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European crisis validates old Indian wisdom – Virendra Parekh

“Earn first, spend later, our ancestors taught us. Always spend less than what you earn, they said. Our shastras and sages frowned on kings who indulged in profligacy and squandered taxes paid by their subjects. Under the influence of western economics, governments in independent India jettisoned those lessons, resorted to deficit financing on a massive scale and drove up prices of everything hundreds of times over the years.” – Virendra Parekh

Greek default? ...There is one aspect of the current economic crisis in Europe and America which is completely glossed over: the present plight of these mighty economies validates the traditional Indian wisdom on economic and financial matters and puts a question mark on economic models (and lifestyles) centred on debt. Consider the likely scenarios in Greece and the European Union, and this will become clear as daylight.

After marathon negotiations, European leaders, private lenders and the IMF have managed to produce the second bailout package for Greece, which is deemed to be politically acceptable to creditors and provides Greece with something it reckons to be sustainable. Greece will be given €130 billion ($173 billion) in additional finance in the coming two years. Private banks have accepted a reduction of 53.5 per cent of the nominal value of Greek bonds they hold, plus a reduction in the interest rate on new bonds, starting at 2 per cent and rising to 4.3 per cent from 2020. This amounts to a loss of net present value of about 75 per cent (up from the 21 per cent originally agreed in July last year. Besides, interest rate charged by eurozone members on their bailout loans to Greece will be cut by 0.50 per cent. The deal is expected to bring down Greece’s debt ratio to 120.5 per cent of GDP in 2020.

However, the largesse is conditional on Greece completing certain actions by the end of the month—for example, reducing minimum wage to make labour markets more flexible—and submitting to an “enhanced and permanent” monitoring of European Commission officials in Greece. Greece will have to deposit a quarter’s worth of debt-service payments into a “segregated account” that will be monitored by the troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. Over the next two months, Greece will pass a law “ensuring that priority is granted to debt-servicing payments” and enshrine this in its constitution “as soon as possible”.

IMF to 'save' Greece!The package, if implemented (it is a big if), will enable Greece to avoid a disorderly default next month on €14.5 billion ($19 billion) of maturing bonds. However, the respite is bound to be temporary and unlikely to offer any solution to the basic problems facing Greece or, more importantly, eurozone economies. That is because patience and trust is running out on all sides. The lenders are tightening screws by demanding greater austerity and stronger commitments, the borrowers are becoming more and more resentful of the conditions sought to be imposed on them, and people in the lending countries are bristling at the prospects of making sacrifices to bail out their profligate neighbours.

There have been violent protests and demonstrations in the capital city of Athens and elsewhere against the austerity package. For the Greeks, who have long had it easy as part of the wider eurozone, the sacrifices sought, particularly the reduction in pensions, are a bitter pill to swallow. The feeling that they are being made to suffer deprivation at the insistence of foreigners, especially Germans, makes them all the more resentful. With unemployment running at near 20 per cent for the fourth year running, public anger against the political class has resulted in weeks of protests.

European's sayAlmost as a counterfoil, anger is bristling in other countries of the eurozone against having to bail out the Greeks rather than letting them stew in their own juice. Pessimists point out that Greece is notorious for making promises it does not implement. Despite pledges over a year ago to privatise massively and slim down the civil service, not a single significant Greek asset has been privatised, nor a civil servant sacked. Having spent billions over a decade on the integration of Germany, Germans do not want to spend vast additional sums on those whom they view as the lazy, spendthrift bums of southern Europe. Other creditor states like Finland and The Netherlands are equally fed up with handing out money and have even fewer hang-ups than Germany about playing the part of good Europeans.

So, Greece’s agonies are by no means over. For one, the relentless rhythm of regular troika assessments and poisonous rows over disbursements will continue. And if Italy and Spain are able to make decent progress in dealing with their own public finances, the rest of the eurozone will feel more confident about turning off the Greek tap. Thus, Greece can delay a messy default, but it will happen eventually.

In more ways than one, Greece symbolizes the weakness of the European Union. As Martin Wolf pointed out in Financial Times, the fact that this small, economically weak and chronically mismanaged country has been able to cause such difficulty indicates the fragility of the EU’s structure. Greece’s failings are extreme, not unique. Its plight shows that the eurozone still needs a more workable mixture of flexibility, discipline and solidarity.

 European integrationPolitically, the eurozone is a halfway house. It has monetary union without fiscal unification. It is neither so deeply integrated that breakup is inconceivable, nor so lightly integrated that breakup is tolerable. Political pundits say that if eurozone is to survive, it must become a fiscal union like India that routinely ensures transfers from surplus to deficit states (as happens between Gujarat and Orissa). But Germans and other northern European voters chaff at the prospect. Indeed, today the most powerful guarantee of its survival is the cost of breaking it up. That is not enough. In the long run, European unity has to be built on something vastly more positive than that. But that is a Herculean task, given the economic divergences and political frictions revealed so starkly by this crisis.

Economically, eurozone is a marriage of unequals. High-productivity members (Germany, Holland and Finland) and low-productivity southerners (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain—PIIGS) are locked into a common currency, the euro. The euro is highly undervalued for productive Germany, which, therefore, has booming exports. But the same currency is too strong for the PIIGS, who have worsening trade deficits. So, the eurozone crisis is fundamentally a balance of payments crisis. Since all members use the euro, trade imbalances among them do not get highlighted. But they are massive, totaling about 500 billion euros. An uncompetitive exchange rate has saddled the PIIGS with very slow or negative GDP growth, creating revenue shortfalls and, hence, rising fiscal deficits. Thus the trade problem has translated into a fiscal problem.

Resolving these issues is not easy. In addition, there is concern about the deteriorating euro-zone economy, which is probably in recession. The austerity plans undertaken by some governments would only retard economic growth, reduce government revenues and aggravate fiscal imbalance. That, in turn, will further reduce confidence, calling into question the ability of many different sovereigns to pay their bills. It is a vicious circle.

Euro SymbolEuropean banks are under great pressure. They have massive holdings of bonds, not only of Greece but also other countries which are believed to be susceptible to the trouble. The Greek bailout package will entail heavy losses for them. If the Greek contagion spreads to other countries, the whole financial system may be in danger. No wonder, most of the banks are borrowing from ECB to meet their maturing obligations rather than for releasing funds into the economy through commercial lending.

Asian countries and companies are specially affected by this credit squeeze by European banks, which have been their big financiers. Deleveraging by these banks in tandem with a slowing economy in Europe may be showing up in weak export performance in Asia.

What do these developments imply for India? EU is India’s largest trading partner, accounting for around one-fifth of India’s total exports. With exports set to moderate on the back of slowing demand from EU, aggravated by government budget cuts and bank deleveraging, India’s current account deficit could widen. As over three-quarters of India’s exports to EU emanates from the manufacturing sector, this likely dip in export demand could put pressures on domestic industrial production. Finally, markets world-wide remain edgy and future trade and investment flows will depend on how the Eurozone debt crisis gets resolved. Capital inflows into India could be affected as European banks continue to borrow to meet their maturing obligations rather than expand lending for fresh investment.

There is no certainty how, when and in which shape will eurozone emerge from the present morass. As eurozone struggles to find its way out of the multi-faceted crisis, India cannot expect to remain unaffected. It needs a comprehensive strategy to deal with all eventualities and scenarios. All that we see at present is knee-jerk market reaction to specific developments. That is clearly not enough.

The plight of European countries as also US holds some basic lessons for India. Their lunge from crisis to crisis brings home the perils of economic models based on debt. Following Keynesian economics, governments of these countries relied on heavy public spending to create additional demand Keynesian economics.and foster growth. Individuals and families in these countries piled debt upon debt to live what they thought was Good Life. A culture of credit cards and sub-prime lending created an illusion of opulence.

They are now rediscovering virtues of good old prudence. Their extravagance has come to haunt them. Their governments are ‘stretched’. Their social security systems are becoming increasingly unsustainable and inadequate. This is a necessary outcome in a society in which the sole specialization of the highest paid people is devising newer and more complex financial products. They are learning the hard way that you cannot leverage your way to prosperity.

