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Citations for "The Equity Premium: Why is it a Puzzle?"

by Rajnish Mehra

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  1. Abbas Mirakhor & S. Nuri Erbas, 2007. "The Equity Premium Puzzle, Ambiguity Aversion, and Institutional Quality," IMF Working Papers 07/230, International Monetary Fund.
  2. Kalyvitis Sarantis & Panopoulou Ekaterini, 2013. "Estimating C-CAPM and the equity premium over the frequency domain," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(5), pages 551-571, December.
  3. Javier Lopez Bernardo, 2016. "A post-Keynesian theory for the yield on equity markets," Working Papers PKWP1613, Post Keynesian Economics Study Group (PKSG).
  4. Córdoba, Juan Carlos & Ripoll, Marla, 2013. "What explains schooling differences across countries?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 184-202.
  5. van Ewijk, Casper & de Groot, Henri L.F. & Santing, A.J. (Coos), 2012. "A meta-analysis of the equity premium," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 819-830.
  6. Mirakhor, Abbas, 2010. "Whither Islamic Finance? Risk Sharing in An Age of Crises," MPRA Paper 56341, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Cysne, Rubens Penha, 2005. "Equity-premium puzzle: evidence from Brazilian data," FGV/EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 586, FGV/EPGE - Escola Brasileira de Economia e Finanças, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).
  8. Vance Martin & G.C. Lim & Esfandiar Maasoumi, 2004. "Discounting The Equity Premium Puzzle," Econometric Society 2004 Australasian Meetings 331, Econometric Society.
  9. G. M. Constantinides & J. B. Donaldson & R. Mehra, 2005. "Junior must pay: pricing the implicit put in privatizing Social Security," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-34, 01.
  10. Mark Kamstra & Rpbert J. Shiller, 2008. "The Case for Trills: Giving Canadians and their Pension Funds a Stake in the Wealth of the Nation," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 271, August.
  11. Mark Kamstra & Robert Shiller, 2009. "The Case for Trills: Giving the People and Their Pension Funds a Stake in the Wealth of the Nation," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2418, Yale School of Management.
  12. Marco Taboga, 2002. "The Realized Equity Premium has been Higher than Expected: Further Evidence," CeRP Working Papers 29, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
  13. : Constantinos Antoniou & : Richard D.F. Harris & : Ruogu Zhang, 2013. "Ambiguity Aversion and Stock Market Participation: Evidence from Fund Flows," Working Papers wpn13-01, Warwick Business School, Finance Group.
  14. Robert Goldberg, 2015. "A methodology for computing and comparing implied equity and corporate-debt Sharpe Ratios," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 733-754, May.
  15. Rochon, Mathieu & Desrosiers, Stéphanie & L’Her, Jean-François, 2004. "Révision à la baisse de la prime sur les actions au Canada," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 80(1), pages 137-170, Mars.
  16. Lim, G.C. & Maasoumi, Esfandiar & Martin, Vance L., 2006. "A reexamination of the equity-premium puzzle: A robust non-parametric approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 173-189, August.
  17. Fernandez, Pablo, 2003. "75 common and uncommon errors in company valuation," IESE Research Papers Db/515, IESE Business School.
  18. Berg, Tobias & Kaserer, Christoph, 2008. "Linking credit risk premia to the equity premium," CEFS Working Paper Series 2008-01, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
  19. Jules Tinang & Nour Meddahi, 2016. "GMM estimation of the Long Run Risks model," 2016 Meeting Papers 1107, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  20. Eunhee Lee & Chang Kim & In-Moo Kim, 2015. "Equity premium over different investment horizons," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1169-1187, May.
  21. Dean Corbae & Pablo D'Erasmo, 2010. "A Quantitative Model of Banking Industry Dynamics," 2010 Meeting Papers 268, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  22. Tsvetanka Karagyozova, 2007. "Asset Pricing with Heterogeneous Agents, Incomplete Markets and Trading Constraints," Working papers 2007-46, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Sep 2008.
  23. Donald T. Wargo & Norman A. Baglini & Katherine A. Nelson, 2010. "The New Millennium’s First Global Financial Crisis: The Neuroeconomics of Greed, Self-interest, Deception, False Trust, Overconfidence and Risk Perception," Chapters,in: Neuroeconomics and the Firm, chapter 5 Edward Elgar Publishing.
  24. Shackman, Joshua D., 2006. "The equity premium and market integration: Evidence from international data," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 155-179, April.
  25. Mosolygó, Zsuzsa, 2010. "A tőkefedezeti rendszer alapkérdéseinek új megközelítése
    [A new approach to the basic issues raised by the PAYE system]
    ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 612-633.
  26. Kenc, Turalay & Dibooglu, Sel, 2007. "The spirit of capitalism, asset pricing and growth in a small open economy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 1378-1402, December.
  27. Rajnish Mehra, 2006. "The Equity Premium in India," NBER Working Papers 12434, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  28. Marija Đorđević, 2016. "Consumption-Based Macroeconomic Models Of Asset Pricing Theory," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, vol. 61(211), pages 7-28, October -.
  29. Liu, Liqun, 2012. "Inferring the rate of pure time preference under uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 27-33.
  30. Pablo Fernández & Andrada Bilan, 2013. "110 Common Errors in Company Valuations," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(1), pages 33-78.
  31. Juan Carlos Cordoba, 2015. "Children, Dynastic Altruism and the Wealth of Nations," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 774-791, October.
  32. Rieger, Marc Oliver & Wang, Mei, 2012. "Can ambiguity aversion solve the equity premium puzzle? Survey evidence from international data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 63-72.
  33. Shu, Hui-Chu, 2010. "Investor mood and financial markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 267-282, November.
  34. Hultkrantz, Lars & Mantalos, Panagiotis, 2016. "Hedging with Trees: Tail-Hedge Discounting of Long-Term Forestry Returns," Working Papers 2016:2, Örebro University, School of Business.
  35. Salomons, Roelof, 2004. "Expert something sensible: putting US returns in an international perspective," Research Report 04E02, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
  36. Fielding, David & Stracca, Livio, 2007. "Myopic loss aversion, disappointment aversion, and the equity premium puzzle," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 250-268, October.
  37. Grammig, Joachim G. & Schrimpf, Andreas, 2006. "Consumption-Based Asset Pricing with a Reference Level: New Evidence from the Cross-Section of Stock Returns," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-32, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
  38. Andrés Mauricio Gómez Sánchez & José Gabriel Astaiza Gómez, 2015. "Ex-post Equity Risk Premiums and Economic Cycles in Colombia: An Empirical Research Using Kalman and Hodrick-Prescott Filters," REVISTA FINANZAS Y POLÍTICA ECONÓMICA, UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE COLOMBIA, vol. 7(1), pages 109-129, January.
  39. Pepin Dominique, 2016. "The subjective discount factor and the coefficient of relative risk aversion under time-additive isoelastic expected utility model," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(2), pages 931-935.
  40. Grant, Simon & Quiggin, John, 2003. "The Risk Premium for Equity: Implicatiosn for Resource Allocation, Welfare adn Policy," Working Papers 2003-14, Rice University, Department of Economics.
  41. Christophe, Faugere, 2003. "A Required Yield Theory of Stock Market Valuation and Treasury Yield Determination," MPRA Paper 15579, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Jun 2009.
  42. Li, Jinlu, 2010. "Some solutions to the equity premium and volatility puzzles," MPRA Paper 26833, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Aug 2010.
  43. Fernandez, Pablo, 2004. "Most common errors in company valuation," IESE Research Papers D/565, IESE Business School.
  44. Ferhan Salman, 2005. "Risk Aversion, Sovereign Bonds and Risk Premium," Working Papers 0514, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.
  45. Siddiqi, Hammad, 2016. "Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic: A Unified Explanation for Asset-Return Puzzles," Risk and Sustainable Management Group Working Papers 229607, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
  46. Chichilnisky, Graciela, 2009. "The topology of fear," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 807-816, December.
  47. Gürtler, Marc & Hartmann, Nora, 2004. "The equity premium puzzle and emotional asset pricing," Working Papers FW10V3, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Finance.
  48. repec:spt:apfiba:v:7:y:2017:i:6:f:7_6_5 is not listed on IDEAS
  49. repec:rss:jnljfe:v2i4p2 is not listed on IDEAS
  50. Filippo Taddei, 2007. "Equity Premium: Interaction of Belief Heterogeneity and Distribution of Wealth?," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 67, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
  51. LeBaron, Blake, 2006. "Agent-based Computational Finance," Handbook of Computational Economics,in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 24, pages 1187-1233 Elsevier.
  52. Christophe Faugere & Julian Van Erlach, 2003. "The Equity Premium: Explained by GDP Growth and Consistent with Portfolio Insurance," Finance 0311004, EconWPA.
  53. Samih Azar, 2011. "Retesting the CCAPM Euler equations," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 7(4), pages 324-346, September.
  54. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Donadelli, Michael & Varani, Alessia, 2015. "International capital markets structure, preferences and puzzles: A “US–China World”," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 85-99.
  55. repec:rss:jnljef:v3i1p1 is not listed on IDEAS
  56. Christophe Faugere & Julian Van Erlach, 2003. "A General Theory of Stock Market Valuation and Return," Finance 0311005, EconWPA, revised 17 May 2004.
  57. repec:dgr:rugsom:04e02 is not listed on IDEAS
  58. Maier, Johannes & Rüger, Maximilian, 2010. "Measuring Risk Aversion Model-Independently," Discussion Papers in Economics 11873, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
  59. Lee, Ji Hyung & Phillips, Peter C.B., 2016. "Asset pricing with financial bubble risk," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 590-622.
  60. Fernandez, Pablo, 2004. "80 common and uncommon errors in company valuation," IESE Research Papers D/550, IESE Business School.
  61. Dean Baker & J. Bradford Delong & Paul R. Krugman, 2005. "Asset Returns and Economic Growth," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 36(1), pages 289-330.
  62. J. Bradford DeLong & Konstantin Magin, 2009. "The U.S. Equity Return Premium: Past, Present, and Future," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-208, Winter.
This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.


