Carter Beats The Devil: The backdrop of American history

Carter Beats The Devil: The backdrop of American history

Donna Bowman: Rowan made a comparison to The Prestige in his response to Monday's post on magic, and it strikes me that there's another irresistible connection between these two books: Both feature actual historical figures and technology as key elements in their narratives.  Carter himself is based loosely on a real performer, of course, but more substantial -- yet also quite fanciful -- are folks like President Harding, Houdini, and Philo T. Farnsworth, who pop up and disappear with various secrets to move the plot along.  Less recognizable but just as central is Francis Marion "Borax" Smith, whose ulexite mines and Oakland-based home for orphaned girls actually existed during the novel's time period.

In The Prestige it's Nikolas Tesla and electric current that provide the genius and magic against which the protagonists measure their craft. Borax provides an interesting counterweight to the more famous names in the novel; he happened upon a natural resource he could market, while Farnsworth and Carter must build technologies (keeping key elements under wraps lest they be pilfered by the unscrupulous) to create an experience. There's the monetary contrast as well, with Borax undergoing a slow decline from great good fortune, and Farnsworth and Carter never quite managing to find the secret of turning a profit (or perhaps sabotaging that effort for some other goal of greater value).  In any case, these people and inventions appropriated from history are the rich set-dressings of the Carter show.  What do you see them providing in terms of themes, resonance, motivating incident, or perhaps even distraction?

Ellen Wernecke: Gold's appropriation of real historical figures is one thing I loved about Carter Beats The Devil; Glen David Gold's follow-up, Sunnyside (which I heartily recommend), does something similar with Charlie Chaplin. It helped, of course, that I knew very little about Warren G. Harding and nothing about Borax going in to Carter. Farnsworth, I'd only heard of because Aaron Sorkin wrote a screenplay on him, later adapted into a (not very successful) Broadway play, in which his naïveté is used in a more tragic context. The use of these characters -- including what I can only call an anti-redemption for Harding, when his final fate is revealed -- adds depth to the canvas and plausibility to Carter's story that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

With technology, on the other hand, I found Carter's relationship to be a bit more complicated. It develops throughout the novel that several of his illusions, if not technologically-based, somewhat mechanical in nature, although his first magic tricks relied on sleight-of-hand and constant practice. Annabelle's death at the hands of the Phantom War Gun might be enough to turn any honest illusionist off the employment of devices in his stage shows. Still, Carter's dreams encompass these elaborate sets, even to the point where he is licensing them out while lusting after others -- in the business of being in the forefront among his peers -- and nowhere near breaking even on them. In his fascination Carter's behavior mirrors that of the country around him, contending with technologies it doesn't quite know how to handle -- as, in a thowaway, we learn that Jack Griffin only survived his brush with Mysterioso because of surgeries practiced during the Great War.

Rowan Kaiser: Theoretically, the historical aspects of Carter Beats The Devil should have been right up my alley - that was part of the reason I engaged with The Intuitionist, set in roughly the same period. But it didn't really do anything for me. I think my historical interest tends to be with movements, trends, and fringe politics. Carter used history for a bit of color and setting: pirates! Harding! Houdini! World War I! I don't think it really did well at trying to say anything about the history, though, it just happened to have a specific setting.

On the other hand, at a specifically personal level, I did enjoy the history of the Bay Area setting, since that's where I live right now. The scene when Gold describes Carter at the top of Piedmont Avenue, going to visit Mountain View Cemetery, took place about half a block from my house. The historical color of the graveyard as place where young people went for hook-ups was both amusing and inspired me to visit the cemetery more often. I also enjoyed the historical portrayal of Oakland in the post-earthquake era as attempting to compete directly with San Francisco, as that's certainly not the case these days.

But there are specific interests of a Bay Area resident, not generalized. Other than than those, the only scene that piqued my historian's interest was the one with the competing bordellos at Carter's "Blackmail" show. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy Carter, just that it didn't use its time period as a strength, as the last several Wrapped Up In Books selections have done.

Zack Handlen: Honestly, I didn't really care one way or the other. Tasha makes some excellent points about cheating magic in fiction (and I agree, that drove me crazy watching The Illusionist), and the presence of actual historical figures just exacerbates that problem for me. It could just be I'm not a huge fan of this genre, but then, I loved Mason & Dixon like crazy--I think it's more that I don't see it as an ends in and of itself. I didn't know enough about Carter to really understand the references the book made to his actual life; and while I don't think that's something Gold should be at all criticized for, the novel really needs to work on its own whether or not you completely understand the context. (I also didn't know much about Mason and Dixon. I'm not very bright.) The parts of Carter I enjoyed I really enjoyed, but there was a lot here that seemed randomly placed or weirdly paced, and I was never sure if I was supposed to find some resonance in that with the real Carter's life. I think Carter has a lopsided, inelegant structure (ambitious, successful in spots, but often clumsy and distracting), at least for me, and I blame at least part of that on the attempts at history, which is generally difficult to put properly into story form. And I agree with Rowan, Gold never really made the time come alive for me. There were so many fascinating threads he could've focused on, I felt like he tried for all of them, and his prose by itself, while competent, wasn't strong enough to connect everything with mood.

That said, I loved the connection with television. It was more of a distraction than anything else, but it was an excellent distraction nonetheless.

Todd VanDerWerff: I guess I'll join the general pile and say that the history of the piece, while often INTERESTING, was rarely the main reason to read it. I enjoy the general milieu of the time, and I love that section where Carter and Annabelle are on the streetcar after they've begun to realize just how much they love each other and Carter reflects on the changes of the city since the quake. But I wouldn't say that the historical setting necessarily sunk its claws into me the way the characters did. I will say that I thought the most successful section in this regard was that long opening third, featuring Carter's growth from boy to young man and his infatuation with the circuses and Vaudeville acts of the time, all of which had a nice level of detail to the way these operations really worked. But with the sudden shift in narrative (to Griffin's point-of-view, to more inwardly-focused story), these details kind of go out the window.

One of the things I think the book reflects nicely is the fact that the time was essentially one when America felt boldly optimistic about itself (and California very specifically felt that optimism). Carter strikes me, in some ways, as a book for optimists, for people who always think things will eventually get better if things hang around long enough (and I count myself among that number, which may be biasing me). Gold captures that feeling within the country at the time, and it gives his book a nice shade of can-do attitude that could have felt corny in many other eras.


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Flavin is also the name of a commune in the Aveyron dpartement, in France

Flavin is a tricyclic heteronuclear organic ring whose biochemical source is the vitamin riboflavin. The flavin moiety is often conjugated with an adenosine diphosphate to form flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), and in other circumstances, is found as flavin mononucleotide (or FMN), a phosphorylated form of riboflavin. The flavin group is capable of undergoing oxidation-reduction reactions, and can accept either one electron in a two step process or can accept two electrons at once. In the form of FADH2, it is one of the cofactors that can transfer electrons to the electron transfer chain.

Flavin adenine dinucleotide is a cofactor in the enzymes D-amino acid oxidase, glucose oxidase, and xanthine oxidase.

FADH and FADH2 are reduced forms of FAD. FADH2 is produced in the citric acid cycle. In oxidative phosphorylation, one molecule of FADH2 yields approximately 1.5 ATP

Flavin mononucleotide is a prosthetic group found in NADH dehydrogenase.

