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Ancocks Surname Ancestry Results

Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'ancocks'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 1 record (displaying 1 to 1):

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Worcestershire Quarter Sessions (1611)
J W Willis Bund compiled this abstract of surviving records from the Worcestershire quarter session rolls for the Records and Charities Committee of the Worcestershire County Council. This text, extending as far as 1621, was published in 1899: the entries are arranged by year under the headings Recognizances, Indictments, and Miscellaneous.

ANCOCKS. Cost: £4.00. Add to basket

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Worcestershire Quarter Sessions
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Posted: Sep 6, 2017
Comments: 1
Author: Lou Grilli

An update on where we are with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin was once viewed as a promising alternative to the US dollar and other fiat currencies that are controlled by federal governments or national banks. Bitcoin was appealing and newsworthy because it offers near real-time transfer of value (compared to 1-3 days for a bank settlement), anonymity, and virtually free transactions versus credit card merchant charges of 1-3%.

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Posted: Nov 16, 2016
Comments: 0
Author: Paul Castner

What sounds like a sci-fi movie is now playing at a home near you. Are you ready?

Editor’s Note: CSCU Director of Payments Strategy, Lou Grilli, presented at the Reach Conference in November 2016 on the topic of payments, and how they are changing with the advent of the internet of things. The following is a summary of his presentation.

The internet of things (IoT) is changing payments, that is, in the IoT, payments "disappear" behind devices or become invisible. What do credit unions need to do to remain relevant in the IoT? First, it’s important to level set on what exactly IoT is.

IoT is widely misunderstood and has many different definitions. The person credited with coining the phrase, Kevin Ashton, spoke at the Payments Innovation Project earlier in 2016, and provided a thoughtful grounding to understand the concept.
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Posted: Aug 4, 2016
Comments: 3

Contactless debit, credit and prepaid cards - payment cards that can be used by tapping a point of sale (POS) terminal or waving the card near the terminal - have been issued by major banks around the world since 2007.  Also referred to as “tap and pay” or “tap and go,” these cards feature an embedded NFC antenna and chip (different than the EMV chip) which allows the card to exchange payment credentials to an NFC enabled terminal with just a wave or a tap. They are touted for both speed and convenience mostly because no signature or PIN is needed.  In addition, the transaction amounts using this capability are typically limited to $25 or $50, consistent with the waiving of the need for signature for mag stripe transactions for those amounts.

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Posted: May 2, 2016
Comments: 0
Author: Paul Castner

It was another very successful CSCU Solutions Conference in 2016.  The recently completed conference had record attendance and included very informative and entertaining keynotes, general session and breakout presentations by industry experts.  If you were unable to attend the conference this year, or even if you were able to attend, we wanted to share with you some of the key articles that have appeared in credit union industry publications.

CU Today

Mobile Payments Not Addressing ‘Pain Point’ - CSCU President Bob Hackney

What Could Be ‘Unbundling’ CU Services? - CSCU Sr. VP Finance & Technology Tom Davis

What Rising Rates Mean for Card Management - CSCU PCS Director, Barney Moore

Why Card Fees Are Not A ‘Four-Letter Word’ - CSCU Sr. Portfolio Consultant, Dean Knudtson

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Posted: Apr 27, 2016
Comments: 2
Author: Lou Grilli

A common counter argument to the move toward mobile payments is that credit cards are not broken, and that swiping or inserting a credit card works perfectly fine. And those people would be right. Credit cards are not going away anytime soon.  However, subtly and surely, the plastic cards we most closely associate with payments are disappearing. Heck, there is much written about that currency will be a thing of the past in the not so distant future.  Yes, we do carry less cash than we used to, but there still are times we need to have some “real” money in hand.

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Other D&D 5e Websites (& Free Downloads)

The next iteration of the Dungeons & Dragons game.
The Book-House: Find 5th Edition products.

Moderator: Blacky the Blackball

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Posts: 118
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Gender: male
Location: Knoxville, TN

Re: Other D&D 5e Websites (& Free Downloads)

Post by haazeven » Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:29 pm

Do you think you could add my website to the list? Link here => https://scarredlandslite.wordpress.com/

I have opened a topic for discussion in the Scarred Lands subsection as it is materials for the Scarred Lands, but it should still be useable in any (most) campaign ;)
My Slarecian Vault contributions - 5E resources for the Scarred Lands

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Angelika Tatsu
Goblin Girl
Posts: 240
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2016 1:11 pm
Gender: female
Location: Goblin Hole

Re: Other D&D 5e Websites (& Free Downloads)

Post by Angelika Tatsu » Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:27 am

In affectus veritá.

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Limitless Adventures
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Sep 08, 2016 3:05 pm
Gender: male

Re: Other D&D 5e Websites (& Free Downloads)

Post by Limitless Adventures » Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:02 pm

Hey gang!

We offer a great deal of free D&D 5e content on our page Limitless-Adventures.com (specifically http://limitless-adventures.com/freebies.php)

We also created a sample of our products and style that we're giving away for free (no pay walls or sign-ups required) http://limitless-adventures.com/fsample

We hope you're find them useful. Thanks !
Download free D&D 5e content from Limitless-Adventures.com

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Mike Myler
Entropic Half-Fiend Flail Snail
Posts: 197
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2016 8:28 am
Gender: male
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Other D&D 5e Websites (& Free Downloads)

Post by Mike Myler » Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:58 pm

My website has many, many things on it. :D

Street Fighter D&D 5E Unofficial Homebrew PDF

Hyper Score Marvel (D&D 5E versions end at Emma Frost)

Many random builds for 5E including Afro Samurai, Samurai Jack, and the Joker

The Warhammer 40k D&D 5E Hack

A Star Wars D&D 5E Hack

Beztekorps D&D 5E Conversion (for anyone that digson Attack on Titan).

Ancient Greece in D&D 5E: The New Argonauts conversion

And then I have several campaign settings (superhero cyberpunk, eastern fantasy noir steampunk, apocalyptic sci-fi campaign setting generator, holy decopunk evil adventuring), all of which have four-five free PDFs to check out (not counting their finished book preview PDFs): check those out here.

(also thanks, and if you use any of it let me know how it went :D)
There are dozens of free PDFs for my campaign settings on my website! Veranthea Codex (a coterie of 6 diverse areas of play in one heavily detailed 380+ page Pathfinder RPG book), Hypercorps 2099 (superhero cyberpunk Pathfinder and D&D 5E), Mists of Akuma (eastern fantasy noir steampunk for D&D 5E), 2099 Wasteland (apocalyptic atomic fantasy D&D 5E), and Book of Exalted Darkness (holy decopunk and evil for D&D 5e)! Check em out!

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The Plant List — A working list for all plant species

H Acacia brachyclada W.Fitzg. is an accepted name

This name is the accepted name of a species in the genus Acacia (family Leguminosae).

The record derives from ILDIS (data supplied on ) which reports it as an accepted name (record 48160 [mirror]).

No synonyms are recorded for this name.

Further information

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This name was in version 1 of The Plant List, record ild-48160, and has not been changed.


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The Plant List — A working list for all plant species

H Aechmea fuerstenbergii E.Morren & Wittm. is an accepted name

This name is the accepted name of a species in the genus Aechmea (family Bromeliaceae).

The record derives from WCSP (data supplied on ) which reports it as an accepted name (record 217979) with original publication details: Ann. Bot. Hort. 28: 252 1878.

Full publication details for this name can be found in IPNI:

See "Status", "Confidence level", "Source" for definitions.

Name Status Confidence level Source Date supplied
Streptocalyx fuerstenbergii (E.Morren & Wittm.) E.Morren Synonym H WCSP

Further information

The following databases may contain further information on this name. Please click on any button to follow a link to that database.

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Earlier versions

This name was in version 1 of The Plant List, record kew-217979, and has not been changed.


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Multi Level Car Parking

Multi Level Car Parking

by secure3d studios

Our Rating

Multi Level Car Parking
Multi Level Car Parking
Multi Level Car Parking

Hello Friends,Multilevel Car Parking is a realistic simulator game parking.
Park The Car With a this Game.
Improve your ability to park backwards!Multilevel Car Parking Games that require high precision is an amazing car parking simulator game!
this Game event parking in parking areas in order to put the tools steering, acceleration and escape of the obstacles require you to demonstrate your skills at the top.
this game includes action-packed ride, great graphics and challenging game that was created for those who love, are incredibly well designed game.