Earn first, spend later, our ancestors taught us. Always spend less than what you earn, they said. Our shastras and sages frowned on kings who indulged in profligacy and squandered taxes paid by their subjects. Under the influence of western economics, governments in independent India jettisoned those lessons, resorted to deficit financing on a massive scale and drove up prices of everything hundreds of times over the years.

Today, that habit of living beyond one’s means, reflected in gigantic fiscal deficits, has become a millstone around the economy’s neck. Printing of notes, borrowing from whoever is willing to lend, is a road to distress, not development. Nations are built on hard work, diligence and honesty. That is the lesson we should learn from the current crisis in West. – Vijayvaani, Mumbai, Feb. 25, 2012

» Virendra Parekh is the Executive Editor of Corporate India and lives in Mumbai.

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Spend Some Passionate Moments with hot girls in Sydney and Enjoy the Ultimate in Pleasure

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Sydney is without a reasonable doubt one of the most beautiful cities in Australia. It is known for its iconic landmarks, scenic landscapes, and of course its beautiful women! It is said that the women of Sydney can make any man go weak in their knees. There is something in those eyes, or their tender body, which makes them charming and desirable by most men.

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Electricity Load Meter and Monitor (US/CAN North America Plug ONLY) In Stock

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Sunday, May 29, 2016

5 Ways Satan Speaks

Satan's tricks, Satan twists Scripture
I wrote about 5 Ways God Speaks: Creation, Scripture, the Spirit, Other Believers, Circumstances.

But beware that Satan counterfeits God's voice:

1. He speaks through Creation, encouraging us to worship creation instead of Creator, defending animals but not unborn babies, worshiping sex outside God's design, promoting evolution (Romans 1:18-32; 2 Peter 3:3-7).

2. He speaks through God's Word, twisting, cutting, pasting, and misusing it (Matthew 4:1-11, esp. v.6).

3. He fakes God's Spirit, using spiritual language and a false definition of love to persuade us to accept our culture's moral values and do things against God's Word (2 Corinthians 11:3-4).

4. He speaks through people, watering down the Gospel, persuading us to take the easy way, to put self first (1 Corinthians 15:33; Ephesians 5:6).

5. He speaks through circumstances, opening doors of temptation (Genesis 3:1-7).

Our safeguards:
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Bible Study

Satan is a liar
1. I encourage you to review the Bite Size Study Anatomy of a Temptation, highlighting some of Satan's strategies with Eve.

2. I encourage you to review the Bible Love Note 3 of Satan's Tricks, highlighting some of Satan's strategies with Christ.

3. Ask God how you can apply this passage to your life in practical ways. In what ways can you be more alert and sober minded to the strategies of Satan?

1 Peter 5:8: Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

copyright 2016, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy

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Lightning vs. Lightening

At dinner we ask each other what we learned during the day. Today I will say I learned the etymology of “lightning” and how it relates to the word “lighten”:

USAGE Years ago, the phrase it is lightening (as in 'thundering and lightening') was contracted to it is light'ning, which eventually became further shortened to it is lightning. In modern use, the word lightning stands on its own as a noun ( : did you see that lightning?) and a verb ( : it looks as if it's going to start lightning). Today, in the context of electrical storms, lightening would likely be considered a misspelling of lightning, rather than a variant spelling.

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CSRHub Blog Research on ESG metrics and comments on sustainability best practice

Radical Prescriptions for Climate Change from Conservative Leaders

[fa icon="calendar'] Sep 8, 2015 10:58:12 AM / by Carol Pierson Holding

By: Carol Pierson Holding

In the recently released “Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change,” Muslim scholars from twenty countries joined Pope Francis in calling for action on climate change, in effect adding 1.6 billion Muslims to the 1.2 billion Catholics now called on to support the climate

Come Hell or High Waterchange movement. Acknowledging there will be climate deniers within that group — Presidential candidate Rick Santorum tried to make the argument just this week on Bill Maher’s Real Time — that’s more than a third of the world’s population. A statement from Hindu leaders is expected soon; Buddhist are planning to update their 2009 climate statement; and a week ago, 409 Rabbis signed a Rabbinic letter on the Climate Crisis.

Another tipping point is reached, and so I believe that just like other climate issues that hit their breaking point — the hole in the ozone, acid rain in the U.S., air pollution in Los Angeles — global warming can be mitigated, if not reversed.

But there is a growing recognition that global warming or climate change is only one symptom of a much bigger mess. With the Catholic and Islamic declarations, what was once a radical demand for solutions to environmental woes has become a mainstream, clarion call for a reinvention of society. Pope Francis in his August Encyclical on “Care for Our Common Home” names this “the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity” caused by an inaccurate world view: “When human beings place themselves at the centre, they give absolute priority to immediate convenience and all else becomes relative.”

The Islamic Declaration agrees: “We have now become a force dominating nature…and the cause of such corruption and devastation on it that we are in danger of ending life as we know it on our planet.”

Both documents acknowledge that the natural resources of our “common home” are limited and that infinite growth is simply not possible. And both speak of the need for humility.

Bill McKibben, putative leader of the climate movement, eloquently summarizes the Pope’s diagnosis in The New York Review of Books:

The ecological problems we face are not, in their origin, technological,’ says Francis. Instead, ‘a certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us.’ He is no Luddite (‘who can deny the beauty of an aircraft or a skyscraper?’) but he insists that we have succumbed to a ‘technocratic paradigm,’ which leads us to believe that ‘every increase in power means an increase of “progress” itself…as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such.’ This paradigm ‘exalts the concept of a subject who, using logical and rational procedures, progressively approaches and gains control over an external object.’

What both edicts demand is a revolution as dramatic as Copernicus placing the sun instead of the earth at the center of the solar system. Just as that relatively narrow change to mathematical models exploded the era’s established ideology, questioning church dominance and a ruling class designated by Divine Right, so climate change must remove humans as the dominating force over the natural world and causes us to question the social value of those who own and manage our primary institutions, business and government.

As for the role humility must play in addressing climate change, the success of necessary government reinvention demands it. The founding of America was based on humility as “the indispensable virtue for greatness” David J. Bobb wrote in Fast Company. Likewise with business, and leadership guru Jim Collins agrees. His Harvard Business Review article “Level 5 leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve” identifies humility as key to creating a sustainable business success: nowhere will the ability to admit failure and change course be more important than in dealing with climate change.

Evidence that our arrogant control-and-confront leadership has failed is ubiquitous, from extreme heat and severe water shortages here in the U.S. to the virtual death of the ecological infrastructure in China, where political corruption has created a Communist-Capitalist apocalypse in which natural resources are depleted or despoiled and virtually all species including humans are sickened or killed.

The world’s great religions insist that our secular leaders must either adapt to the new reality or be replaced. In the Pope’s words, "What would induce anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?"

Photo courtesy of Akuppa John Wigham via Flickr CC

Carol2Carol Pierson Holding is President and Founder, Holding Associates. Carol serves as Guest Blogger for CSRHub. Her firm has focused on the intersection of brand and social responsibility, working with Cisco Systems, Wilmington Trust, Bankrate.com, the US EPA, Yale University’s School of Environmental Sciences, and various non-profits. Before founding Holding Associates, Carol worked in executive management positions at Siegel & Gale, McCann Erickson, and Citibank. She is a Board Member of AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation). Carol received her AB from Smith College and her MBA from Harvard University.

CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information on 15,000+ companies from 135 industries in 130 countries. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices and seek ways to change the world.

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Ace King, check it out!

The Irish Software Association – Worth the price?

with 11 comments

I run a small startup called Secantus. We are running on a tight budget and are currently focussed on development. I recently inquired as to the price of joining the Irish Software Association. Get this, the special deal startup price for companies like mine is â‚¬800!

To put it in perspective, my subversion hosting, and a dedicated hosted server costs about the same price. The loose rule of thumb is you can get a Web 2.0 company started for around $100,000. â‚¬800 is about $1000 at todays prices so I’m going to blow 1% of my share capital on membership of a local club.