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From: Kris Vansteenwegen [kris_vansteenwegen@hotmail.com]
Sent: December 18, 2003
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: File No. S7-23-03

Dear Madam, Sir,

Hereby I would like to react on the Proposel Rule concerning Short Sales, Release No. 34-48709; File No. S7-23-03.

Currently, not all exchanges provide a proper protection and sufficient guarantees to be attractive for (institutional) investors. Thus, a lot of listed companies are relying on continuous dilution and - often as a last resort - they count on dubious equity financing. This results in dead spiral financing, short selling and naked short selling techniques orchestrated by certain parties involved which is disastrous for the company, its investors and the stock exchange where it is listed.

The objective for a company to list on an exchange is to raise funds to be able to research and later to grow its business. The objective of an investor is to see a return on investment through progress made by the company, and not by dubious speculation. The interest of the governement is to grow new businesses, industries and to create jobs. Questionable practices have a negative impact on all the previous mentioned areas, therefore, impacting society as a whole.

Most of the (startup) companies do not have the time, means or funds to properly report, or do simply not make a spectacular progress during the first year of their existence. Thus it is already extremely difficult for investors to assess the risk, assess the chance for success, let alone to take into account the competition, economic situation and other market factors.

Therefore, I think the proposed rules are a necessary step in making the exchanges more structured, more transparent for (institutional) investors and less likely the target of malicious practices. Especially today these measures are extremely important to support the troubled economy.

In the following section

II. Naked short selling
C. Proposed Amendments
1. Short Sales

the following quoted statements are of CRUCIAL importance to protect the companies listed on the exchanges, their continued existence, the motivation to stay- and become a listed company and to justify the risk/reward ratio of starting, maintaining and - most important - investing in a listed company.

The following quote is totally justified:

"We believe that securities with lower market capitalization may be more susceptible to abuse, and therefore believe that these additional delivery requirements should be extended to all equity securities registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. "

Exchanges such as pinksheets and OTC-bb specifically list a number of startup-companies that have to concentrate on research and developing their business. These startup-companies are the driving force behind new - sometimes revolutionar - technologies, have limited resources for accounting and regulatory affairs, and have it extremely difficult to find required funding. Therefore, specifically these markets should be protected and an attractive environment should be created for investors.

The below quote is, from my opinion, again CRUCIAL for the effectiveness of this proposed rule. It would be naieve to think market makers are not involved in (naked) short selling and do not develop trading strategies that are harmfull for the company and its investors. Therefore, especially market makers, who have more control over a security than anybody else, should be limited in performing harmfull operations and maintaining harmfull strategies.

"We believe it is questionable whether a market maker carrying a short position in a heavily shorted security for an extended period of time is in fact engaged in providing liquidity for customers, or rather is engaged in a speculative trading strategy. Therefore, we are not proposing an exception from these additional delivery requirements for short sales in connection with market making."

Personally, I do think the corrective effect of short sales is sufficient if it will be performed by "normal" transactions. I.e. shorting a security by private or institutional investors that own the security. I question the "borrowing" as a whole. I strongly recommend AGAINST creating "borrow lists" because 1) I do think the equity market is not transparent at all to allow an efficient means of creating such lists and 2) I do believe a "reasonable ground" based on blanket assurance that the stock is available for borrowing is subject to discussion and does leave the door open to continue with the current practices. I strongly recommend borrowing - if acceptable at all - has to be proven through hard evidence.

Q. Should short sales effected by a market maker in connection with bona fide market making be excepted from the proposed "locate" requirements? Should the exception be tied to certain qualifications or conditions? If so, what should these qualifications or conditions be?

No, market makers should fall under the same rule without any exceptions. I do not see any required exception that can be properly justified.

Q. Should the proposed additional delivery requirements be limited to securities in which there are significant failures to deliver? If so, is the proposed threshold an accurate indication of securities with excessive fails to deliver? Should it be higher or lower? Should additional criteria be used?

No, the proposed rule should be a general rule being applied to ALL securities and all markets. I do not see any exception or limitation that can be properly justified.

Yes, under condition the above quoted paragraphs are applied as a general rule, without exceptions for market makers or certain securities. As I am totally against the borrowing principle, ideally I would be in favor for the suggested buy-in.

Yes to all, for sure.

I tried to respond and forward you my comments on the first part of the proposal. The effectiveness of the following parts of the proposal are highly dependant on the previous statements.

I hereby hope to have contributed to a proposal that could change and re-shape the stock-exchange landscape. I do strongly believe we will hear a sigh of relief from currently listed companies when this rules passes. It is of no doubt that today, unethical practices by financers, market makers, lobbies and conspiracy-like financial constructions do harm the US economy and society in a severe way and on a large scale.

Best Regards,
Kris Vansteenwegen


Tuesday, 9 February 2016

Wishing for success...

A year ago, I was living in Hanoi, not far from the Temple of Literature. Around the Lunar New Year, people visit this almost-millennium-old site, to have their wishes painted in the temple by calligraphy artists in traditional characters. These characters might symbolise love, luck, health, wealth, or even excellent results for final exams.

This was mine.

What did I wish for? Success. Whether it was out of entitled arrogance, frustration, desperation or just because that's what we're conditioned to strive for, this was my wish.

A year has since passed, and as we welcome in the Year of the Monkey, I look back on the last year, with my wish hanging on the wall, and I wonder... what brings success? Is it purely hard work? Is it the right attitude? A willingness to say yes to opportunities? Resilience to stick it out and do "the hard yards"? Is it the wisdom to work smarter, not harder? Or does it come to pure luck?

I believe that luck plays a huge part in success. Many people are successful due to factors beyond their control - being born in a prosperous country, to a supportive family, with a strong education, affording certain privileges, and so on. And there are social influences - the people who we meet and connect with through our lives - who either support or discourage us on our paths.

Over the past few months, I've been mildly obsessed with Manuel Lin-Miranda's work of lyrical genius, Hamilton - a contemporary musical retelling of one of the US's lesser-known founding fathers. The two central characters, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, are both ambitious for success and greatness. But whilst Hamilton is cavalier, hot-headed, and exhibits no restraint, determined not to blow his shot, Burr is sensible, pragmatic and willing to wait for it.

Ultimately, Hamilton comes to an early demise, whilst Burr lives a long life but is largely forgotten - except as the villain of this history.

It's a simple dichotomy, but it's one that I've always felt torn between - whether to take a chance, and leap forward at every opportunity, despite the risk, or to stay put, and hope to have my loyalty rewarded by having been around the longest, sticking it out through thick and thin. Either approach has its merits and risks. Sometimes you happen to be at the right place at the right time, and sometimes your hard work pays off. Usually it's a combination of both.

So, a year later, did I get my wish? I don't feel like I'm failing, so perhaps this past year has set me on the path to success. Or perhaps it's just helped provide me with the wisdom to stop wishing for such things, and just be mindful of what is in front of me, and the choices I have. After all, I am the one thing in life I can control.


Learn more

When to Make a new Paragraph

Knowing when to Break a Paragraph into two or more can be important.

Created: 2012-11-06 03:53

There are not really any fixed rules as of when to break a paragraph, it is generally up to the author when they want to make a new paragraph. As a rule of thumb, you may want to keep in mind that wab pages ain't books – breaking up long paragraphs will increase the readability of your textural content.

