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we're all about freshly brewed
ideas that intoxicate.
Design Brewery is the brainchild of Prashasti Ranjan, an IIT alumni, who thrives on delivering 360° design solutions to your needs. We are a brewhouse of creatives and techies who bring together our passion to deliver you the finest solutions for your business requirements. We deal in Graphic Design, UI/UX Design and Product Design.
We create your identity by transitioning your business with influential and creative logos, catalogues, packaging and much much more.View Projects
We understand user behaviour and optimise the product / platform for the most intuitive and pleasurable experience.View Projects
We evolve your idea into a product through a journey of extensive research, user understanding, prototyping, and envelope it in modern day aesthetics.View Projects
We give your brand and product a turbo boost by strategically positioning it, with the help of the fast evolving digital landscape.View Projects
If you are start up with an abstract design idea and need it to be commercially viable and appealing for the market. Design Brewery is the perfect place for you. Prashasti and team did an amazing job in designing our logo, stationary, labels and overall packaging
It had been (and continues to be) an outstanding experience working with team Design Brewery. Quality of work and friendliness is why I chose to work with them every time. They are very organized, professional and innovative in their approach. Thanks for your services and Good luck!!
We have been working with Design Brewery for over a year and our experience has been fantastic. The best things about them is their quality of design, promptness, timely delivery, and Prashasti, for a gem of a person she is. Our sales went up significantly because of the trendy designs Design Brewery made for us.
It was pleasure working with Design Brewery and its team - they had translated and improvised on our abstract requirements and created great design and flows for our website. Thanks for your efforts and support.
We got the awesome team of Design Brewery to work on our multiple projects and the hangover of their state of the art work still remains. I have been personally impressed not only by the quality of designs they produce,but also by their speed of execution from ideation to final delivery,something that I have not found elsewhere.The super focused team led by Prashasti,is always great joy to work with.
IIT Bombay; NIFT Alumnus


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Campari 15 year Balsamic – 250ml
Campari 15 year Balsamic – 250ml
For up to 15 years, this balsamic vinegar–made from Trebbiano grapes–is transferred from wood barrel to wood barrel, soaking up their distinctive and delicious mix of flavors, from cherry to juniper. The end result is a thick and syrupy combination of chocolate, raisins, leather, wood, dried fruit, figs, and toasted malt tastes. We love to drizzle this on just about everything, from steaks and seafood, to nice Parmigiano-Reggiano and melon -even ice cream!
(Orders Over $99 Ship FREE!*)
Manufacturer: Campari
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subset: commoncrawl


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Chinese Business Tax Regulations
The new Business Tax ("BT") regulations took effect on January 1, 2009. The new tax significantly increases the tax liability for foreign service providers that provide services to Chinese clients. Here is a brief introduction to the new rules and how they may affect your business.
BT is a type of turnover tax, which is imposed on the provision of services and the transfer of intangibles and immovable properties within the territory of China. The business tax rates vary from 3 to 20 percent based on the type of services provided. For most services the tax is 5 percent of gross service fees.
Taxable services refer to the following business activities: Communication, transportation, construction, financial and insurance, postal and telecommunications, cultural and sports, entertainment and other service industries, which include: engineering, accounting, and legal services. However, the BT does not cover processing, repair, and replacement of parts; these activities are subject to the Value Added Tax ("VAT").
Under the old rules, service providers were only subject to BT in China if the taxable service was rendered within China. Thus, when a U.S. Company provides service to Chinese clients and such services are conducted in the U.S., they would not be subject to BT in China. However, under the new rules, the definition of taxable services subject to BT has been expanded to include services performed outside of China if the service recipient is located in China. Therefore, if the service provider or the service recipient is located in China, the service will be taxable for BT purposes, regardless of where the service is performed.
For example, U.S. Company A, located in Michigan, provides product design services to US Company B's subsidiary in China. The contract value was $50,000 and the service term was two months. All the information necessary to complete the work was provided by Company B, therefore Company A can finish the work without sending their staff to China. All work was done at Company A's Michigan office. Under the old rules (prior to January 1, 2009), the design services provided from outside China to recipients in China were not subject to the BT. Company A receives the entire $50,000 paid by Company B's Chinese subsidiary. However, under the new rules, Company A will be subject to the 5 percent BT because the service recipient was in China. As a result, $2,500 BT would be paid in China ($50,000 * 5%), and Company A would receive $47,500 as its net revenue.
You may question: how would Company A pay its tax assuming Company A has no appointed agency in China? Company B's China subsidiary would be responsible for withholding the BT.
Another significant change is the impact on taxable income derived from mixed sales activities. Mixed sales activities refer to activities in which income may be subject in part to both BT and VAT. Under the new rule, if income is subject to BT or VAT, it should be properly recorded separately. Otherwise, the allocation of income that is chargeable to BT and VAT will be determined by the tax authorities.
For example, a U.S. company enters into a contract to sell manufacturing equipment to a Chinese customer. The U.S. Company will also provide installation services. In this case, the installation service revenue is subject to BT. The U.S. Company will be the taxpayer, and the Chinese customer will be the withholding agent. In contrast, the Chinese customer is the VAT payer on the purchase price of the equipment. Therefore, the values of the equipment and installation services need to be separately stated in the contract.
In practice, a U.S. Company may face some challenges when negotiating price with its Chinese customer on separating the value of the equipment and the installation service fee. The U.S. Company will pay less BT with a higher equipment value, but that will result in the Chinese customer paying higher VAT tax.


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Welcome! I'm M. L. Clark, writer of speculative fictions.
Canadian by birth, I now call Medellín, Colombia my home.
I trained as an academic, specializing in literary histories of science, but now I'm delighted to be living a more balanced life writing, teaching, and editing in a community where I feel better situated to make a meaningful difference. In a few years, I hope to add "translating" to this list as well–but for now I'm still acclimating (however aggressively) to life in a second-language context.
Follow my adventures, literary and otherwise, through:
- My Patheos Column, Another White Atheist in Colombia
- My Facebook Page (where I try to share articles of note)
- My Publications Page (including fiction, poetry, and reviews)
- My Patreon Page (where patrons get access to plans and excerpts)
- My Twitter Account (literary news, SF&F links, and updates)


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Crew Dragon Demo-1 returns to Port Canaveral
by terranovabay
The Crew Dragon Demo-1 spacecraft that recently returned from the International Space Station after flying an automatic test flight there and back returns to Port Canaveral aboard the Go Searcher recovery ship on 9 March 2019. The Demo-1 spacecraft had parachuted to a landing in the Atlantic Ocean the day before. The arrival back at Port was the beginning of a late night operation to get the spacecraft off the ship and back to its hanger for study. A successful […]
Categories: Space Age Bulletins • Tags: Crew Dragon, Demo-1, Go Navigator, Go Searcher, Port Canaveral, SpaceX


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The Girl - Preview
Preview by Jack Foley
TOBY Jones stars as England's most renowned director Alfred Hitchcock in the brilliant BBC film The Girl, which tells the full story of his obsessive relationship with Tippi Hedren, played by Sienna Miller.
This fascinating drama, which aired on BBC Two over Christmas, will be released on DVD on January 7, 2013 courtesy of Acorn Media.
Alongside the excellent two leading stars, The Girl features a stellar cast of British acting talent, including Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) as Alma Hitchcock and Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey) as Hitchcock's loyal assistant Peggy Robertson.
In 1962 at the height of his fame and creativity, Alfred Hitchcock (Jones – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), chose an unknown fashion model to star in his most ambitious film – The Birds.
But as he sculpted Tippi Hedren (Miller – Factory Girl) into the perfect Hitchcock blonde of his imagination, he became obsessed with the impossible dream of winning her love in real life. His failure arguably destroyed both of their careers.
This captivating film gives a great insight into the life and loves of the inimitable master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, who was recently subject to an extensive season at the British Film Institute 'The Genius of Hitchcock'.
Special features include an exclusive Behind-the-Scenes documentary.
The Girl is directed by Julian Jarrold from a script by Gwyneth Hughes.
Certificate: 15
Running time: 87mins
UK DVD Release: January 7, 2012


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EDIFICOM will be present at the 6th Swiss IT Business fair which will take place at Palexpo Geneva from 24th to 25th of April 2018. This international event gathers 250 exhibitors and hosts 130 conferences and solution demos where you will be able to discover the last IT trends and innovations.
We would be honoured to welcome you on our booth with the VIGISWISS members (booth IT67).
Don't miss the conference (in french) "Souveraineté des données: enjeux économiques et politiques" in which we will participate on Tuesday 24th of April at 14:00. You will also be able to participate in a contest to win the book "La cybercriminalité, les nouvelles armes de pouvoir" from the Prof. Solange Ghernaouti (prix du livre Cyber 2018).
Please contact us to get a free entrance (limited applications).