The HotHouse incubator program in Dublin stamps out ten to fifteen new startups every six months, a significant proportion of which are Software companies. I don’t know of any that have joined the ISA. If the ISA truely wants to represent the Irish Software community then they are going to have to make a bigger effort to include the startups.

Is there even an appetite to recruit this kind of member in the ISA? You would think in this Web 2.0 world they would have a click here to join button on the website with a credit card form and integrated wiki, email and forums. But no its a very sedate email and inquiry form (no mailto: links for these guys, you’ll cut and paste the address like we did in the old days) an once you get access, rest assured its no Alice and Wonderland website in the members area.

So what could they do,

  • Drop the fees to something that doesn’t make me sweat, think less than â‚¬100
  • Take credit card bookings directly on the site
  • Add wiki, forums, mail groups, blogs and company editable web pages to this site. All this technology is freeable available and can even be purchased for next to nothing as a hosted option.
  • Target the startup companies, these companies are the future of the industry. Where was the ISA are the recent Enterprise Ireland Web 2.0 event? Will they be at the next one in Cork?

If they did this I’d join, what about you?

Written by Joe

May 11, 2006 at 9:51 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

11 Responses

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  1. Hey Joe,

    I can’t speak for the ISA but IT@Cork’s membership dues are â‚¬120 for small companies payable online via the website.

    The membership includes free access to all events throughout the year (including the Web 2.0 event you linked to).

    The site has a blog, podcasts and we are discussing the rollout of the Wiki.

    You don’t have to be based in Cork to join (but it will help get the most value from the free access to all the events).

    Tom Raftery

    May 11, 2006 at 10:18 pm

  2. When we were last in Dublin, we pitched the ISA a number of speaking topics that I was pretty sure would be of interest to their members. We’re talking about things like Web 2.0, how to write a whitepaper, citizen journalism and so forth. I’m an experienced public speaker, and certainly wasn’t interested in doing a big company pitch. I mention Capulet at the outset of my talks, and that’s about it.

    It was apparent to me that the people I was speaking with had little or no background in software, and so had no idea what I was talking about. And, of course, they had no criteria with which to evaluate the quality of my pitches.

    More importantly, they seemed devoted to the idea of letting members get first priority at giving talks. That’s acceptable, I guess, but it certainly doesn’t encourage a thriving exchange of ideas.

    And, despite the fact that Capulet’s work with at least 10 Irish companies, we couldn’t join, because we’re not based in Ireland.

    Obviously, I was pretty turned off by the whole thing, and will look elsewhere to give a talk the next time I’m back in Ireland.

    Also, the ISA needs an RSS feed for new member announcements.

    May 11, 2006 at 11:04 pm

  3. Tom,

    Proof if proof were needed that you can create a society that supports the needs of its users and encourages them to join.

    Who’s on for setting up the sister organisation IT@dublin?

    May 11, 2006 at 11:09 pm

  4. Darren,

    Obviously more nonsense from the ISA. So how come Oracle and Microsoft get to be members?

    Consider this a formal invite to join IT@dublin 🙂

    May 11, 2006 at 11:11 pm

  5. I thought the ISA was Microsoft and Oracle’s bitch? Are they the ones all for software patents that will more than likely kill off a lot of smaller companies out there that don’t have the legal resources to defend themselves? Or have I just drank the no software patents koolaid?

    IT@Anywhere Dublin branch sounds good. 🙂

    Damien Mulley

    May 11, 2006 at 11:25 pm

  6. Damien,

    I haven’t seen an ISA position statement on patents, but given the predominance of “old school” companies you could guess their position might be “conservative”.

    May 12, 2006 at 12:10 am

  7. Re IT@Dublin, if Capulet was permitted, we’d certainly join, and suggest that our Dublin clients do likewise.

    May 12, 2006 at 5:30 am

  8. What do they do for you?

    Whatever about the membership fees, it all comes down to whether joining groups like these does anything to help you grow your business.

    I don’t care about what order i get to speak at, I care about growing my business. Does ISA do anything that might help you grow your business ?

    May 12, 2006 at 10:45 am

  9. Interested,

    I can’t speak for the ISA but IT@Cork is an IT Professionals networking organisation. We have over 230 member companies and we are actively growing that number. Our members are from all over Ireland and range from banks to telcos to fmcg to one man bands like me! The current chair of IT@Cork is Donal Manning – the IT Manager of Heineken Ireland, for example.

    We run evening events about once a month (we had 15 last year) which are free to members where we invite speakers in to speak on topics as diverse as RSS, storage, and Sales and marketing tips. Drinks and finger food are provided afterwards as well as an opportunity to network.

    We run a mini conference half-way through the year – last year we had Rod Johnson speaking at it. This year we have Salim Ismail, Shel Israel, Fergus burns, Walter Higgins and Rob Burke discussing Web 2.0. Again free to members and â‚¬50 to non-members.

    Our annual conference is the highlight of the year – last years annual conference we had Charles Handy and Robert Scoble keynote – a spectacular day. The conference is pay in because of the calibre of the speakers but it is a reduced entry for members.

    I won’t bore you with details on the blog, the podcasts, the newsletter, etc.

    Membership is â‚¬110 for companies of 1-6 employees – so low cost to join and amazing quality networking and content in the events.

    Tom Raftery

    May 12, 2006 at 11:04 am

  10. I used to be a member of ISA, a few years ago and memberships fees were nothing like E800. AND I am going to the ISA conf on Thursday coming to see what’s going on, these days.

    Even then it was mostly a Dublin centric organisation.

    I dont know the details, but it looks like ISA and ICT Ireland have recently secured sufficient funding to drive their organisations.

    To do this they are, very likely, bound to have a national focus in developing the industry.

    At a E800 membership fee, then it is not for developing the software industry in Ireland. A fee at this level for well established companies.

    I am a steering committee member of IT@Cork.

    I have seen first hand and heard from so many that IT@Cork brings great value to many people and companies, big and small. This is through professionally organisationed and run, high value information based events with good attendance and networking opportunities.

    Donagh Kiernan

    May 15, 2006 at 1:03 pm

  11. […] This post is in response to Joe Drumgooleâ€™s post: â€œIs the Irish Software Association worth the price?â€? and on the ISA 2006 Annual conference […]

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Tag: Erzbergrodeo

Taddy Blazusiak: Recovery, the new Enduro range and Erzberg

Taddy Blazusiak is a man on a mission. The ultra-successful Enduro-ace has had a tough time in the last 12 months, but he’s finally back on track. Blazusiak joined the recent KTM Enduro Launch last week, where a new generation of bikes was unveiled, so we caught up with him on the good, the bad and the new bikes!

Blazusiak is back: A tough year can only make you stronger

Last weekend saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing star Taddy Blazusiak racing his first event since May this year, after he was diagnosed with the dreaded Epstein-Barr virus that’s seen him sit out of all events this summer to recover.

Heroes: Giovanni Sala & the washing machine

Time for a flourish for one of the greatest riders and personalities in the motorcycling world. Gio Sala does not just remind me of his exploits behind the handlebars. Whenever I see this permanently perky Italian, it also makes me think of a plain old washing machine.

Robbie Maddison: Erzberg 2016?

Robbie Maddison, perhaps best known as a Guinness world record holder, jumping off Arc de Triomphe in front of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, Tower Bridge in London, being a James Bond double and all round Freestyle legend, visited the Erzbergrodeo for the first time at the weekend as part of the “On Any Sunday – The Next Chapter” launch.

Julian Stevens: Jonny Walker´s helping hand

Julian Stevens has been working in the Enduro scene for over 25 years and is now known as being Jonny Walker’s right hand man. After an ultra-tough Erzbergrodeo, where Julian was also exhausted, covered in dirt and can be seen encouraging Jonny all the way through the race, we ask him about his role as Jonny’s manager as well as the Erzbergrodeo 2015.

#inthisyear2005: David Knight wins the Red Bull Hare Scramble for the first time on KTM

It was 20 years ago that the starting flag first dropped on the Erzberg Rodeo – the 21st race will be hosted from 4th to 7th June 2015. This dirt track race in the ore mine has enjoyed cult status for many years. In 2005 Britain´s David Knight won the notorious Red Bull Hare Scramble for the first time on KTM.

