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ThaiThaiBox Subscription Box Review – March 2016
ThaiThaiBox is a "monthly subscription box filled with surprise Thai products, including both food and non-food to enjoy." Boxes ship directly from Thailand.
Subscribers can choose from 3 boxes: Foods, Non-Foods, and Mixed. Non-Food includes household items while Mixed has both food and non-food. This review is for the Mixed box.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: ThaiThaiBox
The Cost: $29 per month for Foods box; $36 per month for Non-Foods box; $29 per month for Mixed box. Discount with longer subscriptions.
The Products: 6-8 different snacks and/or household items from Thailand
Ships to: Everywhere + free shipping
Check out the Food Subscription Box Directory for more food boxes and make sure to add ThaiThaiBox to your subscription list or wishlist!
ThaiThaiBoxes ship on the 20th of each previous month so that they arrive in the first week of the month.
The info sheet arrived taped to the inside of the box. I'm very grateful that it includes colored photos of each snack next to its name as well as a description of the snack and key ingredients.
Wai-Wai in Tom Yum Soup Flavor
This is my first time eating Thai instant ramen. While it doesn't taste similar to tom yum soup, it is very spicy… If you're a spicy noodles fan, this won't disappoint. If you're more heat-sensitive like I am, I suggest only using half the spice packet.
Tao Kae Noi in Classic Flavor
As someone who dislikes dried seaweed snacks I admit this one is pretty good. It's crispy like Japanese dried seaweed but flakier and, in my opinion, tastier. Sadly the packet only contains one piece of seaweed.
Lay's Tawan in Laab Sab Flavor
This is made by Lay's/Frito-Lay! These are puffy triangular chips with a slightly tangy, umami taste. The info sheet says that the chips are "Thai spicy minced pork salad" flavored but they taste more like barbecue to me. I would love to try more flavors.
Koh-Kae Original Flavor
Apparently the company, Koh-Kae, only makes peanut snacks but they do it well. I used to eat something very similar to this as a child. It's a bit like those honey roasted peanuts with the crunchy shells, except this shell is smooth and has a hint of coconut. This is my favorite snack of the box! My only gripe is that the pouch contained more air than peanuts, as you can see in the photo above. I need more peanuts!
Khao Chong 3-in-1 in Super Rich
This is powdered coffee. The directions say to mix it with 120ml (about 4 ounces) of hot water, which is basically nothing. I tried that and thought it tasted way too thick so I added 4 more ounces of water. The coffee tastes a little sweet, a little creamy. Nothing too fancy but I liked it.
Parrot Botanical Soap Bar 140g – $3?
This is a soap bar for the body and face. The first thing I noticed about the soap was its overwhelming floral smell. ThaiThaiBox even covered it in cling wrap but it wasn't enough to contain the scent. Unfortunately the heavy scent started giving me a headache so I may have to cut it up and repurpose it as room freshener or mothballs.
I couldn't find the exact type of Parrot soap online, so the link above is for 60g bars and not 140g.
This double-sided tube is a menthol nasal inhalant for relieving vertigo, dizziness, vomiting, and various other ailments. One side is for smelling and the other is for rubbing on your temples. Upon first smell it has a nice minty kick but goes away quickly. I also rubbed some on my temples and felt a nice cooling sensation. I'm not sure how effective it would be for relieving things like nausea and vomiting, but the tube is so small and fun I don't mind carrying it around.
Twin Lotus Dok Bua Ku Toothpaste in Original Herbal
Ok. So. This is toothpaste is brown. It's also kind of gritty and hard to squeeze out of the tube. I know that it's herbal toothpaste and there is no artificial coloring and that's very impressive and all… but it's brown (photo below).
Color prejudices aside, it's not very minty and doesn't foam up. While I understand Twin Lotus is going for natural ingredients, I prefer more foaming action. Also a heads up: cuttlefish bone is the third ingredient on the list, so this is not vegan.
Amira tamarind candies
I've never eaten tamarinds before so I don't know if this tastes like the real thing. It is sweet and tangy and fruity. I like it!
Above: Twin Lotus Toothpaste
Mini Coin Purse gift
Because this was the inaugural box, ThaiThaiBox added an extra gift for all subscribers. What a fun bonus! The coin purse is tiny. It can probably hold some coins or a pair of earbuds, but I do appreciate the gesture.
Verdict: This month's ThaiThaiBox has its pros and cons. The snacks were absolutely delicious and I hope ThaiThaiBox features more sweets in future boxes. One downside is the really strong-smelling botanical soap. Another is the toothpaste, which I just couldn't convince myself to use more than once. While it's difficult to calculate retail value, I think personal value would come from the the curation and novelty of trying interesting things directly from Thailand. If you want to discover authentic Thai foods and products, this would be a box to watch for.
What do you think of the first ThaiThaiBox?


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June 1, 2005
42 Fire Department Members Awarded Medals for Bravery in the Line of Duty in 2004
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta today presided over the annual Fire Department (FDNY) Medal Day Ceremony. The event honors firefighters, fire officers, fire marshals and fire companies that have gone above and beyond the call of duty, displaying courage under the most extreme conditions to help save lives. Forty-two members and companies received medals today at the ceremony held on the steps of City Hall.
"It is an honor to once again stand with members of the greatest Fire Department in the world to honor those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Every day, New York's Bravest put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us. Today's firefighters are meeting great challenges better than ever, with fire deaths in New York at the lowest they have been since 1919. I congratulate today's honorees and thank them, and all of New York's Bravest for all they do for their fellow New Yorkers."
"Today's ceremony is about celebrating and honoring the bravery and selfless dedication of the men and women of the Fire Department," said Fire Commissioner Scoppetta. "Everyday our members risk their lives to ensure the safety of millions of New Yorkers and today we take the opportunity to say 'thank you' for your sacrifice and courage. You have placed yourselves in grave danger so that others might live. That unwavering dedication is what makes you the bravest of the brave."
The day's top award, the James Gordon Bennett Medal, was given to Firefighter Victor J. Rosa, Jr. of Queens Ladder Company 138. Firefighter Rosa, along with members of Ladder 138, responded to a fire in Jackson Heights, Queens at 37-52 89th Street on December 15, 2004.
Five other medals were also awarded today to members who performed heroically at this fire. Although two civilian lives were lost and 15 others were critically or seriously injured at this fire, the toll would have been much worse if not for their efforts.
Also among today's medal winners is Firefighter Jeffrey Cool of Rescue Company 3 in the Bronx. Firefighter Cool was critically injured in the January fire at 236 East 178th Street in the Bronx that claimed the lives of Lt. Curtis Meyran and Lt. John Bellew. Today, Cool was honored with the Emily Trevor/Mary B. Warren Medal for performing a roof rope rescue at 851 Bruckner Blvd., in the Bronx on June 12, 2004. Due to the heavy fire conditions, which had extended to roof of the building, Cool was left without a substantial object to anchor himself to. Left without any options, he attached himself to another firefighter from Rescue 3 (aided by members of Squad 41) who then began to lower him into the shaft of the apartment building. From there, Cool was able to pull a victim from a fourth-story apartment window. Both he and the victim were then lowered safely to the ground.
Marine Engineer Joseph C. Stark was also honored today with the Firefighter David J. DeFranco Medal after he braved extreme conditions to save a man from drowning in the Hudson River at Little West 12th Street in Manhattan on May 3, 2004. ME Stark, a member of Marine Company 1, received a call for a person in the water adjacent to Marine 1's quarters. Without hesitation and in the driving wind and rain, he donned a flotation jacket and dove into the 48-degree water. ME Stark quickly located the victim who became combative and resisted any attempt to be rescued, putting both Stark and the victim in danger. With the assistance of Marine Wiper James Donovan, who was equipped with an exposure suit, Stark was able to restrain the victim and safely transport him to safety.
Keeping with Fire Department tradition, 42 medals were awarded to firefighters for their heroic actions from the previous calendar year. Firefighters, representing all five boroughs, were honored with medals endowed by a variety of nonprofit organizations and other supporters of the FDNY.
Edward Skyler / Robert Lawson (212) 788-2958
Francis X. Gribbon (FDNY)
(718) 999-2056
Watch the video in 56k or 300k