The game features some of the most awesome, powerful, exhotic and luxurious cars at your disposal to enjoy driving.Be Careful if you Impinge the car multiple times then you are going to be loose the level.

key features:

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The Ribbon - Care for Caregivers
Pepper Sirloin Steak

Micki Slattery from Sarasota, Florida says:
Keeps well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to two days. Makes a hearty last-minute salad for a fast dinner.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Quick and Easy

  • 1 21/2 pound sirloin steak, 1 1/2 inches thick
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or 4 teaspoons dired parsley
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Lightly score edges of steak at 1 inch intervals. Preheat grill or broiler.
Combine butter, parsley, onion Worcestershire sauce, peppper and mustard in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring continually, over low heat, until butter melts. Reserve 1/4 of the mixture.
Place steak on grill or broiler pan. Brush steak with butter mixture, about 6 minutes per side for medium.
Place steak on a serving platter. Cut thin slices across the grain. Drizzle reserve butter mixture over steak.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 6

Back to the Recipe Corner Homepage

Care for Caregivers - TheRibbon.com
URL: http://www.theribbon.com/recipes/recipe.php?id=62
© 1998-2018 TheRibbon.com - Care for Caregivers


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2-run 8th leads Hall over Iona

The baseball team defeated the Iona Gaels 4-2 Wednesday behind seven shutout innings from sophomore starter Anthony Elia.

In the top of the second inning, the Gaels were threatening to score after back to back singles from Zach Brown and Joe Smith. Elia got out of the inning with a strike him out, throw him out double play.

Pirates senior shortstop Giuseppe Papaccio got the offense going for the Hall in the second inning, singling up the middle in his first at-bat against Mariano Rivera Jr., son of New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Sophomore third baseman Kyle Grimm followed up with a single, advancing Papaccio to third on a hit-and-run. Freshman Zack Weigel then scored Papaccio with a single to right.

“That (small ball) is our style of play, that’s the way we want to play,” head coach Rob Sheppard said. “We count on the defense and the best way to do that is to get guys on base.”

The Pirates also found success with Elia who tossed seven innings giving up six hits, no runs, and four strikeouts.

The game remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth, when the Pirates resorted to more small ball. Papaccio led the inning off with a line drive single up the middle. Papaccio advanced to second on a passed ball and later scored on a Weigel sac fly to centerfield, to give the Pirates the 2-0 lead after six.

“I just stayed short, when I saw it out of his hand, I tried to make the best decision to swing or to take from the get go,” Papaccio, who finished 3-4, said. “I wasn’t guessing on any pitches, I was just staying true to myself and I ended up with a couple of hits.”

The Pirates had an opportunity to extend their lead in the bottom of the seventh after a triple from senior left fielder Ryan Sullivan and a walk by classmate Scott Kalamar. Gaels pitcher Matt Marley was able to get Papaccio to fly out to deep centerfield though to end the frame.

Defensively, it was smooth sailing for the Pirates until the eighth inning when junior Josh Prevost, who came in relief for Elia, allowed the bases to be loaded after surrendering a walk and a pair of singles.

Freshman Luke Cahill came on in relief to try to hold onto the lead; however, two singles by the Gaels tied the game at 2-2.

Fortunately for the Pirates, they were able to retake the lead in their half of the eighth.

Sophomore Tyler Boyd led off the inning with a walk and was pinch run for by freshman Derek Jenkins. He advanced to second base on a throwing error by pitcher Marley. Grimm reached on a bunt single, advancing Jenkins to third. Grimm then stole second. Junior catcher Dillon Hamlin kept the inning going with a two-run single to right, giving the Pirates a 4-2 lead.

The Hall then called on junior closer Brian Gilbert who completed a one-two-three ninth inning to win the game for the Pirates.

The team begins a conference series with the Georgetown Hoyas this weekend at home.

David Heim can be reached at david.heim@student.shu.edu.

Author: David Heim

David is a junior journalism major at Seton Hall University. Aside from being the sports editor of The Setonian, David is a producer for Pirate TV on its weekly sports talk show 'Hall Talk.' David is also a contributing writer for AFC East Daily, where he covers the New England Patriots, as well as GothamSN, where he covers the New York Yankees. David also covers the New York Jets for DoubleG and has written for Bleacher Report.

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Thursday, 8 March, 2012

Culinary Awards 2012

With the dismal awards selection for both Delhi Times and HT, I have taken matters into my own hands. Here are my awards to the choicest restaurants in Delhi. Mind you, a poor writer like me can't afford the 5 stars, so if you're looking for Wasabi and Bukhara, close this page now!

The Award for the best...

North Indian- Karims, Jama Masjid
South Indian- Spice Water Trail
Eclectic Pan Asian- The yum yum tree
Japanese- Shiro, Ai
Chinese- Royal Chinese
Mediterranean- Lodi, The Garden Restaurant
Italian- Diva/ Big Chill Cafe
Mexican- Amigo
Korean- Gung, The Palace
Desert- Big Chill Cafe
Burgers- Hard Rock Cafe
View- Boheme

Special awards: The perfect place for-

A special romantic evening- Seville
Hang out for coffee with friends- Mocha
A drink after work- Hard rock cafe/ Amour
A quick bite- Nizam kathi rolls
Midnight hunger pangs- Qutub Institutional Area Maggie guy
When you're reallyyy hungry- The Great Kebab Factory
Winter Afternoon Chai- Triveni Tea Terrace
Brunch- Olive
Lunch on a budget- Andhra Bhawan
Boti kebab roll- Bhramaputra market, Noida
Club Sandwich and Shakes - Yellow Brick Road
Shawarma - Al Bake
Sizzlers- Used to be Yokos but since they have stopped serving Steak, this award goes to no one!
Khao Suey- The Kitchen

posted from Bloggeroid

1 comment:

shirin goel said...

Liked the post…


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Value-Based Payment Practice Transformation Academy Successfully Launched

By September 6, 2017Home Page, News

The Value-Based Payment Practice Transformation Academy, a partnership between the Healthier Washington Practice Transformation Support Hub, the National Council for Behavioral Health and the Washington Council for Behavioral Health, held its in-person kick-off meeting on October 20th, 2017. Representatives from the 20 participating agencies had an opportunity to actively participate in learning activities with Hub and National Council coaches as well as interact and share ideas with each other. The Academy will continue through January, 2018 with monthly webinars for participating agencies and activities including expert assessment of agency VBP-readiness and continuing work on a value-based payment stretch project. Following its conclusion, some Academy teaching materials will be posted and publicly available online.


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Kamela Johnston's Blog (3)

Rolling In The Muck

“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”          ----Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

I've been rolling in the muck lately.

Several years ago, my cousin (with…

Added by Kamela Johnston on July 11, 2013 at 10:40am — 4 Comments

Going Full-Blown Atheist

I'm so SO grateful to everyone who welcomed me & posted their own thoughts. I thought I might respond with another blog post because of something Sagacious Hawk mentioned in the comments:

The first time I checked out an atheist book, God is Not Great by the late and great Hitchens, from the library I went to the self check-out, held it cover side down walking out the door so no one would see it, and casually hid it in my car during the ride home. And this was about 3…

Added by Kamela Johnston on July 3, 2013 at 10:10am — 21 Comments

Passing Notes & First Posts (An Anxiety Ramble)

I feel like I'm passing notes in class & I'm going to get caught any minute by a very prim, very stern, & kinda scary teacher who can't wait to throw me into detention.

Or maybe, like, a fiery pit of hell. Or whatever.

This is my first blog post and the first time I'm ever publicly outing myself as a...well, you know. (I'm working up to that word).

Oh, something you should know about me--I'm a bit gutless and VERY FREAKING NERVOUS about talking about losing my…

Added by Kamela Johnston on July 2, 2013 at 1:05pm — 23 Comments

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Indian Room Divider

Indian Room Divider. There might be various other factors for separating a room as well, such as to straight interest to a particular area of the room, to hide mess created by youngsters, and to manage the light inside the room. You could make the home cozier and cozy as well as stylish and timeless utilizing room dividers.