Three reasons to sit up and watch Jonny Walker

The spotlight falls on KTM’s Extreme Enduro star and Romaniacs winner Jonny Walker.

Bradley Cox home alone in Germany

A South African MX youngster on the way up.

Interview of the month: Taichi Tanaka

Short after the 20th Erzbergrodeo, we grabbed five minutes with Trial star Taichi Tanaka who tackled the Red Bull Hare Scramble for the final time this year. Here is what the charismatic Japanese ace had to say.

#inthisyear 1995: Hard, harder, EBR – 20 years Erzbergrodeo

Citius, altius, fortius – this motto equally applies for Olympia and motorsport. In Europe the Erzberg race meets all requirements of the term “higher” – for 20 years now!


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The New Face of Flannel

There’s no mystery as to why our flannel sheets are so popular. They’re velvety soft and perfectly warm – the kind of bedding that makes it hard to get up in the morning. But at L.L.Bean, we know that the best can always be better. So we set out on a two-year journey to create the softest, most pill-resistant flannel possible. Was it worth all the effort? You bet it was.

Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Sheets

Flannel, matter of factly.

Flannel pills, period. It’s part of flannel DNA, but we set out to change that. Over the course of 24 months, our jet-setting product developers bounced between Maine and Guimarães, Portugal, home of our textile mill, to find out what makes our flannel tick. Working with flannel-minded scientists and old-school Portuguese weavers (some with over 65 years of experience), we perfected a process to make our flannel resistant to pilling while keeping the softness and warmth our customers love. But it wasn’t easy.

Guimarães, Portugal

A quiet day in Guimarães, Portugal, home of our textile mill (photo: Fernando López via Flickr)

“The biggest, longest project we’ve ever undertaken.”

We could have ended it sooner, but we demanded perfection. We dyed and brushed and sheared. Each new version was better than the last, but “good enough” was never an option. Then finally, we had it: a flannel that just wouldn’t pill. We had to test every color and every pattern (there are 24, for those counting) to ensure the very best quality. Only then were we able to sit down, relax and enjoy a nice glass of Portugal’s famous sangria.

This is no ordinary flannel. This is L.L.Bean flannel. Made in Portugal exclusively for us, using a process that no other flannel maker can replicate. We’re proud to present our new and improved Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Bedding. We enjoyed the journey. Now go enjoy the results.

Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Sheets

Comments (15)

  1. cyndi albert | September 24, 2013 | 7:11 am

    LOVE flannel, not crazy about plaids, stripes and pine cones. Wish you had some floral selections in this bedding. Flannel doesn’t have to be all about cabins and lumberjacks!

  2. Judy Hohmann | September 24, 2013 | 7:37 am

    I wish you would sell the sheets and pillowcases separately. I never use the cases as they wreak havoc with hair.

  3. alvin | September 24, 2013 | 8:20 am

    i just got a set of pillow cases as an extra …. i have five sets of your old flannels which i love ……….. the new flannel fells cheap lighter weight and not cozy comfy …. hate them …exchanged for the old kind………….. alvin

  4. Wendy | September 24, 2013 | 9:15 am

    I have flannel sheets from LL Bean on every bed in our house in the winter. I had trouble with the pilling on the dark navy ones only. So I am game to try some more sheets!

  5. Ann Grange | September 24, 2013 | 11:26 am

    I have been using L.L.Bean flannel sheets for 10 years and have felt they are the most comfortable sheet I have ever used. Prior to using L.L.’s flannel sheets I had tried flannel sheets from other companies and never felt satisfied. The warm soft feeling of flannel was not present, and then I tried a set of L.L. Bean’s and a absolute warmth and cozy comfort enveloped my being. Sleep was blissful. My sister was envious of my L.L. Bean sheets and saved her money to buy a set.

    Upon reading of your “New Face of Flannel” I was “Wowed” and a bit dubious. Why? I wondered how anything could be better than the product you already sell. My next thought was: “I hope they didn’t ruin the material by making the flannel feel “fake.” Lastly, I can’t wait to try the new flannel sheets and I am in need of a new set for the upcoming winter.

  6. Dot | September 24, 2013 | 2:12 pm

    Shrinkage is a big, big, problem. Are these new sheets super sized and what is the per cent age of shrinking. Hopefully, they have been per-shrunk.

  7. Susan | September 24, 2013 | 4:15 pm

    The video makes me want to go to the mill to watch the weaving and finishing process.

    Handweaver from N. C.

  8. Jan S. | September 24, 2013 | 5:48 pm

    I love the L.L. Bean flannel sheets. I have been buying them for all our beds for at least 20 years. They don’t shrink at all, and the colors stay true for a very, very long time. I am eager to try the new no-pill sheets, even though I have not noticed much pilling in the past.

  9. Barb | September 24, 2013 | 6:36 pm

    I want the sheets sold in sets. I do not want to buy individually. However, sometimes I like to buy extra pillow cases, so that would be fine to sell those by the pair. I won’t even consider buying flannel sheets, unless they are in a set. Also need to be advised of the shrinkage possibilities.
    Thank you.

  10. LM | September 26, 2013 | 8:53 am

    Please off Queen size pillowcases. The Standard size are too short for Queen pillows.

  11. dorothy | September 26, 2013 | 4:49 pm

    i only use your flannel sheets. have for years. in both winter and summer. superior quality. deep pockets.
    i miss the rich colors you have done in the past. your current palette pales in comparison.

  12. Poppy | October 3, 2013 | 7:37 am

    I just want to follow your footsteps in Portugal, but the sheets look comfortable too!

  13. Lynne | October 18, 2013 | 8:46 pm

    I wish these sheets fit deeper mattresses…I have an 18-19 inch mattress, but all sets are for mattresses up to 15″ only.

  14. Priscilla | October 20, 2013 | 10:15 am

    Why isn’t the shrinkage issue addressed. I would also like to know about it.

    • Laurie | L.L.Bean | October 22, 2013 | 1:57 pm

      Hi Priscilla – Thank you for your comment. Please call our customer service number and one of our reps can research this for you. 800-441-5713. Thanks ^LB

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Cute Finds Friday

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[Image above: The most appetizing turkey dinner after Thanksgiving Day]

The creator of this cute find, Just Felt Hungry, has an etsy shop full of other delicious dishes. Check it out here.

One Response to Cute Finds Friday

  1. Susan 11/30/2008 at 9:06 pm #

    Oh my goodness, so cute!

Leave a Reply


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Brochure Bonus Week

It’s BROCHURE BONUS WEEK at Overnight Prints. Until 4/1/11, we are offering FREE Folding on our tri-fold and brand new z-fold brochures! If you’ve never ordered a brochure from Overnight Prints before, now would be the perfect time to do it! We offer a number of different ways to present your company information on a brochure.

Here’s a quick rundown of the brochure types available from Overnight Prints
Folds and descriptions:
1. No-fold
no_foldThis type of brochure can also be used as a flyer. It has no folds and both sides can be utilized for printing.

Typical uses:

  • 8.5″ x 11″ Flyer
  • Mini Newsletter
  • Mini Poster
  • Company Handout
  • Event Calendar
  • Single-Sided-Menu

2. Tri-Fold tri_fold
Tri Folds are folded twice, creating three sections with six pages. They are also be known as a “Gate fold”. The panels at each opposite end are folded inward, towards the center of the page. This creates a gate-like ensue for the brochure.

Typical uses:

  • Company Promotions
  • Hotel Info
  • Product Catalog
  • Maps and Tourism Guides

3. Z-Fold
z_foldZ-Folds are also known as Accordion Folds. The paper is divided into sections and folded downwards like the accordion instrument.

