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And now it's 2019 and with the transition we come to that portion of the Twelve Days of Christmas that bridge us to the new year. Six days in the old and six in the new. They begin with New Year's Day on the Seventh Day of Christmas––a traditional day for Wassailing (and I'm sorry I didn't get the blog published in time for you to have our Wassail recipe in time for the day… but you can still make it)––and take us through to Epiphany, the day known as Little Christmas, a holyday/holiday older than Christmas itself, the day traditionally thought of as the day the Magi arrived to visit the newborn child they sought by following the star that led them to Bethlehem.
I hope you know I've missed you! We've been busy preparing for that Lake Worth Cottage Tour I told you about earlier, and lots of other stuff, too. And while we are getting lots done, I have to admit I've rather missed spending our daily time together this Christmastide, so maybe we take a different approach again next Christmas and go back to our usual daily visit with a Convivio Book of Days post for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. It can be difficult finding that place of balance, especially at a time of excess like Christmas. Even if I'm not writing to you each day, rest assured in my head I still am, especially as I read and research an ponder the meaning of each of these days.
Here, too, at this juncture of the new year, is where following the Twelve Days of Christmas tradition can get more challenging. I get a little sad seeing Christmas trees in the trash piles on the roadside outside homes, especially this early, or reading social media posts from folks who have gotten their Christmas packed away already. December 26th was the first of those I saw this year, which I think is for me a record-breaker. And then I wonder what makes me sad about this and figure it's my problem, not theirs, that I react this way. Everyone can keep Christmas as they want, of course. My role, as a Christmas Traditionalist, is simply to help encourage those of us who want to keep it in its traditional format. As for our house, we will keep Christmas for its full season and we will be sad to see it go. Will the greenery still be up when the Cottage Tour takes place on the 26th of January? Most likely yes. We typically keep the Christmas tree in place until Candlemas Eve at the start of February, so I imagine we will do the same this year, cottage tour or no. And to all the folks who come through our little house on the tour and might wonder about it, we'll explain why its there. We've been a stop on these neighborhood historic home tours before and we're usually known as The House with a Printing Press. This time, we may be known as The House with a Printing Press and a Christmas Tree. The one on the corner. The one that smelled of pine.
Here, by the way, is your Convivio Book of Days calendar for January, a printable PDF as usual. Click, print, and use the calendar as a nice companion to the blog, beginning here with these last six days of Christmas.
January 1
New Year's Day
For today, the First Day of the New Year, it is customary to brew and drink wassail. This delicious hot punch is called wassail and the toast is "Wassail!" as well… from the old English Wes Hel, "be of good health." The New Year's Day custom would have us toast each other, as well as the apple trees in the orchard, should you happen to be near one. We are not (apples do not grow in Florida; not that I'm aware of, anyway) but Seth Thompson and I have been known to drink our wassail, toast each other, and go out to the yard and toast some of our fruit trees, too: Wassailing the mango tree, the carambola tree, the cocoanut palms. Tradition, like language, is a living thing. It is perfectly fine (in the Convivio approach, anyway) to shape tradition around your particular reality. Here is our wassail recipe:
Pour the contents of two large bottles of beer or ale (about 4 pints) into a pot and place it on the stove to heat slowly. Add about a half cup sugar and a healthy dose of mulling spices. (If you don't have mulling spices on hand, you can use cinnamon sticks and whole cloves… though the mulling spices lend a more interesting flavor.) Add a half pint each of orange juice and pineapple juice, as well as the juice of a large lemon. Peel and slice two apples and place the apple slices into the pot, too. Heat the brew but don't let it boil, then pour the heated wassail into a punchbowl to serve.
Custom calls for us to share the wassail with those gathered but also to take the steaming punch bowl out to the orchard and toast the apple trees and share some with the oldest or biggest tree in the grove. Some folks pour the wassail on the trunk of the tree, while others dip the lower branches into the wassail bowl, and others may place wassail-soaked toast or cake in the branches of the tree. All of which are invocations of magic meant to encourage a good crop of apples next summer. Traditionally, the wassailing of the apple trees is done at the noon hour. Again, we believe you'd do best to let tradition inform your ways, but not dictate how your days go. So if your wassail happens to be late at night, there's no harm in that. Wes Hel! Huzzah and cheers! And a happy new year to us all.
EIGHTH DAY of CHRISTMAS
January 2
St. Macarius's Day
We enter the more contemplative period of the Twelve Days and today, for this Eighth Day of Christmas, we remember St. Macarius, who, truth be told, was not much fun in his older years. He was an extreme ascetic who lived the life of a hermit in the desert and ate only raw vegetables and maybe, on a special day, a bit of bread dipped in oil. But earlier on in life, St. Macarius was a confectioner in his native Alexandria. Macarius the confectioner is remembered more fondly than Macarius the ascetic; he is a patron saint of cooks, confectioners, and pastry chefs, some of whom call him St. Macaroon, as Macarius does not exactly roll easily off the tongue. And so today, perhaps enjoy something a little sweet––a bit of that boozy Christmas fruitcake, maybe, or something more attuned to Alexandria––dates stuffed with nuts and rolled in sugar seem like something St. Macaroon might have made in his shop centuries ago.
NINTH DAY of CHRISTMAS
January 3
St. Genevieve's Day
Francophiles, rejoice! While there are no particular customs (that I am aware of, anyway) associated with this Ninth Day of Christmas, it is St. Genevieve's Day. Genevieve, sacred to Paris, that fair city's patron saint, lived in Paris in the fifth century as a nun and is credited with saving the city from an attack by Attila and his Huns in 451. This she did through fasting and prayer, encouraging the residents of the city to join her. And around 475, she founded Saint-Denys de la Chapelle in Paris, which stands today as part of the Basilica of St. Denis.
As the patron saint of the City of Light, I like to think of Genevieve in terms of her connection to light––as another of the midwinter saints who are light bearers at this dark time of year and who encourage us to be light bearers, too. She is often depicted holding a candle. As the story goes: the devil would time and again blow out her candle as she went to pray at night. Genevieve, however, relit her candle without need of flint or fire, always overcoming the darkness. There are plenty of you out there who love the food and culture of France. I think today, this Ninth Day of Christmas, is a fine day to enjoy those things fully. Joyeux Noël et bonne année!
TENTH DAY of CHRISTMAS
January 4
St. Titus's and St. Gregory's Day, and St. Rigobert's and St. Ramon's Day, too
Again today, like yesterday, there are no particular customs associated with this, the Tenth Day of Christmas. It is the Feast Day of St. Titus and St. Gregory. Titus was a disciple of St. Paul in the first century, and St. Gregory was a bishop in the sixth century. It's also St. Rigobert's Day and St. Ramon's Day. If you still have it in you to celebrate another grand event or two, well, very soon will come Twelfth Night and Epiphany. In this house, we sometimes mark these closing days of the Yuletide season quietly, and sometimes with a big meal and a gathering of family and friends. Whatever you decide, this Tenth Day of Christmas is a good one to use for preparations. With Twelfth Night and Epiphany, our focus shifts a bit toward the Magi and the star that they followed. We bring out the illuminated paper star lanterns and we make Christmas sweets that, no matter how much we try to make earlier, we never seem to get made until the last few days of Christmas. Maybe it is a subconscious decision, for these baked goods feel older, more influenced by ancient flavors, flavors the Magi were probably familiar with: Baklava flavored with honey and walnuts, our friend Paula's Kourambiedes cookies, each studded with a clove, and our Three Kings Cakes, flavored with honey, rose water, and currants.
Usually on the blog on this Tenth Day of Christmas I offer up our recipe for Three Kings Cakes with the idea that it is a very good day to bake them. Perhaps this is the best custom for the day! The recipe yields three cakes, cakes you will prepare in three loaf pans. You will end up with one cake for each of the Magi, who have traditionally been called Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, though no one knows who they were really. As the story goes, it took the Magi all these days to travel through the desert, and seeing the child lying in the straw was their great epiphany. We happen to sell a wonderful rose water made at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in Maine. If you're local and you need some to bake these cakes, let me know and together we'll find a way to get you a bottle in time, even if it means meeting up in a parking lot somewhere!
makes three cakes
For the Batter
1 cup butter
generous 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups currants
3 cups applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 cups flour
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat smooth before adding the remaining ingredients. Grease 3 loaf pans (about 8″ x 4″ x 3″ or so) and divide the batter amongst the pans. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick poked into the center of each cake comes out dry. Let the cakes cool in their pans on a rack.
For the Syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
2 tablespoons rose water
Once the cakes are baked, combine the syrup ingredients, except for the rose water, in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves, add the rose water. Remove the cinnamon stick and the cloves and then pour the hot syrup over the cakes in their pans, divided equally amongst the three cakes. The syrup will soak into the cakes. Allow to cool completely before unmolding from the pans. Serving the three cakes on three platters makes for a nice presentation on Epiphany Day or on Twelfth Night.
ELEVENTH DAY of CHRISTMAS
January 5
Twelfth Night, Eve of the Epiphany
Twelfth Night used to be a really big deal. In England, it was once a celebration rivaling that of Christmas Day. Queen Victoria, however, had the holiday stricken from the calendar during her reign, as she disapproved of its rowdiness and thought her subjects would be better off without Twelfth Night. Her disapproval had a major impact on the celebration and it practically died out. We are, I'd say, the poorer for this.
Ever the champion of the underdog, I am here in my role as a Christmas Traditionalist to champion Twelfth Night, for it can be a very useful holiday, no matter what Old Queen Victoria thought of it. If you are inclined to feelings of melancholy or disappointment after Christmas Day has passed, these Twelve Days––and especially Twelfth Night and Epiphany, which provide a proper send-off to the season––are just what's needed to help get you through that. For all we talk about maintaining links to the past, perhaps it is this, more than anything, that offers the best reason behind keeping an obscure old holiday like Twelfth Night in our contemporary world. Twelfth Night helps us feel more rounded, more complete. This is the value of Twelfth Night.
My family never did celebrate Twelfth Night when I was younger, but we did mark Epiphany. My mom calls it "Little Christmas." I do remember one year feeling kind of down after Christmas Day had passed, and she told me, "It's ok, we still have Little Christmas ahead." Our little tabletop tinsel Christmas tree, the one she bought decades ago at Lord & Taylor and which we set up at our house now each year, meant a lot more to me after that. Maybe because the tree is little, just like Mom's "Little Christmas."
Years later, after my first internship at the Shaker Press, Brother Arnold Hadd and I exchanged so many letters. In one of those letters, that winter that followed my internship, he wrote about the Shakers' Christmas celebration. It included things like "shaking the tree" (for presents, I think) and their tradition of a Swedish smörgåsbord (this, a tradition handed them by Brother Ted, who I never did meet), and yes, Twelfth Night. There is some confusion about when Twelfth Night actually falls, but I trust the Shakers on this. They celebrate on the evening of the this day, the Eleventh Day of Christmas. I think the confusion comes out of the way we reckon our days now as opposed to the way our ancestors reckoned theirs. Traditionally, the start of a new day begins at sundown. This is why so many evenings before holidays are so important. Think of Halloween (the Eve of All Hallows) or Christmas Eve. There is a scene in The Bishop's Wife where Cary Grant's character convinces Mildred, the bishop's secretary, to leave work and let him take care of typing the bishop's sermon. "It's almost Christmas Eve," he tells Mildred. "You must have shopping to do." It's the afternoon of the 24th when he tells her this. Even then, just 70 years ago when this film was made, there was a general understanding that Christmas Eve began once the sun went down and that was the ushering in of Christmas. As for Twelfth Night, the Shakers believe (as do I) that Twelfth Night ushers in the Twelfth Day of Christmas. As such, it begins with the setting sun on the 5th of January. Twelfth Night has, as well, another name: Eve of the Epiphany.
So the traditional English Twelfth Night was a fun filled party with, no doubt, lots of ale and cider and punch, lots of food, and music, dancing, and games. When I picture a Twelfth Night party in my head, it looks a lot like the party that Old Fezziwig throws for his employees in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is, alas, not much celebrated here in the States. Inspired by our Shaker friends, though, we've hosted a few Twelfth Night dinners in the past. That, I think, is a good start.
In Italy, la Befana will make her rounds tonight, and in Latin America, los Tres Reyes, the Three Kings, will be doing the same. All of them will be delivering gifts; they are the last of the Midwinter gift bearers. Their stories are intertwined. Epiphany––a celebration older even than Christmas itself––marks the day the Magi arrived after their long journey, following that star, to see the child born in a barn. They arrived with gifts for the child, and so it is no surprise that they are amongst our Midwinter gift bearers. In Italy, though, the legends get a little more interesting, wrapped up as they are with a kindly old witch. There, it is said that the Magi stopped at la Befana's and asked her for directions and to join them on their journey. They found her sweeping her floor. "No, no," she told them, "I'm too busy with my housework!" And so the Magi went on their way. But as she swept, la Befana grew remorseful that she had not gone with them, and so she stopped her sweeping, hopped on her broom, and left her home in search of the Magi and the child. But she never found them. Each year on the Eve of the Epiphany, she sets out on her journey again, in search of the child, delivering small presents to good boys and girls, and coal for the not so good ones.
I have known lots of Befanas in my day. It comes with the territory when you are of Italian descent. Women and men who clean and clean and clean, and who take great pride in their clean homes. Which is a wonderful thing, of course, but you know that they would've said no to the Magi, too, just like la Befana herself did at that first Christmas. Where does she even come from, la Befana? Well, she is an old hag… and so is the earthly goddess at Midwinter in the circular nature of the year: Born in springtime, fair maiden in summer, mother in autumn, old woman in winter. A cycle repeating with each orbit around the sun, the story told again and again.
And then there's something else, something I mentioned last year at Twelfth Night, too: My father is gone these two Christmases now. It's no easier, to be honest. We are all aware that Dad is not at the table and there have been a few days this season where I've been plain sad and melancholy, a feeling that comes and goes all through the year. There is another tradition for Twelfth Night, in which the Yuletide decorations are taken down. This, too, makes me a little melancholy. In case you haven't noticed, I am a bit in love with Christmas. There is much about our celebration these days that is grating and irksome, but Seth and I, we do a very good job of keeping these things at bay, leaving to the best of our abilities only what is pure and essential. And so Christmas is in this little home a truly extraordinary time––a time outside ordinary time––and it does make us sad to see it go. Many years we follow the older tradition I mentioned at the start of this blog chapter: it is the more ancient view that Christmas and Yuletide run all the way to Candlemas Eve, the First of February. This is an idea that is more aligned with the planet's natural rhythm, for with Candlemas we reach the next cross-quarter day after the Midwinter Solstice. With it, the earth shifts toward spring, for winter is then beginning to wane: astronomically, we'll be, at that point, halfway between the solstice and the spring equinox. Our ancestors enjoyed their Yuletide greenery all the way to Candlemas but not beyond… keeping it in the house any later than the First of February was an invitation for bad luck. So for us, most likely, our Yuletide greenery will be up til then. Seth and I like it that way, and Haden the Convivio Shopcat seems to like it that way, too. And so be it.
TWELFTH DAY of CHRISTMAS
January 6
On this final day of the Christmas season, we come to a celebration that was recognized by the Church even before Christmas itself. It is the day tradition tells us the Magi reached the stable to visit the child after their journey following the star that guided them to Bethlehem. Seeing the child was their epiphany, and that is the name of this day, too: Epiphany.
In our home, we close the celebration of Christmas on Epiphany night with a simple ceremony at the front door, outside on the front porch. We will gather up all who are in attendance and we will each take turns writing with chalk on the lintel above the front door the numbers and letters and symbols of a traditional inscription. This year, it will read as follows: 20+C+M+B+19. These are the initials of each of the Three Kings (C for Caspar, M for Melchior, B for Balthasar), punctuated by crosses, blanketed on either side by the year. For me, the inscribing is always accompanied by a silent prayer that no one will be missing when we gather next to write the inscription again. Depending on the weather, the inscription may be there above the door for a month or it may be there all the year through. And though Christmas be gone, still the inscription reminds us of its presence as we pass each day through that portal. The inscription is a magic charm of sorts, protecting the house and those who pass through that doorway, harboring the goodwill and spirit of Old Father Christmas.
And with that, these Twelve Days of Christmas are done. La Befana is back to her sweeping, sweeping Christmas away, too, and we return to ordinary time, back to the workaday world. There will be some celebratory days to mark that transition when it comes… and you'll hear from me once again when they arrive. Til then: May the spirit of Christmas be with you still.
Image: Our Christmas Cactus, with its impeccable timing, came into bloom just this past week.