It could be done in various ways and number of room dividers could be utilized. Room dividers could be permanent, improvised or flexible. Which sort of room dividers to utilize, will depend on your home owner’s demands and needs.

Panels and displays are popular flexible room dividers. These panels could be made from numerous materials and could be moved in to position by sliding or folding. Using their flexibility you could get a large degree of control over the area in the room. They could be made to match any type of attractive suggestions you have. For example, by using bamboo and paper displays you could give your rooms an Eastern look.indian room divider,indian room divider screen,

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Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves Review | The Seas Have Calmed

It has been a whilesince Rare’s swashbuckling title, Sea of Thieves launched. A highly anticipated title with many players, including myself being desperate to jump into the salty seas. However, to point out again, it has been a while since Sea of Thieves launched, and I feel it’s a good time to see how the game plays now that the tide of excitement has lowered.

I saw Sea of Thieves grow from way back in the early months of 2017. Playtests had just got started in fact. I think I was the second wave of players to get accepted, but I didn’t get to play much. I knew from my short time with it though, that it was something nice and that the community was excited amongst one another in the private forums.

Sea of Thieves

February 2018 saw more playtests taking place as the game grew closer to launch, and already I was seeing a shift in community reactions. A mixture of excitement and people lashing out at the lack of things to do within the Closed Alpha. You can tell a game has grown incredibly popular when more people seem to start hating it before giving it a chance.

it gives the player a pen and some paper and offers them the opportunity to pen their own adventure.

Launch saw Sea of Thieves do incredibly well. It went to the top of the GfK charts for physical sales in the UK. It had such a large join rate that the amount of players trying to join the servers ended up with Rare having to block out any new players trying to join the game.

Now the game has had time to settle, and for the past few weeks I’ve been too busy to play it. So I feel like it’s time to raise the sails and see if the experience I adored around launch remains the same.

Sea of Thieves is a simple adventure title that finds you either sailing alone, or with a crew of up to four other pirates. You’re all in an online PvP world with the goal of becoming a pirate legend sitting at the back of your mind. After lazily choosing your randomly generated pirate that suits you, you take on main quests that are otherwise named, “Voyages”.

Sea of Thieves

These can be obtained from three type of people from different divisions. Find treasure chests and sell them to the Gold Hoarders. Gather chickens and deliver supplies to other outposts for the Merchant Alliance. Or you can complete mystical quests for the Order of Souls.

All of these quests usually consist of you just sailing to another island, doing your business. Then you sail back to the outpost and show proof and get paid for your time and loot. Then you do the same thing for another quest. It can eventually wear thin and lead to eventual boredom sadly.

The quests can however lead to side-quests. Some of these can be a message in a bottle informing you of some skeletons to kill on an island that’s a two day sail away. Perhaps it’ll tell you of other buried treasure nearby. Other times you may dig up a chest for a voyage and earn an additional map.

Sea of Thieves

The thing about the game is this. Sea of Thieves isn’t about the quests, or the eventual end game. It’s about the journey that you and your crew paint as you shape the narrative and form your own story to tell.

You could jump on the game and find yourself simply completing three treasure hunts and then close the game down. Other times you could end up with a dramatic chase between you and another galleon. Cannonballs firing towards you. Then finding yourself and the enemy coming to a truce in the wake of a sudden attack from a monstrous Kraken. Once defeated the enemy could offer two treasure chests to you and be on their way.

it also holds onto some of the most realistic and dynamic water systems I’ve seen in a video game.

This does mean that the experience is different for every player, which makes it more understandable how some players are complaining about less adventurous voyages than others.

One of Sea of Thieves’ main elements is the sailing. An area where the game shines. Raise the anchor, drop the sails and angle them to the wind, then set sail. Sail over the waves while fighting against undercurrents, and spend half of your time in the game on board the boat.

Sea of Thieves

Due to this, it’s obviously important that Rare have worked hard on making it feel not only as interactive as possible, but engaging. Sailing alone on a small schooner isn’t too daunting and leaves you with plenty to organize as a result. And as for sailing with a full crew on a Galleon, this allows all four members to focus on specific tasks.

Combat in terms of cannons is well done and largely explosive. Pistol, Blunderbuss, and Snipers are all good weapons but limited to five bullets. The melee is where it falls flat. Swordplay is a feat pirates were well known for, yet in Sea of Thieves is appears to have been sluggishly mushed together. The targeting seems off, there’s a laggy input between attacks, and blocking doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of good.

Graphically Sea of Thieves merges a comical themed character art style, with realistic surroundings. However, it also holds onto some of the most realistic and dynamic water systems I’ve seen in a video game. Honestly, it looks incredible. While the calm seas at an outpost only look pretty, it’s when you get into open waters and the waves begin to become more treacherous that it really shows.

Sea of Thieves

Voxel clouds in the shape of a skull with glowing green eyes signify cursed islands, although it isn’t clear that’s what it signifies until you get there. Wind streaks are shown in a light trail to allow easier angling of sails. Water crashes over the bow of the boat and can be seen flowing through the wood on the upper deck. Everything is wonderfully detailed.

Even the audio work is wonderfully detailed. The sound of the sea lapping against the hull. The sound of the wind rapping against the sails. When you wander down to the middle deck the audio changes. The wind becomes less, the sea becomes muffled but louder. The islands host an array of birds, and waves crashing against the shore.

You’ll also be able to hear nearby pirates and pinpoint their direction thanks to the directional audio. The OST sounds jaunty and bouncy, and the in-game instruments allow pirates to orchestrate their own songs. Suddenly happy exploring can be changed to sinister tides by the sound of an approaching storm thundering its way to you.

Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is a great title with wonderful attention to detail. However the game lacks a tutorial and assumes the player will be able to figure things out for themselves. I didn’t really have an issue here, but there were some things I didn’t learn until witnessing others. It’s also not a game for fans of fast paced titles, so the slow, uneventful voyages could leave a bad taste in players mouths.

Swordplay is a feat pirates were well known for, yet in Sea of Thieves is appears to have been sluggishly mushed together.

The problem that Sea of Thieves seems to have is that it gives the player a pen and some paper and offers them the opportunity to pen their own adventure. However it seems that, going by online comments at least, some players just aren’t up to the task and want a story already panned out for them.

If you’re okay with the slow Voyages, and the fact you shape your adventure, then it’s great. And if you accept that other crews that will act like pirates and grief you, and steal all your hard earned loot then you’ll love it. I find myself jumping on to sail a Schooner alone with a single voyage, just to enjoy the sailing experience.

Sea of Thieves

It’s just a shame that sometimes the solo experience can be boring, and the game seems to want to urge players to play together to enjoy it fully. I’m glad to see more kind-hearted players have remaining on the servers so there’s less griefing taking place.

It’s one of the best pirate games I’ve experienced, and it’s remarkably memorable. Hundreds of stories are popping up on social media, telling tales of joining other crews and completing voyages together. Some telling tales of mutiny, others telling tales of trust being broken, or Saviour’s on the seas.

You can tell the game has been out for a while now, as around launch the servers were filled with other players just blowing other players up. People on social media complaining about having seven chests lost to another crew that attacked them. But now, the game seems to have lost the constant barrage of cannon crazed pirates, and has kept those that enjoy the title to sail the seas to help make the experience a lot more memorable.

I have still not met the Kraken yet though.

I’m going to land Sea of Thieves an 8/10

An Xbox Games Pass Subscription was provided by Microsoft to play Sea of Thieves

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Ben Bayliss

I write review, I do video reviews, and I probably have an unhealthy obsession with caffeine.

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Tile That Looks Like Wood

All About Tile That Looks Like Wood

Simple Things To Remember When Remodeling Your House

without comments

It can be a lot of work performing home improvement projects. Also, if you’re new to the whole world of home improvement, it can be a bit daunting. The following advice can answer any questions you may possibly have so that you can successfully see your subsequent project to completion.

Without The Need Of significantly decoration and personality, simple lamp shades are in some cases very boring. Get cheap stencils at the crafts store, an ink pad or acrylic paint, and attempt dabbing the designs about the shade. This will add some style and personality to you rooms and take away the drab appear from a cheep hunting lamp shade.

Dust all of your home accessories frequently. Dust will build up and you may well have allergies that make you sick. If you clean your home accessories you will rid yourself of bugs and the dirt!