In addition to the above rule of thumb, there are times where it makes more sense to break a paragraph, some of these are listed in this Article – just keep in mind, just because they are listed here, doesn't mean that it will work well with your own website, its design, or its intended audience. Some people don't seem to mind very long paragraphs.

Breaking up Paragraphs

Deciding when to break up a paragraph can be hard, but you should keep in mind that we as Authors almost always think more about it than the majority of our readers. Something which can help you decide, is asking yourself a couple of questions:

  1. How does your text look and feel?
  2. Does it make sense to break the paragraph here or there?

The answer to the first one often depends on your website design – a website with a large max-width would, or could call for more line breaks than one with a small maximum width. The second question can be problematic, because there are different ways you can transfer meaning.

  1. When you change topic, begin a new paragraph.
  2. When someone is speaking, they should have their own paragraph.
  3. When the time changes in your story, create a new paragraph.
  4. For effect – to add atmosphere – or to make something stand out.

It also depends on the writing. Tutorials as those you'll find here on Brugbart, does not need much expression.


Signs and Symptoms

-“My ponytail feels smaller!”

Many women who wear their hair up will report an appreciable difference in the thickness of their ponytail. Previously they were only able to twist an elastic band once or twice, but now they have to twist it 3 or 4 times in order to achieve the same tension on their ponytail.  If this has happened over a period of greater than 6-12 months, it may reflect a long-standing inherited female pattern thinning.

-“I can’t style it the same anymore”

Men and women alike complain that there is a distinct change in texture as hair thins. This can feel like hair is more limp, more fragile, gets weighed down more easily with product, or is harder to cover the scalp. If this problem has been going on for over a year now, and there are no major physiologic stressors you can identify, you may have early female or male pattern hair loss.

-“My hair is coming out in clumps”

When the hair is coming out in large handfuls or collects as wads in the shower drain, you may be suffering from a temporary form of hair loss called telogen effluvium. This is especially likely if the hair has only been shedding for 6 or fewer months. You should consider whether there are any major physiologically stressful events in your life that might explain your hair loss. Otherwise, consider seeing your doctor for a workup of possible medical causes for your hair loss.

-My family says they can see my scalp!

The most common presentation of female pattern hair loss is a localized miniaturization of hairs in the frontal 1/3-2/3 of the scalp. For most women the frontal hairline stays intact. What is unfair about this is that for a large number of women the hair stays very thick in the back of the scalp. These women may benefit from hair transplant surgery, which involves moving the hairs from areas of greater density to areas of lower density. However it is still essential to continue to prevent hair thinning using a therapy such as topical treatment.

-Every time I comb it, hair falls out!

The simple act of combing hair can often result in a distressing amount of hair loss or hair shedding. Most persons who start using a medical therapy such as topical treatment will report in a significant decrease in daily shedding after just a few weeks to months of use.


The Crusades: Holy Wars or Increasingly Belligerent Pilgrimages?

The Crusades are remembered unrealistically and romantically as a business of knights on a sacred mission. There is no concept in Christianity of a holy war — the Crusades were essentially pilgrimages that included fighting.

Pope Urban II instigated the 1st Crusade in 1095 to liberate Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks, who treated Christian pilgrims harshly. By the time the Crusaders arrived, the Shia Muslim Fatimid Egyptians had taken Jerusalem; the Sunni Turks did not help them and the Crusaders prevailed.

In 1187 Saladin took Jerusalem back and Pope Gregory VIII proposed a 3rd Crusade. This involved the great soldier, King Richard I.

By the 4th Crusade, the concept had degenerated. Of the 35,000 volunteers, only 11,000 reached Venice; fighting then oscillated from one exploit to another, depending on who could pay; and they were excommunicated for attacking Christians.

The Crusades were not successful in their own terms and were a major drain on resources.

  • Helen

    Should we really be teaching people there was no concept of ‘holy war’ in Christianity? When by the high middle ages you had the concept of the Milites Christi, when the council of Clermont specifically targeted the knightly class, when there was a specific understanding that ‘Deus vult’ and indeed with the use of those words, Urban II in effect changed the paradigm of Augustine’s Just war to a ‘bellum sacrum’, how can you say it didn’t exist? People’s crusade notwithstanding – and I don’t disagree that there were numerous other popular crusades/armed pilgrimages – the Crusades were land-grabs undertaken by the warrior class, justified by the church as divinely sanctioned. To suggest they were just ‘pilgrimages with fighting’ to me smacks of disingenuous semantics, the subtext of which is to cast Islam as the aggressor.


Utilize este identificador para referenciar este registo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5716
Título: An experimental study of Aurelia aurita feeding behaviour: inference of the potential predation impact on a temperate estuarine nursery area
Autor: Pereira, Rita
Chícharo, Alexandra
Garrido, S.
Palavras-chave: Jellyfish
Sardina pilchardus
Feeding rates
Data: 2014
Editora: Elsevier
Citação: Pereira, Rita; Teodósio, Maria Alexandra; Garrido, Susana. An experimental study of Aurelia aurita feeding behaviour: Inference of the potential predation impact on a temperate estuarine nursery area, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 146, na, 102-110, 2014.
Resumo: Temperate estuaries are nursery areas for economically important fisheries resources. The common jellyfish Aurelia aurita is a resident species in many of these areas, where it can reach high abundances. This work aimed to determine the potential for predation of A. aurita on zooplanktonic organisms and early life stages of fishes, measuring feeding rates at concentrations that mimic those occurring for zooplankton, fish eggs and larvae in an estuarine nursery area. A set of experiments was aimed at determining the feeding selectivity of jellyfish when offered a mixture of fish eggs and larvae and wild plankton. Clearance rates varied markedly with prey availability and concentrations. When given mixtures of different prey types, jellyfish preferentially elected some taxa (copepods and fish eggs). Data obtained in the laboratory experiments were used to infer the potential impact of jellyfish predation upon zooplankton and ichthyoplankton in the Guadiana estuary (Southern Iberia). Repeated sampling of zooplankton, fish eggs and medusae was undertaken during the summer season of 2011. Abundance determinations were combined with experimentally estimated clearance rates of individual medusa to infer the potential jellyfish-induced mortality on prey in the area. In June and early August jellyfishinduced mortality rates were very high, and half-life times (t1/2) were consequently short for the zooplankton and ichthyoplankton. Although the potentially overestimation of our feeding rates typical of confined laboratory experiments, the results show high ingestion and clearance rates at high temperatures, typical from summer condition, and results also suggest that either by predation on early life stages of fish, or by competition for food resources, jellyfish may have a significant impact on estuarine communities and its nursery function.
Peer review: yes
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5716
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2014.05.026
ISSN: 0272-7714
Versão do Editor: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771414001541
Aparece nas colecções:FCT2-Artigos (em revistas ou actas indexadas)

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bow strings - paracord ?

just wandering what people think about using a few strands of paracord core as a bow string (wrapped at the nocking point flemish style)
anyone tried it, will it stretch to much?

WillV132 months ago

Perhaps gutted and stretched paracord.

rickharris5 years ago
It will stretch quite a lot. - If you can get it use Kevlar. Don't forget to protect your arm or it will cut.
onrust5 years ago
I believe it would stretch...... So, try stretching a length first.


How do I contact Rory?

How do I book a surgery appointment?

Am I a constituent?

