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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2013.
Whole Foods: The Way Forward for Capitalism?
By Shlomo Maital
John Mackey is co-chief executive officer and co-founder of a great company called Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods was founded 32 years ago, and today has a market cap of $18 b., with a market-leading position in the retailing of organic and health foods in the U.S. The gross margin of 35 per cent is unheard of in this line of business. So when Mackey speaks, we should listen. And he has now spoken, in his new book Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business.
The book is reviewed by Luke Johnson in the Financial Times. Johnson recalls that Mackey was investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission for "anonymous posting on bulletin boards").
What are the key points in the book? Small government, free markets are great, unions aren't, Hayek and von Mises are heroes. But, don't give up yet.
Mackey says that "happier and better-trained staffs are more productive". No surprise there. "A constructive corporate culture helps generate innovation and growth". Hmmm. "A pay ratio of no more than 19 between top and bottom is wise." Question is, bottom of what? The management pay scale? The cleaning staff? Mackey's pay is irrelevant, since he owns billions of dollars worth of stock.
Everyone knows we need to re-evaluate capitalism. But few capitalists have tried. So kudos to Mackey for trying. But apparently, he offers little that is original or deep. In a book review in The Huffington Post, the reviewer notes:
Surprisingly, the book ignores two specific actions by Whole Foods that demonstrate how a company can do good with its market power. Last year, Whole Foods removed Scharffen Berger chocolate from its shelves following concerns about child labor in its supply chain. The move prompted Hershey's, which owns Scharffen Berger, to commit to third-party audits of 100 percent of its farms. In 2008, Whole Foods partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to address exploitation of tomato pickers in Florida.
No, Conscious Capitalism is not the way forward for capitalism. We're still waiting for a really thoughtful capitalist to innovate the way free markets work.
Store Your Data in DNA: Cool, or What?
By Shlomo Maital
Science magazine reports that Harvard scientists, led by Prof. George Church, have managed to store information in DNA. This could well help solve the difficult problem of how to store the exponentially growing mass of information, that doubles every few years. Silicon just won't do the job in a few years.
How does this work? Computer code converts information into binary 0,1 code. Then a computer program converts the 0's and 1's into DNA letters A, C, G and T. Those correspond to the four chemical bases that make up DNA. (See diagram: the double helix). A machine then uses the A,C,G,T information to make DNA (it looks like a speck of dust – very very small). Then the DNA goes into a DNA sequencing machine, the kind that Craig Venter and his Genome project helped develop. The sequencing machine reads back the DNA fragments as the letters A,C,G and T. Finally, a computer translates the A,C,G and T letters back into 0,1 code (binary) – and presto, the data is recovered and restored.
According to the Wall St. Journal, which reported the breakthrough, a cupful of DNA could store 100 million hours of video, and it could last for thousands of years.
Right now, the process is expensive. But it will become cheaper. Perhaps one day, Harry (biology) really will meet, and mate with, Sally (physics), for the benefit of humanity. Perhaps one day, our pet salamander will actually store the family's financial data in its liver. Well, perhaps not – if the cat eats it, there goes our wealth.
Eternal Life – It's Possible! Ask the Medusa!
By Shlomo Maital
An article in the New York Times (Nov. 28/2012) * describes sea creatures, like one form of jellyfish, or Medusa, that have learned an amazing secret, one currently far beyond humans: Eternal life. Scientists studying these creatures could one day unlock the secret, so that we humans too could live forever. But – would we want to?
Here is the crux of the article:
A German marine-biology student named Gerhard Sommer went snorkeling in the turquoise water off the cliffs of Portofino each morning. Among the hundreds of organisms he collected was a tiny, relatively obscure species known to biologists as Turritopsis dohrnii. Today it is more commonly known as the immortal jellyfish.
Sommer kept his hydrozoans in petri dishes and observed their reproduction habits. After several days he noticed that his Turritopsis dohrnii was behaving in a very peculiar manner, for which he could hypothesize no earthly explanation. Plainly speaking, it refused to die. It appeared to age in reverse, growing younger and younger until it reached its earliest stage of development, at which point it began its life cycle anew. in 1996 a group of scientists published a paper called "Reversing the Life Cycle." The scientists described how the species — at any stage of its development — could transform itself back to a polyp, the organism's earliest stage of life, "thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality." This finding appeared to debunk the most fundamental law of the natural world — you are born, and then you die.
Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story about the baby born old who then grew younger, made into a movie in 2008 with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)? Could it yet come true? Some hydrozoans (highly primitive creatures, with no eyes, no head) are mainly stem cells that rejuvenate continually. With stem cells, could we reach, say, 70 (my current age), and then, rejuvenate, reverse the aging process and become, say, 25 (the age my wife and I married)?
The scientists working on this topic, including a Japanese expert named Shin Kubota, who works in Shirahama, a beach resort town four hours south of Kyoto, Japan, are dubious. Kubota thinks human culture and emotions are not yet ready for immortality. I agree.
And it poses a problem for religion. If we are asked to behave well in order to go to heaven, well, what if you never go to heaven? And if you are told that believing in an Eternal Spirit will give us eternal life, what if you get eternal life anyway? Food for thought.
So – would YOU like to live forever? Under what conditions?
* Nathaniel Rich. "Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?" New York Times Magazine, Nov. 28, 2012.
Choosing a Mate? Trust Your Gut…Trust Me!
By Shlomo Maital
Few personal decisions rival in importance our choice of a mate. And few decisions are as random. At an age when hormones rage, we date a few times and then pick a mate, hoping for the best. If it doesn't work out too well, we try again.
What do we know about this process that can possibly help young people make better mating decisions? With divorce rates very high in most countries, this is definitely a problem.
Now comes research by a team from UCLA, showing what I've believed for a long time (and written about before in this blog). * Listen to your gut! When choosing a mate, listen to your intuition, your inner voice, If it tells you, No!, tell your hormones to sit down and shut up.
Justin Lavner and colleagues asked 464 recently married spouses whether "they had ever been uncertain about getting married" and then compared 4-year divorce rates and marital satisfaction trajectories among those partners with and without premarital doubts. Doubts were reported by at least one partner in two thirds of couples. Women with premarital doubts had significantly higher 4-year divorce rates, even when controlling for many or all other factors. Among intact couples, "doubts predicted less satisfied marital trajectories". They conclude: "Valid [in your gut] precursors of marital distress are evident during couples' engagement".
In all decisions, not just choosing a mate, we should try to listen carefully to our inner voices. When our hormones are jamming the airwaves with urgent 'yes' messages, it's often tough to hear that whispered intuitive 'no'. It works both ways. A whispered 'yes' may be hard to hear, too. Let's treat our guts as more than a place where food is processed. Let's try to listen.
* Justin A. Lavner, Benjamin R. karney and Thomas N. Bradbury. "Do Cold Feet Warn of Trouble Ahead? Premarital Uncertainty and Four-year Marital Outcomes". Journal of Family Psychology, 26 (6), 2012, 1012-1017.
You Are What You Believe – So, Believe You Can Change & Grow
By Shlomo Maital
Carol Dweck is a Stanford Univ. psychologist who has an important message for us all, with evidence to back it up. * Here is her finding, in her words:
"It matters whether people believe that their core qualities are fixed by nature (fixed mindset) or whether they believe that their qualities can be developed (growth mindset). …An emphasis on growth not only increases intellectual achievement but can also advance conflict resolution between long-standing adversaries."
Who we are is not built in, Dweck says, and shows. "The hallmark of human nature is each person's great capacity to adapt, to change, and to grow….according to the world you find yourself in."
She uses a principle by social psychologist Karl Lewin (the proof of a theory is not data but whether you use it successfully to create change), to show that 'teaching a growth mindset to students can boost their motivation and achievement…and can help prevent negative stereotypes from undermining achievement".
What this means for you and for me is this. If we believe we are fixed, and cannot change, then we are. Because we will never seek to use our potential to change and grow. But if we believe we can change and grow, if that is our mindset, then we can, because the belief itself can spur us to do difficult things that in the end pay off.
Dweck has used her Mindset principle to change tough embedded bitter stereotypes between Israelis and Palestinians. I find this very hopeful. Tomorrow Israel holds national elections. Every poll predicts a right-wing victory. This bodes ill for our future. Those on the right of the political spectrum have, in my view, a fixed mindset. The 'bad guys' in their eyes will remain bad forever. We are all the 'good guys' and always will be, no matter what we do. Those on the center and left, have a growth mindset. How can we either migrate voters toward the center and left, or somehow, induce a growth mindset in those tough stubborn aggressive and sometimes hate-filled rightwingers?
* Carol Dweck. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential. Ballantine Books; (December 26, 2007). And "Mindset and Human Nature: Promoting change in the Middle east, the Schoolyard, the Racial Divide and Willpower". American Psychologist, Nov. 2012, p. 614-622.
What We Can Take Home From Jerry Seinfeld—Apart From Laughter
By Shlomo Maital
A recent New York Times magazine article profiles Jerry Seinfeld, star of the long-running Seinfeld TV show. Seinfeld will be 59 next April. His sitcom Seinfeld ran for 9 years; he co-wrote it with comic Larry David. Seinfeld basically invented, and in fact nearly owns, a brand of comedy known as observational humor, focusing on personal relationships and uncomfortable social obligations. If you do a Google search on "Seinfeld quotes", you'll come up with hugely funny lines from Seinfeld in a wide variety of social situations; here are just a few — The Visa, The Pothole , The Wink , The Deal , The Ticket , The Ex-Girlfriend , The Parking Spot , The Abstinence , The Heart Attack , The Baby Shower , The Stranded , The Cheever Letters , The Watch , The Note , The Pen , The Cadillac …the list is endless.
According to The New York Times, Seinfeld is worth $800 m. ! Syndication fees for Seinfeld are enormous and will go on forever. They are profitable, because once you make the show, there are no more expenses…you simply cash the checks and clip the coupons. Seinfeld has a huge collection of Porsche's, several dozen, and he lives in a sumptuous New York dwelling right off Central Park. He has a wife and three children.
So – what does Seinfeld do with his time? And what can we learn from him?
He writes stand-up scripts and jokes, catalogs them, polishes them, endlessly revises them, and then goes often unannounced to bars (like Gotham), where he tries out his routines for 20 minutes or so. He does them, prior to taking his road show out around the whole U.S., to play in front of huge audiences of 3,000 or more. Sometimes the audiences laugh. Sometimes they don't.
Why in the world does he do this? Because, well, Seinfeld is a stand-up comedian, that is what he does, he does situation or observational comedy, and he does it because he loves it, he truly loves doing it, he did it from an early age, and because his father Kalman, who fought as a U.S. soldier in the Pacific, used to tell jokes as a way of keeping his sanity during a bitter war. Seinfeld is the polar opposite of Woody Allen. Allen made a fortune out of his neuroses. ("I'm not afraid of dying, I just don't want to be there when it happens."). Seinfeld made a fortune out of his normality – out of the normal relationships he had with Elaine, with Kramer, and others, that were entirely normal and immensely funny, because all of us have had similar encounters.
What I learn from Jerry Seinfeld is really simple and clear. Find what it is you are meant to do on this Earth. Do it with excellence and with passion. (Seinfeld writes out every routine he does, even the shortest, files it, catalogs it, and analyzes it; he is brutally honest with himself.). Keep doing it as long as you can, even when you don't have to do it any more. But if you're doing something you're tired of, even if you're good at it, if you're just going through the motions, then quit. Quit now! Try something else. Because you're wasting your time. And time is the most precious resource any of us own.
By the way, Seinfeld does not accept the standard view that Seinfeld was about "nothing". "I don't think the subjects in Seinfeld were trivial," he says. And I agree. How we relate to others is not trivial. It is not nothing, it is everything, and it is universal. The essence of comedy lies in everyday situations perceived in a different way. Count on Jerry Seinfeld to see things in a different way. Like the way he sees the dog Farfel. Elaine: "Dogs taken to the pound are put to sleep, when nobody claims them. It's a shame." Seinfeld: (looking at Farfel): "How late are they open?".
Innovation is Stagnating. Does Anyone Care?
By Shlomo Maital
A faithful reader has alerted me to a blog by Reena Jana in Smart Planet * , who cites a cover article in The Economist, which argues something I've felt for a long time: Innovation is stagnating. What we call innovation today is very incremental, minor, tweaks of existing things. There are several reasons. First, perhaps we've already invented all of the really life-changing devices (TV, stoves, computers, toilets). Second, maybe true breakthroughs like electricity are simply hard acts to follow. Notes Jana:
Compare the experiences of cooking at home in 1900 versus 1970: it's a difference of using ice blocks delivered by horse-drawn carriages versus a fridge and freezer. Planes and cars are pretty much the same as they were nearly half a century ago. But we can update our statuses on Facebook.
The Economist cites a paper by veteran economist Robert Gordon, who is still turning out wonderful insightful research. Gordon wonders whether US economic growth is actually over? (See Figure below).
This is based on pessimism over the lack of breakthrough innovations that in the past contributed greatly to GDP growth, first in Britain during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions, and then in the U.S., in what we may regard as the Third Industrial Revolution.
My own pessimism is fueled by experiences working with students and managers all over the world. Working in large organizations, they frequently become frustrated when their ideas are simply not even heard. The number of organizations that pay lip service to innovation, yet do everything possible to destroy it internally is staggering. Until we smash the internal contradiction between the aspiration for economies of scale, and the destruction scale wreaks on creativity, we will see no breakthrough innovations.
* http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/is-innovation-stagnating/10517
Crabs Say Ouch! Let's End the Cruelty
By Shlomo Maital
All over the world, restaurants dump live lobsters into boiling water and tear claws off live crabs. So? They're just crustaceans. They can't feel anything, right? They're like..well, stones.
You may have suspected for years that living things DO feel pain. But the question is, how do you prove it? According to the BBC World Service's excellent program Science in Action, a scholar at Queen's U., Belfast, Ireland, named Bob Elwood has indeed shown that crabs feel pain. It results from a chance encounter between Elwood and a top chef, Rick Stein, who asked Elwood about whether crabs feel pain. Here is how Elwood proved it. His study was peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Ninety crabs were put individually in a tank with two dark shelters and some were given electric shocks after they chose one. This process was repeated and by the third time most shocked crabs went to the alternative safe shelter. "Having experienced two rounds of shocks the crabs learned to avoid the shelter where they received the shock," Professor Elwood said. "They were willing to give up their hideaway in order to avoid the source of their probable pain."
The mild shock of 10 volts was sufficiently aversive for crabs to make them avoid a safe shelter. Crab psychology is such that a safe shelter is worth, well, its weight in gold. So if a mild 10 volt shock is aversive enough to change crab behavior, what would tearing off the crabs' limbs feel like?
There is a simple point here. We should respect all living creatures, even crustaceans. We should not cause them pain, because there is a thin line between hurting creatures and hurting humans. The Indian religious sect Jain obsessively avoids hurting any creature, even ants, and some Jains sweep in front of them with broom to avoid stepping on insects. We don't have to go that far. But how can you enjoy a gourmet meal when it comes at a price of causing a living thing pain, perhaps extreme pain? Especially when it is not necessary.
Never Do Today What You Can Do Tomorrow:
Why Procrastination Is Highly Efficient
By Shlomo Maital
Are you a procrastinator? Do you try to put off to tomorrow (or next year) what should be done today? I am. I think this is connected to my advocacy of wasting time, and creating empty do-nothing time. Procrastination helps a lot.
Now comes psychological evidence that we putter-offers are actually efficient.
Today's Health and Science column in the NYT by John Tierney cites a 2011 book (should have been published in 2009 but the author put it off) by Univ. of Calgary psychologist Piers Steel, "The Procrastination Equation". He surveyed more than 24,000 people around the world, and found that 95 per cent confess to at least some procrastination! This is five times the rate in the 1970s. Why has procrastination grown? Because, clearly, modern living has created so many more burdensome things to do. Also, Steel says workplace flexibility is responsible – workers spend a fourth of the day procrastinating, because they can, and students spend a third of the day putting things off. Men (this is SO so obvious) are far greater procrastinators than women, especially young men.
So, why is procrastination a good thing? Simple. It's the humorist Robert Benchley's principle: "anyone can do any amount of work…provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment." This is very subtle. In other words – to avoid work we don't want to do, we do some other work. And therefore, because that OTHER work is often highly productive, procrastination as a strategy works fantastically.
So, the recipe? Find something you simply do NOT NOT want to do right now. Then, find something to do, so that you do not HAVE to do that onerous job. And always always have the procrastination job or task uppermost in your mind. It will keep you busy doing other stuff, good stuff, so you don't have to do the bad stuff.
Manipulative? Sure. Most good strategies for getting things done manipulate are inner base motives. It's internal psychological gamesmanship – me against me.
By the way, I should have written this blog earlier – but I put it off.
By Shlomo Maital
Who is Eldar Shafir? He is in the Psychology Department at Princeton University. At once, we think, well, 'an intellectual, egghead, I doubt his research has any meaning for ordinary people and ordinary lives'. Right? Wrong. Writing in the New York Times, columnist David Brooks cites Shafir's recent book on the behavioral foundations of public policy, and shows how very relevant Shafir's research is.
I discovered his 2010 research paper written with Roby LeBoeuf and Julia Bayuk, "The conflicting choices of alternating selves". (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2010). I found it fascinating. Here is the central core message.
In an experiment, people were asked to make choices. Each time, the relevant identity of the person was identified and changed, or shifted (e.g., student, family member, culture). "The preferences that participants expressed depended on the identity that happened to be relevant at the moment of choice." Each identity could lead to a different preference. Moreover, post-decision regret was much stronger, when the person's identity after a choice was different from the one when the choice was made.
In other words, the answer to 'who do you think you are?' influences strongly our decisions, and later, whether we think those decisions were the right ones.
Here is an example. A man decides not to agree to a divorce, because, as a professional economist, he realizes how tremendously costly and financially damaging a divorce is. Later, as a spouse, he looks back and thinks how bad a decision that was, because he is desperately unhappy with his spouse.
Shafir used experimental manipulation of identity, by giving college students short paragraphs, such as "College is about much more than getting A's, it's about stretching your mind…", etc., to elicit the scholarly identity, and "College is about much more than what you learn, it's about finding out who you are, spending time with friends…" to elicit the social identity. Student choices of book gift certificates, highlighters, Shakespearean plays, opera, etc., were strongly influenced by the identity emphasized before the choice was made.
What follows from this phenomenon Shafir identifies? When you make key decisions or choices, begin by asking, who am I? From what salient perspective am I choosing? Professional? Cultural? Ethnic? Political? "Try on", like a sweater or jacket, each decision, for each of these identities. In today's modern life, we all have multiple identities. I myself am an economist, father, spouse, grandfather, jogger, writer, and brother. It is very important to know, "who am I?", when you decide or choose. It is very important as well to know, which of the "who am I?" identities is most relevant for the particular decision or choice I am about to make.


