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The war-torn city came to a rare standstill for the burial of former president Aden Abdulle Osman, alias Aden Adde, who died in a Kenyan hospital on June 8.
The funeral, held at the Islamic Solidarity Mosque (Isbahaysiga) brought together Mogadishu residents and was attended by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, his predecessors Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Abdiqassim Salat Hassan and the city's elite. The burial took place at Eel Irfid, on the city's outskirts.
Radio commentators, government leaders and the public were in agreement that Aden Adde was a man of integrity.
He was the country's first president after being deputy to the Italian Governor-General during the four years of pre-independent internal rule. He became president on July 1, 1960, when the former British and Italian colonies joined to form the Republic of Somalia.
His seven-year rule was a period distinguished by flourishing democracy.
He organised a constitutional referendum and three national elections. He lost in a widely contested election in July 1967, to Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a man who had once served under him as prime minister.
He peacefully handed over power to Sharmarke, to become arguably the first post-independence African leader to peacefully surrender power through a democratic process.
He was ranked among other great African leaders — Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Madibo Keita of Mali — who formed the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, and got Somalia into the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Countries and the Non-Alligned Movement.
In his honour, on June 9, Mogadishu's main airport was renamed the Aden Adde International Airport.
His burial, however, came against a backdrop of violence that hit the city in the first two weeks of June.
On June 3, the residence-cum-office of Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi was attacked by a suicide-bomber. Six guards and two civilians died on the spot when a vehicle crashed into the perimeter wall of the residence.
The African Mission in Somalia (Amisom) force from Uganda quickly whisked Ghedi and his family to safety. "The premier is safe in an undisclosed location," Captain Paddy Ankunda, the Amisom spokesman, told the media. The Ugandan peacekeepers know what they are up against. A May 16 blast killed four of their member in the heart of Mogadishu.
The prime minister was quick to blame groups linked to Al qaeda. "These bombers fear direct confrontations with pro-government forces and resort to this cowardly act of suicide or roadside bombing," said Mr Ghedi.
Mogadishu's new governor, Mohamed Omar Habeb alias Mohamed Dheere, said, "This type of action is planned and executed by elements bent on blocking the forthcoming reconciliation conference." Dheere lost three of his deputies in one month of relentless insurgent attacks.
Although the prime minister's residence is heavily guarded, his security pales when compared with the well-protected headquarters of the Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu.
In a show of defiance in the face of the attacks, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi visited Mogadishu on June 5.
He met his Somalia counterpart, Mr Ghedi, and spoke to his country's troops in the country. Part of the visit's agenda was also to discuss the stabilisation plan for Somalia with President Abdullahi Yusuf.
However, Zenawi's visit did not go down well with Eritrea's President Isaias Afeworki. It is not a secret that Eritrea would like to see Ethiopia's efforts in Somali fail.
President Afeworki is said to be hosting top Somali dissidents in Asmara, among them, Sheikh Sharif, the former executive head of the defunct Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC), Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the former speaker of Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) and Hussein Mohamed Aideed, a former TFG deputy premier and a small group of former members of the TFP, who refer to themselves as the "independent parliamentarians."
The word in Mogadishu is that Eritrea is also hosting two Ethiopian dissident groups (the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front) and two Somali renegade groups (Somali independent parliamentarians and the Islamists).
Amid the confusion, hope now lies in the planned reconciliation conference led by an independent organising committee led by Ali Mahdi Mohamed.
At a recent gathering of civil society activists at Mogadishu's Global Hotel, Ali Mahdi, flanked by his deputy, businessman Mohamud Jirdeh Hussein and former ambassador Abdurahman Abdi Hussein, said the differences within the Somali community should be a lot easier to resolve than those, say, in Burundi and Rwanda.
Nearly a million people were killed in Rwanda in just 100 days while we lost a fraction of that number in over a decade and half," he said.
The Somali reconciliation conference organising committee recently toured Rwanda, to learn from the country's experience — especially the healing process.
"The Rwandans have established genocide museums to keep the massacres, no matter how bitter, fresh in their memories and to serve as reminder of acts that should never be repeated," said Mr Hussein Aideed.
Abdulkadir Khaliif Sh. YusufE-mail: [email protected]


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Congress, Here's How to Make STEM Fields Better for Everyone
"Increasing diversity in our STEM fields will make us smarter." AAUW Associate Director of Government Relations Erin Prangley opened with these words at the Women in STEM: Ways to Address Gender Inequity to Advance U.S. Global Competitiveness congressional staff briefing on May 13. Co-hosted by AAUW, the National Coalition of Women and Girls in Education, the Association for Women in Science, and the Society of Women Engineers, in coordination with the office of Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), the briefing set out to educate U.S. House and Senate staff about the importance of including women and people of color in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Prangley served as the moderator for a panel featuring Nora Boretti from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Pamela McCauley from the Association for Women in Science, and AAUW Postdoctoral Fellow Stacie Gregory.
The discussion focused on gender issues facing women in STEM, including an analysis of a recent GAO report that identified 13 potential actions federal agencies could take to address the underrepresentation of women in STEM research, a review of current scientific studies on obstacles to women's participation in STEM education and careers, and an overview of pervasive sexual harassment in STEM fields. Boretti summarized the main findings of the GAO report and addressed ways to improve data collection and perform compliance reviews that are legally required under Title IX, the federal law that, among other things, bans discrimination in publicly funded research and education. Boretti's comments were supplemented by the AAUW research reports Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women's Success in Engineering and Computing and Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership, copies of which were distributed at the sign-in table.
McCauley spoke about the gender gap in STEM fields, particularly among women of color. Today, "less than 1 percent of women in STEM [careers] are African American," she said. Part of the reason women are discouraged from remaining in these fields, she added, is due to sexual harassment: "Currently, women who report sexual harassment are dismissed or even laughed at."
Gregory, who has conducted interviews with graduate and doctorate students in STEM fields, discussed the reality that many of these students are less inclined to report sexual harassment due to the peer dynamics and interactions they have had with their advisers. In her experience, "Young female students feel the need to deemphasize their identities, such as cutting their hair short, to fit in with men."
Following the three panelists' remarks, Prangley opened the floor for a question-and-answer session. When asked whether there is any pending legislation to address gender inequities in STEM, Prangley noted that the STEM Opportunities Act, introduced by the briefing's honorary co-host Sen. Hirono, would help federal science agencies and higher education institutions share best practices on inclusion. In addition, under this legislation, universities and nonprofits would be allowed to receive competitive grants and recognition for mentoring women and people of color in STEM.
AAUW Action Fund Capitol Hill Lobby Corps recently visited Senate offices to urge co-sponsorship of the bill, and more than 3,600 messages were sent to legislators through AAUW's Action Network.
For more information on how you can support gender equity in STEM, visit AAUW's Action Network.
Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership
AAUW's 2016 research report looks at causes and solutions for women's underrepresentation in leadership roles in business, politics, and education.
My Aha Moment: Was It Stereotype Threat?
Read AAUW Postdoctoral Fellow Stacie Gregory's story of stereotypes and STEM.
Solving the Equation
Why are there still so few women in engineering and computing, and what can you do about it? Read the AAUW report.
Join the Conversation
You must be logged in to post a comment.

subset: commoncrawl


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Certain parcels of property within Independence are owned by Jackson County Land Trust. If you are interested in purchasing Land Trust property or need additional information, jacksoncountylandtrust.org contains the most recent inventory and instructions. To view a complete list of Land Trust properties available in Independence, enter Independence in the City field and leave all other fields blank.
Questions may be directed to Jackson County Land Trust at (816) 221-3366, option 2.


