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Expat Greece ASE UCITS ETF
Risk profile: High-risk
Investment focus: Shares of the ASE Index (ATHEX Composite) on the Athens Stock Exchange
Minimum investment: None
Expat Greece ASE UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund which tracks the performance of the ASE Index (ATHEX Composite), using sampling method to track the underlying index. It is listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (XETRA). The fund is suitable for Bulgarian and foreign investors who want a liquid and diversified exposure to the Greek market and the region as a whole.
|Ticker at Bloomberg
|Ticker at Reuters
The indicative net asset value of the ETF (iNAV) can be found here (ISIN iNAV DE000A2J0QH4).
Exchange Traded Funds (ETF, Exchange-Traded Funds) invest in shares of companies in a particular index or sector, or in commodities, etc. Expat Greece ASE UCITS ETF invests in the shares of the companies included in the ASE Index. This is the main equity index of the Athens Stock Exchange and consists of 60 companies. The ETF is using the sampling method to track the underlying index, investing in a sample of all ASE companies in proportions closely matching those of the index and within the legal limitations. The objective is to track the dynamics of the underlying index as closely as possible, while minimizing the transaction costs for the investors by not investing in the smallest components of the index which have only minimal contribution to the index's performance. The return of the fund follows that of the index – i.e. if the Greek market goes up, the market value of the ETF shares would increase proportionally.
The ETF is an open-ended passively managed collective investment scheme. The fund does not pay dividend. The profit is reinvested, and this increases the net asset value of the fund to the benefit of investors.
Eligible investors can buy and sell their ETF shares directly from and to the ETF in the primary market, while all investors can trade the ETF's shares on the stock exchange (the secondary market).
Expat Greece ASE UCITS ETF was licensed by the Financial Supervision Commission on Dec 1, 2017. It is organized in full compliance with the EU UCITS directive.
- An easy and transparent way for investing in the Greek stock market. Investors buy the companies from the ASE Index. The portfolio of the index ETF is published and updated daily on the Expat's website.
- Diversification. Investors gain exposure to the largest and most liquid stocks on the Athens Stock Exchange. Diversification lowers the volatility of the investment.
- Superior liquidity. The market makers of the fund maintain buy and sell quotes and ensure that the shares can be traded at any time. The primary market for purchase and redemption of shares is also open every day to larger qualified investors.
- Easy to follow. There is no need to devote time and resources to analyze, pick and follow individual stocks. Index investing is a convenient and efficient macro play.
- No income tax for investors. Capital gains (profits) from instruments traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange – Sofia are exempt from taxation in Bulgaria.
- No corporate taxation for the ETF. UCITS-compliant vehicles, such as the index ETF, are exempt from corporate taxation in Bulgaria.
- Low transaction fees. It is cheaper to invest in one instrument rather than in shares of multiple companies. There are no taxes in Bulgaria when buying and selling shares, only brokerage and settlement commissions.
- European regulation. The ETF is fully compliant with the UCITS directive of the European Union.
Ξ Portfolio Structure & Basket of Securities as of 28 September 2023 Ξ
|Summary as of 28.09.2023
|Net asset value per share
|Net asset value
|Number of outstanding shares
|180 000
|Number of shares as of 28.09.2023
|Number of shares already issued
|180 000
|New shares ordered for issuance in settlement
|Shares ordered for redemption
|Total number of shares
|180 000
|Orders on the primary market submitted by 3 p.m. on 28.09.2023
|Orders for purchase of shares (number of shares)
|Orders for redemption of shares (number of shares)
|Yield (%)
|Since the beginning of the year
|For the previous year
|Since the beginning of the public offering (annualized)
Net asset value per share, in EUR
slide left and right
Expat Greece ASE UCITS ETF NAV per unit compared to ASE Index close price – normalized to start at 1
slide left and right
- Annual report on the activity of the fund, 2021
- Annual report on the activity of the fund, 2020
- Interim financial statеments for H1 2020
- Annual report on the activity of the fund, 2019
- Interim financial statеments for H1 2019
- Annual report on the activity of the fund, 2018
- Interim financial statments for H1 2018
- Annual report on the activity of the fund, 2017
Managing company
Expat Asset Management Sofia, 96A G. S. Rakovski Str. Tel.: +359 2 980 1881 Fax: +359 2 980 7472 E-mail: email@example.com Web: www.expat.bg
Eurobank Bulgaria Sofia, 260 Okolovrasten pat Blvd. Tel.: +359 2 816 6215 Fax: +359 2 988 8191 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Web: www.postbank.bgThe Depository Bank keeps the fund's assets and oversees its operations and the calculation of net asset value of the Fund.
Bulgarian Stock Exchange Sofia, 6 Tri ushi Str. Tel.: +359 2 937 0934 Fax: +359 2 937 0946 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Web: www.bse-sofia.bgTicker: GRX
Frankfurt Stock Exchange (XETRA) 4 Börsenplatz, Frankfurt, Germany Tel.: +49 69 211 18310 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Web: www.boerse-frankfurt.de
Benchmark Finance Sofia, 19 Viskyar planina Str. Tel.: +359 2 625 481 Fax: +359 2 625 388 E-mail: email@example.com Web: www.benchmark.bg
Lang & Schwarz Breite Strasse 34, 40213 Duesseldorf Tel.: +49 211 138 40 404 E-mail: email@example.com Web: www.ls-d.de
Floor specialist for Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Steubing AG Goethestraße 29 , D-60313 Frankfurt am Main Tel.: +49 69 297 160 E-mail: email@example.com Web: www.steubing.com
Information agent in Germany
Zeidler Legal Services Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH Bettinastrasse 48, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany Tel.: +49 69 99 99 97610 E-mail: email@example.com Web: www.zeidlerlegalservices.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute
Crime Prevention Practitioner Designation
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Practitioner Designation
Elder Crime Practitioner Designation
School Resource Officer Practitioner Designation
Victims Services Practitioner Designation
Bureau of Criminal Justice Programs
Florida Office Of The Attorney General National Conference on Preventing Crime
Crime Stoppers Grant Programs
Urban League Grant Program
The Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys
Law Enforcement Death Benefits Program
Law Enforcement Awards Program
Victims Rights Awards Ceremony
Human Trafficking Summit
Address Confidentiality Program
Contact Us
Office of the Attorney General
Bureau of Criminal Justice Programs
The Capitol, PL-01
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
(850) 414-3360
Highlighted Training
Jan 9, 2024 - Jan 11, 2024
Victim Services Practitioner Designation Update
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Jan 22, 2024 - Jan 23, 2024
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Feb 5, 2024 - Feb 9, 2024
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Feb 12, 2024 - Feb 16, 2024
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Basic CPTED
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This course will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld, at 10100 International Drive. Orlando, Fl, 32821. For reservations, click the link below, or call (407) 352-1100. The room rate is $107.00 and reservations must be made by January 22, 2024. Group Code: Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute - Basic CPTED
Reservation Link:
Book your group rate for • Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute - Basic CPTED
*This course is Full
Course Description:
During the five-day (40-hour) Basic Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) course, participants focus on basic CPTED concepts of proper design and effective use of the physical environment to achieve a more productive use of space and a reduction in crime. Students learn architectural and planning terms and definitions, techniques used to analyze the potential for crime, how to identify relationships and conflicts that exist between crime and the environment, and the application of CPTED strategies in neighborhoods, schools and other sites. Emphasis is placed on documented case studies and specific CPTED applications in commercial, transportation, and public housing settings. Participants are instructed in how to read construction blueprints and schematic diagrams; how to communicate with planning, engineering, and construction personnel; and in making recommendations to city, county and state agencies.
*This course is one of two courses necessary for the Florida Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Practitioner designation.
*Course topics are subject to change. This course does not count towards any Victims Service Designation Renewal hours.
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{daily inspiration} May Flowers
Photo Source
I love these! The colour palette is just amazing.
Courtney ~ Sartorial Sidelines
I love all of these deep shades of purple! So perfect for Spring!ReplyDelete
oh, breathtaking beauty. Soon will be everywhere blooming, you'll see.
xoxo Ra
Ah, bouganvillea are gorgeous. They're my mom's favorite. Such great inspiration. :)ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
So pretty, I love the tone of the dark purple dress.
I love the greens.ReplyDelete
Gorgeous photos, love all the color palettes! We got snow today, it's so depressing. It's May 6th!ReplyDelete
So pretty. I love the last look (why do I like pencil skirts so much?)
Chic on the Cheap
Great post.
Giveaway: Enter to win an Izak tote bag at stylishlyinlove.blogspot.com.
These are stunning photos! I love the soft glow effect. Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete