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RALEIGH, N.C. — Jarnell Stokes had a career-high 26 points, Jordan McRae scored 21 and Tennessee posted an 86-67 victory over Massachusetts in second-round action of the NCAA Tournament.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Jarnell Stokes had a career-high 26 points, Jordan McRae scored 21 and Tennessee posted an 86-67 victory over Massachusetts in second-round action of the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee advances to a Sunday game against No. 1 seed Mercer, who stunned No. 3 Duke 78-71.
Stokes tied a school tourney single-game record with 14 rebounds.
Jeronne Maymon also registered a double-double with 11 points and as many boards for the Volunteers (23-12), who rallied to beat fellow No. 11 seed Iowa in overtime in the First Four on Wednesday.
Tennessee will next face upstart Mercer in the third round on Sunday. The Bears stunned Duke, the Midwest Region's No. 3 seed, earlier Friday.
"Mercer can be a very scary team if you don't play defense well," Stokes said. "If you're a bad defensive team, Mercer will pick you apart."
Chaz Williams and Maxie Esho each scored 12 points for the sixth-seeded Minutemen (24-9), whose first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1998 was a brief one.
"The game didn't turn out the way we'd like, but these guys gave their heart and soul to the program," said UMass head coach Derek Kellogg about the seniors.
Tennessee showed no signs of fatigue, racing out to a 21-8 lead in the first eight-plus minutes against a sluggish UMass team.
"Thought we got out the gates and played well on both ends of the floor," said Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin.
The Minutemen started 1-of-8 from the floor and wound up being held to a season-low 22 points in the opening half on 33.3 percent shooting.
A one-handed dunk in transition by McRae made it 38-18 with 2:08 remaining, and the Vols carried a 19-point lead to the break.
UMass came out strong to begin the second half, closing the gap to 46-36, but could never trim its deficit to single digits.
"We definitely felt like it was going to be a turning point. I can't even tell you what went wrong," said UMass forward Sampson Carter.
Tennessee went on a 19-6 run after the Minutemen got within 10 a second time. Stokes concluded the burst with two free throws as the lead stretched to 67-44 with 8:36 left.
Game Notes
Josh Richardson had 15 points, five assists and two blocks for the Volunteers … Tennessee shot 53.6 percent for the game and improved to 4-0 against Massachusetts … Derrick Gordon scored 10 points for the Minutemen.