Rory is parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border. This includes the towns of Penrith, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Longtown, Brampton, Alston and Wigton. A map showing the full scale of Penrith and the Border can be found here. Parliamentary protocol prevents MPs from representing individuals outside of their own constituency, and whilst Rory will be happy to put you in touch with your own MP, he will be unable to deal personally with your issue if you are not a constituent.  If you are unsure if Rory is standing as your MP, you can check by entering your post code on: findyourmp.parliament.uk/

How can Rory help?

–       Tax
–       Hospitals and the NHS
–       Benefits, pensions, and national insurance
–       Immigration
–       School closures and grants

When should I contact someone else first?

–       Council tax
–       Social services
–       Decisions made by the courts
–       Day-to-day school problems
–       Dustbins or street repairs

What exactly does an MP do?

A member of parliament is a member of the national legislature, whose primary constitutional function is to vote on legislation. (Laws are passed if, and only if, a majority of MPs vote for them). Rory is therefore generally in Westminster when parliament is sitting. Rory is a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, where his responsibility is to scrutinise the Government’s foreign policy, on behalf of parliament. He also serves on delegated legislation committees, examining EU proposals, and Bill Committees (he was for example a member of the 2013 Finance Bill Committee, which scrutinised the budget). He chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Local Democracy and Mountain Rescue, and is an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on upland farming, and rural services. As the Member of parliament for Penrith and the Border, he represents the interests of his Cumbrian constituency in parliament, and to the national government. As a constituency MP he runs regular constituency advice surgeries in Cumbria, visits and supports Cumbrian businesses, charities, schools, community initiatives, and government services. He brings investment such as broadband, mobile, and infrastructure investment to his constituency. He runs pilot programs in Penrith and the Border on issues from neighbourhood planning to smart energy.

Is it possible to get a tour of Westminster?


Tag Archives: middle class

How the 1 percent is systematically destroying the middle class

The idea of a property-owning democracy has long roots in American political thought. In their book, “The Citizen’s Share,” Joseph R. Blasi, Richard B. Freeman and Douglas Kruse argue that the Founding Fathers wanted everyone (well, everyone who was white and male) to own a small slice of property. Both Madison and Washington praised the relatively equal distribution of property in the United States (compared with Europe). Thomas Jefferson wrote, “It is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.” Indeed, the concept is still popular today, even on the right. James Poulos writes, “Without an ownership society, where citizens are prudent stewards of broadly distributed private property, freedom tends to become what it was in revolutionary France — an abstract ideal that can easily arouse destructive political feelings that know no bounds.” But new data suggests America may no longer be such a society, and that has worrying implications for democracy.

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that “apps do your chores” — but the unfortunate reality is that workers, not “apps,” are doing those chores. The workers are called “contractors,” instead of employees, meaning that they don’t get the protections full-time employees do. And examples of exploitation are piling up.

A startup called CrowdFlower Inc. — which, according to WSJ “breaks down digital jobs, such as data entry, into tiny tasks performed by millions of workers” — was recently sued for paying some of those workers between $2 and $3 an hour. Industry leader Uber, meanwhile, has been criticized for exaggerating the wages of its contractors.  This practice is becoming widespread. A recent study finds that 53 million Americans are doing some sort of freelancing work. Of those, 40 percent are full-time independent contractors, meaning they have no other source of income.

The rich are driven by two main desires: First, to make sure they have more money; and, second, that someone else does the work. There is literally no job the rich are not lazy enough to outsource. Because they cannot figure out the location of their post office, they need “Shyp.” With “Luxe,” they can get a person to park their car for them. And with “Saucey,” they can save themselves a trip to the liquor store. In a recent article for  The New Yorker, Patricia Marx describes some of the more absurd tasks that were included on TaskRabbit, including “Lego sorting,” locating “a reptile handler who is in legal possession of a rattlesnake” and finding a fake wedding ring that looks just like a real one.

It is not of insignificant concern that the rich may cease to be capable of performing the basic tasks necessary in the modern economy. The result is something like the dystopia described in the recent science-fiction film “In Time,” except that the rich elongate their lives by making the poor do their mundane tasks.

Robert Kuttner writes of TaskRabbit:

As Matt Bruenig notes, in the United States,

“employers often handle sickness (health insurance, subsidized by federal government), old-age insurance (401k and defined-benefit pensions, subsidized by federal government), survivor’s insurance (life insurance, subsidized by federal government), family benefits (paid leave and health insurance for children), unemployment (severance, though more typically rely heavily on public unemployment insurance), on top of providing socially adequate levels of cash income.”

That is, government has funneled important social benefits through corporations. This not only makes a corporate job more cushy than otherwise, it also makes freelance work more precarious. Christopher Mims notes that, “Uber isn’t the Uber for rides — it’s the Uber for low-wage jobs.” A large portion of Americans now have two choices: Become servants to the rich for minimal wages, or starve to death. The idea that low-wage work is merely a short-term part of the rung towards a better life is also largely illusory: Upward mobility has been destroyed.

America has fallen into neo-feudalism: A wealthy capital-owning class exists behind a servile class with no assets, and only a life of drudgery ahead of them. The master-servant relationship will only further degrade social trust and civic values. Americans can’t see themselves as equals in the political sphere when large portions are consigned to wait upon the whims of new aristocracy. Conservative politics relies on the middle class making a devil’s bargain, believing they have more in common with the rich than the poor. It won’t be long before that facade crumbles.

This piece originally appeared on Salon.

Rubio Will Likely Be The Republican Nominee

Barring a massive strategic blunder, Marco Rubio is well-positioned to become the Republican nominee for President in 2016. The Florida senator is the ideal candidate to expand the Reagan coalition while holding on to the conservative base and he can take shots at Clinton that would sound hypocritical coming from Bush. While his power as a candidate has yet to emerge in the polls, a misstep by Bush will send him straight to the top.

Right now the Republican party is deeply fractured, and its coalition, at least at the presidential level, is weak. Republicans have failed to win the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 elections, and when they were successful, it was largely because of George W. Bush’s modest success with Latinos. The problem Republicans face going into 2016 is that the rise of the nativist Tea Party makes it difficult for them to woo Latino voters without losing their base. Rubio offers them such a bridge candidate.

Before exploring why Rubio could act as a bridge between conservatives and Latinos, it’s important to explode a key myth — that Republicans simply can’t win Latino voters; as I’ve noted before, there are indications that they can.. The problem is that appeals to Latino voters will often alienate the more nativist Tea Party portions of the Republican base. Thus, the GOP needs to find a candidate that can perform well enough to neutralize the Latino vote but also ensure that the conservative base turns out to vote.

According to data from a recent Economist/Yougov poll, while no Republican candidate has a net favorability with Latinos, Rubio dramatically outperforms Bush. The split among conservatives is perhaps even starker: Rubio holds a 37 percent net favorability and Bush holding a 15 percent net favorability.

Republicans will also want to make inroads with the poor, the middle class and youth. Here again, Rubio has a distinct advantage, polling strongly with young people and the middle class (those making between $40,000 and $100,000). Among those making less than $40,000, Bush and Rubio are at a dead heat. (Scott Walker polls significantly better than both in this category, however.)

It could be that as Rubio becomes more well known, he’ll become less popular. This has clearly happened to Bush, who has seen his net favorability drop from negative 5.9 points in February 4, 2013, when 42 percent of respondents said that had “not heard enough” to judge him, to negative 16.2 points on April 21, 2015, with only 16.8 percent of respondents saying they had “not heard enough.” But even this argument doesn’t sink Rubio. In the same Yougov poll, Rubio’s “do not know enough” score is only 4 points higher than Bush among Latinos, 6 points higher among young voters (18-29) and 8 points higher with the middle class. Even assuming all of these “don’t knows” dislike Rubio (unlikely) his net favorability would still be higher than Bush’s.