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Monday 14 July 2008 by Bradley M. Kuhn
The Network Services committee that I alluded to recently in various interviews is now officially public and named: Autonomo.us. (Thanks to one of the committee members, Evan Prodromou, who donated the domain name. ) Autonomo.us is officially endorsed by the FSF.
I've written before about how discussions began at FSF in January 2002 to address the "ASP loophole of the GPL". In those months that followed, when I came up with the idea for what would (later be named) the Affero clause, I naïvely thought that a license term for the software would "solve" the Software as a Service (SaaS) problem. Indeed, I considered the problem fully addressed upon publication of the original AGPL, and it was much later before I realized the problem was more complex.
The AGPLv3 is only one (albeit essential) part of what must be a multi-pronged strategy to address the freedom implications and concerns of SaaS. At Auotonomo.us, we have published The Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services (named for the place it was declared — the location of post-Temple-Place FSF offices). The Statement is a manifesto (of sorts) outlining the concerns that must be addressed and the beginnings of some ideas for solutions. I hope you will read it and begin considering this issue if you haven't already, and that you will endorse the statement if you already understand the issue. We hope to be publishing more on that site as the year goes on!
Posted on Monday 14 July 2008 at 15:58 by Bradley M. Kuhn.
Submit comments on this post to <email@example.com>.
This website and all documents on it are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License .
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
use Standard::Disclaimer;
from standard import disclaimer
SELECT full_text FROM standard WHERE type = 'disclaimer';
Both previously and presently, I have been employed by and/or done work for various organizations that also have views on Free, Libre, and Open Source Software. As should be blatantly obvious, this is my website, not theirs, so please do not assume views and opinions here belong to any such organization. Since I do co-own ebb.org with my wife, it may not be so obvious that these aren't her views and opinions, either.
— bkuhn
ebb ℠ is a service mark of Bradley M. Kuhn.Bradley M. Kuhn <email@example.com>


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Cooper & Hunter Multi 5 Zone Mini Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump 9000 9000 9000 12000 12000 BTU 21.5 Seer 220 V
Multi Zone - 5 Zones - 9,000 + 9,000 + 9,000 + 12,000 + 12,000 BTU 21.5 Seer
* In inverter systems, the compressor adjusts the motor speed to match whatever capacity is required by the interior air handlers. It will operate at higher than rated capacity during times of high load requirement. The rated BTU of an inverter compressor is normally lower than the combined BTU total of the air handlers.
Use this sizing chart as a guide. It is based on averages… It will be necessary for you to adjust your calculations based on your conditions; i.e. Ceiling height(s), Insulation, number of windows, type of windows and percentage to windows to your room.
You can install the unit by; setting the condenser, installing the lineset(s) (cooper & electrical lines from the condenser to each air handler), and directing the condensation line(s) to a drain or to the outside; however, things you need to know.
All our units come with the outside condensers, pre-charged, not the linesets. In order to qualify for your warranty, all our manufactures require that a licensed HVAC professional pressurize (vacuum) the lineset(s), before turning on the unit. Reducing the air in the linesets will maximize the efficiency of your unit over its life. This is typically a minimum service fee, since they are not adding coolant to the system. Please keep a record of their license number and contact information. Remember you must go on the manufacture's website and register your product within the time limit permitted.
We're an experienced HVAC dealer and have been helping clients select just the right system for over twelve years.
We're a factory direct dealer. That means we get the lowest volume prices and we pass them on to you!
We have the best selection of ductless mini splits on eBay; from single zone systems to five zone monsters.
All our products are shipped to you Free; shipping is included in our pricing. We ship multiple USA Warehouses throughout the 48 contiguous states. All large HVAC systems are shipped via freight carries due to the weight. Depending on how rural your location delivery times will vary. However, small or lightweight items are shipped via UPS or FedEx ground.
We offer a 30 day no-hassle return. As soon as your order arrives back at our warehouse and it is inspected, (all boxes need to be unopened for full credit); we will then issue your prompt payment less the return shipping cost.


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Temperance -- New York (State) -- New York
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Friends Temperance Union (New York, N.Y.)
Identifier: SFHL-RG4-094
Records of the Friends Temperance Union of New York, a Quaker organization which promoted abstinence from all alcohol. It was founded in 1876 and ceased to meet after 5/1898. Includes Minutes, Executive Committee minutes, a Treasurer's book, and miscellaneous papers.
Dates: 1876-1905


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<<Previous Question | Question Index | Subject Index | Constitutional Index | Next Question>>
Q65. "Where in the Constitution does it mention states' right to secede from the union?"
A. The Constitution does not permit a state to secede once it is a part of the Union. However, it does not prevent it either. It could be argued either way. The Supreme Court added its opinion in Texas v White (74 US 700 [1869]). It said that the entry of Texas into the United States was its entry into "an indissoluble relation." It said that only through revolution or mutual consent of the state and the United States could a state leave the Union (it is interesting to note that Texas benefited from the decision that it had unconstitutionally attempted to leave the Union).