subset: commoncrawl


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27 November, Chaos, City of Dreams Manila - Fitness First presents the power of fitness! Now on it's 7th year - New You Achievement Awards (NYAA) is a celebration of the members' outstanding achievements for the whole year. Real-life success stories are an eye-opener. Though I always believe that fitness should be about being healthy and strong and weight loss can be our motivation to tell ourselves that we can do it too!
What a night of positivity and great wisdom - more so when I saw that before-and-after photos! Truly inspiring!
The awards recognize significant fitness milestones classified into (6) categories - Health acknowledges members who were able to improve their well-being and used several trainings to help overcome an illness or injury. Strength category goes for finalists who have successfully achieved their goal of building muscle mass while Shape are for members who achieved fitness goals of weight reduction. The Sports category are for those who were trained for a specific sporting event which they are passionate about. This 2015, an Open category was added dedicated to members who became successful / good transformation without a regular training and personal trainer then the Staff category recognizes Fitness First employees who have used their job to improve their health and well-being.
GET INSPIRED by these finalists as they were the most compelling in terms of depth and social impact of their achievements -
Health Category - Prince Chong
At 260 lbs, Prince was diagnosed with severe obesity and gout due to high levels of uric acid 2 years ago. Training with Fitness First for about 2 years, he is now at 160 lbs and no longer has gout. Now, Prince is more confident, sociable and much happier!
Strength Category - Erwin Temporal
Erwin's story of strength goes beyond muscles. Prior to joining Fitness First, he was a long-haired estrogen-using cross-dresser who had high cholesterol and sugar levels then diagnosed to be clinically depressed. He had a mishap in the salon one day which caused him to lose his hair and decided to change his persona. Started committing to be fit and worked out regularly at the club. From 110 lbs, he's now 142, and from 22% body fat, now 16%.
Sport Category - Demo Valmores
Demo now training for 2 years. His journey started with a broken heart which he said is the same case for every surfer. Went on a sabbatical leave for La Union. When he started surfing, he didn't have the stamina for his physically demanding sport. Soon realized that he needed to gain strength and improve his balance. He had customized sessions and now an award-winning surfer.
^ Congratulations Demo (4th from the right)
Awarded Overall Winner for this year's Fitness First NYAA
Body Combat and Body Pump classes were thrown into the mix together with weight lifting routines to work on his core!
"We chose Demo because he was able to make a real difference in his personal life as well as his ability to inspire others to do the same. His exceptional achievement is testament to the fact that anyone can change and achieve their personal goals with the right attitude and behavior. It takes a lof of discipline, determination and hard work but it certainly can be done. We've seen it countless times over the years and will definitely continue to see more." said Eric Seegers, National Fitness Manager of Fitness First Philippines.
Shape Category - Gretchen Sarsaba
She used to have very low self-esteem because of her weight. After College, nobody wanted to hire her because of her physical appearance. In 2014, she finally decided to make a change. Now goes to the gym 7 days a week and trains with her personal instructor for 3 times. Now, 60 lbs lighter and 100% more confident.
Open Category - Manu Reyes
Manu's is a story of second chances. By profession, he is a pastor and health trainer who used prohibited substances to enhance his appearance. This year, he decided to clean up his act and train without the aid of substances. It was an arduous journey to self discipline that naturally paid off.
Staff Category - Biondi Santi
Biondi has been with Fitness First Metro East for 4years now. Being overweight runs in the family, with everyone either obese or overweight. He struggled to go against his natural predisposition. He have encouraged the rest of his family members to take a step towards fitter and healthier life.
Amazing and beautiful stories! In the end, one emerges to become the overall winner.
Congratulations Fitness First! Please continue to make people beautiful, confident, healthy and inspired. More power and stay strong!


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The Schmidt Family Foundation, which was established in 2006 by Wendy and Eric Schmidt—he was the longtime CEO of Google—has taken on a very big job: It wants to help transform the world's environmental and energy practices in the 20th century.
In the meantime, there are messes to clean up.
So in July of 2010, as the BP Deepwater Horizon continued to spill oil, Wendy Schmidt joined forces with the X PRIZE foundation to create the $1.4 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, a competition to find better, faster and more efficient ways to capture crude oil from the ocean's surface.
Today (10-11) in New York, they announced a winner—a private company from Illinois called Elastec that specializes in oil spill recovery. Team Elastec won the $1 million first prize in the competition by developing technology that sucked up oil at a rate of 4670 gallons per minute – more than three times the industry norm.
"The point here is to have a better first response," Wendy Schmidt told me by phone last week. "We can keep the immediate damage from the next oil spill from being so damaging."
I spoke to Wendy Schmidt last week because I was curiously to learn more about the Schmidt Family Foundation and its mission. The foundation reported assets of about $168 million, as of December 2009 and it has made about $13 million in grants in 2011.
Why focus on energy and the environment?, I asked Schmidt. She replied:
We look at the world and say we have a 150 year old energy infrastructure that can fail. It's not designed well enough not to fail, catastrophically. We look at how we can commit our creativity to help safeguard the living systems of the world, to protect them and protect us, from the failures of a system of extraction and combustion that we know will have to end anyway.
To that end, the 11th Hour Project, which was started by Schmidt and is financed by the foundation, makes grants to a long list of advocacy and educational groups including The Regeneration Project, Green for All, the Rocky Mountain Institute and Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff project. All are designed to help people better understand their connection to the planet.
But changing attitudes takes time, and Schmidt said she felt a sense of urgency to do something as oil gushed during the summer of 2010 from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"We don't recognize this industry as being as dangerous as it is," she said.
The Oil Cleanup X Challenge attracted 350 inquiries and 37 submissions, which were whittled down to 10 finalists, according to Cristin Dorgelo Lindsey, who managed the competition for the X PRIZE Foundation. "It was a great mix of entrepreneurs and established industry players," Lindsey said.
Finalists advanced to field testing at OHMSETT, an oil spill response and renewable energy test facility located on a Navy base in Leonardo, NJ. Shell financed the testing and has indicated that it will work with the winners to try to bring the new technology to market.
Elastec, as it happens, was part of the BP Deepwater Horizon cleanup. The company's fire resistant booms were used to control the burning of oil floating on the water's surface. To win this prize, the company developed giant grooved disks that slurped oil of the test tank. National Geographic has photos here.
"A million dollars is a lot of money in some ways," Schmidt said, "but in a lot of ways not that much to generate so much innovation."
She's right about that. Prizes like this one seem to be able to spur change that market forces by themselves cannot. [See my 2009 blogpost, The strange power of prizes] Evidently, the creation of a prize—not just the money, but the visibility it brings and competitive spirits it unlocks—focuses companies to do R&D with a sense of urgency that is otherwise lacking.
Still, it struck me as odd that an environmental foundation would work to develop better cleanup equipment that could, at least in theory, make deep water oil drilling more acceptable.
Schmidt said there's going to be more drilling, whether environmentalists like it or not, and that will mean more spills.
"This is a fundamentally dangerous business, extracting volatile hydrocarbons under high pressure in pristine environments … so with 4,000 active drilling platforms in the Gulf, another accident is just waiting to happen."
"I don't think it's a question of if this will happen again," she said. "It's a question of when."


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Max: 18 slots at lv 73. 24G to unlock extra.
In Bakery Story, you start with 2 free appliance slots. You unlock the third at level 5 and then every fifth and fourth level, alternating. At level 73, you will open up the 18th slot, which is max number of appliance slots you get for free. It costs 24 Gem each to have extra slots, which can be purchased at any level. Purchasing extra slot means you'll have x number more at that level than those who don't. For more information about the max number of free slots for each level, check out the Leveling page.
To switch appliances, go to the Build menu, tap on an appliance, and store it. Don't bother selling appliances; you get 1/10 the gold back and none of the parts if it was a constructable/construbible.
Retired recipes can no longer be cooked. Also available on iOS only, goal recipes remain locked if not unlocked during the time they were goal rewards; no announcement from TeamLava if and when they will be removed.
Use Control + F to search for recipes.
Current appliances and recipes (and cooking time):
Current constructable/constructible (check out the constructable/constructible section for more information):
Retired constructables/constructibles:
Bakery Story >


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Developing an Effective Strategic Management Process that Drives Performance
An energy holding company, which includes a regulated utility and two unregulated businesses, was putting a new strategy in place that required aggressive top line and bottom line growth. Their existing planning, budgeting and performance management processes were not well coordinated, nor were they necessarily fostering the same desired behaviors. More
TAGS: Growth Strategies (Profitable Growth), Business Planning, Strategy
Consumer Segment Profitable Growth Strategy
A leading microprocessor manufacturer with a foothold in the consumer market was looking to increase segment profitability. Bridge helped identify target segment opportunities through reallocation of marketing resources, repositioning of the value proposition (brand promise), and the establishment of a robust performance measures. More
TAGS: Customer (Market) Insights, Growth Strategies (Profitable Growth), Business Planning, Marketing Resource Management, Sales Force Effectiveness, Pricing Strategy, Consumer & Retail
Listening to the Voice of the Market
Despite its market leadership, a global building products manufacturer had consistently delivered sub-par profitability relative to its main competitors. More | PDF
Freshening Up Strategic Planning
We have recently come through times where it was quite common to hear that things are changing too quickly to make strategic planning worthwhile, or that ''real-time'' processes are required to deal with rapid market shifts and competitor moves — with more value being placed on quick reactions rather than on well-reasoned responses. More | PDF
TAGS: Growth Strategies (Profitable Growth), Business Planning, Business Model Design, Commercial & Industrial
Affiliation and Attitudes Drive Teen Shopping Patterns
Qualitative research examines teen affiliation with various subcultures of "tribes" and reveals insights into the attitudes and behaviors driving shopping patterns of today's teenagers. More
TAGS: Customer (Market) Insights, Brand Experience, Consumer & Retail
Customer Relationship Management Comes of Age
As the applications and technologies used to organize and analyze customer information mature, IT executives, analysts and vendors are tackling some tough issues - how to take customer knowledge and make it actionable; how to measure return on investment tangibly from new and existing customer relationship initiatives; and how to leverage existing IT infrastructure and investments with new customer-facing applications. More
TAGS: Customer (Market) Insights, Growth Strategies (Profitable Growth), Sales Force Effectiveness, Operations Architecture, Insurance Cost Management, Insurance Information Technology Strategy & Planning