Plan out all the changes you want to add to your home before you even start a project. All improvement jobs require a nicely formed plan to ensure completion on time devoid of going over the accessible budget. Changing your plans or adding tasks in the middle of a project can easily increase your costs and time to completion. You will also find a lot happier contractors if you presently know specifically what you want prior to construction starting.

Are you wanting to make a simple renovation to your home? If so, then simply go to the department store and purchase paint. It is amazing the difference that a tiny paint can make, and it doesn’t cost a lot to do. A nice, new coat of paint will also attract buyers when you want to sell the home.

When storing items in containers, glue 1 of them to the outside part of the container. Even with the best organization, it can be difficult to find a particular piece of hardware. Even the ideal labeling system can get confusing, so to make it easy use the above tip.

Dimensional Tile

You needn’t rely on artwork to improve the decor of your home, rather you can attempt installing 3 dimensional tile. For instance, a three-dimensional tile works great if you contrast the colors. You can even buy some canvas and a frame and paint colored squares. A Thing colorful can work as art.

If you are interested in remodeling by yourself, you may effectively love it. But, there may be a specific time when a seasoned professional is the correct choice. Your participation and oversight are nevertheless important when you hire professional assistance for your projects. It Is important to organize all aspects of your home improvement project in order to maximize its success. Utilize the advice written in this guide in order to get started appropriately.

Having knowledge about tile that looks like wood stone will help you in numerous ways. You should be way ahead of the game now with the information you have learned. Keep finding otu all you can about the world of tile that looks like wood stone to be a success.

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October 14th, 2013 at 7:27 am

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Kuwaiti woman ‘remarried’, has no right to custody of children
January 4, 2018, 6:55 am

The Personal Status Court chaired by Judge Ahmad Al-Dhubai’e stripped a Kuwaiti woman of her right to custody of her children and all payments awarded in her favor by previous judgments.

As per lawsuit filed by Lawyer Bushra Al-Hindal on behalf of the plaintiff, the woman was accused of getting married to another man without securing approval of marriage contract to enable her maintain custody of the children.

The lawyer presented documents to prove the allegation, adding that her current husband presents the marriage contract when deemed necessary.

Some witnesses also attested to the new marriage, affirming the woman was staying with the new husband in the same house. The court was convinced that the woman was actually married to another man in view of the documented evidences and testimonies of witnesses.

Source: Arab Times

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Archive for January, 2016

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Unanimously Strikes Down Lifetime Employment Ban for Those with Prior Criminal Convictions

Friday, January 29th, 2016

Levan, TadOn December 30, 2015, the unanimous Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, sitting en banc, declared the lifetime employment ban contained in The Older Adults Protective Services Act (OAPSA) to be facially unconstitutional and enjoined Pennsylvania from further enforcement of the law (See Peake v. Commonwealth).  OAPSA is a Pennsylvania law that, among other things, prohibits anyone who has ever been convicted of any disqualifying crime at any time in his or her life from ever holding any job at any covered residential health care facility.  In essence, the Act imposes a lifetime employment ban, forever disqualifying individuals from work due to often long-past actions for which the offender’s debt to society has since been repaid.  Even if the owner or operator of a covered facility, based upon his or her years of experience in the industry, believes that an applicant or employee with a prior conviction is the best qualified for the job, the criminal history of the applicant or employee is the only factor the employer may consider and employment is barred.  Employers have no discretion to make individualized hiring decisions.

Writing for the 7-0 Commonwealth Court, Judge Leavitt ruled that the ban “is unconstitutional on its face” because “it goes beyond the necessities of the case and is not substantially related to the Act’s stated objective of protecting older adults.”  The Court also found that OAPSA’s employment ban unconstitutionally imposes an irrebuttable presumption of unfitness for employment that is not universally true and that reasonable alternative means exist for ascertaining an individual’s fitness.  The Court therefore granted the Petition for Summary Relief, declared OAPSA’s employment ban unconstitutional on its face, and enjoined the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from future enforcement of the law.

Barring all individuals with prior criminal convictions from employment is antithetical to any concerns for rehabilitation and reintegration with society.  An individual who has successfully completed his or her punishment after a criminal act should not be further stigmatized by being unable to get a job.  Not surprisingly, recidivism rates are substantially lower for individuals with steady employment opportunities; thus, public safety is actually harmed by statutory employment bars like OAPSA or hiring practices that automatically exclude individuals with criminal records.  Allowing those with prior criminal convictions to reenter the work force also saves public tax dollars by avoiding the high costs of corrections and other social service benefits to which an unemployed individual may be entitled.  To successfully reintegrate an individual with a record back into society is the very epitome of a win-win situation.

In addition to making for bad public policy, lifetime employment bans such as that in OAPSA are based on a faulty premise: namely, that a past criminal act is indicative of an increased risk of future criminal behavior.  Rigorous social science studies have now confirmed that after a limited number of years – four to seven years for a single conviction and no more than ten years for multiple convictions – an individual with a prior criminal conviction is no more likely to commit a criminal offense than any member of the general public.  Lifetime employment bans like OAPSA, which are based on an irrebuttable presumption of “once a criminal, always a criminal,” simply are not supported by social science results.

A more thoughtful and balanced approach is required:  Yes, under certain circumstances, a prior conviction may be relevant to the fitness of a specific candidate or employee for the requirements of a specific job; but those determinations must be made on a individualized basis with due consideration of all relevant factors, including the nature and severity of the prior criminal conduct, the time elapsed since the conviction, the efforts at rehabilitation and reintegration the individual has made in the interim, and the specific job requirements of the position for which he or she would be hired.  The decision whether to hire an individual with a past criminal conviction is not amenable to a one-size-fits-all solution.  And a lifetime ban, which completely precludes an employer from hiring an individual with a record (often from decades past), even if the employer thinks that he or she is well-qualified for the position, is irrational and counterproductive.

It’s time to bring some common sense back to this issue: Individuals with a prior criminal conviction already have plenty of barriers to overcome in becoming reemployed.  Their reintegration into society should not be made impossible through misguided efforts that are premised upon faulty assumptions and actually result in increased safety risks.

A version of this article was originally published on the LeVan Law Group website.  Printed with Permission.

Peter H. (“Tad”) LeVan, the lead attorney working pro bono on Peake and it predecessor case, Nixon v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a seasoned trial and appellate attorney who has tried a number of high-stakes cases against national banks, Wall Street financial institutions and a Madoff investment firm, securing settlements on behalf of injured plan participants that have exceeded $700 million

With Gov. Snyder Failing to Fix the Problem, Working People Step Up in Flint Water Crisis

Thursday, January 28th, 2016
Kenneth Quinnell

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has been rightly criticized for how he has handled the water crisis in Flint. In his State of the State speech earlier this month, he had a chance to take the crisis head on and failed to do so. Working people, on the other hand, are stepping up where Snyder has failed.

Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, responded to Snyder’s speech:

The people of Flint deserve answers and accountability, but the governor didn’t provide either tonight. Until the governor waives his [Freedom of Information Act] exemption and releases all materials on the Flint water crisis—including those from his senior staff—his promise to release a handpicked number of emails is hollow. To help the people of Flint start to heal and ensure a disaster like this never happens again, the governor needs to be fully transparent with the public and start telling the truth.

Sam Muma, president of the Greater Flint Central Labor Council, agreed:

It seems pretty clear that Rick Snyder still doesn’t get it. Our city needs sustained, long-term resources from the state to clean up the mess that Snyder created, and on that front, the governor’s speech fell short. All I heard were more empty promises from a politician who’s desperate to dodge the blame. Snyder needs to start being straight with people and show real leadership if he’s ever going to help Flint recover.

Meanwhile, union members have been helping out Flint residents. UAW and LIUNA members have volunteered to help out, and now Plumbers and Pipe Fitters members are going door to door to help residents install filters that will make their water a lot safer. Focusing on seniors and people with disabilities first, the plumbers have helped instill more than 1,000 filters since last week. Residents like Lucia Chapman, who was deeply concerned about the safety of her brother who has a disability and her grandchildren, have been thankful for the efforts of the union members. “I don’t have to worry about if I’m drinking bad water. Everything will be alright because we got people like him,” she said, in reference to plumber Tony Slatton, who changed her faucet and installed her filter.