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Newswise — New research from Johns Hopkins suggests that it may not be the steroids in spinal shots that provide relief from lower back pain, but the mere introduction of any of a number of fluids, such as anesthetics and saline, to the space around the spinal cord.
For decades, epidural steroid injections have been the most common nonsurgical treatment for lower back pain even though extensive research shows mixed results. Placebo-controlled studies have found benefit only 60 percent of the time and it remains unclear whether the epidural steroids provide long-term pain control or reduce the need for surgery. Meanwhile, experts warn, steroids are a less-than-ideal treatment for some as they can raise blood sugar in diabetic back patients, slow wound healing in those who need surgery and accelerate bone disease in older women.
In a bid to lend some clarity, Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist Steven P. Cohen, M.D., and his colleagues reviewed dozens of published studies on the subject. As expected, they found that epidural steroid shots were more than twice as likely to bring relief as injections of steroids, saline or a local anesthetic like Lidocaine into muscle near the spinal canal. What was less expected, they report in the October issue of the journal Anesthesiology, was that epidural injections of any kind were also twice as good as intramuscular injections of steroids.
"Just injecting liquid into the epidural space appears to work," says Cohen, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This shows us that most of the relief may not be from the steroid, which everyone worries about."
Cohen says concerns increased in 2012 when more than 740 people in 20 states became ill with fungal meningitis and 55 people died after getting epidural injections of contaminated steroids made by a compounding pharmacy. Although better oversight might allay that concern, Cohen notes that patients can only get a limited number of steroid injections each year, even if their pain returns.
Cohen and Mark C. Bicket, M.D., an anesthesiology and critical care medicine chief resident at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, say it is too soon to recommend that patients stop receiving epidural steroids, but add that their analysis also suggests that smaller steroid doses can be just as beneficial. Larger studies are needed, they say, to determine whether steroid alternatives can be just as helpful for back pain patients.
"Our evidence does support the notion that, for now, reducing the amount of steroids for patients at risk may be advisable," says Bicket, the study's first author.
Spinal pain is a leading cause of disability in the industrialized world, with lifetime prevalence for lower back pain ranging from 50 to 80 percent. Epidural steroid injections have been the standard treatment for debilitating back pain for over 50 years.
The Johns Hopkins review covered medical records of 3,641 patients from 43 studies conducted through October 2012. The studies compared epidural steroid injections to other sorts of epidural and intramuscular injections.
Cohen says his new analysis suggests that decades of mixed results of research on epidural steroid injections may have been due to the use of saline or anesthetic injections as the comparison "placebo" treatment. "It's likely that those studies were actually comparing two treatments, rather than placebo versus treatment," he says. "Researchers may be wasting millions of dollars and precious time on such studies."
Charlie H. Brown IV, M.D., and Anita Gupta, D.O., of Johns Hopkins also contributed to this research.
The study was funded in part by the Center for Rehabilitation Sciences Research of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
On the Web:For more information about Dr. Cohen, click here:
### Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is a $6.5 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. JHM unites physicians and scientists of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with the organizations, health professionals and facilities of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. JHM's mission is to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, JHM educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness. JHM operates six academic and community hospitals, four suburban health care and surgery centers, and more than 30 primary health care outpatient sites. The Johns Hopkins Hospital, opened in 1889, was ranked number one in the nation from 1990 to 2011 by U.S. News & World Report.
MEDIA CONTACTRegister for reporter access to contact details


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Product Description
Dishcloth Knitted Design Aspegren Ripple Navy Blue
Aspegren Dish Cloths are made of 100% cotton and contains no plastic – this is our contribution to the environment … help us spread the good news as well as the usage of these dish cloths.
We find micro plastic in many dishcloths used in the kitchen or for cleaning in many homes today. This new discovery has made it very popular to use dishcloths made of pure cotton. Who would have thought that these "new micro fiber cloths" so many of us have been using to clean up bread crumbs and milk in the kitchen, would be so dangerous to the environment and should take the lead in a huge environmental discussion? Maybe some of us had an idea or feeling that they were not the most environmental friendly choice, being both cheep, a little strange in the texture, tearing very fast after only a few times in the washing machine … However, the bread crumbs and milk need to be removed.
On the 15th of March last year the dish cloth made it to the headlines of the Danish News on DR1. The reason was that a group of scientists had been measuring the continuously increasing amount of plastic – the so called "plastic soup" in the Oceans of the world – the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.. and found that they are rapidly increasing and causing damage to the Oceans and all habitat within.
Therefore, we are proud to announce that in our new collection – Autumn 2016 – we have included cotton dish cloths for the environmental friendly home. See our entire assortment for the kitchen on http://www.aspegren-denmark.dk/product-category/ktchen_uk/?lang=en – also here you will also find a wide assortment of cotton dish cloths in many colors.
Dishcloth Knitted Design Aspegren Ripple Navy Blue.


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Long awaited by many of us in the arms control and disarmament communities, historian Ward Wilson's book, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January. It doesn't fail to deliver. What at first seems like a short book soon becomes a distillate of years of the author's thinking, to which the expansive footnotes and lengthy bibliography also attest.
Wilson is a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. For years unaffiliated, though, with either academy or a foundation, his writing style can be characterized as plain speaking and congenial, accessible to the general public as well as policymakers, strategists, and historians.
Sixty-eight years after the Trinity test, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, arms control moves in fits and starts and total disarmament is considered unrealistic — unattainable to its advocates, inadvisable to most. Meanwhile, those members of the public who aren't too frightened by existential issues or too distracted to face them view global warming as more urgent than nuclear weapons. Others operate under the illusion that the end of the Cold War has diminished the nuclear threat to the point where we can live with it.
Besides, the primal logic of deterrence — discouraging an attack by your ability to respond — makes perfect sense to many. But, nuclear weapons may not lend themselves to deterrence as well as conventional thinking holds. In fact, the idea that "nuclear deterrence works in a crisis" is one of Wilson's myths — as is even the proposition that they keep us safe.
Actually, deterrence is the second pillar of faith in nuclear weapons. The first was erected when their detonation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II supposedly forced Japan to surrender. It's also the first myth that Wilson attempts to debunk: "Nuclear weapons shock and awe opponents." For one cannot stand without the other. As he wrote in a 2008 article (The Myth of Nuclear Deterrence) for Nonproliferation Review that helped put him on the map as a nuclear-weapons historian: "The collapse of the Hiroshima case undermines one of the cornerstones of nuclear deterrence theory."
Turns out, as Wilson writes in Five Myths, "Japan's leaders consistently displayed a lack of interest in the [conventional] bombing that was wrecking their cities." To them, it was the Russian invasion of Manchuria and Sakhalin Island upon which the war hinged. With Russia also planning to invade Hokkaido, the northern-most of Japan's islands, Japan realized it could not fight a war against both Russia and the United States-led Western powers. Wilson then turns the question around.
Proponents of nuclear weapons who claim that Japan was forced to surrender because of the bombing of Hiroshima face a difficult question: Why would Japan's leaders have been motivated to act by an event that was not strategically decisive?
The main piece of evidence that Wilson uses to build his case against the efficacy of nuclear weapons is the Cuban missile crisis, about which you've no doubt already seen much revisionist history in commemoration of its fiftieth anniversary last year. Wilson, though, instead of concentrating on why our nukes didn't deter Russia, focuses on why Russia's nuclear threat didn't deter President John Kennedy from blockading Cuba and demanding that nuclear missiles be removed from Cuba. "So why did," Wilson asks, "nuclear deterrence fail? And why did Kennedy take steps that seem to meet [a] definition of reckless lunacy?" (Author's emphasis.)
In still more picturesque language, he rephrases the question directly.
In the most dangerous nuclear crisis the world has ever known, one leader saw the nuclear deterrence stop sign, saw the horrifying image of nuclear war painted on it, and gunned through the intersection anyway.
In other words, fear of Russia's nuclear weapons didn't keep President Kennedy from putting the pedal to the metal. Wilson again:
One way that proponents of nuclear weapons explain Kennedy's willingness to risk nuclear war is by arguing that U.S. nuclear superiority made the risk of nuclear war negligible.…But most of the senior participants and Kennedy himself said, either directly or indirectly, that nuclear superiority had had little to do with decisions made during the crisis.…by the late 1950s both sides had the ability to inflict significant damage in the event of a war, even after absorbing a nuclear strike.
Another approach that helped lend Wilson credibility early in his career was to forbear attacking nuclear weapons from the point of view of morality and, instead, hold them accountable on the basis of their actual usefulness as weapons.
The problem with nuclear weapons is that there is no way to concretely verify the claims that are made about their importance. There is really only one data point — Hiroshima — determining their cash basis. The danger is that we have overinflated their value by misinterpreting that one event.
Confident that he'd win, it's as if Wilson agreed to cede the home-court advantage to the arrayed forces of national defense: "Body count aside, will nuclear weapons win wars?" (My words, not his.) More to the point, will bombing cities, known as area bombing in World War II, prove decisive in winning wars? Wilson writes:
People often talk about nuclear weapons' ability to create destruction as if it were an accepted fact that destruction and military effectiveness are the same thing. But.…destruction does not win wars.
Among the instances he cites besides Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the siege of Stalingrad during which the Wehrmacht destroyed the city with bombing and artillery. Soviet soldiers clung to the ruins and eventually outlasted the German assault. Wilson concludes:
Destroying cities and killing civilians is large beside the point in terms of military strategy.
Each of the five myths transitions to the next. Wilson pulls this off exceptional gracefulness when, at the end of Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, he addresses the subject of the nuclear genie — the idea that nuclear know-how and technology can't be un-developed, as it were, and stuffed back into the bottle. Connecting the circle, he writes that obsolescence will obtain when it's shown that nuclear weapons are no longer viewed as useful in winning wars.