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Friday, June 11, 2010
Apology and a Belated 2010 Undie Award Update
16 comments:
Sorry i'm taking so long to write the posts mentioned above and to give my followers the attention and spotlight they deserve (naughty me). Hope you'll stop by my YouTube channel (misterpantybuns) or my other blogs and let me know your thoughts. Have a great weekend and a wonderful upcoming summer!ReplyDelete
i was wondering where you went i thought you abandoned the blog!
can't wait for your upcomming topics they sound interesting
Well, well- look who is back??? Your new topics sounds super insightful and really interesting so I hope you become "unslothful" and post of them!!!! I would love to hear your take on such lofty issues (Gaga is lofty to me, yes). I hope YOUR summer is going beautifully!!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 16, 2010 at 2:11 PM
Hi there, I'm glad you're back! I missed your posts!ReplyDelete
Welcome back, darling!ReplyDelete
No apologies necessary!
Looking forward to your future posts :)
At last, a post from you. I will definitely check out those You Tube videos. Miss your post in your other blog too. Have a great weekend! xoxoReplyDelete
Welcome back! No worries, we all go through blogging phases : ) Have a lovely week xxReplyDelete
I had a feeling you would like Gaga! :)ReplyDelete
oh yeah you were gone too long!glad your back with all your info about undies,ReplyDelete
i recently went to buy a bra and i saw a lot of maidforms undies and it reminded me of you.
i didnt buy any bra cuz i dont wear them but i thought it was time for me to start.
well i had to wear one with the sheer blouse
and i had that one since i graduated from high shcool which was 9 years ago.
ok so im gonna go now ,im typing a lot
have a nice weekend and thank you for your amaizng comment
your the best
thank you, yes i had one next to my bed when i was little but then it got lost!ReplyDelete
it was very pretty too!
hope life is well!ReplyDelete
Hope everyone Stateside (U.S.A.) had a happy and healthy Fourth of July. i got to watch some fireworks myself and reflect.ReplyDelete
Hope your days were beautiful wherever you were. Love, Panty Buns,
- AnonymousJuly 6, 2010 at 12:51 AM
awww... me too darl..ReplyDelete
i 've been a mont not in blogspere because i was so busy..
still, this post is lovely..
welcome back ! i didn't know about Lady gaga's appearances !ReplyDelete
thank you, yeah i love the tee too!ReplyDelete
Great article. Clothing style has changed and with that the salwar kameez patterns has also changed to meet the need of latest style. Recently I visited the site www.kaneesha.com and I was surprised to see the wide range of designs they have and couldn't resist and bought one salwar kameez.ReplyDelete


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When we first moved into our house seven years ago, it was a chintz palace. Everything was bright yellow and blue; there were frills everywhere; and the shell-shaped bathroom sink was very special indeed. Slowly, we modernised, but on a shoestring budget, which meant the faux-beamed artexed kitchen ceiling had to stay. I painted the beams black, and replaced the cast-iron chandelier with a row of spots, but frankly, it was still hideous. And gloomy.
So, when we'd finally saved enough to give the kitchen a little facelift, the ceiling was the first thing to get sorted. We couldn't afford to redo the layout, meaning there was no room for fancy light fittings, so we decided to go for low-fuss spots instead.
But how easy is it to get a whole new ceiling and put in new lights? Surprisingly easy, as it turns out. Here's how…
First, our friendly builder, Neil, built a frame a few centimetres lower than the old sagging ceiling. New lengths of wiring were joined to the existing central light fitting; then plasterboard was then screwed into the frame to create a new, flat ceiling.
Neil then spread a thin layer of plaster over the board to make it smooth; painted the ceiling; then drilled holes for the spotlights:
Finally, an electrician fitted the spots. We wanted good quality fittings that would look unobtrusive, but which would make bulb-changing easy, so we went for these brilliant recessed White Gloss Twist & Lock Fire Rated Downlights, £5 each, from FirstChoiceLighting.co.uk fitted with long-life LED bulbs (also from First Choice Lighting):
Extra safe (because of the fire rating), you simply twist out the bulbs when you need to change them. We wanted fittings flush with the ceiling, but if you've got more room to play with, they have a HUGE selection of modern lighting fittings – for all rooms in the house – that look a million dollars but don't cost it.
And here's the finished ceiling! The building work and electrician cost £350, and the light fittings themselves came to just £40 for eight. Honestly, it's made SUCH a difference. Even my other half, who said he didn't care about the old ceiling, loves the fact he can now see what he's cooking. It's like a light has been switched on (erm, because it has!).
What do you reckon? Have you completed a long wished-for yet simple project that has transformed your home? Let me know in the comments below or email me at firstname.lastname@example.com – I'd love to see your photos!


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Answered By: Rich Gause Last Updated: Dec 12, 2014 Views: 32
Answered By: Rich Gause
Last Updated: Dec 12, 2014 Views: 32
In the library catalog record, select the link for "Request" to retrieve the specific item through Interlibrary Loan.
The University of Central Florida is a member of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). Scholars and researchers from CRL member institutions have free and unlimited use of the CRL collections through interlibrary loan. Some of the items listed are available online.
See the Center for Research Libraries guide for more information about the types of materials available.
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Experience: 2 years
Height: 6-5
Age: 24
Weight: 299 lbs
College: South Carolina
No results. Try adjusting the filters.
Signed by Tampa Bay as a college free agent on May 10, 2019.
Played in 46 games with 38 starts at South Carolina from 2015-18.
Selected as second-team All-SEC by both the AP and the coaches in his senior season (2018).
Given the Tenacity Award for the offense by his teammates.
Named preseason third-team All-SEC by the coaches entering his junior season (2017).
Started all 13 games at left guard as a sophomore (2016) and shared the offense's Tenacity Award as selected by his teammates.
Earned SEC All-Freshman honors by the coaches in 2015, appearing in all 12 games with five starts.
Majored in criminal justice.
One of five finalists for South Carolina's Mr. Football Award as senior at Summerville High School (Summerville, South Carolina).
Played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas.


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It's so stupid when you're so tired
Yet refuse to go to sleep
"Just a while longer…"
one more game, one more article, one more site…
Searching unconsciously for that one thing
Some drug
Of satisfaction, of contentment.
The icing on the cake
Dotting in the dragon's eye
Before switching off and logging out
and being able and willing to end the day.
You won't find it where you're looking.
Too bad.


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Loveless Remaster Actually Sound Better?
At the moment's automotive technicians need excessive-level abilities and information to diagnose and service increasingly advanced systems. Increase their marketability via studying time administration and crew work abilities. What you'd need: Together with a bachelor's degree, automotive instructors that work in public faculties (many do) may have a educating license. Electric motors seem easy to the uninformed. We aspire to develop highly skilled, responsible, environmentally aware professionals in the automotive subject.
ASE is the industry-backed nationwide organization that certifies car technicians. The Model S EV of the corporate makes use of an AC induction motor. Service technicians should typically lift and maneuver heavy elements equivalent to engines and body panels. He is written about million-dollar supercars and raced a $200 Saturn within the snow. Students have access to the Automotive Scholar Skilled Network on LinkedIn which provides data on scholarships, internships, and mentoring opportunities.
Whether or not you need to deepen your commerce as an existing automotive skilled or need to begin a brand new career within the auto discipline, SPSCC offers evening and evening courses that allow anybody with current employment to complete an automotive diploma while still working throughout the day. Many job openings might be in vehicle dealerships and independent repair shops, the place most service technicians at the moment work.
Induction: The motor is comparatively low cost to make, and energy electronics for automotive applications have come down in value significantly over the past 20 years. Your automotive insurance company would possibly give you a ten% renewal discount, for example. So sure, you may completely say a gasoline-powered automobile has a motor, and you may say an electric car has an engine, however there is no doubt that the latter is bit odd, while the previous is totally regular.
An hour charge is predicted to value … Read the rest


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Right-Aligned Fixed CSS Navigation Menu
For my first post I'm going to write about the navigation bar on my own site. I'd decided on fixed navigation, so as the user scrolls the navigation is fixed in relation to the browser window, rather than in relation to the document. ...
- Date
- 4th November 2010


text: Former presidential candidate Vital Rymashewski and Andrey Dzmitryyew, the former campaign chief of presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, have been released from the KGB's detention center in Minsk on their own recognizance.The 29-year-old Dzmitryyew, who was arrested immediately after a post-election demonstration in Independence Square on the night of December 19, was released from the KGB detention center on the morning of January 3. Mr. Rymashewski, the presidential nominee of Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD), was released on the night between December 31 and January 1 after he had written an explanatory note addressed to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, according to BCD Executive Secretary Dzyanis Sadowski. The 35-year-old Rymashewski, who received a head injury during clashes between protesters and riot police during the December 19 demonstration, was arrested when he was walking out of the Minsk Emergency Hospital, where his injury had been treated and bandaged. He was grabbed by men in black clothes who threw him into a minibus and sped.


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Archive for the 'PvP' Category
PvP Gear Wishlist for my main
Two days into patch 3.3.3, I have noticed that the new random BG tool is a signifant improvement. You get roughly 5000-6000 honor points whenever you win a random BG and easily make it to the cap of 1000 honor points even when your team has lost the battle. This is a major boost considering […]
Filed under: Battlegrounds, Gear, PvP, World of Warcraft | 5 Comments