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Indo-Anglian Fiction: Writing India,
Elite Aesthetics, and the Rise of the 'Stephanian' Novel
Leela Gandhi
© all rights reserved
The last two years have been good for the Indian-novel-in English, witnessing a satisfying output from both established and emerging writers. Rohinton Mistry and Amitav Ghosh have each published long-awaited new novels, the success of a host of newer writers such as Vikram Chandra, Ardhashir Vakil and Kiran Desai (also the daughter of Anita Desai), seems to confirm the continuing appeal of the cosmopolitan 'India novel', and, of course, Arundhati Roy has just won the Booker. Concomitantly, a multitude of cynics and (India) enthusiasts have rushed to explain the rising status and growing popularity of Indian fictions. Among such cynical enthusiasts (or, in this case, enthusiastic cynics), Salman Rushdie has attracted the greatest attention for his recent diagnosis of the state and future of Indo-Anglian letters.
In the (always-already) infamous introduction to his co-edited anthology, The Vintage Book of Indian Writing : 1947 - 1997, also published as a separate article entitled, 'Damme, This is the Oriental Scene For You', in the New Yorker's special fiction issue (June 23 & 30, 1997), Rushdie makes a couple of startling assertions. First, he insists that the prose writing produced by Indian writers working in english 'is proving to be a stronger and more important body of work than most of what has been produced in the 16 'official languages' of India, the so-called vernacular languages ... ' (Rushdie & West 1997, x). Second, he baldly asserts that only those Indian writers capable of producing prose fiction in the english language are fit to be canonised: '"Indo-Anglian" literature represents perhaps the most valuable contribution India has yet made to the world of books' (My Emphasis; Rushdie & West 1997, x). In other words, after several linguistically and textually barren centuries, India has finally found its creative voice in the fictional fragments of the Rushdie generation.
Rushdie's arguments draw upon a certain sort of pervasive poststructuralist postcolonialism, which finds in the discourses of globalisation and internationalism a vital antidote for the terrible evils of 'nativism', 'localism' and 'nationalism'. In his essay, Rushdie recasts this theoretical bias as an adversarial confrontation between the internationally voluble English language, on the one hand, and the small sounding Indian 'vernacular', on the other. 'Parochialism', as he writes, 'is perhaps the main vice of the vernacular literatures' (Rushdie & West 1997, xv). The Indian entry into the order of 'englishness', is thus postulated as a heady arrival from the jagged confines of the South Asian subcontinent into the spherical wholeness of the larger world. The Indo-Anglian generation is so good precisely because it is 'too good to fall into the trap of writing nationalistically' (Rushdie & West 1997, xv).
Having made these discursive moves, Rushdie finally comes face-to-face with that old-fashioned charge of elitism. For, as he acknowledges, in a country such as India it is only the very elite who have access to englishness and to the cultural and financial currencies of cosmopolitanism. Accordingly, hostile and pious critics have all too often condemned Indo-Anglian fiction 'for being the literary equivalent of MTV culture, of globalising Coca-Colonisation' (Rushdie & West 1997, xiii). What then is Rushdie's response to such allegations? First, he urges discerning readers/theorists to recognise that the voice of anti-Indo-Anglianism belongs -- invariably -- to a retrogressive and dangerous breed of traditionalists and cultural nationalists who are always seeking a 'spiritual dimension essential for a "true" understanding of the soul of India' (Rushdie and West 1997, xiii). Second, he suggests -- quite productively -- that we must learn to live with the fact that elite culture (of one sort or another) has once again come to supply the necessary creative nourishment for the late-twentieth-century postcolonial novel.
I wish, in the remaining part of this essay, to pursue some of Rushdie's propositions along the axes of a more 'local' debate which, in some crucial ways, parallels the international version of the Indo-Anglian question. Some years ago, Rukun Advani, editor of OUP (India) and author of the novel, Beethoven Among the Cows, published an essay very similar in tone to Rushdie's recent piece. Effectively a defence of the elite underpinnings of the new Indian novel in English, Advani's essay, 'Novelists in Residence' (Seminar no. 384, August 1991), argued that the rising Indo-Anglian novel was inextricably tied to the rising Indian middle-classes, and that most significant new Indo-Anglian novelists had passed through the holy triumvirate of Doon School (India's most elite boys only public school), the super-privileged St Stephen's College (in Advani's words, 'an unusually attractive blend of Cambridge and the redder bricks of Delhi') and then, either Oxford or Cambridge. These thrice-blessed writers whom Advani named 'the Ghosh generation' after Amitav Ghosh (author of The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land and The Calcutta Chromosome), all, allegedly, emerged out of a fertile and hybridised cultural soil 'in which St Stephen's, like Plotinus's Great Soul, was the highest form' (Advani 1991, p. 15).
Despite its self-evident tongue-in-cheekness, Advani's polemical article gained the attention of several detractors many of whom, like myself, hailed from St Stephen's self-consciously and aggressively less elite and rival Hindu College, whose history (unlike that of the more conservative St Stephen's) happily includes a serious flirtation with the Indian national movement. However, while cross Hinduites read Advani's words as proof that St Stephen's was indeed the (deracinated) 'running dog of western imperialism', responsible Stephanian's provocatively invited contributions to the college magazine for two special issues celebrating 'The Stephanian School of Literature.' Needless to say, the constituent elements of this hypothetical 'school' are very similar to those which make up the 'englishness' of the Indo-Anglian fiction recently canonised by Salman Rushdie.
There is, of course, something inordinately foolish in the idea of a 'Stephanian School of Literature'. My objection, as Delhi University debaters might have once said, is really a 'matter of semantics'. Schools of thought are a serious sort of business. It takes a great deal of premeditation, organisation, self-consciousness, discipline and doctrinaire conviction to constitute a 'school'. If the dozen or so men of uneven talent and prolificity -- identified by the editors of The Stephanian's special issue as influential Stephanian fictionalisers -- had spent days and months collaborating and collectively experimenting in the production of a distinctive narrative style, we might, at a pinch, have called them a school. As it happens, these Stephanian writers conspicuously lack what the novelist Shashi Tharoor calls a 'continuing affinity, a sort of literary band of loyalty'.
Rukun Advani's 'Novelists in Residence', tells a charming and pretty story of a well spent youth on the other side of the road named after the great Stephanian teacher and philosopher S. K. Bose. It must have been very nice indeed to romp about with irreverence and intellectual fervour through cafes and libraries that, uncharacteristically for Delhi University, sold food and lent books. The 'Ghosh Generation' went to an exceptionally good college (to which they came from exceptionally good schools, from where they went to other good colleges) and their writing is strongly symptomatic of the intellectual and linguistic confidence which comes, I think invariably, from what we must call -- once again, in deference to Delhi University parlance -- a 'solid' education. There are, of course, and always have been many other places in Delhi University which deliver substantial instruction, nor must we forget that the Stephanian end product is jollied along in its confident irreverence by the additional bonus of class, privilege, etcetera.
What I am really trying to say here is that St. Stephens itself was a happy and probably very formative incident in the lives of some 'Indo-Anglian' writers. But the fact that these writers were once at St. Stephens is itself nothing more than an interesting accident. We do not assume a Stephanian school of breakfast food because some very roughly coeval Stephanians now work for Kellogs or, for that matter, a Stephanian school of acting, even though countless Stephanians have remained stubbornly and visibly thespian in adult life. Nevertheless, the curiously presumptuous idea of a 'Stephanian School of Literature' has acquired a horrible tenacity. Within some Indian circles, people -- of the academic and journalistic variety -- are starting to talk as though recent 'Indo-Anglian' fiction, specifically the novel form, has received a characteristically Stephanian schooling.
It is certainly -- albeit mistakenly -- the case that the figure of the 'contemporary Indian novelist' has become indistinguishable from that of the riotously witty and determinedly mobile ex-Stephanian. The writer Shama Futehally inadvertently confirms this popular perception in the Acknowledgments to her neglected novel Tara Lane (1993), where she thanks supportive friends who, 'have told me firmly that you can write a novel without having been to St Stephen's College. Therefore any merit and all faults are to be laid at their door'. It is both disturbing and instructive to read Futehally's somewhat apologetic self-assertion as a freakishly non-Stephanian writer of novels. We may well recall Harold Bloom on the anxieties of influence here, because our subject is really canon formation or what Raymond Williams has called the politics and culture of 'dominant' forms.
Let me suspend my initial indignation for a moment to argue that while 'A Stephanian School of Literature' is a false presumption, it is also a necessary idea. Take the eager reviewer for the India Today who clever-cleverly claimed that, '"St Stephen's" of course, is a code for writing which is reminiscent of privileged, bustling quads and redolent of jockstraps and cynical, brilliant undergraduates hyped up by their gonads and their wit'. The mind boggles at this improbable celebration of gonadic intelligence which gives phallocentrism a whole new meaning. And yet, this statement needs to be read for what it is, namely, an articulation of social desire which belongs, structurally and generically, to the sort of statement brilliantly captured and parodied in the opening sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'.
There is a point to this seemingly bizarre and preposterous comparison. For, although differently, the India Today reviewer and Mrs Bennett both tell us something about the motivations and conventional energies of the novel form. If the narrative of nineteenth-century English prose fiction is impelled by the necessary and absurd logic of matrimony, contemporary 'Indo-Anglian' fiction is, I submit, driven by the even more absurd mythos of Stephania. In other words, if marriage is necessary to the social world of the nineteenth-century novel, St Stephen's is, as Advani suggests, symbolically and metaphorically indispensable to the imaginative preoccupations of recent mainstream Indian English fiction. All of this begs some consideration of genre, and happily, a great deal of traditional-critical and High-Theoretical ink has been spent in making social sense of the novel form.