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Spartacus, 1960, directed by Stanley Kubrick, screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, from the novel by Howard Fast
When most actors discover they didn't get a role they wanted, they react like you or I would: by driving to Las Vegas and spending the rent money on blackjack and cocaine. But Kirk Douglas was never most actors. So when William Wyler gave the role of Ben Hur to Charlton Heston, Douglas decided he'd make his own sand and sandals epic, better than Ben Hur, staring himself and not Charlton Heston, and who wants to work with William Wyler anyway? For his subject, Douglas chose Howard Fast's fictionalized version of the Third Servile War, Spartacus. Perhaps Douglas recognized a kindred spirit in Fast, who, on finding himself blacklisted from publishing because of his refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, published Spartacus himself. Like most projects started to compensate for rejection, Spartacus is self-consciously designed to proclaim its own greatness in every possible way. But it was made during the golden age of Hollywood epics, when the bar for films proclaiming their own greatness was very high indeed; Cleopatra wouldn't spoil everyone's fun for another three years. So how did Douglas signify to audiences that they were watching an epic?
Start with the film stock. Part of the point of epic filmmaking is to make something that television can't possibly compete with, which means an very wide aspect ratio, projected on gigantic screens. Masked 35mm is the cheapest and easiest way to get the aspect ratio, but you're not even using the entire 35mm frame, so it gets grainy if you project it on too big a screen. Anamorphic 35mm uses the full frame and looks better—that's what widescreen filmmakers normally use today—but it's still not as sharp as you want if you're going to project it onto screens the size of small towns. So you've gotta go higher resolution, which usually means 65mm stock. Ben Hur—the production Douglas saw as his direct competition—was shot using a process called MGM Camera 65, which not only used a 65mm negative but an anamorphic lens on top of that, and produced what is probably the widest aspect ratio in commercial features: a 2.76:1 image. But 65mm film stock is ridiculously expensive, so Spartacus was shot using a different process called Super Technirama 70. Despite the name, Super Technirama doesn't require 65mm film stock. Instead, standard 35mm was run through the camera sideways, allowing for a wider aspect ratio that could still produce a good-looking 70mm print.1 Which is to say, a print where shots like this look like an army, not a failed experiment in Pointillism.
That kind of shot is what large-format film is designed for—you can see every dollar on-screen. And Spartacus lets you know with every frame that giant screens are the only way to see it; this was not shot with television in mind. Take the scene where Tony Curtis's Antoninus performs a magic trick for a group of rebel slaves. Kubrick opens with this shot:
A contemporary filmmaker shooting the same scene might use that framing as an establishing shot, but Kubrick stays on it for more than thirty seconds, following Curtis as he performs an entire magic trick. He only cuts closer when Curtis approaches Jean Simmons and Kirk Douglas, and even then the camera keeps its distance. It's true that long takes are still around, but look how little of the frame Curtis takes up, and keep in mind that the point of the shot is what Curtis is doing with his hands. There are ways to signify "epic" without using giant crowds.
I found it interesting to compare Kubrick's compositions with contemporary use of wide aspect ratios, more for what's missing than what's there. You won't find a shot in Spartacus that resembles this:
Or this, from a very different filmmaker the same year:
With a very few exceptions, Kubrick's close-ups show the actor's full head, as in this shot:
And, although there are plenty of wide-angle shots, you won't find anything like this:
Or this:
There are wide-angle medium shots, like this one:
But notice that John Dall is far enough back from the camera that his face isn't particularly distorted; compare that to Bill Murray's cartoonish face in the still from Rushmore (or pretty much any close-up in A Clockwork Orange). It's a different cinematic grammar, closer to classical Hollywood cinema than anything else of Kubrick's I've seen.
The camera movement is also atypical for Kubrick̬his previous film was Paths of Glory, in which the most striking visual images depend on tracking backward through the trenches—and of course, this is the man who would go on to photograph the corridors of the Overlook Hotel. But in Spartacus, the camera is pretty stationary throughout; most of the motion is panning, and limited examples of horizontal tracking. There most prominent exceptions bring us back to the "self-consciously epic" thing. There's a long shot of horsemen in a distant valley:
Which tracks back to reveal a watchman on the cliff above:
And then tracks further back to pick up Kirk Douglas on horseback:
From there the camera tracks horizontally as Spartacus rides through the camp. So Kubrick uses a track backwards to play with scale in a way that makes viewers painfully aware of what a gigantic production they're seeing. Then there's this sequence, after the climactic battle between the rebel slaves and the Romans:
The camera tracks forward over the bodies of the defeated slaves, slowly panning up to reveal that the carnage goes as far as the eye can see. As with the other sequence, the tracking is used to for an effect of scale: you wouldn't believe how many corpses the Romans produced! And if this shot reminds audiences of another epic, then so much the better. So there are some examples of three-dimensional movement in the film, but I thought it was striking how stationary the camera remained, and how self-consciously horizontal many of the compositions are. It doesn't get any more wide-screen than this:
In short, it doesn't look anything like a Stanley Kubrick film. But this was an atypical production for Kubrick, the only one he didn't have near-complete control. He was brought in a week into shooting when Douglas fired Anthony Mann, handed a copy of the script and given a weekend to take over the production (his offer to rewrite the script was summarily rejected). Spartacus was a smart career move for him, since he hadn't made a film in two years and had never run a production of this size, but it's clear his heart wasn't really in it.2
Which makes it sound like Spartacus was doomed to mediocrity by its troubled production history, but it does has its pleasures. Mostly, they come from the last ingredient for an epic: epic casting. There's no question that Douglas is the star (and plenty of shots of him looking noble):
But you can't make a really big movie with only one star; convention demands that such a film be cast within an inch of its life. So for every scene where Kirk Douglas speechifies about freedom and slavery, there's a matching scene where Lawrence Olivier, as Crassus, is sinister and sly.
Better yet are Peter Ustinov and Charles Laughton, who often seem to be checking in from a different film, a light comedy about lust and gluttony.
As it happens, that isn't far from the truth: Ustinov apparently rewrote most of their scenes, much to Dalton Trumbo's dismay. So although it may not serve the rest of the film well, the scenes with Ustinov are better than the ones with Douglas. Ustinov won an Oscar for his performance; Douglas wasn't even nominated.
That isn't entirely fair to Douglas: it's always more interesting to watch vice than virtue. But the difference between the Roman scenes and the scenes with Spartacus is so great that I think it points to the film's biggest problem: Spartacus doesn't have any flaws. After the film's opening scenes, in which Spartacus is basically feral, he stops making mistakes. There aren't any arguments among the slaves about what to do, there aren't any power struggles between Spartacus and his lieutenants, there aren't any tactical errors. There are flickers of life when Herbert Lom appears as an untrustworthy pirate:
But for the most part the scenes with the slave army are a cinematic essay about how great freedom is in general, and how great Spartacus is in particular. Any actor would have a hard time making that kind of pablum interesting, but Kirk Douglas is particularly ill suited for it. I've always thought he was better cast as a villain than as a hero; he has a hail-fellow-well-met quality that only shines for me when it's backed by malice. But malice is beneath Spartacus, and that's the problem. In his effort to outdo Ben Hur, Douglas ended up playing a character who was too heroic to be interesting. Still, he's undeniably epic.
- The commentary track on the DVD is fascinating, most of all for novelist Howard Fast's contributions, which run the gamut from passive-aggressive to positively venomous. Fast was originally hired to write the screenplay, then fired when it became apparent that his version of the film would contain more speeches than action. You can predict what he'll think of any given scene by checking how closely it follows his novel. Two examples:
This, for example, is not in the book. I don't know that it adds very much. If I remember, the dialogue is rather silly.I highly recommend listening to the whole thing.
. . . .
This is a brilliantly done scene; it is lifted out of the book almost in its entirety, and well directed, and well done.
- Spartacus gets a lot of credit for the political act of hiring Dalton Trumbo and crediting him under his real name, helping to break the blacklist. And it definitely deserves that praise. But it's also worth noting that the battle scenes were filmed in Franco's Spain, where the production paid the government directly for the uses of the Army. So Spartacus is one of those symbolically-upholding-freedom-while-paying-cash-money-to-dictators productions. Like U.S. foreign policy!
Update: Robert Taylor has thoughts in a similar vein about the film here.
1The difference between 65mm stock and 70mm prints is the 5mm section used for the film's soundtrack.
2As Kubrick put it years later, "I don't know what to say to people who tell me 'Boy, I really loved Spartacus.'"


