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NCDA&CS offers advice on plasticulture production
The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Agronomic Division is holding a workshop Aug. 17 to help growers interested in plasticulture production learn more about this technology. The free workshop will be at ERW Farms in Bailey, and organizers ask attendees to register.
Plasticulture, which involves growing crops on plastic with drip irrigation, is a relatively recent practice in North Carolina, starting in the early 1980s on a limited basis.
"It has been primarily used to produce strawberries and a few specific vegetable crops," said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. "Today, many small family farms are experimenting with a much wider range of crops in an effort to maintain profitability and sustainability."
Plasticulture is radically different from traditional farming. It uses plastic materials, such as film mulches and drip irrigation tape, to moderate the crop production environment. This technology helps crops withstand extreme fluctuations in weather, especially temperature and rainfall. It can also improve produce quality and yield, extend the growing season and optimize use of land and water resources.
Workshop attendees will learn how to avoid common and expensive pitfalls such as underwatering or applying the wrong balance of nutrients. The workshop will focus on fumigation regulations, weed control and disease management. Certified Crop Advisor credits and pesticide recertification credits will be available in connection with this training. To register, contact Kent Messick at (919) 733-2655.
The goal of the training is to provide growers and other agricultural professionals with the management skills necessary to transition smoothly from traditional field crop production, said Messick, NCDA&CS Field Services Section chief.
"Plasticulture is receiving wide support largely because it is seen to be both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable," Messick said. "It is a promising choice for growers who are downsizing their operations and trying to earn more profit on fewer acres."
This is the second workshop being offered on plasticulture production. The first emphasized water management, fertilization and plant tissue sampling. Handouts on these topics are available online at www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/plasticulture.htm. Growers can contact their regional agronomist to ask questions about these handouts or to schedule a site visit. Both workshops are funded by a grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission.


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From the Outreach Revolution Series: sign up to get shareable social media graphics, learning experiences, and join other UU outreachers like you.
Is there such a thing as being too public about your values? The world today can feel like a hard time to reach out, given the uncertainty in the news, on social media, and in our hearts.
But the truth is, it's never been more important to get out there and be our progressively faithful selves, even when that's imperfect. Yes, that takes courage. You bet it requires risk. Just remember that inaction carries its own risk in this historic time in American public life. Attendance is up at many churches, a sure sign that our message is a needed one. How can we honor that need and answer its call?
We want to highlight two opportunities to help frame and support the work you are doing in your community – the Love Resists campaign and the UU White Supremacy Teach-In. These are two ways that the UU faith tradition is finding traction in these days of churn and change.
Started as a joint initiative between the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the Unitarian Universalist Association, Love Resists offers tools, tips and connections to help expand the notion of sanctuary in our communities, grow our solidarity with oppressed communities, and raise our voices for justice. The campaign models partnership and collaboration from the bottom up, drawing heavily on the framing and guidance of our community organizing partners.
This month's social media graphics come from Love Resists, and are a great way to show your support for expanded sanctuary policies, rapid response networks, physical shelter, and more. Download all eight graphics.
We hope you'll share them! And when you do, it's a great opportunity to talk about what commitments you've made to help expand sanctuary and create safe spaces for those most under threat. Perhaps you're advocating for your local school district to refuse to cooperate with immigration orders, or members of your congregation are accompanying undocumented folks at their regular check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or maybe you're part of an interfaith coalition offering physical sanctuary in one of your congregations. Regardless, it is so important to be public in our work for justice right now, to show that people of faith and conscience are invested in a different vision for our communities. Visit loveresists.org for more information.
You may also know about the grassroots UU White Supremacy Teach-In, just wrapping up its two weekends of disrupting "church as usual" to focus on the racial injustice and cultural whiteness of our faith. With nearly two-thirds of UU congregations participating, the Teach-In is a powerful testament to Unitarian Universalists' shared desire to build a new way forward and reach new audiences (and kudos to religious educators and event organizers Aisha Hauser, Christina Rivera and Kenny Wiley!). If you didn't sign up for the Teach-In, remember it's never too late to talk about decentering whiteness :). If you've completed the Teach-In, find a next activity for your congregation (see the "next ask" recommendation from our Entry Points post) to show how you're carrying its lessons forward.
I've heard some people wonder if a focus on examining our internal white supremacy will turn off spiritual seekers. I feel pretty sure we aren't going to turn people off with heartfelt internal discussion; instead we will help outsiders understand how seriously we take our values. In a time when trust of institutions like church is weak, especially for younger folks, it's critical that we show we're serious about practicing what we preach.
There is no more distinction between what happens backstage and what is thrust into the spotlight, this is the era of leadership in the round.
Both Love Resists and the White Supremacy Teach-In are an opportunity to "show, don't tell." Instead of just talking about our principles and commitments, we are embodying them with clear action. It can't be overstated how important this is in the era of 24/7 social media transparency. Make sure you're Tweeting, Facebook-ing, and talking about the work you're doing, so that your light may inspire others to let theirs burn bright.
I am committed to Unitarian Universalism because of its aspirations for a just, compassionate, beloved community for all. If you believe that more people hunger for this vision, show them you mean it. There's no such thing as being too public about your values days.
How are you showing your values these days? Add your thoughts to the comments below.

subset: commoncrawl


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The WiGig high-speed wireless standard will power a new wireless version of USB through a deal between the Wi-Fi Alliance and the USB Implementers Forum.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has transferred a specification for the WiGig high-frequency technology to the USB-IF as part of a broader effort to work with third parties to make WiGig useful.
WiGig can achieve several times the speed of Wi-Fi by using unlicensed 60GHz frequencies within a short range, typically within one room. The new Wireless USB specification will use existing USB 2.0 and 3.0 drivers and APIs, which should make it easy to add to new devices. It could be used for any type of data transfer typically associated with USB, such as backing up content or linking peripherals to a PC.
The move, to be announced Monday at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), is part of a new approach that the Wi-Fi group is taking with WiGig, according to Kelly Davis-Felner, Wi-Fi Alliance marketing and program management director. The WiGig Alliance became part of the Wi-Fi Alliance late last year.
The new wireless form of USB, called Media Agnostic USB, will be able to use any kind of wireless system, according to the USB-IF. It is being defined for multiple media, including WiGig, Wi-Fi and WiMedia UWB (ultrawideband). A work group within the USB-IF is developing the MA USB 1.0 specification.
In a first for the owner of one of the best-known tech brand names, the Wi-Fi Alliance will use the WiGig brand by itself when it starts certifying devices for that technology, giving them a WiGig Certified logo. The first official WiGig seals of approval are expected to go out next year. Up until now, all of the group's certifications have fit under Wi-Fi itself.
The Alliance will also partner with other industry bodies for certification of WiGig-equipped products designed for specific uses of the technology, Davis-Felner said. While the Wi-Fi Alliance will certify a product's WiGig interoperability, the partner groups will work on the higher-level features implemented on top of WiGig, she said.
The first two such partnerships are the arrangement for USB and a liaison agreement with the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The VESA deal will facilitate the certification of products that use the WiGig Display Extension Specification for streaming video from PCs and handheld devices to TVs and monitors, the Wi-Fi Alliance said.
WiGig is intended to carry video, audio and data at high speeds over unlicensed frequencies in the 60GHz range, far above the bands used by Wi-Fi. WiGig is faster than Wi-Fi, up to 7Gbps (bits per second), but works over shorter distances. It emerged as a proposed specification in 2009 with the backing of major vendors including Microsoft, Intel and Samsung.
Supporters formed the WiGig Alliance, which last year merged with the Wi-Fi Alliance. But the WiGig name is so well-known that the more established industry group decided to stick with the original name.
"It was starting to get a fair amount of industry traction," Davis-Felner said.
The USB-IF has been certifying Wireless USB devices with UWB for several years, with "some moderate adoption," according to Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF's president and chief operating officer. UWB, which uses a wide range of different frequencies, fizzled in the market after it failed to deliver promised performance, according to Farpoint Research analyst Craig Mathias.
While the Alliance certifies a number of Wi-Fi technologies with different purposes, such as Wi-Fi Direct, most of the products it approves are designed to participate in wireless LANs around a building or an outdoor area.
Many WiGig products will also have Wi-Fi, along with mechanisms for smooth handovers between the two technologies, according to the Alliance. But not all WiGig products will use both, the group said.
As a well-established and successful certification body, the Wi-Fi Alliance realized it might be able to take on that task for other technologies, Davis-Felner said. "It was ... a significant decision to realize that the scope of our organization had extended past what most people in the world think of Wi-Fi," she said.
"People don't want to go to a different trade association for every technology that's going to be in a product," Davis-Felner said. "The more we can be a one-stop shop for the industry, the better off everybody is."
Still, the group is staying fairly close to its home territory: The most likely candidates for expansion would be ones that use unlicensed wireless spectrum and don't already have an established trade association, she said.
Also at IDF, 60GHz chip maker Wilocity and display connectivity vendor DisplayLink will demonstrate sending high-resolution 4K video from a laptop to a monitor via WiGig, using a WiGig docking station.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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the sensor outputs a single response. object is there or its not. the sharp IR sensor says how far away the object is.
But why do you want to use the TSOP sensor?
Hi,If you wanna use a TSOPxxxx, you need more hardware. You need an IR-LED of the wavelength of the TSOP and you need an oscillator to modulate it at the carrier frequency the TSOPxxxx needs.Further, not all TSOPxxxx's will do, as many have a noise cancelling scheme that makes the AGC turn the gain of the TSOPxxxx all the way down when it sees a continuous signal and as such won't work - you need to get one of the types used for IR curtains.Alternatively, your oscillator could be made more complicated, to make burst patterns and irregular breaks to fool the noise cancelling circuitry.Given the cost of extra hardware and the time you need to get it working, perhaps a Sharp sensor is worth the higher cost after all?
mind putting up some schematics for that? sounds useful.