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Monthly Archives: October 2013

Ye Shi – Abandoned Principles

Here is a quote from Ye Shi, writing in the late 12th early 13th century when foreign invaders held the north, referring back to a text from the Warring States period.

“One maintains a country with principles, with proper roles, and with the ability to change according to the circumstances. For the Zhong guo (the “Central country”) not to govern the Yi di (tribal peoples) is principle. For the Zhong guo to be the Zhong guo and for the Yi di to be Yi di is the proper role. We are in control of both. Therefore if they come to pillage then we go to war with them; if they come to submit then we receive them; to order them according to their reasons for coming is the ability to change according to the circumstances…The reason the Zhong guo is the Zhong guo is simply because it has these three thing. If we cast aside the tools by which we will necessarily be victorious and merely rely on deceit and force than we will have transformed ourselves into Yi di…However, although the Yi di are unprincipled, they always expect good faith and principle from the Zhong guo. The Zhong guo regards the Yi di as unprincipled and thus responds to them without employing good faith and principle. It does not understand that this is the reason it is the Zhong guo. Basically it cannot abandon something because the Yi di lack it.”

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Filed under China, Conditions of War and Peace, War, World Culture, World History

How the Enlightenment Failed Mankind

The scientific and industrial revolutions exploded in the age of conquest and discovery.  This period of conquest and discovery produced both the need and the financing for further scientific investigation.  Increased focus on education and research gave rise to the unintended consequence of advances in moral and cultural studies.  This moral and cultural enlightenment, and the social sciences it created, have been in conflict with capitalism since the development of the concept that certain rights exist in the individual and that these individuals have the right to create laws that control them and their governments.  While the Enlightenment did much to temper the pain, it did little to curb the advancement of imperial and economic conquest.  Capitalistic pursuits have had more influence on international relationships and global interactions than moral values.

The power of this new understanding found expression in the American and French revolutions.  The establishment of governments “by the people” raised new questions such as who is a citizen, who gets to vote, and who deserves equality.  The answers to these questions put the aristocrats and property owners at odds with those trying to achieve their newly imagined rights.  The moneyed interests prevailed, and only white, male, property owners gained suffrage.  This arrangement saw many more of the new ideas ignored and even perverted; ideas such as the immorality of slavery and sovereignty of native peoples.  The utilitarian view of “the greatest good for the greatest number” was twisted to justify conquest and colonialization of other cultures for their own good.  Both Europeans and Americans perverted Darwin’s theory of evolution to “prove” that Africans were lower on the evolutionary chain and it was therefore moral to treat them as animals.  Europeans and Americans continued to enslave Africans while Europeans maintained profitable slave trading networks in the name of economic growth.  Darwin’s ideas were also used the judge cultures and societies.  In addition, the ideas of Manifest Destiny and the belief in the white racial superiority were used to justify the eradication of Native Americans and the military conquest and eviction of the Mexicans from their own lands.

As formal imperialism began to slow, other informal forms of imperialism continued.  In Free Trade Imperialism , countries no longer used their navy and military might to monopolize trade routes and port cities; they now used the navy and military might to protect their interests abroad.  Free Trade Imperialism gains and maintains control through economic influence, dependence, and debt.  A common method of attaining these goals was to finance infrastructure such as railroads to transport goods and to provide markets for those goods.  This tactic placed tremendous pressure on the dependent countries to grant trade and other concessions to the more powerful trading partners and thus freed the conquerors of any responsibility for conquered societies.  This also relieved the citizens of the imperialist countries of the moral difficulties of conquering and controlling sovereign peoples.  Liberal Imperialism uses methods such as civilizing missions.  This involves evaluation of cultures based on economic and religious values.  If a society was not exploiting their resources for profit or they were not worshiping the right gods, they were classified as uncivilized heathens, incapable of ruling or educating themselves.  The only moral thing to do was to provide them with God, civilization, and leadership.

The process of free trade imperialism is very much alive today and spreading Euro-American capitalistic values around the world.  Not only European countries and the U.S. but also other economic powers such as Russia and China are encouraging domestic companies to spread their economic footprints.  Increasing the economic strength of privately owned companies increases the power and influence of the nation so governments provide protections for these companies.  This is illustrated by the military presence protecting Middle Eastern oil supplies and trade routes and economic and military aid to preferred countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and others by these same economic powers.

Liberal Imperialism was one aspect of the reasoning for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.  The U.S. government removed a ruler that did not meet their standards.  A liberal democratic super-power of the world removed the ruler of a sovereign nation under the pretense of bringing democracy and a better life to the citizens.  Free Trade Imperialism then helped perpetuate the war due to the large number of private contractors employed whose only motive was profit.  This is just one example of the economic powers of the world interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations.

The ideas that developed in the Enlightenment Period alleviated tremendous amounts of suffering around the globe.  These new ideas were key elements to the revolutions and evolutions of democracy, ending slavery, and bringing about a greater awareness of injustice and inequality.  However, these powerful moral concepts have merely been treating the symptoms.  Much more dangerous to humanity are the goals that have been and still are driving economic development.  While the philosophers and social sciences tinker with making the path smoother, other than a few marginalized intellectuals, no serious examination of the direction of the path or of what might lie at its end.  The Enlightenment did so much for the people of the planet but it failed to stop the relentless march of capitalist theocracy to ecological damnation.  Perpetual economic growth requires infinite resources from a finite planet, which makes the very concept of continuous economic growth logically unsound.  The capitalistic system is a Utopian fantasy; the fantasy is that a system based on personal profit over the greater good can continue.  The advancements in moral and ethical philosophy and critical thinking have not enlightened enough people to prevent us from committing suicide by capitalism.

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Filed under Capitalism, The Enlightenment, Uncategorized, World Culture, World History

Capitalism May Prevent Nuclear Holocaust

Capitalism will prevent a hegemonic war between China and the United States.  China is a rising power relative to the U.S., both economically and militarily, but a war between these nations is not likely.  Profit and economic stability are the goals.  China has just over 10% of the nuclear warheads as the U.S., however, the estimated 300 they do have is more than enough for Mutually Assured Destruction.  Money, not military deterrence, will prevent this war.

China bases its decisions on foreign policy at least partly on mutual respect, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in internal affairs, peaceful coexistence, equality, and mutual benefit.  Moreover, China says it “never seeks hegemony”.  A United States cost/benefit analysis would obviously favor peaceful trade with China without disrupting the U.S. imperialist pursuits in weaker and unprotected countries.  China will not threaten their biggest trade partner and the U.S. does not want any trouble because the import/export exchange is mutually beneficial and China is a major source of lending for U.S.  Therefore, peace is in the common interest.

As 21st century political values tend to put more emphasis on profit and the major military powers refine their military capabilities (deterrence), economic cooperation will become increasingly important.  We have insured peace by creating a system of mutually assured economic interdependence.

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Filed under Capitalism, Conditions of War and Peace, War

17th Century Cultural Awakening

A worldwide cultural and philosophical enlightenment accelerated around the globe in the 17th century.  Silver from the new world and people and goods from around the world moved on ever-expanding and complicated trade routes.  Knowledge and culture also traveled these trade routes, which enabled the peoples of the world to share and exchange art, science, music, religion, and philosophical ideas.

In the Americas, the Europeans borrowed art, music, and technical expertise from the aborigines and the African slave populations but this was mostly an uneven exchange.  The newcomers took what they could make use of and the others adapted under extreme coercion.  As European wealth and population grew, European culture soon displaced the cultures of the other inhabitants.

By the middle of the 17th century, European culture was flourishing due to the development of nation-states with more sophisticated administrations, consolidation of state wealth, and state control of military powers.  Its many political and religious struggles, along with the desire to advance its commercial ventures, resulted in advanced information gathering techniques.  This exposure to information inspired a search for knowledge that would fuel the European Enlightenment.  Abandoning Christian beliefs, Enlightenment thinkers searched for universal and objective knowledge that did not depend on religion, political views, class, or gender and would apply to all people and cultures.  Unfortunately, these same political, religious, and commercial ambitions also led to an era of internal and external wars.

The Ottoman Empire (1) avoided these religious wars through a philosophy of tolerance.  This helped create a rich, syncretic culture of diversity with a blend of ethnic, religious, and linguistic elements.  They accommodated Sufi and Sunni Muslims as well as Christians and Jews.  They allowed those of other religions to have their own schools and places of worship.  Ottoman scholars claimed, “An hour of learning is worth more than a year of prayer”.  The Ottomans stressed education based on the Humanities rather than the sciences with the emphasis on law, politics, religion, logic, and theology as well as advances in astronomy, physics, history, and geography.

Like the Ottomans, the Mughal Empire (2) ruled over a large non-Muslim population.  This allowed a broad and open Islamic culture of learning to develop which the Hindus and Muslims shared.  Through aesthetic refinement and philosophical sophistication, they bridged religious differences.  In the field of architecture, the Taj Mahal is an example of blending Persian and Islamic design with Indian materials and motif.  Their philosophical interests included the work of European philosophers as well as Sanskrit treatises.

