text:
- News
- Business
- Sports
- Entertainment
- Lifestyle
- Health
- Travel
- Technology
Twenty years ago, I borrowed $10,000 from my RRSPs, under the federal government's Home Buyers' Plan, to help me purchase my first home.
Since then, I have always been an advocate of the Home Buyers' Plan. It's a great deal for those looking to purchase their first home because they can borrow up to $25,000 from their RRSPs. Under the plan, you do not pay tax on the withdrawal because it's like a loan that has to be paid back into the RRSP over a 15-year period. Each year, you have to pay back one-fifteenth of the borrowed amount. If you don't, then the required payment becomes taxable that year.
I recently talked to two young people who are planning to buy their first house this year. Their stories each illustrate how they are able to use their RRSPs and the Home Buyers Plan to their advantage.
Mark has been working for three years, since graduating from university. He has saved $10,000 toward the purchase of his first home. His parents are going to match his savings and give him another $10,000 toward the down payment.
Because he has focused his savings on purchasing a home, he has not put any money away in RRSPs and therefore has considerable unused RRSP contribution room available to him.
Since Mark has no RRSPs, he is not able to take advantage of the Home Buyers' Plan. I suggested that Mark take both his $10,000 and his parents' matching contribution and put it into to his RRSPs right away. After 90 days, he can get the money out through the Home Buyers' Plan. This is advantageous because his $20,000 contribution creates a significant tax savings.
Let's assume Mark is in a 32-per-cent marginal tax bracket. That means that a $20,000 RRSP contribution will give him a tax refund of $6,400. That $6,400 can be used toward the down payment of the home, or it can be used to deal with all the other costs like legal fees, moving costs, utility hook ups, etc.
By contributing the money to the RRSPs first, Mark is creating $26,500 for his home purchase, instead of just $20,000, because of the tax deduction.
In another case, I met Stan, who is also looking to buy his first home this year. He has only saved $6,500. He has an RRSP at the bank worth about $3,500 and he has $8,000 in a defined contribution pension plan from one of his previous employers. Stan was thinking about cashing in this pension and using it toward the purchase of his home.
Normally pension money cannot be cashed out. But because the balance of the pension is less than 20 per cent of the current Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings, he is able to do so. The problem with cashing out the pension is that Stan will have to pay tax on the withdrawal. Instead of getting $8,000, after paying tax he would only have $5,450. However, instead of cashing out the pension, Stan is able to transfer the pension to his RRSP. He won't get a tax deduction, but he can use the entire $8,000 toward the down payment of the home through the Home Buyers' Plan.
After transferring the $8,000 pension into the RRSP, he should also contribute his cash savings of $6,500 to it, as well. With the $3,500 already in his existing RRSP, he would then have $18,000 in the RRSP that can be pulled out through the Home Buyers' Plan. In addition, his $6,500 contribution would result in a tax refund of approximately $2,000. This scenario will give Stan $20,000, compared to only $15,450 if he cashes out the pension and does not put the $6,500 into the RRSP.
Since we are in the heart of RRSP season, first-time home buyers should consider making a contribution to their RRSP, to get an immediate tax deduction and a corresponding refund in April or May of this year.
Any contributions to the RRSP can be withdrawn through the Home Buyers' Plan 90 days after deposit. Any contributions will result in a tax deduction, which will give the homebuyer a little extra cash.
Basically, first-time homebuyers with cash should contribute to their RRSPs, if they have the contribution room.
Jim Yih is a financial expert. Visit his award-winning blog, RetireHappyBlog.ca


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|list=5th [[King of Númenor]]
II 740 – 883
|list=5th [[King of Númenor]]
II 740 – 883
[[Category:Rulers of Númenor]]
[[Category:Rulers of Númenor]]
Revision as of 14:23, 15 August 2006
Tar-Meneldur (Second Age 543 – 942, aged 399 years) was the fifth King of Númenor, ruling from Second Age 740 to 883. His name means "Servant of Heaven". His two older sisters were Silmariën and Isilmë.
He succeeded his father, Tar-Elendil because the rules of succession did not allow women to rule, promoting the principle of agnatic primogeniture. Had the principle of equal primogeniture been followed instead, control of the throne would pass to Silmariën.
He married Almarian and had three children:
- Anardil, son; later known as Aldarion
- Ailinel, daughter -- she would become the mother of Soronto.
- Almiel, daughter
During the rule of Tar-Meneldur contact with the Middle Men of Eriador was reestablished, under guidance of the Elves of Lindon, under Gil-galad. Tar-Meneldur encouraged the seafarers, and allowed his son Aldarion to establish a guild of seafarers, which became one of the most powerful organisations in Númenor. Many voyages along the coasts were made at this time, and the first settlements were made in Middle-earth by Númenórean explorers, although none of them permanent yet. These early settlements were however the later cores of Arnor and Gondor, and the reestablished contact of Númenóreans with their distant kin allowed the Adûnaic tongue to merge with local, far akin languages, eventually leading to the Westron speech. This would in later years prove to be one of the greatest assets to the power of Númenor in Middle-earth.
Near the end of Tar-Meneldur's rule reports came in that evil began to stir in the east of Middle-earth (the first awakenings of Sauron, as was later learned), and Gil-galad requested the aid of Tar-Meneldur. Recognizing his son Aldarion was more aware of the troubles, and was a powerful leader of men, Meneldur resigned in favour of his son, far earlier than was expected.
On the family front Meneldur, together with his wife Almarian, attempted to mediate between his son Aldarion and betrothed Erendis, who had become estranged. For a time they were successful, and Aldarion and Erendis were wed, but Aldarion soon left again for sea. It was during the long absence in Middle-earth, a time during which Aldarion was instructed by Gil-galad, that Erendis left the royal court for her home. By the time Aldarion returned even Meneldur's best attempts could not seal the breach.
Meneldur died in Second Age 942, at the age of 399 years.
|Preceded by:
|5th King of Númenor
|Followed by:

subset: commoncrawl


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The iPad's size is perfect for multi-player gaming. In fact, there are a lot of games out there that should be played by more than one player, like the quiz game that you can play with the AppQuiz iPad accessory.
It looks like half an octopus (minus the head), but it's actually four buzzers that players are supposed to whack or press to take their turn. It comes with a free, game show-type app that features thousands of questions and a virtual host named Chuck Boldhart to keep things fun and entertaining. The AppQuiz dock itself is also compatible with the iPhone, but that would mean that all four players would have to squeeze a bit tighter together so they can see what's being displayed on the screen.
Hit the jump to check out a video of the AppQuiz in action, along with links on where you can get it.
AppQuiz is available from AppToyz for £29.99 (around $48).
[ Product Page ]


text:
Helpful Links
H-2A Herder Rule Implementation Page
H-2A Electronic Filing via iCERT Portal System Now Available
Program Overview
The H-2A temporary agricultural program allows agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Employment is of a seasonal nature where it is tied to a certain time of year by an event or pattern, such as a short annual growing cycle, and requires labor levels above what is necessary for ongoing operations. Employment is of a temporary nature when the employer's need to fill the position with a temporary worker will, except in extraordinary circumstances, last no longer than 1 year.
The Department must determine that:
- there are not sufficient able, willing, and qualified U.S. workers available to perform the temporary and seasonal agricultural employment for which nonimmigrant foreign workers are being requested; and
- employment of H-2A workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The statute and Departmental regulations provide numerous worker protections and employer requirements with respect to wages and working conditions. The Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has responsibility for enforcing provisions of worker contracts.
Detailed Program Description available here.
How and When to Apply
Prior to filing a petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- A job offer (ETA Form 790) must be filed with the State Workforce Agency (SWA) in the area of intended employment between 60 and 75 days before the date of need for workers.
- An application package including the ETA Form 9142A and accepted Job Order (ETA Form 790) from the SWA and attachments along with any other supporting documentation must be filed with the Chicago NPC no less than 45 days prior to the employer's date of need.
What to Submit to the Chicago NPC:
- Agricultural and Food Processing Clearance Order (ETA Form 790);
- Application for Temporary Employment Certification and Appendix A; (ETA Form 9142A)
- Attachments as appropriate to supplement information requested on the above forms; and
- Additional documentation for H-2A Labor Contractors.
Where to Apply
The ETA Form 790 must be filed with the SWA serving the area of intended employment. The list of SWAs can be found here.
The H-2A Application package which includes the ETA Form 9142A, the ETA Form 790, all applicable attachments and any other additional information must be filed with the Chicago NPC.
Employers may now submit their H-2A application either electronically OR via mail directly to the Chicago National Processing Center (NPC). The employer must choose only one method of submission. Duplicate applications, where the employer or authorized representative files electronically and submits that same application via U.S. mail, will be rejected.
- Electronic Filing:
Employers may submit their H-2A application electronically via the Department's iCERT Visa Portal System. It is important to read the iCert Quick Start Guide and H-2A External User Guide before completing and submitting an H-2A application. The online help provides step-by-step instructions for completing and submitting the H-2A application electronically. For more resources and information, please visit the iCERT implementation web page at http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/h2ah2b_icert_rollout.cfm
- Mail Filing:
The employer may mail the application package to the Chicago NPC at the following address:
U.S. Department of Labor
Office of Foreign Labor Certification
Chicago National Processing Center
11 West Quincy Court
Chicago, IL 60604-2105
Attention: H-2A Program Unit
What Happens Next:
The Chicago NPC will promptly review the application. Within seven (7) calendar days of receipt of the application, the Chicago NPC will notify the employer in writing of the decision to accept the employer's application. The notification will also provide next steps for the employer to take. Copies of the notification will be sent to the employer and, if applicable, the employer's attorney or agent by means normally assuring next day delivery. If the application is accepted or amended within the required time frame and complies with the regulations, the Chicago NPC will make a final determination thirty (30) calendar days prior to the employer's date of need.