As the chart below from Sam Wang shows, as a Republican becomes more well-known, he also becomes less popular. Bush fits perfectly on the trend, while Rubio is slightly above it and Walker is slightly below it. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC Poll, completed before Rubio announced his candidacy, 56 percent of Republican primary voters said they could see themselves supporting Rubio, with only 26 percent saying they couldn’t. Only Scott Walker, with 53 percent and 17 percent respectively, had better numbers, and Jeb Bush pulled in a squalid 49 percent in favor, 42 percent against.

Republicans consider who their nominee will be must also consider how they are going to run against Clinton. It’s likely that they will prefer three major criticisms: First, that she’s dynastic; second, that she’s too old (an argument with sexist undertones, to be certain, but it may still resonate with voters); and third, that her Washington-insider status should disqualify her. Each of these arguments will be muted in the case of a Bush nomination, but could be much more persuasive coming from Rubio — the son of a immigrant father and a working class mother with strong Tea Party connections. He’s young and he’s targeted much of his rhetoric towards benefitting the middle class (no matter their dubious merit).

To test whether Rubio might be a better foil to Clinton, we can look at the Real Clear Politics General Election Match-Ups. The current average suggests that in a head-to-head election with Clinton, Rubio would lose by 7.5 points. The three most recent polls show Clinton up by 14 points, 2 points and 4 points respectively. In all three, Rubio loses. However, his margin is still lower than Bush, who loses by 8.9 points on average, and 17 points, 7 points and 4 points respectively. Walker loses by 8.6 points on average (22 points, 5 points and 6 points, respectively).

The most recent polls, taken from March and April, are shown below, where each bar corresponds to Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in a hypothetical matchup:

The other conceivable option on the table is Scott Walker, who does poll well with blue-collar Americans. The problem is that his strategy for winning the White House relies entirely on maintaining the old Republican coalition, which won’t be appealing to party elites. Recently, for example, he signaled opposition to immigration reform, which isn’t surprising given his vision of the party’s future, but will ultimately doom him as a candidate. Without making inroads into the Latino vote, Republicans will never take back the White House.

The arguments against Rubio, meanwhile, are melting away. Worried about his embarrassing SOTU response? Witness his energetic and moving announcement speech. Worried he won’t get the support of big backers? Sheldon Adelson may back his campaign. The failure of immigration reform in 2013? No support among party elites? Rubio just got kind comments from Brooks and Douthat. Stagnant wages and stunted upward mobility? Marco Rubio said it best in his announcement:

Indeed, Rubio’s biggest problem seems to be that his impressive qualities show up everywhere but in the polls: Real Clear Politics still puts him below Walker and Bush. However, Rubio offers a perfect embodiment of the Republican vision of the American Dream. He’s offering a vision that may can win enough Latinos, working-class white, youth and Republican regulars to credibly threaten Hillary. He’ll likely be the Republican candidate.

This piece originally appeared on Salon

How Racism is Destroying the Middle Class

Progressives have long argued that conservatives play up racial resentments to undermine the welfare state. Conservatives tend to respond to such accusations with their own charges of liberal “race baiting.” But whatever right-wing voices might say on the matter,  a new analysis of the data suggests that racism does, in fact, strongly predict welfare spending.

Using two surveys from 2008, Douglas Spencer and Christopher Elmendorf estimatedracial resentment across the states by measuring responses to questions about the work ethic, intelligence and trustworthiness of blacks Americans. They estimate the portion of whites in each state that are in the top quartile of racial resentment (so a state with large amounts of racism would have more than 25 percent of whites espousing racially biased views).

I combined this with data from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities showing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits for a single-parent household of three. As the scatterplot below shows, these two variables are strongly correlated:

I asked Eric Stone, the lead data scientist at Smarterer and a former hedge fund manager and USDA statistician, to help me see if there was another factor driving this trend. He ran the numbers again, controlling for state revenues per capita (based on Tax Foundationdata, averaged from 2008-2010), as well as the average ideology of citizens and the average ideology of the state government (based on data from Richard Fording, again averaged over the period of 2008-2010).

Stone tells me that after controlling for these factors, “racial resentment is indeed the strongest predictor of TANF, at least in the context of this model.” He reports a p-value of <.001 (indicating there is a less than .1 percent chance that the relationship was observed by chance) and an R2 of .556 for the model (meaning that these variables collectively explain more than half of the variation in TANF spending).

The idea that racism strongly predicts opposition to welfare has strong support in the academic literature. In his book, “Dog Whistle Politics,” Ian Haney Lopez showed how conservatives have used racial animus to drive opposition to welfare. In an interview with Salon, he said,

The research supporting Lopez’s argument is strong. Political scientists Richard Fording, Sanford Schram and Joe Soss find in their book “Disciplining the Poor,”

concerns over welfare were significantly more likely to be activated among respondents who perceived “most blacks” as lazier than “most whites.”

This aligns with Martin Gilens, who found that, “racial considerations are the single most important factor shaping whites’ views of welfare.” Media are certainly part of the explanation, as he finds elsewhere that “network TV news and weekly newsmagazines portray the poor as substantially more black than is really the case.” International research on the social safety net confirms this research.

Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote find that racial fractionalization (a measure of racial diversity) strongly predicts social spending. This relationship also holds within the United States: states where a larger portion of the citizens are black spend less on welfare. Matthew Fellowes and Gretchen Rowe find that as the share of African Americans on TANF increased, states lowered benefits, made eligibility rules stricter and reduced the flexibility of work requirements. In another paper, Alesina and his co-author, Paola Giuliano, write, “When the poor are disproportionately concentrated in a racial minority, the majority, coeteris paribus, prefer less redistribution.” They further note, “ In the US the racial majority (whites) is much less favorable to redistribution than minorities.” The U.S. also has an unreasonably strong belief in the idea that hard work is the key to success, and therefore believes that those who are unsuccessful must be lazy.

Similarly, a Pew study finds that the global median of people disagreeing with the idea that “success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control” is 38 percent, in the U.S. it’s 57 percent; the percentage of people internationally agreeing that it’s “very important” to work hard to get ahead in life is 50 percent, in the U.S. it’s 73 percent. In a country where poverty is deeply pathologized, and people of color are more likely to be poor, racism will be more likely.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, almost half of Americans end up on welfare at some point in their lives, but of those, less than 5 percent spend 10 consecutive years on welfare. The idea of welfare dependence is an utter fabrication invented by rich Republicans to gut the social safety net. But this safety net has actually been incredibly effective. As Christopher Jenks notes, “With these corrections the official poverty rate falls from 14.5 to 4.8 percent, making the 2013 rate roughly a quarter of the 1964 rate (19.0 percent).” Such a dramatic reduction in poverty should be considered one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments (though there is still more to be done).