Learn More:

If you would like to know how you can help, visit Michigan AFL-CIO’s website for details.

This blog originally appeared in aflcio.org on January 27, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Kenneth Quinnell is a long time blogger, campaign staffer, and political activist.  Prior to joining AFL-CIO in 2012, he worked as a labor reporter for the blog Crooks and Liars.  He was the past Communications Director for Darcy Burner and New Media Director for Kendrick Meek.  He has over ten years as a college instructor teaching political science and American history.

Here’s Some History to Help Understand the Racial Wealth Gap

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016
A company of 4th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, (USCT) Infantry/Wikimedia

William Spriggs Next month is Black History Month. We will hear stories about black Americans and their successes in this country against the barriers (slavery, Jim Crow, poll tax just to name a few) thrown in their paths. Yet for every success story, there is still the nagging fact that the median net wealth of white households is 12.2 times greater than that of black households.

Because of well-documented gaps in unemployment rates, earnings, poverty and wealth, black working people are sometimes falsely seen as “bystanders” to America’s economy.  Unbelievably, there is a tendency to observe the gaps in economic success and blame African Americans for being disengaged and not trying to respond to clear economic realities; a lack of investment in education, skills, training and personal saving. This is patently absurd.

African Americans are fully aware of the barriers they face to success, and have been steadfast to struggle to remove them.  Indeed, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated during a campaign by black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., to exercise their right to organize, strike and demand fair wages; a key theme of American worker advancement during the first 80 years of the last century and one repeated this past Dr. King Holiday by airport workers demanding a living wage.

The difference in wealth does not grow smaller when comparing white and black households headed by college graduates, or when controlling for differences in income.  Because the easy answers like education and income differences don’t explain the wealth gap—which measures accumulated savings over multiple generations—the fall back is often to blame the savings’ behavior of blacks.  And, here, old stereotypes of African Americans being profligate can easily substitute for documentation. But taking a closer look at history tells us the real story.

Those early years after emancipation are key in addressing the deep history of African Americans as their own agents.  During the Civil War, African American leaders, most famously, Frederick Douglass, campaigned hard to have black soldiers officially sworn into the fight to end slavery.  With issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln also finally signed on that in 1863 not only would slaves in the rebellious states be free, but African American men would join the United States Army and Navy in quelling the Southern revolt.  Close to 180,000 black men signed-up as official members of America’s Armed Forces to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.  They became the largest paid workforce of African American men to that point in America’s history.

The issue quickly arose as to where could they deposit their paychecks?  A few fledgling efforts were made to start banks.  And, that effort culminated with the establishment of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust by Congressional act in March 1865; the Freedmen’s Bureau bank.  Recently the U.S. Department of Treasury and Secretary Jack Lew dedicated an annex to honor the Freedmen’s Bureau Bank.

By 1870, the bank operated 37 branches throughout the South, with African Americans trained as branch managers.  In all, almost 70,000 African Americans made deposits in the bank, reaching savings of about $57 million.  Those facts stand to clearly demonstrate the efforts of a people, subject to slavery, freed with nothing from their previous labors to start anew having built wealth for others for free.

But, fate would intervene.  The accumulation of those savings came during a period when the federal government still stood in the way of restoring the South’s old hegemony of white southern planters.  And, it came when the nation’s banks were still conservative following the uncertainties of the Civil War.  Southern banking laid prostrate, devastated by the collapse of the Confederacy and the meaningless holdings of Confederate dollars, and the long mystery of the disappearance of the gold reserves that backed that currency on its desperate journey south from Richmond, Virginia in April 1865 as Robert E. Lee surrendered the fighting cause at Appomattox Court House under the vigilant eyes of 2,000 black men in seven units of the United States Colored Troops.

By the start of the 1870’s, the expansion west made possible by the Homestead Act and transcontinental railroad—both enacted during the Civil War—restored the nation’s prosperity and financial zeal.  The result was over speculation in railroading.  In Europe, financial pressures mounted from the Franco-Prussian War.  Germany refused to continue issuing silver coins.  This resulted in plummeting silver prices, and the eventual move by the United States to go from backing its currency in silver and gold, to use only the gold standard.  This led to the collapse of investments in silver mines in the western United States.  The result was a global financial collapse that swept Europe and the United States in 1873.  With it came the collapse of the U.S. banking system.

Sound familiar?  And, that collapse decimated the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust as well.  At a time of general financial collapse and no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation—a creation learned from the Great Depression—many depositors lost their savings.  The millions in savings of the newly free went away, too.  Not too different than the 240,000 homes that disappeared from the African American community after the financial collapse of 2007.

In 1876, a compromise to resolve the Presidential election resulted in the removal of federal protection of African Americans in the South.  The end of reconstruction meant the restoration of southern white hegemony and the evisceration of voting rights for African Americans, the protection of the access to many occupations and the limiting of their equal access to education.  This too sounds familiar.

To accurately measure history, it takes measuring all the hills and valleys right.  Dedicating a building to the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust allows us to properly assess the toil and efforts of African Americans.  It shows the hard work and industrious nature of a determined people.  It reminds us of the mountains of betrayal as well.

This blog originally appeared in aflcio.org on January 22, 2016.  Reprinted with permission.

William E. Spriggs is the Chief Economist for AFL-CIO. His is also a Professor at Howard University. Follow Spriggs on Twitter: @WSpriggs.

Chicago Window Workers Who Occupied Their Factory in 2008 Win New Bankruptcy Payout

Tuesday, January 26th, 2016

kari-lydersenSeven years after Republic Windows & Doors workers occupied a recently-shuttered factory in Chicago, making international news, and three years after they opened their own window company, they are receiving a $295,000 payout in bankruptcy court that is both a symbolic and pragmatic victory.

When a company goes bankrupt, workers are usually at the end of the line to get paid, as they are considered “unsecured creditors” behind various secured creditors who are owed money. That means workers often never get money they are owed.

But the Republic Windows workers have broken the mold in many ways, starting when they occupied the factory on Goose Island in the Chicago River, receiving massive community and political support and convincing Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase to hand over the severance and vacation pay due them.

They became a poster child of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (or the “stimulus”) after the company was bought by a California-based maker of highly energy efficient products. Then they occupied the factory again when that owner threatened to close it. Finally in spring 2013 they opened their own factory, New Era Windows.

In January 2009, not long after the occupation, the United Electrical Workers (UE) union, which represented Republic workers, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the company violated the union contract by closing abruptly without negotiating over the closure terms. Two years later, the board ruled in favor of the workers and decided they were due two weeks’ wages, the estimated amount of time that bargaining over a closure would have taken.

The company was in bankruptcy proceedings by then, however, and it wasn’t until this week that the bankruptcy court ordered the release of the funds. The NLRB will distribute the money to individual workers.

A release from the NLRB this week noted:

The Board found that the employer violated the National Labor Relations Act when they closed their Goose Island facility and moved operations to an alter ego operation in Iowa. However, ongoing bankruptcy procedures made full or partial compliance with the order unlikely until a successful suit against the employer’s insurer made additional assets available for the repayment of debts.

The board continued that: “Bankruptcy proceedings often prevent compliance with Board-ordered remedies as employer’s assets are liquidated through Chapter 7 processes. While the employees did not receive full back pay, obtaining partial compliance in this case is a victory for workers who have been waiting for a remedy since 2008.”

“Some people feel like it’s not enough, but it’s symbolic,” said Armando Robles, one of the New Era worker-owners and a leader of the occupation and ensuing efforts. “It’s a huge victory.”

UE organizer Leah Fried noted that the payout is thanks to “the constant haranguing we had do to. We had to wait until everyone else came out of the woodwork, but the fact we kept pressuring the court” paid off.

“It’s great that seven years later, [the workers are] still winning money,” she says.

The former Republic Windows CEO, Richard Gillman, was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud charges related to the closing of the factory and the purchase of another window factory in Iowa. He was released after serving significantly less time than the sentence.

New Era has been growing, with 14 worker-owners and four new hires, Robles said. This is the slow season, however, when few people are ordering windows. Robles said the bankruptcy payment should mean about $1,200, helping him pay rent and bills until New Era business picks up in the spring.