text:
CES 2013: These Go to Eleven
Stratocaster guitars. Marshall amplifiers. These are the playthings of the gods. The gods of rock and roll, that is. For sure, some of the sweetest sounds this side of a Stradivarius violin have come from Marshall guitar amplifiers. And now, the classic look of the Marshall (if not the sound) can be yours for home playback.
The Hanwell amplifier/speaker features a wood cabinet and obligatory black-vinyl covering. The unit uses an old-school analog-style power switch as well as good old-fashioned knobs for volume, bass and treble. Of course, the fret cloth has the vintage look and the switches, logo and trim are gold colored. Even the included 3.5-mm coiled cable has the look of a ¼-inch guitar cable. A digital readout? I don't think so. An iPhone dock? Hell to the no. You'll plug your audio source into the input jack, and you'll like it.
Inside, the system has a pair of ferrofluid dome tweeters and a pair of long-throw 6-inch woofers. The PWM amplifier outputs 100 watts. Maximum acoustic output is 110 dB at 1 meter. Frequency response is pegged at 35 Hz to 20 kHz, +/-5 dB. The unit weighs 23 pounds. Your roadies can probably handle that.
Okay, sure. An amplifier/speaker that looks like a Marshall guitar amp is a little goofy. But you know what? The Congress of the United States of America has never passed a law that says that audio gear must be sensible or boring. And god willing, it never will. I think a unit like this is fun. And music playback should be fun. Lots of fun.
MSRP is $800. Sorry. Tattoos are not included.


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November 21, 2012
I believe in deviantART. Which is to more accurately say I believe in the concept and the reality of the deviantART community.
When in contemplation of the eternal wellspring that is the deviantART project and how it has become the engine keeping my heart and mind on a full burn as I strive to be an upstanding member of the community as well as a helpful architect and eager participant in the conversation -- my thoughts inevitably settle upon my attempts to define my concept of Gratitude.
No matter your medium of choice as an artist, your artistic intentions or the mystic guiding force that has led you to this community, there is one thing all constituent members have in common:
A first step into this world consisted of a simple return to the practice of saying...
Thank you for the fav, thank you for the watch, thank you for your comment, thank you for the points, thank you for the membership, thank you for the critique, and yes, thank you for the llama. The inverse of that exchange, your first act of faving another's artwork was also a thank you. A thank you to that particular artist or writer for inspiring you, moving you emotionally, educating you, brightening your day, week or month, in some way large or small.
At its core, Gratitude is the life blood of what drives the support system that we all rely on as deviantARTists.
I have read so many deeply moving journals over the years with story after story of support and friendship both on the site between artists of every stage of development and off the site between friends, colleagues, lovers, co-workers, activists and everything in between. The connections made on other social networks seem so superficial when compared with what community members of dA share with each other, rooted in their passion for art, as a matter of due course.
But is the recognition of the gratitude that I and others have found in deviantART means, that one is also in a state of indebtedness?
Some refrain from gratitude as daily practice, not wanting to set mental shackles on their total independence.
They are wrong to do that – because it is only when aid of any kind is extended with an attached price tag that the line is crossed from gratitude to indebtedness. And the deviantART community has proven to me again and again that at core it operates on a currency of love – love for art and love for other community members -- with no price attached.
But mostly I feel genuine sadness for the independent-minded doubters who fear indebtedness so much that they are unaware of an essential human connection they are banishing from their life.
As humans and as artists we are living creatures who live off self-expression and feedback to that self-expression. When we make ourselves vulnerable in our outreach and offer art as representations of ourselves up for advice and criticism, we are at our most human, individuals in need of community, our art our bridge to the world beyond our own mortal coil. When genuine loving criticism of expression is received, and our souls are awash in a feeling of gratitude for the thoughtful acknowledgement of our being – it is in those moments that mere "gratitude" is transcended and transformed into human celebration of self and community. And that's the sort of ongoing worldwide non-stop party that I'm so grateful to have found in deviantART.
The Gratitude Loopby Heidi
s the end of the year approaches, it's common for people to look back and reflect on things that we're grateful for -- good health, steady income, and cherished loved ones rank highly on "gratitude lists." Life can deal you anything at any moment, and those are big-ticket items not to take for granted. But what about the small things -- the person who holds the elevator, a fleece blanket on a cold winter night, the freeway that's magically lacking traffic -- that help you make it through the day?
I've been participating in online communities since the early 1990s and have come to sincerely appreciate the amount of time, effort, and consideration that content creators put into their work. Like many people, I work long, busy days and if I don't stop along the way to take a few moments for myself, life can become a blur.
When I see a breathtaking piece from an artist I eagerly follow or the next chapter from an author whose storylines I crave, my heart is filled with gratitude that is hard to describe to people who don't "live" online. The obvious gratitude is easy to describe: the happiness that goes hand in hand with awe over the creativity of the piece, the richness that resonates inside you.
Then there's a deeper gratitude. This person has spent countless hours pruning, erasing, editing, and perfecting to get to the finished vision delivered right to your Message Center. You're thankful they stayed with it and saw it through to the end, having no way of knowing if they second-guessed themselves or even restarted a few times. Perhaps they doubted anyone would care but submitted their work just for the heck of it, and it's here in front of you, the most beautiful deviation you've ever seen.
As anyone on deviantART can relate, it's a scary thing to publish anything online -- comments, artwork, prose -- and put yourself out there, but because creators like you were brave enough to let your imagination run wild, complete your vision, and share it with the world, people like us can be in awe of things we never even knew were the most inspiring, thoughtful things we'd ever experienced. Bravery, talent, dedication, creativity. Not only does seeing these artistic displays get me through my day, but it encourages others to continue to create and achieve, until it's one big loop of inspiration over and over again, infinitely. That's what I'm grateful for.
What I'm Thankful Forby Ayame-Kenoshi
n reading this article, I was reminded how I got started in the deviantART community. I was initially amazed by the stunning art, on which I left comments to show my appreciation for the work the artist put into creating it and their willingness to share their piece with the world. To my surprise, I received comments right back. From the simple act of sharing gratitude, I formed long-lasting friendships that were incredibly impactful. An eco-system of gratefulness thrives on deviantART and leads to powerful human connection. Being a part of the deviantART community requires giving some effort, but you're certainly rewarded with more love and friendship than you could ever imagine. Or, as Heidi has taught me, you give a little, and you get a little back. This holiday season -- and always -- I'm thankful for the community's consistent and selfless giving back.
- Being thankful can be a private, almost hidden emotion. Having your heart filled with gratitude means wanting to celebrate, to express one's thankfulness. How often does the community feedback and support of deviantART charge up your artistic batteries with the power of gratitude?
- How much does the acceptance and embrace of gratitude as an engine of creativity clear the way for a real creative freedom in pursuing artistic goals; i.e., the removal of the fear of asking for ideas or assistance?
- When was the first time you received a response from a deviant somewhere on the planet that really gave you your first inspiring blast of dA gratitude?
- What are the five things, art-related, that you are most grateful for on an ongoing daily basis?
- What are the most special formative moments of your life that you are now, upon reflection, so very grateful for having happened?
- What is it about giving and receiving favs, critiques, points and llamas etc that elevates the power and significance of that minor act so far beyond its simple intent?


text:
Next Episode of The Review Show is
not planed. TV Show was canceled.
The Review is a weekly round the table arts and culture discussion series hosted by Kirsty Wark.
Looks like something went completely wrong!
But don't worry - it can happen to the best of us,
- and it just happened to you.
Please try again later or contact us.


text:
(Reuters) - A Big Mac and large fries? They'll cost you 1,050 calories, and beginning next week, McDonald's will tell its customers that in bright lights on its fast-food menus.
The world's No. 1 hamburger chain said on Wednesday it is going to start listing calorie information on menus in some 14,000 U.S. restaurants and drive-throughs - ahead of a national rule that will require larger restaurant chains to make such disclosures.
McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) is a trend setter for restaurants and its move in this arena - while prompted by regulations and pressure from public health activists - is likely to force other restaurant operators to follow quickly.
The state of California and cities like New York already require that calories be clearly listed on menus. Under the new U.S. healthcare law, restaurants across the country must soon put calorie counts and other nutrition details on menus.
The national rules target restaurants with 20 or more locations, as well as other retail food outlets. Most major chains have resisted posting such information, without legislation and the threat of fines.
The date for national compliance has been delayed and is not expected to be set until after the U.S. presidential election.
McDonald's was slow to warm to calorie labeling.
When labeling proposals were gaining steam several years ago, McDonald's representatives publicly opposed them. A common complaint was that rules from one jurisdiction to another were inconsistent. Some officials also said calorie disclosures would violate customer privacy.
Cindy Goody, senior director of nutrition for McDonald's USA, described the company's latest move as a way to help its customers understand their food choices.
The company, which is in nearly every U.S. community and serves 25 million U.S. customers daily, is casting the nutrition disclosures as a business opportunity.
"It's a new reason to visit more often," Goody said.
Calorie and other nutrition information already is available on the company's website. Listing calories on menu boards allows customers to use that information when they are making a decision about what to eat.
Margo Wootan, the director of nutrition policy for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, thinks the national calorie labeling deadline will probably be around the end of 2013 - so customers at McDonald's will be getting the information about a year earlier than what will be required.
Disclosure rules already have helped convince many restaurants, including Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), to cut calories from their food and to highlight healthy options, she said.
Those moves matter because Americans get about one-third of their calories from eating out, Wootan said.
Amid demands from parents and health activists, McDonald's also has taken steps to make menu items healthier.
It tweaked its popular Happy Meals for children - reducing the french fries portion by more than half and adding apples to every order.
This past summer, it rolled out a "Favorites Under 400" menu that highlights products in that calorie range.
McDonald's also plans to add more fresh fruits and vegetables to its menu and has set a goal of decreasing calories, saturated fat and added sugars across its U.S. menu by 2020.
Corporate Accountability International has been pressing McDonald's to make bolder changes to its menus and to stop advertising to children.
"To truly address its health impact ... the burger giant (needs) to make more fundamental, far-reaching changes," said Juliana Shulman, senior organizer for the group's Value the Meal campaign.
More than two years ago, Panera Bread Co PNRA.O became the first national restaurant chain to voluntarily post calories at company-owned stores. Sandwich chain Subway has used calorie disclosures to position itself as a healthier alternative to rivals like McDonald's and Burger King Worldwide Inc BKW.N.
McDonald's shares were down $0.30 at $90.90 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting By Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)


