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The Lacemaker and the Princess

The Lacemaker and the Princess is a historical novel set in France in 1788. It involves real characters, including the royal family. Our heroine, Isabelle, is made up, although the author explains that there could very well have been a girl like her in 1788 France.

Isabelle has been making lace since she was 4 years old; she’s now 11. Her mother is a lacemaker, as is her grandmother, and so on. When Isabelle is sent to the palace to deliver lace, she manages to meet the queen—Marie Antoinette—who asks her to be a playmate for the princess. The queen believes that it’s important for Therese to play with normal children, to not always put on the airs of a princess.

It’s kind of a sham, though—Therese and her playmates are dressed in identical clothes, made by the royal dressmakers even if they are plain in design. They play in a model farm where everything is sweet-smelling and idyllic. Any reader who knows even a little bit about history knows that this is all going to be short-lived. The king, portrayed as a weak ruler unable to make a decision, is running his country into the ground. Revolution is brewing.

Isabelle finds herself caught between her family and her friend, between the comforts of the palace and the inequality she sees around her, between the fear and distrust of the townspeople and a queen she loves.

SPOILER ALERT: Things you might want to know before suggesting this to your kid

Squick Factor

If your kid has issues with vermin, this might not be the book for them. Lice and fleas are commonplace. Even in the palace, rats fight loudly in the corners all night. It’s good insight into the time period, but it comes up pretty frequently and it’s pretty gross to modern sensibilities.

Isabelle’s Grandmere is pretty awful. She’s nasty and angry and never has a nice word to say. She always tells Isabelle how useless she is. She abuses her emotionally and physically. Then she has a stroke and is just another mouth to feed until she dies.

Isabelle’s father is dead and her mother is crippled—her hands swell, making it very hard for her to make lace. She’s often drugged up on laudanum. She means well, but is also frequently pretty nasty to Isabelle. In the end, though, their relationship is better.

Isabelle’s brother, George, is her hero. At 14, he works in the stables—his work day is so long that he just lives there. He does his best to watch out for his sister, warning her about how the tides are turning. He serves the role of conscience.

Therese desperately wants her parents to pay attention to her, but they are frequently busy and distracted. Her brother, the Dauphin, is dying. Her youngest brother is 3, and he’s adorable and sweet.

What does it mean to be friends? Therese is used to ordering people around, including her friends. She tries to exact a promise from Isabelle to stay with her no matter what, even against the wishes of Isabelle’s family. However, in her very self-centered way, Therese does try to do nice things for her friends. The relationship always seems a little twisted, though.

The differences among the classes are really striking. Isabelle lives in a way most of us can’t imagine—she is often hungry, her home is cold and dirty, she’s been working hard every day since she was 4. And yet her family is wealthy compared to many. They never go for long without food. The poor are truly destitute, starving and working themselves literally to death. There are no safety nets—when Isabelle’s grandmere has a stroke and her mother’s fingers are too swollen to work, Isabelle’s lacemaking is the only thing that keeps them from being thrown into the street to starve.

The royalty, on the other hand, live an incredible life of luxury. Despite the rats and the fleas and the stench of human waste, the queen has new ribbons for every day. She has more dresses than she can count. Their table is piled with more food than they could possibly eat and their utensils are made of gold. The queen is somewhat bothered by this—she would prefer to dress plainly, and does when not under the eyes of the court. But she is expected to act and look like a queen, and so she does. She is watched every moment by members of the court trying to curry favor. They watch her eat, they watch her dress, they watch her walk through the halls. Being royal means being on display. She also has no idea of the money that goes into her dresses or just how badly off the peasants are.

George makes sure that Isabelle sees the contrast. He takes her on trips to see the poverty in the countryside. She resents these lessons—what does he expect her to do? Her conflicted feelings are easy to identify with.

God and Religion

The king rules because God ordained it. Therefore, you don’t question it. At all. If God ordained that you should be poor? Tough luck for you. Deal with it. Serve in your role.

However, that’s used mostly as an excuse. Therese has plans to make Isabelle and her other playmate into ladies once she is married off and has her own court. So upward mobility is an option, and it’s painfully obvious that downward mobility is a reality. But there’s a lot of lip service given to doing what God wants of you.

Violence and Death

Isabelle is thrown from a horse and hits her head really hard. She’s in and out of consciousness for a while. Before she’s anywhere near cured, her grandmere has a stroke and Isabelle returns home to provide for her mother and grandmere. She doesn’t actually get much sympathy for a really nasty injury.

When the revolution comes, and of course it comes, it’s violent. The peasants rise up and march on the palace. It’s scary, because the reader is seeing it from inside the palace.

In the end, a lot of people die, although many of the deaths happen offscreen. Grandmere dies. The young Dauphin dies of tuberculosis. The mother of Therese’s other playmate dies and the girl grieves. Then, in the uprising, Isabelle’s brother George dies a hero of the revolution. Her friend Pierre, also about her age, never returns and is assumed dead. She sees the bodies of young guards who were killed protecting the king. In the epilogue, we learn that the king and queen were executed and the youngest son died of tuberculosis. Therese is the only royal prisoner to survive the Reign of Terror.

One of the queen’s worst sins is that she’s from Austria. They call her “the Austrian woman” in French, which sounds similar to a rude insult. Many awful things are said about her, but most of them are untrue. Still, she gets the blame for a lot of the thing that are wrong in France.

This is a compelling story with lots of themes that have parallels to modern politics and social issues. I’m not sure most kids would pick up on that, but I found it interesting. I appreciated how nuanced the situation was. Therese is kind of a snot, and the excesses of court are obvious, but the royals are also in an almost impossible situation. Those who revolt have really good reasons, but with blood on their minds there’s no room for negotiation and compromise that might have prevented many deaths. It’s a vivid insight into a time that is much like ours yet also very different. It’s probably suitable for precocious readers starting around age 9 or 10, and will be interesting to all ages up to adults.

The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Published in 2007 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
Read my daughter’s library book from school

  1. This sounds interesting! It appears to the writer stayed true to the impressions I got when I read several biographies of Marie Antoinette a few years ago. (I like to read the history of places before I visit.) Historical novels are a great way to make fiction come alive and be more than dates and names!

Speak Your Mind


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U.S. Olympic Complex

U.S. Olympic Complex in Colorado Springs
Statues celebrate the spirit of competition, and kinds poke their heads through the Olympic rings to pose for photos, but it's all about training for the athletes at U.S. Olympic Complex. | Photo by Amy the Nurse / flickr

Staff writer

The U.S. Olympic Complex covers 37 acres and includes a training center for American Olympic athletes and headquarters for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Athletes representing nine sports live and train full-time or part-time.

Free guided tours feature a film and a walking tour, visiting training facilities including gymnasiums, weightlifting and wrestling facilities, the shooting center and the aquatics center.

U.S. Olympic Complex
1750 E. Boulder St.
Colorado Springs CO 80909
(719) 866-4618

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Tagged: blocks

DAMMIT, I’ve started this with a corny intro…

This is gonna be my first game review. I had planned on doing a first review on “THOMAS WAS ALONE” but I decided to see what makes of them game. That way I can strive for a me professional review. heh leprechauns.

Alright now as the title says this is a review on the video game called “MINECRAFT“.
Now Minecraft is a game with a huge community. Basically anyone who played mario while growing up will have some sort of knowlegde of what Minecraft is, BUT what is MINECRAFT?

Well, Minecraft can be alot of things:

1. Minecraft started out as a creative cube sandbox. It still is… Except that sandbox is infinitive. Players could build huge 3d structures out of cubes. There’s no aim to this. Players can freely express them selves.

2. Then came survival. Image everything in your creative inventory (almost) could be made using only what the world provided to you? Now mix that with a few mobs (Monsters) and you’ve got your self a Survival game mode! The major aim of this (if chosen by the player) is to get to the end and defeat the Ender Dragon.

3. Then came multiplayer. Multiplayer is basically everything you can do in Minecraft but with freinds. You could have an adventure or be rulers of land and wage wars. You could see who is the best builder. You can make friends. You could build a complex redstone contration to trap the mobs of the night. You can do whatever your imagination can think of and more….

Notes: WELLLL GUYS?! What do you think? N0t bad for a first attempt. I will redo “Minecraft” again when i get alot more experience with reviews.

The Verdict

The Good: Everything. You would be surprised how a few blocks can change your life.
Great modding community.

The Bad: Very additive.
No circles :P.
Alot of bugs.


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Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Ingredients :-
Chicken - 250 gms (Boneless)
Hung Curd - 1 n 1/2 cups
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Poppy Seeds Paste - 1 tsp
Onion - 2 medium nos.
Capsicum - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 3-4 nos.
Garlic Cloves - 8-10 nos.
Crushed Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
Red Chilly Sauce - 2 tsp (OR any one can use Red Chilly Powder also)
Lemon Juice - 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
A Pinch of Sugar
Salt to taste
Cooking Oil / Butter - 1 tsp

Method :-
Wash and clean the bone less chicken well. Marinade it with the above ingredients (except onion, capsicum, garlic cloves, green chilly) and mix it well. Keep it in refrigerator for 30 minutes or more as your choice. Heat Oil / Butter in a pan. Add thinly sliced onion, whole garlic cloves, capsicum, green chilly and saute for a minute. Then add the marinade chicken and mix it well with the masala. Cover it with a lid and cook in a low flame. Leave it for about 10 minutes again on a low flame by stirring occasionally. If required add 1/2 cup water to it (Optional). I have used thin Coconut Milk in place of water which enhance the texture and flavor of the chicken. Cook the chicken till it is dry and the masala gets well coated over the chicken. Switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve with Roti, Naan or Pulao...