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What are you looking for?
"Parfums d'interdits. L'audace sous le pinceau de Jean Honoré Fragonard, Marguerite Gérard et leurs pairs". Exhibition Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Grasse, 26th Mai - 23th September 2018
Oil on wood. Height 32.3, width 24.6 cmDescription
Jean Frédéric Schall was born in Strasbourg in 1752 and received his first training in his native city at the Ecole publique de Dessin (around 1768). In 1772 he left his home to continue his education in Paris in the studio of Fr. Casanova, in 1775 he was admitted to the Académie royale de Peinture et Sculpture where he studied under Nicolas René Jollain (1732-1804) and Nicolas Bernard Lépicié (1735-1784), among others. Following his studies Schall first exhibited as a painter around 1779 and very quickly achieved recognition among admirers and collectors of bourgeois and galant scenes. Influenced by the work of François Boucher (1703-1770), Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) and Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769), and equally by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), his paintings, due in no small part to their lightness, their sentimental and at times even frivolous character, were as greatly appreciated as those of his contemporaries Lépicié or Fragonard. Until the outbreak of the French Revolution Schall painted large numbers of galant scenes, often based on the chronicle of scandals of the regime of Louis XVI. These accurate, detailed depictions provide much visual information about the furniture, dress and customs of the time. Many of these pictures have been handed down in the form of prints dating from the same time. The present painting, which is carefully painted with rich detail, also depicts a private scene set in an interior in the style of Louis XVI: a young lady in a flowing white costume seated in front of her dressing table holds a fan in her left hand. Opposite her a sweet little dog sits up and begs on a green-upholstered stool. The walls are covered with green hangings, a Louis XVI pendule stands on the straight-edged marble mantelpiece, along with various objets d'art, in front of a large, framed mirror that is flanked by three-armed wall sconces. The mirror reveals a glimpse of a room with gold-edged pilasters on the outer plane of the rounded wall. An ensemble of pictures beside the fireplace precisely reflects the taste of the time: as well as a portrait we see idyllic landscapes and depictions of a pair of lovers and of an elegant lady against a park-like landscape. André Girordie reproduced further scenes of a decidedly private character in his monograph on Jean Frédéric Schall: Rouen, Collection Louis Deglatigny (Plate XI); Paris, Collection Alfred Lindon (Plate IX); Paris, Collection Octave Homberg (Plate VIII); Paris, Collection Arthur Veil-Picard (Plate V).Literature
André Girodie: Un Peintre de Fêtes Galantes - Jean-Frédéric Schall, Strasbourg 1927REF No. 390
Jean- Frédéric Schall (Straßburg 1752 - Paris 1825) A pair of paintings with female flower-sellers «La Marchande au fleurs au tablier rouge» «Jolie Jardiniere au Chapeau de Paille»
Jean- Frédéric Schall (Straßburg 1752 - Paris 1825) A pair of paintings "Les époux"and "Les fiancés", Paris c. 1790
Johann Alexander Thiele (Erfurt 1685 - 1752 Dresden) Two Views of Constantinople
Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759-1835) "Elegant Society in a Park"
Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (Dijon 1716 - Paris 1803) Suite of four gouaches: Views of Rome
Franz Christoph Janneck (1703-1761) Fêtes champêtres


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India's parliament has approved the country's TV digitisation plan. The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill 2011 was entered onto the statute books, and will force cable operators to digitise their networks in a staged manner but to have the complete country digitised by December 31st 2014.
The new bill also gives India's government the right to cancel licences of cable operators who flout rules, officials said. One question covered MPs' concerns regarding the cost of set-top boxes and whether they would be indigenously manufactured or imported from China and South Korea.
Ambika Soni, minister at the Information & Broadcasting Ministry said efforts were ongoing to ensure that the cost of the set-top boxes were available at affordable prices. "The prices of set-top boxes will fall. These will be available on instalments and rent. Also, viewers do not have to take a whole bouquet of channels. [regulator] TRAI will impose tariff capping for subscribing to channels," she said.
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Back in Yugorsk, Siberia, Ms. Lima demonstrated accomplishment in both the singing and gymnastics worlds during her youth. Studying the athletic form for eleven years between the ages of 5 to 16, Ms. Lima achieved the level of Master in the demanding and exacting sport. At the same time she was busy singing, and her then vocal teacher, Lyudmila Kravchenko, advised Ms. Lima that she had a big vocal range, more than enough for opera, which was proven true when she later won a Young Talent Contest that provided her with a scholarship to attend Moscow's prestigious State Musical School, Gnessin College.
After her years of studying in Moscow, Ms. Lima was driven to achieve a higher singing qualification and to take on a higher level of vocal coaching and decided that she would find what she was looking for in New York City. Currently studying under Mark Schnaibel and Anna Skibinski, Ms. Lima has certainly captured the attention of the Met judges to date, having passed through the first audition to compete in this Regional round.
Opera Idols: Do you come from a musical family? Any singers?
Julia Lima: No, but my mother likes to sing at home just for fun.
OI: Do you have a favourite opera/aria/composer?JL: Mozart is my favourite composer, and Queen of the Nile is my favourite opera.
OI: Any advice to future auditioners/opera singers?
JL: Just don't think when you are up there...it is all about performing.
OI: What has been your best experience at these MONC ER auditions?
JL: When I am on stage!
OI: Do you have any techniques to relax after an audition?
JL: I just try to be here and now in this moment of my life, when I perform.


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Barely brazing 85 percent of my maximum heart rate, I slug up Irons mountain on a crisp spring afternoon, blue bird day with the sun taking intermittent breaks behind sparse puffy clouds feels nice but a harbinger of what summer has in stock. Suddenly it strikes my how many parallels can be drawn between cycling and one's spiritual walk, I ponder this while looking out into the cadenza of yellows, reds and varying shades of blue stratification that would require a true tetrachromic to appreciate I juxtapose my spiritual growth with my improvement in the saddle over the course of my riding "career". Just 2 year ago the idea of riding up this cat3 climb on a bicycle would have been totally absurd to me, the first time I made it to the top the only vista I enjoyed was watching the snot and sweat cocktail run from my face to the tarmac as I desperately toiled to reach some negative elevation figures, today however I can pedal up the same climb, hold a conversation (albeit limited) and still notice the curve of the road as it sneaks its way down the mountain, I am soothed by the vengance with which the leaves on the tree are reborn, I notice how this calls up in me an awe for a Creator. Something inside, something fundamental feels summoned, I feel a sense of privileged to somehow be willing and able to take the time to commune with the creator. A month after I gave my life to Christ I very nearly threw the towel in, I remember at a church service saying to God "this is too hard, I have tried all I can but its just too hard" I decided I was returning to my old life the minute I left that service that night, needless to say God spoke to me in a real way that night making me believe John 6:37. Just like riding if we stay with it we develop spiritual muscle/spiritual endurance with time.
Before I ever fell into cycling, I asked God to help me as I start trying to live for him to get connected to the right people I knew some old friendships had to go and I needed support beyond family. He answered me by sending me a friend in the form of a Giant Rincon 26″, one not with triflow instead of blood coursing through its vein. A friend that if I look hard enough and listen well enough becomes an altar a vessel through which I could be with God.


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Long-running school parking dispute poses a danger to pupils, claim parents
PUBLISHED: 12:26 11 January 2018
Teachers and parents are warning a long-running parking dispute could result in serious harm to a young child if a resolution is not found soon.
Cliff Park Infant and Junior Schools, in Orde Avenue, are pleading with parents to follow the law and stop parking on the road outside the schools.
Problems have arisen due to the fact Orde Avenue is a residential cul-de-sac with no parking along the road – leading to some parents parking in an illegal and dangerous manner during the school run.
Phil Reid, headteacher at Cliff Park Infants, said: "The difficulties with traffic and parking around the school local area have been an ongoing issue for many years and remain a very serious concern for staff, parents, governors and directors.
"The safety of our children and families coming to and from school is of paramount importance."
He added: "We constantly appeal to parents, friends and families to avoid driving along Orde Avenue, park legally and take seriously their role in keeping others safe.
"We believe that by parking away from school and driving with the needs of others in mind, parents and carers will be able to support our children in staying safe."
One parent, Grace Moore, described the horrifying moments her five-year-old daughter slipped into the path of a reversing car.
She said: "It was just before Christmas and it was one of those mornings when the road was really icy.
"There were so many cars parked where they shouldn't have been and we were forced to walk on the road.
"Elsie was walking with her friend's dad when she slipped on the ice behind a reversing car.
"I'm sure reversing car didn't even see her.
She added: "There is nothing to stop people doing dangerous manoeuvres at the end of the cul-de-sac."
Fellow parent Linda Sedgwick condemned the parents who continue to ignore the rules.
She said: "They are educating their children that rules don't apply to them – it's just laziness.
"The school has its hands tied because it is a public road. It's a sad situation people don't see the danger."
If you value what this story gives you, please consider supporting the Great Yarmouth Mercury. Click the link in the orange box above for details.