“It hasn’t been easy, obviously,” said Fried. “But they’ve shown you can run a company without bosses, and do well.”

This blog originally appeared in inthesetimes.com on January 25, 2016.  Reprinted with permission.

Kari Lydersen, an In These Times contributing editor, is a Chicago-based journalist and instructor who currently works at Northwestern University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Reader and The Progressive, among other publications. Her most recent book is Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99 Percent. She is also the co-author of Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gunand the author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover, and What it Says About the Economic Crisis.Look for an updated reissue of Revolt on Goose Island in 2014. In 2011, she was awarded a Studs Terkel Community Media Award for her work.

One Union Summer Later, Three Found Their Calling as Organizers

Monday, January 25th, 2016
Tarah Taylor, Patricia Recinos, Shaine Griffin, Lynda Berg

MFullSizeRendereet Tarah Taylor, Lynda Berg and Shaine Griffin from the class of Union Summer 2014. These superstar summeristas are working alongside nurses, and one another, as union organizers with California Nurses Association/National Nurses United in the fight for working people. Now the three of them work together in Southern California, and Shaine and Tarah are even roommates.

Organizing Origins

Taylor found out about Union Summer 30 minutes before applications were due. Though she just squeezed in, Taylor had the fire of an organizer burning inside of her. She already had stood up to Sprint for herself and co-workers over a convoluted practice of docking some workers’ regular pay to pay other workers’ overtime. She started a petition that went viral and lost a job she loved over it. As an organizer, she knows personally what is at stake for working people when they stand up and why they are stronger together.

Griffin worked on the Retail Action Project as a Union Summer intern in Manhattan and saw firsthand the issues of wages, scheduling and overt racist policies that retail workers faced. “Union Summer was awesome and eye-opening. On the campaign, it was disturbing to see how groups of people were being systematically devalued,” Griffin said.

Away from the city and, seemingly, in the middle of nowhere, Berg’s team was on more challenging terrain. “It’s a space in which, historically, workers have been mistreated, literally, all the way back to slavery,” Berg said, describing how tough, but necessary, the work is in organizing migrant farm workers in North Carolina.

So, What Does It Take?

If you know Union Summer graduates, you know they are the fiercest social justice and labor activists around. The work of organizing attracts people with incredible grit, passion and resourcefulness. Though she continues to glean knowledge from senior organizers, Griffin said, “You can’t teach organizing, you fly or you flounder.”

A Life’s Calling

Taylor gained valuable insight working with the teachers who put their hearts and souls into their profession and always stood up for their students when fighting to improve conditions for themselves. She finds that nurses feel a similar duty to their patients and their will to improve working conditions is simultaneously tied to improving patient care.

On working with nurses, Taylor said, “What drives my passion is the intimate bonds that I have formed with the individual nurses. They invite you into their lives, you become friends, and it’s really cool when you see them grow and test their own power within the system.”

Berg echoes the sentiment, “I’ll have a really incredible conversation with a nurse and it affirms that this is what I am supposed to do: ultimately, it’s a drive you have.”

These three summeristas have made a commitment beyond organizing workplaces to that of creating social change that reverberates through an entire community. As they are inspired by the nurses’ stories, their commitment inspires us to care about nurses and how their stories are tied into the struggles and victories of all working people.

This blog originally appeared in aflcio.org on January 21, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Sonia Huq is the Organizing Field Communications Assistant at the AFL-CIO.  She grew up in a Bangladeshi-American family in Boca Raton, Florida where she first learned a model of service based on serving a connected immigrant cultural community. After graduating from the University of Florida, Sonia served in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and later worked for Manavi, the first South Asian women’s rights organization in the United States. She then earned her Master’s in Public Policy from the George Washington University and was awarded a Women’s Policy Inc. fellowship for women in public policy to work as a legislative fellow in the office of Representative Debbie Wasserman (FL-23). Sonia is passionate about working towards a more just society and hopes to highlight social justice issues and movements through her writing.

Wal-Mart Killed At Least 400,000 Jobs In A Dozen Years, While The Waltons Got Richer

Friday, January 22nd, 2016

If you want to know why a political revolution is necessary (and why the status quo’s most intellectually fraudulent campaign in recent Democratic primaries is such a threat to working people), you need only check out this new report from our friends at the Economic Policy Institute. Wal-Mart (that would be the board the status quo candidate sat on without uttering a peep while millions of women were discriminated against and the Waltons pursued their middle-class killing business plan) essentially obliterated, conservatively, 400,000 jobs in a decade or so.

Here’s how:

This paper updates earlier work (Scott 2007) to provide a conservative estimate of how many jobs have likely been displaced by Chinese imports entering the country through Wal-Mart:

  • Chinese imports entering through Wal-Mart in 2013 likely totaled at least $49.1 billion and the combined effect of imports from and exports to China conducted through Wal-Mart likely accounted for 15.3 percent of the growth of the total U.S. goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013.

  • The Wal-Mart-based trade deficit with China alone eliminated or displaced over 400,000 U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2013.

  • The manufacturing sector and its workers have been hardest hit by the growth of Wal-Mart’s imports. Wal-Mart’s increased trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 eliminated 314,500 manufacturing jobs, 75.7 percent of the jobs lost from Wal-Mart’s trade deficit. These job losses are particularly destructive because jobs in the manufacturing sector pay higher wages and provide better benefits than most other industries, especially for workers with less than a college education.

  • Wal-Mart has announced plans to create opportunities for American manufacturing by “investing in American jobs.” To date, very few actual U.S. jobs have been created by this program, and since 2001, the growing Wal-Mart trade deficit with China has displaced more than 100 U.S. jobs for every actual or promised job created through this program.

China has achieved its rapidly growing trade surpluses by manipulating its currency: it invests hundreds of billions of dollars per year in U.S. Treasury bills, other government securities, and private foreign assets to bid up the value of the dollar and other currencies and thereby lower the cost of its exports to the United States and other countries. China has also repressed the labor rights of its workers and suppressed their wages, making its products artificially cheap and further subsidizing its exports. Wal-Mart has aided China’s abuse of labor rights and its violations of internationally recognized norms of fair trade by providing a vast and ever-expanding conduit for the distribution of artificially cheap and subsidized Chinese exports to the United States. [emphasis added]

Since Wal-Mart’s exports to China were negligible, the rapid growth of its imports had a proportionately bigger impact on the U.S. trade deficit and job losses than overall U.S. trade flows with China (since the rest of U.S. trade with China does include significant U.S. exports to that country). On average, each of the 4,835 stores Wal-Mart operated in the United States in fiscal 2014 (Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 2014) was responsible for the loss of about 86 U.S. jobs due to the growth of Wal-Mart’s trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013.

So, if for some reason, you shop at Wal-Mart, think about each of those workers whose job you helped eliminate by supporting this scar on the economy. While middle-class jobs disappear and people become even more impoverished, forcing them to shop at Wal-Mart, the Waltons became the richest family in the country, with $149 billion in wealth for six people.

Be my guest: continue to believe the fraudulent rhetoric coming from the status quo. Continue to live in a dream world and ignore the reality, and the record, continue to embrace the most amazing individual cognitive dissonance imaginable and fawn over a fraud in complete ignorance of the facts laid out.

And, then, don’t be surprised and weep when Wal-Mart grows, poverty widens and nothing changes.

This blog originally appeared in workinglife.org on December 22, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Jonathan Tasini is the president of the Economic Future Group, a consultancy that has worked in a couple of dozen countries on five continents over the past 20 years.  Hiss goal is to find the “white spaces” that need filling, the places to make connections and create projects to enhance the great work many people do to advance a better world. He is also publisher/editor of Working Life.

Obama administration cracking down on bosses who use temp workers to dodge labor laws

Thursday, January 21st, 2016

Businesses don’t just use temp staffing agencies to add workers for short periods when they need extra hands. Staffing agencies can also serve the valuable (to crappy employers) purpose of dodging responsibility. “That person may work in our business on our terms, but the staffing agency is their employer, so we’re not responsible for violating labor laws to exploit them,” is how the dodge basically goes. Now, the Department of Labor is taking steps against that, issuing guidelines on when the company using the staffing agency to hire temp workers should be considered a joint employer that’s responsible for the people working in its facilities.