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Friday, December 4, 2009

Freezer Hash Browns

Bags of frozen hash browns cost $2.50-$3.00 each at the grocery store. Sometimes if Im lucky I can find them on sale 2/$4. That is for a 2pound bag.

Potatoes on the other hand can be pretty cheap. Usually you can get a 5lb for $2-$2.50... or if you are lucky like me you can score a 10lb bag at Giant Eagle for $1.49. With potatoes so cheap why am I spending money on bags of frozen hashbrowns when I can make my own? Here is the recipe I use. I adapted it from this one

5lbs potatoes
vegetable oil
salt and pepper (or seasoning salt) to taste

1. Scrub potatoes (you can peel if you wish... I dont)
2. Cut into around 1/4" squares
3. Rinse and dry squares, toss in a big bowl
4. Coat with vegetable oil. I just pour a little in and stir. Repeat until potatoes are covered.
5. Season to taste. You can use just salt and pepper or add garlic powder, onions, paprika... whatever. I used zesty seasoning salt.
6. Dump potatoes on a cookie sheet. Make sure its a single layer for best results. For 5lbs of potatoes I use 2 cookie sheets.
7. Preheat oven to 450. Bake potatoes 15-20 minutes or until tender
8.Remove from oven and allow them to cool
9. Once cooled place cookie sheet in the freezer and allow for them to freeze.
10.Once frozen portion them in a freezer bag or seal in foodsaver bags

To cook: Microwave frozen hashbrowns for 1 minutes to defrost slightly. The cook them in a preheated pan with a little oil (or butter) until browned.

**I freeze mine in 1lb pouches. I get 5 bags from this recipe. I saute mine in a little butter and add onions and green peppers.

So that is 5lbs of hashbrowns for about 75cents.... maybe 85 if you count the cost of oil/salt. So a 2lbs bag cost me 37cents! Smells like a bargain to me!

1 comment:

noahbythesea said...

this is so smart! i'm going to try this! i'm wondering if you could do it the same way for shredded potatoes? or would you parboil those?

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Featured Recipes

Italian Tartlets
Super easy Cheap
Plain flour, Parmesan, Italian herbs, butter chilled, pesto, fetta, Cherry tomatoes halves

See Italian Tartlets Recipe

Apple and Pear Salad
Super easy Fairly cheap
apple, quartered (175g), pear, quartered (235g), celery stick, cut into pieces, chopped cabbage, onion, lemon juice, plain yogurt, Mayo, raisins/craisins, walnuts/pecans (optional), salt, pepper, parsley or cilantro

See Apple and Pear Salad Recipe

Japanese Salad Dressing
Super easy Cheap
Onioin, Carrot, Garlic, Umeboshi plums, Grapeseed or rice bran oil, Rice wine vinegar, Tahini, Tamari, Salt and pepper to taste

See Japanese Salad Dressing Recipe

Plain White Bread
Easy Cheap
Flour, yeast, warm water, salt

See Plain White Bread Recipe

Almond Milk
Super easy Cheap
Almonds (soaked in water overnight with a pinch of salt), water, pitted dates (optional), vanilla extract

See Almond Milk Recipe

Apple and Pear SaladFeatured

This salad is a crunchy combination of the Okanagan's fall fruit bounty. It's quick, easy and super healthy!

Super easy
Fairly cheap

Apple and Pear Salad
Preparation time

For 4 Person(s)

  • 1 apple, quartered (175g)
  • 1 pear, quartered (235g)
  • 1 celery stick, cut into pieces
  • 230 g chopped cabbage
  • 30 g onion
  • 25 g lemon juice
  • 25 g plain yogurt
  • 25 g Mayo
  • 30 g raisins/craisins
  • 25 g walnuts/pecans (optional)
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 2 pinches pepper
  • 4 sprigs parsley or cilantro

Apple and Pear Salad Directions

  1.  Place all ingredients into the mixing bowl, and chop 5 sec/ sp 4. Season to taste/salt and pepper. Garnish with additional cilantro or parsley sprigs.

Recipe notes

Feel free to add cranberries, pumpkin seeds, nuts etc. for added crunch.

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by Arthur on Wednesday, November 14, 2012

in Punk,Underground

Miscarriage. The Abortive Attempt.  Nos. 13 (1977) – 14; 16 – 19; 20; 22 – 30; 30 (bis) – 36 (March 1978) (dated per the postal cancellation). [Title and subtitle vary.] Collection of 23 weekly issues (ca. 2-6 leaves each). Boston / Jamaica Plain, MA (10 Priesing Street) 1977-1978. (47328)

Like most cities in the United States, Boston can lay claim to a punk-era history all its own.  The venerable Boston Groupie News, the Subway News, and later, Forced Exposure are among the better-known chronicles of such indigenous noise and youthful exuberance that flourished along the banks of the Charles River between the mid 1970s and the late 80s.  Now we can add Miscarriage to the list of essential Boston underground fanzines.

Early in 1977, when punk had recently emerged as a global license for teenagers to misbehave, two young women from the city’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood called Loretta Baretta and Carmen Monoxide began to self-publish an anarchic  nightlife report they called Miscarriage: The Abortive Attempt.

F.A. Bernett Books has recently acquired 23 issues of this remarkable but otherwise (as far as we can tell) undescribed serial, which chronicled the early New England punk scene from a female fan’s perspective. Though by no means complete, the set comprises a mind-blowing archive of sexual gossip, original artwork, fashion criticism, music reviews, band interviews, photographs and original comics from the primal years of punk rock nightlife in Boston, between 1977 and 1978.

With an unstoppable barrage of text spiraling across its pages in neatly lettered block script, every hand-collaged and photocopied issue of Miscarriage is a densely layered labor of love that requires its reader to rotate the page dozens of times to follow the snaking trail of Baretta and Monoxide’s nocturnal adventures.

When they weren’t out making the scene, Baretta (Penny Greenwald) and Monoxide (Carmen Wiseman) must have been hard at work on the next issue of the magazine. On a weekly basis the duo published adoring coverage of local artists including The Ann Prim Group, The Real Kids, The Infliktors, La Peste, Lou Miami, as well as international acts including The Viletones, Patti Smith, Half Japanese, Nick Lowe, Blondie and others.

They also commissioned graphic art (like the excellent “Kronichk” below) and poetry from their gang of friends around the city, threw wild parties, issued stock certificates in “Stillborn Productions,” and dreamed out loud on paper with more intensity and editorial commitment than virtually any other DIY publisher from the era.

Like its rough contemporary Sniffin’ Glue and Other Rock ‘n Roll Habits, the power of Miscarriage lies in its immediacy. This isn’t a glossy magazine ginned up by cynical adults to sell punk rock style to the suburban masses, nor does it pretend to be one. In all its glorious mess, the ‘zine is a near perfect example of untamed American youth culture in the 1970s. Miscarriage is both bruised and bruising. At its breathless and confessional best, it’s fiercely carnal, emotionally raw and very funny.

But unlike Sniffin’ Glue’s brutish adolescence and stoned obscenity, Miscarriage bristles with desire for connection and communication (note the extraordinary Anne Prim rabbit panels above, “sometimes the emptiness is just heartbreaking.”)  A regular feature on the front page of every issue revealed “The Sex Practices of the Stars,” while the comic strip “Justa Jane” followed its heroine’s quest for love and lust through the bowels of the Rat, Cantone’s and other Boston clubs.

Handwritten notes in felt tip marker, stickers, and other additions to the Xerox copies show just how close Carmen and Loretta were to their readers, who couldn’t have numbered more than a few hundred, if we were to guess.

With any luck some of them will find their way to this blog post, and tell us more about our fearless protagonists’ punk rock heyday.  Any of you old Boston punks see your names on the roster below?

If you actually have copies of Miscarriage (particularly the early issues, nos. 1-12) you’d like to sell, or if you’d like to find out more about our collection, please get in touch. Or better yet, stop by our booth (no. 523) at the 36th Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, November 16-18, 2012 at the Hynes Convention Center, and have a look at Miscarriage and the other underground magazines and artists’ books we’ve decided to feature in this year’s show catalog.

And Loretta, Carmen —  if you’re out there reading this, thanks for putting it all down on paper.  Looks like 1977-78 was a banner year for the Miscarriage misses of Jamaica Plain.

Well done, ladies.

For price an availability, please contact us.

FAB Item I.D. # 47328

{ 1 trackback }

November 19, 2012 | The Wapshott Press
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 8:21 PM

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Thursday, April 19, 2018 at 1:34 PM

Say, you got a nice blog post.Thanks Again. Will read on…

2 Dennis Coleman Saturday, July 12, 2014 at 11:04 PM

Hey if you see this Penny/aka/Lorretta Barretta my friend. Dennis Colemans ays Hi, long time, miss you. Hope Chicago is treating you well. Living in Nor-Cal now. Call me if it fancies you. BEST AND LOVE. MISS THE OLD DAYS AT CANTONES!