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| 12.9°C Dublin
The purchase of a new greenfield site for the Wexford Campus of Carlow IT is 'imminent' according to college management as the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton announced his approval for the project in the Dáil.
Carlow IT has not yet publicly disclosed the location of the site but it is understood to be a 35-acre plot of land opposite Wexford Racecourse on the Newtown Road where a new purpose-built college campus will be developed.
Pricing and contracts have been agreed by the Institute of Technology for the purchase of the land and the sale is proceeding through the legal process, a college spokesperson has confirmed. 'The Institute has been assured that the final sign-off by the vendor is imminent', she said.
'Procurement of the new greenfield site is the first phase in a significant and long-term strategic plan for Wexford Campus which includes a seven phase long-term capital investment programme in Wexford', the spokesperson added.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) gave Carlow IT permission in 2015 to acquire a site in a prime location in Wexford after the college carried out a review of accommodation options and made a convincing case to the Department of Education and Skills and the HEA for a new purpose-built campus which will replace existing buildings in use at both St. Peter's College and the old County Hall in Spawell Road.
'A new customised campus located on a prime site in County Wexford is a much-needed development and would greatly enable the development of the Wexford Campus in terms of the breadth and depth of higher education provision necessary to respond to the variety of challenges identified for County Wexford and the South East region', said the Wexford Campus spokesperson.
'Ultimately, investment in the necessary physical infrastructure for higher education provision in Couny Wexford will accelerate the realisation of the multi-campus Technological University for the South East region and this is the priority for the region and the Institute of Technology Carlow,' she added.
The Wexford Campus was established by IT Carlow in 1995 to respond to the educational needs of County Wexford and the South East region.
It has grown rapidly in the intervening years in terms of student numbers, the range of courses offered and the national and international collaborations organised in the private and public sectors.
Over 250 graduates from the Wexford Campus are conferred every year with higher education awards up to honours degree and masters degree level in Business, Computing, Technology. Arts and Humanities.
According to the college, the Wexford Campus is now an inegral part of IT Carlow's ambitiouis vision for higher education in the South East and the development of a multi-campus Technological University in partnership with Waterford Institute of Technology.
Meanwhile, in the Dail last week, the Minister for Education Richard Bruton said he is supportive of the acquisition by Carlow IT of a site in Wexford for the development of a purpose-built campus and added that funding had been allocated for the land purchase. The funding level is believed to be in the region of €2 million.
Minister Bruton was responding to a parliamentary question by the Wexford Fianna Fail TD James Browne who asked if the planned national capital investment projects in institutes of technology will examine the creation of a south eastern university using Carlow, Wexford and Waterford campuses.
Deputy Bruton said the Technological University for the South-East consortium comprising WIT and IT Carlow has already been given €0.57 million for project development.E
Earlier this year, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) made a call seeking submissions for funding from consortia with €6 million in finance available including €4 million which was ring-fenced for the development of technological universities in Budget 2017. Additional funding for the development of technological universities has also been secured in Budget 2018.
Last month, the Minister unveiled a capital investment programme in Institutes of Technology, to be delivered by Public Private Partnership (PPP). He said he was pleased to announce that major new buildings in both WIT and IT Carlkow will be included in this programme.
The WIT proposal relates to the construction of a new engineering, computing and general teaching building while the IT Carlow proposal involves the construction of a new science building.
Minister Bruton told Deputy Browne he was confident that the new buildings will greatly enhance the physical infrastructure available to the institutions in areas of key skills needs and will support their joint bid for Technological University designation.
Wexford People