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Whether you're a marathon runner or a mall-walker, First Thursday has enough art, wine and free snacks to give you a good culture workout. And while we have full faith that our readers are pros at sniffing out free booze and good times, we decided to do things a little differently this month and whip you up a First Thursday itinerary. Here are two ways to maximize your July First Thursday--one for the go-getters and one for the lazy hooch hounds.
5 p.m., Bittercreek Ale House & Red Feather Lounge, 246 N. Eighth St., 208-345-1813
Fuel up for your First Thursday journey with some locally grown grub from Bittercreek Ale House and a special meet and greet with documentary filmmaker Seth Warren. A longtime professional kayaker, Warren is famous for his 2007 film Oil + Water, which follows his and pal Tyler Bradt's travels cross-country in a petroleum-free retrofitted Japanese fire truck named Baby, which will be parked in front of Bittercreek for First Thursday.
Warren's latest documentary, Nature Propelled, follows Baby's journey to 30 cities while Warren explains the connection between natural elements, renewable energy and adventure sports. If you're still in the hood, Nature Propelled will screen at Red Feather at 7 p.m., along with a three-course local dinner presented by the Idaho Energy Collaborative.
6 p.m., Dead Bird Gallery, 280 N. Eighth St., Idaho Building, lower level, 208-880-9989
Once you've gotten your fill of suds, head downstairs in the Idaho Building for a nip of "Macro Lemonade." This new exhibit at Dead Bird Gallery features macro photography by local artist Wayne T. Crans, who examines exotic arthropods and miniatures.
6:15 p.m., Alexa Rose Gallery, 280 N. Eighth St., Idaho Building basement courtyard
For more animal oddities, head a few doors down to check out the group-show "Versus," at the Alexa Rose Gallery. In addition to Alyson McCrink's "feminine animal morphing" illustrations (the whole animal-head-with-human-gams trend that has become crazy common), the show will also feature work by graphic artist Brian Anglin, conceptual sculpture artist Marie Mortensen and mixed-media artist Jakob Nyberg. Local duo Evils will flood the subterranean space with their ambient, atmospheric space jams. Don't forget to keep your buzz going with a glass of wine from Parma Ridge Vineyards.
6:45 p.m., Thomas Hammer Coffee Company, 298 N. Eighth St., 208-368-0649
Mosey up the back stairs of the Superb Sushi courtyard and take a quick left into Thomas Hammer for the opening of graphic designer Nicolet Laursen's new series of chalk drawings, "I See You." You might recognize Laursen's colorful, whimsical portraits of people and animals from her art opening last month at Happy Fish Sushi and Martini Bar.
7:30 p.m., Flying M Coffeehouse, 500 W. Idaho St., 208-345-4320
Head back down Bannock to check out perennial Boise fav Ben Wilson's new exhibit at Flying M Coffeehouse. Wilson will show a collection of 15 to 20 pieces, featuring "a combination of new work and old work," according to gallery co-curator John Warfel. "Also, he's going to have some 3D elements that he's created, painted faces on boxes with wings hanging from the ceiling in front of the wall." Be sure to ask for a plastic bag to carry your Wilson concert poster print, things are about to get splashy.
8 p.m., Owyhee Plaza Hotel, 1109 W. Main St., 208-343-4611
Congrats on all the hard work boozing and cruising through downtown. You must be exhausted. How about a refreshing cocktail and a dunk in a sparkling pool? Lucky for you, from 6-10 p.m. Owyhee Plaza flings open their pool gates to the bikini-clad masses for a special First Thursday pool party with live entertainment from the Ben Burdick Trio and Amy Weber. Throw back specialty beer flights, appetizers and other drink specials while watching your fellow art nerds flash some flesh. Sexy.
Laid Back
5 p.m., The Basque Market, 608 W. Grove St., 208-433-1208
Ease into your First Thursday with some Fourth of July-themed tapas at the Basque Market. Red wine, white sangria and blue potato tortilla pintxos promise to light the fuse for a firecracker First Thursday evening.
5:30 p.m., 8th Street Marketplace, 404 S. Eighth St.
After celebrating American independence with the Basques, link arms with your patriotic crew and skip over to BODO to bask in some independent art. The 8th Street Artists in Residence program currently features multimedia painter Shari Olivieri; mixed media artist Ben Browne, who's work "explores the relationship between a bright green shop stool, the latest products from Apple Computers and the colors purple and green"; and Romanian-born Mihai Baluta, who is working on his "Graphite and Gold" series.
6:15 p.m., Casa Del Sol, 409 S. Eighth St., 208-287-3660
Still hungry? Pop over to Casa del Sol for $2 tacos, $2 Tecate drafts and live jams from Raquel Lopez. That's just $4 for a beer belly-full of awesome. Though we're not sure if this is a clever fish taco pun or a typo, Casa del Sol promises to "feed your appetite and warm your sole." Mmm. Warm sole.
7 p.m., Gypsy Gallery, The Grove Plaza
Cruise across Front Street to browse work from the local roaming artist collaborative Gypsy Gallery by the Grove Plaza fountain. Comprised of gypsies Cherry Woodbury, Jenifer Gilliland, Kristy Albrecht, Marianne Konvalinka, Michael Falvey, Pam McKnight, Miriam Woito, Kevin Flynn and Zella Bardsley, the collaborative also includes a number of special guest artists at each showing. After collecting some artist trading cards from the gypsies, get your flips flopping toward the Art Source Gallery. It's time to cram in one last morsel of culture before you wet your ankles and refresh your buzz.
7:30 p.m., Art Source Gallery, 1015 W. Main St., 208-331-3374
The 10th Annual "Art Source Gallery Juried Exhibition" features 55 works selected from artists across the country working in mediums like photography, watercolor, oil, acrylic and ceramics. This year's juror John Taye will announce award recipients at 6:30 p.m., while attendees slug down wine from Indian Creek Winery and beer from Brewforia from 5-9 p.m.
8 p.m., Owyhee Plaza Hotel, 1109 W. Main St., 208-343-4611
Congrats on all the hard work boozing and cruising through downtown. You must be exhausted. How about a refreshing cocktail and a dunk in a sparkling pool? Lucky for you, from 6-10 p.m. Owyhee Plaza flings open their pool gates to the bikini-clad masses for a special First Thursday pool party with live entertainment from the Ben Burdick Trio and Amy Weber. Throw back specialty beer flights, appetizers and other drink specials while watching your fellow art nerds flash some flesh. Sexy.
Check out BW's don't miss First Thursday picks or get a full list of all First Thursday happenings and a map.


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Funny Questions to Ask That Can Get Borderline Exasperating
Children have a knack of bamboozling adults with their array of silly and funny questions. For a change, we can indulge in some of our very own funny questions and bring a smile to someone's face.
Pankaj Chobharkar
Last Updated: Feb 24, 2018
Laughter is the best medicine and it is no wonder that making someone smile/laugh unknowingly is considered to be a good deed. It's funny how silly questions brighten up the mood, if not the entire day. They can be used deliberately to garner attention or as a tool to start conversations smoothly. Not to forget, they can be used just to avoid sounding way too serious. There's absolutely no harm in letting go every once in a while and if they help in lightening up the mood, then they are well worth it.
Funny Questions You Can Ask
Is it true that vampires don't like clowns because their blood tastes funny?
If you're in hell and get mad at someone, where do you tell them to go?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
What's the opposite of opposite?
Why do feet smell and noses run? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way round?
Do people staying at the poles see the world upside down?
Whose cruel idea was it for the word 'LISP' to have a 'S' in it?
Why is a chili called 'chili' when it's really hot?
If a bus stops at a bus station, does your work stop at your workstation?
What's so funny with the funny bone anyway?
Does one of your socks have a hole in it? No! Then how do you put your foot in it?
Why do we call them restrooms when no one goes there to rest?
If nobody buys a movie ticket, do they still show the movie?
Does the sun wear sunglasses to look cool?
Why is it said that an alarm is going off when it's actually coming on?
If we happen to be born again, will we have two belly buttons?
Why do we say bye-bye, but not hi-hi?
Why are they called stairs inside but steps outside?
Fill in the blanks with 'Yes' or 'No': ___ I have no brains
Why should we say "after dark" when it is really after light?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
Why is it a "toothbrush" when we actually use it to brush our teeth?
Why should I be working like a dog when dogs just sit lazing around all day?
Why is it that when we plug our nose after humming, our humming stops?
If Luke took a bath with cold water, would the water turn lukewarm?
When day breaks, who fixes it?
When you tell someone that the sky is the limit, what is space? Over the limit?
Why do people make loud SSSHHH noises when they want it to be quiet?
How is it possible for a zombie to walk? Isn't it supposedly a dead body?
Why do people push the buttons of a remote harder when they know the batteries are flat?
Why do people say 'PIN number' when that truly means 'Personal Identification Number' number?
How is it vaguely possible for a skeleton to dance without muscles?
Do you think I'm going bananas? You should be a monkey to visualize that.
Why do we scrub down and wash up?
Do people hum through their nose or their mouth?
If a person dies and then springs back to life, do they get their money back for the coffin?
If you try to fail and end up succeeding, which have you done?
On a serious note, why does bubble gum stick to the face but not inside the mouth?
Why does the refrigerator light come on when the door is opened?
Do toys come to life after we have gone to sleep?
Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
How can one sleep like a baby when babies wake up every two hours?
I bet you couldn't keep a straight face while reading these absurdly funny questions. I, for one, couldn't stop giggling while composing this list.


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The background fabric in the blocks was a nice heavy, closely woven muslin. In a couple of places we could see what might have been the remains of the ink that would have been on a bag of feed or flour and we wondered if that was the source of the fabrics. There are 48 butterflies, and we found only two fabrics repeated. This quilter had access to a wonderful collection of fabrics!
We noted that some of the solid fabrics used in the butterfly bodies show dark areas around the edges, almost as if the quilter had used an adhesive of some kind. These areas feel a little stiff, but there was no obvious cracking or splitting when they were stitched through.
|Four butterflies circle on each block.
Note the dark edges on some of the solid fabrics.
|Wonderful fabrics! Some wing tips were
"clipped" when they got trapped in
the seams.
As the top came apart we found several kinds of stitching had been used. Some seams were hand done. Others were machine stitched. Some were machine stitched back and forth several times! Some of the seams went through tips of butterfly wings -- these were unstitched VERY carefully to prevent damage to the applique stitches. The original sashing strips were found to be quite faded, and even after a gentle washing they showed stains that we could not remove. We chose to replace this fabric with a new one and were delighted to find a sunshine-y yellow that matched the original nicely. We did not wash the blocks – we didn't want to take a chance on any of the colours running.
First step was to square up the blocks. This was harder than we expected. The blocks had been torn from the original fabric and while this meant all the grainlines were nice and straight it did not prevent a bit of skewing. Many of the appliques were very close to the edges of the fabric leaving little room for adjustments.
We gave up on square and settled for straight. Blocks were trimmed to the largest possible dimensions and we were delighted when one of them came out the same size in both directions! We then grouped them, putting three blocks that shared a size in one direction into each row. Widths of the sashing strips varied to make the rows work out to the same length. We kept the sashing strips fairly wide so that differences in block sizes would be less apparent.
As we worked we marvelled that the original quilter had managed her job with none of the tools we were using. Yes, the blocks were uneven, but she had no acrylic rulers, no rotary cutter, no large gridded mats to help. We wondered what it would have been like trying to make these blocks using a yardstick on the kitchen table!
The re-assembly of the quilt went quickly. Then borders were added. The green print is a reproduction that suits the other fabrics well.
|Finished quilt is 73" by 93" and is ready to be used on a bed.
We don't know who made this quilt top. The blanket stitch applique is done with three strands of black floss. The stitching is quite consistent from block to block, so we guess that it was all done by one person. Did the same person do both the applique and the assembly, or was it perhaps a multi-generational project? When it arrived the top had a border down one long side only and this looked like it might have been folded over and top-stitched. The whole piece had been hemmed – a small amount of fabric turned to the back and machine-stitched down. Was it perhaps used as a curtain? – that might account for the fading we saw.
Though we know little about the quilt's previous life, we do know that it is now ready for a new one!
Technorati Tags: vintage quilt,butterflies