In the Safavid Empire of Persia (3), Shah Abbas I (4) created a time of great prosperity.  This prosperity and royal patronage of the arts stimulated a cultural revival.  Shah Abbas I moved the capital to Isfahan and hired artists and architects from throughout Persia to build an ornate city that would rival Delhi and Istanbul.  The royal mosque was at the center of the city.  Next to the shah’s palace was a public plaza seven times larger than the Plaza of San Marco in Venice.  Other advancements in the arts included three-dimensional representation, perfection of the illustrated book, and an elaborate calligraphy.  Artisans produced mosaics of brilliantly colored tiles to adorn mosques and other buildings and elaborate silk and carpet products for export.  Intellectuals espoused a culture of ideals, aspirations, and wealth for the court, the property owners, and the commercial elites.  The Shiite version of Islam, which cultivated the more conservative values of Iranian societies found a home in the Safavid Empire.  The Safavids funded long established madrassas and brotherhood schools to educate the people.  This created a political-religious system based on Shiism and loyalty to the royal family.  Almost four hundred years after the end of the empire, Shiism remains the fundamental religion of the Iranian people.

China had a long tradition of learning that saw significant expansion due to a growing population and extensive mercantile networks.  Fueled by improved agricultural techniques and the influx of silver that accompanied increased Chinese exports this exchange of goods brought with it an exchange of ideas that allowed a culture of diversification and expansion that predated that of other cultures.  By the last decades of the Ming Dynasty (5), a publishing industry had developed and collections of books from around the world were housed in “magnificently built” and “finely adorned” libraries.  Connoisseurs of fine arts gathered collections at unprecedented levels and books became increasingly available, especially the study books for the civil service exams.  The Qing Dynasty (6) continued the practice of civil service exams and made the schools available to all.  China escaped the religious warfare suffered by Europe because while they did recognize spiritual entities, they did not consider any of them as a supreme being who favored one faction over another.

In the Tokugawa Shogunate (7) of Japan, there was a renewed interest in European culture.  The long influence of Chinese ways blended with Japanese traditions and European teachings.  Increased trade and wealth and an extended period of peace enabled thriving cultural growth.  Literacy reached as high as one third of the population and popular novels sold as many as 12000 copies.  Booksellers as well as libraries made books readily available.  The fine arts also flourished including Kabuki Theater and elegant tea/contemplation ceremonies.  Chinese Confucianism offered a set of legal teachings and blended with Buddhism, yet did not displace Shinto as a way of worship.

A global cultural awakening occurred in the three centuries surrounding the 17th.  As various cultures were shared and exchanged around the world, the cultures that survived were enriched in ways that cannot be measured.  While the Chinese and Islamic worlds retained their own cultures and systems of knowing, Europeans had more influence on the rest of the world, but traces of all these cultures can still be observed around the world today.

(1)  Ottoman Empire         1301 – 1922

(2)  Mughal Empire            1556 – 1605

(3)  Safavid Empire           1501 – 1722

(4)  Shah Abbas I              ruled 1587 – 1629

(5)  Ming Dynasty             1368–1644

(6)  Qing Dynasty             1644–1912

(7)  Tokugawa Shogunate  1603–1867

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Filed under The Enlightenment, World Culture, World History

Self Perpetuating Capitalism

The hopes of the Enlightenment for a future founded on ethical and moral reasoning have been lost to the rush of technology and capitalism.  The period of imperialism, colonialism, and plunder that made the Enlightenment possible also made the accompanying industrial and technological revolutions possible and allowed capitalism to be refined to the point of taking on its own perpetuation.  As societies established rulers to provide security and property rights they inadvertently gave power over the masses to those with more property.  Those with the property and power, through the desire to increase both, gained further control of the people through division of labor, thereby not only making the proletariat obliged to them for subsistence but also creating a class structure.  The stage was now set for full control of the people.  “The powerlessness of the workers is not merely a ruse of the rulers but the logical consequence of industrial society, into which the efforts to escape it have finally transformed the ancient concept of fate.  What human beings seek to learn from nature is how to use it to dominate wholly both it and human beings. Nothing else counts.”(1)  This goal and its logical consequence did indeed cause the rulers themselves to lose control of their creation.

As Sir Francis Bacon (January 22 , 1561 – April 9, 1626)  surmised, Kings and merchants could not control the acquisition and growth of technology.  It is now as democratic as the economic system with which it evolved.  As technology and industrialism expanded people became more dependent on it.  As people became more dependent they became less likely to question where the system was headed and the ethics and morals of the goal.  It was much easier to blindly accept the current way of life.  (A ‘This is how it has always been and so we can’t change it’ attitude.)

Rousseau looked back on a feudal and monarchical history and conceived of political inequalities that depended on the common consent of mankind.  These inequalities included wealth, honor, and power over others.  “Preoccupation with the drive to possess status disguised the oppression of the people and kept them from realizing that they were not free or natural.  People with property need a way to protect it, so the rich man, thus pressed by necessity, at last conceived the deepest project that ever entered the human mind: this was to employ in his favour the very forces that attacked him, to make allies of his enemies, to inspire them with other maxims, and make them adopt other institutions as favourable to his pretensions, as the law of nature was unfavourable to them.”(2)   Those with only the wealth they could obtain through their own labor needed protection too.  Those with power and property then convinced the people to make laws that “fixed forever the laws of property and inequality” (2).  In order to secure their current station in life and avoid the fear of change it became necessary to not analyze the conditions of the world and how man’s activity was affecting both the current state and future fate of mankind.

The failure of the Enlightenment to change society has been brought about by its very antithesis.  The people are kept busy trying to survive and the wealthy are busy acquiring more.  No one has time or inclination to question the system.  If they would stop to examine what they have created they would find that it has been running itself and is not now, nor has it ever been, under the control of anyone and is rushing forward towards death by more.  Except for a very small minority of the wealthiest of the wealthy, everyone else are just cogs in a machine.  Everyone is expendable and can be replaced from the reserve labor force of the unemployed.  The system created by man will lead to its own destruction if everyone continues to rely on the ‘Just doing my job’ defense to deny their own complicity.  It is the responsibility of the creators of the monster to put an end to it.  This will only be done through reason, reevaluation, and creation of new, more realistic goals for mankind.  Nature can no longer abide fiscal calendars and corporate goals.

(1)    Horkheimer and Adorno  – Dialectic of Enlightenment

(2)    Jean-Jacque Rousseau – A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind

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America’s Debt

Prediction:  If U.S.A. defaults on its debt China will start requiring debts to be paid in Renminbi.

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Capitalism Conquers South America

The conquest of the Americas was not planned or foreseen.  It was an uncoordinated pell-mell rush to acquire souls and gold.  The Catholic Church’s need for souls and man’s desire for “wealth” drove this madness.  No one knows where the souls went and the cost of the so-called wealth may prove to be more than the world can afford.  For the peoples being discovered or enslaved this was a time of devastation and destruction.  For the majority of the people of Europe all this new found wealth brought only pain and suffering.  Life was hard for European peasants and laborers and intolerable to impossible for indigenous Americans and Africans.

The discovery of the New World by Columbus at the end of the 15th century launched the Age of Discovery.  A Papal Bull (Dum Diversas) issued in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V authorized Portugal to enslave any non-Christians .  This opened the African slave trade to Europe.  In 1455 Pope Nicholas V issued the Romanus Pontifex which extended Catholic nations of Europe dominion over lands yet to be discovered.  In 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter Caetera bull establishing the Law of Nations.  Together the Papal decrees led to the global slave-trade of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Age of Imperialism.

By the end of the 15th century Europe had depleted the fertility of its farmlands through monoculture farming and polluted its streams and rivers and even the off-shore fishing waters.  The Ottomans had severed the overland trade routes to the East.  Europe desperately needed access to new resources.  These resources were found in the New World.  The Europeans were not concerned that these lands and resources were being utilized by other people.

By 1455 Spain and Portugal had full permission to “convert or invade, capture, subjugate, and perpetually enslave any non-Christians”.  This gave the people of both nations legal and moral authority to plunder the wealth of the Americas.  The Spanish began enslaving the indigenous people of the Caribbean with the arrival of Columbus. On his first trip he returned with a few samples of the product and on the second voyage he sailed with 500 Arawak men, women, and children to be sold as slaves.  Only 300 survived the trip.  He later wrote “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.”  However, so many died on later Atlantic crossings that this proved to be not as profitable as using these people as local slave labor.  They would rape their own lands to feed Europe’s greed.

During the first decades of colonization, abusive slavery and infectious diseases had killed so many Americans that a new source of labor was needed.   The first African slaves were brought to the New World as early as 1502.  The Spanish were not deeply involved in the slave trade so the British and the Dutch slave traders kept them supplied.  On the other side of South America the Spanish were busy stealing silver and gold using enslaved or conscripted indigenous people.

And the ecological imperialism was equally devastating.  The Portuguese “harvested” the Brazilwood trees for ship building and export.  In place of the forests, they planted the same sugarcane crops that had depleted the soil of the Mediterranean islands.  By this time the Brazilian natives had either died from diseases or had fled into the forests.  The Portuguese looked back to Africa for the labor that was needed for ecosystem destruction and monoculture faming.