subset: commoncrawl


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Silos are a feature, not a bug/
"Break down the silos" is such a hackneyed phrase that it's probably not even useful any more. But I still hear it all the time — especially in our work in governments and large enterprises. It's the wrong idea — silos are awesome.
The thing is: people like silos. That's why they are there. Whether they are project teams, organizational units, technical communities, or management layers, silos are comfortable. People can speak freely. Everyone shares the same values. There is trust. There is purpose.
The problem is that much of the time — maybe most of the time, for most people — you want silos not to matter. Don't confuse this with not wanting them to exist. They do exist: get used to it. So now make them not matter. Cope don't fix.
Permeable seals
In the context of groups of humans who want to work together, what do permeable silos look like? I mean really leaky ones.
The answer is: it depends. Here are the features they will have:
- They serve their organization. The silo must serve the organization or community it's part of. I think a service-oriented mindset gets the best out of people: get them asking "How can I help?". If it is not serving anyone, the silo needs to die.
- They are internally effective. This is the whole point of the silo, so this had better be true. Make sure people can do a better job because of the efficiencies of the silo. Resources are provided. Responsibilities are understood. The shared purpose must result in great things... if not, the silo needs to die.
- They are open. This is the leakiness criterion. If someone needs something from the silo, it must be obvious how to get it, and the cost of getting it must be very low. If someone wants to join the silo, it's obvious how to do this, and they are welcomed. If something about the silo needs to change, there is a clear path to making this known.
- They are transparent. People need to know what the silo is for. If people look in, they can see how things work. Don't build secret clubs, black boxes, or other dark places. Conversely, if people in the silo want to look outside, they can. Importantly: if the silo's level of transparency doesn't make you uncomfortable, you're not doing enough of it.
The openness is key. Ideally, the mechanism for getting things from the silo is the same one that the silo's own inhabitants use. This is by far the simplest, cheapest way to nail it. Think of it as an interface; if you're a programmer, think of it as an API. Indeed, in many cases, it will involve an actual API. If this does not exist, other people will come up with their own solutions, and if this happens often enough, the silo will cease to be useful to the organization. Competition between silos is unhelpful.
Build more silos!
A government agency can be a silo, as long as it has a rich, free interface for other agencies and the general public to access its services. Geophysics can be a silo, as long as it's easy for a wave-curious engineer to join in, and the silo is promoting excellence and professional development amongst its members. An HR department can be a silo, as long as its practices and procedures are transparent and people can openly ask why the heck they still use Myers–Briggs tests.
Go and build a silo. Then make it not matter most of the time.
Image: Silos by Flickr user Guerretto, licensed CC-BY.


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Chairman, Advisory Board | Invest Africa
Rt Hon Mark Simmonds was until recently The Foreign & Commonwealth office Minister with responsibilities for Africa, the Caribbean, UK Overseas Territories, International Energy and Conflict Prevention. He served as a Member of the UK Parliament for 14 years.
He now has a number of International roles including: senior consultant to Kroll, Deputy Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise & Investment Council and Chairman of the advisory Board of the Global Investment platform Invest Africa, Senior Advisor to Farallon Capital, Non-Executive Director of African Potash and Chairman of the Counter-Extremism Project (UK).


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Police Cracking Down on DUI This Halloween.
This year, Halloween falls on a Friday, and Casper police will be out looking for drunk drivers as part of an aggressive Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement effort. Consider yourself warned: if Casper police catch you driving over the legal limit, you will be arrested. In Casper, the typical penalty for a first time DUI is three days in jail, a $750 fine and six months' probation.
From 2008-2012, 166 people were killed in drunk-driving crashes on Halloween, and more than half (51 percent) of crash fatalities involved a drunk driver or motorcycle operator, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2012, 19 percent of the fatal pedestrian crashes on Halloween involved drunk drivers. In Casper, in 2013, there were 3 DUI's on Halloween.
"The Casper Police Department wants everyone to have an accident free Halloween. Motorists need to be extra cautious of pedestrians out trick-or-treating," said Police Sgt. Joe Nickerson. "If you are going to partake of alcohol this holiday, be sure to make plans ahead of time for a sober driver to get you home or ask your server for a Safe Ride voucher. Please report any possibly impaired driving to 911 immediately. Let's all work together to have a safe and happy holiday."
In every state, it's illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher, yet thousands of people lose their lives to this reckless crime every year. In 2012 alone, 10,322 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver or motorcycle operator. Driving drunk costs lives and the other consequences can be costly as well. A DUI arrest costs $10,000 on average.
"If you plan to drink on Halloween, plan now how you'll get home," said Cindy Toland, WMC Safe Communities coordinator. This Halloween, the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement campaign aims to save lives by reminding all drivers to follow these simple tips:
• Before the Halloween festivities begin, plan a way to safely get home at the end of the night. If you wait until you've been drinking, —you're more likely to make the wrong decision to drive drunk.
• Always designate a sober driver.
• If you are impaired, take a taxi, call a sober friend or family member, or use public transportation.
• Walking impaired can be just as dangerous as drunk driving. Designate a sober friend to walk you home.
• Use your community's sober ride program, Safe Ride.
• If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact local law enforcement.
• If you know someone who is about to drive or ride impaired, take their keys and help them make safe travel arrangements to where they are going.


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A Westville man is facing drug and other charges after Lancaster County Sheriff's Office deputies reportedly found him passed out behind the wheel of a parked car in Kershaw.
According to the incident report, a deputy found 30-year-old Adrian Lewis Bracey around 2:08 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, passed out in the driver's seat of a Chevrolet Malibu in the parking lot of Foxwood Apartments on Kershaw Country Club Road.
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Organizations outsource recruitment activities which reduce the costs and time taken for the entire process if the outsourced firm could deliver quality employees (with requisite skills) at the right time.
Recruitment process starts from screening the resume, filtering the candidates' profiles and selecting them through interviews in compliance with the client's requirements. Recruitment process outsourcing helped the software firms to find technical specialists when it was very difficult to hire them after exhaustive search.
Though the fee charged for hiring has taken toll with the rising costs still software firms tend to go for recruitment process outsourcing in order to get the deliverables on time.
Browse the definition and meaning of more terms similar to Recruitment Process Outsourcing. The Management Dictionary covers over 7000 business concepts from 6 categories.
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Brilliant for Beginners
We begin with a series of tutorials aimed at the absolute beginner. We show you how to set up your Mac for the first time, make use of its key apps such as Safari, Mail, Maps and Music and get to grips with macOS basics such as the Desktop and Finder.
Ideal for Intermediates
If you've been using your Mac for a while and would like to learn a little more, check out our app tutorials that go beyond the basics and show you their more obscure features. We also show you the operating system's advanced features like iCloud and Family Sharing.
Excellent for Experts
If you're an experienced Mac user, you might well benefit from our tutorials for advanced projects. Find out how to add a second screen, run Windows or Linux on your Mac, use a joypad for your favourite games and even use Terminal hacks.
What to Buy Next?
If you're looking for something to buy for your Mac, we round up some of the latest peripherals and third-party applications you can purchase. Naturally, we show you how to use the App Store and iTunes Store, so you can buy apps and media too.


text: A couple of weeks ago, Lauren and Oliver popped down to Salcombe to see me to chat about their Wedding Plans and to have their Pre Wedding Shoot. A dull damp saturday afternoon, but smiles all around as we went for a walk at Snapes Point. So looking forward to their Wedding at Salcombe Harbour Hotel. Pre Wedding Shoots are a great way to go for a walk and a chat and get a chance to relax and enjoy being photographed. It also helps me see what my couples are like together!