subset: commoncrawl


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Deep breath...they are all done. That's right, all the custom orders that had been bogging me down are now complete packed and ready to go off with the mail. This sweet relief gave me a small window to knit again. It was like turning off my brain. I don't do it much now, but there was a time when I was always knitting. My hands can take care of all but the most complex patterns without so much as nudging my brain. I got to the point in the scarf/wrap pattern where I start dropping stitches. It's one of those things that no matter how many time you've done it on purpose, it still feels like you're doing something a bit wrong, but as the pattern starts to slowly emerge, I'm getting excited to see the final piece.
I will stop with the knitting today in exchange for getting some of my pieces off the custom list and put on the ready to ship one. I certainly don't mind having a couple of things sitting there, but I think I've got over half a dozen right now and with the run that was all of them in a row, the prudent thing would be to get more of them ready to go. I did have one more custom request sitting around, a face veil, but I think I'm gonna pass on that one. I think that it might be possible, but I really not sure that tatting is the way to go with something that should have nice drape, you know? I'm going to leave it short today and get back to work now.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Done...For Now
Posted by TotusMel at 6:06 AM
Labels: custom orders, etsy, knitting, needle tatting, selling, totusmel
2 comments:
- Anightgirl said...
I agree about the veil. At most a thin mesh veil with tatted pieces for decoration might look cool, but I can't imagine a whole veil of tatting.
- June 24, 2009 at 6:43 AM
- . c h o k l i t . said...
I had some custom orders, after Maker Faire, too - and boy did they stress me out! But I got them done on time. I actually do have two right now but they're little easy ones, dandy garters. Where does my time go?
- June 24, 2009 at 2:49 PM
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Hereford Rustic Oak Large Wide 3 over 4 Drawer Chest of Drawers
This Hereford rustic oak range will suit anyone looking for chunky oak furniture that is rustic and traditional in design. Not only is it beautiful to look at, it is backed up by its premium quality, chunky frame design and 40mm thick oak tops with softly rounded corners. It will fit well in most home decors from modern new build homes to more traditional country homes. It's a very versatile and functional range in design and its pieces provide large storage space due to the deep drawers.
This Hereford rustic oak chest is supplied with traditional antique style bronze metal drop handles on the drawers that perfectly contrast with the warm oak colour and styling.
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Corona Virus Delivery Information - We Are Still Delivering!
We are still making home deliveries but under new temporary restrictions as stated below.
- Until the 17th June all deliveries will be a One Man Delivery service only using a trolley to carry the furniture to the entrance of your home (please advise us of any access restrictions and ensure you have provisions in place to be able to move the furniture to your required room).
- Social Distancing Rules Apply - For the safety of yourselves and our delivery team please ensure you stay 2m apart whilst your delivery takes place.
- Contactless delivery will be made - Photographic proof of delivery will be taken (no need to sign any paperwork).
- Drivers will ensure safety standards are adhered to at all times including, gloves, face masks and hand sanitising before deliveries take place.
- 2 Man Delivery service to room of choice will resume from the 17th June - If you would like your furniture carrying to a room of your choice then please book in your delivery on any available date from the 17th June.
- Assembly Services will resume from the 17th June - If you would like upgrade to our 'Unpack & Assembly' service then please call us on 01829 759 259 and we can add this service to your order for a small fee. Currently it is not possible to add this assembly service to your order when placing an online order, this function will be available from the 17th June when we resume with our normal delivery service offering.
If you have any special delivery requirements or are self-isolating then please let us know when we book in your delivery with you.
Public Health England (PHE) has also advised that people receiving parcels/boxes are not at risk of contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19). It is understood that these types of viruses don't survive long on objects such as cardboard boxes.
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I'd like to spend : £ Total Monthly
|Total Amount
- Hereford Rustic Oak 2 over 3 Drawer Tall Chest of DrawersBest Price : £329.00
- Hereford Rustic Oak Triple 3 Door 2 Drawer WardrobeBest Price : £649.00
- Hereford Rustic Oak 5ft King Size Slatted BedBest Price : £349.00
- Rustic Oak Large Wide 7 Drawer 3 over 4 Chest of DrawersBest Price : £369.00
- Hereford Rustic Oak 3 Drawer Bedside TableSpecial Price Best Price : £125.00


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Adding custom HTTP Headers is straight-forward; the Headers inspector at the bottom of the XML editor allows for this:
Here we've add a custom Content-Type header which will override the standard Content-Type used for the SOAP Request ("text/xml; charset=utf-8"). Sending the request and looking the Raw Request Viewer reveals
You can of course add as many desired headers as required, and their value can contain property expansions as usual.
The corresponding Headers tab for the response message not surprisingly shows all HTTP Headers in the response:
No one knows APIs better than SmartBear. Find out what our Pro version of SoapUI can do to improve your testing.


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A study says yoga is an effective tool for astronauts to fight spinal stiffness. As astronauts go for extensive missions in space, they can suffer from stiffness. As per the research, the Yoga technique can help to reduce the mobility issues.
The experts say, space travel may lead to atrophy of the muscles supporting the spine. The scientists suggested that the issues do not return to normal even several weeks after their return to the Earth. As per the research by the muscle atrophy, Astronauts' space travel provides back pain and spinal disc diseases.
The study was conducted under the guidance of NASA's scientists on the international Space Station. For the research, the scientists choose six NASA crew members, who were studied before and after spending four to seven months in "microgravity" conditions. The scientists were aimed to know factors affecting lumbar spine strength and low back pain during long-duration spaceflight. Additionally, the researchers were aiming to understand the spine's response after Astronauts returning to the Earth gravity.


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Chew Peng, Jesse, Clare and Jared arrived after lunch. We chat for a while and then took them to Bellagio followed by Korean BBQ!
Mom and Lione arrived late the same night, we took them to Monta for supper.
There are so many people at home now, we do not have enough room to accommodate all, so I have to turn my craft room into a temporarily guest room.
Clare loves this room now! LOL!
Look, she already spoiled her with lots of toys.
Mom made her famous dumplings and DH like it a lot!
it was a fun-filled day full of activities, I am tired but have to pack my bags for tomorrow as my sister, mom, Jesse and I will be leaving for San Francisco!
Thanks for stopping by, more December Project Life coming soon!


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For John, BLUF: Not unreasonable, considering it is Illinois and the President broke some previous barriers. Nothing to see here; just move along.
This is from NBC Chicago and Reporter Shelby Bremer.
No offices will shut down, but his adoptive state is recognizing the 44th President.
This idea was launched by State Senator Emil Jones III, the son of former the former State Senate President of the same name, who was an early supporter of President Obama.
To provide some prospective,
"Barack Obama Day" joins other commemorative holidays like Adlai Stevenson Day, Ronald Reagan Day and Jane Addams Day, for which workplaces do not close.Remember, 4 August 2018, and every year thereafter.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff


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Marquise Walker, one of the top sophomore guards in Illinois, has transferred to Curie.
Walker announced the move via Twitter on Friday, March 10. He spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at St. Joseph.
Glad to be finally be a Curie Condor 💸🔴🔵
— Marquise Walker (@_therealquise) March 10, 2017
Walker currently has scholarship offers from Illinois, DePaul and UIC.
Curie was already poised to be one of the top teams in the Public League next season, especially with junior forwards Tyree Martin and Treavon Martin both slated to return. Walker's presence figures to raise the Condors' ceiling even higher.