All this stolen wealth did not help the people of Europe; for most of them it was a world of conquest, violence, hunger, inflation, and exploitation.  In most parts of Europe, two per cent of the population owned ninety-five per cent of the wealth.  What wealth the bourgeois did not piss away on trinkets and toys they spent on wars; religious wars between and within countries, wars to steal more wealth from other Europeans or to protect their own, and wars to put down the many peasant uprisings.

The discovery and exploitation of the New World is usually depicted as a great advancement for mankind but how is that to be determined?  Not by the improvements in warfare.  Not by the number of dead and unborn.  Not by the increased inequalities or the added wealth of the few.  And certainly not by the things we don’t know we lost.  We have no idea of the wisdom and knowledge these people may have contributed to the world.  Maybe the only believers in the One True God died in a silver mine or on a plantation somewhere.  And what was lost in the ecological destruction?  From the evidence of what was lost and the lack of evidence of what was not gained we may never be able to evaluate the five hundred year period from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 20th.  This age of parasitic devastation is coming to an end.  As of now, this same capitalistic drive is still at work, systematically turning the earth and everything on it into wealth, but it can’t go on much longer.  We have passed the point of sustainability.

“What do I think of Western civilization?  I think it would be a very good idea.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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ImPerfect 33

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畢業展 Inarguably Uncertain

關於展覽: 策展人的話...  美術館原連結
Inarguably Uncertain marks the forty-first exhibition by UC Berkeley’s M.F.A. students. Corinna Nicole Brewer, Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi, Narangkar Glover, Plinio Alberto Hernandez, Merav Tzur, Chris E. Vargas, and David Gregory Wallace join forces to exhibit their final projects. The aesthetic variety and interdisciplinary approaches are not surprising, given the strong alliances between Art Practice and other UC Berkeley departments, but the students continue to surprise and provoke.
The history of art is dominated by the viewpoint of straight white men; Corinna Nicole Brewer’s paintings complicate that gaze. Appropriating familiar poses from famous works of art but foregrounding the sitter’s own sexual proclivities, she resituates the female nude as a desiring subject rather than the lusted-after object.

Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi makes attire that emphasizes the uniqueness and power of the disabled body. She challenges the prosthetic function of materials, either utilitarian or protective, by making desirable, seductive objects inspired by a wearer’s individual form.

The paintings of Narangkar Glover contrast the “exoticism” of India’s Himalayas with the abstracted innocence of girlhood. What results is sinister, a claustrophobic push and pull between landscape and the girls’ progress through it, and shadowy narratives fervently stalk the canvas.

Plinio Alberto Hernandez’s installations emerge out of the interstices between Latin America and the United States, out of the permeable discourses that result from that chaotic relationship. Drawing from family memories, gang tattoos, and tropes of Western art history, he animates a conversation about exile and belonging, social mobility and personal migration.

Through her alias, Sarah Gray, Merav Tzur channels the misunderstandings that compel us to prove the validity of our stories: the mythos underlying mythology. Devising elaborate scenarios complete with maps, photo documentation, tools, and other “evidence,” Tzur concocts facts out of the alluring apparatus of fiction.

Chris E. Vargas’s films critique mainstream representations of queer culture, making obvious the existence of a more complex reality. His satirical mischief subverts everyday television dramas about work, love, and gender identification, imagining a way out of media’s mediocrity.

David Gregory Wallace’s installations speak to the collision of domestic and military architecture, questioning the invisibility of modern warfare in America. Seeking out the local sites that orchestrate overseas wars, Wallace conjures the everyday life of drone operators as they navigate the tenuous boundary between family life and war.

Dena Beard
Curatorial Assistant

The annual M.F.A. exhibition at BAM/PFA is made possible by the Barbara Berelson Wiltsek Endowment.


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Archive for the ‘HUNCHBACK OF HINDUSTAN- disability in cinema’ Category

Bollywood's villainAre you a Bollywood buff or a Masala-hit connoisseur? Are you interested in disability issues? Do you read film reviews and critiques? Do you enjoy thinking about things in your free time? If your answer to any of these questions is YES, this is for you! Read, post, comment, argue, agree, disagree…whatever. Just be there!

Bollywood’s Disability Through the Ages

As I sit down to write for the “Hunchback of Hindustan”, my thoughts go to the black-and-white (B&W) films which did not have the technology to paint the frames with the so-called colors of reality. I know very few people who genuinely have the patience to sit through B&W Hindi films and enjoy their slow pace, abrupt editing, melodramatic dialogues, and glitches. Unless of course, people do make exceptions when it is fashionable to watch classics touted as landmark cinema as is the case with Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy and Vijay Anand films. However hard it is to feel connected to the realities of cinema and society of B&W days, fact remains that the characters and their dilemmas were much more real than what is the case today. Since 1970s, we have not seen many social dramas in mainstream cinema or even farmer films that cannot be called art films. Post-Sholay cinema has mostly been about larger than life characters, humungous frames, grand song situations and an actually accentuated melodrama! A “real” character would either be from art films which take decades to reach out to people or it could be in the form of messiah of the masses, be it a Coolie or a Rakhwala. 1980s saw the worst of cinema when it was full of pelvic thrusts and choli-tributes, when film-makers were in a “Ghai” (also read hurry or eagerness) to fight helicopter operating villains from across the border, insanely cruel politicians or basti ka mawaali. And since 1990s, we talk mostly in terms of NRI, BPO-KPO, MNC and call-centre junta; the liberated India with cinema that takes a skewed look at what it means to be an Indian, because the focus is completely on collections in the opening weekend which means focus on urban multiplexes and cross-border revenues and hence films with their stories. There are hardly any commercial films on farmer suicides and what urbanization means to our villages today. But I am hopeful on this front because we do get to see traces of true depictions of the middle-class of metros and small towns like in Dilli 6 (2009), Bunty aur Bubli (2005), Chak de India (2007) and Khosla ka Ghosla (2006).

Coming back to the B&W days, about which I said that the characters or at least issues were closer to reality. Bucked up with newly found independence and a sense of purpose, our film-makers went full-on with social dramas covering a wide range of aspects like droughts, urbanization, unemployment, black marketers, families facing social dilemmas, etc. However, there is an irony to this whole depiction of reality and that in my opinion forms a disability of Hindi cinema, which still continues. Though real, the characters were mostly exaggerated, and non-heroes were usually caricatures. For many years, a comedian had to be someone who “looked” funny and disabilities formed the core of such depictions. A guy with a limp or a deformed face or speech problems (it made us laugh even this year in Kaminey), would be considered funny.

Coming Thif Fummer

The same extended to villains who had to look wicked with one eye shut or one arm paralyzed or again, with a limp. Roots of this can be traced to the depiction of Shakuni (Mahabharat) and Manthara (Ramayan), both of whom form some kind of a disabled image in our minds. Even when star comedians like Johny Walker and Mehmood Saab or star villains like Pran Saab or Prem Chopra entered films, we had these caricatures in the form of hero or villain’s side-kicks.

The blame I feel should go to the very core of our social fabric which unfortunately may not have shown much change. For some strange reason, our reaction to human disabilities is that we either joke about them or we extend grave sympathy. While making fun is cruel, even sympathy may not always be the right expression. A helping hand works best when it is hidden and is not the on-your-face help; when it is about empowering and not about “look I am in a better position to do this favor on you”. I will come to this point again, later in this article. Having said that, there have been instances in the cinema of those days when main protagonists faced a limitation but still managed to look sane, real and many times, heroic. For example, the lead roles in the 1964 flick Dostidosti, Dilip Kumar Saab playing a blind man in Deedar (1951), Upkar (1967 – both Pran as well as Manoj Kumar), the legendary Thakur in Sholay (1975), Koshish (1972), Gora aur Kala (1972), etc. But all this raises an important question: if lead character has a limitation, he or she will emerge heroic but what happens when a side-kick or a smaller character faces a limitation or a disability? Most of the times when character actors like Shakti Kapoor, Kader Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Dr. Shriram Lagoo, Satyen Kappu, etc have been shown with a disability, it has either been for fun or to generate strong sympathetic emotions.

I personally have a lot against the “sympathy” part. To gain sympathy from the audience, it is very easy to show someone in dire straits for example, get a disabled child beaten up, etc. But this I feel is sheer manipulation. The impact of ‘what is not shown’ is very well exploited in the west; when implied, cruelty leaves a deeper impact. For example, in films like The Kite Runner (2007), Gran Torino (2008) and Life is Beautiful (1997) (even the Indian ones directed by female directors like in 1947 Earth (1998) and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002)), there have been poignant depictions of cruelty but all in the implied form. Black (2005) and even Taare Zameen Par (2007) in my opinion, were too harsh on their protagonists. In the west, majority of schools take unpublicized care of their children with special needs. Many times, children themselves don’t realize that they were facing an issue. I remember also reading about it in an Abhishek Bachchan interview when he was talking about his Swiss school days of dyslexia. I fail to understand that why should our disabled protagonists emerge winners, underdogs and heroes at the end of each film? I remember having seen a beautiful film called Little Miss Sunshine (2006) in which a little girl and her family prepare hard for a competition and take a journey that changes their lives and relationships forever. But when she actually enters the competition, she and her family are literally thrown out of the venue! She loses but ends up having a ball, and we don’t feel bad about it. On the other hand, a Taare Zameen Par, that talks a lot about how competition is bad actually ends with the boy winning a competition!