While the Tea Party, and Republicans, have denied that their war on the poor isn’t racially biased, they occasionally slip up (Rick Santorum’s famous “blahs,” comment for instance). But the data strongly suggest that opposition to the welfare state is tied up in the belief that it is simply a way to give “them” benefits. Indeed, Daniel Tope, Justin Pickett and Ted Chiricos recently confirmed that racial resentment was “among the strongest predictors” of Tea Party membership. But through the “submerged state,” the governmentprovides massive benefits to the middle class (not to mention the big bailouts to banks and corporations). Racism is still a major factor in American politics, and racial resentment continues to erode the safety net, for the benefit of the super-wealthy.

This piece originally appeared on Salon.

How To Take Back Democracy On November 4th

Bold prediction: Rising inequality of income and wealth will be the most important political battleground over the next few decades.

Just take a look at the figures. The share of income accruing to the top 1 percent increased from 9 percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2011. The richest 0.1 percent controlled 7 percent of the wealth in 1979 and 22 percent of the wealth in 2012. Meanwhile, there are a number of studies out there showing that the most effective way to reduce this inequality would be higher taxes on income and wealth, but the rich won’t let it happen.

Consider also this: The rise of income inequality and wealth inequality are intimately connected, and causes all sorts of problem over the long term. As Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman write,

That is, income is a flow, which quickly becomes a stock. The rich make enough money to save; in contrast middle-class and low-income workers don’t have enough money to live, so they are increasingly burdened by debt. They can’t build up wealth, which means they are deprived of opportunity. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle of wealth on the top and debt on the bottom.

In a comedy bit on wealth, Chris Rock claims, “You can’t get rid of wealth.” The empirical research on the question largely supports his assertion. In “The Son Also Rises,” Gregory Clark finds that wealth remains in a family for 10-to-15 generations and notes,

But, of course wealth and income inequality weren’t always as bad as they are today. What happened? In a word: cheating. Although many people try to explain rising inequality away by arguing we live in a winner-take-all economy or that inequality is the result of skill-biased technological change, these arguments are bunk. Inequality has been driven by public policy choices that favored the richthe decline of unions and the rise of finance. As the chart below shows, tax rates on both income and inheritance were high during the relatively equal ’60s, ’70s and ’80s and then fell dramatically paving the way for the inequality we see today (Chart Source).

The best way to reduce inequality would be to tax income and wealth. While conservatives often claim that this would reduce economic growth, such claims have very little economic support. For instance, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantcheva find no correlation between economic growth and tax cuts. Because of this, they find, “the top tax rate could potentially be set as high as 83%.” (Chart Source)

Nobel Prize-winner Peter Diamond argues that the top marginal tax rate could safely breach 73 percent, and indeed, such a rate might even be “optimal.” Another recent studyfinds the top marginal tax rate could be as high as 90 percent. Republicans sometimes claim that inequality is necessary for economic growth; in fact, the evidence suggests rather the opposite is true: High levels of inequality imperil growth.

But, here’s the problem: The same political forces that allowed the 1 percent to take our political system hostage have only worsened in the past decade. As Nick Hanauer notes in a recent Intelligence Squared debate,

At the same time, the percent of — of labor — the percent of GDP devoted to labor has gone from 52 to 42.  So that difference is about a trillion dollars annually.  So that — here’s the thing you have to understand.  That trillion dollars isn’t profit because it needs to be or should be or has to be.  It’s profit because powerful people like me and [Edward Conrad] prefer it to be.  That trillion dollars could very easily be spent on wages. Or — or on discounts for consumers.  This isn’t a consequence of some magical law of economics.  This is a consequence of differentials in power.

Nick hits on a very important point: The rising concentration of economic power hascoincided with a concentration of political power. A recent paper by Adam Bonica and others illustrates that as inequality has increased, the rich have spent more money on the political system:

As Benjamin Page, Larry Bartels and Jason Seawright recently found that the wealthy tend to be more economically conservative than the population at large. But a particularly startling finding is that, “on economic issues wealthy Democratic respondents tended to be more conservative than Democrats in the general population.” The wealthy are usingthe political system to turn their income into wealth and then that wealth into more wealth. They’re going to keep doing it, unless we stop them.  One solution is to reduce the massive turnout gap between the rich and poor.

Studies show that states with more low-income turnout have higher minimum wages, more generous child health insurance programs and stricter anti-predatory lending policies. They also have more generous welfare benefits. The fight against inequality will be a long one, but the first step is turning out to vote — the most radical step one can take in our country is actually believing democracy is more than just an idea.

This piece originally appeared on Salon

Conservatives defend inequality out of self-interest — nothing more

The answer is class interest.

Originally published on The Week.

Do the 1 percent create jobs?

Dear Jamie,

*Classic sense


Which Country Produces the Most Silver

silver_1896303bThe production from the silver mines in the world is complex to study because of the variety and the number of countries where they are placed (on 5 continents, over 30 countries). Productions of silver Cigars are little many, in fact there is a diversity of fields of Metallurgy (in ¾ of the  mine production is the low product of zinc, lead, copper, or gold ) small indeed returned back to the producers (the low price of  in fact often a secondary income relative to the other metals). There is a demand for both industrial (industry, photography and jewelry) and fiduciary (coins, medals and storage). World production of silver is a kind of super-giant puzzle that must reconstruct their eyes closed.The average growth of its production in the world has been 1.5% per year. The world’s total product must increase by 10 million ounces of silver per every year to continue to respond to the growth in demand. Let’s see how the world’s statistics came out between countries.Mexico and Peru are very old silver countries (1500), and its  production is still among the top five nations  for decades, or even centuries. In 1935, Mexico and Peru belonged to only part of the top five silver producing nations. Peru and Mexico represent themselves still on one-third . China’s production  is very difficult to identify, it is not easy to know the exact statistics of this silver production. The situation in Australia and Poland is close , for these two countries has majority of production which is ensured by a single mine. Below is the list of top ten silver producing countries in the world.

Silver Production by Country: Top Ten Silver Producing Countries

Peru 4000
Mexico 3500
China 3000
Australia 1700
Chile 1500
Russia 1400
Bolivia 1360
United States 1280
Poland 1200
Canada 700
Other countries 2600

Which Country Produces the Most Silver ?

Answer: Peru is at the top of list producing 4000 metric tonnes each year

Other Interesting:

  1. Which Country has Most Gold in the World
  2. Which Country Produces the Most Aluminium
  3. Which Country Has Most Gas Reserves in The World


      FC /B pathname1 pathname2

      FC [options] pathname1 pathname2

   /B  : Perform a binary comparison.

   /C  : Do a case insensitive string comparison

   /U  : Compare files as UNICODE text files.
   /L  : Compares files as ASCII text. (default)

   /N  : Display line numbers (ASCII only)

   /LBn: Limit the number of lines that will be read, "n" sets a maximum number
         of consecutive differing lines after which the File Comparison will abort (resync failed)
         When FC aborts then "n" number of mismatches will be shown.
         default=100 lines.

  /nnnn  : Specify a number of consecutive lines that must match after a mismatch.
           This can be used to prevent the display of the two files from getting
           too out of sync

  /T     : Do not expand tabs to spaces.
  /W     : Compress white space (tabs and spaces) for comparison.

The messages returned by FC are language/locale dependent, so to identify 2 identical files use redirection syntax:

FC will set an ErrorLevel as follows:

-1 Invalid syntax (e.g. only one file passed)
0 The files are identical.
1 The files are different.
2 Cannot find at least one of the files.