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When I Added 'Photographer' to My Resume / Melo-X NPR Cutting Room Floor Shots
Sometimes you have do shit without being asked and hope for the best. A few weeks back, I pitched NPR an article on Melo-X. Dude's so diverse as a creative that the only proper label for him is "Multimedia Artist."As for me, my first title was Music Journalist and Writer. And because that's how most editors know me now, it can be tough reintroducing myself as additional things (like Documentarian or Photographer). So when NPR accepted my story pitch for a traditional interview, I thought about what else I could do. Come interview day I brought my camera with me and after Melo and I knocked out a good chat, I asked him if he'd be down to take some pictures in his backyard. X was with it!
After about 30 minutes of a loose shoot, we were done. I had some great options, but for who? NPR never agreed to accept pictures from me. Still, I hoped that I could send them some pictures as a bit of a bonus to my article. When I submitted my Q&A, I also sent in my favorite shots. At this point I was competing. It was my photography versus whatever Melo-approved press shots his publicity team sent to NPR to support my story.I won. That shot I took here just above this sentence of Melo perched on that old chair like some punk swag god was the favorite and NPR used it as the lead image for the story. It's the first time I've appeared as anything other than the writer for a major publication. BIG. The other images in this post are shots that were left on the cutting room floor. I took some real time to learn how to edit them in Photoshop and work them into a nice place.Funny, if I hadn't thought to just go for it, none of this would have happened. I'm more than a writer and I'm going to make sure everyone knows that, whether it's asked of me or not. I'm a multimedia artist, too.