I wait to see more Hindi films like Aankhen (2002) and Iqbal (2005)iqbal in which disability truly reached lead roles without much ‘sympathetic’ manipulation (what if Kachra of Lagaan (2000) could actually be the Bhuvan, the leader, the idol). I wait to see Hindi films that end up in a celebration and hence triumph of life and not necessarily in a competitive victory. I also wait to see Hindi films on disability to be made without actually keeping it at the centre of the script. For example, a film like Monsoon Wedding (2001) was actually not about the wedding, but turned out to be a film on child abuse which was very subtly woven into the script. Though I am glad that disabilities in our films are no longer being cured by Shirdi ke Sai Baba! After having lost a lot of hair in the recent years, I also wait to see a Bald lead role in a big budget Hindi film. Optimism Index in my heart went up big time when I heard that Aamir Khan would go bald for Ghajini (2008) but it came crashing down when he stopped at the “trimmer setting 1” shave instead! Till this wish is fulfilled, I’ll console myself with Bruce Willis and Jason Statham as my idols.

As I end this piece, I would like to quote Martina Navratilova who once said that, “Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you’re needed by someone.”

Please feel free to comment on this and more importantly bring out hidden facets from Indian cinema and flaunt your knowledge of films ;). We shall keep talking about it. Ciao.

Gaurav Sharma*

* Gaurav is one of our prized guest-bloggers. He passed out of IIT Bombay (2003) and IIM Kozhikode (2007). He is an ardent fan of RD Burman and a film-enthusiast. He is recently involved in making of a documentary biopic on RD.

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WBSSC CTL 15 Admit Card 2015 Call letter download

WBSSC CTL Admit Card 2015

WBSSC CTL Hall Ticket 2015 download: Hi friend, here we are informing you that those who have applied CTL exam, WBSSC are going to upload CTL 15 admit card at the official website today i.e 3rd September 2015. WBSSC CTL 15 Admit Card 2015 Hall Ticket Download www.wbssc.gov.in. West Bengal Staff Selection Commission has made a choice to publish the Admit Card for WBSSC Combined Technical Level Examination for the candidates who had applied for 106 vacant positions. Candidates who had applied successfully for WBSSC CTL can check the WBSSC CTL 15 Exam admit card 2015 link through official website. This WBSSC is going to organize the Combined Technical Level Exam 2015 date on 16th September 2015 at several pre arranged examination center across the West Bengal state. Now most of candidates who had applied are eagerly waiting for WBSSC CTL Exam Hall Ticket 2015.

WBSSC CTL 2015 Admit Card download

Applicants those who are waiting for WBSSC CTL 15 Hall Ticket 2015 Call Letter can download from official website. Admit card is plays a vital role to write the examination, it indicates Name of the candidates, exam date, roll number, examination center and etc., so candidates must download the WBSSC admit card 2015 for CTL exam. Candidates must carry their WBSSC CTL Admit card to the examination without admit cards candidates will not be allowed to examination hall to write the exam. For more information concerning WBSSC Admit Card 2015 CTL 15 Exam Hall Ticket visit official home page.

WBSSC CTL Admit Card 2015

Organization Website: www.wbssc.gov.in

Organization Name: West Bengal Staff Selection Commission

Category: Admit Card

Name of the Exam: Combined Technical Level Exam 2015

Location: West Bengal

Exam date: 16-09-2015

How to download admit card

  • Go to official site wbssc.gov.in
  • WBSSC CTL 15 exam admit card download link is available
  • click on the link and enter fields asked and submit
  • WSSC CTL 15 call letter 2015 is displayed on screen
  • download and take hard copy

Download WBSSC CTL 15 Admit card 2015


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USA // PL - Florida

Meresha Together and UnitedPlease read our Exclusive Interview with Meresha!

Did you pre-order “Enter the Dreamland” ?? Post a screenshot

iTunes -> apple.co/2rp80fT Google Play -> bit.ly/DreamlandGoogle

Also, check our Meresha’s new EP  Together + United

(musical) artist, vegan & alien luver.

* * *

Young Indie singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer creating eclectic digital pop with a soulful throwback voice.

Meresha’s music has landed on Top 40 Billboard charts 3 times while her videos have been played internationally, including on MTV properties.  She’s been the #1 Indie artist in the US for a month.

In December 2016, Billboard named Meresha’s the #6 emerging artist globally.

Meresha is a voting member in the Grammy process as part of The Recording Academy.

* * *

At the age of 12, Meresha recorded her song “Fool Don’t Be” in a CD booth at a mall. Fun, refreshing, and totally independent, the song revealed exciting potential. Born in Europe, at 15 the singer and multi-instrumentalist uprooted her family, and headed for Florida. Her intense focus and Indie attitude garnered interest with young fans and supporters of independent music alike.  While her deep, soulful voice recalled a young Annie Lennox and Katy Perry, her quirky sonic vision drew comparisons to a Björk or Lorde.

In 2015, she released the EP New Revolution, which included the title track and a trio of other songs that ranged in style from the Florence & The Machine to FKA Twigs. Her sometimes frenetic eclecticism and eccentric beats created a fresh sound that brought old styles into contemporary production.  She performed songs from the EP live in concert with Adam Lambert and Third Eye Blind.

That same forward-thinking pop vibe carried into 2016 when she released the single “My Love Has Come,” which shifted focus from her innovative production to her vocal strength.

Her late 2016 releases are”Together” and “Juntos”, which is Meresha’s first song in Spanish.  A fun lyric video shot in the Bahamas and Florida introduces the song.

In December 2016, Billboard named Meresha the #6 emerging artist in the World, based on their “Next Big Sound” chart.

* * *

Contact: team@Meresha.com

Genre: Eclecto-pop, Electronica

“New Revolution” was the #1 Indie song on US radio for a month (Mediabase, BDS).

“New Revolution” entered the Billboard Top 40 Indicator chart in between Adele and Justin Bieber.

“My love has come” hit Top 40 on both the Billboard Activator and Indicator charts.

She and her band performed with global acts Adam Lambert (American Idol, Queen) and Third Eye Blind.

Her “New Revolution” video from 5-time MTV VMA nominee David Rousseau (Director of all the Pitbull and Magic! videos) plays on over 30 video stations including MTV properties.

Meresha was influenced by artists such as Robert Plant, Joss Stone, Freddie Mercury, Hayley Williams and James Blake.

Meresha to date has composed and performed every song she has released, playing keys, guitar and drums, basing on electronic sounds.

Her EP, New Revolution” recently won or was semi-finalist in several global music competitions, and was praised by the music press and has received extensive global radio play.

The Palm Beach Post summarized: “Meresha may soon be on a first-name basis with the public.”

“My love has come was selected by iTunes as a Featured song (New Pop Music) and has received critical acclaim

PressPlay said of her music “Rather excellent Pop Jams…a heady trip of soul-leaning electronic pop”

She was selected to the national House of Blues class of 2016 of promising musicians, and was a nominee for the Pavoh RADAR award.

Venues she has played include Mizner Amphitheater, Hard Rock Cafe, House of Blues and B.B. King’s.

Agency Management

Phone (408) 673-8160

Email team@meresha.com

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Track Authors


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One new photograph, almost every day of the year

2015—Red Tailed Hawk

After we visited the petroglyphs on Tuesday, Bruce drove toward Portola, a place in the Sierras I’d never visited. We drove along Heriot Road where cattle grazed behind barbed wire fences. When I spotted a hawk perched atop a windmill, Bruce turned the truck around and returned to the site. There was no room on the side of the road to set up a tripod so I wedged Big Bertha between the truck door and frame, resting the end of the lens on the hood of the truck. It was very unwieldy and awkward and by the time I got settled, the hawk took off but I did manage to get two shots as it flew off the windmill. I’m including one because it’s my first hand-held shot with Big Bertha, although I did have a little help from the truck. A few minutes later, we found another red tailed hawk that was more cooperative and it perched on a “now-considered-part-of-Nature” fence post. The previous adjective string alludes to the Photographic Society of America (PSA), which has always prohibited “the hand of man” in ‘Nature’ photos, now allowing such things as fence posts when photographing hawks for a “Nature” competition.

When the hawk decided to fly off, I was unable to follow its flight because I was wedged in the space between the door and the truck body and I wasn’t using the tripod and my fancy gimbal head which would have allowed me to do that. Maybe another day. But I’m very happy with these shots. They are not cropped. In the last shot, the red tail is preparing to take off.

Sierraville - hawk-7167

Sierraville - hawk-7340

Sierraville - hawk-7361

Sierraville - hawk-7368

3 responses

  1. LOVE the shot of the hawk dancing on the windmill. suggestion – whenever I go out trolling in car/truck – the beanbag is super useful and also protects the paint job and the lens

    October 10, 2015 at 4:42 am

  2. Bruce

    Nice clean & crisp images, Bertha has served you well.

    October 10, 2015 at 6:36 am

  3. Melinda

    Wonderful! Love the third one especially- head cocked!

    October 13, 2015 at 6:04 pm

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Foreign Affairs Ministry Documents Attestation Services

Documents Attestation Services, TCS, OCS, UPS, Leopards, Gerrys, Foreign Office, Foreign Ministry,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Govt of Pakistan has announced the courier companies with service charger for documents attestations. The Foreign Ministry has established the Dropbox facility at his Camp Offices situated in the Punjab, Singh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtun Khawah (KPK) at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. The applicants submit their documents for attestation except power of attorney. These companies are TCS, OCS, UPS, Leopards and Gerry's. The service chargers for documents attestation are as under.
Inside City (Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore (Rupees 100)
Outside City - the Cities except mentioned above (Rupees 200)
The courier companies did not demand any additional or hidden chargers for these services, however these chargers are for only one man / one case for documents attestation. If you want to get any information and lodging any complaint, kindly call us on 051-9207895 or email us at or contact provincial offices or visit

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Not Just for the “Name’s-Sake”

The two months that I was in St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, I had gained instant stardom. No, not because of my charming personality but because of something that I had been blessed with when I stepped foot into this world – my name.