text:
Material Number
Technical Literature
Marketing Information
Competitive Cross-Reference
Text in Help dialog, To be determined by the Business
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Proportional (135 ohm) remote bulb controllers provide modulating control of water or air temperatures in ducts, tanks and similar applications.


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Source: Link
LYMAN, BENJAMIN, chemist, drug wholesaler, and manufacturer; b. in Derby, Vermont, 11 June 1810, son of Elisha Lyman, a farmer and tavern-keeper, and Hannah Stiles; d. at Toronto, Ont., 5 Dec. 1878.
The Lymans were a New England family descended from Richard Lyman of Essex County, England, who crossed the Atlantic in 1631. About 1816 Elisha Lyman moved to Montreal, where one of his brothers, Lewis, had founded a Montreal drug firm with George Wadsworth about 1800. This partnership, Wadsworth and Lyman, was the first of many drug businesses that were to be carried on in Montreal and Toronto by various branches of the Lyman family.
In 1819 Lewis Lyman moved to Syracuse, New York, and his store in Montreal passed to Benjamin's uncle, Samuel Hedge, and to his older brother William (1794–1857), as Hedge and Lyman. In 1827 and 1829 respectively, Benjamin and his younger brother Henry (1813–97) entered the firm, and in 1836 the partnership was reorganized; until William retired in 1855 the three brothers were proprietors, operating under the name William Lyman and Company. Alfred Savage then joined the firm, which became Lymans, Savage and Company until his retirement in 1860, when William H. Clare replaced him and the name was changed to Lymans, Clare and Company. Just before Benjamin's death his son Charles and Henry's son Roswell Corse were associated. In 1879 the name was changed to Lyman, Sons and Company, and in 1908 it became Lymans Limited; today the corporation is a division of the National Drug and Chemical Company Ltd.
The main operations of the firm as chemists and druggists were located on St Paul Street, where extensive premises were erected in 1855 (burnt 1888). Both wholesale and retail operations were carried on until about confederation, when the retail side was dropped. Manufacturing of pharmaceutical products, linseed oil, paints, and oils took place at a separate location on the south side of the Lachine Canal basin. These products won medals at several exhibitions including those in Paris in 1855 and 1878. In addition the Lymans were importers of drugs, seeds, oils, dye stuffs, and painters' colours.
In York (Toronto) the partnership opened a branch under J. W. Brent in 1832, which became Lyman, Farr and Company about 1835 with Timothy J. Farr as a partner. By that year a subsidiary had also been opened in London under the same name. This became Lyman, Moore and Company by 1840; the business apparently did not last long, but it was the first drugstore in that area of Upper Canada. There was also a Bytown (Ottawa) branch. In Toronto, the firm, which was kept separate from the Montreal business, underwent several changes in partnership: in 1850 it was operated with Richard Kneeshaw as Lyman, Kneeshaw and Company, then became Lyman Brothers and Company, and in 1855 Benjamin, who continued to live in Montreal, formed a partnership with William Elliot, as Lyman, Elliot and Company. Finally, in 1870, the Lymans bought out the Elliot family and again assumed the name Lyman Brothers and Company. As in Montreal separate manufacturing and warehousing operations were maintained. The firm had travellers in Ontario, Manitoba, and the western districts. At the time of Benjamin Lyman's death, in 1878, it was the largest wholesale drug company in Toronto and the estate valuation of the Ontario operation alone was $115,000. In the same year Bradstreet estimated the firm's total value at Toronto and Montreal as $250,000 to $300,000.
Benjamin Lyman demonstrated a great interest in improving the standards of the drug business generally. He was particularly active in this respect in Ontario, where he helped establish the Canadian Pharmaceutical Association in 1867; after it became the Ontario College of Pharmacy, he was elected president in 1873, holding that office for several years. He was also one of the founders of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal, designed to raise the level of the profession, in 1868. During the same period he helped form the Montreal Chemists' Association (1870), and attempted to found a Toronto pharmaceutical association (1872). In Ontario, at least, his firm was the first to use a bright red label to mark all dangerous preparations.
Lyman was also interested in manufacturing associations generally, attending an 1858 meeting at St Lawrence Hall, Toronto, to promote Canadian industry and being elected first vice-president of the Manufacturers' Association of Ontario (now the Canadian Manufacturers' Association) in 1875. He was a member of both the Montreal and the Toronto Boards of Trade and was a "strong advocate of protection for the industries of Canada." In addition he had financial interests: he was a director of the Federal Bank of Canada (organized 1872–74) and one of the incorporators of the Royal Canadian Insurance Company in 1873.
When the second rebellion had broken out in Lower Canada in 1838, Lyman had been commissioned captain commanding the 5th Company of Montreal Rifles, "The Cold Water Company," on 5 November and remained on active duty with the militia for six months. He retained his captaincy in the company until 1847 when he transferred to the Montreal Fire Battalion on its formation. Like most of the leading Montreal merchants, however, he was one of the initial signatories of the Annexation Manifesto of 1849 and was briefly deprived of his commission in 1850. Reinstated, in 1854 he was promoted major and retired from the militia in 1862. In the municipal sphere he and his brother Henry organized in Montreal the volunteer Union Fire Company in 1840 and Benjamin became its captain. He also was a councillor of Montreal in 1845, 1847, and 1848, and an alderman in 1846, 1849, and 1850. In 1863 he was appointed warden of Trinity House at Montreal.
A trustee and elder of the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal, he laid the corner stone of the new church on Dorchester Street in 1865. As the Montreal Daily Witness stated in his obituary, he was "active in the promotions of nearly all benevolent enterprises in the city": a founder of the Mount Royal Cemetery Company, and its president in 1875–77; and a promoter of the Montreal Auxiliary Bible Society and the Montreal Temperance Society.
He married Delia Almira Wells (1810–83) of Waterbury, Vermont, in 1834 and they had 13 children of whom two sons and two daughters outlived him. Particularly in his last years, he spent a good deal of time travelling, and attending to business in Toronto, where he died of pneumonia. His entire estate was left to his widow. Lyman's obituary described him as a man of commanding presence, who, although not demonstrative, formed firm friendships; slow and careful of speech, he nevertheless put his conclusions into practice promptly once decided upon a policy.
College of Pharmacy Library (University of Toronto), Douglas Fatum, "Biography of Mr. Benjamin Lyman (1810–1878)"; T. I. Kahnykevych, "Benjamin Lyman, an outstanding figure in the history of pharmacy."
PAC, RG 1, E1, 77, pp.534–35; RG 9, I, C4, 2. York County Surrogate Court, inventory of the estate of Benjamin Lyman, 22 Jan. 1879; will of Benjamin Lyman, 12 Aug. 1861. Bradstreet's reports of the Dominion of Canada, February 1, 1876 (New York, 1876). Canada, Statutes, 1872, c.59; 1873, c.79, c.99; 1874, c.57. Mail (Toronto), 7 Dec. 1878. Montreal Daily Witness, 27 April 1865; 6, 9 Dec. 1878. Montreal Herald, 15 Oct. 1849. The Canada directory for 1857–58 . . . (Montréal, 1857). Dom. ann. reg.,1879, 356–57. Montreal Directory (Mackay), 1848, 1857, 1862. Toronto, Directories, 1850, 1856, 1861, 1873, 1879.
Atherton, Montreal, II, 278; III, 560–61. Campbell, Hist. of Scotch Presbyterian Church, 256–58. Centennial/Anniversary souvenir; a commemorative volume celebrating Canada's centenary and National Drug's 60 years of service (Montreal, 1967), 112. Genealogy of the Lyman family in Canada; ancestors and descendants of Elisha Lyman (no.18) from the end of the 18th century to the present time (1943), ed. Arthur Lyman (Montreal, 1943), 30, 39, 72, 75. Histoire de la Corporation de la Cité de Montréal, depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours . . . . J.-C. Lamothe et al., édit. (Montréal, 1903), 206–8. Hist. of Toronto and county of York, I, 408. F. W. Terrill, A chronology of Montreal and of Canada from A. D. 1752 to A. D. 1893, including commercial statistics, historical sketches of commercial corporations and firms and advertisements . . . (Montreal, 1893), 57–58.
"Editorial; the election for council," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Toronto), VIII (1874–75), 436–37. "Editors of the journal from 1868–1942," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Whitby), LXXV (15 June 1942), 26. George Hodgetts, "Minutes of the semi-annual meeting of the council of the Ontario College of Pharmacy," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Toronto), VIII (1874–75), 40–47; "Ontario College of Pharmacy, council meeting," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Toronto), VII (1873–74), 68–75; "Ontario College of Pharmacy; minutes of the semi-annual meeting of the council," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Toronto), VIII (1874–75), 267–72. "Many important drug companies started in little back shops," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Whitby), LXXV (15 June 1942), 82. "Obituary; Benjamin Lyman," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Toronto), XII (1878–79), 190–93. "The story of Canadian pharmacy from 1868 to 1942 as it unfolded . . . in the C. Ph. Journal," Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal (Whitby), LXXV (15 June 1942), 12.
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Frederick H. Armstrong, "LYMAN, BENJAMIN," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed September 21, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/lyman_benjamin_10E.html.
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|Author of Article:
|Frederick H. Armstrong
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Camden County Historical Society Museum Open for Tours
Friday, November 26, 2021 at 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
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The Camden County Historical Society Museum is once again open for tours! Stop by to see our new exhibits on Native Americans in Camden, the Revolutionary War in Camden County, the Negro Baseball League in New Jersey and Camden recording artists! Open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10am-4pm.