3 le sot Monday, March 11, 2013 at 3:36 PM

Superbe !!

Merci et compliments.

4 Melis Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 11:54 AM

man,you’re making me cry !my poor 14 year-old frcenh ass was at that hurrah’s club show,28 years ago .just standing there in front of my idols John & Howie .my 1st UK punk band live ,such a souvenir .thanks a billion,man,glad you’re back on the net !

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Monday, December 29, 2014

Ducks Back on the Pond

Finally the waters have returned to our ponds in the hills.  The ducks enjoy the fresh water and so do Bailey and Chloe.

Bailey and Chloe love a good swim.  Nothing more fun than swimming after ducks.

 The ducks get some flying time. They were getting lazy floating around.

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Georgia Weather

They say if you don't like it........just wait a minute.
I came in a few minutes ago from taking the pooch for his nightly patrol of the concrete driveway.

Wow. As an old redneck, that thought, of a concrete driveway, seems a little odd. For most of my years a dirt drive has been more the norm. Mostly rutted, slide 'em in the ditch, red dirt.

Anywho, scouted the perimeter with the pooch as stated, wearing my "Got Ammo" tee shirt, PJ bottoms and bare foot. How's that for the next to last day in January. Supposed to be 6o or better degrees for the next 5 days with high 30's and 40's at night. Before you know it we'll be sleeping with the windows open.

Friday, January 27, 2012

My Choice for President

What? You thought I can stomach voting for the lessor of many evils again?

The first time I ever voted was for Ronald Regan in 1980, knowing that ultimately he was the choice of the Rockefeller's, the CFR, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderburgers. David R. laid his arm around Regan's shoulder and said, "Ronnie's my Man".

I've voted every election since, either holding my nose as with McRino, or voting Libertarian.

To tell the truth, I'm a little fed up with the whole process. Super Tuesday I'll have another opportunity to either hold my nose or write in Ann's name.

I think my arms gonna be too sore from recoil to reach high enough to hold my nose again.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

They thought they were free

They thought they were free: The Germans, 1933 - 1945,
by Milton Mayer

“You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ ... In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’

“These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic... the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked... But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C?”

Remind you of anyone we know?
The fact is that the US has been on a slippery slope for decades, and it’s about to go over a cliff.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Do you own Stocks for your retirement?

Maybe in a 401k, a private nest egg you'll use in your dotage, or leave to your wife, or children?

You do own them? Right?

Perhaps we all need to read this.

I once bought a stock. It was in a gold mining company in the US. Highly recommended by a highly recommended adviser. A long term hold, he said.

I took my eye off of it. It was sold to another miner in Canada. No worries. Then it became a diamond mining stock........ in The Ivory Coast. Who had a civil war. Whose diamonds were banned because they were Blood Diamonds. They made a movie out of it.

I still own the stock. Its an energy company. A very small energy company. In a very small country in Africa. It was never worth a lot of money. Now all it is, is a piece of paper, suitable for framing. To hang over the toilet perhaps.

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Candidates

I watched about as much of the SC Republican Debate as I could stand.

About 1 hour and 20 minutes and I was ready to stick the Browning in my mouth.

God Help us. BHO and the usual suspects are certainly not going to do it.

"Kill 'em all", is the hue and cry from all but one and he's suspect.

Don't get me wrong, the worst loss I ever had was the tee shirt from VN that I'd adorned, in bold Majic Marker, with, "Kill them all, let God sort it out". As if God is gonna stop us. The old "free will" thing don'tcha know.

, as usual says it much better than I, and he's going to visit The Kasba to boot.
I'm jealous.
Both of his writing, and his traveling.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Tried and failed to embed this new fitness motivational youtube video in a comment at

That should help get a guy in shape.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Out of the 'hood

"People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, and near the mountains, and you too are especially prone to desire such things. But this is a sign of ignorance, since you have the power to retire within yourself whenever you wish. For nowhere can a person retire more full of peace and free from care than into his own soul."
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations

I've heard it said, "you can take the boy out of the country, but, you can't take the country out of the boy".

I guess that's true. If, like me, you were raised on a working farm, if you one time owned your own farm with cattle, crops, fences, equipment, even with all the headaches and heartaches that may have led you to leave...........there remains within me those memories of running through the field and furrows, woodlands and streams, barefoot, shirtless, not totally heedless, but, careless of the rocks, dirt, briars and critters, cowpies and mud puddles. A scrawny redneck child who could throw a rock at a field lark, and lie down against a Jersey cow, calmly chewing her cud in the sun.

And I yearn and strive to keep those memories and places alive, somewhere, down deep inside. Down where the free part of me lives, down there with the anguish of putting a good cow down because the strain and pressure of delivering her latest calf had stretched and torn the pelvic ligaments and tendons past the point of being able to rise to her feet ever again. Down there with the pleasure of watching a newborn calf flop about while discovering her balance, to respond to the lowing and licking of the mother, taking those first tentative steps, searching, without knowing exactly why, for the warmth of mothers udder and latching onto a teat and having the milk of life giving goodness run wetly down a new throat.
Down there with there with the remembered smells of new mown hay, fresh cut silage and the acrid smell of chlorine cleansers sanitizing the stainless steel milk tank.
Down there where you would watch the dawn come....first a faint grey, later washed out blue, then a bright red half oval rising into the blue of another beautiful May morning.
Down there with the satisfaction of coming in after all the light has gone from the sky, smelly, sweaty, itchy, dirty, from honest toil well done, well completed. Watching your daughters and son play with the dogs and kittens, the calves trying to nurse on finger tentatively offered to soft pink and black noses.

These parts of me cause a searching for those barbed wire fences sagging between locus posts, so old and hard that a staple will only bend instead of driving cleanly into the hold for another day, year, decade 'til the inexorable spread of subdivisions and supermarkets overrun it all.

So I guess it's no surprise when the kudzu wife wants to move away from the 'hood that I start thinking about more than a half acre lot with a used double wide on it. Almost a year after starting the search, Friday saw us become the proud owners of another mortgage.

In the middle of cattle and chicken country, with quite a few goat farms, a few row crops..... mostly soybeans, or corn maybe, if the farmer is raising cattle, no big grain farms like out West.
Just country folks, most with a job in town, either near or far.

Back....... perhaps to a second childhood, only with more work this time, and less shirtless running, a bit of dignified middle aged strolling perhaps and the shirt stays on, lest the glare in the sun causes jet liners far above to confuse me with destination airfield lights.

Part of the front porch:

View of dining room from kitchen:

Back deck:

The new Kudzu Grotto/man cave:

About a 100 young pecan trees in need of tending, along with Fescue grass and Coastal Bermuda grass, wild blackberry thickets for rabbit homes and cobblers.

I hope I don't wake up from this dream anytime soon.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Sunday Evening going down.

Winding up another quiet day here at the KG.

Not much has transpired. Woke up late (7:45) as usual, but after I started making noise cleaning last nights dishes out of the dishwasher the KW came in made the coffee and cook us up some nice sausage and fried eggs w/toast. God Bless her. I can do an adequate job of it, but, it just tastes better when she does it.

It's been a cloudy, kinda moist day, with more fog later in the afternoon. We just took it a bit easy after showing the new property off to our youngest daughter and grand daughter yesterday. The son, his wife and two children came over after a bit and look things over also. Lee, my grandson is growing like all get out. Almost as tall as I and just under his dads shoe size, he bids to outdo both of us in height. I'm not sure exactly when you realize you're all grown up, but think it may be when you realize that you'll soon be the oldest to carry the name on and soon it will be others turn.

Life goes on, and, I'm glad it does, but wonder if it'll be over before I've seen all I wanna see.

I want to climb to the top of the Temples of the Sun and Moon and look thru the Sun Gate at

Machu Picchu
at sun rise.

What do you want to do, that you haven't done yet?

Friday, January 06, 2012

Is there really any reason to vote this year?

Between now and November of this year there will likely be 10's of Billions of $'s spent in this country.

O'Fuher Obama is said by some to already have almost a billion $'s collected to assure that either he once again buys the top spot or has a tidy little nest egg to apply to his library and foundation which is sure to follow.

Who knows how much will be spent by the other candidates for the presidency, not to think of all the congress critters, one third of the senators and all the state and local wannabe's.

Put that way, it could be that 10's of Billions of $'s is far short of the total. Would a Trillion $'s be closer to the mark. I dunno. Maybe someone will go to the trouble to add it all up some day in the far off dimly seen future.

Is it worth it? Is it? All the efforts expended for literally years......sometimes decades, to claw and fight and struggle to the top of whatever heap you want to ascend to.

I confess that my juice's get to flowing every two years and especially every four years during the election cycles.

I rant, I rave, I flail about, waving my arms, eyes bulging out, veins in my neck and forehead bulging, red faced, frothing at the mouth, even more so than is usually my demeanor. Just ask any of my family and acquaintances. There is a reason that I'm that weird cousin, brother, in-law, that people keep one eye peeled for at any gathering of over one person. (that being me, myself and I) How my dear Kudzu Wife (KW) of 44 years and 2 days has retained any bit of sanity is, quite frankly, both a mystery and blessing to me.