If two files are compared and the four lines of text match as follows

1: different
2: same
3: same
4: different

Specifying /nnnn =2 the file compare will display the 4th line and continue
Specifying /nnnn =3 the file compare will halt at the 4th line (files too different)
Specifying /LB1 the file compare will halt after the first line

Q953929 - FC.exe command does not work correctly in Windows XP when files differ on every 128th byte
FIND - Search for a text string in a file
FINDSTR - Search for strings in files
WinDiff - GUI to compare files
Equivalent bash command (Linux): cmp - Compare two files

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Mooloolaba to Brisbane distance, location, road map and direction

Mooloolaba is located in Australia at the longitude of 153.12 and latitude of -26.69. Brisbane is located in Australia at the longitude of 153.02 and latitude of -27.46 .

Distance between Mooloolaba and Brisbane

The total straight line distance between Mooloolaba and Brisbane is 86 KM (kilometers) and 536 meters. The miles based distance from Mooloolaba to Brisbane is 53.8 miles. This is a straight line distance and so most of the time the actual travel distance between Mooloolaba and Brisbane may be higher or vary due to curvature of the road .

Mooloolaba To Brisbane travel time

Mooloolaba is located around 86 KM away from Brisbane so if you travel at the consistant speed of 50 KM per hour you can reach Brisbane in 1.73 hours. Your Brisbane travel time may vary due to your bus speed, train speed or depending upon the vehicle you use.

Mooloolaba To Brisbane road map

Mooloolaba To Brisbane driving direction

The following diriving direction guides you to reach Brisbane from Mooloolaba. Our straight line distance may vary from google distance.

Travel Distance from Mooloolaba

Travelers and visitors are welcome to write more travel information about Mooloolaba and Brisbane.

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Embedded and pervasive systems seamlessly connect human users to the physical world that is richly and invisibly interwoven with sensors, actuators, displays, and networks embedded in the everyday objects. The pervasive nature of such systems will transform the way people interact with each other and their environment and will revolutionize the way next generation medical services are supplied and consumed. When realized properly, the resulting unparalleled information extracted from these systems enables emerging applications in mobile and remote healthcare, wellness, emergency response, fitness monitoring, elderly care support, long-term preventive chronic care, smart environments, gaming and sports.

In spite of their revolutionary potentials, such embedded systems face a number of challenges in design and architecture that form stumbling blocks in their path to success. In particular, current technologies are difficult to use by non tech-savvy users, and produce unreliable and inconsistent measurements when deployed in uncontrolled environments. These issues lead to underutilization and unsustained adoption of the technology. Furthermore, the data-intensive nature of continuous monitoring requires efficient signal processing and data analytics algorithms for real-time, scalable, reliable, accurate, and secure extraction of relevant information from an overwhelmingly large amount of data. In EPSL, we emphasize a data-processing-driven optimization and knowledge extraction approach that targets exploration of reliable computing, real-time transfer learning, efficient data analytics, and system-level optimization to enhance sustainability and widespread utilization of embedded and pervasive systems in everyday life applications and services.

Our goal is to design future medicine technologies with a special focus on their economic and social dimensions. In particular, we focus on design and development of solutions that improve outcomes, decrease isolation, reduce health disparities, and substantially reduce costs.


Who Rules the World? -

Who Rules the World?

ISBN: 9781627793810
Published: 2016
Format: Paperback

$9.00 postage

For any number of books, anywhere in Australia

The world s leading intellectual offers a probing examination of the waning American Century, the nature of U.S. policies post-9/11, and the perils of valuing power above democracy and human rightsIn an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international situation, Noam Chomsky argues that the United States, through its military-first policies and its unstinting devotion to maintaining a world-spanning empire, is both risking catastrophe and wrecking the global commons. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from the expanding drone assassination program to the threat of nuclear warfare, as well as the flashpoints of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Israel/Palestine, he offers unexpected and nuanced insights into the workings of imperial power on our increasingly chaotic planet. In the process, Chomsky provides a brilliant anatomy of just how U.S. elites have grown ever more insulated from any democratic constraints on their power. While the broader population is lulled into apathy diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable the corporations and the rich have increasingly been allowed to do as they please. Fierce, unsparing, and meticulously documented, "Who Rules the World?" delivers the indispensable understanding of the central conflicts and dangers of our time that we have come to expect from Chomsky."

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Monday, 15 October 2012

This is justified when Alan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister, and Ben Bahan paid visit to Kenya and had to say this on Kenya deaf community in their book. In addition, graduates of the schools have been mingling for some three – four decades now in cities such as Nairobi, where there are reportedly several hundred Deaf adults. The numbers of deaf people are known to be large in Nairobi and while in Nairobi, they went to Kenya Society for the Deaf Children (KSDC) for social services, since there was no national association of the deaf to cater for their rights that time. KSDC was the only organization for the Deaf though it’s aim was to focus on improving education of deaf children by establishing schools and looking for donors to sponsor needy Deaf children, in addition to that KSDC was also offering in-services-training program for the teachers for the deaf, but not to advocate and serve the deaf adults who by then were facing serious discrimination at employments and other institutions due to their deafness.

Since then several organizations have sprung up offering a myriad of services and opportunities to the growing Deaf population in Kenya. Central to this was the formation of Kenya National Association of the Deaf (KNAD) a national non-governmental organization was formed and managed by Deaf people in 1986 and registered in 1987 under the Societies Act; KNAD is an ordinary member of the World Federation of the Deaf. Ann Oginga (the former KSDC director) flew to Sweden and met with the Swedish Federation of the Deaf (SDR) regarding Kenyan issues and brought to the SDR’s attention to the current plight of Deaf adults in their post-primary life. She then enlisted SDR’s assistance into investigating the new social crisis of the Deaf in Kenya. Uldis Ozolins from SDR came to Kenya and met Solomon Kayia through the Association of Nairobi Deaf Sports. Some Deaf people attend athletic tournaments to play, of course, but they and many more are there for another reason: to be with other members of the DEAFWORLD (frequently impossible during the work day) and to see old friends who have become separated after graduation or marriage or a move to a new job.

Deaf people were more interested in sporting activities as that was the only social events that was available apart from deaf clubs. So it made it easier to reach deaf community. With Solomon’s assistance, Uldis discovered more information about the Deaf in Kenya. Solomon led Uldis on a fact finding mission to deaf schools in Kenya. Armed with the information, Uldis returned to Sweden and met with the board of SDR showed the board his experiences and information he got from Kenya about Kenya Deaf Community. The board in turn met with KSDC on the findings and resolutions. KSDC agreed to serve as a bridge between Sweden Deaf and Kenya Deaf regarding communication. In these meetings and events there were hearing individuals friends of the Deaf, family members, social workers etc who learnt Kenyan Sign Language and aided the Deaf in their communications with the rest of the world.

Today?? Join us in Series II looking at today

Kenyan Sign Language - Beyond Constitutional Recognition Part I

The case for official recognition of KSL

Like all linguistic minorities, members of the Deaf community have different degrees of access to the majority language of the wider community. Since KSL is more accessible to many Deaf people than spoken languages such as English, official recognition of KSL is especially important. BSL is the foundation for the self-esteem, educational achievement and social well being of the Kenya's Deaf community. However, that community exists within a wider society of hearing people. Consequently, Deaf people who use KSL experience high levels of social exclusion, particularly in the following areas:

Access to information and services
Deaf people face many barriers when using public and private services. This is frequently due to a lack of awareness of the needs of Deaf people on the part of service providers, and insufficient communication support. Deaf people with visual impairments (for example those with Usher syndrome) or other disabilities are especially disadvantaged.