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Video Games Market To Grow From $52 Billion In 2009 To $86 Billion By 2014
By William Usher 2011-02-28 15:53:49 0 Comments
As if the current figures in the realm of video games wasn't large enough alone in North America (topping $15.1 billion in 2009) the world market revenue for gaming is expected to balloon from the impressive $52 billion dollar figure in 2009 to the gargantuan sum of $86 billion dollars by 2014.
PricewaterhouseCoopers' entertainment and media outlook between 2010 and 2014 was released and the video game chapter breaks out some fascinating numbers, pretty much confirming what some savvy economists have been saying all along: gaming is a financial force to be reckoned with.
As mentioned, the North American breakdown from 2009 brought in an estimated $15.1 billion but will expand to an estimated $20.7 billion by 2014, mainly due to the mainstream home consoles, the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 and handheld devices such as the Nintendo 3DS/DS and PSP.
However the largest gaming market in the world right now is the Asia Pacific region which garnered a very impressive figure of $19.4 billion in 2009 and is expected to be the fastest growing region within the next five years and estimated to grow at a 16.3 percent compound annual rate to $41.3 billion in 2014. This is mostly in due part to the free-to-play MMO market that made a heck of a lot of South Korean publishers billions of dollars very quickly over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, there's going to be a lot of short, rich dudes strutting their stuff to the bank in South Korea in 2014.
The second largest gaming market in the world, the EMEA, also known to most gamers as the PAL territories, is estimated to expand from $16.8 billion in 2009 with an annual growth rate of 6.4 percent, to $23 billion in 2014.
Interestingly enough the PC market is expected to deteriorate in favor of a stronger presence from consoles, high rates of piracy and better establishment from the MMOG genre. There's no real surprise with that data, though.
You can check out some interesting tidbits of information released from the research data below. For more info feel free to visit the Official PwC Website.
North American Video Game Market Estimates
• Consumer spending on games will expand at a 6.1 percent compound annual rate to $19.2 billion from $14.3 billion in 2009, while advertising will rise from $877 million in 2009 to $1.5 billion, an 11.7 percent increase compounded annually.
• Console/handheld games will continue to dominate the market, increasing at a compound annual rate of 6.1 percent to $14.4 billion in 2014 from $10.7 billion in 2009.
• Online games are expected to increase from $2.1 billion in 2009 to $3 billion in 2014, growing by 7.7 percent on a compound annual basis.
• Wireless games will increase by 7.1 percent on a compound annual basis from $918 million to $1.3 billion in 2014.
• The PC game market will decrease to $514 million in 2014 from $601 million in 2009, a 3.1 percent compound annual decline.
EMEA Video Game Market Estimates
• The overall video game market is anticipated to increase from $16.8 billion in 2009 to $23.0 billion in 2014, growing at a compound annual rate of 6.4 percent.
• Consumer spending on video games will grow by 6.2 percent on a compound annual basis from $16.4 billion in 2009 to $22.2 billion in 2014.
• Video game advertising is expected to grow by 13.5 percent on a compound annual basis from $426 million in 2009 to $802 million in 2014.
• Console/handheld games will continue to be the largest segment of the market, increasing by 5.4 percent compounded annually from $10 billion in 2009 to $13 billion in 2014.
• Online games—driven by both casual games and MMOGs—will increase by 11.9 percent compounded annually to $4.9 billion in 2014 from $2.8 billion in 2009.
• Wireless games will increase to $2.3 billion by 2014, up from $1.5 billion in 2009, a 9.5 percent compound annual increase.
• PC game sales will dip from $2.2 billion to $2.0 billion, a 2.0 percent compound annual decrease.
Asia Pacific Video Game Market Estimates
• End-user spending on video games will total $40.9 billion in 2014, growing 16.3 percent on a compound annual basis from $19.2 billion in 2009.
• Advertising will increase from $227 million in 2009 to $472 million in 2014, growing by 15.8 percent compounded annually.
• Console/handheld games will grow to $8.5 billion in 2014, increasing by 4.3 percent on a compound annual basis from $6.9 billion in 2009.
• Online games will become the largest category in 2010, reaching $22.6 billion by 2014, a 27.3 percent compound annual increase from $6.8 billion in 2009.
• Wireless games will surpass console games in 2014 to become the second-largest category. Spending will grow at a 14.1 percent compound annual rate to $8.9 billion in 2014 from $4.6 billion in 2009.
• PC games will fall by 1.4 percent compounded annually to $852 million in 2014 from $912 million in 2009.
Latin American Video Game Market Estimates
• End-user spending will rise to $1.7 billion in 2014, growing at a 9.2 percent compound annual rate.
• Console/handheld games will grow by 7.3 percent compounded annually from $607 million in 2009 to $863 million in 2014.
• The PC game market is expected to reach $135 million in 2014 from $115 million in 2009, a 3.3 percent compound annual increase.
• The wireless game market will increase from $320 million in 2009 to $561 million in 2014, growing at 11.9 percent on a compound annual basis.
• The online game market will reach $150 million in 2014 from $61 million in 2009, growing by 19.7 percent on a compound annual basis.
• Advertising is expected to grow at a 14.4 percent compound annual rate from $24 million to $47 million in 2014.
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STATE VS. DEFENSE (reviewed on June 15, 2011)
The perils of an expanding American hegemony by military means rather than diplomacy, as skillfully tracked by an American journalist.
In this timely, pointed study, Glain (Mullahs, Merchants and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Muslim World, 2004, etc.) challenges the efficacy and wisdom of continuing an enormous, costly U.S. defense buildup abroad in the face of the flimsiest excuse for an enemy and where statesmanship would better be served. Since after World War II, American leaders, much like republican Rome, writes the author, "realized their founders' dread by succumbing to the sirens of militarism and the costs of their rapture." During the same timer period, the hawks have held sway over national leaders. Examples include: General MacArthur's hyperbolic pronouncements of communist incursions, which neutralized the restraint preached by George Marshall; the co-opting of George Kennan's theory of containment by Dean Acheson and others in forging the Truman Doctrine; the pernicious fear-mongering of Senator Joseph McCarthy that effectively cowed the Department of State. The Soviet threat (and communist China) would keep alarmists and neoconservatives frothing at the mouth through wars in Korea and Vietnam, fed by defense contractors, RAND Corporation analysts and nuclear-bomb fears—despite ample evidence that the Soviet Union was "sclerotic" and incapable of posing a serious existential threat to the U.S. The myth of Soviet superiority was barked by the White House, swallowed by the press, cheered by the Pentagon and carried the country through the pitiful collapse of the Soviet Union. However, our "enemy deprivation syndrome" was later filled by the Islamist terrorist threat. Desert Shield and consummate generals such as Colin Powell brought the "romance with the military" to primetime. The momentum of militarization has become unstoppable, Glain writes gloomily. In crisp, authoritative writing, the author sets down some scathing portraits, from MacArthur to Rumsfeld, and in a powerful conclusion, exposes the disequilibrium between the U.S. civilian versus military resources throughout the world and the continued "appeasement" by President Obama to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A work of smoldering focus and marshaled evidence that just might have found its publishing moment.
State vs. Defense: The Battle To Define America's Empire. Crown. Aug. 2011. 496p.
Since the early years of the Cold War, the U.S. State and Defense Departments have been locked in a bitter fight over making foreign policy—a battle in which Defense has dominated to the extent that the national security budget is now 20 percent of the total federal budget (i.e., rather than there being a greater percentage for diplomacy or foreign aid). So writes journalist Glain (Wall Street Journal;Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World) in his fascinating account of the making of modern foreign policy. This is not a comprehensive Cold War history, but it skillfully investigates each presidential administration since Truman's to show how militarists—often wealthy corporation heads and elected officials—have created the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned against. Readers will be familiar with many of the militarists and diplomatists who fill these pages but will likely be angered about the extent to which the former went to distort the truth about the former Soviet Union and, later, Asian and Muslim nations' strength and intentions toward the United States. VERDICT: This frank and absorbing interpretation offers a well-constructed framework for viewing foreign policy; it will interest general readers, scholars, and appointed and elected officials.
State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire. By Stephen Glain. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011. 496 pp. $26.00, hardcover.
Reviewed by Colonel Blaine D. Holt for American Foreign Policy Interests.
The shifting Yins and Yangs inside government agencies manifest themselves across structural and political lines drawn by the founders at the dawn of the ''American Experiment.'' Crafted with complex checks and balances, the original blue print was deliberately cumbersome, designed to deter the worst European excesses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Fast forward two hundred years, and the various enclaves of self-interest within the government have hardened into polarized camps with overlapping interests and unpredictable memberships, all fiercely competing for diminishing resources. The dichotomies, big government versus small, liberal versus conservative, isolationist versus globalist, China hands versus China lobby, garrison versus expeditionary, Democrat versus Republican, and more, are dissected in Stephen Glain's capstone contradiction; State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire.
This thoughtful and well-researched volume covering 60 years of government tensions in the ''no-man's land'' between militarism and diplomacy is set to ignite passions on all sides. The author is unabashed about drawing conclusions on the momentous events that arguably altered the twentieth century, such as how America's near misses with nuclear holocaust occurred and whether or not the cold war was necessary. Only a minority of readers will accept or refute this work in its entirety, but almost all will see a basis for serious discussion on the potential militarization of U.S. foreign policy in the context of an updated view of Eisenhower's infamous military–industrial complex. In an age of broken economies, austerity, and constrained resources, Glain's timing is uncanny in producing a work that just may serve as a catalyst in rethinking our national security and strategy.
Stephen Glain is an accomplished journalist and prolific writer whose previous work, Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants: The Economic Collapse of the Arab World, was well received for its rich vignettes of today's Arab world set against an historical backdrop of greatness to decline. With over twenty years of experience as a foreign correspondent in both Asia and the Middle East, he has written for a roster of prestigious publications such as Smithsonian, The Nation, Newsweek, and Institutional Investor, all while penning a weekly column for the Abu Dhabi National. With State vs. Defense, Stephen Glain adds a new focus to his broad repertoire, moving nimbly from traditional reportage, to scholarly historical research, analysis, and synthesis.
From the outset, the book suggests that World War II (WWII), with its unequivocal victories born of sacrifice and aggression, gave rise to a group of leaders oriented toward military solutions as primary options. The same group arrayed across all government offices and elected posts, Glain writes, gave birth to the original military–industrial complex, which the author contends, still dominates U.S. decision making. Indeed, in bringing the post-WWII construct into the twenty-first century, Glain leaves little doubt in his acerbic and stark appraisal: ''Only now, with the specter of bankruptcy looming over the national accounts, are some in Washington daring to contest the bill for, if not the value of, unchecked global hegemony.'' Further, he paints America today as a country that has ''not evolved much beyond its regard for diplomacy as a mistress who, for the sake of irregular service, is kept on a miserly retainer.'' Overall, Glain sees the sons and daughters of the post-war period, not as the benign stewards of a durable ''Pax Americana,'' but as relentless militarists, garnering the lion's share of budgets, while dictating the terms of foreign policy.
To illustrate his points, Glain sets his stage elegantly with a pantheon of U.S. giants such as Kennan, Marshall, Nitze, MacArthur, Dulles, and countless others, all central to the post-WWII policy transition. While the reader can take issue with the author's conclusions, the casting is impeccable. These are the individuals whose names adorn airports, schools, think tanks, and war ships, along with the more mundane streets and boulevards, all as a testament to their service and influence. In State vs. Defense, however, agendas trump service, and influence is rarely benign and never, ever neutral. As the reader moves into the developing arguments of the book, the author's talent for clarity and historical precision comes alive. He uses George Kennan's ''long telegram'' as a genesis of sorts, a foundation document (unintended by its author) for a new class of foreign policy makers dedicated to using U.S. military supremacy as a key part of transitioning to a peacetime economy. The more traditional diplomats were clearly on the defensive as even the language of statecraft changed. The Kennan prescription for ''containment'' was the necessary fuel to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal's arguments identifying the Soviet Union as the next big adversary and a future nuclear exchange as a real possibility.
Glain advances his readers steadily and carefully through each phase of the ensuing cold war, alongwith the frictions between an ever more fractious Defense Department, and their increasingly isolated cousins in the traditional diplomatic corps. With deft prose interpreting his first-rate historical research, Glain traces a path through the Berlin blockade, the ''red scare'' at home, the Korean War, the domino theory, and the perceived need to check the, seemingly, monolithic expansion of the supposed USSR–Sino expansion in Asia. The painstaking detail Glain uses to track each new threat against the growth and expansion of the now massive military–industrial complex is impressive. Indeed, the reader is left with a stunning view of just how powerful the group has been in bringing the entire beltway, up to presidential level, into the convenient ''democracy versus communism'' paradigm. Some of the vignettes the author uses to define his views on militarism are chilling, although in the end most tend to underscore the sound judgment of the particular commander-in-chief. For example, Chinese attacks on the Quemoy and Matsu islands in the Taiwan straits in 1958 came with the sternest advice from President Eisenhower's inner circle. His closest experts favored nuclear retaliation along with a U.S. expeditionary force on the ground. President Eisenhower rebuffed that course of action, having a clear vision of the potentially disastrous results of such an escalation, with few benefits for the United States. When he addressed the nation on September 11, 1958 one line of the speech was surely not lost on any one of the three organs of American foreign policy—the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, or the Department of State: '' . . . negotiation and conciliation should never be abandoned in favor of force and strife'' (President D. Dwight Eisenhower, September 11, 1958 speech on the Taiwan Straits crisis).
Glain's heroes of diplomacy and advocates for militarism's constant struggle with each other over this 60-year account is enriched with the added benefit of the research he brings from declassified Soviet and Chinese documents. The reader should not assume which element of government has Yins and which has Yangs; Glain is very descriptive about officials at State and other agencies where the ''strong hammer'' is the preferable course, more than satiating General LeMay's call for more bombers in the 1950s and 1960s. Similarly, he champions leaders in uniform from Generals Marshall to Powell who have urged restraint at expending military energy when diplomatic options remained unexplored.
As stated, there are few who will accept all of Mr. Glain's conclusions wholesale. While George Kennan may not have supported how the national security apparatus digested and acted on the long telegram or the ''Mr. X'' article in Foreign Affairs, the Soviets were anything but a benign threat, as those who can still remember the lights going out in Eastern Europe or the rape of Berlin before the Americans arrived at the Brandenburg gate. It would be hard to say that U.S. wealth and military might, born out free market capitalism by the international system it forged was not a factor in keeping the Soviets on the defensive, ending in a culmination that Mikhail Gorbachev ultimately recognized. In terms of China, State vs. Defense draws the lines as China hands (the experts from State Department of the day) to the China lobby (those in support of Chiang Kai Shek and the Kuomintang). It is possible that responsiveness to Mao's early overtures could have yielded better outcomes, but the risks in doing so cannot be overstated. Most historical accounts credit Stalin and Mao with the deaths of millions during their reigns—hardly fertile diplomatic ground.