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The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is an historic botanic garden in Oxford, England. It is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 hectares (4½ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.
In 1621, Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby contributed £5,000 (equivalent to £744,000 in 2005)[1] to set up a physic garden for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning". He chose a site on the banks of the River Cherwell at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, belonging to Magdalen College. Part of the land had been a Jewish cemetery until the Jews were expelled from Oxford (and the rest of England) in 1290. Four thousand cartloads of "mucke and dunge" were needed to raise the land above the flood-plain of the River Cherwell.[2]
Humphry Sibthorp began the catalogue of the plants of the garden, Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Oxoniensis. His youngest son was the well-known botanist John Sibthorp (1758-1796), who continued the Catalogus Plantarum.
The Garden comprises three sections:
- the Walled Garden, surrounded by the original seventeenth century stonework and home to the Garden's oldest tree, an English yew, Taxus baccata;
- the Glasshouses, which allow the cultivation of plants needing protection from the extremes of British weather; and
- the area outside the walled area between the Walled Garden and the River Cherwell.
A satellite site, the Harcourt Arboretum, is located six miles (10 km) south of Oxford.
The Danby Gateway
The Danby gateway to the Botanic Garden is one of three entrances designed[3] by Nicholas Stone between 1632 and 1633. It is one of the earliest structures in Oxford to use classical, indeed early Baroque, style, preceding his new entrance porch for the University Church of St Mary the Virgin of 1637, and contemporary with Canterbury Quad at St John's College by others. In this highly ornate arch, Stone ignored the new simple classical Palladian style currently fashionable, which had just been introduced to England from Italy by Inigo Jones, and drew his inspiration from an illustration in Serlio's book of archways. [4]
The gateway consists of three bays, each with a pediment. The largest and central bay, containing the segmented arch is recessed, causing its larger pediment to be partially hidden by the flanking smaller pediments of the projecting lateral bays.
The stone work is heavily decorated being bands of alternating vermicelli rustication and plain dressed stone. The pediments of the lateral bays are seemingly supported by circular columns which frame niches containing statues of Charles I and Charles II in classical pose. The tympanum of the central pediment contains a segmented niche containing a bust of the Earl of Danby. It is a Grade I listed structure (ref. 1485/423).
Walled garden
- Botanical family beds
The core collection of hardy plants are grouped in long, narrow, oblong beds by botanical family and ordered according to the classification system devised by nineteenth century botanists, Bentham and Hooker. The families represented in the Walled Garden include: Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Apocynaceae, Araceae, Aristolochiaceae, Berberidaceae, Boraginaceae, Campanulaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Cistaceae, Commelinaceae, Compositae, Convolvulaceae, Crassulaceae, Cruciferae, Cyperaceae, Dioscoreaceae, Dipsacaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gentianaceae, Geraniaceae, Gramineae, Hypericaceae, Iridaceae, Juncaceae, Labiatae, Leguminosae, Liliaceae, Linaceae, Loasaceae, Lythraceae, Malvaceae, Onagraceae, Paeoniaceae, Papaveraceae, Phytolaccaceae, Plantaginaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polemoniaceae, Polygonaceae, Portulacaceae, Primulaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Rutaceae, Saxifragaceae, Solanaceae, Umbelliferae, Urticaceae, Verbenaceae, Violaceae.
In 1983, The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG) chose Oxford Botanic Garden to cultivate the national collection of euphorbia. One of the rarest plants in the collection is Euphorbia stygiana, with only ten plants left existing in the wild. The Garden is propagating the species as quickly as possible to reduce the possibility of it becoming extinct.
- Economic beds
Eight beds in the southwest corner of the Garden represent plants used for food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. Examples include Urtica dioica, the common stinging nettle, used in the seventeenth century to make a fabric finer than linen; Tanacetum vulgare, Tansy, previously used to treat intestinal parasites; and Datura stramonium, the thorn apple, currently being tested for treatment of Parkinson's disease.
- Variegated plants
Two beds in the northwest corner of the Garden contain variegated plants laid out according to the classification system devised at the Garden by Professor C. D. Darlington and former Superintendent J. K. Burras in the 1970s. Examples include Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum', a highly invasive plant introduced in the Middle Ages as a potherb boiled like spinach, and used in the treatment of gout; Weigela praecdox 'Variegata', a compact shrub suitable for a small garden; and Cornus alternifolia 'Argentea' known as the pagoda dogwood.
- Hybrids and parents
One bed in the north end of the garden contains some hybrids between species from the same genus. An example includes Viburnum × bodnantense, growing with its parents, V. farreri and V. grandiflorum.
- Bearded irises
One bed in the northeast corner of the garden contains a display of bearded irises each May. Examples include Iris 'Eileen' and Iris 'Golden Encore'. Some of the varieties grown in the Garden are not grown anywhere else.
- Wall borders
The borders along the foot of the wall contain collections that thrive in the microclimate created by the Wall. The cool east border includes ferns, Stachyurus praecox, Astrantia major, and Equisetum telmateia. The dry, shaded south border includes Jasminum nudiflorum, Hydrangea anomala petiolaris, Lonicera fragrantissima and L. × purpusii, and the unusual and rare Ercilla volubilis and Arisarum proboscoideum. The southeast border contains the bamboo collection.
The west and north borders contain plant collections grouped by their geographical origin. The Sino-Japanese collection at the southwest border includes Clerodendrum bungei. The North American collection at the west border includes Fremontodendron californicum. The European collection at the northwest border includes Cliantus puniceus. The Mediterranean collection at the north border includes Euphorbia myrsinites. The South American collection at the north border includes Acca sellowiana. The South African collection at the northeast border includes Kniphofia caulescens.
- Conservatory
The house is an aluminium replica of the original 1893 wooden house and grows seasonal flowers such as primulas, abutilons, fuchsias, and achimenes. Various exhibitions which change throughout the year are displayed in the centre area.
- Alpine House
Plants which cannot grow to their full potential outside are displayed in this house. The displays are changed regularly so that there is always something in flower.
- Fernery
A collection of ferns from around the world are housed here including Platycerium bifurcatum (stag's horn fern), Lygodium japonicum (a climbing fern), and Tricomanes speciosum (a filmy fern native to western Britain).
- Tropical Lily House
The tank in the lily house built in 1851 by Professor Charles Daubeny, Keeper of the Garden at the time, is the oldest existing part of the glasshouses. Tropical water lilies grow in boxes in the tank, including the hybrid Nymphaea × daubenyana named in honour of Professor Daubeny in 1874. Also growing in the house are economic plants including bananas, sugar cane, and rice, and the papyrus reed, Cyperus papyrus, a native of river banks in the Middle East. Flowering high in the glasshouse is the yellow-flowered Allamanda cathartica.
- Orchid House
This house grows a collection of orchids aimed at showing the diversity of growth habit in the Orchidaceae, the largest family of flowering plants in the world. Bromeliads such as Ananas comosus, or pineapple, are also grown in the house.
- Palm House
The largest glasshouse in the Garden, this house grows palms and a large number of economic plants including citrus fruits, pepper, sweet potato, pawpaw, olive, coffee, ginger, coconut, cocoa, cotton, and oil palm. There is a collection of cycads which look like palms but are unrelated. Several important teaching collections present include the Acanthaceae including the shrimp plant Justicia brandegeana, the Gesneriaceae, and a large number of Begonia species.
- Succulent House
Plants in this house come from arid areas of the world and demonstrate ways in which plant forms economise the use of water.
Outside the walled garden
- Rock Garden
- Bog Garden
- River Bank
- Herbaceous Border
- 1648 Collection
- Glasshouse Borders
In literature
The Garden was the site of frequent visits in the 1860s by Oxford mathematics professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pen name Lewis Carroll) and the Liddell children, Alice and her sisters. Like many of the places and people of Oxford, it was a source of inspiration for Carroll's stories in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Garden's waterlily house can be seen in the background of Sir John Tenniel's illustration of "The Queen's Croquet-Ground".
Another Oxford professor and author, J. R. R. Tolkien, often spent his time at the garden reposing under his favourite tree, Pinus nigra. The enormous Austrian pine is much like the Ents of his The Lord of the Rings story,[citation needed] the walking, talking tree-people of Middle-earth.
In the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited, Lord Sebastian Flyte takes Charles Ryder "to see the ivy" soon after they first meet. As he says, "Oh, Charles, what a lot you have to learn! There's a beautiful arch there and more different kinds of ivy than I knew existed. I don't know where I should be without the Botanical gardens" (Chapter One).
In Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials, a bench in the back of the garden is one of the locations/objects that stand parallel in the two different worlds that the protagonists, Lyra Silvertongue and Will Parry, live in.[5] In the last chapter of the trilogy, both promised to sit on the bench for an hour at noon on Midsummer's day every year so that perhaps they may feel each other's presence next to one another in their own worlds.
See also
- ↑ Lawrence H. Officer, "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to 2005". MeasuringWorth.com, 2006, accessed 11 December 2006.
- ↑ Headington.org (whose date for the gateway is wrong).
- ↑ "probably designed", according to Colvin 1995.
- ↑ Pevsner, p.267. Pevsner is almost certainly referring to Tutte l'opere d'architettura, Volume 6. p17. "Libro estraordinario" published in 1584.
- ↑ Leonard, Bill, The Oxford of Inspector Morse Location Guides, Oxford (2004) p.198. ISBN 0-9547671-1-X.
- Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 3rd ed. (Yale University Press) 1995, s.v. "Stone, Nicholas"
- Jennifer Sherwood, Nikolaus Pevsner (1974). The Buildings of England, Oxfordshire. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0 300 09639 9.