text:
Vehicles for hire in Ostrava class – Minivan, Minibus, 7-seats
Minibus hire for groups and teams in Ostrava is popular with the clients.
Minibuses VAN and minivans for hire in Ostrava luxury class have the maximum technical characteristics, so that the client can feel comfortable with long journeys.
Rent a prestigious car emphasizes the security of the client, his welfare and the level of security. Auto-Arenda offers to rent in Ostrava "the most fashionable" cars of last years of release, with the advanced technical characteristics with last automobile electronics
The Auto-Arenda car park will give you the choice of the most powerful cars, which have a speed of dispersal a few seconds. Also you can rent a car in Ostrava with a high estimate of comfort and prestige.
All vehicles from us, pass a constant technical inspection and monitoring the condition of the car. All cars that we offer for rent in Ostrava - luxury cars.


text:
Mr. N | Oklahoma City Newborn Photographer
Sara Masters-Blacksten is an Oklahoma City based newborn photographer, specializing in on-location newborn portraits across the Greater Oklahoma City Metro. Travel rates are available for client's outside the Oklahoma City Metro. To book your newborn session or for more information please e-mail email@example.com


text:
I have followed all the steps described on the Getting Started with DB2 Express v9.7 e-book and installed DB2 Express-C on my Mac. The installation succeeded without a problem.
I did setup OS X according to this blog post: http://programmingzen.com/2009/01/20/installing-db2-on-mac-os-x/
After the installation, I set up the DB2 instance environment as instructed and was able to start DB2 with:
$ db2start
But I was unable to run db2fs. It returns the following error message:
$ db2fs
sh: /Users/ivan/sqllib/java/jdk64/jre/bin/java: No such file or directory DB2JAVIT : RC = 127
What else do I have to setup in order to make it work on my system?


text:
ch 2
Row 1: 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook.
Row 2a: Working in front loops only, (ch 3, sl st, ch 3) in next st, (sl, ch 3, sl st, ch 3) in each remaining st around.
Row 2b: Working behind row 2a and in back loops only, (sl, ch 3, sl st, ch 3) in each st around, join with sl st in same loop as first st of row 2b, fasten off leaving long tail for sewing. (You will have 2 layers with row 2a being the side you will sew to the top of the hot chocolate.)
Refer to photo for placement on all assembly instructions.
1. Sew handle to side of cup placing top of handle along row 16, and the bottom of handle along row 9.
2. For face and referring to photo for placement, attach safety eyes between rows 14 and 15 (or embroider eyes,) and embroider mouth as desired.
3. Add stuffing to cup.
4. Sew row 1 of whipped cream to center of chocolate leaving loops free so they can be "fluffed up" to look like a swirl of whipped cream.
5. Using MC, sew chocolate in to place along the backs of the stitches, on the inside of the cup, on row 18.
For a cup of COFFEE, leave off the whipped cream and finish as directed as for hot chocolate.
For a cup of TEA use light brown yarn for "tea," and with white make tag as follows:
ch 6
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across, ch 1, turn.
Rows 2-3: sc in each st across, ch 1, turn.
Row 4: sc in each st across, turn (do not ch.)
Row 5: sl st in each of next 2 sts, fasten off leaving long tail for attaching tag.
To attach tag, refering to picture for placement, sew tag to "tea" leaving a 2 inch string for the hang tag.
Designed and written by April Moreland
© 2008 All rights reserved.


text: My wife has been wanting a new vacuum for a couple years now. She HATES the one we have and as a result, I usually end up doing the vacuuming. We were looking at them a couple weeks ago, and she found one she really likes but of course it's high-end and quite expensive. I always like to get her one "expensive" gift, and I THINK she would be very happy with a gift like that. What do you ladies think? Is that a totally lame idea? Would you be offended or disappointed to get a vacuum for Christmas? As it is now, I don't have any other solid ideas for her "surprise" gift. I have time to think yet, but I wanted feedback on that idea. Thanks for your thoughts!!


text:
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David B. Wagner
PowerShell 2.0 – One CMDLET At A Time
PowerShell Succinctly, Syncfusion
Pozible | Crowdfunding Creativity
Pozible is a crowdfunding platform and community for creative projects and ideas. Developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, software developers and all other creative minded people to raise funds and make awesome things possible.
Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Compiler Construction
Practical Artificial Intelligence Programming With Java, Third Edition
Mark Watson
Practical File System Design: The Be File System
Dominic Giampaolo
Practical Foundations for Programming Languages, Preview
Robert Harper
Practical mod_perl
Stas Bekman, Eric Cholet
Practical Performance Profiling: Improving the efficiency of .NET code
Practical PHP Testing
Practical Programming in Python
Jeffrey Elkner
Practical Regression and Anova using R
Julian J. Faraway


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Car Locksmith Ardwick – 24 hour callout
When you have a problem with the locks on your vehicle because of a break-in or any other reason then we're able to assist. Make sure that you get an experienced auto locksmith in Ardwick today. Should you have a situation and need support instantly we have an emergency number so that we can help you whenever you need it day or even overnight 7 days a week.
These are the services that we're able to provide for your vehicle:
- 24 hour emergency call out services available
- Getting access to locked vehicles
- Lost or stolen keys replaced
- Set up of new locks and the replacement of old locking systems
- Keys snapped in locks repaired
- All vehicle assistance
Why should I trust your services to help with my vehicle?
We understand that vehicles are an essential part of people's everyday lives and are needed for almost all activities. Without having a vehicle can quickly inconvenience people's lives and is why we aim to fix the problem as soon as possible.
If your situation is urgent you can also use our emergency 24 hour service which can help you at any time of the day. Our aim is to be able to be able to fix any problems that you have with the locking systems on your car on our first visit.
This is why all of our team bring various replacement locks as well as parts and tools which allow us to fix nearly all tasks with just one single visit.
Make sure you receive a good quality service originating from a qualified experienced locksmith so that you can be certain that car is not damaged or even left irreparable. We can get to your vehicle in a short time because we are established in the area so whatever your problem is, we're able to assist.
No matter what your problem might be our company is ready. Call us without delay should you have an issue with your locking systems on your vehicle and we're able to assist! Get the expert assistance that you need today.
Ardwick Auto Locksmiths
If you need the locks changing for your home due to a burglary or some other reason then we can help, get yourself a professional locksmith in Ardwick immediately. We have now got an emergency assistance phone number that you may call up 24 hours a day and we'll be at your address immediately to take care of the matter. We'll arrive at your property very fast because we are based in your area so no matter what situation you are in, we're able to help. This is exactly why our company is employed time and again by many individuals very much like you whenever they wanted support quickly.
How come I should trust you to protect my home?
Regardless of what problem you could possibly have, we have a fully trained workforce so we can give assistance with just about any predicaments. Make sure that you get a top quality service originating from a qualified, experienced locksmith so that you can be sure that your home is safe and also secured just like before. This is essential so make sure that you will not get someone that will leave your home when it is in an absolute mess.
We also take the majority of the stock necessary to swap your locking systems therefore a lot of the jobs can be fixed with only one trip. This can be essential when your home needs protection immediately, especially if you need us in the middle of the night.
- These are the services that we are able to offer:
- 24 hour unexpected emergency call out help available
- Help should you get trapped outside your house
- Replacing any lost, stolen or damaged keys.
- Fitting new locks or the replacement of old locks
- Fitting home windows with secure locking systems
- Safe-guarding interior doors with locks
If you require a locksmith quickly then we have the perfect solution because be provide a twenty four hour unexpected emergency service that can assist you without notice. Contact us straight away when you've got a problem with any of the locking systems on your home and we are able to help!
Auto Locksmiths Ardwick
If you require a good locksmith in Ardwick if you have been broken into, burgled or even if you happen to be just unable to get into your business premises then we are able to help. Should you have an issue and need assistance quickly we now have an emergency telephone number and we can assist you whenever you need it day or night 7 days a week. We'll get to your business location very quickly because we are primarily based in the area so whatever situation you are in, we will help. That's why we are wanted repeatedly by many individuals very much like you whenever they needed support quickly.
These are the services that we're able to offer your business:
- 24 hour emergency call out support
- Support if you ever get locked outside your business premises
- Lost or stolen keys replaced
- Installation of new locks or the replacement of old locks
- Installing windows with completely secure locking components
- Safe-guarding interior doors with locks
- Creating master locking systems to give you overall control
Why do people use us to help with their business?
We understand that for your business, whether you own a property management company or even a normal block of offices, the problem usually needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. This can avoid the situation escalating if many people have access to a work site or location and can help prevent loss or damage from ex-employees. Whatever difficulty you may have we are fully prepared so we can help you for just about any circumstances. All of our team bring a lot of substitute locks and parts which then allows us to repair the majority of the jobs in only one trip plus they're consistently done to an expert level.
See us on Google Maps here: Auto Locksmith Ardwick
Whatever your problem is we are available 24 hours a day to be able to assist you and help get your property or home secured. Call us immediately if you have a problem with the locking systems on your property or home and we can help!