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Thanks for mentioning the post on ways to avoid wasting your cash back!
Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some great articles on saving money on your electric bill, how to create a spending plan, and earning extra money.
Ten Easy Ways To Save On Your Electric Bill This Winter — Save money on your electric bill this winter by washing your clothes in cold water. [Money Q&A]
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How to Throw a Football Party — Throw an awesome football party by opting for beer and wine instead of liquor. [Currency]
5 Myths and 5 Facts About Potty Training — It is a myth that once your kid is potty trained, he or she will always be potty trained. [Parenting Squad]
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Answers come from comparing the Census Bureau's just-released estimates of metropolitan area populations in July 2012 with the results of the Census conducted in 2010.
The focus here is on the 51 metro areas with populations of more than 1 million where 55 percent of Americans live, most of them of course not in central cities but in suburbs and exurbs.
Two growth champs stick out -- Austin and Raleigh. A half-century ago, neither of them amounted to much.
The counties now in metro Austin had 300,000 people in 1960. Those in metro Raleigh had 260,000. Now metro Austin is 1,834,000, and metro Raleigh is 1,188,000.
Austin's population grew by 6.9 percent and Raleigh's by 5.1 in 2010-12. That's huge growth in just two years.
Both are high-tech centers with major universities. They had the biggest rate of domestic in-migration of any million-plus metro areas in 2010-2012.
They both have reputations as cool cities. More important, they both have creative and vibrant private sector economies, fostered by relatively low tax rates and sensible regulation.
Raleigh's taxes and cost of living compare favorably with those in most states in the Northeast. Austin is attracting a lot of people from California, where the top income tax rate is now 13.3 percent. Texas's income tax rate is zero.
Next on the growth list are Texas's three other million-plus metros, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, which grew by 4.3 percent in 2010-12.
Their populations increased by 622,000 people. That's 12 percent of the entire nation's population gain during that period.
It's more than metro New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Hartford and Providence combined. Texas is making a huge contribution to the nation's demographic and economic growth.
Not far behind are Orlando, Fla., with its tourism industry; Denver in healthy Colorado (the nation's lowest obesity rates); Metro Washington, D.C., which has the advantage of federal tax dollars pouring in; Metro Miami, where growth is greatest in farther-north Broward and Palm Beach counties; Charlotte, N.C., the nation's No. 2 banking center; Oklahoma City (natural gas); Phoenix, Ariz. (though immigration is way down); Nashville, Tenn. (health care and music); Salt Lake City (high birth rates); Seattle (high-tech, despite the rain); and Atlanta.
Lagging somewhat is California. The combined Los Angeles-Riverside metro area is growing just slightly above the national average. More people have been migrating from California to other states than moving in from other states since 1990, and immigration there is sharply down.
And despite wonderful weather, domestic in-migration is negligible in the San Francisco Bay area and metro San Diego.
Although most of this growth is driven by the private sector, one disquieting thing is how many of these cities are state capitals. It looks like government is generating growth, while the private sector in most places languishes.
On the other end of the growth list, metro Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, N.Y., are continuing to lose population, as their central cities empty out and inner suburbs age.
There is very slow growth in what were booming interior cities in the 19th century -- Rochester, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
None of the metro areas in the Amtrak corridor from Washington to Boston is growing as fast as the nation, and some -- Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn. -- are barely growing at all.
But 2010-12 population growth exceeded the national average in some Midwestern metros -- Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Mich. (which just made it over the 1 million mark).
Of course, it's still possible to live a comfortable and productive life in a city that is not growing.
Many point to Pittsburgh, the only million-plus metro area with more births than deaths, as an example. Its "meds and eds" economy -- health care and higher education -- is stable, and the air is a lot cleaner than when the steel mills were belching smoke.
But a great nation needs growth to give people opportunity to move upward and to allow the downwardly mobile to live as comfortably as they did growing up. Population trends give us clues as to what works and what doesn't.
Not every metro area can be a high-tech center like Austin or Raleigh. But the continuing rapid growth of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, unendowed with great natural beauty and scorched during five-month summers, suggest that others should take the Texas example seriously.