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On average, consumers feel more overwhelmed today than they felt several years ago. The current recessionary economy has caused many to lose their jobs and be hit by a rapid succession of major declines in home and stock prices. These taxing events have resulted in a need for more remedies that help individuals cope with stress. Instead of depending on energy drinks to handle daily pressures, some now take an opposite approach to face their hardships—that is, with beverages claiming to calm and ease the mind. The calming trend's increased prevalence within the drink sector certainly comes at a good time.
Drinking for Tranquility
A stiff cocktail used to be the beverage of choice to help "take the edge off." Now individuals can choose from a variety of non-alcoholic drinks designed to soothe the mind and body in order to retreat from a stressful world. Though still somewhat niche, the calming attribute is gaining ground in the global beverage category as more manufacturers introduce drink products in various formats, featuring ingredients associated with relaxing properties. General convenience and affordability make beverages an ideal category to adopt calming functionality.
One of the first calming beverages to come to market is RelaxCo's Blue Cow drink in the United States. The makers of Blue Cow maintain the relaxation drink can be consumed to face any type of situation that raises stress levels. Blue Cow houses a proprietary blend of ingredients to promote relaxation without drowsiness—chamomile, hops, passion flower, hawthorne berry, lemon balm and Suntheanine—a patented brand of the primary amino acid, L-theanine, found in green tea. Blue Cow does not contain caffeine, calories, carbohydrates or sugar.
Recently in the United States, iChill Beverages put a spin on the energy shot concept after providing consumers with an option to quickly calm their moods. The iChill Berry Flavor Relaxation Shot contains a range of mood-enhancing ingredients that include melatonin, Valerian root, rose hips and B-vitamins to relax the body and mind. The drink is free from sugar, carbohydrates and calories and retails in a single-serve 2-oz. shot-style bottle. This iChill Berry Relaxation Shot is one of the first shot-style beverages designed to instantly reduce stress. The shot directly targets stressed working individuals, as it reads "unwind from the grind" on-pack.
While working adults are the most likely demographic target for calming drinks, children have also been a point of focus among products asserting mood easing. Australia's Balance Water Co. extended its beverage lineup with the launch of Balance Water for Children. Balance Water for Children is pure spring water that contains four subtly infused flower essences, each specifically selected with the kid consumer in mind. Black-Eyed Susan aids in focusing, concentration and energy control, Crowea eases children's worries, Bush Fuchsia balances the brain's left and right hemispheres, and Paw-Paw helps prevent feelings of being overwhelmed and also promotes healthy digestion.
More health studies revealing stress's harmful side effects and toll on the body have surfaced, causing some to revaluate their daily habits and lifestyle choices. Relaxation drinks are one convenient means for helping consumers come to grips with a nerve-racking situation or deal with ongoing tension. In the coming months, this beverage segment can expect further expansion in products formulated with the latest botanical and herbal extracts proven to calm the senses.
Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD) tracks new product launches, trends and innovations internationally. For more information, click here or call 1-312-932-0600.


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A controversial Internet domain seizure program has notched another victory for the federal government even as free speech advocates continue to raise concerns.
The founder of NinjaVideo, a website that distributed pirated movies and TV shows for free on the Internet, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Matthew David Smith, 23, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was arrested and his site closed down under a federal law enforcement program called Operation In Our Sites that involves several government agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Civil liberties groups have criticized the program because, they say, it is being undertaken without meaningful court oversight, with no chance for the targets to defend themselves before their websites are taken down and a highly cumbersome process for challenge afterward.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently filed court papers in New York attacking Operation In Our Sites.
A court is hearing an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld the seizure by ICE of two websites, Rojadirecta.com and Rojadirecta.org, owned by a Spanish company, Puerto 80.
ICE targeted the Puerto 80 sites because they contained links to live sport video streams, EFF explained, but the domain seizures impeded access to all of the content on the websites, including non-infringing content like user-created forums, discussions, and technical tutorials. Prior to the seizure, Spanish courts found that Puerto 80 had not violated that country's copyright law.
In the lower court decision, the judge ruled that domain seizures by ICE did not violate Puerto 80's First Amendment free speech rights. That's disputed by EFF.
"Domain name seizures are blunt instruments that cause unacceptable collateral damage to free speech rights," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman said in a statement.
Meanwhile, when Smith appears at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for December 16, he'll be facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count in his indictment.
According to court papers, Smith designed the operational elements of NinjaVideo and operated the site from February 2008 to June 2010, when it was seized during the first phase of Operation In Our Sites.
NinjaVideo distributed pirated copies of movies — including some still showing in theaters and some not yet released — to millions of visitors for free. It also collected donations for a premium offering that gave its members access to additional pirated material and a request service. That service allowed members to request specific pirated content that the website operators would attempt to find for the members on the Net.
Four others were arrested along with Smith earlier this month. A jury trial for the other defendants has been scheduled for February.
Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.


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For the past few years, World of Warcraft has been our favorite flavor of this online crack. Since its release, we've sampled lots of MMOs that claimed to be the next big thing. But every time we rolled a character in a different game, WoW eventually tightened the reins and tugged us back to Azeroth with its steady stream of excellent improvements and updates.
All this changed when Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning finally launched. Now there's a different title that's demanding ownership over every free moment we have. This new lover isn't whispering sweet nothings in our ear like "dabu" or "zug zug." It's grabbing us by the throat and screaming at the top of its lungs, "Get over 'ere you git! Da Warboss wants more humie headz! WaaAAaagh!"
We're not saying that WoW isn't great. We're saying that we're scared. We're scared because WAR took everything we loved about WoW and improved it tenfold. Yes, WAR is that good. And we fully expect that it'll be ruining our personal lives for the next few years at least. Whether you're solo questing or prefer massive PvP raids, WAR feels better than every MMO we've played this year. Is it time to switch? We don't know about you, but it is for us.
In WAR, Orcs don't dance like MC Hammer outside the auction house. Why would they? They're too busy beating down Dwarves, stealing their delicious beer, and swearing in cockney English accents. WAR doesn't have time to waste on silly animated emotes. There's a war going on and everything you do helps your faction's efforts in the epic battle between the forces of Order and Chaos.
Above: You won't "dance" like Napoleon Dynamite in WAR. There are more important things for you to do, like killing other players
You'll still receive lots of the expected kill-a-bunch-of-enemies quests. After all, it's a staple for all MMOs. But even when it comes to these ho-hum tasks, WAR manages to inject its own unique attitude into what would otherwise be another generic and forgettable quest. In one early quest we played, we were ordered to investigate some mysterious Dwarven barrels located at the frontlines of the battle outside your camp. It looked like an everyday collection quest, and we were told that "Stunties only put two fings in barrels: boom and beer." So we were expecting to find boxes of ammunition or some tasty ale to lug back to the quest giver for a miserly reward.
Instead, an ornery Dwarf - dressed in nothing but his boxers - burst from the barrel and started punching us in the face. This is high fantasy questing at its finest, and WAR is filled with memorable moments like these.
Above: A near-naked Dwarf starts punching us in the face. Just wait. It keeps gets better
In most MMOs, you don't really start seriously grouping with other players until you've been playing for quite some time. It takes a while to build up your friends list, find the right guild, and learn the ropes before you start taking on more challenging quests with a group.
But WAR streamlines the grouping process so that joining parties, finding a large war band of players for PvP, and joining a guild isn't reserved for those who are close to reaching their level cap. Whenever you enter a new zone, you can pull up a list of Open Groups and join other players working with the click of a button. The window lets you see how many minutes it'll take you to reach the group by foot, whether they're working on a Public Quest, regular PvE, or hunting enemy players for PvP kills.
Since all groups are Open Groups by default, this means that you'll almost always find some friendly group to grind or PvP with. This simple system gives you all the fun stuff that comes with grouping from the very start and cuts out all the hassles associated with it.