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Photo Challenge: Life Support
Something you absolutely can't live without...
to read by Andrey Sidorenkov
You go through life looking forward to that certain something day in and day out. For this photo challenge capture and post one vice you absolutely can't live without.
For some extra fun, photograph 3 bad-for-you habits and 3 healthy pleasure "vices" that are good for you--post them and submit your favorite one!
Closed April 15, 2012
RSS for photos in Photo Challenge: Life Support


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This fall, as children head back to school and college students return to their campuses, teachers and students are gearing up to defend their right to teach and learn ethnic studies. Last May, the Arizona Governor signed HB 2281, banning ethnic studies in AZ public schools, while the state's Department of Education is barring educators "with accents" from teaching. Ten days later the Texas State Board of Education approved their new social studies standards, returning U.S. pedagogy to a pre-civil-rights era. Less publicized attacks on ethnic studies education, from K-12 through graduate school, are happening all over the United States as budget cuts provide the excuse to eliminate positions and programs.
Over the summer, 200 educators from across the country and over 30 organizations representing universities, academic groups, teachers' unions, community and student organizations, responded, initiating Banned Ethnic Studies Week October 1-7.
Ethnic Studies Week is a grassroots movement, nationally coordinated and implemented in locally relevant ways. Participants affirm academic freedom, intellectual pluralism and pedagogical effectiveness, and assert that the study and teaching of American Indian, African American, Chicana/o, Latina/o, and Asian American studies should be valued and defended on these grounds. The movement supports educational programs, such as the targeted Mexican American Studies Department in the Tucson public schools, that prepare students for college and civic engagement. Moreover, closing the "achievement gap" requires that these programs be replicated, not restricted.
As supporters of this effort, Willamette's American Ethnic Studies program will host a variety of events that will bring attention to the pressing social issues and discourses that an Ethnic Studies curriculum addresses.
Altogether these efforts affirm our commitment to the development and support of robust ethnic studies programs, and their educational and social value.


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An anatomically optimized, multi-layer performance racing suit, the GP Pro features advanced safety materials which offer effective heat transfer protection. Certified to SFI and FIA homologation standards, the GP Pro Suit incorporates strategically placed stretch inserts for greater freedom of movement while being extremely lightweight.
Racing Construction
* Certified to FIA 8856-2000 and SFI 3.2A Level 5 homologation standard
* Advanced multi-layer construction features an advanced PBI inner layer for weight saving and improved heat-resistance performance.
* 100% Nomex® outer layer provides excellent resistance to heat.
* Nomex®-based mid-layer for maximum heat transfer protection.
* Shoulder construction features additional padded panels for extra cushioning under HANS device and belts.
Premium design
* Anatomical arm, leg and torso paneling patterned for optimum driving position fit.
* Nomex®-reinforced elasticized lower back and lateral stretch panels for unrestricted movement and breathability.
* Alpinestars fully floating arm construction with stretchable knit fabric provides freedom of movement.
* Internal flat seams reduce pressure points in the suit for a more comfortable driving experience.
* Close-fitting design and adjustable collar and belted waist for precise fit.
High performance details
* Alpinestars shoulder epaulette construction to facilitate effective extraction of driver in event of a crash.
* Ribbed, stretchable wrist and foot cuffs.


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What's New
Skitch Ornaments Shaded Font by Yellow Design Studio
About: Skitch from Yellow Design Studio is a funky hand drawn serif with regular, solid, and fill options. It's loaded with features including double-letter ligatures, discretionary ligatures and stylistic alternates, and is accompanied by an eccentric collection of ornaments and a set of expandable borders that can be mixed and matched for endless fun!
Tags: Distressed, Font, Handwritten, Serif, Special Effect


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Viracept is supplied as light blue, film-coated, capsule-shaped tablets imprinted with "VIRACEPT" on one side and "250 mg" on the other (top). To reduce pill burden, the drug is also available as a 625-mg tablet (bottom). Viracept is also available in an oral powder.
Also known as: Viracept mesylate, NFV, AG-1343
Background and Description
Viracept is a protease inhibitor. Viracept is indicated, in combination with other antiretrovirals, for the treatment of HIV infection. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Viracept in March 1997. The FDA gave approval to a film-coated Viracept tablet (for ease of administration) in March 2000. To reduce pill burden, 625-mg tablets are available.
The recommended dose of Viracept is 1250 mg (five 250-mg or two 625-mg tablets) twice a day or 750 mg (three 250-mg tablets) 3 times a day.
Food Restrictions
Viracept must be taken with a meal or light snack. In clinical study, Viracept was administered with meals containing 517 to 759 calories, of which 153 to 313 calories were derived from fat.
Viracept tablets should be stored in a closed container and kept at a temperature of 59° to 86°F.
Patient Assistance
Agouron Pharmaceuticals provides a patient assistance program. For more information, call 888.777.6637.
Side Effects and Toxicity
The most frequent side effect associated with Viracept therapy is diarrhea, with moderate or severe diarrhea occurring in up to 20% of those taking the drug. Metabolic (lipid and glucose) and morphologic (fat accumulation and fat atrophy) abnormalities have been associated with protease inhibitors in general.
Drug Interactions
The following drugs are contraindicated with Viracept: Zocor (simvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Rifadin or Rimactane (rifampin), Propulsid (cisapride), Versed (midazolam), Halcion (triazolam), DHE 45 (dihydroergotamine) and other ergot derivatives such as Wigraine and Cafergot. Viracept should be used with caution when given with Lipitor (atorvastatin); a low dose of Lipitor (10 mg) has been recommended if given concomitantly with Viracept.
When administered concomitantly, the dose of Mycobutin (rifabutin) should be reduced to 150 mg once daily and the dose of Viracept increased to 1000 mg 3 times daily. Since Viracept decreases the level of oral contraceptives when the two are co-administered, an additional or alternative method of birth control should be used. Also, St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is likely to decrease Viracept levels in the body and therefore should be avoided when taking Viracept. Dose reductions are required for Viagra (sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil), and Levitra (vardenafil) in patients taking Viracept.
Viracept doses should be decreased and Kaletra increased if given together.
Additional Information
Resistance and Cross-Resistance
Mutations at positions 30, 77, and 80 are associated with resistance to Viracept. Viracept-resistant virus may retain sensitivity to other protease inhibitors; however, virus resistant to other protease inhibitors is likely to exhibit resistance to Viracept as well. As a result patients who experience virologic rebound on Viracept may have a better response to second-line therapy than patients who fail other protease inhibitors; however patients must switch therapies shortly after Viracept failure to achieve success with other protease inhibitors.
There are clinical data suggesting that the duration of the viral suppression afforded by Viracept is less than that afforded by other protease inhibitors, particularly in patients with baseline viral loads around 100,000 or higher (as seen with "nonresponder" patients who participated in the Agouron 511 study.
Clinical Data
Agouron 511 compared a combination of Viracept/Retrovir/Epivir against a 2-drug combination of Retrovir/Epivir in antiretroviral-naive patients. After 1 year, 52% of the patients in the Viracept arm had a viral loads less than 400 copies/mL (by an intent-to-treat analysis). The mean increase in CD4 T cell count was approximately 200 cells/mm3.


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Another year, another twelve months filled with new game releases, extravagant gaming events, and big hardware releases. How can anyone hope to keep them all straight? Kotaku's 2012 Gamer's Calendar is here to help.
This massive infographic (suitable for framing) represents the biggest and baddest games, hardware releases, and gaming events of the year, listed in handy linear temporal format for those of you not tuned in to the quantum calendar. From CES in January to December, when the gaming industry naps, it's all here for your browsing pleasure.
Of course this calendar doesn't represent every single event or releases this year. If your favourite game or convention didn't make the cut, feel free to tell people about it in the comments. You might make a friend or two in the process, or maybe they'll just laugh at you. They're an unpredictable bunch.
Need a direct download link? Fine.
And yes, I initially had 2011 in the image. What can I say, I don't write checks anymore, gotta mess up someplace.