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Gathering Storm Over SyriaAugust 28, 2013 at 2:07 pm | Posted in Arms Control, Human Rights, International Relations, World Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: Arms Control, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Kurds, Middle East, Russia, Syria, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States
Grotesque images of children foaming at the mouth as they lay dying from an apparent chemical weapons attack in the eastern suburbs of Damascus on 21 August 2013 was, in the words of US Secretary of State John Kerry, a "moral obscenity." Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reports that the three hospitals it supports in Damascus treated 3,600 patients with symptoms of poisoning and 355 of them have died. While Kerry and his counterparts in Britain, France, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have been quick to blame the attack on the Bashar al-Assad regime they have not yet produced any evidence linking the regime to the attacks. MSF reports that while there are strong indications that thousands of patients were exposed to a neurotoxic agent, they "can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack."
Indeed, the timing of the attack—on the one year anniversary of President Barack Obama's warning to the Assad government that the use of chemical weapons against their adversaries would cross his "red line"—is suspicious. The regime, by all accounts, was pushing back the rebels. Why would it now invite retribution from the West? We don't know what chemicals were used or even who gave the order to launch the chemical weapons. Even if the attack was launched by Syrian government forces, is it possible that it was by a mid-level officer fearful of failure—not because the regime has qualms killing its own people, but because it is not mad enough to invite a hail of missiles?
Washington initially balked at the UN inspectors going to investigate the attack and then when they eventually commenced their inquiry, the White House claimed that the evidence will necessarily be tainted since it was already five days after the attack. Yet, scientists have found the unique chemical signature of sarin in a Kurdish village 4 years after Iraqi warplanes dropped cluster bombs according to a New York Times report and the UN investigators are confident of finding evidence if there are any. Long years of experience have given investigators sophisticated techniques to decipher the use of chemical weapons long after the fact. Tellingly, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem told reporters that the UN asked permission to access the sites of the alleged chemical attacks only on Saturday 24 August and permission was granted the next day! This does not qualify as stalling by any standard. While the investigators have no mandate to determine who was culpable, the fact that their convoy, when escorted by Syrian government forces, was shot at and had to retreat temporarily is also suspicious. Why should the government shoot its own military escorts?
The US and UK governments claim to have incontrovertible evidence that the Assad regime was responsible for the attacks but no such evidence has been presented and journalists do not press them to reveal this secret evidence. As Noam Chomsky noted many years ago, "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." Thus, mainstream media in the US or the UK have not conducted interviews with Syrian government officials—except for a few cameo quotes which are then obscured by long interviews with administration spokesmen—or even the UN inspectors on the ground.
No mention has been made in the mainstream media that Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported in May 2013 that testimony from medical personnel indicated "strongly but not incontrovertibly" that rebel forces were using the nerve agent sarin. In fact, the New York Times edited its online article on the alleged use of chemical weapons 22 times on Monday August 26, mainly to shore up support for the administration's position. And after the Bush White House assurances of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq 10 years ago, claims by the Obama White House of chemical attacks by the Assad regime without any evidence to back it up is equally suspect.
In fact, as veteran journalist Gwynne Dyer notes, if we apply the time-honored test of who benefited from the chemical attack—the only likely answer are one of the many rebel factions knowing that their use will bring retribution on Assad. Indeed, the focus on chemical weapons attack also detracts from the atrocities of the rebels—notably the ethnic cleansing of Kurds in the north-east forcing 40,000 of them to flee to northern Iraq in the biggest refugee exodus of the Syrian civil war. In all the moral fury marshaled by US and UK administrations there is nary a word about this outrage!
What is also remarkable is that left-liberal opinion in the United States is so overjoyed that Obama is not Bush that they do not hold him to the same standards of scrutiny to which they have held other presidents. No large anti-war protests are planned when the US has already stationed four ships and some submarines capable of firing cruise missiles at Syria in the eastern Mediterranean and Prime Minister David Cameron has called back parliament to debate a punitive strike on Syria.
Then again there is the question of legal justification. As it is clear that there will be no mandate from the United Nations Security Council for a punitive strike on Syria since Russia is irremediably opposed to it, justifications are trotted out on what William Hague, the UK Foreign Secretary said was "a great humanitarian need and distress" and claimed that it is based on "international law." It is not clear though which "international law" was being invoked. If it was the international convention on the non-use of chemical and biological weapons, three major states in the Middle East–Egypt, Israel, and Syria–have not ratified it. So Syria is being asked to adhere to a treaty it has not signed—an excellent legal precedent!
US forces have admitted dropping white phosphorus over Fallujah in 2004 and Britain and the United States had supplied chemicals and weapon-making equipment in the 1980s to Saddam Hussein for his war against Iran. But of course, in true imperialist hubris, the laws they impose on others do not apply to themselves.
Not only is there no compelling evidence that the Syrian government had deployed chemical weapons and no legal basis exists for attacking the country, but options to attack are so marginal that they are merely a pointless punitive strike. Israel has attacked Syria with missiles several times without causing any real change in the Assad government's behavior and it is unclear what more can be expected from a US-led NATO strike. Clearly Syria's chemical weapons cannot be targeted as that would cause unimaginable casualties. Syrian government, anticipating an attack would already have reconfigured its command-and-control operations so they do not present an easy target. It is only those command-and-control positions that are not easily moveable which could be attacked and these may cause large civilian casualties as well. Military airfields could be cratered and aircraft bombed and this may hurt the Assad regime in the short run. Even the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has admitted that less than 10 percent of the casualties in the two and a half years of civil war in Syria are accounted by bombs.
The conclusion is inescapable: any attack on Syria is simply to counter domestic opponents who claim that the Obama is weak. His Republican nemesis, John McCain and his allies have been hunkering for a more muscular American response to Syria even though it would raise military spending and further complicate the budgetary situation in Washington. But Obama can now become a 'war president.' For that, many Syrians will die a senseless death.
Even worse, launching missile strikes against the Assad regime will complicate the current moribund peace talks which are the only way to resolve the crisis. Here, too the US is torpedoing efforts to bring the warring parties together by insisting that Syria's close ally, Iran, be excluded from it. There are so many rebel factions—some 1,200 different military units by Patrick Cockburn's count ranging from small family outfits to large organized units with tanks and artillery—that they cannot even agree on a delegation to represent them. It is as he says "a failed country and a failed opposition."
This is not a situation that calls for surgical air strikes. If the Obama administration really wants to bring peace, it needs to cooperate with Russia and get their regional allies to sit together at a conference table after agreeing to a cease fire.
Syria in the Age of Punitive Missile StrikesAugust 27, 2013 at 2:15 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Tags: Arab League, Arms Control, Australia, Egypt, Human Rights, international relations, interstate system, intervention, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Middle East, NATO, Syria, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States, world politics
US Secretary of State John Kerry has condemned the apparent chemical attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus on 21 August 2013, the Syrian capital, as a "moral obscenity" and a spokesman for the British Prime Minister David Cameron called it "completely abhorrent." Almost a year ago to the day, on 20 August 2012, President Barack Obama had warned his Syrian counterpart that the use of chemical weapons would cross his "red line." The US has already positioned four ships armed with cruise missiles in the eastern Mediterranean and aircraft may also be launched from Britain's Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus a mere 100 miles from Syria's coast.
Though Kerry and Cameron are categorical in blaming the Bashar al-Assad regime for the chemical attacks, no proof has been produced to back these assertions nor has it been determined as to what chemicals had been used. No precise casualty counts are available and no one know who, if anyone, gave the order to use chemical weapons. When UN inspectors went to Syria, their convoy escorted by the Syrian military came under fire and they had to withdraw briefly before resuming their inspection. The White House claims that since these inspections come five days after the attack the evidence will necessary be tainted and has decided to ignore the investigation and its results just as the Bush White House "knew" there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as it launched the disastrous attack on that country ten years ago. Once again, the United States and the United Kingdom have appointed themselves the international judge, jury, prosecutor, and executioner in an untrammeled exercise of hubris.
Once the decision to go to war has been taken in the councils of state in Washington, London, Paris, and Sydney (Australia begins its term as chair of the UN Security Council besides being a reliable side kick to the Washington-London anglo-saxon axis), the press has rushed to beat the war drums in support. The New York Times edited its online article on the alleged use of chemical weapons 22 times yesterday, mainly to shore up support for the administration's position. Crucially, there has been no report that Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported in May 2013 that testimony from medical personnel indicated "strongly but not incontrovertibly" that rebel forces were using the nerve agent sarin. This finding and the attack on UN inspectors being escorted by the military should at least create doubt on who actually used the chemical weapons, if indeed these were used.
Then again there is the question of legal justification. As it is clear that there will be no mandate from the United Nations Security Council for a punitive strike on Syria, justifications are trotted out on what William Hague, the UK Foreign Secretary said was "a great humanitarian need and distress" and claimed that it is based on "international law." It is not clear though which "international law" was being invoked. if it was the international convention on the non-use of chemical and biological weapons, three major states in the Middle East–Egypt, Israel, and Syria–have not ratified it. Prime Minister Cameron thundered:
"Almost 100 years ago, the whole world came together and said that the use of chemical weapons was morally indefensible and completely wrong. What we have seen in Syria are appalling scenes of death and suffering because of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
"I don't believe we can let that stand. Of course any action we take, or others take, would have to be legal, would have to be proportionate. It would have to be specifically to deter the future use of chemical weapons.
"This is not about getting involved in a Middle Eastern war or changing our stance in Syria or going further into that conflict. It is nothing to do that. It is about chemical weapons. Their use is wrong, and the world shouldn't stand idly by."
But this conveniently glossed over the inconvenient fact that Britain and the United States had supplied chemicals and weapon-making equipment in the 1980s to Saddam Hussein for his war against Iran.
And in the United States, the War Powers Resolution of 1973 precludes the president from going to war without congressional authorization except in self-defence. Candidate Obama had unequivocally stated in response to a direct question that:
The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.
As Commander-in-Chief, the President does have a duty to protect and defend the United States. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent.
Of course, as president, he had not sought Congressional approval for US actions in Libya two years ago, claiming that it was very limited in scope.
Not only is there no compelling evidence that the Syrian government had deployed chemical weapons and no legal basis for attacking the country, but options to attack are so marginal that they are merely a pointless punitive strike. Israel has attacked Syria with missiles several times without causing any real change in the Assad governments behavior and it is unclear what more can be expected from a US-led NATO strike. Clearly Syria's chemical weapons cannot be targeted as that would cause unimaginable casualties. Syrian government, anticipating an attack would already have reconfigured its command-and-control operations so they do not present a clear target. It is only those command-and-control positions that are not easily moveable which could be attacked and these may cause civilian casualties as well.
The Washington Post reports that a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on the week of August 19-23, the very week in which television images of the alleged chemical attack flickered across television screens, only 9 percent of the respondents supported a military intervention in Syria. It is clear that there is no support for an extensive intervention either by troops on the ground or a prolonged air strike against the Syrian forces and in any case President Obama has ruled out regime change.
The conclusion is inescapable: any attack on Syria is simply to counter domestic opponents who claim that the Obama is weak. For that some Syrians will die a senseless death.
Hail to the Chief!
Western Imperialism, Libya, and the Arab RevoltsMarch 22, 2011 at 3:42 am | Posted in democracy, International Relations, World Politics | 3 Comments
Tags: France, Global South, India, international relations, interstate system, intervention, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Middle East, North Africa, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, US hegemony
The United States and some of its European allies have once again launched an attack against a state in the Global South–this time as a humanitarian intervention to prevent Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from 'slaughtering' his opponents in Libya, and backed by a United Nations Security Council resolution and a resolution by the League of Arab States. Strikingly, none of the combatant governments–the United States, Britain, France, or the lesser European powers–sought legislative approval for before launching missiles and war planes against Libya. For an assault against a third-rate military power, it seems such democratic niceties need not be observed.
Even if it was a foregone conclusion that their national legislatures would have supported the assault against Colonel Gaddafi's forces–as the British House of Commons did by a lopsided margin–this was largely due to a blanketing of other options in the mainstream media which made no mention of the ad hoc commission established by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to mediate between the Colonel and his opponents. Equally importantly, in the absence of a detailed debate, there has been little planning on what would happen were a stalemate to develop–a possibility that Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff admitted was a real possibility–or in a post-Gaddafi Libya
Indeed, this is hardly a war against Libya. The superiority of the United States in the air is so overwhelming that as Tom Englehardt has noted there is no element of danger for the pilots of US planes who last faced a serious threat in Vietnam in the early 1970s. The Serbian air force did not even bother to take to the air in the war over Kosovo, and in the First Gulf War, the powerful Iraqi air force flew most of its planes to Iran rather than engage with the US-led forces. For American pilots it is as safe to bomb another country as it is to pilot drones over Afghanistan from the Creech Air Force base in Nevada where "those leaving [the base] pass that warns them to "drive carefully" as this is "the most dangerous part of your day"!
With the absence of any danger to US pilots, this resembles colonial wars where well-armed European troops mowed down with their repeater rifles hordes of native warriors armed only with spears and bows and arrows. Once American planes have taken out all Libyan air defense systems, British and French planes will enforce a no-fly zone, again at no risk to themselves. Underlining the suspension of the ordinary calculus of war, President Barack Obama embarked on his previously scheduled tour of three South American states even as his planes and missiles were pounding Libya.
For NIcolas Sarkozy of France, after the right wing Front National led by Marine Le Pen made historic gains in the first round of municipal elections, an image as a 'war President' may just be the thing to propel him to victory in next year's presidential elections–damn the consequences for Libyans, in true imperialist tradition!
But the sheer ferocity of the assault is causing anguish even among those who initially called for the imposition of a no-fly zone. Though the League of Arab States had called for the imposition of a no-fly zone, images of the carnage wrought by missiles and bombs led its Secretary-General Amr Moussa to say after the second day of air strikes: "what is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians." Intense pressure however made him back-track, despite widespread revulsion in the Arab world at the carnage sustained by Libyan civilians. Nevertheless, only two small states–Qatar and the United Arab Emirates–among the 22-member states of the League have agreed to take part in war effort. Russia and China which abstained from the Security Council vote have voiced concerns about the attacks and India, which also abstained from the Security Council resolution, became the first country to call for a cessation of air strikes.
The role of the League of Arab States also appears compromised. First, Robert Fisk reported that Washington had asked Saudi Arabia to furnish arms to the rebels in Benghazi to which King Abdullah, facing his own problems, had failed to respond even though he loathes the Libyan leader who had tried to have him assassinated just over a year ago. Then the Wall Street Journal reported that with Washington's encouragement and knowledge, the Egyptian military had begun to slip arms to the rebels. This raises the question of whether the post-Mubarak regime is going to play the role of another Western puppet–indeed Amr Moussa sudden back-tracking of his condemnation of the killings of civilians in the Western air raids gives no assurance of an independent regime emerging from the ashes of Mubarak's autocracy. Indeed, it may well be that as Ali Abunimah wrote in the Electronic Intifada: "The greatest danger to the Egyptian revolution and the prospects for a free and independent Egypt emanates not from the baltagiyya–the mercenaries and thugs the regime sent to beat, stone, stab, shoot and kill protestors in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities– but from Washington."
Many of the commentators who support the assault against forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi suggest, even if grudgingly, that only the Western powers have the means to stop his slaughter of his opponents. This is not only to conveniently forget that the Colonel has ruled Libya with an iron hand but also that after he agreed to give up his weapons of mass destruction and join the war on terror, Western powers cosied up to him for lucrartive arms and oil contracts.
It is also to ignore that the African Union had opposed military intervention in the Libyan conflict and that the AU's own ad hoc commission which Colonel Gaddafi had agreed to meet was not permitted to work as Western military intervention effectively ruled out a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Most importantly, there appears to be no clarity on the goals of the air attacks on Libya. The British and American military leaderships claim that the removal of Colonel Gaddafi is not the aim of the air strikes–and indeed not within the scope of the Security Council resolution–but their political leaderships assert that regime change is indeed the goal. Responding to the attacks, the Libyan regime has said that it would arm civilians to fight against 'crusader colonialists'–this could lead to a prolonged conflict were the regime to be deposed as what is left of his forces and supporters launch a bloody civil war. A civil war on the footsteps of Europe could lead to a flood of refugees and may well pave the way to occupation. Alternatively, in the case of a stalemate, Benghazi and eastern Libya may turn into a Western protectorate.
No-fly zones, Libya and the Arab RevoltMarch 17, 2011 at 8:26 pm | Posted in democracy, Human Rights, International Relations, World Politics | 2 Comments
Tags: African Union, Arab League, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Germany, India, interstate system, intervention, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Middle East, NATO, North Africa, Oman, Palestine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, US hegemony, Yemen
The United Nations Security Council–with the abstention of Russia, China, Germany, India, and Brazil–has done what military analysts have said would be folly: it has voted to impose a 'no-fly zone' on Libya and 'take all necessary action' short of 'a foreign occupation force of any form' to force Colonel Muammar Gaddafi out of power. 'All necessary action' could involve a 'no-drive zone' to cripple the Libyan regime's armored vehicles from attacking Benghazi, Misrata, Tobruk, and other remaining rebel strongholds as well as sending in military advisers.
Advocates of the resolution have evoked humanitarian reasons–chiefly the regime's brutal counter-assault using its air force and paramilitary forces to roll back the rebels–for intervention. This is buttressed by the belief that Libya is not even a third-rate power and its defenses can easily be destroyed. And the rebels are clothed in the accoutrements of democracy though the only thing that unifies the rebels is their opposition to the Gaddafi regime and it is not clear what a post-Gaddafi Libya will look like or even whether it will remain unified.