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Greece Posters
Greece is famous for being the place. It is one of the earliest civilizations in the world. This is attested to the great architecture of the Acropolis. Greece is renowned for its white sandy beaches and turquoise blue water. Aside from great architecture and white sandy beaches, Greece is known for being the place where logic was invented. Early Grecian philosophers were the fathers of logic. Most of the influential thinkers of the world came from Greece. People like Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, just to mention a few.
The Acropolis poster at a glance
The early Greeks had a great influence on architecture. Evidences of this influence is seen it the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial among others. One can have a Greek architecture without actually changing a thing in your house. You can own a Greece poster or art print that shows the Acropolis and the Agora. These posters breathe sophistication and class. In addition to creating that air of Greek sophistication, having an Acropolis poster will go a long way in ensuring that you indeed wow your guests as they enter your house. A poster of a Grecian beach will go a long way in adding color to your room. To this end having frame art of the beaches of Greece will ensure that you get you own a piece of it in your living room.
A canvas print of Greece will ensure that you relive your fantasy daily
Greece features a few of the most beautiful islands in the world: Santorini, Crete, Rhodes, to name a few. These are the places that most people fantasize and dream about. Owning frame art or canvas art of this gorgeous country and its islands will make your life a constant reminder of the Mediterranean Sea.


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Gregory Mountain Products Sungem
A 60-liter ultralight frameless rucksack perfect for long weekends
Brand: Gregory Mountain Products Gear Reviews
Model: Sungem
Now that I've reduced my base weight to less than 15 pounds, I can truly appreciate a frameless rucksack like the Exodus. At 60 liters, it's the perfect size for long weekends, peakbagging, or even longer minimalist trips. And it's no glorified knapsack.
With surprisingly well-padded hipbelt and shoulder straps, and my folded Therm-a-Rest Z-Lite carefully tucked inside (acting as the frame), the Exodus handled up to 30 pounds (which I reached when fully watered up). The compact load clung to my back, keeping me balanced on a steep scramble up Spider Gap in Glacier Peak Wilderness.
Unlike many UL packs, the Exodus needs no TLC: The gridded Dyneema X fabric rebuffs abrasion, and reinforced stitching and multiple bar tacks on key attachment points enhance durability. $185; 1 lb. 5 oz.; 3 unisex sizes; mountainlaureldesigns.com.


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- Easy Registration
- Build Credit Without Going Into Debt
- Get Credit For Your Last 2 Years of Rent Today
If you're a renter, your largest monthly expense is probably your rent payment. Yet you don't build your credit score by paying your rent on time.
You can be penalized on your credit report for a rental eviction but you aren't rewarded for being a responsible renter and making your rent payments.
This puts you at a disadvantage because you're not building credit with a major monthly expense. Homeowners build their credit score by paying their mortgage.
It's time you build your credit score by paying your rent.


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Welcome to CIB's Mortgage Service Center!
We offer easy, convenient online shopping for the best loans and most current rates. With Citizens Independent Bank (CIB), you can count on experts to guide you through the often difficult and confusing process of choosing and getting the exact loan to meet your needs.


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Part 2 of this series explored how to target your training so you can run faster at your next race. This article breaks down the three fundamentals of marathon training so that those new to the distance can train properly for a successful debut.
Are you thinking about training for your first marathon? Completing 26.2 miles is an amazing accomplishment—one that you can be proud of for years. Indeed, it's a true bucket-list goal.
Anyone who's finished a marathon will tell you that the sheer physicality of the race can be an enormous challenge. But it's addictive and can keep you coming back to the distance over and over again to improve your times.
Because of the distance, training for your first marathon will be very different from other races. Your mileage will increase, long-run nutrition will be even more critical, and workouts become more difficult.
More: The New Rules of Marathon Nutrition
But don't get overwhelmed. Instead, focus on three key aspects of your training that will help you succeed in your first marathon.
Learn to Love the Long Run
The long run is the most important workout for aspiring marathoners. About 16 to 20 weeks before the marathon, start building the distance of this workout so you run 20 miles at leastonce before the race. Preferably, as a first-timer marathoner, you will run 20 to 21 miles two or even three times before race day.
More: 7 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Long Runs
Long runs are the most specific workout for the marathon, and help build endurance. Since the marathon is 99 percent aerobic (meaning, "with oxygen." This effort is unlike those lung-searing intervals at the track), this is exactly the stimulus you need.
Any marathon plan that limits your long run should be looked at with a lot of caution—always be weary of bad marathon training advice that says you can run less and still run faster.
Run More Mileage
In addition to long runs, your weekly mileage should gradually increase as well. It's simple, but for beginner marathoners, the most effective tool you have to get faster is to run more. The more significant endurance stimulus of an extra 20 percent boost in mileage will make you a much faster marathoner, versus trying to do interval workouts at the track.
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Intel celebrated the one-year anniversary of its popular Atom family of microprocessors on Wednesday by announcing a new 2GHz version of the chip.
Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher announced the new chip at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Beijing on Wednesday, as he pulled a small computer out of his pocket.
"Today we're announcing two new products in the Atom family. The Z550, this is the first 2GHz processor that will fit in your pocket…," he said.
The Z550 is aimed at mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and works with up to 2GB of DDR2 DRAM.
The second new new Z-series Atom chip is the Z515, which can run at up to 1.2GHz speeds when needed and is also aimed at the MID market.
Both chips are made to be as power-efficient as possible to keep small battery powered devices running longer.
The two microprocessors incorporate Intel Hyperthreading technology, which enables them to more efficiently run multiple programs on a device at once and enables richer graphics.
The two new Z-series chips are already available for companies to develop products around. Pricing information was not disclosed.
Intel's first Atom microprocessor launched last April at IDF Shanghai.
The microprocessor family has won fame for the product they're most used in today, netbooks, or mini-laptops. The MID product segment has so far not been as successful as the netbook market.
(Additional reporting by Owen Fletcher in Beijing)


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The ash cloud over Europe will kill airmail and with it paper documents around the world. It will hasten the decline and death of postal delivery that I foresaw here. It will have an equally profound and permanent impact on other sectors of the economy and society. But let's just look at the post office.
Right now, it is impossible to get a document to or around Europe with speed. People can't fly. Mail can't fly. Even when the air clears, there'll be diminished faith in the ability of the post office — not to mention FedEx, DHL, and UPS — to make speedy delivery of documents. Any company or agency with an ounce of strategic sense is creating a plan now to convert to digital. It is speedier (instant!) and more certain (guaranteed) and cheaper (free) and even earns green points (no dead trees, no fuel, no fumes). What's not to love?
On top of that, Google just announced Cloud Print, which will enable Sally in Chicago to print directly to Sarah in London's printer. This does us the favor of getting rid of the hassle of printer drivers (once compatible printers are built). As Leo Laporte realized on the latest This Week in Google, it also portends the end of that other great hassle: the fax machine (and with it, all tired metaphors about the value of fax networks). With Google Docs and Google Print, who needs the post office or the FedEx bill or the fax machine? We'll have Iceland to thank for this.
Of course, this shift necessitates other changes. Lawyers will have to accept electronic documents and signatures, for example. Big notebooks of meeting materials will be sent via Google Docs. Designs will be seen on screen if you want to see them soon. I don't know how much financial documents like checks are still transported rather than scanned but it's now possible to deposit a check with a picture and then tear it up. What other paper dependencies can fall by the wayside? If they can, they will. Digital=speed. Atoms=slow.
You might ask why the disruption in Europe dictates this change in companies elsewhere. That's because too many companies are international and once Acme Inc. makes the change for the Munich office, it will need to do likewise for Minneapolis. The long-predicted, never-seen paperless office still doesn't quite arrive, but we will have offices with less paper.
So what does this do to the post office? In Europe, it's going to be deadly expensive. The first-class mail that supports postal services around the world will be bound to shrink. Prices will then have to rise, forcing demand to shrink more.
Meanwhile, without air freight — or with the risk of it disappearing for days, weeks, months, even more — more goods will have to be moved by train and truck, raising demand there and thus raising prices of ground transport for the mail.
What to do about it? As I suggested in my post-postal post, we should imagine a nation in which everyone is connected to the broadband net with the devices necessary to use it: a computer (or lite equivalent). Indeed, the U.K. should have put all its effort into that quest rather than into its horrid Digital Economy bill.
Broadband for all would not only smooth the post-ash transition for businesses and citizens, it would open up so many more opportunities in entrepreneurship, innovation, and education. But that requires our institutions to think an inch past their noses.
Once first-class mail fails in one country and continent, it will domino in other nations because — as we've learned from patently obvious AP stories — we're all interconnected now. So it won't matter that we aren't under the ash cloud in the U.S. Its impact will spread here.
When first-class mail declines, the horrendous losses at our U.S. postal service will accelerate, forcing decisions that the government — as is its habit — would like to put off for a few years. There will be less first-class profit to subsidize the delivery of media (another nail in the coffin of magazines) and advertising (another reason to jump to digital) and parcels (opening up more opportunities for private competitors).
The delivery industry could be disrupted as profoundly but much more quickly than media. I'd sell stock in FedEx. If I thought the postal service would collapse, I'd buy it in UPS. I'm not sure about Amazon. You might think that Cisco would be a big winner but I'll bet on Skype and hope it goes public soon. Of course, short every airline. That sound you hear is dominos falling.
The cloud spreads.
One can make similar predictions about other industries.
* Tourism: Too obvious. I was planning to take my family to Europe this summer. Holding off on booking those tickets.
* Conventions: Also obvious. I've been talking to many events lately via Skype. We'll see more of that.
* Airlines: Screwed even more than they are now.
* Hotels: Itchy.
* Food: Perishable food will be risky to ship to Europe. The local food movement will rejoice. Poor Chilean strawberry farmers not so much. People like me who loathe winter veggies will have to suck it up. Restaurant and grocery prices will rise.
* Oil: Demand will decline. I leave it to others to tell me the geopolitical impact and opportunity.
* Education. Will international student enrollment suffer?
* Defense. The shutdown of Europe's airspace is already affecting America's troops in Afghanistan. Want to launch a coup? Pretty good time.
* Globalization. Will companies be less willing to buy companies halfway around the world if they risk not getting there to manage them?
This is all rank speculation, of course. The cloud could disappear this week and be forgotten, a tale for T-shirts (damn, I wish I'd bought mine). But the next time it comes — and this scientist argues with thinner, lighter ice layers, we stand a chance of seeing more eruptions — then there'll be no excuse for not planning for the worst.
The truth is, this future is coming anyway and, like news and media, every industry and institution should be remaking themselves for it already. The unpronounceable volcano didn't bring it. The internet did. The ash merely accelerated some the change we're already seeing; it gives us another reason to go digital and that digital transformation is what's disrupting the world.
That's how a cloud will force us into the cloud.