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Thursday is GURPSDay and September is upon us.
Welcome to the second year of GURPSDay, and here's the pull for this week.
We're currently drawing content from 89 blogs. Only 11 more to go until we're pulling from 100! But we'll need your help.
How? Two action items: post more, recruit more. It's really that simple. More posters is more posts, and more interest in GURPS.
Below you can find the blog activity for the last week. There's a whole lotta awesome GURPS going on. Read all the posts.
Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific! The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.
As always, if you're interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line. Take special note of the RSS Settings Fix if you're on WordPress.
Code by Clockwork (Jeff Demers)
Dr. Kromm's GURPS Livejournal ("Sean ""Dr. Kromm"" Punch")
- Another week in the life of GURPS (9/01/17)
Improvised Radio Theatre – With Dice (RogerBW)
- Chunky Policeman Kibble (9/01/17)
Olympus RPG Group (The Olympus RPG Group)
- GURPS: Traveller, "The New Deal" Session 3.12 (9/03/17) – Continuing our ongoing GURPS: Traveller campaign. Escaping Corfu planetside, the Crew return to the Aimless Pilgrim and seek out in-system coordinates identified by Lorain Messandi. This leads them to discovering a stargate that takes them … somewhere else.
Dark Paths and Wandered Roads (Jason Woollard)
- Sundered Lands 38 (9/01/17) – The party figures a way to get out with the loot then sorts and counts it back at the manor. The newest adventures in the Sundered Lands of Palladium, our GURPS: Palladium Fantasy campaign.
Ravens N' Pennies (Christopher R. Rice)
- GURPS101: Alternate Forms as Fake IDs (9/03/17)
- Boil and Bubble: Utility Spells for Sorcery Part I (9/03/17)
Octopus Carnival (Ubiratan Pires Alberton)
Frak Frel and Other F Words (Rigil Kent)
- Clean Slate, Chapter Two Planning (9/05/17) – Looking at this Friday's plan. References made to Action, a little of High Tech and Basic. Some stats but not many.
- GM Commentary for Session 6.01 (9/02/17) – Discussion of the first session of my GURPS: Monster Hunters game from a GM perspective. References made to High Tech, Monster Hunters (duh), Ritual Path Magic, and Basic. This is generally me reflecting on successes and failures.
Game Geekery ("Warren ""Mook"" Wilson")
- Creating "In Defense of House Stark" – Part 2 (9/07/17) – The second part of creating the Game of Thrones-inspired convention one-shot adventure, "In Defense of House Stark." Discusses the final steps of polishing the ideas into table-ready notes, as well as a download link for the entire game package (with GM notes and screen, character pre-gens, tri-fold mini-figures, and more).
PK's Game Recaps and Tidbits (PK Levine)
- GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: The Sorcerer revisited (9/06/17) – A few suggested changes to the sorcerer, a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy template from Pyramid 3/82: Magical Creations.
Just Roll 3d6 (Colin)
- Evaluating DFRPG (9/03/17) – This post wraps up the DFRPG review by evaluating the set as a whole.
- DFRPG Review: Dungeon (9/01/17) – This review looks at the Dungeon volume of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game. It is a mostly spoiler-free review of the included adventure and standalone adventure maps.
Dungeon Fantastic (Peter Dell'Orto)
- Monster Bit Scrap (9/07/17)
- Magic Items pricing in Felltower post-DFRPG (9/06/17)
- The worst part of making new monsters – naming them (9/05/17)
- Over 700 hours of DF (9/04/17)
- Felltower Updates (9/03/17)
- More on DF-to-DFRPG Armor – why not the best of both worlds? (9/01/17)
Libris Ludorum (Nemoricus)
- Psi-Wars: Ruminations on the Anti-Psi Space Knight (9/07/17)
- Psi-Wars: Ruminations on the Basic Space Knight (9/05/17)
- Psi-Wars: Ruminations on Fighter Aces (9/03/17)
Gaming Ballistic (Douglas Cole)
- GURPSDay Summary Sep 1 – Sep 7, 2017 (9/07/17)
- Guest Post: Ritual Path Magic – The Many Faces of Fireball (9/05/17)
Mailanka's Musings (Daniel Dover)
- Philosophy in Psi-Wars: An Introduction (9/06/17)
- Patreon Post: the Results of the Fifth House Poll (Notes) (9/06/17)
- Patreon Post: The House of Alexus: Poll Results (9/05/17)
- State of the Patreon: September 2017; Philosophy and Playtests (9/01/17)
Generic Universal Eggplant (Enraged Eggplant)
- Magic: Earth Spells (9/07/17)
- Sorcery: Essential Earth Spells (9/06/17)
- Sorcery: Yellow Spells II (9/05/17)
- Sorcery: Yellow Spells (9/04/17)
- Sorcery: Ley Line Spells (9/03/17)
- Monster: Chain Devil (Kyton) (9/02/17)
- Magic: City Spells (9/01/17)
MoeLane.com (Moe Lane)
- Western Union (WU) [16/26] [GURPS 4E] (9/06/17)
- Cyborg (Quantum 7). (9/04/17)
Let's GURPS (Pseudonym)


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Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
If you are charged with robbery in the state of Washington, you could face serious penalties. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the robbery, you could face jail time, heavy fines and a permanent criminal record.
First degree robbery is a class A felony, and can be charged when:
Second degree robbery is a class B felony, and can be charged when:
No matter which type of robbery you are being charged with, there are significant punishments that are associated with having robbery charges levied against you. You could be sentenced to:
If you are facing robbery charges in the state of Washington, you need an experienced, professional criminal defense attorney on your team. At Greene & Lloyd, PLLC, we are committed to assisting you through all aspects of your case and will work hard to get the charges against you dismissed or reduced.
Don't let a mistake or an isolated lapse in judgement lead to a robbery conviction that could ruin your life. Call us today to schedule a consultation to discuss your case and learn what options you have available to you to protect your rights and your freedoms.