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Our latest opportunities to volunteer with Gwent Wildlife Trust
Location: Seddon House, Dingestow, Monmouth, NP25 4DY
We are looking for several Administration volunteers to support the Core Functions team, with carrying out some of the day to day processes of its main administration office at Seddon House, Dingestow.
Location: Silent Valley, nr Ebbw Vale, Gwent
The Eastern Valleys volunteer group works on practical conservation tasks on a variety of our Eastern Valleys reserves.
Location: Magor Marsh, Magor & Great Traston Meadows, Nr Newport
The Gwent Levellers volunteer group works on practical conservation tasks on Magor Marsh and Great Traston Meadows reserves.
Location: Seddon House, Dingestow, Monmouth, NP25 4DY
We are looking for several Marketing & Administration volunteers to assist the Support with some of our marketing campaigns & projects at Seddon House, Dingestow.
Location: Magor Marsh, Magor
Help our Education team in the Summer Holidays for the coolest Wildlife Club around!
Location: Newport
My Wild Newport monthly volunteer activities at Newport's parks and nature reserves
Location: Magor Marsh, Magor
Help us engage the general public with wildlife and the work of the Gwent Wildlife Trust at our Magor Marsh events.
Excellent voluntary opportunity to provide admin support to the Support team, which will include being responsible for the media library of this leading charitable organisation.
Location: Various reserves across Gwent
Become a guardian for one (or several) of our reserves.
We're conducting a Gwent-wide reserves audit and we need your help! Lowri Watkins, our Assistant Conservation Projects Officer, has been tasked with putting together pictures, facts, walks and more.


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An uber-JAR—also known as a fat JAR or JAR with dependencies—is a JAR file that contains not only a Java program, but embeds its dependencies as well. This means that the JAR functions as an "all-in-one" distribution of the software, without needing any other Java code. (You still need a Java runtime, and an underlying operating system, of course.)
There are three common methods for constructing an uber-JAR:
- Unshaded. Unpack all JAR files, then repack them into a single JAR.
- Pro: Works with Java's default class loader.
- Con: Files present in multiple JAR files with the same path (e.g.,
META-INF/services/javax.script.ScriptEngineFactory) will overwrite one another, resulting in faulty behavior.
- Tools: Maven Assembly Plugin, Classworlds Uberjar
- Shaded. Same as unshaded, but rename (i.e., "shade") all packages of all dependencies.
- Pro: Works with Java's default class loader. Avoids some (not all) dependency version clashes.
- Con: Files present in multiple JAR files with the same path (e.g.,
META-INF/services/javax.script.ScriptEngineFactory) will overwrite one another, resulting in faulty behavior.
- Tools: Maven Shade Plugin
- JAR of JARs. The final JAR file contains the other JAR files embedded within.
- Pro: Avoids dependency version clashes. All resource files are preserved.
- Con: Needs to bundle a special "bootstrap" classloader to enable Java to load classes from the wrapped JAR files. Debugging class loader issues becomes more complex.
- Tools: Eclipse JAR File Exporter, One-JAR.
Advantages: A single JAR file is simpler to deploy. There is no chance of mismatched versions of multiple JAR files. It is easier to construct a Java classpath, since only a single JAR needs to be included.
- Every time you need to update the version of the software, you must redeploy the entire uber-JAR (e.g., ImageJ is ~68 MB as of May 2015). If you bundle individual JAR components, you need only update those that changed. This issue is of particular relevance to Java applications deployed via Java Web Start, since it automatically downloads the latest available version of each JAR dependency; in that case, your application startup time will suffer if you use the uber-JAR.
- You cannot cherry-pick only the JARs containing the functionality you need, so your application's footprint may suffer from bloat.
- If downstream code relies on any of the same dependencies which are embedded in an unshaded uber-jar, you may run into trouble (e.g.,
NoSuchMethodErrorfor unshaded uber-JARs) with multiple copies of those dependencies on your classpath, especially if you need to use a different version of that dependency than is bundled with the uber-JAR.
As you can see, it is important to understand how use of the uber-JAR will affect your application. In particular, Java applications will likely be better served using the individual component JARs, ideally managed using a dependency management platform such as Maven or Ivy. But for non-Java applications, the uber-JAR may be sufficient to your needs.
See also
- What is an uber-jar? on Stack Overflow
- The Elusive Uber Jar


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Hi! I've been trying to use the tutorial for this star, but I keep getting stuck on the 7th photo. Do you have pictures of how you fold each piece? Thanks!
Hi Sarah!Perhaps you should address this question to the creator of the tutorial. Linn? You'll find the link on the post above! Good luck!


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Top Luxury Designers Join "Runway to Green" Fashion Show
Photo: Chloe Crespi
The Christie's Bid to Save the Earth second annual auction--don't miss our video interviews from last year's red carpet--to benefit environmental non-profits has an eco-fashion spin this year, Vogue reports, with new program, Runway to Green.
Top fashion designers--from Yves Saint Laurent to Manolo Blahnik--will create an exclusive fashion item, as part of their fall 2011 collections, to be featured in a runway show, styled by Vogue's Tonne Goodman and Tabitha Simmons, on March 29, 2011 at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Participating designers include: Prada, Balenciaga, Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Manolo Blahnik, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Tory Burch, Derek Lam, Marchesa, Marni, Michael Kors, Rachel Roy, Rag & Bone, Thakoon, and more. Each designer has agreed to work with the NRDC's Clean by Design initiative to make their production more sustainable. An introduction to the initiative is below.
Video: YouTube, NRDCflix
By calling on luxury fashion labels, Runway to Green has the potential to influence mass market producers and customers. Sass Brown, author and professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, speaks to the "trickle-down theory" on Ecouterre:
The building and expansion of luxury fashion labels is in great part, what fuels other markets with its visionary design and, in the case of eco-fashion, ethics. It is my hope that 2011 will give rise to new eco-fashion labels at the luxury end of the market, helping to consolidate as well as raise the level of design, quality, and ethics to a level that all fashion consumers aspire to.
A portion of proceeds from the sale of these collection items will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the United Nations Environment Programme's Billion Tree Campaign.
For more, visit Runway to Green and Christie's Green Auction.
What do you think of the program? Are you miffed that top luxury designers are only committing to creating one garment or do you think it has growth potential? Tell us in the comment section, below.
Like this post? Follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
More Christie's Green Auction
Christie's Green Auction Raises $1.3 Million for Environmental Non-profits on Earth Day, Video Interviews from the Green Carpet
Christie's and NBC Announce Inaugural Green Auction


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August 23, 2016
Opus Bank Launches Public Finance Division
Opus Bank was founded on September 30, 2010 when a group of investors completed the acquisition and recapitalization of Bay Cities National Bank, a community bank headquartered in Redondo Beach, CA, with an injection of over $400 million of new equity. Bay Cities was subsequently converted to a California-chartered commercial bank, regulated by the FDIC and the State of California DBO, and renamed Opus Bank.
Opus was founded at a time when the banking industry was still reeling from the Financial Crisis and most banks were inwardly focused, struggling with capital constraints and trying to limit losses from problem credits. The banking industry was in need of an institution with a strong balance sheet and equally strong leaders who could facilitate growth and who shared the entrepreneurial vision of its clients.
Since the Bay Cities acquisition, Opus has completed an additional seven acquisitions, including two whole bank acquisitions; two acquisitions of multiple banking offices and related client deposits; and the acquisitions of three non-bank, bank-like businesses. Opus now provides commercial and retail banking products and solutions to its clients in western markets from its headquarters in Irvine, California and through 47 banking offices, and provides IRA custodian services through its wholly-owned subsidiary, PENSCO Trust Company.
Opus Bank Completes Acquisition of Commerce Escrow Company and RPM Investments, Inc.
Opus Bank Forms Broker-Dealer Subsidiary to Expand Merchant Banking Capabilities
Opus Bank Completes Acquisition of Four Banking Offices From California Bank and Trust
Opus Bank Announces Expansion and Maturation of its Income Property Banking Division with Newly Formed Structured Finance Division
Opus Bank Announces $22.5 Million of Acquisition Financing Provided to Adesto Technologies
Opus Bank Completes Its Acquisition of Ten Banking Offices from Pacific Western Bank
Opus Bank Appoints Miguel A. Serricchio Senior Managing Director, President of Treasury Management and Payment Solutions Division
Opus Bank Appoints Phil Petrozzi Senior Vice President, Senior Managing Director of Fiduciary Banking Division
Opus Bank Completes its Acquisition of RMG Capital Corporation and Fullerton Community Bank, FSB
Opus Bank Completes its Acquisition of Cascade Financial Corporation and Cascade Bank
Opus Bank Establishes and Funds Opus Community Foundation with $4.3 Million Initial Contribution
Opus Bank Announces the Completion of its $460 Million Recapitalization and Change in Control Plan


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Pearson Training is a British-owned training publishing and evaluation service to varsities and companies, in addition to on to college students. The state of Virginia recertified Pearson as an permitted faculty turnaround" consultant in 2013 even though the company had, at best, combined results with that line of labor: Simply one of many 5 Virginia schools that Pearson cited as references improved both its math and reading proficiency rates against the state averages.
The personal data that I exploit with a Pearson Training on-line learning system can include my identify and phone information, my solutions to questions which can be a part of the course, my marks on checks or other course requirements, and any feedback about me made by my teacher.
We feel it on a daily basis after we are advised that 'Your name is necessary to us' while hanging on to speak to a person after navigating by way of 'press 1 for this and 2 for that' until we find a real human being – who solutions the cellphone totally oblivious to the telephonic journey we have been on.
For more than a yr, parents have known as for the removal of the district's elementary conceptually-primarily based math curriculum, Investigations in Quantity, Information, and Area," saying it doesn't provide sufficient rigor and is answerable for declining rankings on state-standardized exams.
Pearson is one of the most aggressive corporations looking for to profit from what they and others euphemistically call instructional reform, but which academics from teams like Rethinking Schools and FairTest see as an effort to promote, sell, promote substandard remedial teaching programs seamlessly aligned with the excessive stakes standardized exams for students and instructor assessments they're also selling.