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Freshwater Fish - Species
Species Specific Regulations
Rainbow trout
Freshwater Fishing License required.
Guide to Freshwater Fishes
(Adobe PDF - 3MB)
Rainbow trout (Onchorhynchus mykiss)
Description: (Anatomy of a Fish)
The rainbow trout is an elongated fish with sides that fade from green below the dorsal fin to yellow to white. A pink to red stripe runs laterally along the sides of the rainbow. Small, dark spots are found on the head, body and most of the fins. The black spots on the caudal fins appear to be in rows.
Range: Mountain streams of Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties. Also present in Lake Jocassee and the tailraces of lakes Murray and Hartwell.
Average Length: 7 to 8 inches
Average Size: 4-5 ounces
South Carolina State Record: 11 pounds 5 ounces (1993)
Life Expectancy: Approximately 11 years (wild southern Appalachian populations, 4 years)
Preferred Habitat
The rainbow trout prefers clear and cold waters (not in excess of 68 degrees Fahrenheit) in creeks, rivers, lakes and reservoirs. This habitat exists in tailraces of large impoundments or occasionally in the deeper waters of certain reservoirs. In a normal mountain stream habitat, rainbow trout will inhabit the faster moving waters such as at the head of a pool area.
Food Habits
- Aquatic and terrestrial insects, crayfish and fishes.
Rainbow trout spawning occurs in February and March in the riffle areas of South Carolina mountain streams. The females prepare nesting areas, called redds, by fanning out a shallow depression several inches deep. The eggs are laid, fertilized, covered with gravel and left unattended to incubate and hatch some 30-50 days later. Females are known to deposit eggs in several redds during the spawning process.
Wild self-sustaining rainbow trout populations occur in South Carolina's mountain region, generally east of the Chattooga Ridge along the Blue Ridge Escarpment in streams with elevations from 1,300 to 3,000 feet. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has an active trout stocking program which expands rainbow trout fishing opportunities seasonally, particularly in lower elevation streams.
The rainbow trout is relatively sensitive to its environment. Increases in water temperature and siltation are the two biggest threats to the well-being of rainbow trout. Man's land use practices in mountain areas have accounted for most of the loss of trout habitat in South Carolina.
Improper road construction and logging practices often leave no buffer zone to shade and protect streams from solar heating and soil erosion. Silt from hillsides works its way into streams and smothers trout eggs before they can hatch. Siltation also decreases the amount and diversity of food available to trout.
In addition, a significant portion of South Carolina's limited trout waters have been impounded by utility companies and private individuals. The rainbow trout is not native to South Carolina, but the colorful and popular gamefish has inhabited the state's mountain streams and pleased anglers for well over a century.
Rainbow trout are the most intensively stocked of the three trout species in South Carolina's trout stocking program and account for more than 60% of all trout stocked. This is largely a result of the versatility and ease of culture of the species. Annual stocking of just under 300,000 rainbow trout by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources greatly expands the recreational fishery for rainbow trout in South Carolina mountain streams, Lake Jocassee and the tailraces of lakes Hartwell and Murray.
Commonly Mistaken Species
Some species of fish that are commonly mistaken for this species:
Literature Cited
Rohde, Fred C, Arndt, Rudolf G., Foltz, Jeffery W., Quattro, Joseph M. 2009. Freshwater Fishes of South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina.
Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. 2009. South Carolina Guide to Freshwater Fishes.
Fish Illustration by Duane Raver.


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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — South America's Mercosur bloc and the European Union struck a free-trade deal Friday after two decades of negotiations that concluded amid global trade tensions and rising protectionism.
The agreement announced by both sides came as trade talks between the EU and the United States have stalled with the Trump administration threatening to impose tariffs on all autos, a major European export to the U.S.
"In the midst of international trade tensions, we are sending today a strong signal with our Mercosur partners that we stand for rules-based trade," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said following the clinching of the deal in the Belgian capital of Brussels.
Juncker described the pact with the bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as "an historic moment" that came 20 years after talks were launched. It shows the European bloc is determined to remain a flag-bearer of the global trade system at a time when it is being challenged by a Trump administration skeptical of free trade.
Argentina's Foreign Ministry said the agreement "will mean the integration of a market of some 800 million people, nearly a fourth of the world's gross domestic product and more than $100 billion in bilateral trade of goods and services."
The ministry said the deal also is aimed at strengthening political and cultural ties with the EU, improving access to goods, services and investments by reducing restrictions and easing access to technology and raw materials.
Juncker said the deal would remove most tariffs on EU exports to Mercosur, saving more than 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) worth of duties each year, four times as much as Europe's pact with Japan.
The commission, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of the 28-nation EU, said the agreement is particularly important for industrial sectors like cars and car parts, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals as well as clothing and footwear. Mercosur hopes to benefit with more exports of agricultural products including beef, poultry and sugar.
The EU's farm and food sector also stands to gain, particularly products like chocolates, wine and spirits.
"The basics of this deal have been quite clear for some time. It's cars and machinery and agriculture. But in the past, politics have stood in the way. Particularly in Brazil, which has had a very protectionist policy focusing on domestic production," said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow, at the Peterson Institute for international economics. "And at the same time, the Europeans have been very protective of their agricultural sector."
The commission said the deal, which still must be ratified by the legislatures of all the countries involved, will also ease border checks and cut red tape.
The agreement brings to 15 the number of pacts the EU has concluded since 2014, most recently with Canada and Japan, and comes as the bloc pushes ahead with international trade deals.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called it one "of the most important trade agreements of all times."
The Brazilian government said the deal would boost Latin America's largest economy by slashing tariffs for some agricultural products like orange juice, fruit and instant coffee, and expanding access via quotas for beef, ethanol and sugar.
"Brazilian companies will benefit from the elimination of tariffs on exports of 100 percent of industrial products. That will equalize the conditions of competition with other partners that already have free trade agreements with the EU," it said.
The deal is "a game changer in Latin America as a whole, which historically has been very protectionist," Kirkegaard said. "This could herald in a new era for Mercosur."
Negotiations began on June 28, 1999, but have taken a long, torturous path marked by breaks and frustrations, as the countries' different sensitivities and priorities were taken into account.
But EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the talks gathered momentum early this year, aided in part by a new Brazilian government that made the deal one of its priorities, and were pushed over the line by intensive negotiations over the last three days in Brussels.
"This is a landmark agreement," Malmstrom told reporters in Brussels, flanked by negotiators and senior officials.
"With this deal we are showing that we believe that trade is a good thing. It brings people and companies together, and we send a loud and clear message in support of open, sustainable, mutually beneficial, rule-based trade."
Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carson Gardiner and Yesica Fisch in Rio de Janeiro and Chris Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.