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Health First announces two new Board of Trustees members
ROCKLEDGE, FL—Jim Shaw, Chairman of Health First's Board of Trustees, announced today that two additional members have joined the Health First's Board of Trustees—Dr. Donald Hagen, a medical educator and a retired Vice Admiral and Surgeon General of the United States Navy; and Mr. Bryan R. Roub, who previously served as CFO of Harris Corporation.
"We're pleased to have these two men of the highest merit join the Health First Board of Trustees. Dr. Hagen has served our country in the U.S. Navy with great distinction. Mr. Roub has overseen the financial well-being of one of our most successful local high-tech businesses, and along with his wife, Judy, was honored in 2012 as Brevard's Citizen of the Year by Florida Today's Volunteer Recognition Awards."
Dr. Hagen served as Vice Admiral of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, from 1989 to 1991. He also served as the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy from 1991 to 1995. From 1995 to 2005 he served as Executive Vice Chancellor for the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Hagen has received many honors throughout his medical and U.S. Military career, including the U.S. Navy's Bronze Star Award with Combat "V"; Meritorious Service Medal; and the Legion of Merit. In 1993 he received the Distinguished Service Medal and Surgeon General's Medallion, United States Public Health Service; and in 1992 he received the Undersecretary of Health Award, Veterans Administration. Among many other awards and honors he received the American Hospital Association Federal Healthcare Award for Excellence in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degrees at University of North Dakota (Bachelor of Science in Medicine) and Concordia College, Moorhead, MN (Bachelor of Arts). After earning his Doctor of Medicine Degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, Dr. Hagen served a General Surgery Residency at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, VA, and an Internship at Los Angeles County General Hospital, in Los Angeles, CA.
Mr. Roub has 40 years of experience in Finance, Accounting, as well as Auditing from both the business management and public accounting perspectives, and has served as CFO of two Fortune 500 companies. Beginning his career as a member of the Audit staff of Ernst & Ernst, he later joined Midland-Ross Corporation and was named as the company's Executive Vice President and CFO in 1982. From 1984, until his retirement in 2006, he served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Harris Corporation. He also serves as a Board member and treasurer of The Women's Center in Brevard County, is a director of Fairchild Semiconductor and is a past chairman of Financial Executives International. Graduating from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor's of Science Degree (with a focus in Accounting), he later earned his CPA and attended The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he received his MBA Degree in Finance.
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Next Gallery
Photos: Fountain Green Menorah LitGelt Dropped, Chanukah Celebrated
Photos: Glastonbury Youth Services' The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeMusical Comedy Relates To Actors, Audience
Featured Photos
- Overnight Storm Causes Damage in Connecticut WednesdayMore than 36,000 people ended up without power after a Wednesday storm. Some classes and schools were canceled Thursday. Heavy rain and high winds caused damage across Connecticut towns like Somers, South Windsor, Vernon and Enfield.
- Connecticut Children's Patients Smash Walls to Celebrate RenovationConnecticut Children's patients, families and team members wore hard hats and goggles at a "Smash Walls" event to kick-off construction of the new inpatient teen lounge renovation with Teen Cancer America.
- Volunteers Plant 36 Trees in Hartford's Colt ParkNearly 100 Travelers employees volunteered to plant 36 trees in Colt Park Wednesday during a program led by Knox Hartford and American Forests. Red Oaks, apple trees and junipers were planted in various locations throughout the 105-acre Hartford park.
- Fall Fun in OctoberPeople are enjoying the sunny-but-cool fall weather out and about in the month of October.
- Manchester Main Street ScarecrowsManchester's downtown scarecrow contest
- Pedal to the Medal 2019Early risers participated in the Hartford Marathon Foundation's 2nd Annual Pedal to the Medal event which started and finished under the Memorial Arch at Bushnell Park. Almost 200 bike riders rode along the CT Fastrak route from Hartford to New Britain and back, an 18.8 mile journey, starting at 3 am before the Hartford Marathon Saturday, October 12th. The proceeds help benefit BiCi Co., Hartford's educational community bike shop, as well as putting on Pedal to the Medal each year.
- Crossing The Finish Line: Hartford Marathon 2019Runners finish strong at the 26th Eversource Hartford Marathon Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Hartford.


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Multicolor Astro Wheel
Multicolor Astro Wheel
Amethyst, red dyed citrine, freshwater pearl, vintage crystals and glass, 18kt gold, and metal.
Founded decades ago, Tassoni Art prides itself on investing one-of-a-kind works of rare elegance. Personal workmanship combines with discovered materials from the 1700's to the 1970's to create modern jewelry that fuses new world energy with old world charm.
This ultimate luxury is in harmony with the environment- Transforming and rejuvenating found objects from the past.
Each piece is unique and unrepeatable, designed with inspirational colors, poetry, and a distinctive architecture. Any slight variation in its structure should be considered part of its individually. This is a unique opportunity to purchase magnificent one-of-a-kind jewelry directly from a famous international designer.


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About Jon
But you have to go through a convoluted process to turn off bingeOn. Or, another way to say that is that there is a convoluted process required to disable bingeOn. I guess what I'm getting at is that turning off BingeOn is a convoluted process...
convoluted process.
@95 you are so many levels of wrong, its not even funny. Were you listening to the same recording I was? Every step of the way, Fiorino was calmly asserting his rights. Fiorino only resisted in the slightest when the officer made unreasonable demands, and every step of the way was trying to defuse the situation. He attempted to educate the officer because the officer was clearly ignorant about the situation. He attempted to produce documentation showing his legal right to carry a firearm. Considering that Fiorino allegedly had a weapon pointed at him, I think he handled the situation rather well.
I'm sorry, but calmly asserting your rights and refusing to abide by unreasonable orders made by a clearly overzealous and ignorant officer is not a free license for the officer to overreact, draw his weapon without cause. It simply isn't.
We cannot defend police officers who are so clearly in the wrong. We cannot make excuses for them. We must hold them to the same standards that citizens are held to, and when they react inappropriately, they must be penalized.
In contrast, if the officer would have responded just as calmly said "sir, I understand that you are telling me you have a permit. For my own safety, I would like to disarm you. Place your hands on your head and walk backwards towards me." this whole situation would have played out differently. Hell, if the cop wanted to handcuff Fiorino at that point, it would have been acceptable IMO. I totally understand that police need to protect themselves, and when faced with an uncertain scenario, I'm okay with them taking precautions.
It's called situational awareness. Many officers are capable of making rational decisions regarding the situation they are faced with. Those who can't need to be retrained, penalized, or fired - in that order.
I'm sorry, but I don't trust people like Sgt. Dougherty or ANY of the backup officers to protect citizens. Cops like that do more harm than good.
Why does it matter that the product is effectively dangerous? People want it. People voluntarily consume it. There are perceived benefits, so the product isn't entirely without merit.
Let people use products and substances as they choose (so long as they aren't hurting others). Stop trying to force people to follow the ideal that smoking is bad. People don't care, they just want to smoke.
And no, the tobacco companies should absolutely not be held liable. They didn't force you to consume their products, and currently, it's practically impossible to claim that you didn't know they would hurt you. I don't care if they're used as directed or not.
Warning: Using a car as directed may result in a lethal traffic collision. Do we hold auto manufacturers liable? No. We know and understand the risks by choosing to purchase and operate a car.
I have to lean the other way on this one. Sure, the application of trademark law is wrong, and that part of the article I agree with. But using trademark law in order to push back on an overly oppressive government... I'm okay with in an ends justify the means sort of way.
Any grown adult knows tobacco is bad for you these days. Over regulating and forcing companies to carry super-sized warning labels and change their packaging is just as bad. And if there's something that has been pointed out time and time again on TechDirt, it's that you can't legislate behavior.
Personally, I'm offended any time I hear that the U.S. government is pissing away time and money on tobacco company issues. I'm not saying that the industry shouldn't be regulated at all, but quit wasting my tax dollars on it. There are so many bigger problems to tackle. People VOLUNTARILY purchasing and consuming cigarettes knowing full well that they regularly cause harm DOES NOT CONCERN ME.
No more changes to labeling requirements. No more marketing restrictions. Let the companies operate like any other company. And let the people decide what they're going to do - because they will regardless of all this wasted time and legislation.
I normally agree with alot of what is written on TechDirt, but I have to disagree with this article.
There's a difference between practice tests and the test bank. The test bank is a tool provided to instructors (not to students) by publishers. As a former teacher, I had to jump through a few hoops just to get my hands on them.
For any student to claim that they didn't know they were cheating by using the test banks is either a ridiculous attempt to absolve themselves of their wrongdoings, or a sad sign of ethics today.
Any student today knows the intent behind tests is to determine how much of the material the students were able to learn, and most tests do this by spot checking. If you happen to know all the spots that will be checked, and you only memorize the answers to those spot checks, you're skewing the results to your own benefit. Further, you're not only improving your own score, but you're devaluing the degree. Students who graduate from a university program by cheating instead of learning the material graduate with a degree that they can't live up to. That short sighted self serving attitude is ethical, or rather not cheating?
I don't agree with the professor 100%, but I don't agree with your defense of the students at all.
I think you just about hit the nail on the head here. I was honestly content paying $2 or so a song for rock band 2 - the entertainment I got out of it was worth it. I never owned a music game before that, and only purchased Guitar Hero: World Tour after that - mainly because I needed a second guitar. The primary reason I've lost interest in the genre? Both of my guitars flaked out, and I've seen many more do the same. I refuse to pay that kind of money to continuously replace hardware. I've never had a $60 xbox 360 controller go bad, so why should a $60 controller shaped like a guitar? I refuse to pay for the costly upgrades and replacements.