If humanitarian reasons are the chief justification, then it is clear that there is a double standard that is applied. Much has been made of the Arab League's call for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, but there has been no report of the fact that it was opposed by both Syria and Algeria. The states in support of the resolution–Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Oman, and Yemen–are hardly paragons of democracy. The governments of Yemen and Bahrain have brutally crushed demonstrations in their own countries; and Saudi Arabia and four other Gulf Cooperation Council states have sent more than 2000 troops to Bahrain to help the regime stay in power! Saudi Arabia has moreover prohibited protests in its eastern province, declaring such protests "illegal and un-Islamic"–and Saudi Arabia has more than 8,000 political prisoners!
More importantly, there has been virtually no report in mainstream media in the West, that the African Union has condemned attempts to impose a no-fly zone on Libya. The AU's 15-member peace and security council resolved, to "reaffirm[s] its firm commitment to the respect of the unity and territorial integrity of Libya, as well as its rejection of any form of foreign intervention in Libya." It formed an ad hoc committee composed of South Africa, Mauritania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to engage in dialogue with all parties in Libya for a speedy resolution of the crisis.
There is no certainty that the military operation will be a smooth and easy one. Less than a month ago, US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, had told cadets at West Point that any secretary of defense who advises a president to intervene militarily in Asia or Africa ought to have his head examined. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that even the imposition of a 'no-fly zone' let alone all the other 'necessary actions' voted on by the Security Council will be "an extraordinarily complex operation to set up"–and of course, the major burden will be on the United States which is already engaged in two wars. British Prime Minister David Cameron may have led the charge for a 'no-fly zone' but Britain does not even have an aircraft carrier! General Wesley Clark, who commanded NATO forces in Kosovo, has argued that intervention in Libya does not meet critical tests: it is not in US national interest, the purpose of intervention is not clear, political prospects were Gaddafi to be ousted is unclear.
A 'no-fly zone' moreover, might have had a chance of success ten days ago when the Gaddafi regime launched its counter-assault. Now with the rebels in full retreat, and the regime ascendant–with the regime poised to assault the rebel capital of Benghazi–it is not clear whether a no-fly zone alone will suffice. A 'no-drive zone' is an even more 'complex operation' and increases the odds of British, American, and French casualties–Germany has refused to contribute troops to a NATO operation against Libya and Turkey is unlikely to participate as well. Colonel Gaddafi has promised to take the battle into the Mediterranean and that increases the prospects of Western civilian casualties and an escalation of the war. It will be a war Gaddafi may well lose, but it is not likely that NATO can extricate itself easily–and remember there is no international sanction for a foreign occupation force 'of any form' in the Security Council resolution!
If intervention is to promote democracy, George Monbiot notes that the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Libya 158th of 167 countries on its Democracy Index while Saudi Arabia is ranked 160th–and in Libya "women are not officially treated as lepers were in medieval Europe."
Here, the double standard is all too obvious. Saudi Arabia in the only remaining "swing producer"–the only oil-producing nation with enough excess capacity to raise production if supplies fall short of demand. But US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks suspect that Saudi claims of reserves are exaggerated by almost 40 percent.
The Arab Revolt is not really about democracy–elections have not delivered results in the past, and when election results have angered the United States as in the Hamas triumph in Palestine, the US has condemned the results and applauded Israel's punitive punishment of Gaza. The protests are about a wholesale change–not merely a change of rulers–because where there is a legal opposition, the opposition is often equally discredited.
Key to the revolt has been an explosion of information–not only through al-Jazeera, but also through the Internet, travel, and TV–and the enormous growth of people aged below 25 to levels unmatched almost anywhere else. The youth exposed to a wider range of information and experiences have greater aspirations–and now that two of the tyrants have been ousted, the sense of empowerment is raised as Brian Whittaker notes.
It is this sense of empowerment that will take a beating if Western forces occupy Libya for a long while. It will signal pro-Western governments in the Persian Gulf–Saudi Arabia and the other oil-rich sheikdoms that they can count on mealy-mouthed appeals for restraint from Washington, London, and Paris as they crush their domestic oppositions. Ironically, this may play well in Iran's favor. The Islamic Republic is very careful not to portray the conflicts in a sectarian light: if it can portray it as an attack on Muslims, and when Saudi Arabia, the Custodian of Holy Places, sends its troops to slaughter other Muslims, Iran raised the issue not with the Arab League but with the Organization of Islamic Conference. The Iranian Foreign Minister asked the Conference: "How can one accept that a government has proceeded to invite foreign military forces for the crackdown of its own citizens?" Tehran will gain even more credibility with the Arab forces when American, British, and French forces intervene in Libya.
An Occupation in ShamblesOctober 27, 2010 at 9:32 pm | Posted in Political Economy | 1 Comment
Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, US hegemony
As last week's reports of NATO allowing free passage to Taliban leaders, even ferrying them on NATO helicopters, for negotiations with the Hamid Karzai regime indicate, President Obama's deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan has been a spectacular failure. It has failed to dislodge the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and as Scott Atran wrote in the New York Times, the Taliban leadership is contemplating negotiations not because they "fear defeat at the hands of the Americans, but because they worry that their new generation of midlevel commanders is getting out of control.
Insurgent attacks, he reports, are up 60 percent thus far this year compared to 2009 according to UN reports and Taliban numbers are up tenfold since 2001 and there is not a single unit of the Afghan Army that "can hold its own against the Taliban troops."
Continued drone attacks across the border in Pakistan has solidified local support for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda–or at the very least turned public opinion against the United States. After that country has suffered the worst drought in its history, and at one time one-fifth of its land was under water, not only has US aid not matched aid to other countries suffering catastrophic natural disasters, but to also expect the country to prosecute a 'war on terror' rather than rebuilding its shattered infrastructure boggles the mind!
Meanwhile, President Karzai's government is increasingly blase about accepting wads of euros from the Iranians (and presumably others) in a blatantly corrupt administration. And across the border, in Iraq, Wikileaks have exposed official US military documents recording instance upon instance of torture by Iraqi forces on the civilian population.
Underlining the incoherence of the current policy, NATO is approaching Russia for military assistance in Afghanistan–precisely when they are negotiating with the Taliban. Does anyone remember that it was the Mujahideen which drove out Soviet troops with American assistance. While this is in part, because supply lines through Pakistan is no longer secure and Russia provides the only available alternate supply route, it would incense the Taliban that the NATO is trying to entice into a coalition with the Karzai government. Can such a policy be outbidden for sheer incoherence and downright stupidity? Or is it merely a sign of complete desperation?
Shifting Geopolitical SandsOctober 22, 2010 at 8:43 pm | Posted in Political Economy | Leave a comment
Tags: Afghanistan, Asia, China, India, international relations, interstate system, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Turkey, US hegemony
Two events this week–Chinese overtures to a Turkey that had angrily reacted to Beijing's suppression of Uyghur protests in Xinjiang last year and NATO's invitation to Iran to attend security briefings on Afghanistan–are indicative of major ongoing geopolitical shifts. After the Second World War, as the United States rose to a position of world hegemony and European colonial empires were dissolved, new geopolitical regions were created–Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, etc–while older geopolitical regions–Central Asia, Central Europe, etc–were erased by the fissures of the Cold War. The new post-Second World War regionalizations often violated long historical connections–as between South Asia and the Middle East on the one hand, and between South Asia and Southeast Asia on the other. Again, the Middle East was cordoned off from Central Asia (then under Soviet rule) while China was walled off from US client states in East Asia and from Southeast Asia. In East and Southeast Asia, by the early 21st century, these Cold war divides have been replaced by greater regional integration that more closely resemble the pre-capitalist Sino-centered tributary trade system as Mark Selden has recently argued.
On the Western frontiers of Asia, the increasing prominence of Turkey, India, and Iran suggest a similar realignment of forces that resemble earlier alliances between the Ottomans and the Mughals, though in a vastly changed geopolitical ecology.
Since it came to power in the elections of 2002, the Justice and Development Party (or AKP–its acronym in Turkish) has broken partly with the Kemalist republic's orientation to the West to leverage its multiple regional identities–as a Balkan, Black Sea, Caspian, Central Asian, European, and Mediterranean state–to become a regional and global power. Rather than brusquely disavow its pro-Western stance, Ahmet Davutoglu, the party's chief foreign policy expert and now the Foreign Affairs Minister, advocated a "zero problems with neighbors" policy.
Defly exploiting the street cred it acquired by refusing US troops permission to pass through its territory for the invasion of Iraq, Ankara began to mediate between Syria and Israel till the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza in Operation Cast Lead caused Turkey to break off the talks. Turkey's steadfast support to the Palestinians has won it the support of Arabs, especially since President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is 82 and less active and the veteran Saudi foreign minister Saud al Feusal allegedly has Parkinson's disease. Relations with its neighboring states has also been strengthened since the financial crisis beginning in 2008 which led to falls in Turkish exports to the EU and to a rise in its exports to its eastern neighbors.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Davutoglu engaged in shuttle diplomacy between Tiblisi and Moscow as Russian troops intervened on behalf of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008 during a brief war. Ankara has also promoted a series of meetings between Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia.
More crucially, along with President Lula of Brazil, Erdogan has intervened in the dispute between the US and its allies and Iran over the latter's nuclear energy program. Equally importantly, in November 2008, Davutoglu became in November 2009, the first high-level Turkish official to visit to the Kurdish Regjonal Government in northern Iraq which is akin to an Indian foreign minister visiting Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Meanwhile, India has emerged as the largest regional donor of reconstruction aid to Afghanistan, Relations between India and Afghanistan had been close till the Taliban captured power in 1996. Now, the US occupation forces and India share a common goal in eliminating Islamic extremists and it is telling that Pakistan was not invited to the high-level NATO security briefing that was attended by Iran. In large part, this is the result of the US promoting India as a regional counter-weight to China but also in part due to the relationship between the Pakistani military and intelligence services with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The US is also courting India to provide a counter-weight to Iran.
Despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's vocal opposition to Israel's brutal oppression of the Palestinians and to US policies more generally, Iran's growing influence in Iraq and Afghanistan where US forces are bogged down in a war they cannot win implies that the US can only extricate their forces with Iranian cooperation or an entire region with much of the world's proven oil reserves will endure decades of political instability.
When much attention has been focussed on regional integration in east and southeast Asia, the developments sketched here suggest that there is a parallel re-emergence of regional linkages between west and south Asia. This suggests that the geopolitical regions of the world are being reshaped with much of East and Southeast Asia being reoriented towards China, while Turkey, India, and Iran are emerging as important regional powers in a re-contoured 'geographical pivot of history,'
Peering Beyond the US Midterm ElectionsOctober 19, 2010 at 11:17 pm | Posted in Political Economy | Leave a comment
Tags: 21st Century Capitalism, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Manufacturing, US Economy
What is likely to happen if the Republicans win control of one or both houses of Congress? The issues underlying the discontent of voters stem from the loss of employment and increasing inequality; of losing homes sold on dreams while they see the bankers walk away with millions of dollars in bonuses; fear of a further erosion of jobs overseas or to immigrants; belief that if only government spending is lower, taxes will fall and conditions will be better for the poor.
Regardless of the propaganda that it is unfair currency manipulation by other countries that is leading to a loss of jobs, the underlying cause is very different and no politician or party has a solution to the problem. Well paying jobs are disappearing because of technological changes. The evidence is everywhere–growth of emails and the Internet leads to a decline of post office jobs; the internet is as much of a threat to shopping malls and big box stores as these were to main streets; automated check-in machines at airports decimates counter staff; Netflix has spelt the doom of bricks and mortar video stores. No political party or economist has the remotest idea of what to do in these conditions, least of all the know-nothing Republicans affiliated to the Tea Party!
If other countries were to raise the value of their currencies, it means that they will no longer buy as many dollars as they had to keep their currencies "undervalued." It was the repatriation of current account surpluses and domestic savings from China and other countries through their purchase of US dollars that enabled them to manipulate exchange rates. This massive inflow of capital enabled the Bush–and now Obama–Administration to fight two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while cutting taxes. Without such capital inflows, taxes would have to rise or the US military will have to turn tail and slink back.
Perhaps, this is may explain why the US has swallowed a bitter pill and invited high Iranian representatives to in-depth briefings on Afghanistan by the military commander, General David Petreus and even begun to transport Taliban leaders to Kabul for talks in NATO aircraft. Iran's footprint has also solidified in Iraq where the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, allied to Iran, has emerged as king-maker. Any move against Iran will unravel US plans to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Despite all this, if the Congress cuts taxes, it would mean cutting into the bone of welfare state, removing any semblance of a safety net under the poor. It will exacerbate the income gap between the rich and poor, already wider than at any time since the 1920s since a Republican victory in the elections will ensure that the rich cats will continue to walk away with bonuses in the seven and eight figures. Why else will they contribute so disproportionately to Republican candidates in the current election?
All of this does not even begin to address the military situation. What will the neocons make of the Taliban being invited back into power in Afghanistan and Iran exercising considerable influence in Iraq. And the Iraqi oil? Estimates of Iraq's proven oil reserves has increased by almost 20 billion barrels but all of this is being exploited by Russian, Chinese, and other Asian companies–not US Big Oil!
From the Indispensable Nation to a Very Dispensable OneOctober 18, 2010 at 7:53 pm | Posted in Political Economy | 9 Comments
Tags: Afghanistan, international relations, interstate system, Iraq, military, US hegemony, world politics
How has it come to this–US-led NATO forces promising safe conduct to the Taliban to negotiate a pact with the puppet government in Kabul to put a face-saving gloss over the inevitable US defeat? Less than two decades ago, the United States had seemed to be the pivot of world politics, the only superpower in the tectonic shifts that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. No state could challenge its power–and when Saddam Hussein's Iraq dared to invade Kuwait, for the first time since the Korean War, the United States was able to send its forces to battle under the UN flag.
After the swift and brutal victory over Iraq, the Clinton Administration set about setting the rules of world trade, free trade reigned triumphant over the air waves, and when Serbia tried to prevent the secession of Kosovo, US-led NATO forces quickly enabled the rebel province to break free of Belgrade without suffering a single US military casualty. US supremacy over the air was so dominant that the Iraqi and Serbian combat planes did not even attempt to take to the air. The normal calculus of war, Perry Anderson announced, had been suspended.
After the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, the United States quickly mobilized its forces for an assault on Afghanistan. No other military force could have so quickly attacked a country that it did not border. Though the US did not invoke the collective defense clause of the NATO treaty, member states offered their assistance–an offer the US accepted only after the Taliban government had been run out of power, preferring troops only from its Anglophone allies for the invasion itself.
The quick dispersal of the Taliban government emboldened the Bush Administration to train its guns on Iraq once again. This time, key members of the Security Council–Russia, China, France, and Germany–were unwilling to confer legitimacy to a clearly illegal invasion. Massive street marches across the world signaled popular opposition to an invasion of Iraq. Yet once the invasion began, President Chirac allowed US warplanes to fly freely across French airspace and Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer hoped for a speedy collapse of the Iraqi 'resistance.'
As US forces occupied Iraq, Gregg Easterbrook declared the arms race over. "The extent of American military superiority," he crowed, "has become almost impossible to overstate. The United States sent five of its nine supercarrier battle groups to the region for the Iraq assault. A tenth Nimitz-class supercarrier is under construction. No other nation possesses so much as one supercarrier, let alone nine battle groups ringed by cruisers and guarded by nuclear submarines."
"Any attempt to build a fleet that threatens the Pentagon's would be pointless," he claimed, "because if another nation fielded a threatening vessel, American attack submarines would simply sink it in the first five minutes of any conflict. (The new Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine is essentially the futuristic supersub of "The Hunt for Red October" made real.) Knowing this, all other nations have conceded the seas to the United States, a reason American forces can sail anywhere without interference. The naval arms race — a principal aspect of great-power politics for centuries — is over."
With such military assets, the United States could act arbitrarily, violating international law with impunity but this time the tables were quickly turned against the mightiest power in history. Massive resistance on the ground with improvised explosives clearly established the vulnerable underbelly of US power. Small organized resistance groups and suicide bombers were able to inflict unacceptable casualties on the US led forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Iraq, US General David Petreus sought eventually to cut their losses by incorporating some 100,000 members of the resistance from the Sunni minority into a revamped Iraqi army. However, once the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Maliki invited the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to join the government, the Sunni fighters began to desert with the weapons to the al-Qaeda.
Just as the situation in Iraq is unravelling, so is the situation in Afghanistan, prompting the invitation to the Taliban for talks with the Kabul government. What is particularly striking about the defeat staring the United States in the face in Afghanistan and Iraq is that these are very different from Vietnam. In Vietnam, the national liberation movement was supported by the USSR and China, and enjoyed the support from majority of the world's governments. The resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq have no support, Afghanistan has been in a state of constant war practically since the Soviet invasion of the country in 1978. No sooner that Iraq concluded its disastrous 10-year war with Iran, its attempts to conquer Kuwait led to defeat in the First Gulf War. Between the end of the First Gulf War and the US invasion in 2003, American and British airplanes dropped more bombs on Iraq than had been dropped in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. And yet, these insurgencies have triumphed over the mightiest military force in history–nuclear weapons and aircraft carriers simply cannot stack up against unconventional forces.
Rather than confronting these serious and potentially fatal problems, the commentariat in the United States contends itself with meaningless debates on the advisability of burning the Koran or building a mosque in Manhattan.
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During the PlayStation Experience, Square-Enix gave everyone exactly what they've been asking for since E3 2015. That's right, it's actual gameplay footage of the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII Remake.
As you can see, the combat is very much like that of the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. This isn't turn based like the original FFVII, but features live-action combat. Let's not forget to mention the new graphics and voice over work which make the whole package just stunning. THIS is how you remake a game, people.
No word yet on a release date or release window so stay tuned for that.