I do keep the manufacturers and marketers of hypertension medication, anxiety and depression pills, muscle relaxers and massage therapists in there may be some good that comes from all this.

But otherwise?

Sure, we go to the polls, we vote. We feel either satisfaction or despair depending on whether our choice gets the gold medal, or just a ribbon for participation.

To what end?

Does the number of bureaucrats diminish by any appreciable amounts? Sure a few of them may lose their patron or their job, but their is always either another politician or maybe a lobbying group that has need of their services or more likely their little black book of names and contact information.
Have you ever seen an agency or institution eliminated?

The "State" still lives. Managers come and go, either doing good or ill, and mostly nothing, while the bureaucracy, the core of the problem, remains, immovable, inviolate, resistant to change, year after year, cycle after cycle. Get rid of them. You jest. Where would these millions of minions-in-name, rulers......regulators-in fact go. On welfare? To further increase the problems?

This is the real State, hidden beneath the surface of this public theater. It is the vast army of professional bureaucrats and the mandates they carry out. It is the enforcement apparatus that oversees a gargantuan tax code. It is the Federal Register that is too large to print. It is the central bankers, their staffs, their machinery, their mandate to bail out the state no matter what. It is the hundreds and thousands of agencies that purport to control every aspect of life. And would if permitted control even the begating and ending.

We don't vote for this; no election puts any of this at risk. This is because the state itself is not subject to our whim. Imagine if the President and all the elected officials in the entire country and all those who work in their offices decided not to show up to work for a week. What would happen? New bills wouldn't pass. The media wouldn't have politics to cover. There would be a periodic scramble over superficial issues like the debt limit. But otherwise, the state would go on just as before. Nothing fundamental would change.

And it seems that none of the elected officials have the power to do serious damage to this system. This goes for the president, too. They can often influence the way the state grows, but they can't actually fundamentally threaten the apparatus itself. The longer they are in office, the less personal power they realize that they have. The reason is simple. The system is not structured to permit them to dismantle it, even if they wanted to. They are temporary managers of a ruling class, and the members of this class mostly scoff at these people, treating them like actors on a stage that the class itself owns.

Hosanna! Eleven months and our new managers take their seats, the talking heads will tell us once more: "The system worked." Yes, it did work in exactly the way they want it to work. Nothing much will change. If you don't like the results, there is something wrong with you. If you don't like the rules, taxes, human suffering, wars, inflation, intrusions, confiscations and all the rest of the apparatus, you had better run for office, give to another candidate or otherwise throw yourself into the politics full time!

This is not choice. When we go to the grocery, we face a choice of what to buy. Or we can walk out without buying at all, keeping our money instead. Whatever the result, it is really in our hands. The electoral system is different. The store is the state. The products it offers are produced by the state. There is no real choice, only enough shadings of differences to keep us entertained. And we cannot really walk away. There is "no none of the above" and there is no keeping your own money. After all.....look at your money. Does it say, "kdzu's money, or Bill, or Sally's money........or God in Heaven above, even United States Money?

No. You don't have to look, but if you need reminding, pull a fiver out and read what it says at the top.

Do you want the blue pill, or the red one, maybe the red, white and blue one?

Choose carefully, but be warned.........Storm clouds building on the horizon.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Just Imagine

“Where knights and hosts could not be assembled, there was no warfare afield...Ideas of using power for advantage had not yet burgeoned. Disaster and disorder did not occur...People munched their food and disported themselves; they were carefree and contented.”

Pao Ching-yen (4th century A.D.):

This seems a nice fantasy. What recorded history of the peoples of the earth show us is that as a species we are all to eager to be riled up into a mob to go and rain destruction on anyone that we're told is offending us or our allies. Mostly without much in the nature of hard concrete evidence. We didn't bomb Saudi Arabia after 9-11 even though most of the terrorists aboard the planes were Saudi. Instead we sent our drones and bombs into remote patches of Afghanistan which, while there may have been camps there at some point, were mostly populated by a few goatherds and their lovers.

What if they gave a war and nobody showed up? Not to worry, we'll soon have enough drones and remote controlled vehicles to do all the work for us. Strangely we're most often treated only to the number of our causalities.........not the other sides.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong believer in "Kill them all, let God sort it out". If you're going into a fight thinking any other way, you've already lost.

You can quote Sun Tzu all you want. All I need to know about winning a war I learned from Timur-i-ling.

Well, well, well

Happy New Year.

First work day of 2012. Actually, Sunday was, but due to a good winter sinus infection I didn't get a lot accomplished.
I'm due at the VA clinic here, just outside the Classic City, to see my primary care Dr.. I was probably supposed to fast since midnight, but, damn that. A little benadryl to attempt to dry my head out, washed down with a little coffee and real, by damn, cream will just have to be accepted.

The Iowa ca-ca's are today and most likely whoever gets the most vote will go next to the NH primary, along with most, if not all, of the other infinitum, until we culled the herd down to the most photogenic and bland personality available.

Just remember that the American public get the leadership they deserve.

Scary.......ain't it.

Monday, January 02, 2012

What if?

with a jaunty tip o' the hat to

Gun Rights 4 us all

The Republic is dead, All hail the Empire

Did you ever notice how so many bad acts of legislation are signed into law on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve.

First the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, now the

National Defense Authorization Act of 2012
signed by Barack Hussain O'Facist Obama on Saturday.

Of course he claims that although he has the power to detain American CITIZENS indefinitely, without either charges or trial,.....of course
Hheeeeee would never use it.
He being too noble, honest and true believer in the Constitution that he is.

Of course he is aided and abetted by his fellow dictators-in-training now serving in the congress.

For an idea of just how committed they are to the Oaths of Office they swore to, consider that of the Senate the vote was 93 for vs. 7 against, and in the House the vote was 229 for vs. 186 against, and 17 voting either present/or not voting.

My Congressman voted against, but, our two staunch Conservative senators voted for.

The RCOB over my eyes threatens to blind me to any calls for restraint. Suffice it to say that my money and time will be committed to removing them from office. Bastids!!

Many church signs around the community lately asking, " what will we be praying for in the coming year?

Gonna give this some serious thought.


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Khwahish- Duet Mp3 Song Lyrics

Contribute By

February 17, 2017

Khwahish- Duet

Khwahish- Duet Mp3 Song, Download Khwahish- Duet, Khwahish- Duet Mp3 DownloadKhwahish- Duet is a gujarati song sung by Parthiv Gohil, Aishwarya Majmudar from album Celebrating Melody With Parthiv Gohil under the label of Red Ribbon Ent. Pvt. Ltd..

Info You Must Know

Song Name Khwahish- Duet
AlbumCelebrating Melody With Parthiv Gohil.
ComposerManish Bhanushali.
GenreMp3 Song.
LabelRed Ribbon Ent Pvt Ltd.
LyricstManish Bhanushali.
SingerAishwarya Majmudar and Parthiv Gohil.
Duration 3:50
Record on February 17, 2017
Album Price $8.99
Song Price $1.29
Buy on iTune Purchase

Analytics Made Easy - StatCounter


text:
Scotch Advanced Tape Glider Atg Refill 1 2

Refillstown.com - Scotch Advanced Tape Glider Atg Refill 1 2. When refilling an ink cartridge, be sure to get it done more than some aged newspapers or possibly a rag like an previous towel. Fabric is nice as it quickly picks up extra ink. This really is relevant to Scotch Advanced Tape Glider Atg Refill 1 2.

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Relevant to Scotch Advanced Tape Glider Atg Refill 1 2, Now no one thinks twice prior to purchasing a new inkjet printer as the rates have hit an all time very low. Any manufacturer of all-in-one printer that features fax, scan and replica technologies is now obtainable at an unbelievably dirt-cheap selling price.

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Printers have revolutionized the way we had been publishing or preserving our aspects. Business enterprise files, charges, personalized knowledge etcetera. which were managed earlier by means of pen and paper has now been replaced by printers and papers.

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2019 Theme Contest

Feeling creative? Submit your suggestion(s) for the 2019 theme for another chance to win a free registration. We are also potentially looking for talent show performers.

Email your suggestion to chair@rehobothroundup.org.

Here are themes of years past for some inspiration:

  • 2018 Seas the Day
  • 2017 Mission Not Impossible
  • 2016 Navigating through Recovery
  • 2015 Tide of Change
  • 2014 Renew, Regenerate, Recover
  • 2013 A Power Greater than Ourselves
  • 2012 Experience, Strenght and Hope
  • 2011 Stepping into the Sunlight
  • 2010 The road to happy destiny
  • 2009 I am responsible
  • 2008 There is a solution
  • 2007 Treasures of Recovery
  • 2006 A Concsious Contact
  • 2005 A Sea of Change
  • 2004 ? (If you happen to know please send it to us)
  • 2003 Spirit by the Sea

We are a volunteer organization and all help is welcome.  If you would like to assist the planning committee, volunteer at events, or lead a workshop please let us know. The Rehoboth Roundup Board of Directors meetings are held the 2nd Sunday of every month at 10-AM at Camp Rehoboth at 37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE. Attend the next planning meeting, or e-mail us at info@rehobothroundup.org

Mission Statement

The primary purpose of the Rehoboth Roundup is to carry the message of all 12 Step recovery programs, based upon the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), through an annual conference sponsored by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community that is open to all people.