Typical uses:

  • Company Promotions
  • Take-away Menus
  • Ticket/Coupon Brochures (make panels into cut off sections)
  • Hotel Rack Advertising

Benefits and Uses of Folded Brochures
Brochures are a really important marketing tool for your business.  There is no better way of quickly informing customers of your company, product, or services. The biggest advantages of brochure promotions are as follows:

  • Slim yet packed full of information
  • Easy to transport
  • Tells your story in parts as customers unfold the panels
  • Gives customers the information they need in a matter of seconds
  • Can be used in place of other expensive marketing media

Because of its strategic importance, your brochure should look great, and it should last you a long time. To ensure that your brochure keeps its color and quality, you need a professional, high-gloss brochure. Order yours NOW and take advantage of our current “FREEFOLD” brochure sale.


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Helping Kids Get The Right Play

In strictlybaltimore on November 29, 2012 at 9:11 am

Playworks Volunteer Training Tonight!

WANTED: Enthusiastic high school students and adults looking to help their local elementary and middle schools with organized games.

Playworks is a non-profit organization that strives to improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play. Playworks needs volunteers to help Playworks coaches facilitate safe and healthy play and physical activities to low-income schools.

Tonight, November 29, from 6 – 8 PM at Waverly Elementary / Middle School, there will be Playworks Volunteer Training. During this training, volunteers will learn more about Playworks, play games that will help students focus more on their school work, and discover how much of an impact they can be in a child’s life and in the community by becoming a volunteer. Dinner will also be provided.

Most high schools need volunteer hours to graduate. The “volunteer” work done can count towards those required hours. Also the volunteer service that is done will look great on their college application.

If you can not make it to the volunteer training tonight, learn more from their website and apply online.

WHO: Playworks Volunteer Training
Waverly Elementary/Middle School, 3400 Ellerslie Ave Baltimore, MD 21218
11/29, 6 – 8 PM
WHAT: Learn more about Playworks. Discover new ways of volunteering through Play. Dinner will be provided. High school students and adults welcome.

Also don’t forget to check out our website to see what is going on in Baltimore

Subscribe to our newsletter for more.

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Stories That Move You

In strictlybaltimore on December 5, 2012 at 9:40 am

A Celebration of Books, Reading, and Urban Dance

This Saturday, December 8 from 9:30 – 12 PM @ Patterson Park Public Charter School, The Baltimore Dance Crews Project is partnering up with Reading Partners to host “Stories That Move You.”

Baltimore Dance Crews Project and Reading Partners created this event out of their same desire to help youth reach their full potential, BDCP through dance and Reading Partners through reading skills.

The event is two programs in one. The first half is a reading hour and the second half is a dance workshop.

The program is free but monetary and elementary-level book donations are highly encouraged.

If you would just like to help, volunteers are needed ASAP. If you are interested, contact BDCP in the information below.

Patterson Park Public Charter School
27 N. Lakewood Ave
Gymnasium entrance on Baltimore Street

9:30 Sign In Opens
9:50 Welcome by Reading Partners
10:00 Reading Hour
11-12 Workshop
Donation of an elementary school level book
orFREE EVENT / Pay What You Can
$3 suggested for K-12 students
$5 suggested for adults
More always welcome

Proceeds support BDCP End of the Year Community Show

Reading Hour Volunteers

  • Reading Buddies
  • Station Leaders
  • Chaperones
Dance Hour Volunteers

  • Dance Buddies
Please contact Brian Gerardo ASAP at 410-419-1562 or

Reading Hour VolunteersReading Buddies

  • Support students by reading aloud and asking questions
  • Book is appropriate for K-4 grade levels

Station Leaders

  • Three stations will be conducted after the reading to help students explore themes and comprehension
    • Station 1 – help students act out a scene from the story
    • Station 2 – help students write an alternative ending to the story
    • Station 3 – help students draw a scene from the story to show understanding
  • Each station is 10 minutes long (yes quick). Students rotate to all three.  Total of 30 minutes

  • Help with transitions between activities
  • Help station leaders with prepping and resetting stations
  • Serve as reading buddies if needed

Workshop Volunteers

Dance Buddies

  • Pair up with students to help through dance activities

A free dance workshop and a chance for you to spark a child’s imagination!

Also don’t forget to check out our website to see what is going on in Baltimore.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more.

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9 Ways to Eliminate Spam in Your Community Forum

Spam is the scourge of the internet and can do significant damage to your community if it is left unchecked. There are two kinds of spammers to worry about: spambots and human spammers. Bots are unintelligent software programs that automate the posting of spam and can usually be easily defeated since they are rigid in their behaviour. Human spammers present a greater challenge since they can bypass the traps that catch bots and can quickly change their behaviour.

Spam post in forum

Why would humans be spamming your forum and how can this make money? Most forum spammers aren’t trying to get you to buy something, they are attempting to get higher rankings in search engines by creating lots of links from your pages to their own site.

Here are some suggestions on how to defeat the spammers:

1. Make sure links in your forum are set to ‘nofollow’. This tells search engine crawlers not to follow the links and therfore, SEO spammers will derive no benefit from spamming your forum. (Vanilla’s links are nofollow by default.)

2. Make sure registration includes a CAPTCHA. Captcha’s are those slightly deformed images of words and you see on sign up pages. Captcha’s do a pretty good job of keeping out spam bots.

3. Require email confirmation before allowing someone to post. Bots and humans can get around this but it’s an extra bit of efforts that most real people won’t mind.

4. Enable anti-spam plugins. These plugins can automatically detect suspected spam based on links, IP addresses, email addresses and the comment itself. Keep in mind that these plugins are not 100% effective and do sometimes return false positives.

5. Don’t allow editing of comments after a few minutes have passed. A frequent trick used by spammers is to create a comment that doesn’t look out of place (For example: “This is a great post, very insightful.”) and then will come back after a couple of weeks and edit the comment to include spam links.

6. Get the whole community involved. Ask members to help out moderators and flag spam. In Vanilla, this can be done with the Spam Reaction.

7. Be ruthless. Moderators and admin should review the spam queue on a daily basis, ban spammers and delete all their content.

8. Only allow members that have proven themselves and have a reputation to be allowed to post links. In Vanilla, it’s possible to prevent members with a low Rank from posting links, editing comments, etc. Ranks are earned by accumulating reputation points or making a certain number of posts.

9. Provide information on advertising and partnering opportunities you might offer and make it clear in your community guidelines what is and what is not acceptable promotion. This can help with accidental spammers who are trying to legitimately sell something to your audience.

While spammers are always looking for ways around your defences, following these suggestions will help to eliminate spam.


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Gardasil or Chop?

The company that sells Gardasil is engaged in a propaganda push to peddle their poison to BOYS as well as girls.

It seems however, that there is another, less expensive, less dangerous way to prevent HPV infections spreading from males to females:

Circumcision reduces risk of herpes and HPV infection

Men who are circumcised are less likely to get sexually transmitted infections such as genital herpes and human papillomavirus (HPV), but not syphilis, according to a study of adult African men published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The finding adds to the evidence that there are health benefits to circumcision. It was already known that circumcision can reduce the risk of penile cancer, a relatively rare disease. In a previous study, the same research team found that adult circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV infection.

Efforts to increase the practice of male circumcision in areas with high rates of sexually transmitted infections, including Africa, could have a tremendous benefit, say the study’s authors. Genital herpes has been associated with an increased risk of HIV, and HPV can cause genital warts as well as a higher risk of anal, cervical (in women), and penile cancers.

In the United States, infant circumcision is declining. About 64 percent of American male infants were circumcised in 1995, down from more than 90 percent in the 1970s. Rates tend to be higher in whites (81percent) than in blacks (65 percent) or Hispanics (54 percent).

Some opponents say the removal of the foreskin is an unnecessary surgical procedure that may reduce sexual sensitivity in adulthood. In Jewish and Muslim cultures, young or infant boys are routinely circumcised for religious reasons. Circumcision rates have traditionally been higher in the U.S. than in Europe, but the American Academy of Pediatrics currently says that the medical benefits are insufficient to recommend circumcision for all baby boys.

In the new study, a research team at the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda — in collaboration with researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and Makerere University in Uganda — conducted two clinical trials involving 3,393 uncircumcised men ages 15 to 49. All the men were negative for HIV and genital herpes (also known as herpes simplex virus type 2); a subgroup of men also tested negative for HPV.