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For more information, please visit this link: https://www.bidx.com/wv/main
Administration of all contracts for highway construction, maintenance and resurfacing projects is comprised of a wide array of multifaceted activities.
Responsibilities for each of these activities are assigned to a variety of sections or groups each of whom in turn report either to the following:
The Regional Engineers and the Special Projects Engineer, all of whom report to the Division Director, are responsible for the review, coordination and approval of engineering practices, procedures and contract modifications related to field activities, and the management and oversight of all consultant inspection activities and the revision/updating of the Construction Manual.
The following groups report to or relate immediately to the Administrative Section Head:
The Contract Development Group handles the preparation of the bidding documents. They combine the plans sheets with the estimates for both time and money along with any other project requirements to create the bidding proposal and plans for each project.
The Contracts Group handles the advertising of all upcoming highway contracts, the sale and distribution of bidding documents and publications to the contracting industry, the management of the Electronic Bidding System (EBS), the posting of contract related data to the DOT/DOH website and the coordination of work related to the execution of contracts, contract bonds and insurance certificates.
All matters related to the prequalification of bidders and the processing of payments for consultant agreements related to materials inspections and payment of other invoices as assigned fall under the tasks handled by this group.
This group's responsibilities concern oversight and review of payments to contractors and the performance of on-going and final contract review to determine compliance with all requirements governing the quality assurance and certification of all materials incorporated into highway contracts. Also, the concurrent technical and mathematical review of quantities of work performed on major contracts and the establishment and monitoring of policies and procedures related to finalization to be adhered to at District and project level are handled by this group.


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To the Littlest Boy in the Striped Shirts,
I knew from the first time you spilled apple juice in your lap at the kitchen table that we were going to be great friends. These other people, the bigger ones, they never spill. They eat all their food, and usually right in front of me. They sit on the couch and eat that turkey sandwich one delicious bite at a time. And I watch. Oh, yeah, I watch.
But you, buddy, you always leave something for me. You walk around with your sandwich held real close — precariously close, some might say — to the ground. The turkey slides out of the bread, and sometimes you leave a trail. I like to think you do this on purpose. And, yes, in case you're wondering, when I snatch the sandwich out of your hand, I'm doing that on purpose, too.
I wasn't sure when I first got here, though. You were even smaller then. You slept in my bed and put my tennis ball in your mouth. Your mom didn't like that very much. Neither did I. I wasn't sure if you were a puppy or I was small human. Then I followed you onto the couch and that cleared things up: No one with fur is allowed on the furniture. You don't have fur, that is obvious, but have these people making the rules seen your sticky hands?
You liked to line me up with stuffed animals — the same ones I'd try to eat later (Note to self: The stuffed bird is off limits. Chewing him will end with me in my cage in the basement) — and you read stories to us. You read made-up words that weren't on the page, but it didn't matter. All I heard was "turkey sandwich, turkey sandwich" anyway.
In the backyard, you thought I could play soccer and baseball. You cheered every time I accidentally took the ball to the side fence. Yeah, I figured this out. Sadly, I would have done so much more for just a little bit more turkey.
While everyone else makes me "sit," "stay" or "shake" for a treat, you gave me bones just for showing up. When you called my name, it wasn't because you wanted to know where I was. You actually wanted to talk to me. To play with me. And that's why I came running.
But you are growing now, Littlest Boy. Your pants don't smell so bad. (OK, I mean "good." Your pants actually smelled good to me back then.) But you still slip turkey underneath the kitchen table. For that alone, I will follow you to the ends of the Earth. Or, at least the driveway.
Those bigger boys are growing, too, and it worries me. Littlest Boy in the Striped Shirts, will you someday shut your bedroom door, too? Will you step over me while you talk on the phone with your friends? Will you eat everything on your plate, ask for more, and not notice me staring up at you?
Although, I must say that I have the oldest one trained well. I ring the bells hanging on the back door, and he lets me out. It doesn't matter if he's upstairs, in the basement or on the phone. He would probably come out of the shower to open the door for me. I ring the bells, he comes running. Fascinating!
But Littlest Boy in the Striped Shirts, I think he gets paid for this.
You are gone more often now, and I am home alone. I peruse your bedroom — you know, just in case you left some bite-sized Legos or puzzle pieces on the floor there. I see your stuffed bird taunting me from the top bookshelf, and I smell everything that is you. Sometimes, I nap in your room. I dream about when you used to read to me. If I jerk my legs in my sleep, that's when I'm running with you, the Littlest Boy in the Striped Shirts, in the backyard.
Then, when I hear you coming home (I can hear you a mile away, kid — I think everyone can), I run to the steps and wait. Your backpack holds all the smells of your adventure: books, pencils, snack time, dirty tennis shoes and friends who also have sticky hands.
You are busy in the afternoons now. You have sports to play and friends' houses to go to. I spend a lot of time watching out the front window for you. I miss your sandwiches, but I also miss you.
And that is why my favorite part of the day is bedtime. You wait until I'm in my spot next to your bed, and then you read aloud a bedtime story. You check often to make sure I'm still there, guarding you as your eyes start to close.
Don't worry Littlest Boy in the Striped Shirts. I am here. And I will be here as long as you will have me.
This column also appears in Sarah Smiley's book, Got Here as Soon as I Could.


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G8L.US API - Libraries
From their site: G8L.US provides URL shortening services via an API and Website. API can be accessed via HTTP and supports XML, JSON, and a simple comma-delimited response format. G8L.us has two api calls, one to shrink links and one to get stats for the links. You can look at the Home and Stats pages to see how to use the API via Ajax.