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Why it is important to do a wedding venue viewing

One of the things I do insist on doing with my wedding couple is a wedding venue viewing. Many couples feel that this is not a necessary step until they do it so I thought it was worth writing down some of the advantages.

wedding venue viewing
the venue is chosen for a reason – be sure to photograph it accordingly

The wedding venue was chosen for a reason

This reflects your personal style and taste for your big day. The photographer needs to capture the essence of the venue to be able to tell the story in full. By meeting with the wedding couple before the big day you can go over why they chose that venue and what draws you as a couple to it. There may be certain visual elements that really capture your imagination.

wedding venue viewing
bridal suite preparation – no clutter

Seeing the bridal suite

Where the bride will get ready is important. you need to see the lighting and space available here as well as establish how many people will be in the room. Prepping the bride to make sure it stays clear of clutter etc and where to hang the dress etc ready will also save time on the big day and make sure things run more smoothly.

wedding venue viewing
ring ceremony – showing the bridal couple how to put on the ring for a good shot is important

The ceremony area

This is by far one of the most imperative. You cannot stop the ceremony halfway through to get a better shot. So for me as the photographer i really need to know where the officiant will stand, where the couple will stand, will he face you to the crowd? Will your bridesmaids and groomsmen stand or be seated? is there enough space for me and the videographer if there is one? Is it possible to create more space? what is the lighting like? if its an outdoor ceremony this needs to be seen at the same time of day as the ceremony will be . Because shadows and lights at that time of day can be very challenging and may affect your photos so we need to see how we can work around it. In addition – How will everyone walk down the aisle? timing of this is also important to make sure each individual has a photo walking down the aisle especially with lots of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Finally coaching is needed for putting on the ring to get the right shot and the final kiss- well lets just make sure its a long one 🙂

wedding venue viewing
wedding venue viewing – use whats important to the bride and groom

scouting out an area for the family photos and couple photos

Again lighting is important here. But more essentially it gives me a sense of what backdrops and scenery there is around. As well as textures and elements that can create great shots. If I can see this before the wedding it really allows me to plan what shots i want to do and helps this process flow better on the day. After all you only have about half an hour as you dont want to keep your guests waiting so this really needs to be done timeously and without any delays. The more prepared I can be the less time wasted and the better quality photos you will get out of it. Its also important to incorporate what the couple wants – I may have a different vision and can discuss this with them, but if they want something different we can discuss this beforehand and make sure they are getting the photos and backdrops they want. It is after all their wedding.

The reception hall

It is again important to see lighting and space in this area. It is also important to know where the bridal couple will enter, and where the speeches will be so that i can set up lighting beforehand and cause minimal distraction on the day.

Actual Venue Location

Finally If i have not been to the venue before it is very important to get the location right.There is no time to get lost on the day. So by going to the venue beforehand you can make sure you have the right location, you know exactly where the bridal suite, ceremony, reception etc will be held (some venues have multiple receptions etc) And I do not need to phone the bride or groom with more issues when they already may be quite stressed out . I can quietly and routinely go through my shots and make sure I am getting everything we have discussed in our pre wedding meeting and venue viewing.

In conclusion

I hope this helps clear the air as many people do not feel this is a necessary step . I for one think this is definitely a must. I dont charge for my time for a venue viewing only the travel. it may cost a bit extra but when you are already investing money into your wedding photos this is a very small amount to make sure you are getting the greatest “return” on your investment.

wedding venue viewing
see where the best light is , textures and elements

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Johnny Manziel signs with CFL in path back to football

Former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, speaks at CFL press conference, Saturday, May 19, 2018, in Hamilton, Ontario, after announcing that he has signed a two-year contract to play for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. (Aaron Lynett/The Canadian Press via AP)

Johnny Manziel signs with CFL, seeing this as 'best opportunity' to rebuild football career

HAMILTON, Ontario — Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel is heading to the Canadian Football League, looking to salvage his football career after a turbulent and unsuccessful stay with the Cleveland Browns.

The quarterback signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and appeared at a news conference Saturday, ending months of speculation on his possible path back to the game.

"Made the decision today to sign my contract with the CFL and further my football career after a long break," Manziel wrote on Twitter earlier in the day. "Very grateful for everyone that's been supporting me along the way. I believe this is the best opportunity for me moving forward and I'm eager for what the future holds."

His last game came at the end of the 2015 season. He now comes to a team coached by June Jones, a former NFL and college coach. Players report to training camp this weekend.

In 2016, a domestic assault charge against Manziel in Dallas was dismissed after he took an anger management course and participated in the NFL's substance-abuse program. In a recent interview, he said he's been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and has stopped drinking.

The CFL has a policy on violence against women. The league said in a statement that in December it began a process to determine if Manziel could join the league.

Manziel had to meet certain conditions, including an assessment by an independent expert on domestic violence, a review by legal counsel and a discussion with Commissioner Randy Ambrosie.

The league said it informed Manziel and the Tiger-Cats it would approve his signing. He must, however, continue to meet the specified conditions to "maintain his eligibility."

Manziel was drafted out of Texas A&M by the Browns in the first round in 2014. He threw as many interceptions (seven) as touchdown passes during his two seasons.

In January, after signing a three-year contract to remain Hamilton's coach, Jones gushed about Manziel's potential.

"I think he'd be the best player to ever play up here," he said. "He can throw it and he can run it like nobody ever has been able to do."

Hamilton (6-12) finished third in the East Division last year and missed the playoffs. The Ticats were 0-8 with quarterback Zach Collaros before coach Kent Austin resigned and was replaced on an interim basis by Jones.

The Ticats signed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who went 6-4 after being named starter by Jones, and receiver Brandon Banks to contract extensions in January.

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In my opinion, most adults over 30.  But that's just my opinion.  You can be tested for IGF-1 levels, or serum levels if you want to determine your needs precisely, and have your doctor decide if you are sufficiently "hgh deficient" to a degree they feel you should begin injections or supplementation. I've never heard of the spray hurting anyone regardless, and again, my opinion is anyone over 30 could use it, but again, that's just what I've heard and from my own limited knowledge, and my own opinion, not a doctor's.

I’m middle age and have been taking it for the anti-aging and age reversing effects, including immune system enhancement, sex drive, bone & muscle, and decrease of weight and wrinkles, for years.  I've only recently had my blood tested.  Personally, if I were 30 I would be taking it to help preserve my youth, instead of trying to get it back and repair the damage already done. If I were a body builder I’d even take it in my 20’s - but that's personal choice.

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  • Why will I need to supplement my levels of growth hormone
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  • What is AGHD (adult growth hormone deficiency)?
  • A description of growth hormone
  • Side effects of human growth hormone
  • Can aging be reversed by human growth hormone?
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Facial reconstruction

Search LJMU Research Online

Browse Repository | Browse E-Theses

Performance Appraisal in China : an analysis of stakeholder perceptions in the Chinese State-owned Banking Industry

Zhang, Y (2010) Performance Appraisal in China : an analysis of stakeholder perceptions in the Chinese State-owned Banking Industry. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Performance appraisal is an important element of Human Resource Management and one which can directly contribute to the achieving of organizational goals. The process of performance appraisal can also result in employee development, enhanced communication and a strengthening of a feeling of belonging. The central conceptual framework for the study embraced performance appraisal within the wider framework of performance management, stakeholder theory and the diversity of national culture. Much of the previous research into performance appraisal has predominantly focused on Western organizations, with limited attention being paid to its practice in developing economies. The entry, in 2001, of the People's Republic of China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), provided an opportunity for foreign banks to operate in China which, in turn, increased competition for Chinese banks. As the banking sector, particularly the state-owned banks, is an extremely sensitive area for the nation's economy, the contribution that performance appraisal can make to a bank's success is important and thus provided a natural setting for the research. Adopting an exploratory approach, a specifically-designed questionnaire was used to gather data from salient stakeholders in Chinese state-owned banks between 2006 and 2007. Over 700 questionnaires were returned and analysed using parametric statistics to determine how stakeholders perceived performance appraisal within their bank. Biographic data provided independent variables which were evaluated against the areas of satisfaction, loyalty and the perception of an 'ideal' performance appraisal system. Levels of employee satisfaction provided a strong cultural perspective on the appraisal process, with this being contrasted at different levels within the banks and between each bank. The findings suggest a relationship between salient stakeholders' positive perceptions of procedural and distributive justice and levels of satisfaction. Findings from stakeholder perceptions of an 'ideal' appraisal process were used to provide recommendations as to how performance appraisal can be intertwined within a national culture. The unique setting provided direct contributions of knowledge with respect to developing the conceptual framework of performance appraisal from a stakeholder perspective. The associated areas of performance management and evaluation of performance appraisal in a developing economy extended the literature with respect to international HRM. From an organizational perspective, the empirical study provided recommendations that contributed to the development of employees in Chinese state-owned banks, which would enhance their strategic aims, in the new post-WTO competitive environment.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HG Finance
Divisions: Liverpool Business School
Date Deposited: 16 Mar 2017 12:17
Last Modified: 23 May 2018 09:35
DOI or Identification number: 10.24377/LJMU.t.00005981
URI: http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5981

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C is for Cookie

This made me fall over laughing. Sesame Street was good times as a kid and I loved Cookie the best. So I’m all for him getting the hosting gig on SNL.