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Archive for the 'Antitrust Scholarship' Category
The Association of European Competition Law Judges
Lack of recent blogging activity on my side has to do with the complexities of juggling a particularly busy period at work (currently writing from Luxembourg, again) with parenting a little man, half-training for a triathlon next Saturday (this guy tricked me…) and participating at a couple of very interesting, but not so well-timed, conference appearances. It is about the latter that I wanted to write.
On Wednesday I participated as chair/speaker at ERA's workshop on competition law in banking and financial services in Brussels [The slides used by all speakers will be uploaded in this post asap]. As all ERA events, it was most interesting.
But on Friday I had the great privilege of being the guest lawyer (literally) at the conference organized by the Association of European Law Judges, the European Commission and Uppsala University in Sweden (pictured above). It is remarkable, and probably unparalleled in any other field, to see a very large number of judges from practically every Member State and with all sorts of different backgrounds getting together to discuss issues such as, in this occassion, multi-sided markets. As I told them, it is quite refreshing to speak at a gathering where attendees are only interested in an honest discussion about the law (and know that there is life and law beyond two provisions in a Treaty). I explained that, by contrast, many other conferences in our field are two-sided and consist of practitioners paying to be listened to by potential clients and competitors… The judges in Uppsala grasped complex stuff, exchanged ideas and were a genuinely nice group of people. I was so impressed that I thought they deserved a mention here, and so do DG Comp's policy guys, who significantly contribute to making these events possible to the benefit of all of us working in this field. My humble contribution consisted of a tuned-for-judges version of my now stump speech on two-sided markets (my slides are available here: Lamadrid_AECLJ Uppsala
And by the way, in case you haven't noticed, Chillin'Competition is about to reach its first million visits. Pablo and I are have some ideas on how to celebrate it, but suggestions are welcome!
P.S. Happy birthday to Pablo; as a gift, I promise him a couple of upcoming posts on more substantive stuff
The definitive article on two-sided markets, by me
(1) Economic theories on multi-sided markets are now well established and, in fact, earned Prof. Tirole a Nobel Prize earlier this year; (2) Some of the most prominent ongoing cases, including the two concerning Google, go to the heart of antitrust issues in multi-sided settings; (3) In addition, the EU has been said to intend to regulate "platforms" (see here for a piece including some leaked documents). Not that anyone seems to know what a "platform" is exactly (since when is ignorance an impediment to introduce regulation?), but the Commission's leaked documents make it clear "multi-sidedness" is what the Commission (or at least Commissioner Oettinger, a champion of smart regulation in the digital single market –like this?-) has in mind (the docs also refer to specific search engines, social networks, application stores and internet payment gateways as the quintessential examples of platforms in alleged need of regulation).
In my view, in spite of all these developments we lawyers have not yet reflected enough on how the application of competition law should be refined in this context.
As you may remember, I gave my views on the subject at the Swedish Competition Authority's "Pros and Cons conference" (French speakers may think that I was the "con" among the pros, which is probably right….) (the slides are available here).
My speech at this event has now been beefed up and features in the latest issue of the Competition Law Journal, published by Jordan Publishing, at [2015] Comp Law 64; it is available here:
The Double Duality of Two Sided Markets_CLJ_Lamadrid
[The title of the post was perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but since Chillin'Competition is not (yet) a regulated platform, I thought I could use some self-favouring 😉 ]
And on 4 June the European Commission has (at the behest of the UK's CMA) very kindly invited me to talk about these issues in Uppsala at the annual gathering of the European Association of Competition Law Judges; it should be fun. The program for that event is available here: AECLJ Uppsala prov programme
On appointments to the EU Courts, including some (this time real) breaking news
A decent fiction or joke should generally aspire to have some element of truth in it. In our April Fools' day piece on the appointment of Joaquín Almunia as new EU judge there were, at least, a couple of criticisms elements that had a significant link with reality, and there have been recent developments concerning the two of them:
-A first element of reality was contained in the paragraph that said that "[t]he appointment would take place within the timely addition to the Court of 12 more judges, just when the existing ones had managed to clear the backlog".
That news could have been a joke in its own right, but it really wasn't, it was criticism to In fact, a piece published in today's Financial Times "Judges multiply as EU states fail to agree on appointments" (by Duncan Robinson) is devoted to this reality. The piece does well explaining the poor job that Member States do when it comes to Court-related decisions. In a nutshell, after years of the Court asking for additional staff to clear the backlog in the face of a Council that could not take decisions because of national interests at play, it was decided to hire additional référendaires (clerks); between that and the increased productivity of the existing judges the General Court managed to half the time needed to decide cases. And now, when the problem seems to be solved, Member States are doubling the number of judges. The FT reports that some judges are unhappy (I bet). An arguably wrong and certainly extemporaneous decision to remedy their own inaction. Congrats to the Council for once again giving arguments to those who distrust EU institutions (please note the irony).
-A second reason why our hoax piece may have been taken seriously by some related to our references to how politics could play a role in the selection process adopted by the Spanish government despite the new introduction of a new merit-based appointments procedure. This was really feared by some. Concerns, fortunately, seem to have been misplaced, at least for now: Chillin'Competition is proud to be the first to report that the Spanish Government has made an excellent and truly merit-based choice for new Spanish Advocate General in the name of Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona, currently a Supreme Court Judge and formerly, among others, a référendaire at the ECJ. His track record at the Supreme Court, where he dealt, among others, with many competition cases makes him a highly reputed figure in the antitrust community. A great addition to ECJ and very good news for EU law, albeit possibly at the expense of the sound development of competition law in Spain.
On exclusivity under Art. 102 TFEU, and on why I do care about cases – A response to Pablo
Searching for an answer. A few days ago I asked Pablo in public (following some private teasing) whether there is any Article 102 TFEU decision adopted by the Commission that he liked. He tells me he replied with a blog post last week (see here). Perhaps I read it too quickly, because I don't see an answer 🙂 In any event, the fact that he did not identify any case with which he agrees probably means that there is no such thing.
[Intermission: the fact that we are good friends enables us to discuss things in a way which would be much harder to do with other people. This was also the case with Nico back in the day. This, by the way, confirms that having another brilliant academic with views not always coincidental with mine was a great decision for this blog].
This failure to choose is interesting because, in my view at least, the Commission is quite (perhaps too) selective when it comes to picking abuse of dominance cases (that is unless they are predestined to go through the commitment route; it's those that I personally like the least, not the Article 7 ones, which tend to be quite solid).
Law in abstract and Law in casu. The reason Pablo doesn't reply citing specific cases is because he says he "does not see Commission decisions that way" (I can see how people don't have a list of "best" and "worst" decisions, but if anyone had one, it would have been Pablo…). His point is that he doesn't really care about cases, nor about who wins or loses, but about "the way in which the law is shaped and evolves over time".
This is commendable for an academic, but I'm not sure I agree with the implications. In competition law it is cases that shape the law and that drive its evolution, so one can perfectly assess cases in the light of their contribution to the state of the law. If what Pablo means is that he doesn't care what party wins or loses, I can testify that he truly doesn't. If what he means is that cases should not be driven by policy but by the law, then we fully agree. However, I don't see why all of this could mean that there cannot be cases that he likes or dislikes.
The approach of a practitioner is not, or should not be, so different. I only care about the party who wins when the case involves a client of mine. I also take an interest, but one that has nothing to do with the law, when a friend is involved (for disclosure purposes: I have good friends involved in Intel and Post Danmark II). As for the rest of the cases, I have enough with understanding the case-law and how it can relate to my clients' issues, and I am not so concerned about contributing to the evolution of the law in a particular direction (partly because I don't know what side I'll be on in the future, and partly because it would be pretentious on my part: I would rather leave that to those whose jobs is to study cases in the depth they deserve, like the parties to every case, the judge, the clerks, or the academics who may want to contribute to the debate).
In sum, I'm not in the business of trying to influence the evolution of the law (except when paid to do it), and this is what explains that I haven't written about the ongoing debates on exclusivity rebates, Intel and Post Danmark II, that occupy Pablo and others at a time when these important specific cases are pending.
Pablo's whole post is about returning a question to me (never mind that mine wasn't answered!), and to compel me to
spend part of a Sunday morning typing instead of doing better things break my silence; the question is:
Do I believe exclusive dealing should be prohibited absent an objective justification or whether, instead, Article 102 TFEU enforcement should follow the principles set out by the Commission in the Guidance and by the Court in Delimitis?
On the key assumptions underpinning the debate. Pablo's post notes that his (brilliantly written) paper on Intel , everything, exclusive dealing and loyalty rebates focused not on who won or didn't, but on the "key assumption underpinning 35 years of case law".
Discussing key assumptions makes a lot of sense, so let's start from there:
-Unless I'm wrong, the key assumption underpinning 35 years of case law is that in markets characterized by the presence of a dominant company (not the case in Delimitis, mentioned by Pablo), the use of exclusivity inducing arrangements can be deemed prima facie restrictive of competition. I'm familiar with the case law in this regard and actually think that this is sort of intuitive, for exclusivity almost by definition raises barriers to entry and deprives rivals of scale (as Pablo has very well explained in other domains –see here-, EU Courts have been able to implicitly incorporate sound economic insights to their case law). Many of the most reputed competition economists do not seem to question this. I won't bother to conduct research on this point for a blog post, but I happen to have read this Carl Shapiro piece yesterday for a case in which I'm working, and it is quite clear.
– And unless I'm wrong, the key assumption underpinning the critique to that case-law is that "the lessons of experience and economic analysis" (this is the formulation in vogue, also used in Pablo's post, tailored to evocate the Cartes Bancaires Judgment and draw a parallel) undoubtedly show that exclusivity arrangements are more often than not procompetitive, also when carried out by a dominant firm. Leaving aside the fact that experience and economics do not always go hand in hand, there is this widespread assumption that according to economic "science", it is absolutely beyond discussion that the law here is a mess.
Leaving the theoretical economic literature aside (basically because I don't know much about it; query: is there so much conving research on the advantages of exclusivity when carried out by a dominant firm?), I know from my personal experience with companies that exclusivity inducing rebates may –in certain cases- be perfectly justified by reasons other than anticompetitive motive. But I frankly do not know whether these outweigh, in the abstract or in general, the anticompetitive perils associated to these practices when carried out by a dominant player.
Those who have heard my presentation on two-sided markets or that will read my forthcoming Competition Law Journal article on the subject will realize that I'm all for taking into account economic lessons -when they are well established- for the application of the law. I'm simply not fully persuaded that economic research so clearly shows that the current state of affairs in the EU is so manifestly wrong.
Since I am asked, in my view the current state of the law strikes what seems to be a reasonable balance, at least in theory. It may, like almost anything, be debatable, but I fail to see it as the epitome of absurdity:
-In the field of Article 101, the Commission's soft law as well as the case-law (mainly Delimitis, cited by Pablo) explicitly acknowledge the mixed effects that exclusivity agreements may have, and subject them to a balancing test in which the burden of proof rests on the accusing party. No one seems to complain about this.
-In the field of 102, the case-law takes into account that the degree of competition is already lessened by the presence of a company that is, by definition, able to behave independently of competitors and customers (in a way, conducting a strict foreclosure/effects assessment from this starting point risks incurring a variant of the cellophane fallacy, which is what the Court said, in a way, in the heavily criticized para. 245 of Michelin II) and strikes a different balance. This is explicitly explained in para. 89 of the Intel Judgment.
In the 102 domain, precisely because competition is considered to be reduced, restrictive effects are presumed in a first stage, BUT there always remains an open door to show that the practice is not abusive because parties can always show that the arrangement is objectively justified.
This reflects a double assumption that exclusivity always makes life more difficult for the competitors of the dominant company (as explained in para.150 of Intel, the analysis favored by the Court is one of difficulty, not the one of impossibility linked to the as-efficient competitor test set out in the Guidance; this is a crucial point that many overlook and that has to do with how we define foreclosure) and that sometimes exclusivity is part of a procompetitive strategy.
As I hinted in the first comment to Pablo's post on Intel, this is key. If this escape door were not here, I would also take issue with the case-law. But it is, as unequivocally stated in paras. 94 and 173 of the Intel Judgment. In my view, this explicitly acknowledged the economic lesson that in some cases these practices may be procompetitive and hence should not be prohibited. Why is this, legally speaking, a problem? To the extent the presumption can effectively be rebutted, I see no problem to it.
Now, a different debate is whether an "objective justification" defense is a mere chimera or not, and there, I do agree that it should be a real possible defense, not just some nice wording.