Roughly half of the men underwent medically supervised circumcision at the start of the trial, while the other half were circumcised two years later.

Overall, circumcision reduced the men’s risk of genital herpes by 28 percent (10.3 percent of uncircumcised men developed genital herpes compared with 7.8 percent of circumcised men) and HPV infection by 35 percent (27.8 percent of uncircumcised men were infected with HPV compared with 18 percent of circumcised men). Circumcision did not, however, protect against syphilis. (About 2 percent of men in both groups contracted syphilis.)

Study coauthor Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., professor of global health at Johns Hopkins University, says that choosing circumcision, whether it’s the parents of an infant or an adult male for himself, is and should remain an individual decision.

“But the critics need to really look at the benefits versus the risks,” he adds. “By now a large body of evidence has shown that the health benefits clearly outweigh the minor risk associated with the surgery. In our study, we didn’t see any adverse effects or mutilation. We’re recommending supervised, safe, sterile environments — not circumcision out in an open field with rusty instruments.”

Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults have had at least one HPV infection, according to an editorial by Matthew R. Golden, M.D., and Judith N. Wasserheit, M.D., both of the University of Washington. Although vaccines against some of the most dangerous HPV strains have been approved for girls ages 13 to 26, the vaccines are expensive and routine Pap tests are still necessary to pick up cervical cancers.

Golden and Wasserheit note that “rates of circumcision are declining and are lowest among black and Hispanic patients, groups in whom rates of HIV, herpes, and cervical cancer are disproportionately high.” Medicaid, which insures many low-income patients in these populations, does not pay for routine infant circumcision in 16 states.

And there you have it. Chop is cheaper than Gardasil.

I wonder how many chops you would be able to purchase with the cost of a full round of Gardakill?

Other BLOGDIAL posts on Guardakil

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SQL Server 2008 – HierarchyID – Part II

Hi ! are you interested to know more about the HierarchyID then grab a bag of chips for yourself and read on. If you haven’t read about the HierarchyID then it is recommended that go to my last post SQL Server 2008 – HierarchyID – Part I and read that first.

HierarchyID is definitely a nice data type to store the hierarchies. In day to day business most of the operation are quite complex and they look like a binary tree most of the times. To quote a good example in the manufacturing industry the BOM (Bill of Materials) play a very vital role which again comprises of Materials which are created out other materials.

Let me share some of my past experience, I was working with one of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Manufacturing Company’s IT department few years back . I was constantly challenged to discover a new way in which we can represent a BOM or maintain a tree of Vendors who would take the job on sub-contract and deliver the semi-finished goods. When we have to track the shipment of raw materials to these vendor who have taken it for processing or tracking back the shipments of finished or semi-finished goods received from these vendors which would often be in small chunks makes the things quite complex. I found that in day to day business the things become complex and the pattern that emerges is a super complex tree.

So finally I find this data type to help in these kind of scenario. Reparenting is one of the major things that happen to these trees. For example : As per my above scenario when we are tracking the semi-finished goods under one BOM and then many a times due to the time delay from the vendors the management takes a decision that the semi-finished component (X) will now be used in the manufacturing project (Z) because the Time to Market is less for the project (Z) and when we get the second shipment we will compensate for this project so when we have to shift a complete tree under some other head, it was a challenge.

Reparenting happens in the organization hierarchy also for example: The Sales Manager (North America) has been promoted to Regional Sales Director (Europe) then again the organization’s structure is shuffled.

So here is a code sample that helps you do that. It is a kind recommendation to design the Database structure in such a manner that the requirement of Reparenting is minimal, this is not because SQL Server can’t handle it, SQL Server 2008 is very well capable of handling it but if some query is misfired due to Human Error then it hardly takes anytime to turn a Data Warehouse to a Data Junkyard.

Code Sample to Move Org

CREATE PROCEDURE MoveOrg(@oldMgr nvarchar(256), @newMgr nvarchar(256) )

DECLARE @nold HierarchyID

DECLARE @nnew HierarchyID

SELECT @nold = OrgNode FROM HumanResources.EmployeeDemo WHERE LoginID = @oldMgr ;

SELECT @nnew = OrgNode FROM HumanResources.EmployeeDemo WHERE LoginID = @newMgr ;

SELECT @nnew = @nnew.GetDescendant(max(OrgNode), NULL)

FROM HumanResources.EmployeeDemo WHERE OrgNode.GetAncestor(1)=@nnew ;

UPDATE HumanResources.EmployeeDemo

SET OrgNode = OrgNode.Reparent(@nold, @nnew)

WHERE @nold.IsDescendant(OrgNode) = 1 ;

The following code sample helps determine the MAX(Child) which could be passed to GetDescendant() function to get the new child position.

Create Function GetMyMaxChild(@ManagerID as BigInt) Returns HierarchyID

Declare @ManagerNode HierarchyID

Declare @MaxChild HierarchyID

 –Get the ManagerNode

Select @ManagerNode = OrgNode from

HumanResources.EmployeeDemo Where EmployeeID = @ManagerID

 –Get the Max Child

Select @MaxChild = Max(OrgNode) from HumanResources.EmployeeDemo

Where OrgNode.GetAncestor(1) = @ManagerNode

–Return the Value

RETURN @MaxChild

If you like the article then drop me a quick email. If want to know more then let me know and I would be happy to address your question. If you find a glitch in the article then let me know with your suggestion, I would be happy to correct.

I plan to bring in a few more posts on the new Date / Time data types and the exciting feature of FileStream in near future so keep a watch.

..End of this article

I have disabled comments on my blog because of the incoming spam but there are few interesting emails which I get and I think are really worth sharing with everyone because it will broaden the knowledge of the people reading this post. I am hiding the details of the sender.

Email Received

Great stuff, I’m implementing a social network and I really need this.  I wonder if your methods could be rewritten for sqlserver2005 using CDE’s, then compare performance with sqlserver2008?  It would also help with development until 2008 ships.  Nervous about installing sqlserver2008 side by side with sqlserver2005 (especially beta). Thanks Again

My Reply

Yes, you can take the HierarchyID assembly shipped in Sql2008 and wrap a UDT around it and use it in SQL2005. You won’t get some of the features (like translation of IsDescendant and IsAncestor queries to use depth and breadth first indices automatically).  You can also use the assembly only on the mid-tier/client and store the values as varbinary(900) in the database.

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New Team System Stuff – 2005-05-09

Visual Studio Team System

  • If you’re installing Beta 2 using Virtual PC, you should learn to appreciate the almighty differencing disk.
  • Chris Menegay shares Q&A from recent his recent Team System classes here and here.
  • Mickey Gousset had no trouble with his Team Foundation Server install, but Sam Gentile ran into what’s become a common source of pain. Be sure to get the latest version of the Installation Guide – you will not succeed without it. See this post in Ask Burton, too.
  • My team, the Visual Studio Team System User Education team, has launched a new team blog.
  • Steven Borg is posting tips & tricks, as well as potential bugs (I, II and III) that I hope he’ll add to the Product Feedback Center.
  • According to a recent post by Josh Ledgard, the Team System forums have the highest answer rate (82%) compared to the other MSDN forums! Got a Team System question? Ask it in the Team System forums.
  • A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio 2005 Team System has been translated into several languages.

  • Barry Gervin posted his concerns about the current Distributed System Designers and the need for a “Physical Datacenter Designer”. Be sure to read the comments from Joel Semeniuk and Alex Torone.

  • Eric Jarvi has started an area on the Channel 9 wiki for the Profiler. Eric also shares a tip for printing the call tree view from a Profiler performance report.
  • See Ian Huff’s post for an introduction to Code Coverage in Team System.
  • The Class Designer team blog has a post about integration with source code control and a post on using exporting Class Designer diagrams.
  • Matt Pietrek has a follow-on post about Event Tracing for Windows.
  • Ian Huff shares a new feature in .NET 2.0 for making internal functions available to another assembly.
  • Patrick Steele has a post on the benefit of unit tests when refactoring code.