Benedict Anderson (the blue-eyed theorist of postcolonial speculation) has famously suggested that novels -- and newspapers -- are the print-forms through which nations recognise themselves. It is Anderson's contention that nations are imaginative and cultural artefacts rather than empirical and scientific entities. They are imagined into coherence because, 'the members of even the smallest nations never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion' (Anderson 1983, p. 6). The novel and the newspaper are, in this context, the two technical secular forms capable of containing and representing -- in one place -- the impossible diversity that is the nation.
Thus, the novel becomes a sort of proxy for the nation. Its pages communicate, in Anderson's words, 'the solidity of a single community, embracing characters, author and readers, moving onward through calendrical time' (Anderson 1983, p. 27). This does not at all mean that the novel is ipso facto a truly democratic, authentic, objective, natural and unmediated slice of 'national' life. It so happens that nations are shaped and sliced according to the informing tastes and appetites of novelistic consumers and producers. Thanks to Raymond Williams and his ilk we now comprehend the novel as the fictional form that is appropriate to the characterisation of bourgeois society and that is the bearer, as it were, of bourgeois ideology. To put this in a less bristly way, the novel form tends to imagine the nation as and through the middle-classes and their sensibilities.
Could we even say that nations are imagined -- invented -- when the middle-classes are interesting enough to have novels written about them? The interesting-ness of the middle-classes is, of course, historically and culturally variable. So also, the Indian babu has changed considerably over time to become, over the last couple of decades, more and more mobile, affluent, globalised, metropolitan etcetera. Inevitably, he now wants this self image to be consolidated and confirmed in the novels he reads and sometimes writes. It could be said, a la Anderson, that he wants and is able to fictively imagine the nation as the embodiment of his aspirations.
There is, however, another 'postcolonial' sub-plot to the story of the self-made, self-making new Indian English novel. Edward Said et al have vociferously claimed that the English novel itself emerged out of an unwholesome collaboration with the bourgeois and expansionist aspirations of a decisively imperial nation. Said often protests too much, and as a number of recent critics have argued, his insistence on the grand narrative of imperialism entirely suffocates the complex ways in which the colonised world creatively and psychologically managed the 'West'. But I cite Said here because I believe that, with the exception of select writers like Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy, the new Indian English novel is seriously constrained by his theoretical hypotheses. It is Said's claim, specifically in his monumental Culture and Imperialism (1993), that the nineteenth-century novel was principally a cultural form which -- almost without exception -- refined and articulated the political hegemony of Empire and, therefore, 'englishness'. In Said's words:
For the British writer, 'abroad' was felt vaguely and ineptly to be out there, or exotic and strange, or in some way or other 'ours' to control, trade in 'freely', or suppress when the natives were energised into overt military or political resistance. The novel contributed significantly to these feelings, attitudes, and references and became a main element in a consolidated vision, or departmental cultural view, of the globe (Said 1993, p. 88)
The main thrust of Said's argument here, as in earlier books like Orientalism (1978), is that the nineteenth-century novel was the paradigmatic cultural form through which the 'West' represented and narrated its possession of the rest. All of this puts a heavy burden on the 'third world' novel, which is now obliged to do self-consciously postcolonial things like 'write back to the West', 'find its voice', 'appropriate' and perennially 'subvert' the Englishness of English fiction. As Said puts it: 'Many of the most interesting postcolonial writers bear their past within them -- as scars of humiliating wounds, as instigation for different practices ... as urgently reinterpretable and redeployable experiences, in which the formerly silent native speaks and acts on territory taken back from the empire ... ' (Said 1993, pp. 34-35).
In other words, our civilisational silence has only been broken recently through the incomprehensible prose style of Salman Rushdie and Homi Bhabha. More seriously, Said's plan for postcolonial narrative 'resistance' narrowly includes only that very specific class of elite third-world intellegentia. In order to successfully instigate the 'different practices' he writes about, it seems necessary to be a certain sort of very cosmopolitan individual, educated and employable in the 'West', mobile, migratory, diasporic. To put this simply: so as to always speak back to the 'West', it is crucial to speak in a way that the 'West' understands, publishes and, paradoxically, authorises. It is crucial, that is, to hold a ticket to the new ex-colonial and globalised middle-classes.
Let me try and pull these digressive arguments together. I would like to suggest that the figure of the new/postcolonial Indian English novelist is in a deliciously 'win-win' situation. The intervention of critics such as Said makes it possible for this figure to speak simultaneously from an enviable position of privilege and dissent. Paradoxically, it is by virtue of its hegemonic status within the nation that the new Indian English novel becomes counter-hegemonic in relation to the 'West'. In this sense, the postcolonial novel seems to occupy the same space and possess a similar agency to the anti-colonial nation-state. Which brings us back to the mythos of Stephania: that rich reservoir of elitism and irreverence, privilege and -- that terrible word -- subversion. St Stephen's, we might argue, is utterly emblematic of the social aspirations and -- however skewed -- the postcolonial obligations of the new Indian English novelist. Where else, as Upamanu Chatterjee's English, August demonstrates, can we imagine the formation of the radically abusive artist as a young civil servant?
This account of the 'Stephanian' novel is not meant to communicate a sense of moral outrage. I have no desire to instigate or participate in a pious diatribe against the 'deracination' of the new Indian English novel. In a political climate where the worst sort of cultural and religious fanaticism is, indeed -- and as Rushdie keeps reminding us -- regularly justified in the name of cultural authenticity, a metropolitan sensibility has a lot going for it. I take it as a given that a variety of historical and literary circumstances have made it possible -- even imperative -- for the postcolonial novel to narrate the nation through a distinctively Stephanian idiom. This is the generic and cultural paradigm within which new Indian writers in English display their fictional products, and we must judge them accordingly.
Raymond Williams is instructive here. In his insightful essay, 'Forms of Fiction in 1848' Williams suggests that nineteenth-century novels are 'better' or 'worse' in the extent to which their narrative mode is 'indicative' or 'subjunctive'. While indicative novels, he argues, simply 'offered an account of what had happened and what was happening', subjunctive texts went that little bit further in gesturing beyond what was socially or culturally available. Thus, while subjunctive texts symptomatically betray the constraints of their literary/cultural milieu they are also inventive, interrogatory, rebellious. Through them we come to understand both the pleasures and the limits of the world in which we find and recognise ourselves. In pursuing Williams out of Victorian England into 'postcolonial' India, I would like to suggest that most 'Stephanian' novels are boringly -- if skilfully -- 'indicative' of the sensibility through which the newly elite Indian middle-classes recognise their community in the nation. Very few, challenge the limits of this sensibility, fewer still refuse the postcolonial middle-classes the narcissistic pleasures of self-recognition.
In this regard, writers like Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh and now, Arundhati Roy are, I believe, among the most 'subjunctive' in their Stephanianisms. While Ghosh's bildungsromans seriously negotiate the intellectual content of his literary inheritance, traversing unusual and decisively non-metropolitan cultural circuits between, for instance, India and Egypt, Roy's fictional canvas, likewise, renders up a map of misrecognition. Her unusually anti-picaresque heroine in The God of Small Things, enacts a journey in reverse -- from the cosmopolitan wholeness of America to the quiet provincialism of Kerala.
Seth, too, is unique in his playful manipulation of readerly expectations. His work simultaneously invokes and undoes all the conventional tropes of 'Stephanian' fiction. His journey abroad, in From Heaven's Lake, takes us to Tibet rather than Oxford, his linguistic versatility in anthologies like The Humble Administrator's Garden, even further East to China, and his first 'metropolitan' novel, The Golden Gate, refuses the nostalgic blank-verse of diaspora to produce, instead, a triumphantly gay and unrecognisable Californian novel in sonnet form. The surprises of A Suitable Boy are, likewise, numerous. To conclude, however, I would especially like to draw attention to Seth's Haresh -- that wickedly inaccurate portrait of a Stephanian: paan-chewing, sartorially dubious in his co-respondent shoes, a third-divisioner in English honours, a 'B.Com type' who goes to England for a footwear course, a joy to the Hinduite reader.
So, to come full circle, there are serious and wider ethical limitations to Rushdie's and Advani's line on Indo-Anglian fiction. In valorising a certain class of writer in the name of enlightened cosmopolitanism, both turn away from the creative and cultural realities of another, possibly more troubled, India. The voice of this 'other' India may not be as immediately accessible or aesthetically appealing to an international readership, but surely this is a matter of taste rather than value. In this regard then, among the writers variously canonised by Rushdie and Advani, the most interesting include those who remain suspicious of their own cultural privilege, and whose fiction is thus capable of pushing against the generic/narrative limits of its own elitism.
Leela Gandhi lectures in the English Department of La Trobe University.
Her books include Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction, Allen & Unwin.
Works Cited
Advani, R. 1991, 'Novelists in Residence', Seminar, no. 384, August 1991, pp. 15-18
Anderson, B. 1991, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd edn., Verso, London & New York
Rushdie, S. & West, E. (ed.) 1997, The Vintage Book of Indian Writing : 1947 - 1997, Vintage, London
Said, E. 1993, Culture and Imperialism, Chatto & Windus, London
Williams, R. 1986, 'Forms of Fiction in 1848' in Barker et al. ed. Literature, Politics and Theory, Methuen, London
http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/copyright.html for copyright notice.