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Submit your name, email address and create a password. You will then be emailed a verification code by which people can enter your personalized page.
On your page you can monitor people's predictions as well as invite people to make predictions through facebook and email.
Once you receive your call you can enter in where you are going and it will send out email notifications to everyone who guessed. The email will include your name, your mission, your departure date, your mission language and even your mission mailing address.
Remember this is a FREE service for you to enjoy. Your email will never be shared with a third party. Happy guessing!


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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from environmental groups that sought to block federal coal leases in Wyoming's Powder River Basin on the grounds that burning the coal would contribute to global warming.
The Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians had challenged the federal government's plans to sell leases on 2 billion tons of coal.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday dismissed the lawsuits, saying the groups failed to show that leasing the tracts would cause climate change that would specifically harm their interests.
Beverly Gorny is spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Cheyenne. She says the leases were sold this year but haven't been mined yet.
WildEarth Guardians Executive Director John Horning of Santa Fe, N.M., says his group plans to appeal.


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The explorative scanning movements of the hands have been compared to those of the eyes. The visual process is known to be composed of alternating phases of saccadic eye movements and fiation pauses.
Five different Experiments were used. The first two Experiments were classical recognition tasks of unknown haptic stimuli (A) and of common objects (B).
In each Experiment we observed explorative stops of different average durations.
We assume that ES are a general aspcect of human haptic exploration processes.
Grunwald M., Muniyandi M., Kim H., Kim J., Krause F., Mueller, S., Srinivasan M.A. (2014) Human haptic perception is interrupted by explorative stops of milliseconds. Frontiers in Cognition, April 2014, Vol 5, Article 292, p.1-14


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Whilst sight, hearing and well being declines, the senior scholar can still learn effectively with just a few modifications to the classroom atmosphere and teaching model. It has change into appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Add the transhumanist agenda to 'improve' humanity using technology and it is easy to see the potential for a brand new 'master race' to emerge. To speak with other trade, to communicate the brand new technology in product, the business can use computer and web.
Physicians rely on pc expertise to obtain current info on sufferers. The 5G applied sciences embrace all sort of advanced options which makes 5G cellular technology strongest and in enormous demand in close to future. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak designed a do-it-yourself wooden computer with an integrated microprocessor.
If you find yourself getting a pc associated job because of your love of computers from fixing previous computer systems at home, you now will be incomes a residing by fixing computers, laptop programming, laptop networking, or different pc associated profession, so you will have money to spend in your area people from the cash you earn from your pc related career or business if you wish to be an proprietor of a Computer IT company which additionally employs different tech employees.
It is a expertise that makes use of the web and central remote servers as a way to keep up information and figures, and purposes. Design, mark-up languages and metadata, a mini-project and networking and webcasting. Our computer science division had been using general laptop labs to hold course-lab conferences that allowed college students to experiment with and lengthen the concepts coated in school.
It is great there's a lot funding out there contemplating how expensive assistive technology might be. He believes that a pc 50 years from now can have a computational functionality that is just so free and so amazing that people will assume that it is an assistant.
The Taiwanese expertise industry has had a head begin over their mainland cousins and has positively acquired a more developed after care and assist infrastructure. Throughout the previous few I had a television turned to CNN on my left,my laptop in front of me and a stack of labor on my desk.…


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There was a wall-mounted, black rotary phone in our "den" when I was growing up. The den was a tiny room at the front of the house that was eight square feet, at the most. It contained the shotgun cabinet, a drop-front secretary desk, a door to the outside, an arched entrance into the dining room and that rotary phone. In fact, it still has all of those items in it. The only change that's been made is it's been painted a couple of times and new carpet. To make a phone call, you simple picked up the phone, listed to the handset to make sure the family you didn't share it with (a "party" line) wasn't already using it, and then you stuck your finger – or a pencil, if you were feeling fancy – into the hole with the corresponding number and rotated it clockwise until it hit the stopper. Then you lifted your finger out and went to the next number. Repeat six more times.
If I got in a hurry and put my finger in the 4 instead of the 3 and moved it even slightly, I had just fucked up everything. I have to start over. Waiting for the rotary to return from the stop was eternal. Especially if was a zero, which required a nearly 170 degree rotation. 1 was the closest to the dial and therefore the shortest to wait for. Our prefix was 337. Every number we ever dialed started with 337. After that, each phone in the community was numerically assigned. Apparently our family's was the 865th phone number assigned.
When I needed a phone number of a friend, I could simply dial -0- and ask the live operator. If you picked up the handset and your party line was in use, we had three options: 1) listen in on their conversation until they were done; 2) hang up loud enough so they knew someone else wanted the line; or 3) ask them if you could use the phone quickly and then they could have it back.
I frequently have nightmares about being unable to use my phone or repeatedly dialing the wrong number. It might be a throw back to all those years using a rotary and knowing precious seconds could tick away if there was a fire or someone cut off their finger if I mis-dialed 9-1-1. Why they ever assigned emergency services 9-1-1- back in the days of rotary phones, I will never understand considering 9 is just next to the zero.


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Es stehen keine Ereignisse bevor.
Another successful event in Kirel!
Today we held another All Guilds Meeting in Kirel while the rest of the Cavern was having the Second Anniversary Celebrations, with Ghaelen streaming some wonderful, relaxing tunes.
Once again, we passed 50 people in Kirel, but luckily, we were been able to convince Chogon to raise the Population Limit to 200 awhile back, so there was no problem and everyone could attend.
The day was still filled with news. You can download the chat logs here: raw and cleansed
Annabelle: Annabelle is putting more time between releases of her Marker Quests because they are becoming harder and harder. She is currently working on the 5th release called "The D'ni Cavern", which will feature Quests in neighborhoods, Kirel, K'veer, the 6 Pubs, and the Great Zero. It should be ready in 2 weeks, and then 6th and 7th releases should follow quite soon.
H'Uru: The group of developers from the Guild of Writers has released a new Shard! It is called Gehn and it is a Shard based on their fork of CWE (for the Client) and DirtSand (for the server), this means that you don't need the Offline version of Uru (Uru:Complete Chronicles), you just need the content from MOULa. The Shard will feature all the new features/bug fixes/improvements the team will develop over time so people can experience them without waiting for OpenUru.org or MOULa to pick them up. The Shard currently contains just one Fan Age, Vothol Gallery, made by Rustee, winner of the D'ni Location Contest. As it happened for their TPOTS/Alcugs Shard (Deep Island), if you have an account on the GoW Forum, you already have an account on Gehn Shard and you only need to download the Client. For downloading it and to get more information, visit the Gehn Shard Forum Section. The client is available for Windows only, but they are getting quite close to having a native Linux client (and eventually for Mac).
OpenUru.org: OpenUru reported about their recent actions. They have completed a package of changes for Cyan to update MOULa, mainly bug fixes. The Minkata Shard is going very well, with 220 testers that have registered so far and a good collection of bugs/features/improvement tickets. They have scheduled a stress test for MInkata on February 18th, where everyone is invited to participate to try to deliberately crash the server, dance to Lord Chaos' music and maybe try a Marker Quest made by Annabelle. Rarified is also going to work on getting the OpenUru Tool to automatically build Clients from the H'Uru Code repositories. This will help the H'Uru guys with their work and it will also help rarified for when he'll need to port the H'Uru changes to the OU repositories. The OpenUru team will also be publishing a document with descriptions of the jobs that are needed in OU, most likely in response to the Call for Action by Paradox. Mac_fife also mentioned that there have been a lot of discussions recently about a proposal to Cyan for getting a Licence to distribute/work on MOULa Contents (the Ages, etc) and they have almost reached an agreement on what to send to Cyan.
Guild of Messengers: The Guild of Messengers has been quite active recently. The first Issue of the Cavern Post magazine has been a big success and we are going fast in the development pipeline for producing the second issue, which should be out soon after the Second Anniversary Week. We have been very active in the Cavern too, with Nev'yn writing and distributing KiMails about all the Important events and news.
Like last month, the CAVCON level was brought up, as it is still at Level 3. Explorers were once again encouraged to donate to keep the servers up and running.
See you all next month!