In an ideal world, and like I have said more generally with respect to 101, presumptions at the level of establishing the restrictive effect of a given practice should not be so important as they are. Firstly, because if something is so obviously restrictive to be deemed restrictive, then it should not be so difficult to show effects (as, by the way, both the Commission and the General Court were able to do in a few hundred pages in Intel; this, on the other hand, is probably a very good example of why shortcuts may make sense). Secondly, and conversely, because if a practice is so obviously pro-competitive, and if defences (like 101(3) and the objective justification notion) were effectively available, then there would be no obstacle for the practice to be redeemed this way.
On the old debate of form and effects. I have in the past set out very clearly my views on the interface between competition law and competition economics (see here), so I won't repeat myself. Let me just add that when it comes to exclusivity inducing rebates, even people not at all suspect of "ordoliberalism" [one day we should try to clarify here what this means], like Commissioner Josh Wright, are of the view that cost assessments (like the one advocated for in the Guidance Paper) might not be well suited for loyalty discounts, because their essence lies not in price but on exclusivity (see his speech "Simple but Wrong or Complex but More Accurate? The Case for an Exclusive Dealing-Based Approach to Evaluating Loyalty Discounts". On this point, see also the excellent writings of one of our Friday Slotters, Einer Elhauge (see e.g. pages 463-464 of this great one).
"Rules and standards need to be crafted to ensure that they are accurate and administrable" is a phrase that appears at the end of Pablo's post, and that leads me to one final comment. The current situation is, in my view, the one that is easiest to be administered, and, importantly, the one that requires less work from the lawyers, and particularly from the economists advising the dominant company. If we were to apply the Guidance paper test to all these cases, we would need to deploy hordes of public officials, and countless hours of lawyers and economic consultants (as if something good comes out of that mix…)
Under the current situation, on the contrary, companies know that except for one red line, they can design their rebate schemes the way they wish. Most of the objectives of exclusivity inducing practices can be achieved through other, perfectly legitimate and less risky, means. With less intense but more refined and creative legal and economic advice companies could continue competing intensely on the merits whatever the rule on loyalty-inducing rebates.
US Federal Competition Policy Expanded: North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v FTC
(by Giorgio Monti)
[Note by Alfonso: The US Supreme Court delivered last week an antitrust Opinion in North Carolina State Board of Examiners v FTC. We asked Giorgio Monti -whom we knew would be interested in the issues raised by the case- to write a comment for Chillin'Competition and he kindly accepted. Giorgio needs no introduction, but I'll do a quick one: he's one of the leading EU competition law professors, the author of this great book, currently holds one of the most envied posts in competition academia at the European University Institute in Fiesole, and, more importantly, he's also a very nice guy. We leave you with him]
The quiet life of incumbents is often shattered by new paradigms – Uber's controversial challenge to the taxi businesses of many countries is a colorful example of the synergy of technology and entrepreneurship doing battle with a rentier establishment. In the case at hand, the FTC saw something similar in a market for the vain: teeth-whitening services being offered by non-dentists at a price lower than the same services offered by dentists. The latter, using the State Board (the majority of which is made up of dentists), issued warnings to these pesky new entrants stating that the unlicensed practice of dentistry (including whitening of teeth) was a crime. Faced with such a potentially steep entry barrier, the new entrants abandoned the market. Is the conduct of the State Board an unfair method of competition under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act?
The answer to this question is more of constitutional law than antitrust. The anticompetitive effects are clear; the justification for this restriction on the basis of risks to health if teeth whitening was performed by non-dentists was not even pleaded on the facts; contrariwise, as the majority reports, complains to the State Board were based on the lower prices of the new entrants. Indeed it wasn't even clear if it was true that the unlicensed practice of teeth whitening services was indeed a crime because the legislation did not include this service. And yet, in the world's freest market, where under Federal Law the antitrust rules are compared to the Magna Carta, State laws may restrict competition, and there's nothing (much) the Federal government can do about it. However, and this is the vital point which this judgment sheds light upon, such restrictions must be the result of state action for there to be antitrust immunity.
In briefest outline, this immunity (so-called Parker immunity after the seminal judgment) applies if the actor that restricts competition is either (1) the State acting in its sovereign capacity or (2) a private party, and then in this case only if (a) the restraint of competition is clearly articulated State policy and (b) that this policy is actively supervised by the State.
The State Board claimed that they benefited from immunity under the first limb of this doctrine because the Board had been created by the State. The bone of contention was how far this Board, created by the State (here under the Dental Practice Act) but populated by practicing dentists, merited immunity under that first limb. In the view of the majority, they did not: 'A non-sovereign actor controlled by active market participants' has to satisfy the second limb of the test and in this case it failed to do so because there was no active State supervision when the Board took the view that teeth whitening fell within its competences and that it was thus appropriate to send letters ordering non-dentists to stop offering teeth whitening services.
It follows that companies like Pro-Teeth Whitening, whose logo I used for this entry, might now re-open in Charlotte, North Carolina where it operated before the Board's actions.
(1) The widening scope of Federal Competition Policy
The three dissenting Justices considered that more deference to State policies was warranted. Beneath the technical debates on whether the majority approach is consistent with precedent one gets a sense that the dissenting Justices are worried about departing from the original division of powers, so that the main bone of contention is about the constitutional balance being fixed rather than fluid. Thus the dissenters open by noting that State Dental Boards were always organized thus even before the Sherman Act. To Europeans this is a bit odd, because we know that we can use the TFEU precisely to challenge age-old practices. In Consorzio Industrie Fiammiferi the competition rules were used to challenge a 1923 Royal decree, for instance. To Europeans, competition law (and internal market law) applied to state conduct is a powerful crowbar to force states to rethink age-old restrictive practices. Of course some think this leads to neo-liberal oblivion, to others it shows we've got the most free market constitution in the world.
(2) Rules and Standards
The dissent felt, rightly, that the approach of the majority was also problematic because it would yield implementation problems. The rule-based approach supported by the dissent is easy to apply (Is the Board created by the State? If yes immunity) is a lot easier to apply to any case that may arise than the test of the majority (is the Board 'controlled by active market participants, who possess singularly strong private interests' such that there is a 'structural risk of market participants' confusing their own interests with the State's policy goals'? If yes then immunity must satisfy the second limb of the Parker immunity doctrine). Is this a sufficiently strong argument to lead one to support the dissent's view that the standard is unwieldy? I am optimistic that Federal courts will be able to find a way of testing how far the composition of the agency is sufficiently remote from the commercial interests the agency regulates. Moreover, even if we agree with the dissenting justices that 'regulatory capture can occur in many ways' is it not preferable to have a test that tries to challenge more of those occurrences, rather than fewer of them?
In oral argument, many of the Justices were troubled by the tension: surely the best way of regulating a profession is to ask professionals what to do (an example that was used is neurosurgery: surely nobody wants bureaucrats deciding on the best practices for neurosurgery). But this is to misread the debate. The FTC was not claiming that a regulatory board composed of self-interested experts is illegal. It is merely saying that if a State creates such a regulator, it has to actively supervise it and so the State has a duty to be the competition advocate and to ask the regulator to justify restrictive policies.
(3) Procedural Public Interest
North Carolina may still try and ban non-dentists by more direct involvement with the Board. As the majority said, if State can make a claim that an anticompetitive policy is the State's own choice, then this suffices for antitrust immunity. No substantive test is needed to measure how far the harm caused by an anticompetitive market compares to the benefits of state regulation. The public interest, to recall Harm Schepel's important paper ('Delegation of Regulatory Powers to Private Parties under EC-Competition Law: Towards a Procedural Public Interest Test'. (2002) 39(1) Common Market Law Review 31) is defined procedurally rather than substantively. Why so?
Perhaps doing this kind of comparison between consumer interests and producer interests is invidious (but isn't cost-benefit analysis now so widespread?).
Perhaps States value what little residual sovereignty they still have over economic policy (spare a thought for Greece).
Or perhaps it all boils down to this: as the majority noted, if North Carolina wants to ban cheap teeth whitening services it may do so in a way that falls under Parker immunity. It will be for voters to then decide if this was the right policy choice. If so, here is a nice exam question: 'Democracy can, and should, determine how free markets are. Discuss.'
Much more on the Intel Judgment
Writing about the Intel Judgment seems to have become one of the favorite hobbies of some of our leading competition law experts.
One of the most downloaded and talked-about competition law articles of the year was Wouter Wils' one on "The Judgment of the EU General Court in Intel and the So-Called "More Economic Approach" to Abuse of Dominance", which we discussed and first announced here.
Wouter's piece was followed by other equally interesting ones, like Richard Whish's (see here), and like my current co-blogger's, which also received considerable attention (see here for Pablo Ibañez's "Intel and Article 102 TFEU Case Law: Making Sense of a Perpetual Controversy" [Wouter's and Pablo's articles are by the way both nominated for the Antitrust Writing Awards (see the "Dominance" category here); for some reason Pablo is also co-nominated in the business category for two other pieces I wrote myself (I now understand why he likes to theorize about free riding… 😉 ]
The latest addition to this list of worthy reading is a paper just made available by our friend and founder of this blog, Nicolas Petit. His piece, titled, Intel, Leveraging Rebates and the Goals of Article 102 TFEU discusses the positive law standard applicable to exclusivity rebates following Intel. He finds that the GC's Judgment sets a modified per se prohibition rule for exclusivity rebates, and endorses the theory of anticompetitive leveraging that formed the core of the Commission's Guidance Paper on Article 102 TFEU. Nicolas also discusses the purposivist debate that has arisen in the scholarship, and whether it is right that the General Court endorsed a non-welfarist approach to Article 102 TFEU. In his view, this cannot be right, for non welfarist goals cannot be acclimated in moden competition law. Nicolas calls for clear dicta from the ECJ along the lines of Post Danmark.
Those interested in knowing even more (or, rather, in having even more mixed views) about the Intel case should (1) have attended Nick Banasevic's (who was Case Manager in Intel) excellent talk about the Judgment last Friday in Madrid; and (2) take a look at a new competition law journal (Competition Law & Policy Debate) which, in its first number, features a bunch of Intel-related articles authored by a very impressive line-up of authors (the same issue includes as well an interesting piece on the Google case by the former President of the CFI, Bo Vesterdorf, also available in SSRN).
P.S. Following the publication of this post I have received another piece on the Judgment. This one is authored by Luc Peeperkorn -a European Commission official and one of the main proponents of the effects-based approach, currently on a one-year leave of absence at NYU-, and its title is self-explanatory: "Why the General Court is wrong in Intel and what the Court of Justice can do to rebalance the assessment of rebates". The piece is also interesting, and unusual, for it is not every day that a Commission official criticizes (although in an academic capacity) a Judgment that the Institution won in first instance and is defending on appeal.
Non-working papers (on two-sided markets, object/effect, cartel evidence and Google)
I recently had to devote most of my non-billable work to finishing a few publications (the fact that after a few missed deadlines I was almost under death threat from editors also played a role) and preparing some courses. As if there weren't better things to do with one's time…
Anyway, since I did the work, I thought that it could perhaps be useful to post it or refer to it here, both to justify myself and in case any of you might find them interesting or have comments. These "non-working" papers include:
– A paper on "The Double Duality of Two-Sided Markets" which, to a large extent, is a beefed up version of my speech (the ppp is available here) at the Swedish Competition Authority's Pros and Cons Conference back in November. The editors of Competition Law Journal have kindly offered to publish it, so it will appear there soon. The paper posits that competition law enforcement regarding multi-sided platforms may have not always accounted for the ambiguity of business practices carried out in these settings and attempts to identify the causes at the root of this problem and to propose some solutions. In essence, my take is that multi-sided platforms raise old questions but with renewed intensity, and that this must force us to go back to basics and recall some general principles that we should never lose sight of.
– A presentation on the Cartes Bancaires Judgment (here: Some additional reflections on Cartes Bancaires_Lamadrid ). It's titled "some additional reflections" because it followed previous interventions at a seminar on the part of Javier Ruiz Calzado (Latham&Watkins; his very good ppp is also available here: Cartes Bancaires_Ruiz Calzado ) and Nicholas Khan, from the European Commission's Legal Service. It was a privilege to share the panel with them.
– An
absurdly lengthy not so succint paper I've co-written with my colleague Ana Balcells on cartel evidence in Spain: La prueba de los cárteles en España (Lamadrid_Balcells), forthcoming in JM Beneyto y J Maillo (Dirs): La lucha contra los cárteles en España, Aranzadi, 2015.
– Also, a few days ago the founder of this blog, Nicolas Petit, asked me (with a most kind anticipation of less than 24 hours…) to conduct a case study on the Google investigation at the Brussels School of Competition. It was a very interesting exercise. I only directed the debate asking questions and linking issues together and it was the students who brilliantly taught themselves and arrived to their own conclusions (I'm being nice to them because I told them that suscribing to the blog is a prerequisite for passing, so I assume they're reading this). The legal issues underpinning the case (which have not always received the necessary attention) are very well-suited to reflect about some basic concepts of Article 102. In fact, Pablo also did this with his students at LSE a few days ago. Just in case any of you is interested in conducting a similar exercise, here is the (very hastily drafted) list of questions I used: Google Case study – BSC_Lamadrid.