Devansh Mehta had made quite a mark in the college, not only through his intellect but also through his rebellious nature. The JC (Junior College) guys were already familiar with Mr. Devansh’s rather anti-estd. Ways. And it did not take too long for the freshers to follow suit.

Also, Devansh boasted of certain edges over his Jaipur counterpart, who happens to be, yours truly.
1. He made it to Xavier’s Mumbai before I did.
2. He quit Xavier’s Mumbai before I did, which is quite clearly a remarkable feat given that you have read the beginning carefully.
3. The reason why he left was to join St. Stephen’s College, Delhi – the very same college that I was 1 mark (yes, 0.25%) short of getting into. Damn! Still hurts!

Now, three years later I find myself reading a newpaper report, with a big sadistic smile on my face – Devansh Mehta has moved to the Delhi High Court, to appeal against the Principal’s disciplinary action against him for launching the college E-Magazine, without his approval. The Principal had suspended him and barred him from attending the graduation ceremony for publishing his interview in the magazine without his consent. However, the High Court has now put a stay on the suspension to uphold the Right to Freedom of Expression.

I wholeheartedly (and with a lot of bias) support my namesake, not just because he has a beautiful name but also because his fight is against an institution that the geek in me has certain reservations with, for obvious reasons.

I am pretty sure that this guy, though I’ve interacted with him only once, is going to make me even more popular in the future.

(Read : ye ladka “mera naam” raushan karega!)

12 thoughts on “Not Just for the “Name’s-Sake”

  1. Thanks a lot my dear namesake! It’s great that the issue has not been confined to just one college but has spread with students from all over expressing their support and speaking out (ranjas college has also organized a protest against arbitrariness of their principal). Here’s to hoping this becomes more than just about one person and students all over find their voice.

  2. you, sir, are a very good writer. such a serious issue is somehow wrapped with some beautiful language and without much effort, it manages to convey a strong message. The personal touches are noteworthy too.

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A eulogy to Severus Snape in words of the Sorting Hat…

The only time I felt more confused

sorting the Chosen One into his house

was while on the head of that Dark Wizard

with a muddled head yet a golden heart.

A master of Occlumency,

his head was tough to get into

But even when I could,

there was a constant battle between the red and the green.

His wand could as smoothly spell out Sectumsempra

as it could a silver doe – his patronus charm.

His eyes stared as coldly in suspicion

as they looked warmly, into those green eyes.

The Half Blood Prince,

he despised all muggles, and bowed before

both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore.

Severus Snape died a hero’s death, after living a villain’s life.

A troubled childhood, an eerie fascination towards the Dark Arts,

considerations that made me slot him into Slytherin.

“One of them was a Slytherin and the bravest man I know”,

Potter has declared, Nineteen Years Later.

Did I make the right decision, I often wondered.

I now feel sorted…

After all these years, and Always.

 – The Sorting Hat

Source: hp-intothefire.wdfiles.com

2 thoughts on “Slytherin… Sorted!

  1. What Snape exhibited was true love towards Emily.
    “After all these years , Always” this one line always make my eyes moist. I admire you Snape, I admire you.

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Welcome to Prof. deBock’s Innovator Network Blog — Ideas for Teaching, Learning and Living!

This blog is part of my outreach to teachers, students and just about everyone else who wants to feel empowered (not overwhelmed) by the wave of new technologies that is emerging everyday.  New emerging technologies have potential to enrich our lives in profound ways.  But this is not an alpha-geek clubhouse.  Rather my work here (and in webinars and other speaking engagements) is to show and teach “regular folks” that there are easy-to-use technologies that anyone can learn to use without being a “techie!”

But even beyond teaching tools, I write about ideas and culture and find excellent resources that will expand your ideas about this amazing, wide-world we live in.

Sometimes I just want to make you smile!

You have my promise that I will post things that I personally think are worthwhile.

This blog was started in 2007 when I was employed by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Kaplan University.  I was given an open-ended mandate by the then Provost of the University to help teachers find and use tools that will make them better teachers.  I took that vague mandate and turned it into a faculty-led, grassroots initiative called the Innovations Lab.  We supported faculty with micro-grants to explore tools and ideas.  We created a vibrant webinar series that introduced new technologies to 1000’s of teachers.  We supported user-groups interested in Second Life, Podcasting, Movie-making and sharing best-practices in a peer-led environment.  We helped establish Kaplan University’s educational conference “KU Village”, and we even held a successful Literary Festival.

Some of my inspiration came from Kaplan’s founder Stanley H. Kaplan.  In his memoir “Test Pilot” he wrote:

“My challenge as a teacher was to give students the tools they needed to get the job done. I had to keep students interested, keep them learning, keep them laughing, and — above all — build their confidence that they could succeed. I was the gentle nudger. I wanted them to love learning as much as I loved teaching. I used everything imaginable to stimulate the students — arguing, joking, teasing, cajoling, listening, deciphering, and probing. I dug deep into my bag of tricks and pulled out mnemonic devices… flash cards, scrawled blackboard diagrams, and flailing animated gestures.”

—Stanley H. Kaplan, “Test Pilot” page 37

I read these words and they still ring true to me and my personal mission with the Innovator Network.

On Saturday, December 31, 2011, Kaplan University eliminated my role in the Innovations Lab and thereby the Innovations Lab itself.  The University and I came to an agreement that I could continue blogging at this URL and that the assets created for this blog would become my intellectual property after 12/31/2011.

9 responses to “About

  1. Hi, Will — I am interested in becoming a Fellow. What is step 1 for the loyal society?;-)

    (Kaplan Arts & Sciences, Composition)

  2. Hi Patty!

    CTL is about to announce the next round of IL fellowship applications. I am letting the new Director get her feet under her, before we move too quickly.

    There is tremendous potential in this concept and we are trying to lay out the foundation correctly.

    You will hear about the application deadlines and process, I am hoping, in the next few weeks. It will come through normal KU channels and I will be sure to post it here also.

    Glad you had a chance to see the blog and are still interested in the IL!

  3. Thanks a million for the information, Will! 🙂

  4. Animoto for Education

    If you are looking for an innovative way to interact with your students, try Animoto.
    It is easy to create and fun to use.

    You can create unlimited videos and Animoto is free to educators.
    You can also introduce your students to the wonderful world of Animoto.

    A welcome address to the students: The Animoto video was used for one of my classes.

    You can import your own music or use the music provided.

    Carol Edwards

  5. Will, Hi…Did I miss Daniel Gilbert yesterday? If so, is it archived? Did you know I developed a positive psych course and teach it at another graduate university? I would love to see what I missed. Thanks, Dora

  6. Robert Lockwood

    Will,I am sure that this is somewhere but how do I go about embedding a Jing Image into an announcement? I want to show one of the course extras information. Thanks, Bob

  7. Dear Professor deBock
    Greeting from (rainy) Dublin.

    Just a brief note of introduction from the School of Arts in Dublin Business School.

    We have been part of Kaplan for some time now and I have personally been very interested in seeing what else is going in the Kaplan community.

    I have been a regular follower of the Innovations Lab for some time now and have added your newsfeed to a blog that we run at http://dublinbrownbag.blogspot.com/

    FOr the moment I thought I would just say a brief ‘Hello’ and a ‘Thank You’ for the fascinating blog.
    Kind regards

  8. Hi Will,

    I work for an education technology start-up in London, and our team regularly visit your blog for thought-leadership. I found your post on the ‘Scale of the Universe’ tool particularly interesting – what a great resource to use in the classroom. As someone passionate about educational technology you may be interested in Wordia – an engaging learning resource.

    Not sure if you’ve heard about us (Wordia.com), but I’d value any thoughts you have on what we’re trying to do (we’re trying to map the K-12 – all of the vocabulary that students need to learn… raising literacy and subject vocab levels, through video and games-based learning).

    Originally, Wordia was built as a ‘living video dictionary’, but under the advisement of 100s of educators – we’ve pivoted to something that I’m really excited to be sharing with you!

    The new-look Wordia has just launched – with some smart technology that lets educators build their own word games and hold school tournaments! We’d love you to have a look, and tell us what you think. Indeed – we’re running a t-shirt competition – and I’d love to send a school you know, some free Wordia t-shirts (a thank you – for helping us with the R&D efforts!).

    It’s early days, but your feedback would be most welcome!

    Thanks again.

    Director of Play
    (Research & Development)

    • Rob,

      Great title!

      I just glance at the wordia site. I will definitely give it a run through in the next few weeks.

      I am actually writing a longer essay on game-like motivation, so I am very interested in learning games these days. Chorewars.com was an interesting find this weekend for me.

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text:
But do low wages trump the negatives of offshoring, particularly the additional shipping time and associated transportation and hidden costs, like the overhead of managing suppliers who are far away?

Firms have begun asking that question more often and urgently as labor costs rise around the world. Wages have nearly doubled in China since 2008, for example. As a result, manufacturing jobs have begun to trickle back to the US. One survey in December 2015 found that 17 percent of manufacturing executives were already “reshoring” jobs—that is, bringing them back to the US. Another 37 percent were planning or considering it.

Labor costs are relatively easy to determine. But the other side of the equation— the cost of transporting goods from factories to the point of sale—involves trade-offs that make a reliable cost–benefit analysis hard to come by.