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With a title like Region of Light and Sound of God, you can tell that the debut solo album from My Morning Jacket's perpetual maximalist Jim James hasn't narrowed his sights. The album, self-produced and performed, sounds much like its cover looks – a ruggedly dapper man, paling in the wake of a pulsating world of neon that he doesn't seem to understand. It's that left hand that's the clincher – is it stroking his beard in confusion, or lighting up a cigarette and taking it all in? Either way, from the artwork alone, it's easy to tell that James is going to be tackling some Big Issues here.
It begins with what sounds like the heavens opening: a wash of rainfall, celestial harps and booming timpani. But then, 'State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U)"s muted, one-chord piano vamp kicks in, and refuses to stop. James has got the world-weariness of a vintage bluesman on his shoulders, but instead of asking where his baby went, he's wondering if the technology he's referring to in the title is having a negative effect on modern life. A tired theme, perhaps, but he's got enough of a spin on it to make the lyric interesting. And when the song stutters to its climax the microphone fizzles to a halt, just as he sings "I think the power's goin' out". In the wrong hands, it would be little more than a clever-clever way end to the song, but James exercises enough restraint with his production to prevent it from ever sounding smug.
The album creates its own world in much the same way as one-time collaborator Conor Oberst did on Digital Ash in a Digital Urn; however, while Oberst used that Bright Eyes album to air his personal demons and social disconnection, James is simply working out What It's All About on a much grander scale. "Sweet relief to know our effort pleases Him", James sings on 'Of the Mother Again', echoing the kind of spiritual sentiments last seen emerging from the mind of Kurt Wagner, or even George Harrison (whose songs James has more than ably covered in the past). Even when James does seem to turn his aim to more specific targets, as on the soulful 'Actress', you know that when he sings "Whether or not it's true, I believe in the concept of you" his thoughts are probably directed at something a little more significant than some starlet or other.
That's not to say there's a lack of humour to be found here. When, on lead single 'A New Life', he insists "I think I'm really being sincere…" – first with just an acoustic guitar for company, then repeating the song's one verse over a the kind of bouncing beat that Busby Berkeley could have choreographed hundreds to – it's a hair-raising moment. Meta, yes, but not without substance (we're looking at you, Christopher Owens), the song plays up to his repeated admiration for the music of the Muppets – cartoonish and classic-sounding all at once – and when he hollers his way to the song's close, it makes for one of the most uplifting things you're likely to hear in 2013. Meanwhile, the palate-cleansing instrumental 'Exploding' may not live up to its title, but its deft finger-picking, sweeping strings and I-can't-believe-it's-not-Nels-Cline twittering lead guitar makes for a perfect soundtrack for deep contemplation.
There's little in James' catalogue that hints at the stylistic journey he undertakes here; the closest comparison one can make is to the 'Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)', the sultry opening track from his Monsters of Folk project. There, he adopts his trademark falsetto to ask some of life's big questions ("Why do we suffer?") over a low-key soul beat. However, he needed the help of his fellow Monsters M. Ward and Conor Oberst to ram the point home. On Regions of Light…, James is alone in the wilderness, singing hymns to himself. Regions of Light and Sound of God is as succinct as he's ever been on record, and while it doesn't exactly live up to its grandiose title, it's a fascinating musical backroad to find yourself stranded in.


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It happens to most all waterfowl hunters, even the veteran ones. You're sitting in your duck blind and right before daylight, you start hearing ducks quacking back and forth.
Once you are able to see daylight a flock of ducks come circling into your decoys. You raise out of your pit and start blasting your shells away like an excited kid on Christmas morning. You're hoping to see at least one of those birds fall to the ground, but instead it flies away.
There are a few duck hunting tips that can help you bag more ducks and geese season after season. Keep reading below then head out to the field to test and see if we told you right.
Waterfowl hunters easily misjudge the distant from themselves to the bird and miss shots all the time. The reason is hunters get too anxious and stop their shotguns from following through. You cannot just point and shoot at a bird and expect to hit. If you do, you're very lucky. Most waterfowl hunters will do this and wonder why they never hit a duck. If the duck is moving from left to right or right to left you better be moving your shotgun in the same direction. Once you shoot, keep your shotgun moving and follow through with the shot.
Failing to swing through with your gun is the most common mistake waterfowl hunters make. When you swing, pull the trigger and continue swinging, you will hit the bird most times.
What choke to use:
You also do not want to use too tight of a choke as it will restrict the shot especially when using steel shot. The best choke to use is an improved cylinder for ducks and geese. An improved cylinder is good for ducks up to 30 yards. Anything over that a modified choke would be recommended. At 40+ yards you are taking a chance of only crippling a bird and that is something as waterfowl hunters we don't like to do as it causes much more pain for the bird.
The extended choke tubes are becoming more popular as they extend outside of the barrel to give the pellets more time to form a tighter pattern. They are expensive, but give you a much tighter load.
How to test your shot pattern:
To figure out your shot pattern take an old cardboard box and tear some squares out of it about 3ft x 3ft that you can use as targets. Stand back about 40 yards and fire 1 shot. Go and look for holes and see how well your pattern is and it you need to change out your choke.
Using these tips about shot patterns and following through with your shot, hopefully you will be able to bag more ducks and geese.
What type of choke and shot pattern are you using?


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After months of heated negotiations with the city of Irwindale over the smell of Sriracha hot sauce, Huy Fong Foods Chief Executive David Tran is appealing to a higher power: a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Los Angeles) visited the hot sauce factory Tuesday and spoke with Tran about potentially relocating to the San Fernando Valley. Cardenas is one of dozens of politicians nationwide who have publicly invited Sriracha to locate within their jurisdiction. Offers have poured in from Alabama, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kansas, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa, Arizona, New Mexico and West Virginia.
Last week, Tran signaled his intent to consider relocating his factory and invited potential suitors to pay a visit. Cardenas was one of the first. His own experience of the odor was pleasant, Cardenas said.
"Full disclosure, they weren't in chile grinding mode...but it was a mild smell in my opinion," Cardenas said.
Cardenas said he believes that it's the public's "heightened awareness" of the factory that is generating complaints, not a harmful odor.
"It's nowhere near the level that some people are saying," Cardenas said.
Cardenas and Tran also discussed some federal tax incentives for companies that export a certain proportion of their product overseas - which Huy Fong Foods does - but they did not identify any sites for relocation or discuss any specifics of a deal.
"There's lots of places in Socal, and Tran provides more than 200 jobs making a nationally and internationally recognized product," Cardenas said.
Cardenas clarified that it's jobs he's concerned about, not access to hot sauce - his spicy condiment of choice is actually Cholula.
"But Sriracha's in the top five," Cardenas said.
Twitter: @frankshyong


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manchester united champions league positions
For the latest news on Manchester United FC, including scores, fixtures, results, form guide & league position, visit the official website of the Premier League shop for gear, watch match highlights, or become a club member. Manchester United suffer their third defeat in a week as late goals from Juan Zuniga and Troy Deeney give Watford a deserved win manchester united football club - get the latest news, fixtures, results, match reports, videos, photos, squad and player stats on sky sports football manchester united supporters club scandinavia. De Gea missed Manchester United s victory over Sunderland and is unlikely to play against Anderlecht on Thursday, but Mourinho insists the Spanish keeper is fully materialet på united. Get the latest Manchester United news, photos, rankings, lists and more on Bleacher Report Get all the breaking Manchester United news no er omfattet av åndsverklovens bestemmelser. Headlines linking to the best sites from around the web uten godkjenning direkte fra ansvarlig. Updates 24/7/365 check out the latest team news, transfer rumours, results, stats, photos and videos about manchester united f. The 1 Man Utd news resource c. Breaking news headlines about Man Utd Transfer News & Rumours, linking to 1,000s of sources around the world, on NewsNow: the one-stop shop for breaking news The latest Manchester United news from Yahoo Sports from the daily mail and mail on sunday manchester united; nome: manchester united football club: alcunhas: red devils (diabos vermelhos) manchester utd man united united man utd: mascote: fred the red de complete clubpagina van manchester united op voetbalzone. Find Manchester United fixtures, results, top scorers, transfer rumours and player profiles, with exclusive met nieuws, wedstrijden en spelers. All the latest Manchester United FC news, match previews and reviews, man utd transfer news and Man United FC blog posts from around the world, updated 24 hours a day word fan van manchester united en deel je favoriete herinneringen. マンチェスター・ユナイテッド, 2016 写真: Manchester United Ltd、 Getty Images carl beau: it s great. デザイン: Lightmaker well done. United Direct – The Official Manchester United Online Shop selling a massive selection of Official Manchester United products a united city would have been perfect though. New adidas Home Jerseys, Away Jerseys 37. The home of Manchester United on talkSPORT - Bringing you the latest Manchester United news, exclusive interviews, Transfer Rumours and features 4k tweets • 17. Manchester United w najlepszym wydaniu 1k photos/videos • 11. W serwisie znajdziesz najnowsze informacje prosto z Old Trafford, multimedia, teksty publicystyczne, a także relacje na żywo 3m followers. The official Manchester United website with news, online ticket sales, live match commentary, video highlights, player profiles, mobile content, wallpapers, transfer tickets for this summer s manchester derby in houston are now on sale. The latest Manchester United FC news, transfers, match previews and reviews from around the globe, updated every minute of every day the mutour, presented by @aon_plc. All the latest breaking news on Manchester United actualités pour la saison en cours, voir: saison 2016-2017 du manchester united football club 0 modifier le manchester united football club est un club de football. Browse The Independent's complete collection of articles and commentary on Manchester United the home of manchester united football on bbc sport online. Manchester United will have to meet Andrea Belotti s buyout clause if they want to sign the striker this summer, Torino president Urbano Cairo has told Gazetta dello includes the latest news stories, results, fixtures, video and audio. Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the manchester united football club (bryt. Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League wym. Manchester United Foundation is putting its participants in the global spotlight to tell their stories and explain how the club has made an impact on their lives [? m a n t?? s t? j u n a? t? d]) – angielski klub piłkarski z siedzibą w manchesterze. Il Manchester United Football Club (NYSE: MANU), noto semplicemente come Manchester United, è una società calcistica inglese con sede nella città di Manchester występuje w premier league. Manchester United - Live Soccer TV - Football TV Listings, Official Live Streams, Live Soccer Scores, Fixtures, Tables, Results, News, Pubs and Video Highlights Welcome to the official website for the world s most popular football team Shop for gear, watch match highlights, or become a club member