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Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.
The Weekly Standard, the flagship journal of neoconservative opinion and activism, was founded in 1995 by William Kristol and Fred Barnes with financial support from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Offering what Kristol terms "opinion journalism," the Standard quickly took over the leading role in neoconservative discourse that had formerly been played by Commentary magazine, which was once edited by William's father Irving Kristol.
As a journal of the American Right, the Standard's editorial coverage spans domestic and international affairs. However, the journal's work on U.S. foreign policy, particularly during the years before and after the 9/11 attacks, has gained the most attention. The Standard's slate of editors and contributing writers clearly reflect the magazine's distinctly militaristic and rightwing "pro-Israel" bent. In addition to editors Kristol and Barnes, the magazine lists prominent neoconservative writers Max Boot, David Frum, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Michael Goldfarb, Frederick Kagan, Robert Kagan, Irwin Stelzer, and John Podhoretz among its contributing editors. Lee Smith, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, is a senior editor, and several fellows at the American Enterprise Institute have worked as contributors.[1] Contributing editor Matthew Continetti is also the editor of the Washington Free Beacon, which one critic lampooned as a "down-market version of the Weekly Standard."[2]
For Murdoch, the Weekly Standard was less a business venture than an ideological project. For years, in fact, News Corp. ran Weekly Standard at a net loss of between $1 million to $5 million.[3] In June 2009, however, News Corp. sold the Standard to another billionaire conservative media mogul, Philip Anschutz, owner of the Denver-based Clarity Media.
The New York Times reported that the magazine was sold for about $1 million, "according to an executive close to Mr. Murdoch who spoke anonymously because the terms of the deal were meant to be confidential." The Times highlighted the ideological significance of the "new ownership," which "comes at a time when conservatism, especially the version espoused by the Standard involving American muscularity to spread freedom abroad, is not in the ascendancy. Mr. Anschutz, who made his billions in oil, real estate, railroads and telecommunications before turning to media, is more closely aligned with Christian conservatism, a thread not associated with the Standard."[4]
Although the Standard has not been considered a mouthpiece of the Christian Right, neoconservative writers like those at the Standard have for decades forged an alliance with elements of the Christian Right in pushing aggressive U.S. overseas policies (see, for example, Right Web Profile: Project for the New American Century). According to the Times, since buying the magazine, Anschutz has "instructed the two top editors [Kristol and Barnes] … not to alter the publication's ideological complexion."[5]
Commenting on the sale, Michael Corcoran, a contributor to Extra!, a publication of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, wrote: "Rupert Murdoch's unloading of the country's most vigorously pro-war journal marks the end of a particularly sinister and regrettable era in the history of U.S. media."[6]
Under Clarity Media's stewardship, the Standard reportedly increased its subscriber base nearly 40 percent by 2010.[7]
Ideological Agenda
With the emergence of the Standard, a magazine closely linked to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), neoconservatism's role in political discourse underwent a dramatic change, shifting away from the pseudo intellectualism of early neoconservative journals like Commentary and the National Interest in favor of what Bill Kristol terms "opinion journalism." Instead of addressing itself to like-minded intellectuals, the Standard aims to speak to power and to impact policymaking.[8] Although the magazine's influence has appeared to wane since the final years of the George W. Bush presidency, it is widely viewed as having achieved remarkable success in the early Bush years, especially in the wake of 9/11.
In the forward to the book The Weekly Standard: A Reader: 1995-2005, Kristol writes that "some not insignificant number of people always assume that the Weekly Standard isn't really published in English, but in code—that its contents are designed to advance a surreptitious political agenda. The Weekly Standard is a conservative magazine, of course. We make no bones about it. And ours tends toward a particular kind of conservatism; our pages are its home, we like to think. But that's the point: The distinctive point of view in question has been worked out—and is still being worked out—on paper, in public, over the long haul. And it's also the case that in those very same pages we have consistently and more or less routinely run authors who manifestly don't agree with one another."[9]
While Standard authors sometimes disagree with one another, it is also the case that on many key issues there is broad agreement—in particular on a neoconservative foreign policy agenda. While some authors may disagree over the particulars of this agenda, the belief in the moral exceptionalism of U.S. power and a willingness to wield it broadly remain core, overarching themes of the journal, insofar as its coverage of foreign affairs is concerned. This campaign was closely linked to the efforts of the neoconservative pressure group the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), cofounded by Kristol and Robert Kagan, which played an instrumental role in championing the invasion of Iraq in the wake of 9/11. The magazine often features a number of figures who were linked to PNAC, including Reuel Marc Gerecht, Ellen Bork (daughter of the late AEI scholar and prominent Federalist Society member Robert Bork), Gary Schmitt, and Thomas Donnelly. It also regularly publishes the work of "scholars" based at AEI, which is housed in the same building as the now defunct PNAC, including David Frum and Danielle Pletka.
Origins and Influence
Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, and John Podhoretz cofounded the Weekly Standard in March 1995 after meeting (along with David Tell of the Project for the Republican Future) with Rupert Murdoch at the Beverly Hills home of the international media mogul. The weekly newsmagazine published its first issue in mid-September 1995, "thanks to Murdoch's generosity."[10]
Fred Barnes came to the Standard from the New Republic, and John Podhoretz was a TV critic for the New York Post, also owned by Murdoch. In 1997 Podhoretz returned to the New York Post as an editor, and in 2007 he followed his father, Norman Podhoretz, as editor of Commentary.
At one point during the George W. Bush presidency, one of Vice President Dick Cheney's aides reportedly would stop by the Standard's office each Monday to pick up 30 copies of the magazine—presumably so the vice president's staff could be among the first to know the latest policy recommendation emanating from the PNAC-AEI-Weekly Standard echo chamber. The Standard once boasted on its website: "Lots of Washington publications say they have influence. The Weekly Standard delivers it. The Standard's VIP distribution system is unrivaled by any other Beltway publication. Each issue is hand-delivered—by request—every Sunday morning to an exclusive list: the most powerful men and women in government, politics, and the media."
It continued: "From the White House to congressional leadership to the top echelon of Washington's print and broadcast journalists, every important player in the city gets a copy. Articles delivered on Sunday are the foundation of congressional debates the following week. Moreover, before breakfast on Mondays, 4,000 requested copies of the Standard are delivered—also by hand—to every Member of Congress, to congressional committees, and to federal agencies throughout the city."
Commented media critic Eric Alterman: "The magazine speaks directly to and for power. Anybody who wants to know what this administration is thinking and what they plan to do has to read this magazine."[11]
In an interview with the New York Observer regarding the neoconservative universe, Kristol suggested that "News Corp. should get a little spot on your map."[12]
News Corporation probably deserves more than just a spot on the neoconservative map. Murdoch's conglomerate has owned dozens of English-language newspapers, including New York Post and Times of London, in addition to Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the Standard. Murdoch's personal involvement has helped to ensure that almost all of his news organizations "have hewn very closely to Mr. Murdoch's own stridently hawkish political views, making his voice among the loudest in the Anglophone world in the international debate over the American-led war with Iraq," as one commentator put it.[13]
When asked why media outlets like Weekly Standard and Fox News Channel have become so popular, Matt Labash, a Standard senior writer, responded: "Because they feed the rage. We bring pain to the liberal media … The conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective … It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket."[14]
Impact of 9/11
Arguably just as important to the Standard's fortunes was the impact of 9/11, which Kristol writes helped galvanize the magazine's staff and led the pages of the magazine to be "thoroughly and persistently dominated by coverage of a global-scale war on Middle Eastern terrorism and despotism."[15] As the anti-neocon American Conservative once put it, "One day a novel must be written that conveys the sense of purpose and energy that surged through the Standard's offices … in the days after September 11, 2001. For these bookish men, it was a Churchillian moment, an occasion to use words to rally a nation and shape history."[16]
Writes Corcoran of Extra!, "For the next seven years, the Standard would become the birthplace of hawkish foreign policy proposals that would become official U.S. policy; as the magazine fought the war of words in the media, it helped its administration allies fight—and win—the battle of ideas in the White House. Following the attacks, the Standard advanced what became virtually all the noteworthy tactics of the Bush administration's 'war on terror': focusing the response to 9/11 on Iraq using flawed and flimsy evidence (11/24/03), widening U.S. foreign policy interventions far and wide (11/01/04), dismissing all calls for even partial withdrawals of U.S. troops (5/10/07), shunning the recommendations of the realist-dominated Iraq Study Group (12/11/06), and escalating troop levels in what became known as 'the surge' (1/21/08). The rhetoric in the Standard's editorials and articles was often indistinguishable from that of the administration, as it downplayed war crimes committed by U.S. troops (6/12/06) and labeled antiwar activists and legislators as anti-American (8/14/06)."[17]
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Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.
[1] Weekly Standard, "About," http://www.weeklystandard.com/tws/aboutus/default.asp.
[2] See Right Web profile: Washington Free Beacon.
[3] Michael Corcoran, "The Weekly Standard'sWar: Murdoch sells the magazine that sold the Iraq invasion," Extra!, September 2009.
[4] Tim Arango, "New Owner for a Magazine As Political Tastes Change," New York Times, August 3, 2009.
[5] Tim Arango, "New Owner for a Magazine As Political Tastes Change," New York Times, August 3, 2009.
[6] Michael Corcoran, "The Weekly Standard'sWar: Murdoch sells the magazine that sold the Iraq invasion," Extra!, September 2009.
[7] Bill Mickey, "The Weekly Standard Boosts Its Circ," Audience Development, October 6, 2010, http://www.audiencedevelopment.com/2010/weekly+standard+boosts+its+circ#.UXA_yEqyKkM.
[8] For an account of the Standard's operations during its first decade, see William Kristol's Forward to The Weekly Standard: A Reader: 1995-2005, (New York, Harper Perennial, 2005).
[9] William Kristol, editor, The Weekly Standard: A Reader: 1995-2005, (New York, Harper Perennial, 2005).
[10] Fred Barnes, "In the Beginning ...," Weekly Standard, September 19, 2005.
[11] David Carr, "White House Listens When Weekly Speaks," New York Times, March 11, 2003.
[12] Joe Hagan, "President Bush's Neoconservatives Were Spawned Right Here in N.Y.C., New Home of the Right-Wing Gloat," New York Observer, April 28, 2003.
[13] David D. Kirkpatrick, "Mr. Murdoch's War," New York Times, April 7, 2003.
[14] "Interview with Matt Labash," JournalismJobs.com, May 2003, http://www.journalismjobs.com/matt_labash.cfm.
[15] William Kristol, editor, The Weekly Standard: A Reader: 1995-2005, (New York, Harper Perennial, 2005).
[16] Quoted in Michael Corcoran, "The Weekly Standard'sWar: Murdoch sells the magazine that sold the Iraq invasion," Extra!, September 2009.
[17] Michael Corcoran, "The Weekly Standard'sWar: Murdoch sells the magazine that sold the Iraq invasion," Extra!, September 2009.


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James Orr
Scottish theologian
Born in Glasgow and educated at the university there, Orr went on to the United Presbyterian Church's college in Edinburgh. After ordination he ministered in the Scottish border town of Hawick (1874-1891). He was then appointed professor of church history in his old college, transferring in 1900 to the Glasgow college. There he taught apologetics and systematic theology-with classes augmented by the union between his church and the Free Church (a development in which he played a prominent part).
Orr was critical of established religion. "A State Church", he declared, "speaks in bonds; its guns are spiked". Ye he himself came under fire (from conservatives in the continuing Free Church for teaching a modified Calvinism and for holding a defective doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. The allegations were open to question; from another Presbyterian church came a different assessment: "Some make Christianity a doubtful thing", said the Original Secession Church magazine. "Dr. Orr made it to many a stable, imperishable, reliable thing."
Orr became one of the best-known theologians in the English-speaking world. He had four lecture tours in North America. One of his books, The Virgin Birth of Christ (1907), came out of lectures given in New York to the Bible Teachers' Training School. His many publications include The Christian View of God and the World(1893), The Progress of Dogma (1901), The Resurrection of Jesus (1908), and The Faith of a Modern Christian (1910). To many scholars he is known as the general editor of The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, a comprehensive and conservative work durable enough to have undergone a complete revision nearly seventy years after Orr's death.
Works by James Orr
In 1886 Joan Kerr donated 3,000 pounds to the Scottish United Presbyterian Synod to sponsor a series of lectures on Christian history, ethics, doctrine, and worldview. The lecturer position was given to James Orr, and The Christian View of God and the World was published as a transcript of the lecture series. Orr's lectures covered topics such as general Christian worldview, the alternatives to Christianity, postulates about God's existence and sin, and the incarnation of Christ. The spoken nature of these lectures gives the text an understandable, conversational tone to even the heaviest theology. Orr is one of the best-known English-speaking theologians, and his brilliant mind produced a number of great works. These spoken lectures have a different feel than his prose, and fans of Orr will appreciate the new tone.
Popularity is calculated by comparing this book's number of views to our most commonly read book. Popularity is calculated by comparing this book's number of editions to the book with the largest number of editions.