Project Management

Team Software Development

  • There are two Team Foundation chats scheduled this week.
  • In this post, Adam Singer helps explain the concept of workspaces in Team Foundation source control.
  • I think I missed these posts last month, but Jeff Lucovsky has a two-part post (I & II) about using RSS to keep tracking of checkins. Jeff also has a post about the importance of Watson reports.
  • If you’re having trouble getting Team Build to work, like Adam did, review this post on the Team Foundation team blog.
  • The site is up and running.
  • Omar Villareal has some has a tip if you get the “Unable to connect to BIS service” message.
  • Andrew Duthie blogs about custom check-in policies.
  • Adam Singer share a tip on remapping working folders in Team Foundation source control.
  • Rick LaPlante shared our recent Team Foundation dogfood statistics, which John Lawrence helped illustrate with some charts.
  • Eric Jarvi has a tip for copying & pasting work item lists from Excel to e-mail.
  • Abhinaba Basu shows how to create a build type in Team Build.
  • John Lawrence blogs about the permanence of work items in Team Foundation.
  • Eric Jarvi shares his impression of Team Foundation reporting.
  • As you may know, Team System is not a Redmond-only affair. We have teams in many locations, including North Carolina. Buck Hodges blogs about a recent news item in the local paper there.

Visual Studio Team System Workshop

  • Members of the DSL Tools team presented at the SPA conference. See posts from Alan Cameron Wills and Gareth Jones. Also, see Gareth’s post on bug bashing and Alan’s post on composing DSLs.
  • Steve Cook questions the need for mandatory modeling, which was proposed at symposium he attended.
  • As Andrew Duthie notes, there’s a new workbench in the workshop – the System Definition Model (SDM) SDK workbench.

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MIGA in Libya: Boldly Going Where No Political Risk Insurer Has Gone Before

Hoda Atia Moustafa's picture

The New Libyan FlagLast month, MIGA signed its very first contract of guarantee for a project in Libya. The guarantee covers an investment by Jafara Company to expand a beverage and harissa plant outside of Tripoli. (Harissa, if you have never had it, is sometimes known as the "ketchup of North Africa" — a hot chili sauce used to spice up North African foods.) The €7 million contract, underwritten through MIGA's Small Investment Program, provides cover against losses due to expropriation, war and civil disturbance, and transfer restriction. The project came to MIGA through a private equity fund out of Tunisia, AfricInvest, which is indirectly investing in Jafara through a partial acquisition from its previous owner, the MIMS Group of Bosnia-Herzegovina.


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Letters To Peanut – A Highland Tale

Dear Peanut

Holidays are great. Adventure on its way, a long drive and lots of stops to admire various sites and give you a chance to stretch your legs and waddle about.

This is the second time in your life you went to the Highlands and this time to a sleepy village of Glenelg. A magic place hidden between bottle green and mustard brown hills and the misty Isle of Skye.

One Saturday morning we compacted our life into a couple of rucksacks and IKEA bags (mainly filled with toys and nappies) and set off to stay in a cottage that once belonged to the Forestry Commission. A cosy red wooden house surrounded by shrubs.

It had a big wild garden that you loved inspecting every morning after breakfast and at least once an hour after that, just in case the grumpy hen or the funny black cat came back to use the rose patch as a toilet. At the foot of a neighbouring hill we found two rocks that looked like speckled eggs left behind by a giant grouse.

You are a bit like your mum – you want to run before you can walk which results in bumps and bruises, an occasional tear and of course lots of cuddles so we ran lots and we walked even more and we made friends with the local sheep.

It is important to take time out of the busy life every now and then and we did it well, with smells of home cooked food filling the cottage every evening and discovering hidden gems like wild meadows, a black sand beach and a row of stern hills. And don’t forget a few playful seals.

I have captured a few memories for you to look back at one day – maybe you will remember those dreamlike holidays when you are half way up your first munro that has a lisping Gaelic name.

Swollen skies, surging streams
I point at a tree
You shake the rain out of it

A seal plays peekaboo in see-saw waters
The boat rocks and I pray to the gods of mighty seas
You bark and I tighten my squeeze

A Highland Tale

in a glen of steaming hills
dragon feet rest

a duvet of lime moss and purple heather
shields them against dreich Highland weather

said feet and their owners long forgotten
when other mythical beasts
left as time and people cut their way
through the bushy mists

we tread gently

let the fierce creatures sleep in peace
like they have done for thousands of years

or at least

you hate
the look of a tree
your dad’s warm words
and my honest hand

the dragons blink to wild screams
of the one and only banshee
brought back to torment their dreams

they sigh
they snap
they flee

SAM_1899 SAM_1898 SAM_1897

Prose for Thought

13 thoughts on “Letters To Peanut – A Highland Tale

  1. That sounds really beautiful. It must be nice to take some time out and get away. We took our eldest to Scotland when he was eight months, although it was nowhere as remote at this. He’s 12 now and we’ve never been back – it seems too far away and my daughter gets travel sick.

  2. Pingback: Letters To Peanut – A Highland Tale

  3. I always love the haikus (the image of Peanut ferociously shaking the rain out of a tree just sketches him so well!), but I really love the highland tale this time. Very beautiful.

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Kitchen Kibble in teal
Kitchen Kibble in teal

Alexander Henry

Kitchen Kibble in teal

A cute small scale print in a gorgeous teal colour. Perfect for adding some interest with pattern and colour. Cover a shade, make a cushion or go all out and have curtains and blinds in it.

printed fabric width: 1090 mm

pattern repeat: vertical = 152 mm, horizontal = 300 mm

/ Metre (linear)

  • Materials & Care

    Wash in cold water. Tumble dry low. Iron OK.

    Read more about care instructions here.


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Treatment of urethral stricture in Latvia

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The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories: 2

Front Cover
David Leavitt, Mark Mitchell
Viking, Jan 1, 1994 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 655 pages
0 Reviews
This is an anthology of stories that, in the words of its co-editor David Leavitt, "illuminate the experience of love between men, explore the nature of homosexual identity, or investigate the kinds of relationships gay men have with each other, with their friends, and with their families". It is not a collection of stories written exclusively by gay authors; indeed, readers may be surprised to discover that some of their favorite women writers and straight male writers have also explored the territory. What the stories do share is a refusal to ghettoize gay men as denizens of the gay nocturnal subculture. The men in these stories live very much in the world; their sexuality, though an important aspect of their lives, doesn't singularly define them. The thirty-nine stories brought together here suggest the ways in which gay experience has - and hasn't - changed over the course of this century, starting with the tender, unarticulated longings of two boys swimming in D. H. Lawrence's "A Poem of Friendship" and ending with the explicit sexual interaction of two boys in a bathtub in A. M. Homes's "The Whiz Kids". In between there is every imaginable kind of gay story, as offered by well-known authors and by those less familiar to the devotees of the genre. There is wry humor in Barbara Pym's clever manipulation of romantic convention; painful accounts of discovery in Larry Kramer's "Mrs. Tefillin"; the consolation of age in Edmund White's "Reprise"; and in Randall Kenan's "Run, Mourner, Run", the breaking of both racial and sexual taboos. The anthology also encompasses a richly diverse subcategory of stories inspired by AIDS, from such writers as Allen Barnett, Michael Cunningham, StephenGreco, Dennis McFarland, and Peter Wells: stories that explore not only the tragedy of the epidemic but also the triumphs, even the erotic possibilities, that have been generated in its wake. These stories illuminate the common ground of gay male experience - as well as its astonishing diversity.

From inside the book

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Penguin book of gay short stories

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One would be hard put to assemble a collection of fiction to more dreary effect than this anthology of the gay male experience. That is surprising, however, because the editors allow themselves wide ... Read full review

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About the author (1994)

David Leavitt's first collection of stories, "Family Dancing," was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award & the PEN/Faulkner Prize. "The Lost Language of Cranes" was made into a BBC film, & "While England Sleeps" was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. Leavitt is also the author of "Equal Affections," "A Place I've Never Been," "Arkansas," & "The Page Turner." With Mark Mitchell, he coedited "The Penguin Book of Short Stories" & "The Pages Passed from Hand to Hand" & cowrote "Italian Pleasures." He is recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation & the National Endowment for the Arts. He divides his time between Italy and Florida.