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The top online marketplaces in the world sold over $2 trillion in 2019, accounting for 57% of global web sales, according to Digital Commerce 360's analysis.
The growth of marketplace sales leaves small business owners asking one question: to sell or not to sell on online marketplaces?
Today, there are hundreds of online selling sites you'll come across when running an online business. Some are focused on specific niches, like video games and tech. Others allow retailers to sell anything from clothing to books to furniture and beyond.
While there are benefits to selling online through marketplaces, things like commissions and transactions fees tend to deter sellers from signing up.
In this guide, we'll walk you through some of the best online selling sites, the benefits of starting your own online store, and how using both can help reach new customers and make more sales.
Explore this guide 💰
Building your own store
Starting an online store may seem like a challenging task, but it can be rewarding and incredibly profitable when done right. The only drawback is that you have to market your own business and get people onto your site. Building a brand can also take some time.
The major advantage is that the profit is yours. You don't pay endless fees on each sale or have to abide by any rules but your own. If this sounds interesting to you, here's what you can do to build your own website from scratch.
Shopify is the easiest and most reputable way to create your own store. As an ecommerce platform, Shopify makes it easy to get up and running without tech skills or a huge budget. To date, Shopify powers over one million businesses and is known for its affordable prices, professional designs, and useful marketing tools.
If you want to build a Shopify store, you can choose from over 100 templates with built-in features. For a small $39 monthly fee, you get your own website, blog, SSL certifications, abandoned shopping cart recovery, and many other beginner-friendly marketing tools. You can sell stuff on your website, across multiple marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, and create personalized shopping experiences that lead to more sales.
Additionally, there are over 4,000 free Shopify apps you can use to extend your site's functionality and successfully sell online. Use our Shopify Store Launch Checklist to get set up today.
Top US online selling sites
These marketplaces are popular with online sellers who want to sell any item and make extra money:
As global ecommerce sales continue to grow, it's no surprise to see Amazon on a top online marketplace list. As the top ecommerce company in the world, Amazon's fiscal numbers show that it made $96.1 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2020, a 37% increase from one year prior. It's reported that Amazon sells over 400 products per minute, providing sellers with an active, built-in audience to sell to.
How has Amazon become the best online selling site? People have come to trust Amazon and the things they buy on its marketplace. Amazon is known to vet sellers and remove fake products. It also delivers items in as little as one day (in some areas) through Amazon Prime. And it has great prices and deals that people love, which is why they continue to do their online shopping there.
The cost to sell on Amazon depends on your plan, product category, fulfillment strategy, and other variables. At minimum, you'll pay $39.99 per month for a Professional seller plan (plus the additional selling fees mentioned above). This plan is good if you want to sell more than 40 units per month, advertise your products, qualify for top placement on product detail pages, and need advanced selling tools like APIs and reporting.
Overall, Amazon is a good online marketplace to sell in if you want to reach a broad, global audience.
Chances are you've come across eBay once or twice in your day. It's the original online selling site, having been online since 1995. EBay has over 1.3 billion listings and 182 million users worldwide, according to the latest eBay statistics.
You can sell anything on eBay, from everyday items like shoes and watches to weird stuff (yes, that's a product category) like popcorn-scented pillows, bottles of air, and vintage '70's hand chairs.
If you plan to sell on eBay, take its selling fees into consideration. It charges a non-refundable listing fee for each product and another insertion fee if you list the same items in two different categories. It also charges a final value fee (usually between 10%–12%), calculated as a percentage of the total amount of the sale, including any shipping and handling charges.
Similar to Amazon, eBay has a massive audience you can sell to, fast, and can make a good additional sales channel for your online store.
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Bonanza is a fast-growing online marketplace based in Seattle, Washington. It's a newer buy and sell website, but is quickly becoming a popular eBay alternative. You can sell pretty much anything on the platform, and it receives over 5.1M monthly visits to its website, according to SimilarWeb.
Think of Bonanza as the middle ground between Amazon and eBay. There are more unique and handmade items for sale on Bonanza than on eBay, but fewer branded names than on Amazon. For example, you can sell the latest Nike Air Max model or a handmade one-of-a-kind copper necklace and find active buyers for each. Buyers can add products to their cart for a set price or negotiate an offer with you through the platform.
Bonanza charges you nothing to list your products on its site. It only takes a small percentage of your final sale price after you sell. And since many Bonanza sellers also have their own online stores, you can integrate Bonanza with platforms like Shopify to manage and sell products more easily.
Ruby Lane
Ruby Lane is a newer online marketplace for vintage and antiques, but it's giving big sites like Etsy a run for their money. Ruby Lane was voted the number one recommended selling site for 2019 in an EcommerceBytes survey. Selling on Ruby Lane gives you access to highly targeted buyers for categories like antiques and collectibles, vintage and art, dolls, and jewelry.
Fees and payments are straightforward, too. It's free to set up and list your products. But you need to pay a monthly maintenance fee of $54 for up to 50 items. This fee changes the more items you list on the platform. In addition, Ruby Lane charges a 6.7% service fee based on total purchase order, capped at $250.
Whether you're an antiques and collectibles store owner or just want a website to sell stuff on, Ruby Lane is a good place to connect with passionate buyers.
Etsy is the go-to marketplace for handcrafted and vintage items. In 2015, it began including maker-developed manufactured goods, but only for select accounts on the marketplace. As of Q2 2020, there were over 60 million buyers on Etsy, making it a lucrative way to start selling online.
You'll be charged a $0.20 listing fee for each item you sell on Esty. Listings expire every four months. So if your item doesn't sell and you renew the listing, you'll be charged an additional $0.20. When you make a sale, you'll be charged a transaction fee of 5% of the display price, plus the amount you charge for shipping and gift wrapping.
If you're new to online selling, Etsy can be a great place to sell your stuff. You'll get access to an active buyer network, a pop-up storefront, and tools to help market your business on the platform.
Chairish is an online consignment shop made for high-quality home decor and furniture. It takes minutes to list an item (for free) on Chairish, and depending on your seller plan, between 70% and 80% of the selling price goes back to you.
The coolest thing about Chairish is that it's totally free, unless you sign up for its Elite plan, which goes for $149 per month. You list your stuff, then Chairish's curatorial team reviews your listings to ensure they meet the marketplace's standards. Then they edit your product photos and take them live for you. They also handle shipping, so you never have to worry about logistics when selling on Chairish.
If you have design-oriented furniture or home decor to sell online, this is a good marketplace for you. It can quickly land your business in front of ideal collectors and buyers to make more sales online.
Got an old iPhone X sitting around that you want to get rid of? Or a Ninthendo Switch you don't play much anymore? Turn your tech into cash on Swappa, a trustworthy buy and sell website for phones, laptops, cameras, and more.
Swappa is legit because it does an excellent job vetting the products that get sold on the marketplace. It doesn't allow any junk products, meaning everything you sell must be in good working condition, and each payment is protected by PayPal.
There are no fees to create a listing, but, you can choose to have your items featured (like an ad) for a $5 fee. Swappa only charges flat fees that are built into the price of your listing. When you make a sale, the buyer pays for the fee with their purchase. Swappa has some of the lowest fees around. For example, if you sell a $350 phone, Swappa only charges the buyer $15.
Local online selling sites
If you plan to sell in your community, here are the top free online selling websites to sell stuff locally:
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is a place where individual people can discover, buy, and sell items on Facebook. More than one in three people use Marketplace each month, offering a huge opportunity for sellers to reach an active audience. It's completely free to list, and Facebook takes no fees, but there are guidelines you need to follow to sell on the platform.
Facebook has also partnered with platforms like Shopify to let merchants show their inventory, advertise items, and find new customers for their business.
Craigslist is one of the earlier online selling sites. Started in 1995 by Craig Newmark, it began as an email distribution list between friends featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area. It quickly became a web-based marketplace and, over the years, has expanded into 700 cities across 70 different countries. It's free, easy, and pretty basic. It's essentially a big local forum with a lot of stuff.
Craigslist is a higher-risk online marketplace. Because of the platform's "hands-off" approach to buying and selling, scams can happen easily, and if they do, you don't get any help from the company.
Regardless, Craigslist is a go-to selling site for local buyers and sellers and those who prefer to meet in person to close a deal.
Nextdoor is similar to Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist because it's focused on community selling. Nextdoor also enables the "friendly neighbor" feel by letting people post about what's going on in their neighborhood—whether it's traffic delays or restaurant recommendations. It acts as the hub for any given area.
Nextdoor also offers a free forum to sell your items online. It's similar to Facebook Marketplace: there are no listing fees, and you'll have to meet buyers in person. It feels a little safer too, because you need to make an account before you can access the platform.
VarageSale is a virtual garage sale buy and sell app. It was started in Toronto by an ex-elementary-school teacher fed up with scams and fake listings on other classified sites. VarageSale user profiles are based on real identities—everyone goes through a manual review process before you're allowed to buy or sell.
Buyers can browse seller ratings and message sellers to connect before making the sale. They can ask questions or buy and schedule pick-up right in the app. People sell everything including furniture, clothing, shoes, and more on VarageSale. It's also free for members to buy and sell on the app.
Shopify Academy Course: Sell Your Homemade Goods Online
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Best global online selling sites
Want to sell to an international audience? Here are the best platforms to sell online around the world:
Founded in 2010, AliExpress is Alibaba's cross-border ecommerce marketplace, with users from over 230 countries and nearly 20 million visitors daily. Users of the platform can sell to individual people or businesses, whether they are manufacturing products or adding an AliExpress dropshipping model to their online store.
AliExpress takes between 5% and 8% of commission fees for each transaction, depending on your product category. Otherwise, there are no overhead or arrangement fees to sell on the platform.
Taobao began as an online selling site like eBay, in 2003, and has become the largest online marketplace in the world, according to research from Digital Commerce 360.
As of September 2020, Taobao recorded over 70 million MAUs and transacted more than $526 billion in gross merchandise volume during the 2020 fiscal year.
If you want to sell products that are not in Taobao or AliExpress, see this full list of online marketplaces in China.
Otto is the second biggest online selling site in Germany, with a focus on fashion and lifestyle products. It grew from a post-war mail-order company selling just 28 types of shoes to a brand with over 1,000 employees and annual turnover of $61 million by 1959.
Today, over 90% of OTTO's products are sold online, including branded products and goods from third-party retailers. The marketplace has nearly 9.4 million active customers and is second only to Amazon in the country.
Rakuten is a massive marketplace based out of Japan that provides ecommerce, banking, communications services, and more. Although its competitor PayPay Mall sees more monthly traffic, some sources claim Rakuten is the market leader by sales. Similar to marketplaces like Amazon, you can sell in endless product categories, including clothing, books, sports, subscription boxes, and more.
To date, Rakuten has over 50,000 merchants and 115 million global customers. Businesses who want to sell on Rakuten need to be registered in the United States or Japan, otherwise, you'll have to use a service partner and apply through them.
For more information on Japanese selling sites, check out Selling in Japan: E-Commerce Landscape in Japan 2019.
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Mercado Libre
Mercado Libre is the most popular ecommerce marketplace in Latin America, serving over 18 countries, from Mexico to Argentina.
The brand's combined revenue (between ecommerce and Fintech) surpassed $4.3 billion in Q3 2020, according to Mercardo Libre's recent investor report. It also did over $18.2 billion in gross merchandise volume and sold nearly 600 million items in the same quarter. Sellers on the platform can merchant many types of products from 20 main categories and 123 smaller categories.
Flipkart started as an online bookstore in 2007 and has become the largest online selling site in India. Retailers can sell anything on Flipkart, including consumer elections, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products.
A direct Amazon competitor, Walmart-backed Flipkart continues to lead ecommerce market share in India. During the mid-October to mid-November 2020 holiday season, Flipkart comprised 66% of all gross merchandise value recorded by ecommerce firms, according to recent news. If you want to break into the Indian market, Flipkart is the best online selling site for your business.
If you plan to sell products not listed on Flipkart, explore the top 10 ecommerce sites in India.
MyDeal is an Australian marketplace offering over one million products across 3,500 categories, welcoming over 5.4 million visitors per month. It's strictly a marketplace, meaning it doesn't sell products of its own, only those from third-party sellers.
While you can sell products in various categories, the platform tends to focus on furniture, homewares, and other big items. MyDeal doesn't offer any fulfillment services, so sellers must coordinate their own shipping or use an outside logistics company.
Want to sell products not found on MyDeal? Read about the top Australian marketplaces to sell on.
Finding the best ways to sell stuff online
Every online business owner should explore different online selling sites, regardless of whether you're running a dropshipping store or selling custom products. Sometimes they can help new businesses get off the ground with a built-in audience of active buyers and marketing opportunities.
Regardless, it's important to not rely only on online marketplaces. You'll want to create your own online store to build your brand, connect with shoppers, and retain more profits. With a digital home base, you'll stop paying out commissions and fees to each online selling site and grow your business for the long-term.
Illustration by Rachel Tunstall
Ready to create your first business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
Online Selling FAQ
How can I start selling online?
- Use an ecommerce platform to create your own online store.
- Become an individual seller on existing online selling platforms like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy.
- Sell on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
- Start a dropshipping business.
- Sell old stuff through a resale app like decluttr or VarageSale.
How can I sell my stuff online?
There are many different places sell online, including:
- Your own store
- Amazon
- eBay
- Etsy
- Bonanza
- Facebook Marketplace
- Rakuten
Where can I sell my stuff online for free?
- Facebook Marketplace
- Craigslist
- Nextdoor
- VarageSale
What is the best site to sell stuff locally?
- Facebook Marketplace
- Craigslist
- Nextdoor
- VarageSale
- OfferUp (formerly Letgo)
- Poshmark
- eBay
- Vinted