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Developer Documentation
Getting Started
Information for Developers -- For community contributors. Includes how to identify existing bugs, contribute code, and set up your development environment.
Installation: Multiple OJS & mOJO -- For sysadmins or developers. How to install an independent OJS for each magazine and manage all of them from your command shell.
OJS Technical Reference -- An overview of the design and structure of Open Journal Systems
Potential issues with RedHat installation -- For sysadmins or developers. Some information on RedHat/CentOS installation not covered by the default documentation.
Development Roadmap and Strategy
General Software Milestones -- a rough guide to upcoming PKP software releases for all products
Development Cycle -- description of the pattern PKP follows in terms of releases and branches
PKP WAL Roadmap -- roadmap for the PKP Web Application Library, a shared codebase common to all PKP applications
Working with Git
Github Documentation for PKP Contributors
Differences between CVS and git for PKP devs
Code Design
JavaScript coding conventions -- the JS coding conventions that PKP uses.
JavaScript widget controllers -- description and explanation of the standard PKP javascript widget controllers that are implemented throughout the codebase.
Third Party Library Integration Policy
Reference Plugins -- These plugins make good examples for plugin developers looking for patterns to follow.
OJS API Reference --This resource contains documentation generated automatically from the OJS source code
Unit Tests are developer-centric code tests.
Integration Testing is automated testing of the web interface.
User Tests are tests performed by live humans.
Integration Testing Use Cases lists and describes the specific tests run in Integration Testing.
Test Data Creation Suite is a suite of Selenium-based tests that create a basic data set for testing, presentations and workshops, etc.
Usability/Web Design
Translating_OxS -- information on translating any of our software packages, as well as translations already available.
Current Development
Migration issues -- notes on how to backport the new features that were introduced in OMP into other PKP applications


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Betting with Trillions Prison of Debt Paralyzes West
Be it the United States or the European Union, most Western countries are so highly indebted today that the markets have a greater say in their policies than the people. Why are democratic countries so pathetic when it comes to managing their money sustainably?
In the midst of this confusing crisis, which has already lasted more than five years, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt addressed the question of who had "gotten almost the entire world into so much trouble." The longer the search for answers lasted, the more disconcerting the questions arising from the answers became. Is it possible that we are not experiencing a crisis, but rather a transformation of our economic system that feels like an unending crisis, and that waiting for it to end is hopeless? Is it possible that we are waiting for the world to conform to our worldview once again, but that it would be smarter to adjust our worldview to conform to the world? Is it possible that financial markets will never become servants of the markets for goods again? Is it possible that Western countries can no longer get rid of their debt, because democracies can't manage money? And is it possible that even Helmut Schmidt ought to be saying to himself: I too am responsible for getting the world into a fix?
The most romantic Hollywood movie about the financial crisis isn't "Wall Street" or "Margin Call," but the 1995 film "Die Hard: With a Vengeance." In the film, an officer with the East German intelligence agency, the Stasi, steals the gold reserves of the Western world from the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and supposedly sinks them into the Hudson River. Bruce Willis hunts down the culprit and rescues the 550,000 bars of gold, which, until the early 1970s, were essentially the foundation on which confidence in all the currencies of the Western world was built.
Creating Money out of Thin Air
Until 1971, gold was the benchmark of the US dollar, with one ounce of pure gold corresponding to $35, and the dollar was the fixed benchmark of all Western currencies. But when the United States began to need more and more dollars for the Vietnam War, and the global economy grew so quickly that using gold as a benchmark became a constraint, countries abandoned the system of fixed exchange rates. A new phase of the global economy began, and two processes were set in motion: the liberation of the financial markets from limited money supplies, which was mostly beneficial; and the liberation of countries from limited revenues, which was mostly detrimental. This money bubble continued to inflate for four decades, as central banks were able to create money out of thin air, banks were able to provide seemingly unlimited credit, and consumers and governments were able to go into debt without restraint.
This continued until the biggest credit bubble in history began to burst: first in the United States, because banks had bundled the mortgages of millions of Americans, whose only asset was a house bought on credit, into worthless securities; then around the globe, because banks had foisted these securities onto customers in many countries; and, finally, when these banks began to totter, debt-ridden countries turned private debt into public debt until they too began to totter, and could only borrow money from banks at even higher interest rates than before.
At the moment, the world has only one approach to getting out of this labyrinth of debt: incurring trillions in additional debt.
What does all of this have to do with Bruce Willis and Helmut Schmidt? Willis rescued the world's gold and, with it, the illusion of the good, old world. Schmidt, as Germany's finance minister in the 1970s, set the debt spiral in motion and fueled the illusion in Germany that countries could go into debt, and that this was good for everyone.
When Schmidt's predecessor, Karl Schiller, resigned from the government in protest over 4 billion deutsche marks in new debt, he said: "I am not willing to support a policy that creates the impression that the government pursues the motto: After us comes the deluge."
Schmidt incurred 10 billion deutsche marks in new debt. Inspired by crisis economist John Maynard Keynes, the German government believed that economic stimulus programs would stimulate growth, but only under the condition that the debt was to be brought down again in better times.
This economic policy was known in Germany as "global regulation." As finance minister, and later as chancellor, Schmidt took advantage of the oil crisis to drive up the government deficit with economic stimulus programs. By the time Schmidt stepped down in 1982, annual government spending had tripled relative to 1970 spending, reaching the equivalent of 126 billion ($161 billion), and public debt had increased fivefold, to 313 billion. Today, the combined debt of federal, state and local governments has climbed to more than 2 trillion.
A Human Debt Gene?
From today's perspective -- leaving aside all the effusive rhetoric about Europe -- the introduction of the euro is nothing but the continuation of debt mania with more audacious methods. The euro countries took advantage of the favorable interest rates offered by the common currency to get into even more debt.
Can all of this be blamed on some sort of human debt gene? Is it wastefulness, stupidity or an error in the system? There are two views on how the government should use its budgets to influence the economy: the theory of demand, established by Keynes, advocates creating debt-financed government demand, which in turn generates private demand and produces government revenues. In other words, building a road provides construction workers with wages. They pay taxes, and they also use their wages to buy furniture, which in turn provides furniture makers with income, and so on.
The other view, supply-side economics, is based on the assumption that economic growth is determined by the underlying conditions for companies, whose investment activity depends on high earnings, low wages and low taxes. According to this theory, the government encourages growth through lower tax rates. In the last few decades, the frequent transitions of power in Western countries between politicians who support supply-side economics (conservatives, libertarians and now some center-left social democrats) and those who advocate Keynesian economics (social democrats) has driven up government debt. When some politicians came into power, they reduced government revenues, and when they were replaced by those of the opposite persuasion, spending went up. Some did both.
When the debts of companies and private households are added to the public debt, the sum of all debt has grown at twice the rate of economic output since 1985, and it is now three times the size of the gross world product. Economies in the developed world would appear to require credit-financed demand in order to continue growing -- they need consumers, companies and governments to go into debt and to put off paying for their demand until some unspecified point in the future. Of its own accord, this economic system produces the compulsion to drive up the debt of public and private households.
Governments delegate power and creative force to the markets, in the hope of reaping growth and employment, thereby expanding the financial latitude of policymakers. Government budgets that were built on debt continued to create the illusion of power, until the markets exerted their power through interest.
Interest spending is now the third-largest item in Germany's federal budget, and one in three German municipalities is no longer able to amortize its debt on its own. In the United States, the national debt has grown in the last four years from $10 trillion to more than $16 trillion, as more and more municipalities file for bankruptcy. In Greece, Spain and Italy, the bond markets now indirectly affect pensions, positions provided for in budgets and wages.
A country isn't a business, even though there are politicians who like to treat their voters as if they were employees. Politics is the art of mediating between the political and economic markets, convincing parliaments and citizens that economic policy promotes their prosperity and the common good, and convincing markets and investors that nations cannot be managed in the same profit-oriented way as companies.
After four years of financial crisis, this balance between democracy and the market has been destroyed. On the one hand, governments' massive intervention to rescue the banks and markets has only exacerbated the fundamental problem of legitimization that haunts governments in a democracy. The usual accusation is that the rich are protected while the poor are bled dry. Rarely has it been as roundly confirmed as during the first phase of the financial crisis, when homeowners deeply in debt lost the roof over their heads, while banks, which had gambled with their mortgages, remained in business thanks to taxpayer money.
In the second phase of the crisis, after countries were forced to borrow additional trillions to stabilize the financial markets, the governments' dependency on the financial markets grew to such an extent that the conflict between the market and democracy is now being fought in the open: on the streets of Athens and Madrid, on German TV talk shows, at summit meetings and in election campaigns. The floodlights of democracy are now directed at the financial markets, which are really nothing but a silent web of billions of transactions a day. Every twitch is analyzed, feared, cheered or condemned, and the actions of politicians are judged by whether they benefit or harm the markets.
The attempt by countries to bolster the faltering financial system has in fact increased their dependency on the financial markets to such an extent that their policies are now shaped by two sovereigns: the people and creditors. Creditors and investors demand debt reduction and the prospect of growth, while the people, who want work and prosperity, are noticing that their politicians are now paying more attention to creditors. The power of the street is no match for the power of interest. As a result, the financial crisis has turned into a crisis of democracy, one that can become much more existential than any financial crisis.
- Part 1: Prison of Debt Paralyzes West
- Part 2: An Unequal Battle
- Part 3: A European Depression and a Pending Japanese Disaster


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About the World Cafe
The World Cafe is broadcast on WXPN
Monday through Friday at 2pm ET.
The World Cafe with host David Dye serves up an eclectic mix of music from blues, rock, and world, to folk, and alternative country with live performances and interviews with celebrated and emerging artists. This acclaimed program, distributed nationally to over 185 stations across the country through NPR Music, is produced by WXPN in Philadelphia.
About David Dye
David Dye is a longtime Philadelphia radio personality whose music enthusiasm has captivated listeners of World Cafe since 1991.
World Cafe and Dye have received numerous awards including: two NFCB Gold Reel Awards, Album Network's "Best Triple A Air Talent," four Philadelphia Magazine's "Best of Philly Awards," the Philadelphia Chapter of NARA "Hero Award" and numerous radio industry trade magazine citations.