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Jud Bergman
Jud Bergman
Founder, chairman and CEO, Envestnet Inc.
Describing his launch of the first web-based wealth management platform in 1999, Judson "Jud" Bergman, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Envestnet Inc., called it "bleeding edge, not leading edge."
It was the early days of the internet and the concept of "online" was new.
"For the first couple of years, we had interest from a few early adopters who said they wanted a fee-based wealth platform," he said. "Potential customers would say, �It looks good � how soon can you install it?' We said, �We don't install, we host.'"
It took several long years for the industry to start catching up to Mr. Bergman's idea of internet-based services.
What kept him holding on?
"I was meshuganah [crazy]," he said. "At some point the business runs you and not the other way around. You have to have the courage of your convictions."
Envestnet, which now services more than 5.8 million investor accounts and over $1 trillion in total platform assets, has evolved to provide a wide range of specialized financial technology to advisers and enterprises.
Mr. Bergman, 59, who originally pitched his business idea unsuccessfully to his employer, credits his courage to launch the company on his own to his parents' influence.
His father ran a small business and his mother was a nurse and a history instructor at a local college. They both valued independent thinking.
"They told me it doesn't matter what other people are doing; it matters what you're going to do," Mr. Bergman said. "I realized that even if my employer didn't want to pursue my business idea, it didn't mean it wasn't a good idea."
– Deborah Nason


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Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake
Here's another recipe from one of my new favourite cookbooks, The Cake Book. I've only made bundt cakes once and those were mini bundts and I got it stuck in my head that I wanted to make a regular size bundt. I just bought a pan from the grocery store since I wasn't sure how often I'd end up using it anyway and came home to make this yummy cake!
The cake was very moist and perfectly dense. The orange was a nice addition but you could definitely omit it if you want it to be all about the cinnamon (yes I'm thinking of you Grace). I loved the streusel and think it's the best I've found but I'm not sure it's right for this cake as it seemed to be too "wet" in the final cake if that makes sense. Maybe the streusel should have less flour. Anyway, this cake is supremely addictive and I know I'll be making more bundt cakes!
If this sounds good, you might also like:
Mom's Banana Apple Bread
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie-Cake
Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Pound Cake
Adapted from The Cake Book
I only made one small adaptation, to use cinnamon in the pound cake instead of cardamom. I also didn't sprinkle on confectioner's sugar before serving it. I'm also thinking the cake in the pan on a wire rack to cool needs to sit longer than 15 minutes so it doesn't stick - or maybe I need to butter and flour my pan better!
Makes one 10 inch bundt cake, serving 12
Cinnamon Streusel Swirl
1/2 cup (60 g) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (72 g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 tbsp (1.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
Buttermilk Pound Cake
2 cups (242 g) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (57 g) cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup (227 g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 cup (240 mL) buttermilk
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325F. Grease the inside of a 10 inch Bundt pan. Dust the pan with flour.
Make the Cinnamon Swirl
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt, breaking up any large lumps of brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir until blended and crumbly.
Make the Pound Cake
3. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 4 minutes. At medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract and orange zest. At low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until combined.
5. Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the batter. Scrape the remaining batter on top and smooth it into an even layer.
6. Bake the cake for 65 to 75 minutes (note: I baked mine for 60), until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
7. Invert the cake onto the rack and cool completely.


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Training needs analysis for "common business needs" and skills Identifying training needs or identifying learning needs are topics we are often asked about. To help individuals undertaking TNA or LNAs we have developed a series of templates to act as a starter for you. Often the content of the needs analysis template may be all you need, however, we do not know your particular organization or culture. Use these templates as a starting point. Not all performance issues can be solved … [Read more...] about TNA template – Training needs analysis for "common business needs" and skills
Is the fast food approach to learning and development working? #hrblog #cipdLDShow
Is the fast food approach to learning and development working? Last week I was at the annual CIPD conference for Learning and Development professionals. Whilst much of the content of the paid for conference sessions was about ensuring training and learning activities were effective, the mood on the exhibition floor was different. Off the shelf or bespoke? Every provider that offered off-the-shelf learning solutions also offered bespoke solutions. But the emphasis for may was the off-the-shelf, … [Read more...] about Is the fast food approach to learning and development working? #hrblog #cipdLDShow
Identifying levels of Training Needs Analysis (TNA) #hrblog
We need to understand the Levels of training needs analysis (TNA) in order to be able to design a learning or training solution. What is a Training Need? To carry out a Training Needs Analysis, we first need to understand what a 'Training Need' is. A training need is the gap between current and future knowledge or skills, that can be bridged by training or learning activities. We often refer to this as capability and learning requirements. There may be other gaps that need to be met … [Read more...] about Identifying levels of Training Needs Analysis (TNA) #hrblog
Training Needs Analysis
Training Needs Analysis Sample templates The links below will provide access to a sample TNA form and an example how the same data can be used for developing personal development plans. TNA Sample data collection form and Sample Output for PDP use Need simple, low cost help implementing TNA's For help in implementing systems like this please Contact us. Costs from as little as £1000 for a whole organisation Individual needs analysis from just £199. Try one of our management … [Read more...] about Training Needs Analysis
So Much Training, So Little to Show for It
So much training, so little to show for it in our organizations. Why is this often the case? Back in 2012 the Wall Street Journal published a piece looking at this. They concluded that businesses needed to do: Better training needs analysis (TNA) - not just what but who Design - what where how follow up - testing to see if people have learnt. Are they applying the new ways? Research from the The American Society for Training and Development claimed that only 10% of learning goes … [Read more...] about So Much Training, So Little to Show for It
Training is like PPE – A lack of budget does not mean no training
We have all been there at one time or another. Budgets are tighter than expected. Often external spend is reduced to a minimum. A lack of budget should not mean training stops. It means we need to start thinking differently. Its innovation time! Attending courses are not the only way to train and develop people. Sometimes we need to focus on the end result, the learning needed and not the journey – how that knowledge of skill should be achieved. When as part of a Personal Development … [Read more...] about Training is like PPE – A lack of budget does not mean no training
How to Build a Competency Matrix (Skills Matrix)
All businesses having competent people is important. The more competent our people, the better they perform. In safety critical environments, more than almost any other business environment, it is critical to understand who knows what. Having competency maps or competency matrices can help. What is a competency or skill? The UK based CIPD (professional body for Human Resource professional) says: Competence or competency? 'Competency' and 'competencies' may be defined as the behaviours … [Read more...] about How to Build a Competency Matrix (Skills Matrix)
Less is not more when it comes to training #tna
Our employees are not machines, they are emotional beings, we need to look beyond systematic approaches to training needs analysis How do we know what training to give? Traditionally in the world of training there has been a movement to do what is called "gap analysis" or training needs analysis to help identify the needs that training must deliver. From a systematic point of view, it was thought that the "best practice" would be to do as little training as necessary to plug the gap. Good for … [Read more...] about Less is not more when it comes to training #tna


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Ruby Red Juice
Made with :
J 80 Ultra
J 100 Ultra
For 4 Glasses :
300 g strawberries
3 carrots
¼ pineapple
Preparation: Peel the pineapple. Wash the strawberries but do not remove their stalks as they will automatically be discarded in the waste container.
Process ¼ pineapple, strawberries and carrots in this order in the J 80 Ultra/J 100 Ultra centrifugal juicer. Shake well.
Decoration: serve with cut strawberries.
Benefits: Pineapple is full of fibres, so good for digestion.
Strawberries, rich in vitamins, boost your immune system.
Another idea: Spice up your juice with vanilla, cardamom or
Robot-Coupe tips: The Ultra juicer can process carrots whole 2 - 3 at a time.