Glain touches on the resource woes of the foreign assistance community, but could have delved more into our history with assistance through military means, USAID, or the UN and its efficacy. Former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios, mentioned in State vs. Defense, comes to some sobering realities on the complexities of government-led development in his paper, ''The Clash of the Counter-bureaucracy and Development." Finally, Glain harshly judges Admiral Mullen, General Petraeus, and General McChrystal as the ''nearly insubordinate troika'' of hawks during the early days of the Obama administration, favoring ''enlarged, open-ended commitments'' in Afghanistan. While their roles and records will be debated for generations it would have been encouraging to read a caveat that America's top military officers are charged to provide the best military options once policy is established. Such an explanation would reaffirm the author's thorough understanding of the fundamentally subordinate position occupied by the military under the constitution.
State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire, is an important book and deserves to be widely read and discussed. Amid a global backdrop of economic chaos, transnational terror, famine, revolution, and nuclear proliferation, America's foreign policy and national security choices could not be more important or hold more consequence. Will the Yins and Yangs clash again as they always have, or will they find the sense of urgency to reform policy in a sweeping manner? Taking stock of the history Stephen Glain examines could be essential to redefining our national security strategy, foreign engagement goals, and how we will resource our government to deliver on its constitutional mandate to ''provide for the common defense.''
Colonel Blaine D. Holt is a Military Fellow, United States Air Force, Council on Foreign Relations. The views expressed here are his own.
The Politics of American Militarism
The Atlantic Monthly 2011-9-2
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that something like 95 percent of the foreign affairs budget of the federal government is devoted to the military. National security accounts for about twenty percent of the entire federal budget, but the public seems to have an altogether different perspective: According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll conducted in March of this year, Americans think foreign affairs make up forty percent of the budget, with thirty percent of the budget devoted to the military and the remaining ten percent devoted to foreign aid. Despite the high numbers given the military, the militarism built into the federal budget seems to spark very little concern.
It's no surprise that the average Americans doesn't realize how little we really spend on foreign assistance, or even how much we spent on the military. Foreign aid is a little under one percent of the federal budget, but the public discourse focuses on it so much it's easy to assume it takes up far more of our resources than it does. Similarly, the stupendous cost of the military--with its millions of employees and soldiers, 761 foreign bases, and thousands of U.S.-based facilities--simply doesn't compute with the public. Further, the military has a built-in constituency: supporting the soldiers is a patriotic duty; advocating on behalf civilians in foreign policy, like the State Department's Foreign Service Officers, is at best enabling limp-wristed decadence.
It is precisely that imbalance between the military and civilian parts of America's foreign policy that is the subject of Stephen Glain's new book State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire. "American militarism," he writes, "is unique for its civilian provenance." It didn't come at the point of a gun, or with the military formally declaring its control of the government. This militarism is no conspiracy, but is rather a natural consequence of "a uniquely American impulse to choose force over statesmanship."
Glain certainly makes for a compelling argument. The history he charts, which begins in 1947 and ends with the George W. Bush presidency, is extensive and well sourced. The popular perception that Bush was uniquely wrong to abdicate his foreign policy decisions to the military is simply not borne out by our own history. From almost the moment World War II ended, the military has exercised an outsized influence on foreign policy.
At the same time, the State Department is no hapless victim. While I understand Glain's desire to explain American militarism, he does not emphasize enough that the State Department's terrible leadership is as much to blame for the controlling prominence of the Defense Department as anything else. This happened almost regardless of the party in the White House. In the early 1960s, for example, Secretary of State Dean Rusk deliberately sought to remove Foreign Service Officers who rejected the Domino Theory, the idea that a wave of monolithic communism was sweeping across Southeast Asia. Rusk held on to provably false ideas of Maoist China as "a colonial Russian government" (which he proclaimed in 1951 and never rejected), and steadily removed the State Department officials and employees who used their deep knowledge of Asian politics to reject the anti-communist hyperventilation that had gripped Washington.
In many ways, the process Glain describes reminds me of how, post-2001, the Bush administration deliberately ignored its own regional experts when crafting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While Glain is certainly correct to note that this is a systemic problem, the State Department isn't exactly a good alternative to the military's overpowering presence in foreign policy. Even so, the military's gradual assumption of normally civilian roles in foreign policy has had disastrous consequences, and Glain deserves tremendous credit for arguing it so forcefully.
During the long run-up in 2002 to the invasion of Iraq, the State Department assembled the Future of Iraq Project, which assembled hundreds of experts and expatriates to plan how to handle the collapse of Iraq's government and society. The militarists in the Bush Whitehouse chose instead to hand responsibility for Iraqi reconstruction to the Department of Defense. When Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who ran the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, requested members of the Future of Iraq Project help him plan, Secretary Rumsfeld rejected it. The Iraqis would greet American might with roses, Dick Cheney famously said. There was no need for civilians to plan for much.
In Afghanistan, too, it was remarkable to see the government's long rejection of expertise in favor of militarism. Even today, the think tanks with the most access and media presence get that way through ablind advocacy of militarism, and in many cases an explicit rejection of knowledge. Advocating for a less intrusive or proactive military presence is simply not part of the discourse.
In 2003, the Pentagon looked at Afghanistan and decided it needed to be developed. Rather than reaching out to the civilians who are good at such things--not just NGOs but USAID and the State Department--they instead chose to create unique militarized reconstruction teams called Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).
PRTs inspired a wave of opposition from traditional relief groups. Since they were originally created, relief agencies have reacted strongly against the use of the military to perform non-military tasks. Soon after, the Taliban did too: In 2004, the relief group Doctors Without Borders dramatically halted all its operations after five of its workers were slaughtered. In a statement, the group blamed not only intransigence on the part of the government in Kabul, but also the deliberate blurring of lines between military and relief work. They're not alone: Oxfam have become outspoken critics of the militarization of aid, as have scholars who focus on the topic. Even today, when they have re-established their presence in Afghanistan, Doctors Without Borders goes to elaborate lengths to highlight their refusal to participate in any military-funded activity.
The shift in military policy that fomented this militarization is remarkable, and is the consequence of the militarization of foreign policy Glain charts.
State vs. Defense is part of a growing body of literature on the military's evolving role in foreign policy decision-making. One of the best explorations about this is Washington Post reporter Dana Priest's 2004 book, The Mission. While well conceived and written (I loved it, in fact), Priest really only covers the 1990s and the first year or two of the Bush administration. Earlier this year, Wall Street Journal reporter Nathan Hodge wrote another book about the militarization of foreign policy, Armed Humanitarians. While I alsoliked that book, he too focused on very recent history.
Glain, in contrast, is much more comprehensive. By examining the impulse to default to the military as an artifact of American politics, rather than a recent evolution driven by confusion in the post-Cold War world, Glain brings much-needed insight into how, for the rest of the world, we really are a nation of soldiers (even if very few of us ever wear a uniform). It is only by understanding that history that we will have any hope of ever changing it.
-- Reviewed by Johsua Foust.
State Versus Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire
Reviewed by Peter Van Buren for The Huffington Post, 2011-11-7
Stephen Glain's new book, State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire, is a brilliant, sober, sad and important biography of the Department of State since World War II. The choice of word here--biography--is significant, in that instead of a simple history of State, Glain traces its decline in old age as America's foreign policy is increasingly made and carried out by the Pentagon. This does not bode well for America. Mini review: Be afraid.
McCarthy: Beginning of the End
Though not casual reading, State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire's detailed text will gift the reader with a thorough history of America's overseas activities since the end of the Second World War. Told largely through tales of bureaucratic infighting between State and Defense, with Congress often coming on stage at critical moments to drive a dagger into State's corps(e), it is not a pretty story. Author Glain, for example, chronicles the rise of the national security state post-war, but leaves it to McCarthy to devastate the State Department at a time when its prescience might have altered relations in East Asia forever, possibly preventing the Korean War:
The damage done to the State Department by McCarthy's attacks [and the destruction of State's China hands like Service, Davis and Vincent] was irreparable. Those who did pursue diplomatic careers would find a culture of caution that impaired lateral thinking. (McCarthy's) real legacy is the diminution of the Department of State into the intellectually inert and politically impotent agency that it is today. p.76
Limping into Vietnam, Glain shows how State never reached Presidents Johnson and Nixon, and instead allowed itself to be a forgotten extension of the military because it could never break free from its own bureaucratic in-the-box conception of international relations:
A 1972 RAND study scolded US diplomats for not doing enough to prevent the militarization of Washington's pacification efforts in Vietnam. "The State Department," the study said, "did not often deviate from its concept of normal diplomatic dealings with Saigon, not even when the government was falling apart. Similarly, State... made little effort to assert control over our military on political grounds... State's concept of institution building in Vietnam turned largely on encouragement of American democratic forms, a kind of mirror-imagining which proved hard to apply to the conditions of Vietnam. p. 233
Jesse Helms and George W. Finish the Job
Despite the sparring between State and Defense over what to do in the Balkans in the 1990's, which showed some hope for diplomacy, it was the one-two punch of Jesse Helms' decimating State's budget from his perch on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, followed by the almost complete militarization of everything after 9/11, that effectively ended State as a significant Washington player.
No one outside of official Washington can appreciate how much 9/11 altered the way the US Government thinks about itself. The shock of an attack on the US changed the posture of the government from one of at times satisfied with passivity in its more distant foreign affairs to one demanding constant action.
The shock was because 9/11 was not supposed to happen, again. Everything about the US government was as of 9/10 still configured around the mistakes made concerning Pearl Harbor. My favorite CIA Station Chief kept, framed, in his guest toilet, a copy of a cable sent by the US Embassy in Tokyo on December 7, 1941 (the attack took place December 8 Japan time) claiming war was far off. He maintained that from that December morning forward the purpose of the U.S. government was to make sure Pearl Harbor never happened again. Then it did.
On 9/12, every part of the U.S. government, with a special emphasis on those who worked abroad (State, CIA, DOD, et al), was to shift was a passive mode of listening and reporting to an action mode. The President would probably have preferred that each Federal worker go out and strangle a terrorist personally, but if that was not possible everyone was to find a way to go to war. The intelligence agencies, whose 1960s and 70s comical attempts at assassinations and dirty tricks were so well documented in the Church Hearings, suddenly saw the sharp, sudden end of the debate on whether they were to conduct clandestine or sort of clandestine ops or not. State froze like a deer in the headlights, and almost lost the one action-oriented bureau in the agency, the visa office, to the new Department of Homeland Security.
George W. Bush administration is particularly singled out by Glain as having forced the air out of State. Reminding readers how the early days of Iraq occupation were run not by skilled Arabists from the State Department, but by recent college grads from the Bush campaigns, Glain writes:
American militarism came about the same way that free societies succumb to authoritarian rule: with a leadership that rewards sycophants and the like-minded, co-opts the ambitious and punishes those in dissent. p. 381
In 1950 State had 7710 diplomats abroad. In 2001, they had only 7158. The world had changed around the Department (personnel figures from Career Diplomacy, by Harry Kopp and Charles Gillespie, Second Edition).
Rise of the Combatant Commands
Roughly the last quarter of Glain's book covers the post-9/11 period. His key contention is that the vacuum in foreign relations has been largely filled by the military combatant commanders, the men who head CENTCOM, SOCOM and the rest:
The combatant commands are already the putative epicenters for security, diplomatic, humanitarian and commercial affairs in their regions. Local leaders receive them as powerful heads of state, with motorcades, honor guards and ceremonial feats. Their radiance obscures everything in its midst, including the authority of US ambassadors. p. 350
Glain's point is worth quoting at length:
This yawning asymmetry is fueled by more than budgets and resources [though the Pentagon-State spending ration is 12:1, p. 405], however. Unlike ambassadors, whose responsibility is confined to a single country or city-state, the writ of a combatant commander is hemispheric in scope. His authority covers some of the world's most strategic resources and waterways and he has some of the most talented people in the federal government working for him.While his civilian counterpart is mired in such parochial concerns as bilateral trade disputes and visa matters, a combatant commander's horizon is unlimited. "When we spoke, we had more clout," according to Anthony Zinni. "There's a mismatch in our stature. Ambassadors don't have regional perspectives. You see the interdependence and interaction in the region when you have regional responsibility. If you're in a given country, you don't see beyond its borders because that is not your mission." p. 351
With stature as defacto leaders abroad, the combatant commanders also stripped State of its already meager resources. In particular, Glain focuses on the non-battle to move foreign military assistance money out of State's hands, and dump it into the Pentagon's coffers:
Section 1206 funding: for the first time since president Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the US military would fund such activity directly from its own accounts, bypassing the State Department. Conspicuously absent from the debate over Section 1206 was Condoleezza Rice, America's secretary of state. To no avail, Senator Patrick Leahy, implored Rice not to relinquish such vital funding authority as requested by the Pentagon... Legislative aides involved in the debate were staggered by Rice's passivity. p. 399Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's mantric utterance of the "3Ds"--defense, diplomacy and development--suggests at least passive acceptance of such a lopsided collusion. p. 404
The End
In 1940, the U.S. place in the world was simple. Diplomacy was Euro-centric, and the State Department was a collection of gentlemen committed to proper discourse. As World War II broke out, State had just 840 diplomats stationed abroad. The world that emerged from that war still played the old game, albeit with some different players. State participated in the overall mad growth of the U.S. government, and by 1950 had 7710 diplomats assigned outside the U.S. New countries emerged, power shifted, colonies disappeared, and State blithely sat back and reported on it all. Millions of pages of reports on everything under the sun were written, likely billions of pages. You can see contemporary reports on WikiLeaks, or delve into the historical pile, where State is currently declassifying and publishing things from the Carter administration.
Glain offers no prescription for a Department of State resurgence, ending his biography with the institution at near death. State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire concludes with a depressing coda, warning America what the almost complete militarization of its foreign affairs really means:
US relations with the world, and increasingly America's security policy at home, have become thoroughly and all but irreparably militarized. The culprits are not the nation's military leaders... but civilian elites who have seen to it that the nation is engaged in a self-perpetuating cycle of low grade conflict... They have convinced a plurality of citizens that their best guarantee of security is not peace but war. p. 407
Despite the fanatic growth in size of government under the Bush administration, State remained a sidelined player. With 7158 employees stationed abroad in 2001, by 2010 the number had only grown to 8199, diplomats supplemented by civil servants and others on "excursion" tours abroad.
History can be quite naughty, and State may yet be handed another chance at transformation before slipping away to become not much more than America's concierge abroad, arranging hotel rooms for Congressional delegations and aiding tourists with lost passports. But that is unlikely, leaving the military as America's representative abroad. Be afraid.