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Starfish Zinc Alloy Glass Stone Dangle Earrings
Starfish Zinc Alloy Glass Stone Dangle Earrings
- Style: Modern
- Material: Zinc alloy, Glass stone
- Care: Avoid wearing during exercise, as sweat will react with the jewelry to produce silver chloride and copper sulfide, which causes the jewelry to deteriorate and corrode over time.
- Imported
- Product measurements: 2*2 in
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At least it is confirmed for us. Donald Trump wants regime change in Iran. His cancellation of the JCPOA was a decision born of his myopia. He has surrounded himself with people who reinforce his view and manipulate him via his vanity.
And the price of implementing his current plan will be a global debt crisis which no one will escape. The problem will be very few will see the links.
He wants to remake America and the world in his image while undoing anything President Obama touched. Most of this I'm wholly on board with. Obama was a vandal. So, however, were Bush the Lesser and Bill Clinton.
We're All Neocons Now
We have a leaked (yeah, right) memo explaining this is the plan. But, we didn't need this if we were being honest with ourselves. Nothing Trump has done since he's been in office has been contra to this goal; overthrowing the theocracy in Iran.
In fact, it has been a step-wise move in this direction with each decision he's made. Commentators I respect and have learned at the knee of still want to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Not me.
It's right there in plain text.
Trump has capitalized on the insane Deep State opposition to his presidency to politicize this goal and get his base to ab-react for regime change, when he explicitly said that was off the table at his inauguration.
If the Democrats and Merkel want to stay in the deal, then the deal must be bad. Obama Bad, Trump Good. Trump is Orange Jesus. He knows stuff, man.
What was a worry about Israeli influence in his administration in 2017 has now morphed into a call to duty to create chaos in Iran to assuage the American ego by saving the Iranian people from themselves.
You have to hand it to these folks, they understand how to run a successful mass psy-op. Beware the Master Persuader, as Scott Adams would put it, his skills can be put to any use.
These men and their Deep State handlers/billionaire donors have had a strategic goal for decades, remake the Middle East for Israel and the Oil Complex, bottle up Russia and China.
Donald Trump's patriotism is revealed to be jingoism. But, he made this clear in his speech to the U.N. last year. At some point you have to put away childish things and face the world we've got.
And that world is one of extreme uncertainty.
Back to the Future
As I said the other day, Trump wants to reset the clock back to 2012. Bottle up Iran, cut its ties to the world. Remove 1 million barrels of oil per day from the markets (for his Saudi weapons customers "Look! Yuge JOBS!"). And bully our allies into getting the plan to atomize Syria back on track.
But, it's not 2012. It's 2018 and everything is different. Iran has friends it didn't have then. Yes, there is local unrest and unhappiness which could grow. The rial is falling like a rock, people in Iran can't get dollars. Not solely because Trump has cut them off from the dollar but because Iran has.
It anticipated this move by him and the chaos of today turns into the de-dollarization of tomorrow. These people still think destroying a national currency is the path to political change. It's a dangerous gambit that doesn't always work.
It didn't work with Russia in 2014/5. It's not working in Venezuela today. And if those countries have friends, China for Russia in 2015, Russia and others for Venezuela today, then the longer the regime stays in power once the worst of the crisis hits, the lower the probability regime change becomes.
I told everyone last year the Saudi gambit to isolate Qatar wouldn't work. If they didn't get regime change in Doha within two weeks, then the government would survive. It has and now it is free to pursue whatever it wants, having finally bought a 19% stake in Russian state oil giant Rosneft.
Trump has been signaling this moment for almost two years. Do you think Russia, Iran and China have not been game-planning this? When the attack on the ruble began in 2014, Putin did the unthinkable. In doing so revealed his central bank's disloyalty.
By demanding to free-float the ruble, under objection from his economic advisor Alexander Kudrin and central bank President Elvira Nabullina, Putin stabilized the situation quickly. Then he ordered the Bank of Russia to assist payment of more than $50 billion in Russian corporate debt denominated in dollars from central bank reserves.
China opened up ruble/yuan swap lines to help funnel dollars into Russia. The Bank of Russia had to abandon IMF-style austerity and serve Russian interests first rather than continue playing into the hands of U.S. hybrid war tactics.
Iran has these people as its friends now. They are committed to its survival. They may not be committed to the IRGC staying in Syria post-ISIS/Al-Qaeda, but they are committed to an Iran aligned with them for the road ahead. And that Road has a Belt attached to it.
Because they know that if they lead the opposition to U.S. aggression, then they will gain allies over time. In acting this way Trump is revealing the U.S. to be the repressive, messianic global oligarch of the world order it claims the Iranian Islamic Republic to be over its citizens.
Everyone will get in line behind the Orange Emperor or suffer his wrath. Why? Because Bibi Netanyahu can't sleep at night? Get that psychopath a plushie and leave a night light on for pity's sake.
It also has an EU wanting to establish itself as a separate power from the U.S. Angela Merkel and French Poodle Emmanuel Macron both want an independent EU foreign policy and a Grand Army of the EU to put down any internal rebellions.
China can and will assist Iran in overcoming the sanctions. So will Turkey, who did so in 2012. Will it be enough save the Islamic Republic? Possibly. If that happens will the U.S. get what it wants?
Most probably not. National Security Advisor and Certified Crazy Person John Bolton wants to put the Saudi-backed MEK (Mujahedeen-e-Khalq) in charge, a cult-like Sunni group with zero support in Iran. You'll hear in the coming days about how great these guys are.
Just like U.S. NGO-backed Russian agitator Alexei Navalny is promoted in the Western press even though he can't get 2,000 people to march in Moscow on the day of Putin's inarguration.
Sanctions Cut Both Ways
Russia, ultimately, has the sanctions hammer in its control of the uranium market. It's also a major supplier of both titanium and aluminum. The U.S. has never considered sanctioning the first two and it's plan to sanction Rusal has been close to a disaster.
Trump believes in the primacy of the U.S. threat both militarily and financially so much that he's willing to project it everywhere and at everyone to get what he wants in Iran. We thought he reluctantly signed those new sanctions last summer. Nonsense.
If so, he wouldn't be using those new powers in ways that are the height of hubris. Explicit in his threats to Iran and his demands that are, as Alexander Mercouris put it at The Duran yesterday, "so extreme that no sovereign state could ever accept them and retain its independence."
So, let's again put away childish things and think that Trump will not take this to whatever point he thinks is necessary to get his desired outcome.
But, in doing this he will upset world financial markets already fragile from a decade of QE and an explosion of cheap dollar-denominated debt. The Fed is raising interest rates. Bond traders are resisting raising rates at the long-end of the U.S. Treasury yield curve, causing it to flatten dangerously.
Trump wants a continued weaker dollar but geopolitical uncertainty creates dollar demand because so much of the world's debt and trade is based in it. For over a year Foreign Central Banks have been parking U.S. Treasury purchases with the Fed as the dollar weakened.
Now that trend has firmly changed.
The Dollar Debt Bomb
Moreover, the ECB is trapped at the negative-bound. Mario Draghi keeps telling everyone he has no Plan B. He will keep being the marginal (or only) buyer of EU sovereign debt until the market finally pukes all over him.
If Trump is serious about putting sanctions on any foreign entity that does any business with Iran then that will set off chain reactions around the globe. It's why I'm not sanguine about EU leadership standing up to Trump in the long run.
But it's a real opportunity for Merkel et. al. to establish a new pole in the proposed multi-polar world advocated by Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping.
The worry now is a technical breakout of the U.S. 10 year above 3.05%. U.S./EU credit spreads are widening. With the dollar strengthening low loan servicing costs become big quick. Anyone who has/had an adjustable rate mortgage understands this viscerally.
With China no long buying U.S. debt, it is free to funnel dollars to Iran through proxies and its own oil trade to keep things from escalating. That lack of recycling of its trade surplus is part of what kept the dollar weaker longer. Now that the dollar is rising, we can safely say that that effect has been over-run.
China can and will put pressure on the Saudis by buying more Iranian oil. Expect Iran now to cut it's monthly tender price to undercut Saudi Arabia on a forward basis. In 2012 U.S. sanctions made it difficult for shippers to insure oil shipments and that was part of the reason they were initially so successful.
With the Fed tightening, reserves of the U.S. banking system are falling thanks to excess reserves being mobilized. The U.S. budget will strain from rising debt servicing costs, now above 8.6% of total outlay, compared to less than 8% this time last year. Again this puts upward pressure on the dollar as foreign markets are starved of dollars.
Next, Trump wants more balanced trade with China and Europe and he's willing to gut global trade to do it. But that also means a stronger dollar in the long run as debt still needs to be serviced while trade is falling.
Again, fewer exported dollars while the budget deficit grows. Emerging Markets are already suffering horrendous capital outflows. Just wait until things actually get bad.
Eurodollar markets have been drained of their liquidity in recent months as U.S. corporates repatriate funds and, like Apple, buy back their stock.
All of this points to reaping a whirlwind of dollar strength, not weakness, which to me, looks like the spark of the global debt crisis the Fed delayed for over a year by not raising interest rates sooner. It bowed to IMF pressure in 2014/15 to delay raising rates.
And the world is not prepared for the dollar spiking 20 or 30% over the next year. It is not prepared for a shift in risk assets from stocks to bonds. A spiking dollar will create a perfect storm of debt defaults that will unleash chaos which will topple governments (and not Iran's).
Trump will not react well to this, claiming, like all U.S. Presidents that China is manipulating its currency down to harm us. That's utter nonsense. As I've laid out, Trump is creating the very whirlwind he's trying to avoid.
It's why the DOW is holding above 24,000. And why the euro is about to collapse.
Survival is Winning
So, here we are. This is why I keep saying China, Russia and Iran's best moves politically are to do nothing overt. Iran was not the aggressor the other day. That's another of Bibi's blatant lies.
Russia looks weak by not responding to Israel's spastic flailing the other day, but it knows that time is on its side. The SAA/IRGC and Russian forces continue to destroy pocket after pocket of resistance in Syria.
Putin will continue to hold his water, waiting for the opportune moment to reverse his opponent. Russia's limit has not been reached in Syria yet. Putin always does this. It drives his critics and his supporters crazy.
It's geopolitical judo and he's the master at it. And when that reversal comes and Israel has been thrown flat on its back, Trump's only move will be to settle. Why speculate on what he'll do. Just watch and wait it out. The signs are all there.
When that happens John Bolton will retreat farther into madness, hopefully he'll throw himself off a building and put us all out of his misery. Let's hope someone's iPhone captures it for posterity's sake.
After a brief spasm in the financial markets thanks to Trump's insane aluminum tariffs, Russian equities and the ruble are rallying.
In fact the MICEX Index just put in its all-time highest weekly closing price. Its sovereign debt markets are stable and the yield curve is widening. Capital is flowing into Russia despite horrific U.S. sanctions.
This is the model for Iran's resistance.
Russia is winning the financial war of attrition and the stronger it gets the more it can support Iran in the long run alongside China.
This is the limit of Trump's unwillingness to update his worldview from 2003. He's held this view of Iran his entire life and surrounded himself with the 'experts' to take Iran out. Even if the Mullahs fall, the backlash from the process whatever form it takes will set the global debt markets aflame, a bonfire of Trump's vanity.
To support work like this and find out how you can de-stress your investment portfolio as we live through a period of global geopolitical strife sign up for my Patreon and subscribe to the Gold Goats 'n Guns Investment Newsletter.