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MACON, GA—Sources confirmed today that the brainwashed morons at First Baptist Assembly of Christ, all of whom blindly accept whatever simplistic fairy tales are fed to them, volunteer each Wednesday night to provide meals to impoverished members of the community. "Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in town who have fallen on hard times and are unable to afford to put food on the table, so we try to help out as best we can," said 48-year-old Kerri Bellamy, one of the mindless sheep who adheres to a backward ideology and is incapable of thinking for herself, while spooning out homemade shepherd's pie to a line of poor and homeless individuals. "It feels great to share our blessings with the less fortunate. Plus, it's fun to work alongside all the members of our [corrupt institution of propaganda and lies] who come out each week." As of press time, the brainless, unthinking lemmings had donated winter clothing they no longer wore to several needy families and still hadn't opened their eyes to reality.
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Edgelords Explain Why They Love Elon Musk


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SmartNet Wireless Download
SmartNet software are designed to support (PocketPC/Smartphones/Embedded) devices.
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paper clips 60pk assorted shapes
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There are few stationery items as useful and timeless as the trusty paper clip, but these all-new designs have turned up the style factor more than just a notch. Presented in a gorgeous clear acrylic stackable box, this pack of 60 gold metal paper clips features four unique designs, including our signature kikki.K spiral as well as our all-new envelope, leaf and a heart. Keep your documents organised in style with the high shine gold metal paper clips. But don't stop there. Why not collect the rose gold, black and white packs and stack them up as a feature on your desk? After all, you can never have too many paperclips!


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Based upon my survey of a large number of health plans accounting for substantial market share in the 36 states the federal insurance exchange is operating in, not more than about 5,000 individuals and families (about 10,000 people in total) signed-up for health insurance in the 36 states run by the Obama administration through Monday.
It is not uncommon for a major health insurer with a large market share to report less than 100 enrollments in the first week.
Reports today say the enrollments continue to trickle in at about the same rate.
Worse, the backroom connection between the insurance companies and the federal government is a disaster. Things are worse behind the curtain than in front of it.
Here is one example from a carrier--and I have received numerous reports from many other carriers with exactly the same problem. One carrier exec told me that yesterday they got 7 transactions for 1 person - 4 enrollments and 3 cancelations.
For some reason the system is enrolling, unenrolling, enrolling again, and so forth the same person. This has been going on for a few days for many of the enrollments being sent to the health plans. It has got on to the point that the health plans worry some of these very few enrollments really don't exist.
The reconciliation system, that reconciles enrollment between the feds and the health plans, is not working and hasn't even been tested yet.
When health plans call the special health plan "help desk" they are lucky to get through. When they finally get through, the feds are creating a "help desk ticket" to be researched.
Now, if we are enrolling 20 to 50 people per day per health plan per state through the federal exchange, that might be sort of manageable. But if this thing ever ramps up to thousands of enrollments a day...
In summary, big market share health plans are getting maybe 50 enrollments per day per state from the feds and that little bit of new business is a mess.
Click here to see what I said about all of this on NBC News yesterday.
A Health Care Reform Blog––Bob Laszewski's review of the latest developments in federal health policy, health care reform, and marketplace activities in the health care financing business.
Friday, October 11, 2013
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Customize your navigation menus
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text:
Dimensions of the Sacred:An Anatomy of the Worlds Beliefs
By Ninian Smart
University of California Press, 331 pages, $29.95
The modern study of religion is about a century old. It has a longer lineage, of course: Humes Natural History of Religion and Spinozas Tractatus Theologico-Politicus are important forerunners, as (on some readings) is Ciceros On the Nature of the Gods . But the presence in universities of the paraphernalia of a scholarly discipline with religion (as opposed to theology) as its topic does not much predate the twentieth century.
By some measures, this particular academic discipline is flourishing. The American Academy of Religion attracts more than ten thousand to its annual meetings, and several hundred doctoral degrees in religious studies are awarded every year in the United States. But the appearance of health is deceptive. The discipline is like those stalks of corn that grew from the seed that fell upon stony ground in the parable of the sower: they have grown quickly and they look luxuriant, but they havent the root-system to sustain life and are quickly withered by the sun. The sun in question is the recovery of theological voice, both within the academy and without, by those doing serious intellectual work from within the bounds of some particular religious tradition. The rationale for the establishment of the modern study of religion was that it could be properly scientific (a Geisteswissenschaft "these things always sound better in German), while theology could not. But no one, not even the practitioners of religious studies (other than a lunatic fringe), seripline, always undeveloped, has gone.
In light of all this, Dimensions of the Sacred has the look of a beautiful bloom on a dying plant. Of its kind it is very good. Ninian Smart has been thinking and writing about religion and the study of religion for more than three decades. He writes with care and clarity, and with the assurance of a scholar who has been displaying the skills evident in this book for a long time. He has read widely and has a facility for pithy summary of other peoples work and for synthesizing great swaths of scholarly work on particular topics"such as the relations between religious commitment and nationalism, or the effects of modernity upon the formation and maintenance of doctrinal systems. Smart is one of the disciplines major figures, and this book may turn out to be his major synthetic effort. If you want to know where the modern study of religion stands, and what topics are of interest to it, you should read this book.
What Smart offers is a descriptive analysis, from a broadly phenomenological perspective, of the main dimensions of religion"of religion in general, that is, as well as of particular religions. He wants to describe the grammar of religious symbols, to show the modes and forms in which religion manifests itself. Smart distinguishes seven such dimensions: doctrinal, ritual, mythic, experiential, ethical, social, and material. Each of these is given a chapter, and he includes a brief final chapter on the political effects of religion, wherein he offers some comments on the possible future of religion in general and of certain religions in particular.
Each dimension is treated both abstractly and concretely"as when, for instance, Smart defines the ritual dimension of religion (it is, for him, a species of repetitious or stylized performative act or utterance), and then offers many examples of its varieties. One of the books strengths is the range of the examples offered. In the ritual chapter, for example, Smart mentions Hindu fire sacrifices, Christian Easter rites, Chinese Marxist pilgrimages to Maos mausoleum, Tibetan Buddhist shamanistic rituals, Mahayana Buddhist worship of bodhisattvas, Quranic chant"and much more. Naturally, examples are treated very briefly; the scope of the book does not permit anything else. But so far as I can judge Smart is careful to be accurate and clear, and to show in the service of what theoretical point every example is used. His understanding of religion extends, as is obvious even from this list of examples, to Marxism, and indeed to any complex of phenomena that might reasonably be thought to have all or most of his seven dimensions.
Another strength of the book is that it doesnt treat its chosen dimensions in isolation. Smart attempts throughout to discern threads running across the dimensional divides, and to show why they are there. For instance, he explores the likely relations between telling particular stories and teaching particular ethical attitudes or practices: if an important religious narrative for you is that of Confucius life in the Analects , youll be likely to think that the ideal way to live is as a tradition-committed sage; if, on the other hand, you tell the stories of Buddhas previous lives as part of your religion, youll be implying a correspondingly different set of ethical attitudes as desirable. Similar kinds of connections are drawn among the other dimensions, and this is one of the things that makes the book read as a connected whole.
But the fact remains that the book has an oddly quaint air. Smart himself sees this, saying that much of his book is relatively old-fashioned. Theres nothing wrong with quaintness by itself, of course, but this isnt the quaintness of the thatched roof or the hand-made book; its the quaintness of the phrenologist who doesnt quite realize that his theories have no purchase. The easiest way to see this in the case of Smarts book is to ask what it is for: what benefits are to be had from reading it, and to whom is it addressed? Smart thinks that it is for all who take religion seriously, and that its audience is religionists who offer an uncommitted interpretation of religious phenomena. Its platform, he says, is that of science, in the broad sense; and its principal benefits are that it acts as a counterpoise to tribalism, and that it raises questions that it may be fruitful for committed religious people to consider.
But this is all wrong. It claims a status for itself above the objects of its study, whereas in fact its platform is simply one among others, not elevated above those of the religions it describes. Religionists are a tribe, too (though not a terribly interesting one), and its hard to see why speaking as a member of that tribe is anything other than one more instance of tribalism; and the religions are perfectly capable of generating and considering their own questions about religion, without the dubious help of religionists.
These points can be approached rather differently by asking about the place, in Smarts book, of judgments as to the truth of religious claims or the desirability of patterns of action advocated by religious communites. Smart seems to think of his work as eschewing all such, for he presents it as concerned only with synthetic description. When he does make normative judgments (for instance, he claims that the Guru Maharaj Ji is not worthy of the worship his followers give him), he always does so with a certain distanced coyness, as though saying, Yes, I can make judgments too, but when Im wearing my scholars hat I prefer not to.
But the coyness is a diversionary tactic: it masks the deep normative commitments that in fact saturate Smarts work. He is committed at least to the controversial claims that religionists are less tribal than people of faith; that a good understanding of beliefs held and practices performed by people of faith can be produced by comparative and synthetic description of the sort found in his book; and that it is possible to divorce descriptive acts from normative beliefs. The first and third of these claims are clearly false; and the second needs a lot of work if it is to be made plausible. But the fundamental problem is not that Smart believes such things (and many others like them), but that he seems to see neither that he does, nor that they require defense. He is blind to his own tribal allegiances.
This is a book with numerous virtues. But they are vitiated by the fact that the intellectual enterprise it represents is without roots, without the self-awareness to perceive and understand the nature of its own commitments, and with the power to bear only sickly fruit.
Paul J. Griffiths is Associate Professor in the Divinity School and in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.