Put me in, Coach (redux)

You might recall my post from the other day in which I wrote about the story of a home run nearly lost but for good sportsmanship by the other team.

Well, here’s the video ESPN put together. Warning: Have Kleenex ready.


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The World’s End

In case you hadn’t noticed, there hasn’t been much to laugh at during our summer trips to the local cineplex this year. Of the top thirty films to open since the beginning of May, only six have been bona fide adult comedies. Only two and a half (The Heat, We’re the Millers, most of This is the End) have actually been funny.

And while The World’s End won’t be breaking any box office records anytime soon, it’s quietly slipping into theaters this weekend as the funniest thing to hit screens so far this year.

Directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg as the final part of their Blood & Ice Cream Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), The World’s End is a non-stop, rapid-fire, brilliant comedy about a quintet of high school friends who reunite twenty years after graduation for an alcohol-fueled frenzy in their old hometown.

On the last day of school in 1990, the gang unsuccessfully attempted the Golden Mile, a pub crawl that requires stops in a dozen bars. Now ringleader Gary (Pegg), who still wears the same Doc Martens and Sisters of Mercy t-shirt he had in school, wants to take another shot at it with the fellas. Even though all the other guys now have successful careers and families (and aren’t terribly enthused at the idea of hanging out with the loud and obnoxious Gary for a night of drinking), they agree. The band is back together.

What starts out as a wicked laugh-riot of personality clashes, though, cleverly veers into sci/fi-ville, as the guys slowly discover that their old home town has been overrun by alien robots (yes, robots), hell-bent on turning the gang into robots, too.

While Pegg drives the show with his wry humor and outlandish behavior, his compadres in bacchanalia (including Martin Freeman and Nick Frost) more than hold their own, preventing The World’s End from ever losing steam along the way. Without the sci/fi plot turn, the pub crawl could have been a hilarious movie all on its own, but adding it opened up a ton of new possibilities for wildly funny scenarios.

Wright’s quick-edit style is executed perfectly here, especially during a brilliantly staged bar fight, and the script is as solid as comedy can get, including the ending which could have easily careened into “preachy” territory but stays on course. And the soundtrack, which includes pretty much every song from early-90s Top of the Pops (The Soup Dragons, blur, Happy Mondays), is a spot-on accompaniment.

The World’s End is a fun, dark, complex, and eminently satisfying film. Think of it as a cinematic pint (or two) of Guinness, and drink it down.

4.5/5 stars


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How to Choose Epoxy Flooring

Choosing epoxy as a garage floor covering offers numerous benefits to homeowners. One of the top benefits involves the way epoxy bonds with concrete surfaces through attractive polar forces.

This produces a strong bond that makes the concrete floor more resistant to wear from people and equipment. Epoxy floor coverings can create an attractive finish that is strong and durable.

A number of epoxy products are available, and choosing the right one for your application can be challenging. Here is some information to help you figure out which type of epoxy coating will work well for your particular situation.

Epoxy Flooring

Water-based Epoxy

As the name suggests, waterborne epoxy coating is a water-based epoxy solution. It is similar to paint, and is often seen advertised as paint. Easy to apply, this option is appealing for those who want to keep the project simple.

Many DIY individuals chose a water-based epoxy for this reason. Kits intended for single use applications of waterborne epoxy coating are often readily available at low prices.

Easy application, reasonable pricing, and wide availability all make water-based epoxy an appealing choice for covering garage floors. The downside is that this product is a lower quality floor covering compared to other types of epoxy coatings.

It may work well for low traffic areas, but another type of epoxy is a better choice if your garage floor needs more protection.

Commercial Options

Commercial grade epoxy coating provides much stronger protection and offers resistance to chemicals, stains, and abrasions. The top choice among this type of epoxy is 100% solids epoxy because its solids content is the highest.

This makes it tough enough to protect concrete floors from heavy machinery and pedestrian damage. Although initially more expensive than water-based epoxy, this high quality coating can provide better value long term.

With 100% solids epoxy, it is best to choose professional installation because this material is not designed for DIY application.

If you need heavy-duty protection for high traffic floors, consider using a topcoat. Applied to complement 100% solids epoxy, topcoats provide additional strength and durability.

These topcoats can be clear epoxy or polyurethane, both provide added stability and thickness. Paint chips can be added to the base coat to make the covering more durable. Topcoats also make your floor more visually appealing because they add texture and shine to the coating.

Making Your Decision

Epoxy makes a great choice for a garage floor covering. It can provide durable protection for concrete floors that is cost effective and attractive.

The type of epoxy floor you chose depends on a variety of factors including the amount and type of traffic the floor needs to withstand, cost, and finished look. Flooring experts can work with you to select an appropriate product for your situation and complete a flooring system that can withstand years of use.

Commercial grade flooring often costs less in the long run because of the minimal maintenance and durability associated with top quality products. Waterborne epoxy coating is the best choice for application by the homeowner because it is easy to use.

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[French Translation] [Spanish Translation]

Here’s a quick reminder.

For Adam and Eve, sin preceded the shame. It opened the gates of guilt, separating them from God. Slander slipped off their tongues with ease. Unfavourable consequences followed. Access to Paradise was lost. Eve bore children in pain. Sweat and toil for food. Dispute among children. Generations of corrupted blood.

All the result of that one bite of disobedience.

When we take that one seemingly insignificant small bite into sin, we tend to forget that it opens endless windows giving the enemy the opportunity to jump right into our lives.

Don’t take it lightly when you open the wretched package of sin. What you are really doing is opening a can of worms that can crawl and creep their way into many other areas of your life.

Sin’s tentacles have a way of reaching into your emotions, bringing up corrupted memories, shaking your confidence in God. It also instills fear of the future and leaves you stripped of your authority in Christ.

In Galatians 5, we read 24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

To walk daily with God, we then have to die daily to our desires of the flesh. Jesus, the absolute man did it and we can do it to, through the help of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s go!

Have you struggled with that small bite of temptation? What has been your motivation to walk with God?


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A fresh loom for Multilevel feedback Queue scheduling Algorithm

Rakesh Kumar Yadav, Anurag Upadhyay

CPU scheduling is a vital phenomenon of operating system. At present, numerous CPU scheduling algorithms are existing like FCFS(First come first serve), SJF (shortest job first),SRTF( Shortest remaining time first) , Priority Scheduling,(RR)Round Robin scheduling , MLQ( multilevel queue). Efficiency and performance are not remaining satisfactory of these algorithms. MLFQ( Multilevel feedback queue) be one of most potential strategies, for CPU scheduling .It  is further extension of multi-level queue scheduling algorithm while multilevel queue scheduling is results of combination of basic scheduling algorithms such as FCFS and RR scheduling algorithm. Therefore, research on these algorithms remains continuing till today. This paper, suggested a novel approach which will improve the performance of MLFQ (CPU) scheduling algorithm.

CPU Scheduling, RR scheduling, Multi Level Feedback Queue Scheduling

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1. I Work Hard for My Money;

The majority of people think that they must ‘work hard’ for their money. This forces them to grind unnecessarily.

You don’t have to work hard for money, but you must let money work for you. Money is never hard to come by if you can attract it.

Instead, say this: Money easily comes to me from all directions. Money comes to me freely, frequently, and easily!

  1. Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees;

This person is basically stating that they believe money must come from only one source, which is an erroneous thought that many people have.

Instead of thinking that you can only get money from a particular place or person, believe that it can come from anywhere.

If you want to become a millionaire, you’ll most likely need multiple income streams. In order to do this, you must expand your thinking.

  1. It’s Too Expensive;

This usually happens when a person meets an immovable price.

The truth is that the price you may be seeing is exactly the limitation that you need to overcome.

Prices often separates most people from achieving their goals. In other words, if the price was cheap, everyone would have it and no one would work for anything.

Do you know someone who would enjoy this? Share it with them! Daniel Ally


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5 Essential Elements For homes in Denver

 The prices of our homes, included options and readily available places are topic to vary all of sudden.  Said dimensions and sq. footage are approximate and shouldn't be employed a illustration of the house's exact or actual dimensions.  Please see the actual invest in settlement for additional info, disclosures and disclaimers regarding the home and It really is characteristics.

Individually if I ended up to go tiny I'd personally contemplate the park products at four hundred sq. ft. Just additional doable for me. If 1 would like to go here and there a bit then tiny house is the greater guess.

November eleven, 2013, 6:29 pm Since the limit of nested replies appears to have been achieved, I don’t know the way this will likely show up; but replying to David’s estimate, “It may be claimed it'll boost the load around the septic, water, and electrical power methods,” the comeback to that in our city is to match to many of the apartment buildings they have already been approving which makes for even higher population density and also the load on connected utilities.

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Legal rights are crucial. Legal rights don’t derive from myths or nature, they derive from the men and women’s collective declaration in that regard.

It’s greater for being imagined a idiot then to acquire to some blog site and take away all doubt….. HUD constructions would not have to generally be manufactured within click here for more an inferior way. It’s a list of making codes, and it’s on you to definitely do homework and study your contractor BEFORE you retain the services of him/her. And you simply received’t concurrently go into financial debt. If you devote $10k to build a park design, provide it for $15k, you may put that $ down on A further HUD cert household, a bit even bigger, a bit nicer, and perhaps conserve or commit several of the $.