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Chandler Osborn, 14, watched Fox News coverage of Hurricane Sandy last week and decided to take action.
"Last weekend, me and my younger brother, Cooper, 7, did a fundraiser in Colorado Springs to help the people" affected by the storm, he told me. The siblings set up a table at the Colorado Springs Sugar Plum Festival, gave away patriotic car magnets and pins for any donations, and collected signatures on a giant banner of support for the victims. "We raised $612 in one weekend."
The Osborns joined countless Americans across the country who stepped up, in small and large ways, to help their fellow citizens in need. While this election season was a contentious battle between makers and takers, this Thanksgiving season is a time to honor the givers who keep the nation's private philanthropic spirit alive.
In times of crisis, it's individual citizens, churches, businesses and charitable organizations — not federal government bureaucrats — who mobilize first and fastest to provide aid and comfort. Tom Laureys noted in the Parsippany (New Jersey) Daily Record: "The first people to help Hurricane Sandy victims were the neighbors helping their neighbors for free. The Red Cross was the first organization to arrive to help. FEMA was the last. The FEMA workers stayed at the Soho Grand Hotel at $310 per night."
On Staten Island, a group of residents banded together, bought their own walkie-talkies, and provided the debris-clearing and water-pumping services that no one else was providing.
"We've done more for our community than FEMA, the Red Cross and the National Guard combined, directly hitting houses and people in need," Frank Recce, a 24-year-old longshoreman and Army Iraq War veteran who organized the "Brown Cross" group, told FoxNews.com.
Here in Colorado Springs, the raging Waldo Canyon wildfire brought volunteers of all political stripes together to support local first responders and help nearly 350 devastated families who lost their homes.
By the time President Obama arrived in Colorado nearly a full week after the fire ignited, churches, businessmen and civic groups had united to donate mountains of clothes, lend phones, shelter pets and open their homes to the displaced. The outpouring of compassion was so overwhelming that volunteers were turned away from shelters and centers.
The left-leaning Colorado Springs Independent, conservative Focus on the Family, Pikes Peak United Way, World Arena, the city's philharmonic and others raised more than a half-million dollars during a community benefit concert for the Waldo Canyon Victim Assistance Fund.
One organization, Care and Share, collected nearly 73,000 pounds of food and water for the brave firefighters who battled the blaze. On top of that, Care and Share volunteers distributed more than 440,000 pounds of food and water to affected residents. An amazing surplus remains: The group has 332,593 pounds of food and $379,032 in donations remaining to distribute for the holidays.
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, America's top 50 donors gave a total of $10.4 billion in 2011. But it's the small, unsung acts of everyday giving and doing — like the Osborn brothers' $612 or the Staten Island citizen brigade's do-it-yourself volunteerism — that add up. In sum, Americans contributed $136 billion to charitable causes. The median discretionary income of the American giver? $54,783.
God bless America, the Charitable.
Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is: [email protected].