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Episode 2 of Bronzeville is here, continuing the story of Jimmy Tillman’s early days in Chicago as he grows accustomed to the glamour and mystery of Chi-Town’s historically Black neighborhood of Bronzeville in the 1940s.

In this episode, Everett Copeland (Wood Harris) finds himself in prison, and his brother Jesse (Omari Hardwick) struggles to keep the gangs running smoothly as racist government officials attempt to clamp down on their business and “stop the wheel from turning.”

Curtis Randolph (Laurence Fishburne) meets with the Mayor to remind him the importance of the Black vote in Chicago, and Randolph’s personal payments to City Hall.

Meanwhile, Jimmy (Larenz Tate) and Casper spend an evening at The Royale, the hottest nightclub in Bronzeville, where Jimmy meets the stunning Lisa Copeland (Tika Sumpter), and has an encounter with the treacherous St. Louis boss, Frank “Better Offer” Barnes (Lance Reddick).

Listen to the latest episode of Bronzeville, above, and click here

to catch up on the last episode.

Also On Boom 103.9 Philly:
comments – Add Yours


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#410 Ross Brawn / Bruce Hornsby – 23 November 1954

Ross Brawn

Ross James Brawn OBE (born 23 November 1954) is an English motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal. He has worked for a number of Formula One teams, serving as the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari teams. He took a sabbatical from the sport in 2007 but returned to F1 for the 2008 season as Team Principal of Honda. He was the owner of the Brawn GP team, which acquired the Honda team in early 2009, and won the Formula One Constructors and Drivers Championships in that year.

Bruce Hornsby

Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer, pianist, accordion player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances. In 1984 he formed Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Hornsby played over a hundred shows with the Grateful Dead.

This entry was posted in Music, Sport and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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October Surprise? Hey, it’s still September.

September 25, 2008 at 6:52 pm 1 comment

And, perhaps unintended by Kkkarl Rove, this financial melt down might just be the “big one” that shakes off the last 20 percent or so of morons that still believe in the myth of the conservative republican government being the cure-all fix-all for America.

How did this economic disaster manage to flounder to the surface from the depths of nowhere?  The easy and simple answer is that it didn’t just sneak up on the modern world unannounced, warning signs were everywhere if one chose to see them, and ignore Bush’s statements about our very sound economy.

Warren Buffet saw it coming at least a year ago and took steps to keep his money, eh… Buffered.

The funniest, in a really sad way, comment so far was made yesterday by Ben Bernanke, when the Los
Angeles Times quoted him:

“…. I believe that if the credit markets are not functioning that jobs will be lost, the unemployment rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon….”.

Well here’s a news flash and some basics for you Mr. Bernanke….. The foreclosure rate is already at an all time high, and jobs have already been lost in record numbers. And yes, whenever jobs are lost the unemployment rate will rise, that’s not exactly rocket science there Benny.

More to write when I calm down, I don’t want that throbbing vein in my forehead to splatter blood all over my clean carpet. Check back later today.

Here’s a link for this page should you like to forward it to either someone you care about, or perhaps someone you’d like to piss off, whichever one happens to apply:

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , , , , .

Say “Pepsi Please”, Here’s A $$$ Hint To Pepsico….. She Got Pucked?

1 Comment Add your own

  • 1. beejay  |  September 26, 2008 at 1:50 am

    Too funny! NOT! I guess the bottom line is, we live in a nation populated by ostriches. The head ostrich lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. How Bush got reelected for a second term, I’ll never know. Funny my brother puts me down for voting democrat. There have been years where I felt like my vote wouldn’t make a difference but, I voted anyway because I remember that the democrat running was always the lesser of the two evils. If McCain wins I may throw my self on the mercy of our Canadian neighbors and beg for asylum.

    Hey how about the B.S. that our illustrious governor has been pulling lately? Lowering pay to the minimum wage until a state budget is approved. How wacked out is that logic?

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New Feature: VodPod Video Links

PryorTypically, like most people, I’m somewhere between the Luddites and the bleeding edge of technological development. I now frequent YouTube but it took me two years to acquire the requisite software to access it. However, now active I’ve utilised the ability to connect direct to my favourite clips and films from this site.

Look down the right hand side of the site for click-throughs for boxing related items from Archie Moore’s amazing comeback versus Yvon Durelle to Homer Simpson’s challenge to facsimile of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis’ greatest knockouts to Richard Pryor revisiting a playful spar with Ali. I’ll be adding new, fresh clips as I discover them. If you have any recommendations don’t hesitate to email me and I’ll add them to the archive.

My thanks to my mate Andrew for the link to Richard Pryor – he finds them while getting wasted on Vodka in Moscow. He’ll return to tell all he’s a more rounded individual from his travels of course, assuring everyone that sitting in his darkened room getting notched on cheap alcohol was an enlightening experience and far better than sitting at home in Blighty getting blasted while surfing the net. The difference is massive, he assures me.

6 Comments Add yours

  1. Andrew says:

    Was it me who pointed you in the direction of Pryor, you blogging Borges?

  2. David Payne says:

    It certainly was my good man. I laughed out loud at it.

  3. Andrew says:

    Then I demand that you edit your article to mention me. Trojan horse hung Andrew Mullinder would do.

    In all seriousness, I spend far too long surfing youtube and will proveide you with plenty of links.

    Nice to see content coming back, by the way.

  4. Andrew says:

    And here’s a belter to start you off.

    A legendary match between Thomas ‘The Motor City Cobra’ Hearns and Harry Greb.

  5. Andrew says:

    And here’s another belter. The story of Meldrick Taylor. I’ve given you part 1 of 3, I’ll trust you, sir, to find the rest.

    I have to admit, I’m sitting here, at 4.30 in the morning, in my Moscow abode while my beloved sleeps, drinking Weissbier I’ve bought from the local 24 hour produkti and watching youtube videos.

    Now, where’s that article on the front page about the solitary nature of boxing fans.

  6. David Payne says:

    I’ll take a peak when I get a minute.

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For the past number of weeks the Sunday Business Post has delayed publication of its online edition until 6pm each Sunday evening. Other than a brief statement on the front page of the website stating “The online edition of the Sunday Business Post now uploads at 6pm on Sunday” no explanation is given to readers for the change in policy.

Todays Business Post - not available till 6pm today

Today's Business Post - not available online till 6pm

The independent ABC-audited circulation figures for newspapers in Ireland are released each half year. The most recent average circulation figures for the Post released for the six months ending December 2008 (54,993) show a decline in circulation of 1.7% on the previous six months (55,971). Furthermore, circulation figures for the months of October (60,394), November (57,872) and December (56,407) show a continuous downward movement for the paper.

Meanwhile, in the period January to March 2009, traffic to the Post’s online edition rose sharply as can be seen from the trend graph taken from, an independent source of information on website performance worldwide:

Sunday Business Post traffic rank -
A steady increase in traffic to the Post website in the early part of 2009 ended abruptly in mid-March when the website policy changed – Source:

The Post is well aware of the economics of running a newspaper business. Given the amount of coverage within its pages in the past while on the turmoil that this business is in with falling advertising spend (here, here, here and another one today for which the link will not be available until 6pm) it is clear that the editorial team places the blame squarely on the Internet for falling circulation figures. Online advertising revenues pale in comparison to the revenues newspapers have seen over the past number of years from printed advertising.

The Post has clearly taken the approach of delaying publication online until Sunday evening, in the hope that the growing numbers of its readers who were switching to the free online edition would switch back to the paid-for print edition.

There are other approaches that newspaper can take. Journalist Mark Coughlan highlights on his blog how the Guardian newspaper in the UK is embracing its online readership by providing readers with comment facilities, live-blogging and multi-media news reports. According to an article in today’s Post, the Guardian’s website attracted 29.8 million unique users in January 2009 as compared with a print circulation of 350,000.

Perhaps our own Post’s current approach is precipitating a significant investment in their online that will be revealed later in the year? The writing is surely on the wall.