“I think the majority of noncompliance that we see is people just not getting what the law is, and what their responsibilities are under it,” [Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division director David] Weil said in an interview. “We also find cases of people who are clearly playing games, and clearly trying to shift out responsibility, and often have structured things in a way that lead towards more noncompliance.”

Weil’s division has stepped up its proactive enforcement of situations where companies are functionally controlling the workers they order up from labor providers — and broadcasts its enforcement of egregious violations. Back in October, for example, investigators found that temp workers at a snack food producer in New Jersey were cheated out of overtime wages, and ordered the company to pay back wages, damages, and civil penalties.

That’s the most typical form of joint employment — a “vertical” arrangement, with one company hiring another, as the guidance describes. But joint employment can also be “horizontal,” when a worker might employed by two subsidiaries of the same company, but they never get overtime because their hours are tracked separately.

Business groups and congressional Republicans are predictably pissed that the Obama administration would have the nerve to suggest that employers follow the law, with House Republicans pointing out that the Department of Labor talked to the National Labor Relations Board, which is also cracking down on joint employer issues.

Low-road businesses have found a lot of ways around laws protecting workers, from these joint employer dodges to misclassifying workers as independent contractors to deny them minimum wage and overtime protections, unemployment insurance, and more. And every time the Obama administration cracks down, it’s a reminder of what’s at stake this November. The next president won’t just argue with Congress or even appoint Supreme Court justices. The next president will make the appointments that determine whether the Department of Labor is trying to make sure workers get paid for the hours they work or is looking for ways to let bad bosses off the hook.

This blog originally appeared in dailykos.com on January 20, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Laura Clawson has been a Daily Kos contributing editor since December 2006 and Labor editor since 2011.

Supreme Court Should Approve Policies that Will Provide Much-needed Relief to Immigrant Working Families

Wednesday, January 20th, 2016

Richard L. TrumkaWe applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the DAPA and expanded DACA case, which will have profound consequences for our immigrant brothers and sisters who live and work every day under a cloud of fear, as well as for the state of racial and economic justice in our country. We are confident the court will reverse the decision of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and allow the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policies to go into effect, affording millions of people the opportunity to apply for work authorization and temporary protection from deportation. We encourage the Department of Homeland Security to take all steps necessary to ensure these much-needed policies can be implemented as soon as possible after the court issues its decision this summer.

At a time when working people feel increasingly disposable and deportable, when corporations are allowed to profit from the mass imprisonment of people of color, when our government is rounding up refugee families from their beds at night, and when we are confronting at so many levels the racial bias deeply entrenched in our laws and their enforcement, the outcome of this case will have a significant impact on the direction our nation takes moving forward.

At heart, the question the Supreme Court will consider is whether our immigration enforcement regime will be allowed to take modest steps to begin to protect and empower hardworking people, or whether it will continue to serve as a tool to exclude and oppress.

Much is at stake in this case, but working people do not need a court ruling to tell them what is just. In the face of criminalization, exploitation and base attempts to sow division, we will continue to work in every community in the country to build what we believe is the only true antidote: solidarity.

This blog originally appeared in aflcio.org on January 19, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Richard Trumka is the president of AFL-CIO, the largest organization of labor unions in the country.  He is an outspoken advocate for social and economic justice.  Trumka heads the labor movement’s efforts to create an economy based broadly on shared prosperity and to hold government and employers accountable to working families.

Working People (and the Facts) Stand Up to Right to Work Push in West Virginia

Tuesday, January 19th, 2016

Kenneth Quinnell

That didn’t take long. As the West Virginia Legislature opened Wednesday, the first bill out of the gates was “right to work” legislation that does nothing more than attack the rights of working people. As the video above shows, workers weren’t happy about the proposal and flooded the Capitol to express their opposition to the dangerous bill.

We’ve already seen what right to work does elsewhere, like Oklahoma, which became a right to work state in 2001. In 2006, Jesse Isbell from Oklahoma City lost his job of 36 years. While in West Virginia to speak out against right to work on Wednesday, Isbell said: “In my case, and in the case of 1,400 brothers and sisters at that facility, the law did not work as advertised. There’s absolutely no anecdotal or empirical evidence that right to work has benefited the Oklahoma state economy in any way. The truth is that it has driven down wages.”

A better approach, Isbell said, is to focus on education and workforce development: “If Oklahoma would have taken this approach 10 years ago instead of the disastrous right to work route, I wouldn’t be talking to you here today. I’d be working at the Bridgestone–Firestone plant in Oklahoma City.”

Proponents of right to work in West Virginia point to a deeply flawed study from West Virginia University but, as the Economic Policy Institute notes, that study gets basic facts wrong, doesn’t follow standard economic models and really only includes one state from which to come to its conclusions. EPI analyst Elise Gould explains:

In a WVU study about the effect of right to work on employment growth, the authors mismeasured both right to work status and employment growth….The point of so-called right to work laws is to hamstring unions, thereby lessening workers’ bargaining power and driving down their wages. This law has the potential to hurt all workers in West Virginia, union and nonunion alike.

EPI makes the case against right to work in West Virginia:

  • Right to work is associated with lower wages and benefits for both union and nonunion workers. In a right to work state, the average worker makes 3.2% less than a similar worker in a non right to work state.
  • Through cutting wages, right to work may undermine West Virginia’s small businesses, which depend on the state’s residents having wages to spend.
  • Many of the arguments made by advocates of right to work ignore that under federal law it is already illegal to force anyone to be a member of a union, and it is already illegal to force workers to pay even one cent to political causes.
  • Companies that are primarily interested in cheap labor are going to China or Mexico, not to right to work states like South Carolina or Arizona.

This blog originally appeared in aflcio.org on January 15, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Kenneth Quinnell is a long time blogger, campaign staffer, and political activist.  Prior to joining AFL-CIO in 2012, he worked as a labor reporter for the blog Crooks and Liars.  He was the past Communications Director for Darcy Burner and New Media Director for Kendrick Meek.  He has over ten years as a college instructor teaching political science and American history.

Woman sues Walmart after being told to 'choose between her career and her kids,' then fired

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Women filing discrimination lawsuits against Walmart are nothing new. Walmart firing people for questionable and controversial reasons is also nothing new. Now a woman is suing the low-wage retail giant, saying she was fired after complaining about discriminatory treatment. Specifically, Rebecca Wolfinger says her boss told her she had to “choose between her career and her kids.”

Wolfinger’s suit focuses on what she claims was her mistreatment while working as a shift manager. She was being required to work seven days a week when she received the “career or kids” threat, she contends.

Other male shift managers weren’t on a seven-day work schedule, Wolfinger claims. Her February 2012 firing occurred after she reported her boss’ comment to a company human resource officer, the suit states.

Wolfinger was officially fired, she says, for selling Pampered Chef outside of work—but coworkers who engaged in similar activities weren’t fired. And of course a sophisticated company like Walmart doesn’t admit to having fired someone for complaining about illegal discrimination.

Several years ago, 1.5 million women who worked or had worked at Walmart attempted a class action lawsuit against the company, only to have the Supreme Court say that “[e]ven if every single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that the entire company operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination.” That’s despite evidence like this:

Many female Walmart employees have been paid less than male coworkers. In 2001, female workers earned $5,200 less per year on average than male workers. The company paid those who had hourly jobs, where the average yearly earnings were $18,000, $1.16 less per hour ($1,100 less per year) than men in the same position. Female employees who held salaried positions with average yearly earnings of $50,000 were paid $14,500 less per year than men in the same position. Despite this gap in wages, female Walmart employees on average have longer tenure and higher performance ratings.

Doubtless all just a coincidence, though. Just like Rebecca Wolfinger was coincidentally fired for something that other workers did after she reported being discriminated against.

This blog originally appeared in dailykos.com/blog/labor on January 13, 2016. Reprinted with permission.

Laura Clawson is the Daily Kos contributing editor and has been since December 2006.  She has also been the labor editor since 2011.

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text: Sometimes wait times are over 40 minutes and it can ask for buddhist caliber patience. If this is the case you can have an ice cream cone on the house (just say the owner offered it online if the cashier is not giving you your well deserved cone) but that still won't solve that wait time. However the wash is open 24 hours and the wash code is valid for 30 days. Thanks for supporting humanitarian projects!