Modest, lousy housing is prohibited in this article however. We received’t have the ability to get rid of residence taxes; but we could at the least receive the bare minimum-measurement specifications for houses repealed and acquire parts zoned for incredibly little pieces of land, all the way down to not A great deal larger than the House To place the smallest TH on (using a matching little residence tax). Forbidding why not look here home loans might be going too far, but renting just leaves the door open up for endless hire boosts which is what happened to my grandparents’ Area hire as soon as the mobilehome park they moved to was total.

Park Model tiny dwelling communities exist already in my place as retirement communities. Most of the time I’ve seen them as 55+ communities which is excellent nevertheless it just leaves out the children who want to Stay little or tiny.

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Obtaining low-priced Attributes in this manner is a great way to make certain that you both equally spend less and guarantee a large likely earnings by means of shopping for homes at bargain value. Acquiring The most affordable household requires a little bit of looking, and that's where BankForeclosuresSale.

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Sure. This is the very good dialogue. Thank you way too. I’ve been carrying out pretty some pondering on this regard in the previous couple of decades.

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Saturday, December 09, 2017

DeLong & Krugman vs Mankiw and Mulligan III

I thought it was all so absurdly simple after all that I could explain to the many readers over at AngryBear. But I am so bad at expressing myself that even my very trivial explanation of the controversy was a mess. so I brought it here. Now I have to add paragraph breaks by hand

There has been a very odd debate among very smart economists in which Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman are convinced that Greg Mankiw made a silly algebra mistake and Greg Mankiw is not convincedade a silly algebra mistake [update oh my Prof Mankiw appeared in my comments noting that he didn't say anyone made a mistake & just wrote that he hadn't. Sorry about that].

I have struggled to understand the disagreement, which, again is elementary algebra and geometry. There is no point in trying to make sense of my efforts to understand. I am now quite sure I understand the disagreement. I am also quite sure that none of the three made a silly algebra mistake.

Mankiw's question is here

He assumes a small open economy (with something making adjustment gradual) so the after tax return on capital must be equal to the world interest rate r*. then he asks a very odd question: what is the ratio of the long term gain in wages due to a (small) reduction in the capital income tax to the short term loss of revenue. There is no particular reason to ask this question, except that it has an oddly elegant answer. That ratio is 1/(1-t) where t is the initial tax on capital income.

Brad's latest effort to explain is here

Just click the links. I finally understand that Brad too is asking a very similarly odd question. The only difference is that Brad considers a tax on capital (tau)k not on capital income (t)f'(k)k. This makes the difference.

The reason is that changing t by delta t (delta t <0 so this is a cut) has three effects on revenues. First there is the immediate loss (delta t)f'(k)k (this is what Mankiw calls the static cost and I think that's standard terminology). Second there is the additional revenue because the tax cut will cause higher investment (t+delta t)(delta k). Third and critically there is a gradual reduction in tax revenue per unit of k due to the decline in f'(k) equal to (t+delta t) f''(k) (delta k) so this causes a loss of revenue equal to (t+delta t) f''(k) (delta k)(k+delta k) or, to first order

tf''(k)(delta k)k

This means that the change in revenue per unit of capital is (to first order) (delta t)f'(k) + t f''(k)(delta k). Now imagine that new capital is due to entry of new firms, so I can talk about revenue collected from old capital. that changes by

(delta t)f'(k)k + t f''(k)(delta k)k

if delta t is negative, delta k is positive. f''(k) is negative so the second term is an additional cost to the treasury of cutting t. It taxes at a lower rate and the profits earned by the old firms are lower bcause of the competition from the new firms.

wages paid equal f(k)-f'(k)k so the change in total wages is (always to first order)

f''(k)(delta k) k.

OK as noted by Brad, the after tax returns on the old capital are always kr* so the reduction in revenue collected on old capital must be equal to the gain in wages (to first order in delta t)

(delta t)f'(k)l + t f''(k)(delta k)k = f''(k)(delta k)k

(delta t)f'(k)l = (1-t)f''(k)(delta k)k

Oh look that's Mankiw's short term loss in revenue equals (1-t) times the long term gain in wages. The long term loss of revenue from taxes on income of old capital is equal (to first order) to the long term gain in wages.

Now consider a tax on capital Tau if it is changed by delta Tau then there are only two effects on revenue. A short term loss of (delta tau)k and a gain of (tau +delta tau)(delta k). the long term effect on revenues from taxing old capital is just (delta tau)k.

The long term effect on after tax income from old capital is zero again, so the long term effect on wages is, to first order (delta tau)k. So again the ratio of the long term gains to wages and the long term reduction in revenue from old capital is 1.

But now the long term reduction in revenue from old capital is equal to the short term reduction in revenue from capital. So now the ratio of long term wage gains to short term revenue losses is 1 not 1-t.

Now I think the actual lesson here is that it makes no sense to look at a long term change divided by a short term change.

But no one has made an algebra mistake. Taxes on capital and capital income are different. The effect of changing them on revenue collected from old capital is different if the change in the taxes affects the pre-tax return on capital.

Now something is gained by drawing the figure (see Brad's figure). It makes it very clear that the gain to workers is equal to the loss of revenues collected on old capital (plus the little triangle which is second order in the changes in taxes).

DeLong & Krugman Vs Mulligan & Mankiw II

Below, I tried to understand why Brad DeLong and Greg Mankiw were having so much trouble understanding each other. The story so far: Delong and Paul Krugman think that Mankiw and Casey Mulligan made an elementary algebra mistake. Mankiw and Mulligan think that DeLong and Krugman made a math mistake.

I think they are all wrong and that none of the four made a mistake.

update: I also now think that I was wrong about what Brad wrote when I wrote the silly post below. Like Mankiw, he was considering the ratio of the long term effect of a tax cut on wages divided by the short term effect on tax revenues. The difference is entirely that DeLong and Krugman consider a tax on capital and Mankiw and Mulligan consider a tax on capital income. Short run revenue effects changes in such taxes differ only by a constant (the initial marginal product of capital). Long run changes in tax revenue per unit of capital and of wages differ by an further factor 1-t explaining the different results. end update: Mankiw considers a reduction in the tax on capital income in a small open economy. He assumes that the after tax return is equal to a constant world rate of return r* (in the long run although he doesn't clearly state that he doesn't think this holds in the short run). He looks at the "static" cost to the Treasury of a tax cut. Here he assumes that the pre-tax return doesn't change quickly, so he assumes that, in the short run, the after tax return is greater than r*. Then he looks a the long run increase in total wages paid (the wage bill).

He notes that the ratio (long run)/short run = (1/(1-t)) where t is the initial tax rate.

DeLong scolds Mankiw very harshly for using the word "static" with a different definition that the JCT. I personally wonder why Mankiw thinks anyone should be interested in a (long run)/(short run) ratio.

First I think I understand the communication problem (update I didn't understand it end update). Mankiw is no more able than I to write the symbol for a partial derivative on the web.

He wrote "We cut the tax rate t. Because f '(k)*k is the tax base, the static cost of the tax cut (per worker) is

dx = -f '(k)*k*dt."

he means partial x/partial t = -f'(k)k. by "static" he means "holding k constant" that is taking a partial derivative. Now if k were constant, then wages and production would be constant so profits gross of taxes would be constant and the return on capital would be greater than r*. In Mankiw's example, the only thing which changes (other than taxes once) is k. You can't change t, keep k the same and keep (1-t)f'(k) = r* constant.

update 3: All that follows is my confusion. I can get to a model in which there is a short run wage gain equal to the short run revenue loss. However, it isn't Brad's model at all. Like Mankiw his is looking at long run wage gains vs short run revenue losses dw/dtau/(partial x/partial tau). The difference is that Brad considers a tax on capital not on capital income.

Everything that follows is irrelevant to the discussion and just an example of how one can get any result one wants out of an economic model by fiddling the assumptions.

end update 3

Brad *insists* on another definition of static -- one which he knows is used by the JCT to score tax reforms and generate the ultra important $ 1.5 trillion. In this defintion, prices may change (and accounting tricks definitely change) but actual production doesn't.

So in Brad's static calculation, k stays the same but the pre-tax return on capital falls so (1-t)(pretaxreturnoncapital) = r* stays the same. This can only happen if wages go up. The net of tax income of investors is (by assumption) fixed so the gain to workers is exactly equal to the loss to the Treasury.

Brad's static analysis is a bit odd. He assumes k is fixed *and* that wages and the pre tax return on capital change. He writes that it is very important to defer to the JCT. I agree with him about that as a matter of political economy. But I want at least a story for how w and pretaxreturnoncapital can change without k changing.

The story follows. Capital is like clay. Once it is assembled, the production function is Leontief so there is no way to substitute capital and labor. Output is firms choose a technology with a given capital labor ratio from a menut that looks like an ordinary production function, but, once chosen, the ratio is fixed.

In contrast w is not determined by the technology. It is determined so the after tax return on capital is r*.

If w is too low the return is higher than r* and foreigners send in capital and hire a worker (taking w as given). There would be excess capital so the return would be zero. Uh oh. if w is too high domestic investors send all their savings abroad. Then One tiny bit of capital deprciates and there is surplus labor and wages fall to zero.