text:
For three days in July 1863, Union and Confederate forces fought fierce
battles at and near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Union turned back one of the
last major thrusts of the Confederate troops toward the North. Many consider
it the turning point in the war; after Gettysburg, the South had to fight a
defensive war that was doomed to fail.
On November 20 of that same year, a battlefield cemetery was dedicated at
Gettysburg. Edward Everett, a well-regarded and prominent speaker, was the
main feature of the event. President Lincoln followed Everett's two hour
speech with what came to be known as the Gettysburg Address. In about two
minutes, Lincoln gave his speech; though the newspapers of the time had much to
say about Everett's speech and relegated Lincoln to the back pages, Everett
himself recognized the beauty of the simple elegance of Lincoln's words, and
told the President as much in a note he wrote to him the next day.
Images of a handwritten copy of the Address are
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a
final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have
consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us
— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation
under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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text:
Dell's high market capitalization and its recent struggles to transition from a commodity PC supplier to an enterprise IT vendor mean that multiple private equity firms would have to invest in the company for a buyout to be possible, analysts said Tuesday.
Bloomberg reported Monday that Dell was in negotiations for a private equity buyout, which was later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal.
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Dell spokesman David Frink said the company does not comment on rumors or speculation. Dell's share price rose Monday after the reports surfaced and that trend continued into early Tuesday afternoon Eastern Time, with shares trading at $12.69.
A buyout could help Dell focus on long-term goals by removing the company from the pressure of Wall Street to perform well financially. But questions remain around the company's long-term viability because of its recent financial struggles, executive departures and structural viability with a heavy reliance on the low-margin PC business, analysts said.
Placing Dell's market capitalization at around $21 billion, Sterne Agee financial analyst Shaw Wu on late Monday said a private equity buyout is not likely as it would require "sizable financing" involving multiple private equity firms to meet the buying price, Wu said. He also questioned the stability of Dell's structure and business.
But other analysts put more credence in the reports.
A buyout by private equity firms could be valid as the company is transitioning from a supplier of commodity hardware, mainly traditional personal computing, to being a supplier of enterprise-grade IT infrastructure, said Carter Lusher, chief IT analyst at Ovum, in an email.
"Dell's ambition is nothing less than offering the entire IT stack with supporting services. While this transition has been going on for several years, there is still much that has to be done," Luster said.
If the reports are true, Dell is trying to make the transition from a public to a private company with the albatross of meeting quarterly earnings expectations hanging around its neck. But investors are myopic and only care about next quarter's earnings per share, Luster said. Dell reports its next quarterly earnings on Feb. 19.
"Going private in order to make the major changes needed to remake the company makes strategic sense. However, going private is not a panacea as there is a heavy cost associated with that change of ownership structure. If Dell does not have the right private equity partners it could find itself in a worse situation than being a public company," Lusher said.
Dell in recent years has been restructuring its business to move away from low-margin PC products and into the enterprise business to increase profitability. The company has reduced its lineup of low-priced PCs and increased its high-priced offerings in an effort to improve margins in the competitive PC market. The company has also been on an acquisition spree with the goal of offering a complementary stack of services, software, networking, storage and server products.
Private equity firms may have different visions for Dell's future and it may be difficult for investors to agree on a common business plan, which could be a thorn in Dell's plans for a private buyout, said Ezra Gottheil, senior analyst at Technology Business Research.
"They have to appeal to their new owners," Gottheil said. "It allows the company to have a long-term plan."
Dell is a mature company operating on a quarterly basis, and much like Hewlett-Packard, is being undervalued due to the low-margin PC business, Gottheil said. A private buyout could allow the company to set a long-term stable business plan without worrying about margins on a quarter-to-quarter basis.
The PC business is attractive to customers, but it remains an under-appreciated revenue generator that contributes to Dell's positive cash flow, analysts said. However, Wall Street does not preach patience, and a private buyout would take away the distraction of the company's share price and the need to answer to investors, media and financial analysts, allowing Dell to focus on long-term goals.
"It fits very well with Michael Dell's philosophy. He has long counseled Wall Street to be patient with the transition he has tried to achieve," said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Dell has had its issues recently with unstable financial performance and departures of key executives like Dave Johnson, a senior vice president of corporate strategy who was a top executive responsible for establishing Dell's long-term goals. But Kay said the company needs five more years to complete the transition and establish a stable business, and a private equity buyout right now makes sense as Dell will find investors and also retain talent to achieve those goals.
"The timing is good, the assets are valuable," Kay said. "Now is the time, I'm not surprised at all they are doing it."
Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is email@example.com