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27 April 2010

Work Capacity

Wednesday's Training Session:

For time
500m Row
150x Double-unders
50x Burpees
100x Sledgehammer swings

Notes: If you have yet to master the double-under substitute tuck jumps (Jump as high as you can and bring your knees up to your chest). If do not have access to a sledgehammer do kettlebell swings instead. Sledgehammer swings are different then kettlebell swings in that they force your core to contract hard each time the sledge impacts the target this equals tremendous core strength.

  1. Another tough work capacity session if you haven't mastered double-unders yet. Finished in 10:41.

  2. just did a good swim for this one

  3. 18:55:55

    Tuck jumps and burpees were terrible. Kettlebell swings @ 1.5 pood.


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Ranking of 2015 worst airlines carriers

According to the specialized site Skytrax, the air carrier Air Koryo of North Korea is confirmed for the fourth consecutive year as the worst airline company of 2015, in the ranking of the worst carriers in the world are not lacking some surprises.

In recent months, the site announced the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards have crowned Qatar Airways Best Airline of 2015. However, the ranking of the specialized site also has its downside, which includes the carriers with a placement near the bottom of the list.

Air Koryo, the worst vector of 2015

Air Koryo
Air Koryo

In this case the dubious distinction has been achieved, for the fourth year in a row, the North Korean carrier Air Koryo. The airline has in fact received only one point in a rating scale from one to five stars, because of the obsolete Soviet-made aircraft, its rudimentary seat belts and a general level of very questionable safety.

The surprise Ryanair...

The real surprise of this unenviable ranking is rather the presence of the famous Irish low cost: Ryanair saw attributed to this year's only two-star rating, for the lack of comfort of its airplanes and insufficient assistance that passengers receive from airline staff. An opinion, but there is to add, not shared by many other travelers who have defended the low cost carrier and consider the good quality / price ratio offered by the company.

...and Air Italy

Air Italy
Air Italy

There is also an Italian representative on list: Air Italy, the low cost subsidiary of the Meridiana group receiving only two-star rating and that probably affected the serious societal problems that have plagued in recent years.

The other worst airlines

That's what the other airlines (in alphabetical order) who received only two stars and are therefore considered by Skytrax the worst carriers in the world in the current year:

  • Bahamasair
  • Biman Bangladesh
  • Bulgaria Air
  • China United Airlines
  • Cubana Airlines
  • Iran Air
  • Lion Air
  • Mahan Air
  • Nepal Airlines
  • Onur Air
  • Pegasus Airlines
  • Rossiya Airlines
  • SmartWings
  • Spirit Airlines
  • Sudan Airways
  • Syrianair
  • Tajik Air
  • Turkmenistan Airlines
  • Ukraine International Airlines
  • Yemenia

What is the worst airline with which you have flown so far?

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Oceania Cruises to Visit Africa

Oceania Cruises has announced it’s most extensive and exotic line-up of sailings to Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean for 2010-2011. A limited-time offer of bonus savings of up to $4,200 means that voyages start at only $1,895 per guest.

Offered from November 2010 to April 2011, Oceania Cruises' World Collection features 30 new ports of call, including Cape Town, South Africa; Walvis Bay, Namibia; and Rangoon, Myanmar. Based on feedback from past guests and agent partners, the line has added maiden voyages around Africa plus an expanded range of Asia and Caribbean cruises.

"Our loyal repeaters and first-time guests alike will appreciate the richness and diversity of our new World Collection," stated Bob Binder, Oceania Cruises' president. "We continually seek out new and intriguing destinations to delight travellers while providing the greatest possible value and Oceania Cruises' acclaimed onboard experience."

Africa & Asia - Nautica
With itineraries from 15 to 35 days, Nautica will focus on Asia with eight unique cruises, seven of which are new. For the very first time, the line will visit majestic Africa. Enchanted Africa is a grand 30-day voyage from Istanbul to Cape Town which is followed by Safaris, Sands & Splendours - a new 35-day cruise from Cape Town to Singapore via the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

South America - Insignia
For 2011, Oceania Cruises' Insignia will operate all-new itineraries. Guests can choose from seven 12- to 22-day cruises that visit the exotic coastal villages of Brazil and cosmopolitan icons like Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. The ship even offers a taste of remote reaches on Antarctica & the Fjords, a 22-day voyage that includes the Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands and Chilean Fjords.

Caribbean & the Panama Canal - Regatta
One of the company's most popular itineraries - Amazon Adventure - is a 24-day round-trip sailing from Miami onboard Regatta. This voyage annually sells so briskly the company has added a second departure in mid-March. Also new are two, 10-day Mayan Mystique cruises to western Caribbean ports and a 14-day Southern Treasures sailing, which combines the warmth of the tropics, the history of the Colonial South and the charm of Bermuda.

About Oceania Cruises:
Oceania Cruises is the world's only upper-premium cruise line and offers an unrivalled combination of the finest cuisine at sea, elegant accommodations, exceptional personalized service and extraordinary value. Award-winning itineraries visit more than 300 ports in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the Americas aboard three luxurious, 684-guest ships: Regatta, Insignia and ,Nautica. The 1,258-guest Marina, the first ship designed specifically for the Upper Premium market segment, joins the fleet in late 2010.

About Prestige Cruise Holdings:
Prestige Cruise Holdings is the parent company of Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Formed in 2007 to manage select assets in Apollo Management's cruise investment portfolio, PCH is led by Chairman and CEO Frank Del Rio, the founder of Oceania Cruises. PCH is the market leader in the upper-premium and luxury segments of the cruise industry with nearly 4,000 berths between the Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, a number the company expects will grow.
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Japan’s development cooperation growth portfolio to Kenya from independence to date stands at Ksh469.5 billion.
National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Mr. Henry Rotich said that over the years, the projects that have benefited from the Japanese development assistance include Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and Kenya Medical Research Institute which have provided leadership in technology and innovation, and medical research respectively.

“Others include the construction of the Nairobi Missing Road Links Project, Embu Water Supply and development of water supply system in Kapsabet town”, Mr. Rotich added.
The Cabinet Secretary was speaking at the National Treasury Nairobi during the signing Ceremony for Exchange of Notes for Health Sector Support Programme worth Ksh3.28 billion for Universal Healthcare Coverage with Japanese Ambassador to Kenya Mr. Tatsushi Terada.
Projects currently under construction through funding from Japanese government, Mr. Rotich pointed, are Mombasa Port Area Road Development Project, Mombasa Port Development Project Phase 1, Baringo and Narok towns water supply, Mwea Irrigation Development Project, Olkaria 4 Geothermal Power Station and Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu Power transmission line among others which will contribute greatly to our economic growth.
He said Ksh3.28 billion credit support from Japan to the Health Sector Support Programme will provide budget support to the health sector in a bid to promote the attainment of Universal Healthcare in the country.
He also said that the funds will be utilized to expand and strengthen essential health services at county hospitals in the country to ensure that all Kenyans enjoy quality healthcare.
Mr. Rotich said that Kenya will be the first country in Africa to host the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Yokohama Action Plan in Nairobi during the second half of 2016.
 He added that Kenya will continue to seek financial and technical support from Japan within the framework of TICAD initiative to implement priority projects in line with the Vision 2030 blue print and utilize the forthcoming Kenya/Japan Annual Bilateral Consultations for Economic Cooperation for 2015/2016 financial year to discuss areas of future cooperation and other issues of mutual interest between the two countries.
He said Kenya’s cooperation with Japan is anchored currently on the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Yokohama Action Plan, adding that under the Action Plan, particularly the “Yokohama Declaration”, the road map for the support of African growth and development under the TICAD process has been clearly defined.
Early this year, he said, Kenya and Japan signed the Exchange of Notes for Japan’s Non Project Grant Aid for Provision of Japanese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) products, Mombasa Port Development Phase 2 Project and the Project for Medical Waste and Hazardous Waste Appropriate Processing Plant which makes Japan one of Kenya’s major development partners.
Present during the signing ceremony for Exchange of Notes for Health Support Programme for Universal Healthcare Coverage were among others Health Ministry Cabinet Secretary Mr. James Macharia, National Treasury Principal Secretary Dr. Kamau Thugge and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) chief representative to Kenya Mr. Hideo Eguchi.