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Today I launched my new business that I've been working on for the last few months, Be Well with Michelle. I had the idea for this business in early November, around the time I started life coaching with a good friend and yoga instructor. Things quickly progressed from there; I signed up for health coach … Continue reading My New Business + Photo Shoot
Category: Body Health
Establishing a Self-Care Routine
Every time I feel like I'm heading into a black hole, the reason is always the same: I've steered away from my self-care routine. I've spent a lot of time establishing this routine, and find that it helps me stay on track both mentally and physically. I'm the type of person that needs some kind … Continue reading Establishing a Self-Care Routine
Yoga Teacher Training: Final Weekend & Graduation!!
I feel like I've been simultaneously sad and excited to write this post. Sad because the training itself is over, and there won't be any more 3-day weekends spent with my entire, wonderful yoga group. But mostly excited because I completed my long-term goal of becoming a yoga teacher! Eight months flew by SO fast, … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Final Weekend & Graduation!!
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 7
This past yoga teacher training weekend was probably the most crucial one for me yet. It was the first time I had been out of the house since Shane's death the weekend prior. I felt really anxious on the way there, because I didn't know if I was ready to face people yet and I … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 7
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 6
This past YTT weekend was beautiful, magical, and gave me all the feels in the best way possible. I left Sunday feeling so grateful for this experience, and for bringing the most wonderful people into my life, who I now call some of my best friends. Never in my life have I been so content, … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 6
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 5
Writing "weekend 5" was so difficult, because it means I'm now more than halfway done with yoga teacher training! I'm so excited that I'm getting closer to my graduation, but I'm also really going to miss this program and the people in it. But I'll save my waterworks until weekend 9, as I still have … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 5
Faux Meat Fo' The Win!
I've been meat-free for about 4 years now, and while I still eat seafood occasionally, I mostly cook vegetarian at home. Most of my meals have consisted of pasta, grains, beans and veggies. Obviously these are all great, healthy foods, but there were times when I wanted a faster, filling protein source, especially on work … Continue reading Faux Meat Fo' The Win!
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 4
Oh how I love my yoga teacher training weekends! After each weekend I grow more comfortable with my future as a yoga instructor because of the amazing instruction I'm receiving. After the first weekend I truly believed I picked the best possible program for this, and each completed weekend confirms that thought even more. Plus, I … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 4
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 3
I'm a bit late getting this post out since I've been out of the country, but despite the delay I wanted to be sure I documented my last yoga teacher training weekend because it was so uplifting and beautiful. As I begin to write this post, I'm wondering how I'm going to describe the feelings I … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 3
Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 2
I just finished my second weekend of yoga teacher training, and I'm happy to say I still absolutely love it! This weekend was very different from the first weekend, in that we spent the entire time filling our heads with all things anatomy. While a bit overwhelming at times, I already have such a new appreciation for … Continue reading Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 2


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You require to generally hope for as high of sales as you can so that the individuals in your workplace know you do a superior job. And speaking of procedure, what this book does seriously nicely is give you tools that you can plug into your own sales method that are based on your believed method and your buyers believed process. Powerful selling also demands a systems method , at minimum involving roles that sell, allow selling, and create sales capabilities. Subsequent release: Current-Household Sales data release for December 2016 is scheduled for Tuesday, January 24, 2016.
Sales management would break down the selling procedure and then enhance the effectiveness of the discrete processes as properly as the interaction among processes. Our mission is to elevate the sales profession through university education." SEF gives education programming and components to university sales programs and their students. Figures for the nation only — consists of total current-home sales, single-family members sales and condo/co-op sales seasonally adjusted and actual. They are also responsible for coordinating the sales and marketing department as effectively as oversight concerning the fair and honest execution of the sales process by their agents.
Clients turn to SPI to evolve their sales organizations and be more competitive. If you obtain oneself in a specialist sales predicament, meaning you wind up in the actual sales department of a enterprise or start your personal business selling goods or services, this book by Brian Tracey is your subsequent cease. Compact and medium companies selling such large ticket products to a geographically-disperse client base use manufacturers' representatives to supply these hugely private service although avoiding the significant expense of a captive sales force. Existing condo and co-op sales prices, actual totals and median costs by month for 12 months.
And with signals from both the Sales app and Office 365 to help them assess their client relationships, they get all the tools they want to select the subsequent step. Having said that, the obtain of substantial mining equipment worth millions of dollars will need a sales person to manage the sales method – especially in the face of competitors.
Internet Sales Pros: These men and women are primarily accountable for making certain quick response to the leads generated by way of social media, website or email campaigns. By way of our work with universities, students and companies, we are assisting today's sales experts succeed – and preparing the very important sales leaders of tomorrow. Next stated that it was budgeting for full-cost sales growth in the year to January 2018 within the variety of a fall of 4.five{15a9f5962989e1036f755f7f277374e088ab091908b0589888c17882c918053f} and a rise of 1.five{15a9f5962989e1036f755f7f277374e088ab091908b0589888c17882c918053f}.
The notion that marketing can potentially get rid of the need to have for sales individuals depends entirely on context. This book will expand on the notion that we are all, in one particular way or yet another, in sales and that regardless of the sector, we're in the people today business. Median and typical sales costs for all current-property sales, for single-household sales and for condo-co-op sales. Next's figures for the 54 days to Christmas Eve revealed sales in retailers fell by 3.five{15a9f5962989e1036f755f7f277374e088ab091908b0589888c17882c918053f}, when Next Directory sales rose by 5.1{15a9f5962989e1036f755f7f277374e088ab091908b0589888c17882c918053f}.