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Destination UE
You Matter as an Individual Here
"There are only 24 hours in the day, so you can't have more or add more."
Sarah Cheatham
Class of 2016
Major: Athletic Training
A Strong Love for UE
When considering UE, Sarah started looking at the neuroscience program since she was interested in exploring how minds work. She met Lora Becker, associate professor of psychology and director of the neuroscience program, and she liked what UE had to offer. But Sarah had some other talents that directed her to another career path. In high school, Sarah worked with the track, football, and basketball teams for athletic training. Her sister actually got injured, and seeing how far she came from a knee injury was impressive to Sarah.
For Sarah, the network of people at the University of Evansville was really valuable. "It's great to have professors who care for you and who work really hard to help you achieve your dreams," she said.
Leading with Her Peers
The Orientation Leaders program gave Sarah the best social networking connection possible. The program holds a big place in her heart. "Coming in as a freshman, I met my best friend in my small group." These orientation leaders are essential to helping make the first week at the University of Evansville exciting and fun. Sarah's favorite part of being an OL was helping freshmen realize UE is the right place for them.
"I wanted them to feel what I felt coming here: Love." Seeing freshmen from Student Orientation and Academic Registration (SOAR) come to Welcome Week and then return for their second semester was such a great feeling for the campus leader. Sarah said this leadership program gave her the opportunity to mentor freshmen and support them in succeeding in college.
Passion for Community Service
Sarah also had a passion for community service in the Evansville area. During Welcome Week, small groups work on various service projects in the community with orientation leaders. Sarah said the best part of this experience was that, "it takes you out of your element. You forget about the world outside. By working on these projects, we were able to show how much we want to give back to the community."
An Easier Transition
A great mentor who has helped Sarah transition into college better is the dean of students, Dana Clayton, EdD. Sarah said that Clayton makes it her mission to welcome freshmen joyfully to UE. Seeing how humble and open hearted Dean Clayton was made an easier transition for Sarah.
Dean Clayton told Sarah once that she doesn't have to be perfect all the time. "If I wasn't having a good day, it's okay. Those who care about me will understand."
Take Time to Explore
Some advice Sarah recommended for future UE students is to not shy away from getting to know new people – and to also have a planner. "There are only 24 hours in the day, and you can't have more or add more." Sarah also learned that students don't need to feel like they are molded into one thing. "You are you, and you have all these characteristics that make you special. That's the joy of going to college and discovering all of this."
More Profiles
Office Phone:
800-423-8633, ext. 2468
Office Email:
Office Location:
1800 Lincoln Ave. Evansville Indiana 47722