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Oer 2 years since I have entered anything here and so much has changed.
I moved to ohio in december of 2010
Got a job at McDonalds were I have worked for a year and half.
Fell madly in love with my best friend
Had my heart broken
Im in culinary school.
Just an over wiew for anyone who cares
My boaring life
Every wonderd how im doing? Come and read then!!


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WASHINGTON — President Obama acknowledged "growing pains" with his signature health insurance law on Thursday, offering a number of proposals that he said would expand health insurance and reduce premiums.
In a speech at Miami Dade College in Florida, Obama used a number of analogies to describe the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. He compared it to a "starter home" that needs improvements over time, and even to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, a smartphone recalled last month after they started catching fire.
But even with the phone's problems, he said, "you don't go back to using a rotary phone."
Obama spent much of his long-awaited speech on health care — delayed by Hurricane Matthew and the campaign season — arguing with Republican lawmakers who have sought to repeal the law. But he also laid out in greater detail his proposals to improve on Obamacare even as the time limit on his presidency hit the three-month mark. "This isn't kind of a rah-rah speech," he said. "I might get into the details."
Obama urged Republican governors — in Florida and 18 other states — to expand Medicaid despite a Supreme Court ruling that Congress can't force states to participate. He argued that the federal government pays most of the tab — more than 90% of the cost of new Medicaid enrollments.
He proposed expanding the tax credits for people who buy health insurance on state and federal exchanges, using money saved from Medicaid.
And he pushed for a public option — now re-branded as a "public plan fallback" — that would add a government-run health insurance plan to the list of options offered on federal exchanges. That proposal, he said, is modeled after the Republican-passed Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003.
"This is not a radical idea," Obama said. "It was fine when it was their idea."
Obama's speech comes as the federal government opens the enrollment window on new health insurance signups in the exchanges. The Department of Health and Human services is aiming for 1.1 million new enrollments, which it hopes will encourage more competition and reduce premiums.


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Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm a sucker for a good old fashioned Mexican fiesta. And until I saw this first wedding, I thought I was Mexico's number one fan, but I think this adorable couple has me beat! Sent into us by the super talented Sutherland Kovach Studio, this wedding is sure to start your Cinco de Mayo off on the right foot. We're talking serious Mexican inspired details from the papel picado to the gentlemen in sombreros...Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw a cute little donkey wandering around as well. For the rest of the down under details, check out the gallery!
Click here for entire image gallery!
From Sutherland Kovach Studio: This is the wedding of Kristy and Mat, two people who were just made for each other. A trip to Mexico inspired them to celebrate their wedding fiesta-style and they enlisted the help of local stylist, Cath Lewis, to bring it all together. There were plenty of wonderful touches that really brought the day to life, including the stationery designed and illustrated by an artist friend, the guests dressed in theme, the colourful seating plan, the cake decorated with miniature papel picados, the donkey, the passe-tete photobooth, and the pinata. The Sawmill Cafe, an eclectically decorated venue in the little seaside town of Leigh, north of Auckland, made the perfect setting.
Venue: Sawmill Cafe / Styling: Cath Lewis at Matakana Events Company / Flowers: Bloom Saloon / Cake: Icing On The Cake / Photography: Sutherland Kovach Studio


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Windows/Linux Dual Boot
So you've heard great things about Linux: faster, cheaper, more efficient, more stable. Sounds good. You'd like to try it out, but probably have a lot of time and data invested in Windows and can't afford to be down while figuring out how to use Linux for your daily tasks. Windows and Linux can live comfortably on the same computer, even on the same hard drive. The choice of operating system can be made when you power on. This is commonly called a "dual boot" configuration, and one of the most common questions among new Linux users is how to set it up.
My system is a Pentium II 400MHz with 128MB of RAM and an 11GB EIDE (actually Ultra-DMA 33 ATAPI, for you hardware gurus) hard drive. The hard drive had Windows 95 "C" on one big FAT32-formatted C: drive, which is a typical factory configuration. I tested installs of Red Hat Linux 5.1 and SuSE Linux 5.2.
Before starting, there are two terms you need to be familiar with: partition and file system. The disk can be divided into smaller, separate pieces which can belong to different owners. For dual booting, Windows will own some and Linux will own others. The word "partition" does not refer to the wall; it refers to the separated space. Thus, we say Windows is installed "on" the first partition. The file system is a method of organization. Your hard drive can have different file systems. The operating system provides the directory tree (also referred to as "the file system") as a catalog of available files. Every operating system has its own type of file system, and other operating systems often don't know how to read it. Lucky for us, Linux is a versatile operating system and it does understand the file system used by Windows 95 and Windows 98.
Most factory-installed Windows installations take up all the space on your hard drive, leaving no room for installing Linux. The first and most difficult thing we must do is clear some space where Linux can be installed. Linux needs to have partitions of its own, but Windows does not have the ability to resize partitions. Ordinarily, this would mean you would have to delete your existing partition (and everything on it) to make room on the drive and then create partitions of smaller sizes and reinstall. You can still do this, but there is a better way.
Most Linux distributions come with a special tool to allow you to resize or divide hard drive partitions. Called FIPS, the First (non-destructive) Interactive Partition Splitter, it is normally found on your Linux CD in a directory called /dosutils. You will also need a blank, formatted floppy disk to use as a boot disk. For most older Windows installations, that should be all. However, if you have Windows 98 or a recent version of Windows 95 with a large hard drive (bigger than 2GB), you may need some additional tools if you are using the FAT32 file system.
To check what type of file system Windows is using, open Windows Explorer, right click on the C: drive and choose Properties. If you see "File System: FAT32" on the General tab, you will need some additional tools to support this newer file system.
To adjust your partitions, you will need version 2.0 or higher of FIPS. If the version included with your Linux distribution is older than this, the latest version is available for download from the FIPS home page at http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/. If you want to share files between Windows and Linux (a good idea), you will also need to have version 2.0.34 or higher of the Linux kernel. Table 1 is a list of Linux distributions known to support FAT32. If your distribution does not include support, you will need to upgrade the kernel. Upgrading a kernel is beyond the scope of this article, so check the documentation included with your distribution or your distributor's web site for information about how to do that.
Before you can resize your Windows partition, a few steps must be taken to ensure that the process goes smoothly. First, delete any files from your hard drive that are not being used; for example, any old files in the C:\windows emp folder, and then empty your recycle bin. Next, check your file system for errors using Scandisk, and compact your hard drive using Defrag. I'll assume you Windows users know how to do this. When running Scandisk, be sure to check the box next to "Automatically Fix Errors". Defragmentation consolidates all your data at the "front" of the drive to make room at the "back" of the drive for your new partition.
When both are finished, it would be wise to note how much space is available on the disk. If this number is less than the amount required to load Linux (check your distribution's documentation for space requirements), you'll need to delete more files or uninstall some software to make room.


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Our apartment officially has officially been hit with the sniffles. We've walking around snorting and blowing our noses, and chasing our toddler with wet wash clothes to wipe his runny nose, which has become a whole messy face situation. There are a
5-Element Kitchen: Chopping into Spring
In the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) 5-element system, spring corresponds to the Wood element. If you think of Wood as bamboo, and not an oak tree, it's a bit easier to see how wood's correspondences make sense: the wood element exhibits characteristics
Pantry Prescriptions: Ghee Whiz!
In yesterday's post about whole grains and kichari, I mentioned toasting spices in ghee. Gee, you might have exclaimed, what's ghee?! Ghee is a type of clarified butter commonly used as a cooking fat in traditional Indian and Ayurvedic cooking.
Falling Back in Love with Whole Grains.
Passover has ended and now I'm liberated from eating matzoh! Welcome back whole grains, breads, legumes and flour, where have you been all my life?! It just so happens that today's back-to-regular-diet-after-passover-day coincides with an exciting initiative launched by the
Superfruit and Superaromatic Charoset
This article was originally posted on The Jew and the Carrot (3/21/13), the food blog associated with the Jewish Daily Forward. Let's face it: even without the charoset, we honor mortar on Passover. The food of this holiday isn't—how can I say this


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By OpenMedia
June 24, 2013
OpenMedia original article
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, warns that governments are taking control of the Internet
Article by James Hurley for The Telegraph:
Companies and governments "trying to take control of the internet" are undermining the founding principles of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned.
The inventor of the World Wide Web said the internet is facing a "major" threat from "people who want to control it on the sly" through "worrying laws" such as SOPA, the US anti-piracy act, and through the actions of internet giants.
Read more at Business Insider


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The PET LIFE Argyle Knitted Dog Sweater Features a Knitted Fashion Argyle Pattern and a Comfortable Ribbed Dog Collar. This Trendy Dog Sweater Features a Leash-Slit Holder Above the Neck area. This Pet Sweater is Available in Multiple Sizes and color variations.
- Ribbed collared cotton sweater
- Fashion argyle pattern
- Features a leash slit holder behind the neck area
- Available in multiple sizes


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Plans to make a notoriously dangerous junction safer by recruiting a lollipop person have been delayed – because nobody wants to do the job.
The post was first advertised in January after pressure from parents who thought their children were being put at risk as they walked to Berkhamsted's Ashlyns School.
They complained that younger children in Years 7 and 8 were now having to negotiate the speedy area where Kingshill Way meets Kings Road and Shootersway.
The new years were added at Ashlyns when it switched from being an upper to a secondary school in September.
A recent crash between a motorbike and a car that left two hospitalised reignited parents' calls for the junction needs to be made safer.
Catherine Davies, of Kings Road, is mum to twins Amy and Maddie Perry, both 12, who use the junction to get home from Ashlyns School.
Catherine said: "The junction is still clearly an accident waiting to happen – but next time with a school child."
Herts Highways had aimed to hire a new lollipop person – going against its usual policy of not funding crossing patrols for secondary schools.
It is thought that nobody came forward for the role due to other commitments and because the pay – £6.50 per hour – was not high enough.
Councillor Ian Reay said: "We cannot get anybody to apply, because people in that area do not have the time to do it.
"Nobody seems to be interested in doing this job for a couple of hours each day. I suspect it's because it's such an affluent area."
The lollipop person would have been based in Kingshill Way – even though few houses are on that street when compared with Kings Road, where most children cross.
Just to reach the crossing point children would have to cross Shootersway – where there are no plans for a lollipop person.
Catherine said: "You would need two lollipop ladies. I really did not see the point. I think it would double your chances of being hit.
"If there was a lollipop lady at the one point where people cross, that would be great!"
Herts Highways has put £20,000 into making the junction safer by improving signs, road markings, pavements and drainage, cutting back vegetation and installing flashing lights. Herts Highways officer Martin Sears said people can now choose for themselves the safest place to cross.
The longer-term plan is to install traffic lights at the junction at a cost of £350,000.
It is thought that developer Taylor Wimpey could provide the money in return for building lots of homes nearby.


