive resistance every step along the way. The WHO tobacco treaty has certainly experienced this resistance throughout its history, beginning with its inception. And for a very good reason. It threatens industry profits.
Endgame strategies threaten the very existence of the tobacco industry. Anticipate a strong back-lash, including through the use of litigation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have a final comment. Some tobacco control advocates argue that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has likely done all it can. Dramatic drops in tobacco use have begun to level off, pointing to the need for some radically different approaches.
I cannot entirely agree with this view. The treaty has been in force for less than a decade. Abundant evidence has demonstrated the impact of its provisions. The evidence is particularly strong for demand-reduction measures, and the evidence holds true for countries at all levels of development.
To help countries implement the treaty, WHO has developed a practical, cost-effective way to scale up implementation of its provisions on the ground. These are the six highly effective measures for demand reduction set out in MPOWER.
A study published in the July issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization examined the impact on smoking-related deaths in 41 countries that adopted at least one highest-level MPOWER measure.
In these countries, the estimated number of smokers dropped by 14.8 million, averting a total of 7.4 million smoking-attributable deaths. This demonstrates the tremendous preventive impact of cost-effective measures for demand reduction.
Many endgame proposals attack the supply side of the tobacco epidemic, aiming for its roots. Governments now have an expanded range of options to consider, some with a proven track record, others with visionary policy appeal.
Keep in mind that tobacco endgames will face the same two barriers to implementation that the tobacco treaty has faced. Namely, interference by the tobacco industry and its lobbies, and lack of legislative and regulatory capacity.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The death clock keeps ticking, and the numbers keep growing faster every minute.
I understand, and share, the great sense of urgency, the impatience with the pace of progress, and the desire to seize the brave new promise of a tobacco endgame.
The prospects for doing so are now being given the serious scientific scrutiny set out in the programme for this conference. I wish you every success.
Source: http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2013/tobacco_endgame_20130911/en/index.html