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JazzClub Ludwigsburg e.V.
Every Friday jazz or blues concerts, Ludwigsburg Jazztage every year in the second half of November with top national and international musicians, annual concert series "Herbstblues" (Autumn Blues) with international stars.
The JazzClub Ludwigsburg e.V. came into existence 30 years ago and is now firmly established in Ludwigsburg's jazz scene. The Podium in the music hall at the railway station has been the location of the JazzClub since 1985. There's a concert here each Friday with local and international bands. Especially popular are the "Test the Jazz" jam sessions with top-calibre musicians as rhythm sections and imaginative soloists.
JazzClub Ludwigsburg e.V.
PODIUM Musikhalle am Bahnhof
Bahnhofstr. 19
71638 Ludwigsburg
Phone: +49 (0)7154 231 40


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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a statement Tuesday night and an investigation was underway because of "a threatening message" that was written on a lavatory mirror on board Thai Airways flight 794 from Bangkok (BKK) to Los Angeles (LAX).
The plane landed safely at 8:48 p.m. PT and taxied to a remote location where it was met by law enforcement. Passengers were taken by bus to a terminal and rescreened, according to the TSA.
Los Angeles Airport Police issued their own statement noting at "7:15 p.m.law enforcement and Los Angeles Airport officials were notified of an alleged threat on board an aircraft scheduled to land at LAX at 8:44 p.m.
Local news from across Southern California
"The incident is being investigated and notifications have been made to all appropriate agencies, including the FBI. Law enforcement is taking all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of the passengers and crew, and will conduct an investigation to ascertain the person or group responsible for making the threat," police stated.
Los Angeles City Fire Department dispatched 18 fire trucks and fire engines to Los Angeles International Airport as a precaution. Around 9:50 p.m. the fire department was starting to release fire crews. But it did appear TSA was still conducting its investigation.
Thai Airways president Piyasvasti Amranand told The Associated Press that the message -- written in English with bad grammar -- warned that a bomb was on the plane.
"This must have caused some nuisance to the passengers," he said by phone from Singapore. "It sounds like it was done by a crazy person."


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World War 1 My Great Grandfather (on my mother side) Martin Alfred Feigum joined the Army February 24, 1918 at the age of 22 . Served until June 4,1919 when he was injured. Alfred was in the 314 Ammunition Infantry 89th Division. He drove an ammunition truck in France with the American Expeditionary Forces and took part in several of the major offenses. Continue reading WW1 to Iraq My Men
Category Archives: Adventures
Kidnapping of John Doe
As the rise of the 7th generation was being pushed off the land at Standing Rock. Leadhorse and Neddie were still in ceremony at the ceremonial grounds . Leadhorse was pepper sprayed,handcuffed and forced by the BIA into a vehicle. D. Regers from WRUV FM 90.1 FM in Burlington,Vermont interviewed "John Doe" (Leadhorse ) and Neddie. Who were providing a spiritual ceremony of healing .
Leadhorse and Neddie travel the US and South America sharing knowledge of the stars , moon , sun and the earth. Offer healing ceremonies such as greiven and trauma to release back to the creation in a good way .
If you would like to help with their journeys please donate here . They are always in need of gas and help with repairs on their vehicle along the way.To directly support their work please donate to Kellies paypal. Please feel free to verify that I am helping Leadhorse and Neddie. You can contact me on Facebook .
In this PODCAST documentary of the events that took place on his kidnapping from the ceremonial grounds pepper sprayed and handcuffed.
Last Ceremony at Standing Rock
The arrests of the Rise of the 7th Generation was the last to be taken from their lands. On March 1st Spiritual leader Leadhorse Choctaw was in ceremony at the ceremonial grounds near Standing Rock Video of the last ceremony .
"Three people were arrested. They pepper sprayed only Leadhorse and handcuffed him. The rest of the Water Protectors had to walk all the way to the Prairie Knights Casino," Neddie said. If you can help the Water Protectors please make sure you send to Angelo @ Withstand with Wolves him and Gaby are always helping the people on the ground. If you would like to help Leadhorse and Neddie please feel free to PM Neddie or Myself . They are always in need of gas. Thank you for your support
Neddie was now alone with her partner in jail. He was arrested by the BIA . With some kind help from Angelo "Withstand with Wolves " who has been the ground force on "no warrior left behind" quickly made sure Neddie had a place to sleep and gas. Continue reading Last Ceremony at Standing Rock
Free John Doe 7th Generation
John Doe is how he will processed at Fort Yates. Legally he does not have to give him their name as he has NOT committed a crime and was arrested on land under Treaty Laws! Please help this spiritual Leader with funding for legal and bail . Please PM Angelo and let him know your donation is for "John Doe" at Withstand with Wolves Pay Pal
My dear friend and Spiritual Leader "John Doe "was arrested March 1,2017 with the 7th generation at Sacred Stone Camp.
In the phone call by his relative. He repeatedly asked police as he peacefully held his ground! " on what authority do you arrest me? You have no authority to arrest me"!
His relative states "we were at 7th gerations camp and we put Ceremony Grounds up AFTER MOST OF THE WATER PROTECTORS LEFT"
Much Love to Standing with Wolves for being committed to "No Water Protector Left Behind" Please keep supporting his groups efforts. Withstand with Wolves Pay Pal . Follow him on FaceBook . As Water Protectors are being Evicted from the Local Casino with all rooms booked and knoskc on door. Digital Smoke Signal Video.. The Water Protectors will need your support then ever !
To directly support Leadhorse and Neddie work please donate to Kellies paypal. Please feel free to verify that I am helping Leadhorse and Neddie. You can contact me on Facebook .
DAPL Bankers Face Big Losses
Bankers across the globe get hit hard for investing in DAPL. The same week as the City Council of Santa Monica, CA. voted to divest from Wells Fargo with a 2.5 billion dollar impact following the 3.0 billion bite from the city of Seattle, WA approving to divest from Wells Fargo the second week in February 2017 against DAPL.
CalPERS a California Retirement system with a staggering 6.5 Billion dollar investments has shareholders and investors in 16 or the 17 banks backing DAPL has written a formal request to the banks on rerouting the DAPL pipeline to avoid the treaty territory.
With over 100 investors signatures from across the U.S representing 653 billion dollars in assets on six page of the PDF formal request published on February 17th, 2017.
Sacred Stone Camp has been surrounded this last week with militarized police, National guard and DAPL security within yards of the camp.The tension mounts at Oceti Skewing camp with barricades being installed in multiple places on the road and check points, the clean up, and an eviction notice handed to water protectors on Wednesday February 15,2017 video from Digital Smoke Signals .
"We are pleased to join our fellow investors to help address the community concerns and environmental risks that can impact the long-term returns of our investments," said Anne Simpson, CalPERS' investment director, sustainability. "We believe that engaging with the companies we own is the first course of action to effect change and a preferred option over divestment where we lose our voice as an investor." stated Communications & Stakeholder Relations
Update : February 23, 2017 German Bank Divests
"BayernLB, who currently has $120 million invested into the Dakota Access pipeline, has been a target of environmental groups and supporters of water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to divest from both the pipeline and fossil fuels and to invest in a green future."
More about me here
Last Child Camp
As we watched Steven Chrisjohn Live feed Wednesday February 1st enjoying the fire and soaking in the warriors putting up the teepees on the hill at the Last Childs Camp. "In honor of the Last Child Warrior Society, the only such society created by Crazy Horse
" stated Chase Iron Eyes
On February 1st over 70 water protectors we're arrested that afternoon at the Last Child Camp as water protectors from Oceti Sakowin camp we're blocked in down the hill by police,
national guard and DAPL security. All 6 Teepees took down and several jailed including Chase Iron Eyes and Steven Chrisjohn.
North Dakota Wants to Hide Oil Spills
A bill to allow oil companies to avoid reporting some of their spills passed in the North Dakota House this afternoon in a 82-11 vote. The bill (read it here) is sponsored by Rep. Roscoe Streyle, a Republican from Minot, who received the following campaign donations from the oil industry in 2014: Bill #1151 Courtesy of the Mean Read
3 PIPELINE SPILLS in The Last 7 Days
January 25, 2017 In Hanlontown, Iowa a pipeline broke spilling Diesel owned by Magellan Midstream based out of Oklahoma. The spill has creeped up to 138,600 gallons from 63,000 gallons during the clean up process stated in Global Gazette Continue reading North Dakota Wants to Hide Oil Spills