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by Claire Star
As we've mentioned, Nicole and I are always sending each other the cool things we discover. Sometimes it's a photo of a cute dog, other days it's an article that we couldn't stop thinking about days later. Here's the first post in a new series about some of our best discoveries.
The Worst Crimes Fashion Has Committed Against Jeans in Recent Memory
As a self-professed jean lover, some of the recent denim trends have me seriously cringing. I've been less than enthused to see the return of uneven hems, rips, and bizarre silhouettes. Here, a summary of some of the worst offenses to the sanctity of jeans.
A Nap Hangout
One afternoon last spring, my best friend had just returned home from school across the country and I was so excited to see her. We wanted to do something fun but, between my gearing up for finals week and my friend having recently finished hers, we were exhausted. Sitting on her bed, we quickly fell asleep brainstorming low-key things to do. A few hours later, we awoke refreshed enough to go to a late $4 movie at the Crest. It turns out we were on to something: the nap hangout.
Canada's Giant Spherical Treehouse Hotels Let You Sleep in the Trees
If I could conquer my fear of heights (and, um, camping), this would be the perfect place to go "glamping."
The Life, Death and Rebirth of "New York's Coffee Cup" Anthora
Remember NYC's iconic Greek-style coffee cup? The one featured on every TV show, a ceramic replica of which is sold at the Museum of Modern Art gift shop? It was the paper cup that sparked today's to go cup culture. I learned this factoid (and so many more about the cup's history) from this engaging article. Psst: you'll be seeing them again soon on New York streets.
Mapping the Shadows of New York City: Every Building, Every Block
I love New York City, but I find one of the most challenging aspects about living there to be the lack of light. This interactive map shows the shadows cast by buildings on every Manhattan block through the seasons. I'd look at this map were I on the hunt for an apartment. (I also just have a thing for maps.)
What have you read and enjoyed recently? We'd love to hear in the comments!
// Bedroom via Therese Johansen
Tags: by Claire, Art, Design, Friends, New York, Style, Travel, What We Bookmarked
What have you read and enjoyed recently? We'd love to hear in the comments!
// Bedroom via Therese Johansen
Tags: by Claire, Art, Design, Friends, New York, Style, Travel, What We Bookmarked