“It’s not just about the dollar cost of labor,” says Jan Van Mieghem, a professor of operations at the Kellogg School. “Time is money, and firms have become smarter in realizing that, ‘well, we can go to China, but it’s going to take a longer time to get the product back here. And I will pay for that time.’”

How much should you source locally versus globally? Here’s how you can find out.

For many firms, decisions about offshoring, onshoring, and dual sourcing are not clear-cut. So the researchers are pleased to share this free version of their model.

You can enter information about costs and lead time for various sourcing options, as well as expected demand, and get an estimate of your total cost with 100% local sourcing, 100% global sourcing, and everything in between. Note that the model can also accommodate dual-mode transportation decisions, such as the optimal balance between rail and road, or air and road, shipping.

Van Mieghem and his coauthor Robert Boute, of the University of Leuven, have developed a formula based on a model they designed that helps companies weigh a broad range of factors in deciding whether it makes sense to offshore jobs, manufacture locally, or do a mix of both, which is  known as “dual sourcing.” [See sidebar to input your company’s information into a free version of the model.]

“If I’m making sourcing decisions, I need to quantify it,” Van Mieghem says of the choice between manufacturing overseas, manufacturing nearby, or relying on some mix of the two. “This model is one of the first that gives the quantifiable impact.”

Both Sides Now

Van Mieghem’s formula will be especially useful to companies in volatile markets, where demand shifts rapidly. These markets create uncertainty and force companies into a dilemma as they analyze which sourcing approach makes sense.

“You can keep a lot of product in inventory, which will cost you money,” says Van Mieghem. “And you may end up having too much on hand. Or you can be more conservative and keep less in inventory. But then you run the risk that you won’t have enough on hand, and customers will go elsewhere.”

Manufacturing nearby means a company can keep inventory levels low but still get goods to market quickly when demand spikes. But does that benefit outweigh the cost of paying higher wages?

The answer depends in part on the costs of ramping up production to meet surges in demand—known as “capacity costs.” If a supplier usually produces 100 units per day, for example, and demand rises to 150 units per day, how quickly can it meet the demand for 50 additional units, and at what cost?

In a word, how flexible is the supplier?

“The more expensive it is to pay overtime, hire extra workers, run weekend shifts and extra shifts, the more inflexible you are from a capacity perspective,” Van Mieghem says.

European economies tend to be highly regulated and have high rates of unionization. The same is true, to a lesser extent, in some parts of the US. This inflexibility has driven the offshoring of so many jobs over the past several decades.

The formula developed by Van Mieghem and Boute helps a firm weigh these capacity flexibility costs against the benefits of sourcing nearby, such as the reduction in import taxes and inventory costs. Without the benefit of such a formula, it has been tempting for decision makers to fixate on the low cost of labor abroad.

“In the past, companies kind of underestimated, or neglected, the costs of the time it takes to transport goods, and the cost of needing more inventory,” Van Mieghem says. “And many companies have become more aware of this. So they’re in a mode of not relying completely on low-cost, faraway sourcing. They realize that they need some nearby sourcing, too.”

Van Mieghem’s formula helps them determine the right balance. A firm can input its own data on wage costs and capital investments, capacity costs, lead time, and so on to determine the optimal mix of sourcing abroad and nearby. Van Mieghem is now consulting with a major computer company to apply his formula to its products.

The formula can also be applied to shipping costs, helping a firm choose the best mix of transporting goods by ocean and by air, and it can help determine the optimal mix of local sources, not just local and offshore sources.

“Should we keep investing more and more in Asia—or should we start investing more over here?”

Bringing It (Partly) Back Home

The lure of low wages is especially strong in the realm of computers and electronics, an industry distinguished by strong competition and low profit margins.

But technology firms are the classic case of an industry that can benefit from dual sourcing. Demand for computers and cell phones, and the related devices and accessories, is highly volatile—making them prime candidates for nearby sourcing. The cost of labor may be higher, but companies save on shipping. They are also able to keep inventories low while offering rapid delivery, which technology consumers tend to value.

Those advantages are one reason the US has gained some manufacturing jobs in the past few years, after three decades of steady offshoring. For example, the Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo opened a new factory in 2013 in North Carolina.

That state has had another recent win in terms of keeping sourcing local from a different sector: furniture manufacturing. It is home to nearly 10 percent of all the jobs in furniture manufacturing in the US, and has begun to win back some of those jobs it lost over the past few decades.

The industry’s strategy for doing so has involved, in part, becoming smarter about inventory management and maximizing the advantages of making furniture in factories closer to showrooms. That strategy substantially reduces both the costs of storing furniture and the administrative costs of tracking it to the point of sale.

Despite such advantages of manufacturing nearby, the low cost of labor means that offshoring or dual sourcing still makes economic sense for many companies. Van Mieghem’s formula can help companies understand how to plan their sourcing in the current market—and years down the road. “It can be used as a planning model, to project out for the next few years what you believe should happen with your global footprint. Should we keep investing more and more in Asia—or should we start investing more over here?”


text:
Saturday, August 27, 2016

Back to school blog tour

Our kids have one week of school holiday left, which is why I am showing you Back to School Clothes. I am participating in the Back to School Blog Tour hosted by Sprouting Jubejube and Lulu & Celeste, so at the end of this post you can see links to other Back to School posts and a give away. For the blog tour I sewed three pieces: a dress, a bolero and a rain coat.

Let's start with the outer layer: the rain coat. I used the Wild Things Coat pattern from Big Little. This brings the score to four coats that I sewed with this pattern. Earlier, I made a beaver, a Toothless, a bunny and now a simple bear. A raincoat has to close very well so I chose to use velcro. I used one long strip of velcro from top to bottom on the button strip. Besides giving extra wind protection, the velcro makes it super easy to open and close the coat.The fabric is an inexpensive table cloth and I used the same fabric for both sides, in case the water resistance would not be perfect. My daughter can't wait for it to rain!

The middle layer of the outfit is a hack of the Pearl Shrug from Gracious Threads. Layers make summer dresses perfect for fall so the Pearl Shrug is a nice staple to have in every imaginable color. I have a store bought ruffle bolero which I love, and I used the Pearl to get a similar look. I more than doubled the length of the  bottom strip to create the ruffle. With hindsight, 1.8 times might also have been sufficient. I really like the stretchy bias finish of the neckline. It is the perfect way to add a nice extra pop.

The dress she is wearing is a hacked Driehoekje dress from The Eli Monster. The pattern asks for woven fabric, but I made it in jersey. I sized down to get a good fit due to the stretchiness of the fabric.  I really love the triangular lines on the front. I did not want to finish the dress with a facing, so I actually made an extra triangular seam on the front (and horizontal on the back) to create a fully lined bodice for an easy finish. I also added pockets, because our kids just need them. I bought the fabric a year ago at Joyfits.

My poor girl got a mosquito bite on her eye! Her eye was swollen heavily, making the shoot a challenge. I tried to pick those pictures in which she just seemed to wink like a crazy person. I finished the clothes just before we went on holiday, and although I had three days to make pictures, that eye destroyed my chances for the perfect shoot. I hoped I could re-shoot when we got back two days ago, but seeing we have a heat streak, I did not want to put her in that many layers.

Check out the overview of today's other posts on the today's host page. Like I mentioned at the beginning, there is a great give away, one pattern from Big Little. So, you could get this coat pattern for free! Fill in the rafflecopter to participate. To celebrate the tour, there are also several discounts.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Designs by Call Ajaire: Get  20% off in their Etsy shop with code BTS2016. Code valid from August 22nd through August 27th.
E+M Patterns
: Save 50% with the code backtoschool on their website or in their Etsy shop. Code valid until August 27th at 11:59pm PST.
MODKID: Get 25% off  your entire purchase in their Etsy shop with code BTS2016. Code valid from August 22nd through August 27th.
Love Notions: Get 20% off all kids patterns with the code loveschool. Code valid from August 22nd through August 27th.
Sew Happily Ever After: Get the Nana’s totes pattern at 50% off with the code BACK2SCHOOL2016. Code good through August 31st.
Laela Jeyne Patterns: 30% off Any Single Pattern, No Code needed. From August 25-29th, 2016.
StitchART: 20% off with the code back2school in their Etsy shop. Valid from Aug 22nd – 28th, 2016.
Gracious Threads: Buy 3 patterns and save 15% off the purchase price! Use code SAVE15ON3. No expiry
The Eli Monster: Save 20% with the code yayforfall. Code valid until August 29th, 2016.
Filles à Maman: Get 25% off with the code BTS2016. Can be used on their website or in their Etsy shop. Code valid from August 24th through August 28th midnight EDT.
Whimsy Couture: Get 50% off, no code needed! End August 31st, 2016.
5 Out of 4 Patterns: Save 20% with code BTS2016. Valid from August 22nd-28th midnight EDT. Cannot be used on fabric.
Snuggle My Baby Patterns: Save 25% with code BTS2016. Valid until August 31st, 2016.

Check out the rest of today's stops on the tour:

  1. Oh that raincoat! Almost makes me wish my dd was small again.

  2. The raincoat is great, good thinking on the velcro closure too.

  3. Love the Velcro closing wild things raincoat!!!

  4. Great idea on the Velcro and the table cloth! Love it Miranda x

  5. Recently bought the big little coat, I cannot wait to try it! Yours looks great!

  6. how adorable! shes looking really cute in it!

  7. zoals altijd weer super leuke creaties!
    de regenjas is erg leuk geworden, echt iets voor een peuter/kleuter! en het stofje van het jurkje is heerlijk!!!