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We treat patients suffering from spine and neurological conditions including spinal lesions, peripheral nerve disorders, many cerebrovascular disorders, acute and chronic pain syndrome, and most spinal injuries. We will also keep close contact with your referring providers to ensure excellence and balance in overall patient care.
Brain surgery refers to procedures used to repair structural problems in the brain. These type of brain or cranial conditions can be caused by disease, injury or trauma, or birth defects.
Our neurosurgeon, Dr. Oppenheimer, can treat the entire nervous system including the nerves that travel through the extremities of the body which are referred to as the peripheral nervous system.


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Photographer's Note
Wales Millennium Centre opened in 2004 and has already established its reputation as one of the world`s iconic arts and cultural destinations. The vision of the Centre is to be an internationally significant cultural landmark and centre for the performing arts, renowned for inspiration, excellence and leadership.
The Centre is one of the most unique and lively performing arts centres in Europe. Look beyond the amazing exterior, as featured in Torchwood and Dr Who, and you will come across a bustling atmosphere that makes our visitors want to return time and time again.
Were so much more than a theatre though. Our visitors come to enjoy blockbuster West End musicals, opera, ballet and contemporary dance, hip hop and stand up comedy, art exhibitions, workshops, training days, free daily foyer performances, guided tours, bars and restaurants..... there really is something for everyone.
We also offer regular behind-the-scenes backstage tours, as well as more specialist technical and architectural tours.
Nobody marcou esta nota como útil
Critiques | Translate
npecanhuk (79329) 2011-04-04 7:17
Hello Assi!
Although the sky is washed out (overexposed, due to the difficult light and weather conditions), I really enjoyed this picture because of its subject, vertical format, chosen pov and composition!
TFS - congrats,
Wanda1 (15142) 2011-04-04 23:26
Hi Assi,
Your use of wide angle is great here as it exaggerates the curve of the building and makes those super letters really come out at us. Nice that it starts in the corner of your composition, and that little bit of light hitting the letters is lovely.
DRamos (512) 2011-04-06 11:51
Hi well,
I love the frame you have chosen the building, the building points to a force powerful graphics, and the play of light and shadow is very well balanced.
Because it is so vertical, gives a sense of depth and very accomplished greatness
Very good color treatment.
chawax (20764) 2011-04-08 13:56
Hi Assi,
A nice POV on this wonderful Wales Millenium Centre. I enjoyed a lot this neighbourhood of Cardiff Bay, full of nice photos to take there !
tenretin (3131) 2014-01-27 11:38
Hello Assi!
A beautiful photo, well framed with a composition erased. A true picture of Architecture that is well worth the building.
Well done!.
Jean Philippe
Photo Information
- Copyright: Assi Dvilanski (asival) (5307)
- Genre: Lugares
- Medium: Cor
- Date Taken: 2011-03-27
- Categories: Arquitectura
- Camera: Canon EOS 50D, Canon 17-40mm f/4 L USM
- Exposição: f/18.0, 1/250 segundos
- More Photo Info: view
- Versão da Foto: Versão Original
- Date Submitted: 2011-04-04 6:48


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So this is more on gender, whilst I try and gather enough headspace for anything else. Having a second family member diagnosed with terminal cancer in a little more than six months does nothing for your mental health, I'll tell you that for nothing.
People have asked me why I chose 'they' as a pronoun and various people have intimated that something such as 'xie' would be easier. Oddly, I chose 'they' partly because it was IN common use already and was trying to make things easier. My reasoning was that no-one would have to use a new word. But that seems to backfire on me a bit. This blog is partly about that and partly about being able to say to readers, therapists, trainees, 'get it wrong' (which might seem different to previous posts).
I was recently out for a drink with friends I love dearly, and who I believe respect my gender identity. And yet throughout the afternoon they consistently gendered me as she. I corrected a couple of times, but it kept happening. Later in the evening, we were joined by another friend who, when I was out with her the week before and introducing her to various people, had a mental blip and referred to me as 'he; she.. they!' – the brain understanding of gender change was there, but possibly the comfort of 'they' in English had stopped something from registering properly as a specific choice of pronoun (rather than just as an unknown gender).
Anyhow- after that blip, she mostly genders me correctly now. Joining my other friends, she slipped and gendered me wrongly and then corrected herself and that seemed to make all the difference to my other friends. Suddenly they started to gender me properly (and oddly, later made exactly the same 'he; she… they' slip as my friend had previously). But it seems that until they had heard someone else 'admit' to getting things wrong, they hadn't been able to get it consciously wrong themselves and had considered with what might be viewed as an unconscious slip (I have no idea if it was or not!).
Some of this seems to come back down to power. Much like racism and people who 'don't see colour', it's easier to pretend there is no difference and therefore you can't be getting it wrong (even in the face of evidence). It then falls to the marginalised person to point out that you're wrong, but when you're in 'fingers in ears' phase singing 'la la I can't hear you' because it's really uncomfortable to think you might be hurting someone) it's hard to get that point across. Also I think, because cisgender people (that's anyone whose gender is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth) can feel that their pronouns don't matter very much to them. That's probably because they get called the right pronoun most, if not all of the time. Ask a binary trans woman how much it hurts when she is called 'sir' or someone cos who is considered 'butch' if and how pronouns matter. You soon start to get a different story. Not all cisgender people get given the right pronouns and it *doesnt* matter to all of those people who get the wrong one but it does matter to some. That's why a 'sorry' followed by a correction means much more than what can feel like blanket ignorance and refusing to be vulnerable. As trans and non-binary people, we have no choice but to be vulnerable. As cisgender people, you can meet us in that vulnerability.
On my last training weekend a similar thing happened. I was misgendered all the time by one person (more than one but they are the specific focus here). It hurt. Repeatedly. When I eventually forced the issue, they said they had always been aware they were getting it wrong, but hadn't been able to acknowledge it, because (it feels to me) they didn't want to try and publicly get it right and still get it wrong. If that trainee is reading and would like to comment, please do- I will publish it 🙂
It takes being willing to be vulnerable, to get it right out loud. And I understand that. I'm not keen on being vulnerable (or being wrong, for that matter) and to both make myself vulnerable AND (possibly) get it wrong is really hard.
I promise you though, when you get it right, and every time you get it right, people notice. In a good way.


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Happy Monday Fab Free'rs! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was calm and uneventful, which isn't a bad thing. hehehe Over the weekend I did however find this very cute dress from a shop called Wicked. This mesh sweater dress reminded me of something I might wear on a first date. Wearing it I felt cute and pretty without being too overdressed or too casual. I like that it has the shoulder cut-outs, and the little bow on the belt gives it a girly feel. Additionally, the dress includes a color change hud to change the color of the belt from black to brown, or white. The dress is a FREE group gift at Wicked, and the group is FREE to join.
Here are the details, Enjoy!
Hair – Exile::Sparkle And Fade Natural Fusion 2
Skin – -Glam Affair – Amberly II – Asia – Blue Ice
Eyes – [Buzz] Celestial Eyes – Wolf
Lashes – – DAMNED – My Perfect Eyelashes
Septum Piercing – .:cheeky.. Amber – Nose Piercing! Black
Hands – Slink AvEnhance Hands Female – Elegant 1
Manicure – -{ZOZ}- DSignature Earth Gold tip
Dress – WICKED * Melani – Dress (Rouge) – FREE Group Gift/Group is FREE to Join
Tattoo – .Inhale. Like Moths to Flames
Feet – Slink AvEnhance Feet Female Mid
Shoes – *Epic* Softy Suede Wedges! {Black}


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Schwertfeger, Roach
Valerie Roach and Matthew Schwertfeger were united in marriage May 27 at Stone Manor Country Club, Frederick, Md., with Angelo B. Ciccolella officiating the outdoor ceremony.
A small Catholic ceremony also was held at St. Augustine Church, Elkridge, Md., officiated by the Rev. John Williamson, with witnesses Allison Paton, sister of the groom, and Drew Paton.
The bride is the daughter of Marguerite Roach of Taneytown, Md., and the late Timothy Roach.
The groom is the son of Mary F. and Jay Schwertfeger of Bethany.
Karey Howes served as maid of honor.
Josh Stoneking served as best man.
Other attendants were Carly Stambaugh and Julie Roach, sisters of the bride; Tiffany Flannigan-Dolan; Amanda Jenkins; Lindsay Houser; Jack Crow; Anthony Santangelo; Nick DiBattista; T.J. Tate; Sal Decaria; Angelo Paton and Adelae Stambaugh.
A reception was held at Stone Manor Country Club.
The bride is a graduate of West Virginia University. She is an interior designer at Model Home Interiors.
The groom is a graduate of West Virginia University. He is employed by Penod Ricard as a sales representative.
After a wedding trip to Barbados, the couple resides in Elkridge, Md.