text:
Remarks by Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
Before the Japan Society, New York, New York
June 11, 2003
Uncertain Times: Economic Challenges Facing the United States and Japan
Despite heavy doses of monetary and fiscal stimulus, the Japanese economy remains mired in a mild, yet protracted, deflationary slump. The origins of the slump date to the bursting of the land and equity price bubble in the early 1990s. Economic weakness, in turn, has led to a sustained deflation that has proven unexpectedly difficult to cure.
Here in the United States, the economy has also struggled of late, following a sequence of adverse shocks during the past three years. We have had our own asset bubble, of course, and the steep fall in equity prices since the spring of 2000 has almost halved household equity wealth. The horrific events of September 11, 2001, shook financial markets, and the troubling evidence of corporate malfeasance revealed during the Enron and other scandals, combined with heightened geopolitical tensions that preceded the war in Iraq, tested the willingness of market participants to assume risk. These adverse developments were reflected in a precipitous decline in capital expenditures, which has contributed to a few years of subpar growth. These developments also put considerable downward pressure on inflation, to the point that increases in core consumer prices are now at a rate not seen on a sustained basis in almost forty years. In fact, after its most recent meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee noted that the probability of unwelcome further downward pressure on prices over the next few quarters exceeds that of a pickup in inflation.
With near-term economic prospects in the United States still somewhat clouded, market commentators have increasingly focused on the possibility that the United States may follow Japan into a deflationary slump. However, I do not believe that the United States is at the brink of significant and sustained deflation. Indeed, I believe that the probability of such an eventuality is quite low. But as the Japanese experience shows, the onset of deflation can be unexpected, and so to leave the topic unexamined would be imprudent. Of course, public interest is another reason to discuss the issue and contribute, one hopes, to the stock of intellectual capital. Accordingly, I think it is useful to discuss some lessons that can be drawn from the Japanese experience and, with that as background, to examine some reasons that a harmful deflation is unlikely to take hold in the United States. Before proceeding, let me note that the comments expressed reflect my views only and are not necessarily those of my colleagues on the Board of Governors or the FOMC.
First, I want to explain the theoretical view of the dangers associated with deflation. A harmful deflation, such as the type experienced by Japan since the mid-1990s, is almost always a consequence of depressed aggregate demand. A deflationary slump driven by contracting demand is more dangerous than a typical economic downturn because of its potential adverse effects on financial markets and the limitations it places on conventional monetary policy. Deflation of sufficient magnitude may result in the falling of nominal interest rates to zero--their practical minimum. This floor, commonly called the "zero bound," exists because lenders will always prefer to hold cash rather than credit instruments bearing a negative nominal interest rate. In a recession in which short-term nominal interest rates have already been pushed to zero, therefore, further downward adjustment in nominal interest rates is difficult, if not impossible. Because the real interest rate equals the nominal interest rate less the expected rate of inflation, the zero bound on nominal interest rates can lead to rapidly increasing real rates if deflation intensifies. Rising real interest rates, in turn, discourage borrowing, and so capital outlays by businesses, purchases of homes by families, and other types of spending decline further. This deterioration in aggregate demand adds to deflationary pressures and pushes real interest rates even higher.
Besides raising the real cost of borrowing, deflation can erode the quality of business and household balance sheets. Even if debtors can refinance existing loans at zero (or very low) nominal interest rates, a sustained fall in prices will transform what might otherwise be a manageable level of nominal debt accumulated by businesses and households into a rising and potentially debilitating level of real debt and real debt service costs. The consequent financial distress of debtors can lead to widespread defaults, bankruptcies, and bank failures, with potentially devastating consequences for the entire financial system.
The adverse effects of deflation go beyond financial markets. Deflationary pressures can impede the effective clearing of labor markets. Because employers often have difficulty cutting the nominal wages of their employees, real wages may rise as prices decline, and higher unemployment may result.
Deflation also raises a barrier to those monetary policy actions conventionally used to stimulate aggregate demand. Faced with a normal economic downturn, a central bank would lower its target for the short-term nominal interest rate--the overnight federal funds rate in the United States or the overnight call money rate in Japan--to stimulate aggregate demand. In a deflationary environment, in which short-term nominal interest rates have already been pushed to zero, the central bank can no longer ease policy in the usual way.
That is not to say that a central bank with its traditional policy rate at zero lacks tools to boost aggregate demand and thereby combat deflation. In fact, central banks have a number of other means at their disposal to stimulate spending should nominal interest rates hit the zero bound.
A central bank can increase the supply of reserves to the financial system through regular open-market operations even after short-term nominal interest rates have hit zero. Such actions may demonstrate a resolve by the central bank to keep short-term interest rates at zero for a prolonged period of time, with the intention of raising inflation expectations and lowering real interest rates.
Arguably, a more effective approach to combating deflation--and a relatively straightforward extension of current operating procedures--would be for a central bank to stimulate aggregate demand by lowering interest rates further out along the maturity spectrum. A central bank could expand its open market purchases of longer-term government securities, in sizable quantities if necessary, to drive term premiums lower. Of course, because long-term interest rates incorporate term premiums as well as discounted expectations of future short-term interest rates, the success of operations focused on influencing parts of the yield curve would be bolstered by a credible promise to move the short-term policy rate along a trajectory consistent with the targeted longer-term yields.
Alternatively, as economists have long recognized, a central bank could influence expectations of future short-term interest rates directly by committing to keeping the policy interest rate at zero for a specified and relatively long period of time or until some intermediate macroeconomic target--such as the termination of declining prices--was achieved. As a practical matter and to underscore its commitment to boosting aggregate demand, a central bank could write options that would, for a pre-specified time, make its raising interest rates costly, or it could operate in the forward interest rate market. If such actions were successful, yields on longer-term government securities would decline. Through arbitrage across financial instruments, yields on longer-term private instruments, such as corporate bonds and home mortgages, would likely follow suit. A sufficient downward adjustment of interest rates over the term structure of government and private securities should stimulate spending and thus help end deflation.
Importantly, describing what a central bank could do is easy, but these actions are not simple to execute or without downside risks. In particular, such policies would pose a considerable challenge for a central bank regarding communication. For example, if a central bank tried to cap a longer-term yield below the prevailing market rate, it would, to be most effective, need to convince market participants that it was committed to keeping the short-term policy interest rate low for an extended period. If this commitment was not viewed as credible, the central bank's purchases of securities to lower longer-term yields would likely have to be massive, given that the term premium component of longer-term interest rates appears rather insensitive to the outstanding supply of various securities. Such a situation would give rise to a risk that the targeted security might become disconnected from the rest of the yield curve and private interest rates.
The Federal Reserve has experience in using these tools, although admittedly not in a deflationary environment. Therefore, to describe these tools as "unconventional" may not be entirely appropriate. Rather, they are "rarely used." In particular, between 1942 and 1951, the Federal Reserve successfully maintained an interest-rate ceiling on longer-term Treasury yields at 2-1/2 percent. From 1979 through much of 1982, the FOMC targeted the amount of nonborrowed reserves in the banking system in an effort to reduce inflation. And around the century date change, the Federal Reserve wrote options on repurchase agreements to reassure market participants that adequate liquidity would be available. To be sure, our understanding of the monetary transmission mechanism in the United States when prices are on a distinct downward trend has not been informed by recent experience, and so calibrating the effects of such policy actions may be difficult. Thus, preventing deflation remains preferable to reversing it. However, if an economy slips into deflation, my belief is that a sufficiently determined central bank can spur aggregate demand and end the deflation.
Skeptics may point to Japan, where interest rate cuts and other monetary policy measures have been ineffective in jumpstarting the economy. The Bank of Japan lowered short-term interest rates considerably over the 1990s, after the bursting of the asset price bubble and against the backdrop of a stagnant economy. The overnight nominal interest rate fell from slightly more than 8 percent in 1991 to 1/2 percent in 1995, where it stayed until being lowered essentially to zero in 1999. However, the loosening of monetary policy in the early 1990s, though probably appropriate given the expectations of future economic developments generally held at that time, in retrospect proved to be too slow in light of the declines in spending and prices that subsequently occurred
Amid persistent price deflation--and face to face with the constraints on monetary policy imposed by the zero lower bound on short-term nominal interest rates--the Bank of Japan introduced what it called a "quantitative easing" framework in March 2001. This framework included switching the operating target for money market operations from the overnight interest rate to the outstanding balance of reserve accounts held by financial institutions at the central bank. In an attempt to change deflationary expectations, the Bank of Japan stated that it would continue to target reserve accounts until the core consumer price index showed a twelve-month inflation rate of zero or above. Over the roughly two years since then, reserve accounts at the Bank of Japan have risen nearly six-fold, from Ą5 trillion in March 2001 to about Ą28 trillion today. In addition, since March 2001 the Bank of Japan has increased the monthly amount of its outright purchases of long-term government bonds from Ą400 billion to Ą1.2 trillion. I assume that these monetary policy actions have provided some support for economic activity. However, the Japanese economy appears not to have returned to a path of sustainable growth for several reasons, some of which may require responses by entities other than the Bank of Japan.
First, the Bank of Japan introduced quantitative easing only after prices were already on a sustained downward trajectory; perhaps, even then, efforts were not aggressive enough, given entrenched deflationary expectations. Since early 1995, consumer price inflation has been around or below zero, and by March 2001, prices were declining at nearly 1 percent per year.1 According to surveys of private economists and further evidenced by very low interest rates on long-term Japanese government bonds, deflation had clearly become embedded in expectations.
Second, the stimulus provided by monetary policy in Japan continues to be damped by well-recognized problems in Japan's banking sector. Factors such as low profitability and insufficient actions to restore the banking sector's health have combined to erode banks' capital base. Because I believe strongly in capital levels that fully reflect differing categories of risk, I think that the recent strengthening of auditing rules for evaluating the use of deferred tax assets as bank capital is a step in the right direction. However, insufficient capital continues to plague the banking sector, and without the cushion of a strong capital base, banks give evidence of remaining extremely risk averse. Commercial bank lending has thus continued to decline, while banks' holdings of less risky long-term government bonds have soared. Because banks play an even more crucial role in Japan's financial system than in other industrialized countries, problems in its banking sector are particularly damaging to the transmission of monetary policy and to the economy more generally.
Finally, demand for business and consumer credit in Japan is weak according to the results of various surveys. In a deteriorating economic environment, businesses as well as banks appear to have pulled back from risk-taking. As evidenced by very low long-term interest rates, expectations of future economic growth seem bleak. Capital-output ratios are still high, returns on assets are low, corporate profits are poor, and the economic outlook is fraught with uncertainty. It is not surprising then that firms are not borrowing to finance new investment. Rather, observers argue that much bank lending will keep ailing and inefficient firms afloat and further crowd the field against the dynamic, innovative enterprises needed to fuel sustained expansion. Japan appears to have become a society in which economic agents--banks, insurance companies, corporations, and households--have lost their appetite for risk. This risk aversion has hurt Japan's economic performance, since risk-taking is critical to growth in a market economy.
These crucial factors have limited the effectiveness of both conventional and unconventional monetary policy measures in Japan. In the United States, economic and financial fundamentals are much sounder than those prevailing in Japan when the Bank of Japan started to implement unconventional measures. The available evidence suggests that the U.S. real economy is currently stronger, better balanced, more productive and more dynamic than the Japanese economy was at a comparable period. The economy's ability to weather the adverse shocks of recent years reflects flexible and efficient markets for labor and capital and dramatic gains in information technology, which have markedly improved the ability of businesses to address incipient economic imbalances before they inflict significant damage.
To be sure, considerable uncertainty attends the near-term outlook for the U.S. economy, and recent readings on production and employment have been disappointing. However, a balanced assessment would also take into consideration the fact that the reduction in Iraq-related uncertainties and some recent positive news regarding corporate earnings have caused the tenor of financial markets to improve noticeably: Equity prices have risen, risk premiums of corporate debt have fallen, crude oil prices have declined sharply, and consumer confidence has rebounded since the early spring. Whether this improvement in overall financial conditions is a precursor to sustained recovery in the broader economy is unclear. Fortunately, for the longer term, productivity growth in the United States has remained remarkably robust. Rapid growth of output per hour boosts expectations of future advances in wages and profits, leading eventually to higher aggregate demand.
Another key difference between the two countries is that the U.S. financial system continues to function smoothly. Domestic commercial banks are very profitable overall and are well capitalized, and bank regulators have shown a willingness to move quickly to address problems. In contrast, Japanese banks remain saddled with a significant volume of nonperforming loans. Accordingly, the process of financial intermediation through banks has been constricted, hampering the Bank of Japan's attempts to increase liquidity and to stimulate the flow of credit.
On a related point, the existence of highly developed and integrated U.S. financial markets means that the proportion of financing flows intermediated by the banking system in the United States is considerably smaller than in Japan's bank-centered financial system. As a result, the transmission of monetary policy in the United States operates through multiple and complementary channels. Japan's dependence on the banking system, a system that has largely ceased to function, represents a further constraint on the transmission of monetary policy in that country. Thus, it seems appropriate for Japan to continue its efforts to develop deeper and more liquid capital markets.
Demand for business and consumer credit in the United States is stronger than in Japan, and corporate balance sheets are in better shape. The continued rapid pace of technological innovation is likely to create expanding opportunities for profitable investment and thereby strengthen further the demand for credit. Although business spending on fixed capital has yet to stage a convincing comeback, firms eventually will have to increase such outlays, given the relatively high rates of depreciation on certain types of capital.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, by the time the Bank of Japan implemented the quantitative easing framework in March 2001, yields on long-term government securities had already reached a very low level. In the United States today, by contrast, the relatively steep Treasury yield curve affords greater scope for reducing longer-term interest rates.
In conclusion, the risk of deflation, a decline in the general price level, appears remote in the United States. Although the near-term outlook is uncertain, the fundamentals are sound. Furthermore, I am confident that, in the unlikely event a harmful deflation emerges in the United States and the Federal Reserve needs to turn to a broader range of monetary policies, such tools will be effective in boosting aggregate demand and putting the economy back on track to sustainable growth.
We at the Federal Reserve have been able to glean much from the Bank of Japan's experience with monetary policy at the zero bound. In particular, the Bank of Japan's implementation of many innovative policy measures has enhanced our understanding of the monetary transmission mechanism in a low-inflation environment, a valuable ingredient in monetary policy decisionmaking today. For that reason, I am pleased to have had this opportunity to address the Japan Society today.
1. Measured inflation, even after adjustment for the hike in the value-added tax in 1997, showed small positive rates during 1996 and 1997. But changes in the consumer price index are widely considered to be biased upward, suggesting that true inflation probably remained negative.Return to text