  8. Heel leuk jurkje, perfect voor een zonnige eerste schooldag!

  9. superleuk! vooral de jurk met de driehoekige hals!!

  10. Love the coat and what a cute little girl :)

  11. Love the coat! hope your girl's eye is all better

  12. All the items look wonderful!!! Awesome!

  13. Loving your outfit, the dress in particular is way cute.

  14. What a cute and perfect little outfit!

  15. Super alweer! Al hoop ik dat de regenjas nog niet meteen uit de kast hoeft te komen :-)


text:
A better life with my wife in 30-days – only positive thoughts

At the end of the day, it’s the small stuff that sends a message about whom we care about most. Putting our loved ones first can be daunting for some – looking at things from their perspective can hard. For others, prioritising our own needs can be a challenge and doing things that make us feel good (or look good) seem near impossible.

Over the next 30-Days, I will be taking a journey to becoming a more humble and caring husband, a husband that is fully engaged in my relationship. A husband who considers my wife and is aware of what I do and how that impacts my wife’s life. I will work towards ensuring my wife knows she is important to me. I will balance time for her, with time for me and time for others (work, friends, volunteering etc). I will appreciate that incremental, small changes can make a difference and that starting this and maintaining this can make a huge impact. I will start today.

I ask you to join me and to take these small steps to improving your life with your wife. Start today and make changes that will last a lifetime.

    Day 1: Let’s start with something easy: Think only positive thoughts of your partner today. When a negative or critical thought enters your mind, consider a different way of viewing things. When you respond to your partner, respond in a positive way. Often if we take a breath and reframe our response, we can avoid criticism and any form of contempt (eye rolling, being dismissive, etc). Think about a positive thing you can do for your partner right now and act on it.

Start today and make those incremental, small but significant changes to improving your life with your wife. Tune in for Day 2, tomorrow…

More tips at Intentional-Relationship.com

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text:
Updating #inthemailbox

It’s now just over a fortnight since I last blogged. I keep checking my wordpress site, as though words might suddenly start appearing without me adding anything; so far, nothing.

I’ve not been idle though. I’ve given it a new theme, which I think works better with the menus I now have. I’ve uploaded a new image, which is based on one from the Government photographer’s collection, currently held in the State Library of WA. My daughter has all the Adobe software loaded to this machine, which has not been updated in over a year, so updates were an issue. The image shows in Preview on the Mac, which allows me to view a sepia version. However, I couldn’t figure out how to save it in those tones. Eventually, I opened it in LibreOffice as a drawing and changed the red and green colour values, which I could then save and upload. (Getting the updates for Adobe may have been easier!)

The theme comes with a set of colour templates, including bright yellow, a mauve and purple set, red, wishy washy blue and a black set. I chose the yellow template, and have been blinded at each of those nervous wordpress checks I mentioned at the start. Finally, on Friday night, I worked out how to change the base colour to a more dignified bronze/gold.

In anticipation of the coming accreditation at Curtin, and just to play with the idea, I’ve also created an online teaching portfolio. Whether I stick with academia, in whatever capacity, or return fully to my substantive position at the end of the year, I now have something that will let people know what I have done for the past few years.

Let me know what you think of the changes, and what else you would like to see.

Published by

Archivist, historian, avid reader

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text:
Courtesy of WRSA— where there’s a stack of great links today– comes this piece of leftist garbage.

How, exactly, are you going to “require” us to give up what we own and hold dear as a birthright of liberty?

Tell me, please. I’m all ears.

About vmijpp

VMIJPP hails from the star city of the south, Roanoke, Virginia. A 1989 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, he is a retired artillery officer in the United States Marine Corps, with time in both the active and reserve sides. He served in Iraq in 2004, and in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. He joined the magnificent as a guest blogger from the now defunct but never uninteresting Rule 308, where he denounced gun control and other aspects of tyranny, and proclaimed the greatness of the United States. When the sun set on, he migrated here with Keydet1976 and the others.
This entry was posted in Arms and the Citizen. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to No. NEVER.

  1. John Minehan says:

    The unfortunate thing is the thing most likely to deter these kind of mass casualty events is more people being armed. As Heinlein said, “Armed societies are polite societies.” (Or, at minimum, careful ones.)

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text: With the election less than three weeks away, the liberal blogosphere is debating furiously... about driverless cars. Picking up on an article by Tim Lee over at Ars Technica, Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress gets excited by the idea that self-driving cars could eliminate the need for much parking space. After all, cars could park themselves anywhere, and move themselves at a moment's notice if they were in the way. But Kevin Drum at Mother Jones is skeptical: "If we ever do build a genuinely self-driving car, it means we're only a stone's throw away from nearly human-level artificial intelligence. More efficient parking will be the least of our worries at that point."


text:
Click here to view this www.funnyordie.com embed.

"It's Spock! Do You Care?" with Zachary Quinto from Billy on the Street

Click here to view this www.facebook.com embed.

[Via Gamma Squad]


text:
Aug. 22 & 23: Ottawa Launch of Honouring Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nations – Vol. 2

Please spread the word widely and invite your friends and colleagues to join you!
Come Celebrate the Launch of this Amazing Collection of Writing and Visual Arts!
7:00 pm Thursday, August 22
Double book launch with Louise Vien’s new children’s book “Welcome to the Roubabbou Collection”!
Hosted by the Sound of My Heart Collective
Sponsored by Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa & 25OneCommunity
6:00 pm Friday, August 23
Hosted by Minwaashin Lodge Culture Program
Wheelchair Accessible
Parking Available in the front & back

Everyone is Welcome!

Local Artists: Angela Ashawasegai, Roberta Donna Della-Picca, Louise Vien and Zainab Amadahy will be attending to talk about their work that is part of this amazing collection. Louise Vien will be present only on August 22. She will also launch her recent published book “Welcome to the Roubabbou Collection“, a children’s book, with us.
Join us for some drumming & refreshments while showing community support. There will be a draw at both events!
Books will be available for purchase.
** This is part of our multi-city launch in late summer and early fall 2013 in cities including Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa and Manistee (Michigan, US).
Honouring Indigenous Women: Hearts of Nations – Vol. 2 is a collection of creative writings and visual arts by Indigenous women alongside their allies from many nations across Turtle Island (North America). It is made possible by 62 writers and artists reflecting and sharing their lived experiences with regards to their relationships with the land, birth mothers, families, communities, and themselves. This anthology is available online and can be found at
“Welcome to the Roubabbou Collection” series by Louise Vien contain 13 tiny books. It is a child’s first Métis French word book, ideal to stimulate his or her thirst for learning. Each page is entirely in colour with familiar cultural Métis objects to help promote our ancestors vocabulary for the next generation.This collection of books is a great educative resource for children between the ages 2  to 11. It introduces the child to an old variety of phonetic French spoken by the Métis of the 18th and 19th century of which is still spoken today. This particular French is also at the origin of the the Mitchif language seen mostly in western Canada (mix language of French and Cree). For more info:

About the Sound of My Heart Collective:
The Sound of My Heart Collective is an initiative of a small group of women from diverse backgrounds based in Ottawa, Ontario on unceded Algonquin Territory. Our mandate is to carry out Honouring Indigenous Women project, which is to publish the productions of Indigenous women and their allies through the arts of storytelling, poetry, painting, drawing, photography, and sound. Its objective is to raise awareness about protecting and honouring Indigenous women and strives to put an end to all forms of violence. It offers a space to deepen our understanding of Indigenous women on Turtle Island (North America), to put Indigenous women’s voices, experiences and realities front and center, and to foster strong solidarity between native and non-native communities. It is a solidarity initiative to support the existing efforts of Indigenous women. Website:
About Minwaashin Lodge – An Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre:
Minwaashin Lodge provides a range of programs and services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and children (regardless of status) who are survivors of domestic and other forms of violence, and who may also be suffering the effects of the residential school system. All programs and services are provided in the context of cultural beliefs and values to ensure a holistic approach is used as part of the healing journey. Website:,
About 25OneCommunity:
25One is a collaborative, shared workspace for groups and individuals engaged in progressive social and cultural missions. We offer groups shared office spaces and facilities in a dynamic work environment, for non-profit organizations, social entrepreneurs, freelancers and consultants. Facebook Page:

** We are still seeking funds to print and carry out our multi-city launch. Please support our work and donate generously, if you can! Here is the link to make donations:
Thank You, Chi Miigwetch.

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text:
My Sun SQL

The bottom end of the database market may get a shakeup now that Sun has bought MySQL. We’ll have to see what sort of support models Sun comes up with but this should remove enterprise class support as a concern, especially for customers already on Sun systems.

For price or license sensitive customers,  paying no license at all is obviously appealing. Just removing the hassle of tracking licenses is an incentive itself. Will the bottom now drop out of the bottom of the market? Of the big three, I would suspect SQLserver is most vulnerable since it is sold on price more than Oracle or DB2. Anyone buying Oracle Enterprise licenses can’t very price sensitive, I don’t see much impact there and Oracle already gives away low end versions.

If Sun has success with MySQL, will it drag PostgreSQL up along with it? PostgreSQL is already “commercialized” as EnterpriseDB and RedHatDB but I haven’t seen much traction in the market so far.

I can’t help thinking this is a bit of a shot back at Oracle. Oracle now supports Linux, undercutting Sun’s preeminence as the Oracle platform of choice. So Sun shoots back by supporting MySQL.

I never understood why a software company like Oracle would encourage open source software. For Sun (or IBM or HP), using open source software to possibly drive hardware sales makes some sense but for Oracle? I don’t get it.

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