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Webinar: Navigating the Digital Storefront & Insight Report
March 26
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Reviewing a Use Case, America Makes will host a webinar for members to learn how to navigate the Digital Storefront and Insight Report.
To get the most out of the webinar please be sure that you have received your credentials to access the Digital Storefront. Anyone requesting access to the Digital Storefront MUST Complete the ITAR Digital Storefront Policy Form.


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Congress Should Increase HOME Funding to $1.2 Billion in FY 2018
HOME Coalition Sends Letter to Congress and Collecting HOME Success Story to Advocate for Funding Increase
The HOME Coalition is urging Congress to increase funding for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) to $1.2 billion in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill.
Congress is writing and negotiating the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Appropriations bills following the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 raised the caps for discretionary spending. Congress now has the opportunity to address the urgent need for housing resources for low-income families and communities.
For over 20 years, HOME has been one of the most effective, flexible, and locally driven tools to help states and communities address their most pressing housing challenges.
Recent cuts to HOME from more than $1.8 billion in 2010 to $950 million in 2017 have only made it more difficult for America's most vulnerable households to access a safe, decent, and affordable home.
Adequate funding for HOME is even more important this year as we anticipate HOME will be needed to provide additional gap financing in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit) deals impacted by the lower corporate tax rates enacted as part of tax reform and as states and localities across the country redirect their HOME funds to respond and rebuild after natural disasters.
Earlier in this appropriations cycle, over 1,500 organizations signed on the HOME Coalition's letter supporting funding for the HOME Program in the FY 2018 Appropriations bill. Monarch Housing was proud to be one of the almost 50 organizations from New Jersey that signed the letter.
The HOME Coalition continues to accept HOME success stories showing the impact of the HOME Program and giving a face to who the program serves. We want to show the wide range of HOME so please consider sharing how you have used HOME for:
- supportive housing,
- rebuilding homes after natural disasters,
- for gap financing with the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), etc.
These success stories will be shared with members of Congress and the Administration. Please use this HOME success story template and submit stories to Althea Arnold or Clay Kerchof.
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