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Self-paced Private Coaching
This page has been shared privately with you because, after chatting, Jared believes you are uniquely suited to write your own résumé using his tools and templates, and a bit of one-on-one incremental coaching.
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Your first step is to complete at least one Job Description Analysis (JDA), which you can purchase here, if you haven't already. Once you've completed *at least one* JDA, you can begin booking from the two appointment types below. (The two DIY appointments are identical except in length.)


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EVERYDAY TRAVELER | a new Studio Calico class you don't want to miss
Every day is a new adventure! Join WaiSam Ho (AKA happie scrappie) to discover how to record your daily journey using a traveler's notebook. In this class, she proves that travel notebooks aren't just for explorers and will share tips and techniques for creating one that fits your lifestyle. From art journals to planners, WaiSam will teach you how to document everyday moments in a stylish and creative way.
Everyday Traveler is enrolling now through June 30th at 11:59pm EST. Class will start on July 6th.
- 4 videos from Sam sharing how to choose the perfect notebook for you, ideas for documenting your travels in a notebook, bullet journaling and creating a watercolor palette for your notebook. She'll also be sharing ideas of how she uses her notebooks and inspiring you to find new ways to use yours!
- Video from Marcy Penner sharing how to use the class digital cut files and printable notebooks from the shop in your travel notebook.
- Lessons from our contributors sharing how they use their travel notebooks. Each of them will be sharing a peek into how they use their notebooks - whether it's for documenting travel, everyday memory keeping, planning or art journaling.
- Access to a class message board and gallery, where you can share and learn with your teacher and fellow students.
- Weekly challenges to inspire you to use what you've learned.
- Divider and Folder digital cut files from Hello Forever.
- Travel Notebook : This clever system for holding notebooks (and more) is a favorite among memory keepers, list makers, planners and artists. I got myself this little baby here! Can't wait to get started!
- Notebooks : It starts out simple, but you'll soon turn it into a work of art. We have two printable notebooks designs available - Go & Icon.
- Washi, stamps, tags & flat embellishments : We've added some fun things to the shop that we think will work well in your notebook.
I am so excited about this class! I am thinking about documenting my trip to Brazil and Panama last month, or anticipating our weekend in Ardèche (a beautiful part of Southern France, near Provence). Haven't decided yet!


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This Merry Mouse Cat Toy will not keep your cat from slipping on their nightcap this holiday season!
Why We Love It:
All kids need a toy to play during the holidays and cat are no exception! This fun holiday mouse will keep your cat entertained for hours. Filled with catnip, this mouse is more than happy to be batted around. Packaged in a clear acetate tube, perfect for gift giving.
I like how easy it was to order and the ability to contact someone it needed


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With the holidays quickly approaching the Animal Shelter Society of Muskingum County is hosting a few special events.
Coming up on Saturday, December 7th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the shelter will have their annual Christmas open house and the public is encouraged to join them for a day packed full with activities.
"We will be having crafts for kids, our veterinarian will be giving some educational information throughout the day. We will also have cookies and punch and we are also going to have some special adoptions that day," said Rescue Coordinator, Charity Stevens.
Currently the shelter has cats, dogs and small critters up for sale. Stevens says that the small critter population has grown recently and they would like to find these easy to care for animals good homes for the holidays.
"We are getting an abundance of small critters," said Stevens. " We have two rabbits currently and approximately 10 to 12 hamsters and then we also have one really friendly rat that are all available for adoption."
Along with these adoption specials, this Friday will be last "Black Cat Friday" where the first five people to adopt black cats will only pay $15. The cats are spayed,neutered and vaccinated and are ready to be place in a loving home.


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Have fun you guys! We'll miss you here!
Enjoy! I hope to do the same in November when it is no longer sweltering here.
I do like to be there...
What better thing could you do but go off to the seaside. I live right by the seaside, its a great place to be.


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An Advisory & Assurance Firm
Training Duration: 1 day
Training Delivery Method: On-site, instructor-led course; or online, instructor-led course
Prerequisites: Internal audit or IT audit experience
What Problem Does This Training Help Solve?
Provides training to help attendees who are weak in IT understand Information Technology concepts, hardware, software, architectures, applications, facilities, and other aspects.
Who Should Attend?
This boot camp is especially tailored toward those candidates who are preparing for the CISA® exam but do not have a very strong background in IT or need a refresher in IT.
Course Material:
There will be no handouts for this class, since this class is customized based on the attendees' backgrounds. The instructor will make extensive use of blackboard, whiteboard, and flip charts and attendees will be taking notes.
Course Syllabus:
Syllabus will vary depending upon attendees' backgrounds. The objective of this course is to ensure that CISA® exam candidates have good understanding of IT so that they feel comfortable understanding and answering CISA® exam questions.
Possible topics to be covered:
Operating systems, Z-OS, DOS, VM, UNIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux, Hardware, storage controllers, DASDs, RAM, disk drives, channels, EMC, EVA, Clariion, Sharks, FEP, NCP, VTAM, SNA, TCP/IP, CICS, other TP monitors, Tuxedo, DBMS, DB2, UDB, Oracle, Sybase, Legacy (Adabas, IDMS-R etc), TP monitor/DBMS interaction, relational systems, hierarchical systems, network-based DBMS, UNIX hardware, WinTel based hardware, SUN, HP, IBM, Thin clients, UNIX to Legacy connectivity, telecom vs. locally attached links, ISDN, Modems, digital modems/csu/dsu, DSL, VDSL, SMDS, DBDQ, Metro network, copper cable, fiber optic network, coax cable, UTP, STP, exchange servers, Blackberry servers, 802.11/WiFi, 802.16 WiMax, token ring, ethernet, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA, gigabit ethernet, OSI model, layers of OSI, Windows XP, application programs, application clusters, SRDF, XPC, satelite communications, Microwave communications, servers vs. storage devices, SAN, NAS, RAID devices, languages, Cobol, C, C++, Fortran, object technology, cable modems, compliers, link editors, loaders, AI, Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing, SNMP, TMP, Open-View, LTO tape libraries, robotic tape management, electronic vaulting, raised floors, smoke detectors, FM-200, Type 1/2/3 fires, water damage prevention, motion detectors, security cameras, synchronous and asynchronous replications, LANs, WANs, MANs, PANs, shared devices, integrity, confidentiality, availability, high availability systems, DR/BCP, cluster controllers, third party software's, SAP, Peoplesoft, Oracle Financials, Control issues for ERP systems, BPR, BPO, ITIL, IT-Service Management, Cobit, BS7799/ISO17799/ISO27001, SMTP, cryptography, SCADA control systems, PBX, CTI, call centers, VRS, cellular networks, MSC, BTS, BSS, mediation devices, file servers, print servers, SLAs, ESCROW agreements, RFP, RFI, OSPF, routers, switches, CISCO, transport layer, application layer, physical layer, RJ11, RJ45, NIC, wireless networks, IEEE standards, DNS, DNS push, Intranet, Internet, Extranet, EDI, EFT, VPN, tunneling, Kerberos, dial in authentication, Firewalls, VirusWall, DMZ, Internal vs, External DNS, private Intranet addresses, digital signatures, PKI, triple DES, FTP, anonymous FTP, cryptography, public and private keys, asset management, configuration management, help desk, Remedy, change vs. problem management, policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards, CISO, CSO, identity management, principles of biometrics, EMP threat, data integrity, types of backups (full, incremental, differential, synthetic), split processing, honey nets, honey pots, middleware, messaging and queuing systems, MQI Series, transaction logs, remote journaling, forward recovery, backouts, checkpoints, commit and rollback, file systems, integrity issues in file systems, various forms of attacks, different job functions and their interaction (SA, DBA, Application developers, QA, Security Administrator, operator, librarian, CISO, LAN Administrator, change manager, help desk personnel), job conflict of interest, typical IT department management structure.
Application Service Provider (ASP) and Service Level Agreements, Large Data set Management, Server Virtualization, High Availability and Clusters, File Systems, Blade Servers, Workload Scheduling and Balancing, Performance Management, Capacity Planning, Managing the Emerging Utility/Grid Computing Infrastructure, Network and Communications Management: Network Operating Systems, Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks, Metropolitan Area Networks, Storage Area Networks, Voice Over IP, Carriers, Service Providers, Wireless, Firewalls and Security, Convergence of Data/Voice/Video, Protocol Standards, High Availability and Resiliency, Bandwidth and Service Level Agreements, Networked Server and Storage Management: Server Consolidation, Storage Area Networks, Network Attached Storage, Content Addressed Storage, Data Migration and Management, Scalability, Interoperability, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Information Life cycle Management, BladeServers, Enterprise Security Management: Identity Management, Directory Services, Authentication, Federation, Governance and Policy Deployment, Standards, Risk Management, Outsourcing, Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO),
Managing Deployment of Emerging Technologies and Standards: Procurement/Actual Products, Project Management, Implementation, Education, Management Policies, Long-Term Management and ROI Expectations, virtualization, SOAP, and a lot more.
© 2016-2019 eDelta Consulting|Developed by Wild Island Graphics


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