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August hearing set for insurance rate change request
RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — Homeowners and insurers will have to wait until hurricane season for a hearing on a proposed change in home insurance rates that would send rates up an average of 25 percent across the state.
Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has ordered a public hearing for Aug. 6 in Raleigh.
Last month the NC Rate Bureau, which represents the state's insurers, requested the rate change that could send rates up 35 percent for most coastal areas. Some areas, though, including much of Wilmington, Leland and Burgaw, could see a slight decrease if the proposal is approved as requested.
Goodwin, who has publicly opposed the rate proposal, will serve as the hearing officer and determine what, if any, changes should be made. Experts from the NC Rate Bureau will speak on behalf of the insurance companies, while experts from the NC Department of Insurance will represent the public.
Members of the public will not get to speak at the hearing. The Department of Insurance did accept public input last month. The department says it received more than 10,000 emailed or mailed comments, and about two dozen people made comments during a session Jan. 24.
Based on that input, NCDOI experts believe the requested rate increases are not justified. According to a news release, NCDOI's concerns are:
·The filing uses hypothetical data, rather than actual data, when calculating costs including those for the net costs of reinsurance and trended modeled hurricane loss costs.
·The filing lacks necessary data, documentation and explanations to meet statutory burden of proof for rate increases.
·Old data is used in the filing when more when more recent data should be available and included in the analysis.
The filing is available for public review on the Department's website.
Click here to view the entire filing.
An average 7 percent rate increase took effect in July. Insurers say they're trying to catch up on decades of what they call "inadequate" pricing while anticipating potential payments in 2016 and beyond.
More: continued here


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Linked by David Adams on Tue 13th Jul 2010 17:02 UTC
Following up on the news a couple of weeks ago that Microsoft had killed the Kin, its first Windows Phone 7 device, after only a month on the market, we found a list of ten gadgets that, despite their promise, didn't make it in the marketplace. Some of these devices, such as the Modo, laid the groundwork for blockbuster products (iPod). Some, like the Audrey, developed a cult following once their failure made them affordable on eBay. Others just flat out failed (DataPlay). Are there any short-lived gadgets that didn't make the list? What about the CueCat?
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Death currently in progress towards recognition
by JonathanBThompson on Tue 13th Jul 2010 22:21 UTC
Seems the mobile version of the site doesn't make the article visible, but one old one and a new one come to mind, and both are philosophically tied:
BeIA (Sony eVilla, did they even do any name research for english-speaking countries?) and it's more recent reincarnation, also with poor naming (though names can be ignored if something works well):
The Joo Joo
I owner how many eVillas were sold, as well as how many Joo Joos? Both purport to solve the same problem, and both were too expensive for their functionality being dedicated, and neither has done well at their claimed tasks.


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Sale ended Back to shop
Vibe Kit, Blue-Green
Member Pricing Only
Product Details
The Pulsar® Vibe is a digital vaporizer that is for use with dry herb. The heating chamber is easily filled by removing the mouthpiece. LED display shows battery life, actual temperature and desired temperature. Temperature is easily adjusted by clicking the up or down button. Features a double circulation heating system which optimizes even heating & energy efficiency.
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Each band has a goal. That goal is to be the best representation of themselves as they can be. Fighting to be the perfect sound, show, and experience any band could be. As a team of bands working together anything can happen. Support the life of music, together!
2012 is coming, and what of Altayon? Well that is not in the air, it is in the life of music. Our second album is finalized for recording now. Consider this the year for our next album. Throughout the months of 2012 we will be releasing acoustic versions of each song on a youtube video for all of you to hold you off till the album is complete. The heavy stuff will blow your mind away...
Of course without tooting our own horn we mean. The music is only as good as those who listen to it. And that is you, our fans, friends and family. Our love and support for you is as great as yours for us. Each re-post, every listen, visit, show appearance and more that you do is another push of our heart forward. You keep us alive, the music connects us.
From our world to yours, Altayon would like to say thank you for a wonderful 2011. Here is to next year. Keep making things happen and we'll see you out in the field soon...
Look out April (a festival in talks)
Until again... ~ Telmorn Altayon
This last year of 2010 has been filled with life loss, birth, new meetings and walk a ways. One thing is certain, it has been embraced. I can truly say I'm lucky for being alive in 2010. Towards the end of the year I got to see musical friends I had not seen in many years. I also finally got to live out one of my dreams. To play on stage with the best drummer I've had the privilege of being on stage with, Jofu. That lead me to being on stage again with an instrument in my hand for the first time since 2007. So I thank David, Zandelle and everyone else involved in that night for bringing me back to life. Other things that have happened with my music life is that Altayon has finally been brought to my forefronts of importance. I have been blessed with finding some of the best musicians I have even known, and heard. This marks the first change in 2011. Altayon will no longer be a studio band, but a live event. It is with their joining that this is even possible. So with my soul I give you my appreciation. I hope I can give back to you the feelings you've given me in my life for this great opportunity. With that said... Altayon has some wonderful and loyal fans, friends and family, that has helped this band even exist in the first place. You've helped us gain 2nd place on ReverbNation, built up a nice following on our YouTube account (with our acoustic renditions of songs) and also our newest venture with Road Runner Records' site. Within three days of debuting at number 5th we are not 3rd on the daily list for Metal. There is no way that would have ever happen if it wasn't for those people supporting our efforts. I promise to keep pushing my creative mind to their limits for you, so that you can continue enjoying music from Altayon. SignMeTo RoadRunner: http://signmeto.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/altayon ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/altayon
We have four major goals happening this coming 2011 year. 1) Getting on stage again in full capacity. 2) Recording videos for our first album songs. 3) Finishing our second album. 4) And of course, getting signed!
There truly are no words to express how much it means to my heart that you have all helped, pushed, and stood by Altayon over this past year. I will ensure over the span of Altayon's career, our fans will always be top priority. Expect free things for the people who love Altayon, from shows, music, and merchandise and our undivided attention. With all that I am I pass a wish of peace upon your lives, until again... ~ T
Be safe on this New Year's Eve
Altayon is now signed up to a website organized through Road Runner Records. This site is to see how well the band is doing and hear what people are saying. Your votes, reviews and listens will help bring Altayon to the Road Runner Records list of bands. This is an opportunity for Altayon to get signed... How can this happen? Follow the link below.
Altayon at SignMeTo http://t.co/pkZGcJt Please take a listen and vote to help Altayon get signed to Road Runner Records.
It is simple to vote, you just give them a User Name, Email and Password. Once you're signed up go to your email account and click the link to validate it is you. then you can sign in and vote. After that, go to my profile by searching for Altayon and you will see a rating system, 1 to 10 on top. Please help out Altayon...
Peace in harmony, until again... ~ Altayon
Brushed against winds tormented reserve, chapters of pain revealed secrets of misguided questions through a history of loss Kings and misery set free. Welcome to "Altayon" a musical release of centuries uncovered from a past long forgotten.
Altayon has been searching for some musicians so that we may start playing shows once again.
Keyboardist/Pianist: Guitarist: Bass: 5 or 6 string bass And finally a female vocalist to help get that "Theater Experience"
Until again... ~ Altayon; By the blood of the rose...


text:
If Osama bin Laden is apprehended, the news will be met with a sigh of relief, perhaps even jubilation, by governments across the Muslim world. The capture of this soft-spoken but effective agitator would enable heads of state, directors of intelligence services and police commissioners from Casablanca to Jakarta to sleep comfortably for the first time in more than 500 nights. As spiritual leader and financier of the most shadowy and ubiquitous organization in modern Islam, one that is highly admired by the oppressed of the earth from North Africa to Southeast Asia, bin Laden has represented the biggest threat to...
Osama bin Laden: Islam After bin Laden
Advice for the U.S.: Don't make al-Qaeda's leader a martyr
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text:
|( 13 upvotes )
|At least you she puts out! Nice!
|At Least~~ It isn't a guy!!
|Just think of it as a giant third boob...like that chick from Kung Pow.
|You can have all the pregos at your restaurant, Derek.
|But not this one.
|( 6 upvotes )
|I'd still do her...
|( 11 upvotes )
|The Trunk Monkey Chaperon!
|Serious monkey is not amused.
|Monkeys with shotguns is WHY everyone needs to pack a piece
|What I think of when people suggest that everyone should be armed.
|looks like the monkey from postal
|is that the trunk monkey?
|( 47 upvotes )
|good stuff WTFO!
|5 "a bathroom's near?"
|you got my 5.. I had that conversation yesterday.
|5 knee-slapping curly-haired dogs.
|And he brought something funny! +5 Metamucil tablets
|Is WTFO back?
|( 35 upvotes )
|isn't that the truth
|now, about that 13 thing.....:)
|you have history to the inevitable...but still stayed on..props to you my friend,..props to you
|faster than most of our mutual friends. I basically went from the shock/denial stage, directly to the depression and acceptance stages. At least this way I can be supportive of other family and friends as they work through it.
|It's cool, Mooo, you guys have been great. Grey, the thing is, I'm the one who's been having to pick her up from the ER after her massive allergy/Asthma attacks, so I knew this was inevitable. I think that's why I've been able to function and recover
|Holy moly Zed! 13? I was 14 when I first found paradise. What's scary is my oldest son is 14 in the spring.
|@Zed I'm truly sorry about your lost. been there. now figure out how it affected you. and how you go on....because...we go on...missing one...nevertheless..we go on
|I could be more eloquent if sober......forgive my drunkeness.
|I hope all is well man......we're here for you.
|Hey Zed, Our thoughts are with you........and not in a "to catch a predator" kinda +way...in all seriousness.....
Misc info