So wages and pretaxreturnoncapital adjust instantly.

New capital is installed with a higher capital labor ratio (because wages are suddenly high in the USA). So as the old capial is replaced by new capital, demand for labour slowly changes.

Capital as clay makes it possible for prices to change quickly and quantities to change slowly. This is what Brad assumes, presumably following the JCT.

Mankis is assuming a smooth production function in which substitution of capital and labor is alway possible. His short term calculation is in the short term, k is the same so w = f(k)-kf'(K) is the same so the ratio of gain to workers to loss to the treasury is 0. not 1/(1-t) not 1, but exactly 0.

DeLong, Mankiw, Krugman, Mulligan and Cochrane Argue About Elementary Economics

I think you should read this post by Brad DeLong to understand the issue and the very grave condition of the discussion in which academic economists try to contribute to the policy debate.

The TL:DR version is that Greg Mankiw blogged a little exercize in which he asked the interested reader to calculate the ratio of two effects of cutting the tax on profits. The ratio was the long run increase in wages divided by a very short run loss of revenues to the Treasury.

The point was that this ratio is 1/(1-t) where t is the initial tax rate. I have no doubt that, as a partisan Republican, Mankiw was eager to lead people to a ratio greater than 1.

Brad DeLong objected that Mankiw incorrectly called his extremely short run analysis a static analysis. The exact definition of "static" matters, because it appears in the rules of the Senate which determine if a bill can be filibustered.

In Mankiw's extremely short run, the capital stock is fixed and so are wages and prices. This is a perfectly standard Keynesian short run. In static analysis as conducted by the CBO, the OTA and the JCT, wages and prices are assumed to adjust (and all accounting tricks are used).

Astonishingly, there is a heated debate about this. I think it can be resolved if Mankiw says he didn't use static in its Senatorial sense and should have written "extremely short run". I also think he should, but definitely won't, note that his calculation is just a calculation with no policy relevance at all (it would have none even if the super simple modeling assumptions were the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth).

Oh crap my summary for those who find DeLong's post TL is Too Long too. Just click the link.

My interest is in totally pointless theory. (no JCT no CBO). Why, in the model, does the long run take a long time to arrive ? What assumption is made which prevents K from jumping ?

I can think of 3

1. What Mankiw really has in mind. The economy is a closed economy. higher after tax interest implies higher saving and capital accumulation (there is a substitution effect but Ricardian equivalence means there is no income effect). The economy converges to a new steady state with after tax interest equal to the rate of time preference (1-t)f'(k) = rho. But this is hard, so (like the Tax Foundation as denounced by Krugman) he semi shifts to an open economy, but just to say that the after tax interest rate reaches a constant in the long run.

But then, if there are no installation costs and domestic and foreign goods are perfect substitutes, then domestic K will jump. Oooops. One needs one or the other. Krugman has very wonkishly done imperfect substitutes here.

so I will whip out Q. To avoid Krugman's insanely wonkish math (and replace it with other insanely and pointlessly wonkish math) I assume that domestic and foreign goods are perfect subsitutes (with no transportation costs either). This means that there is alway perfect purchasing power parity and current account deficits can jump up and down. This good can be consumed or assembled to make capital. I use its price as numeraire. It really just means I am setting the after tax rate of interest to a constant r*.

I will assume that labor input is constant and L=1. So I can write production as f(K) = F(K,1) and talk about derivatives. Capital income gross of taxes is Kf'(k), investors get (1-t)Kf'(K), the IRS gets tKf'(K) and workers get f(K)-Kf'(K). Here notice that I assume that reinvested profits are taxed -- no expensing investment here.

Now I will intoduce an installation cost. The cost of increasing K by dK is dk+dk^2 . The second term is called an installation cost. This means that the value of a unit of capital is not necessarily one unit of the final product. The ratio of the prices is called Q.

The convention is to call the dk increase I (investment) and not explain where installation costs appear on profit and loss statements. I assume that the installation costs are counted as investment not expenses for tax purposes (this is also conventional). I am just insisting that the tax collected is equal to tKf'(K) no matter how much or little firms invest.

The Standard results now are that

1) Q = 1+2I

2) r*Q = (1-t)f'(K) + dQ/dt

so in steady state r*=(1-t)f'(K) . There is math behind the equations, but they make sense. The marginal cost of capital is 1+2I so equation 1 just means that there is no arbitrage opportunity based on building new capital and selling it. Equation 2 says the return on ownership of capital is equal to r*. In other words, there is no arbitrage opportunity based on borrowing, buying some capital, operating it for a while collecting after tax revenues then selling it for a capital gain or loss.

Now what happens quickly if t is suddenly cut by dt ?

K can't jump. production can't jump. The real wage doesn't jump. real profits gross of taxes don't jump. This short term is Mankiw's extremely short term. There is no need for wage or price stickiness.

The variable Q jumps up (owners of capital are richer -- that is the actual point of the whole operation even if Republicans won't admit it).

OK I haven't proven this (and have no intention of doing so) but the transfersaility condition and the budget constraint imply that K will converge to a new steady state where r* ( 1-t+dt)f'(K), dK/dt = I = 0 and Q = 1. So Q has to head back down (K,Q) moves down a saddle path.

This means that the dQ/dt term is negative. This means that Q jumps up to a level lower than (1-t+dt)/(1-t).

Well that was almost exactly pointless. The only tiny point is that I have a model which has been fully worked out (I didn't here -- it's in the literature google [Q theory hayashi]) in which the very short run is exactly Mankiw's very short run.

Monday, December 04, 2017

Twitter AI Fail

I just got 2 new twitter followers.

Asteroid day is "Raising awareness to protect Earth from asteroid impacts and inspire the next generation." kay mccull's avatar tells people to vote.

I have trouble doubting that there is some connection with the poll I recently posted in which I asked if Clinton weren't on the ballot would her supporters have voted for the Sweet Meteor O'Death. A.I. is getting scary, but still confused support for a life destrying meteor with opposition. I assure my (few) blog readers that only one of my (few) twitter followers voted for the Sweet Meteor O'Death

Sunday, December 03, 2017

Republicans Reject the NFL, the CIA and the FBI

I forget who said she never expected that, after the national divorce, liberals would get custody of the NFL. But it's beyond that. Now Republicans reject the CIA and the FBI too. Donald Trump sometimes sounds like a paranoid 60s hippy claiming he is being persecuted by the evil FBI (except some of them really were persecuted).

So what else can they reject and abandon ? Hmm the flag. Some of it is blue like blue states -- they can't have that, and some is commie red. So they will probably decide to purify it.

I can't wait to see Republicans wave their white flag.


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Sunday, April 15, 2018

RIPE Barry Rassin to Speak at RLI Annual Breakfast at RI Convention in Toronto

Our Past Director, now Rotary International President Elect Barry Rassin from the Bahamas will be a speaker at the RLI Annual Breakfast at RI Convention in Toronto.

He is a tremendous advocate for RLI!

Please support RLI and Pres-Elect Barry if you are attending the Toronto Convention.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

International Curriculum/Best Practices Meetings Held

Successful Curriculum/Best Practices Meetings were held in both Orlando, Florida USA and Mumbai, India (January and February). At Orlando representatives from Canada, USA, Mexico, Argentina and New Zealand reviewed the RLI Curriculum in its entirety and recommended some changes that will become effective for the 2018-19 Rotary year. It has been the practice of RLI Curriculum Committees to conduct a full review of the recommended curriculum every three years and January's meeting was the third year of that cycle. The subcommittee reports have been forwarded to RLI Editor Ed King who will prepare the changes for final review by the international RLI officers.

The first Curriculum/Best Practices Meeting outside the USA was held in Mumbai in late February. Reports indicate that it was a successful meeting with many discussions/exchanges of ideas. A report will be published in the April, 2018 edition of this newsletter. Leading the event were Regional Chair for South Asia, Binod Khaitan and Regional Co-Chair Subhash Saraf. About 40 RLI representatives participated in the meeting. International RLI Vice-Chairs Frank Wargo and Knut Johnsen also participated in the meetings. The International RLI Officers will review the Mumbai meeting results at their April meeting and determine if regional meetings should be continued around the Rotary world in the future. Any comments on this subject should be sent to International RLI Chair David Linett at From RLI Int'l E-Newsletter, March 2018.

The International RLI will hold its Annual Convention Breakfast at the Toronto Convention on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 7:30 a.m.(doors open at 7:15 a.m.) The festive event will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel very near the Convention Center. At Atlanta, 475 Rotarians and guests purchased tickets for that Breakfast.Tickets for the Toronto RLI Breakfast are already on sale and may be purchased on the RLI website at The program/speakers will be announced soon. Chair of the Breakfast is International RLI Executive Director Michael Rabasca.

RLI will also have an Exhibit Booth at the House of Friendship at the Convention. Booth 916 has been assigned. RLI exhibit booths at conventions have attracted much interest and will, as usual, be staffed by RLI officers available to discuss the RLI program. Chairs of the Exhibit Booth are Executive Director Michael Rabasca and Intl. RLI Vice-Chair, Frank Wargo. Other RLI leaders will assist.


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