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Best tools for protecting passwords
Passwords are a security weak link, but these products help shield passwords from attackers
For enterprises trying to get a handle on password management, the good news is that there are products that can help implement stronger password policies for end users logging into corporate and personal Web-based services, as well as for employees who share a local server login.
The goal here is to make the password process more secure, and also to let users login to particular resources without having to remember all of their individual passwords.
[WATCH FOR: What to look for when evaluating password manager software]
We looked at six products, ranging from consumer-oriented to enterprise-only. They are: Kaspersky Pure, LastPass Enterprise, Lieberman Enterprise Random Password Manager, 1Password, RoboForm Enterprise, and TrendMicro DirectPass. (Watch the slideshow comparing the products.)
All of these products use a master password vault to store all their information in encrypted form. And all but TrendMicro have a way to generate a complex password and insert it into the login process so users don't have to try to come up with something on their own. This makes life easier for end users and also eliminates the security problems associated with users picking one password for all their logins.
[ALSO: Why password-only authentication is passe]
To be included in this review, each product had to have the ability to synchronize passwords across a different collection of clients and servers. For Lieberman, this means synchronizing the logins to internal servers across multiple users who want to share the same password. For the other products, it means having the same user with multiple devices keep track of passwords for Web services.
Because we included such a variety of tools, we can't directly compare the products and didn't score the software programs or declare an overall winner. But here are the highlights:
Click to see: Pricing chart
LastPass Enterprise offers excellent price/performance and boasts strong management features. LastPass also has the widest desktop and mobile platform support of any of the products we tested.
Lieberman has the best features for local server password management, and the Lieberman tool was the only one in our tests that worked flawlessly.
Kaspersky's Pure offers a basic password manager as part of a larger suite that includes other security tools. The downside is that it is Windows only, which means you can't sync your vault with non-Windows devices.
1Password is a consumer-focused product that allows you to store more than just passwords in your vault.
RoboForm has a nice balance of enterprise features and strong bulk password management, but we had some support issues.
TrendMicro's software is the least developed, although the next version is expected to fix many deficiencies.
Here are the individual reviews:
Kaspersky Pure
Like other traditional anti-virus vendors, Kaspersky is getting into the password management game. Kaspersky has two products for password management. One is its Password Manager stand-alone software that sells for $25. This doesn't include the ability to synchronize your password vault (although the vendor promises to include it later this fall).
We decided to review Pure, which is Kaspersky's security suite. Pure includes a variety of tools, including anti-spam, backup, parental controls, data encryption, advanced browser protection and password manager. This latter module does synchronize passwords using the cloud-based accounts maintained on Kaspersky's website.
The Pure password manager covers the basics well, with a complex password generator and options to close the vault automatically after the PC has been idle. You can also store text notes and contact information in the vault.
Pure also has modules that improve browser security, and this is probably more of a reason to purchase it than just for password protection and management. For example, the SafeMoney module sets up protected browser sessions for online banking and ecommerce sites, and another module can securely erase your browser history or analyze your Internet Explorer settings.
Pure will run on Windows 8 in addition to earlier versions back to Vista. The password manager module is only for 32-bit PCs, however. On the other hand, there is a long list of supported browsers, some of which we have never even heard of. Given its Windows-focus, this means that the synchronization feature is of limited value since you can't transport your vault to your smartphone or move between Macs and Windows PCs. Pure is priced at $65 for licensing on up to three PCs.
LastPass Enterprise
LastPass is an enterprise-grade product that comes with a separate management console. This software is Web-based, which is also a nice touch. It comes with the widest collection of clients supported, ranging from Windows (including both 32-bit and 64-bit and from XP to Windows 8) to various smartphones. There is also a Web client where you can view your password vault contents. It also combines the best features of a consumer product with a solid enterprise flavor.
[Meme of the Week: Password Shenanigans]
The best enterprise security products have flexible policy creation and administration tools, and this is the case here. For example, you can set up a policy to override the default auto logoff protections for PC shutdown, or when in screensaver mode, or when idle, or when the computer is locked. There are dozens more policies to choose from, including support for multifactor tokens such as Yubikey, its own "Sesame" tool, and Google Authentication one-time passwords. You can also strengthen your online access to your vault by restricting access to specific countries, and excluding any access from anyone using the Tor file-sharing network.
You can also federate your LastPass logins across other cloud services such as Wordpress, Salesforce.com, Box and others using SAML. There is a long list of potential notifications that can be setup, including users who have a certain number of duplicate or blank passwords. These come with pre-written warning messages that can be easily customized for your circumstances. The tool also has a few simple reports available from the admin console. There is API access to its reporting engine, which is a nice touch.
LastPass can integrate with the standard Windows Login process to automatically create new users and sign existing users in.
One of the things we liked about LastPass is that upon install (and you can run this security check afterwards as well) it tells you which insecure passwords your browsers (or password vault) have already saved, and gives you the option to remove them.
Another is that it synchronizes your logins via its own cloud service: once you create a login to its cloud, things are updated for your various entries. Sometimes the updates took a few minutes to propagate around the Internet. In addition to logins, their vault also stores text notes securely and can auto-fill online forms.
LastPass automatically installs its browser plug-ins, where you can manually add sites, or notes, to its vault, along with other configuration tasks.
Also included in the software is a complex password generator that has a few interesting options, such as the ability to set a password that you can easily pronounce and with a minimum complexity. You can either bring this up from the browser plug-in menu or from the Web client.
LastPass is free for the individual user, and you get the full functionality of the tool this way so IT managers can easily check it out and see how it works. Once you are ready to upgrade to the enterprise version, you can start a free two-week trial, after which it will cost you $24 per user per year. This includes the ability to use all of its smartphone clients; otherwise you will need to subscribe to a Premium account, which is $12 a year per user. We like this simplicity and ease of getting familiar with the product.
Finally, the various client modules for LastPass have better interface consistency among themselves than most of the other tools we reviewed.
Lieberman Enterprise Random Password Manager
Lieberman's password solution is aimed at a different market than most of the other products in this review. Their idea is to strengthen privileged accounts and shared administrative access to critical local Windows and Linux servers. Typically, many users access the same privileged account and all of them need to know the password.
Given that many enterprises have dozens if not hundreds of servers, it is easy to overlook that many of them have stale admin accounts or don't know where they are located. A common situation is being able to change all local admin passwords on a regular basis.
The Lieberman tool discovers and strengthens all server passwords and then encrypts them and stores them in a special database. You can choose from 128- to 256-bit lengths for AES encryption as well. ERPM creates unique and complex passwords that you don't need to remember, and changes them as often as your password policies require, including daily if you are ultra paranoid. Each account login can have a different schedule and complexity requirement.
ERPM handles passwords on Windows service accounts, IIS accounts, SQL Server and Oracle database accounts, SharePoint, Directory Services, and Linux and other major platforms, both physical and virtual servers. As an enterprise product, it is designed to work with a variety of configuration management repositories such as CA, IBM and BMC's CMDB software and with system management tools such as Microsoft System Center, HP Operations Center and Arcsight.
All of these accounts are discovered without the need to install any agents on individual servers. Once it does find these accounts, ERPM will automatically detect password changes and make the updates across all the various systems and devices.
Installation is a bit of a hassle with a huge list of prerequisite software to support its services. We installed it on a box running an early version of Windows 8.1 and chose the default mySQL database for its password store. But once you get through this process, it is easy to maintain. One of its advantages is a continuous real-time automated account discovery of potential target accounts. You can also add accounts from your Active Directory store, from scanning particular IP address ranges, or individually. The new accounts are placed into a batch "change control" job that can be run regularly to update your password collection.
ERPM also includes a variety of audit reports so you can satisfy various compliance requirements and can output its information to various file formats for further processing by security management software. A number of preconfigured reports come with the software to get you started.
Lieberman supports various multi-factor authentication tools, including RSA SecurID and YubiKey, along with other one-time methods. Users can be authorized for particular accounts to either recover or reset specific passwords too.
One nifty feature of ERPM is being able to recover a password through its Web client. Any user with the right access rights can use it, and these requests are logged as well. You can also set up rather complex workflows to approve privilege escalation requests.
Lieberman also works with a third-party tool called Balabit's Shell Control Box, an activity monitoring appliance, to restrict user access to privileged resources.
The biggest downside to ERPM is its cost. The entry-level price tag is a steep $25,000, but that includes unlimited users and accounts. Given the rather unique market position for ERPM, this could be a reason why it is so pricey.
Agilebits 1Password
1Password is an individual consumer product without any enterprise management capabilities. It has versions for Windows including Windows 8, Mac, iOS and Android phones. The Windows 8 support is fine with non-IE browsers: if you use IE, you have to bring it up from the desktop and not from the Metro interface, although they are working on fixing that.
The software sets up a local password vault and then synchronizes the vault using a variety of cloud-based external services, such as Dropbox or iCloud. We had issues getting this synchronization to work initially because the instructions are somewhat ambiguous. But once this is setup it works as intended. When you bring up the app – either on your desktop, in your mobile smartphone, or the browser plug-in -- you are asked for your master vault password to unlock it. You can then add new services or recall particular passwords or information from the vault.
One of the biggest advantages with 1Password is that it has an extensive collection of different kinds of things that it can protect inside its vault, including credit card numbers, text notes, and software license information along with the usual login identities. Everything placed in the vault can be accessed on every other platform, which is very convenient. You can also add file attachments to each login record, this could be useful to include copies of your emails or pictures of your contract signatures as handy references.