text:
Southern Section releases Area Placement for 2014-18
November 27, 2012 | 9:37 am
The Southern Section released its Area Placement recommendations on Tuesday for where schools will be placed in preparation for the releaguing cycle that lasts from 2014-18.
Here's the link to the recommended changes.
Most notably, St. Bonaventure and Oaks Christian have been recommended to leave the Northern Area and be placed in the Parochial school area, which is run by the Catholic Athletic Assn.
-- Eric Sondheimer


text: Mitchel Musso formally entered a not guilty plea in his delayed arraignment on DUI charges from a bust last October in which officers found his blood-alcohol level to be above 0.08 percent after pulling him over for failing to slow down near an unrelated traffic accident, reports E!. If convicted, he faces a maximum of six months behind bars and a $1,000 fine. Mitchel also went to hospital recently.


text:
To try the thousands of add-ons available here, download Mozilla Firefox, a fast, free way to surf the Web!Close
Welcome to Firefox Add-ons.
Choose from thousands of extra features and styles to make Firefox your own.Close
About me
|Scranton, PA
|User since
|Feb. 5, 2009
|Number of add-ons developed
|0 add-ons
|Average rating of developer's add-ons
|Rated 4 out of 5 stars
My Reviews
It's All Text!
It's Text all the way down Rated 5 out of 5 stars
How could I live without this extension? It works. It allows me to edit in my comfortable editor that is good at editing, and allows me to browse in my comfortable browser that is good at browsing, and bwings the twain to meet.This review is for a previous version of the add-on (184.108.40.206-signed). This user has a previous review of this add-on.
Restartless Restart
You had one job... and you did it! Rated 5 out of 5 stars
It restarts. That's it. And that's EXACTLY WHAT I NEED! Thanks.
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Works, does what it says. Interface to add new board is a little wonky, but that may be the API. Never had problems with the positioning on the pin-box that Lady Kairuyka mentioned.
Certainly works better than the other Pinterest extension.... [not trying to damn with faint praise].
Doesn't work in Aurora/Win7 Rated 3 out of 5 stars
While the screen-capping and editing work great, clicking on any of the share buttons ends with a greyed-out screen and the "working" cursor. (see http://imgur.com/l26rHXw - Pinterest is highlighted, but same behavior occurs for other share buttons) I'm running Aurora 22.0a2 (2013-04-11) and Win7. I also tried it in Firefox 20.0 Portable, both "normally" and as administrator -- same behavior. :-(This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.3.1-signed.1-signed).
Mozilla Labs: Prospector - OneLiner
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Great concept, but wish it was more flexible.
I'd prefer the the tabs on the left, and URL on the right, as I'm more often looking at the tabs than the URL.
The deal-breaker right now is the search-button going to the google-default; I regularly search directly on wikipedia, amazon, ebay, and custom-search providers [and expect them to open in a new-tab, as per my configs]. While I love the condensed look of Prospector, the loss of specific-search-in-new-tab was a big disappointment.
Great for customer-service! Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Clippings has been a major customer-service help. So often people open new issues without searching for existing issues; instead of searching again to find the appropriate thread, I can now search and type u pa response once, save it to clippings, and rapidly respond every time it happens again. And backing up the clippings-file to my dropbox allows me to share across machines, as well.This review is for a previous version of the add-on (3.1).
NoScript Security Suite
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Simple, essential, does what you need - even when you're not aware that you need to. NoScript keeps me - and the web - safer.This review is for a previous version of the add-on (188.8.131.52).
It's All Text!
Invisible Necessity Rated 5 out of 5 stars
"It's All Text!" is so important to my workflow that I never notice it's there -- until I'm in another profile and it's not. IAT allows me to edit smoothly and comfortable in my editor-of-choice (Emacs) giving me so much more control over what I'm doing. Thanks!This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.3.1).
Big Help Rated 5 out of 5 stars
XPather is an excellent add-on to the DOM Inspector. Sure, you can manually navigate 20-nodes deep into a tree -- sometimes. XPather is a quick way to get exactly where I want to go. Plus, the interactive evaluator is a big time-saver. It's got a small footprint, and does what I need.
My only quibble is that the xpath expression is not available in the DOM Inspector when diving directly to the element; but navigating to the nearest node and back fixes this.
To create your own collections, you must have a Mozilla Add-ons account.


text:
Why do I feel like I'm being followed?
Why do I feel like I'm being followed?
why does dvm's avatar turn me on ?
Why Does Dvm And Yours Turn Me On
I wouldn't talk there, Alias
Why is it so hard to not find a picture of J Lo in any magazine?
why dont we admit all our avatars turn ourSELVES on?
Why do the Yankees suck? (jk I'm from Boston )
why dont the yankees continue to suck forever and ever and ever!?
Cus they have to play the m's silly....Originally Posted by dvm
Why can't the boxsox ever win the world series?
Why are three people whose avatars turn them on arguing?
Who lets the dogs out?
Does this dress make me look fat?
Is she prettier than me?
Why is Avril Lavigne such a F*cking poser?
Why can Britney spear herself?
Why did Gregory Hines have to die?
How are you?
why do red sox get more attention when it comes to the series drought than the Cubs?


text:
Bungle In The Jungle Jethro Tull
[Bm]Walking through forests of p[Em]alm tree ap[F#7]artments
[Bm]scoff at the monkeys who l[Em]ive in their da[F#7]rk tents
[F#]down by the water[A]hole d[Bm]runk every Fr[A]iday
[F#]eating their nuts sa[A]ving their rai[Bm]sins for Sund[A]ay.
[F#]Lions and t[A]igers who [Bm]wait in the s[A]hadows
[F#]they're fast but they're la[A]zy, and sl[Bm]eep in green [A]meadow[B]s.
Well Let's [G]bungle[A] in the j[D]ungle well, that's [G]all [A]right by m[B]e.
I'm a t[G]iger w[A]hen I wan[D]t love, but I'm a snake[G] if [A]we disagre[B]e.
Verse 2:
Just say a word and the boys will be right there:
with claws at your back to send a chill through the night air.
Is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?
Thunder and lightning couldn't be bolder.
I'll write on your tombstone, "I thank you for dinner."
This game that we animals play is a winner.
Let's bungle in the jungle well, that's all right by me.
I'm a tiger when I want love, but I'm a snake if we disagree.
Solo: 6x
e|-----------------------------| B|-----------------------------| G|--7-6-7-6h7p6-------------6--| D|--------------9-7-9---7-9----| A|-----------------------------| E|-----------------------------|
The rivers are full of crocodile nasties
and He who made kittens put snakes in the grass.
He's a lover of life but a player of pawns
yes, the King on his sunset, lies waiting for dawn
to light up his Jungle as play is resumed.
The monkeys seem willing to strike up the tune
Let's bungle in the jungle well, that's all right by me.
I'm a tiger when I want love, but I'm a snake if we disagree.
Let's bungle in the jungle well, that's all right by me yes..
I'm a tiger when I want love, but I'm a snake if we disagree.
Fade out
Yost with the Most
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| of the song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, |
| or research. |
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text:
I'm Sharing My Infertility Story To Let Others Know They're Not Alone
I never imagined I'd be posting a pre-surgery selfie in hospital scrubs looking like a scared animal about to go under general anesthesia for a procedure on my uterus.
Get top stories and blog posts emailed to me each day. Newsletters may offer personalized content or advertisements. Learn more


text:
The Reinbach Family Papers consist primarily of correspondence (1809-1810) between Johann Heinrich von Reinbach and Francisca von Dorsten, prior to their marriage in 1810. Also included are legal documents pertaining to Reinbach's career as a lawyer in Germany, the marriage of Johann and Francisca Reinbach, and the birth of their children, Johanna and Maximillian, as well as letters to Maximillian from his sister and nieces, after his emigration to Texas.
Unrestricted access.
Reinbach Family Papers, 1798-1898, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin.


text:
The GiFiles,
Files released: 5543061
The Global Intelligence Files
On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
Intelligence Guidance: Week of May 9, 2010
Released on 2012-10-19 08:00 GMT
|2010-05-10 09:58:33
Stratfor logo
Intelligence Guidance: Week of May 9, 2010
May 10, 2010 | 0752 GMT
Intelligence Guidance: Week of May 9, 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on May 9
Editor's Note: The following is an internal STRATFOR document produced
to provide high-level guidance to our analysts. This document is not a
forecast, but rather a series of guidelines for understanding and
evaluating events, as well as suggestions on areas for focus.
1. Greece: The Greek situation is not so much being solved as it is
being moved to a new stage. Greece is no longer compelling, save for the
question of how unstable it might get. Watching Spain and Portugal is
what is now interesting, but the most engaging thing going on in Europe
is Germany. The political situation in Germany was made more complex by
local elections, and the general question of what policy Germany will
follow over the next few years is evolving. In the end, that is far more
important than the other issues. We must focus carefully on Germany now.
2. United States: The discovery that the Times Square bomber was linked
to Pakistani Taliban raises a host of issues, particularly strategic.
The United States does not want Pakistan to collapse or seize up in a
civil war. It also does not want people trying to set off bombs in the
United States. The United States is leaning on the Pakistanis to become
extremely aggressive in the north. That risks Pakistani stability. It
also does not guarantee security in the United States. Forcing some
jihadists in Pakistan to relocate while killing others does not
necessarily translate into fewer terrorists. The underlying tension
between maintaining Pakistan to balance India, and pressing Pakistan to
take risks with internal security, is manifest. We need to watch
Pakistan's reaction as well as how serious the United States is in
pressing Pakistan. There might be surprises in both situations.
3. Israel: The Israelis appear to be buckling to American pressure on
settlements. They appear to be promising that they will postpone any new
construction for two years. Now the question is what U.S. President
Barack Obama's administration really wants. Our read is that it wants
peace talks with the Palestinians, not because it thinks it will achieve
anything, but because it is one factor in facilitating talks with the
Taliban. But the United States also wanted to get the Israelis to stop
building the settlements just to demonstrate that it could; Israel was
beginning to operate without regard to the United States, and the United
States didn't like that. Let's watch to see what happens to Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. People like Israeli
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman
will not like these concessions, but they do like their Cabinet posts.
They can force Netanyahu to try to build a new coalition, and that
process could shift Israeli policy again. Lieberman's calculations will
have a domino effect, either way.
4. Iran: The situation with Iran has gone quite silent. There were no
reports of serious talks during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
visit to New York, yet the entire Iran issue has gone quiet. No
meaningful sanctions can be expected. Airstrikes have too many failure
points. The United States is still withdrawing troops from Iraq, where a
Shiite coalition has formed. There should be all sorts of tension. There
isn't for the moment. The lack of tension should be our focus.
5. United Kingdom: The British election is interesting. Question: Does
it make any difference geopolitically what coalition is formed, or is it
all the same? It is hard to tell from a distance, and people who are
there seem pretty confused as well. We should look at this.
6. China: Rumors about new economic policies are running rampant in
China, and every day seems to bring more rumors. We are less interested
in the policies than we are with the politics. With all the rumors, it
seems as though there is a sharp disagreement on policy in China. The
rumors are so divergent and sudden, it is as if we were watching a fight
in very low light. It is perhaps more organized than that, but we need
to find out. Is there a battle in the Chinese elite on what comes next,
or is this just the way the Chinese are choosing to roll out their
Related Special Topic Page
* Weekly Intelligence That Drives Our Analysis
* May 9: The International Monetary Fund's mission to Romania will
conclude its visit to the country and announce its findings.
* May 9: The International Monetary Fund's executive board will meet
to discuss the plan to extend emergency loans to Greece.
* May 9: Regional elections will take place in the German state of
North Rhine-Westphalia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling
coalition must retain power in the state to solidify its control in
the national parliament.
* May 9: Russia will hold celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of
the ending of World War II in Europe. World leaders expected to
attend the events in Moscow include German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
acting Polish President Bronis?aw Komorowski, Chinese President Hu
Jintao, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Serbian President Boris
Tadic, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz interim
government leader Roza Otunbayeva, Greek President Karolos Papoulias
and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov.
* May 10: The Bank for International Settlements will hold a meeting
of central bank governors in Basel, Switzerland. ECB President
Jean-Claude Trichet will speak at the conclusion of the meeting.
* May 10: Eurozone member states will hold an emergency meeting to
approve an aid package for Greece.
* May 10-12: Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will travel to Syria
for a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to Turkey
for a meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The leaders are expected to discuss economics
and energy issues, as well as other international issues.
* May 11: Kazakhstan is expected to reopen its border with Kyrgyzstan,
which has been closed since early April.
* May 11: The French parliament will debate a proposed law to ban the
public wearing of full-face veils.
* May 11: Ukraine's parliament will reconvene after violence erupted
over an extension of Russia's lease on naval facilities in the
Crimean Peninsula in late April. Former Prime Minister Yulia
Timoshenko has called for mass protests to depose Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovich on the same day.
* May 11-13: Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna will travel to
Kazakhstan, where he will meet with government officials.
* May 12: Romanian pension trade unions will hold protests against
proposed pension cuts.
* May 12: Spain's National Statistics Institute will release its
official numbers for the first quarter of 2010, with Spanish gross
domestic product expected to show growth for the first time since
* May 12: Portugal has offered to buy back all its outstanding bonds
that will mature on May 20, amounting to 4.6 billion euros.
* May 12: The European Commission and the European Central Bank will
report on whether Estonia has met fiscal and inflation targets,
which will influence the state's chance of eventually joining the
European Union.
* May 12-13: Serbian President Boris Tadic will travel to Azerbaijan,
where he will meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and sign
a number of bilateral agreements.
* May 13-14: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will travel
to Russia, where he will meet with government officials.
* May 13-14: Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jan Kohout will travel to
Azerbaijan, where he will meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and Foreign Minister Elmar
* May 14-15: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel
to Greece, where he will meet with top government officials.
* May 15: Azerbaijani opposition groups plan to hold a mass protest in
* May 15-16: Russia and Ukraine will hold a meeting of their
inter-parliamentary commission in Kiev.
* May 16: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to
Georgia and Azerbaijan. A gas treaty with Azerbaijan is expected to
be signed during the visit.
* May 6-11: Bosnia-Herzegovina Council of Ministers Chairman Nikola
Spiric will make a working visit to China to meet Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao.
* May 8-22: Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet will attend the
ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II
in Moscow and visit Russia, Belarus, Switzerland and Finland.
* May 8-9: Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Russia and attend
the ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the end of World War
* May 9-11: Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will
lead a 45-member delegation on an official visit to Cambodia
* May 10: The Philippines will hold presidential, legislative and
local elections.
* May 10: Thailand's Red Shirts claim they will end their protests
following a religious ceremony for those killed in the clashes
between police and protesters.
* May 13-14: The fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab
Cooperation Forum will be held in China's port city of Tianjin.
* May 15: Japan will mark the 38th anniversary of Okinawa's reversion
from U.S. control.
* May 15-16: The fourth meeting of foreign ministers from China, Japan
and South Korea will be held in Gyeongju, South Korea.
* Unknown date: China is reportedly planning to modify the yuan's peg
to the U.S. dollar ahead of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic
Dialogue on May 24.
* May 8-12: The leader of the Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, will visit Cairo and meet with Egyptian
* May 9: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence
chief Omar Suleiman will visit Khartoum and Juba, Sudan.
* May 9-12: Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani will visit Turkey
to participate at the meeting of Parliamentary Union of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference member states (PUOICM) in
Ankara and hold bilateral meetings with Turkish officials.
* May 9-10: The European Union will hold a ministerial summit with
Turkey in Brussels. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and
Turkish Minister of EU Affairs Egemen Bagis will attend the summit.
* May 9-11: Israeli President Shimon Peres is scheduled to visit
Russia to attend events marking the 65th anniversary of the defeat
of Germany in World War II
* May 12: Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos will visit
* May 12: Afghan President Hamid Karzai will meet with U.S. President
Barack Obama in Washington.
* May 12-13: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit
Turkey for consultations on Article 4.
* May 13-14: The fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab
Cooperation Forum will be held in China's port city of Tianjin.
Foreign ministers and representatives from China and 22 Arab
countries will attend the meeting.
* May 14-15: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit
Greece with a delegation of ministers, lawmakers and businessmen
* May 13-14: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn will travel to New Delhi and Mumbai, India.
* May 16-17: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit
Iran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also rumored to attend the
* May 16-19: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will make a
three-day official visit to Iran.
* May 8-13: A Venezuelan delegation led by Aragua state governor
Rafael Isea is scheduled to visit Belarus to discuss the results of
cooperation between the state of Aragua and Minsk.
* May 10: Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino is scheduled to
visit Lima, Peru, for a meeting with Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose
Garcia Belaunde. The meeting is intended to prepare for a visit on
June 9 by Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.
* May 10: Trade representatives from the United States and Brazil are
scheduled to meet in Washington to discuss how the United States
will implement a World Trade Organization ruling to eliminate cotton
subsidies judged to be illegal.
* May 11-12: Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde will visit
Washington to attend the Washington Conference on the Americas.
* May 14: Peru is scheduled to launch an international tender for
petroleum exploration in 24 blocks.
* May 9: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence
chief Omar Suleiman will visit both Khartoum and the Southern
Sudanese capital of Juba to meet with Sudanese President Omar al
Bashir and Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
* May 10: A hearing over a group of 19 recently suspended members of
Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) will take place in
a federal high court in Abuja.
* May 11: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to send to
the national assembly a nomination for the post of vice president.
* May 12-13: The first meeting of the Annual Bilateral Forum between
South Africa and the United States will be held in Pretoria.
* May 13: Zimbabwe and Botswana will sign an agreement between the two
governments, as well as representatives from ZESA Holdings and
Botswana Power Cooperation, to refurbish a thermal power station in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
* May 14-15: U.N. Security Council members will meet with the
Congolese government in Kinshasa to discuss the future of U.N.
peacekeeping forces in the country.
* May 15: Ituri-district based representatives of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo's Oriental province intend to declare Ituri,
currently a district within Oriental, as the DRC's 12th province.
* May 15: An extended deadline established by the Zimbabwean
government for foreign companies to submit their indigenization
plans will expire.
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