Because English is often their second language, Deaf KSL users do not always have full access to written information. Service providers therefore need to use interpreters wherever necessary and to make information available in KSL formats, for instance on video or CD-ROM.
Kenya Sign Language Interpreters Association (KSLIA) was set up by a group of 20 local interpreters after training by the first Deaf Education US Peace Corps Volunteers in September 2000. Prior to this training there were several short term trainings conducted by KSLRP/KNAD dating back to 1980s and 1990s.

KSLIA is an indigenous initiative evolving and strengthening the face of the Interpreting profession in Kenya. KSLIA hopes to improve and elevate the standards of Interpreting in Kenya through the following objectives:

  1. 1.       To secure official recognition by the Government of S.L Interpreters profession
  2. 2.       Encourage and promote initiatives in improving the standards of SL interpreting and interpreter training and pay scale of interpreters depending with their level and skills of interpretation through certification.
  3. 3.       Cooperation with other recognized bodies concerned in the welfare of the deaf and in provision of S.L Interpreters throughout the world.
  4. 4.       Awareness creation on Deafness and SL. Interpreters through publication of information materials
  5. 5.       To collect and raise funds for the achievement of goals and objectives through membership fee, subscription, contribution, gifts or donations, commissions and payments, fund raising whether in money or otherwise from both members and non members.
  6. 6.       To maintain and administer a registry of S.L Interpreters in Kenya, enforce a code of ethics and mediate conflict between the Interpreters and their clients.

KSLIA is working towards the establishment of a training program and a certification process for its membership. [KSLIA] envisions its role in a three pronged approach - the three C's - Certification of members, Continuing education for the practicing Interpreters and Conflict resolution through enforcement of the Code of Ethics. Between 2006 - 2009 Global Deaf Connection, Deaf Aid, and KSLIA have jointly organized a series of trainings aimed at developing a process to provide training, certification and continued professional development for Kenyan Interpreters.

A KSL/spoken language interpreter provides a vital link between Deaf and hearing people. However, there is currently a serious shortage. As of year 2000 there were only 50 practicing interpreters and 100 trainee interpreters registered by the Kenyan Sign Language Interpreters Association – KSLIA and the Kenyan Sign Language Research Project – KSLRP.

The Persons with Disabilities Act 2003 requires businesses and service-providers to make their services accessible to Deaf people. However due to lack of gazette notification of these laws into policy has greatly contributed to the marginalization of the Deaf community in Kenya. The growth of demand for interpreters has not been matched by increased supply. This is a major obstacle to Deaf people's social inclusion.

In education, the use and teaching of KSL within a bilingual (KSL/English) learning environment is essential for some deaf children and adults. The early acquisition of language is vital to the learning process and for some deaf children KSL will be more accessible than spoken languages.

The Framework of Action accompanying UNESCO's Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education, to which Britain is a signatory, states that:

The importance of sign language as the medium of communication among the deaf...should be recognized and provision made to ensure that all deaf persons have access to education in their national sign language. Framework for Action (1994), para 21

The United Nations Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, adopted in 1993, similarly state that:

Consideration should be given to the use of sign language in the education of the deaf children, in their families and communities. Sign language interpretation services should also be provided to facilitate the communication between deaf persons and others. Rule 5, Accessibility
However, in Kenya, educational provision for deaf children varies greatly between education authorities, with some not offering bilingual programs and very few schools or resource bases for deaf children offering any formal teaching of KSL. A lack of access to KSL learning can adversely affect the language development of some deaf children and so impede their subsequent learning.

Parents of deaf children also receive greatly varying amounts of information and training in KSL, depending on the area they live in. However, this level of support remains the exception rather than the rule. Many parents are denied the choice of a bilingual method of education for their deaf children. Most schools in Kenya have for years insisted on the oral and or total communication mode of instruction.

Teaching and learning KSL
Demand for KSL courses has increased dramatically in the last decade. More and more people are learning the language - more than 2000 people took basic level course in KSL since 1998. However, there is a major shortage of trained and qualified KSL tutors and assessors. There is a KSL dictionary, interactive self teaching CD, the Kenya National Examinations Council, Kenya Institute of Special/Education – KIE/KISE have in last couple of years been developing curriculum and examination materials for KSL which are set to be used beginning 2010.
The legal status of KSL
Article 7
(b) promote the development and use of indigenous languages, Kenyan Sign languageBraille and other communication formats and technologies accessible to persons with disabilities.

Article 27

Article 44
(2) A person belonging to a cultural or linguistic community has the right, with other members of that community--
(a) to enjoy the person’s culture and use the person’s language; or
(b) to form, join and maintain cultural and linguistic associations and other organs of civil society.

Article 49
(1) An arrested person has the right--
(a) to be informed promptly, in language that the person understands, of--
(i) the reason for the arrest;
(ii) the right to remain silent; and
(iii) the consequences of not remaining silent.
(c) to communicate with an advocate, and other persons whose assistance is necessary;

Article 50
(2) Every accused person has the right to a fair trial, which includes the right--
(m) to have the assistance of an interpreter without payment if the accused person cannot understand the language used at the trial.
(3) If this Article requires information to be given to a person, the information shall be given in language that the person understands.
(7) In the interest of justice, a court may allow an intermediary to assist a complainant or an accused person to communicate with the court.

Article 54
(1) A person with any disability is entitled--

Article 56
The State shall put in place affirmative action programs designed to ensure that minorities and marginalized groups--
(d) develop their cultural values, languages and practices

Article 120
(1) The official languages of Parliament shall be Kiswahili, English and Kenyan Sign language, and the business of Parliament may be conducted in English, Kiswahili and Kenyan Sign language.
(2) In case of a conflict between different language versions of an Act of Parliament, the version signed by the President shall prevail.

Article 259
(2) If there is a conflict between different language versions of this Constitution, the English language version prevails.

Quoting Professor Okoth Okombo of the University of Nairobi linguistics department the Deaf in Kenya are ‘a special linguistic minority….special because (the approximately 700-800,000 Deaf Kenyans) by nature of their disability cannot operate effectively in any of the spoken majority languages (English and Kiswahili)’.  This predicament brings us to the whys of the clamor for recognition of the language and thereby ‘legalization’ and use of KSL. One of the main pillars of language rights is the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration (of human rights) without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, or social origin, property, birth or other status.

The freedom for private individuals to use a minority language in private correspondence or communications, including in private business or commercial correspondence, by telephone, electronic means; to have private displays such as outdoor commercial signs and posters, commercial signs, etc. of a private nature; the freedom to print in a minority language; the freedom to use a minority language in the conduct of private business and economic activities; even the right to create and operate private schools teaching in a minority language are all language rights. But their very nature is anchored, they originate, from existing human rights. (Varennes 2001: 5)

Failure to guarantee such uses of language amounts to a breach of an individual’s language rights. At another level, language rights can be explained by distinguishing language use in public. This includes the use of a language that an individual understands well both in court proceedings and court documents as universally recognised in international law as a basic “linguistic” right based on a fundamental human right (Varennes 2001: 6). The language uses at this level are also understood to include uses by public authorities: … such as public education using a minority language as a medium of instruction, public radio and television broadcasting in a minority language, use of minority language by public officials in the provision of services to the public (and therefore a major source of employment for individuals within the civil service) etc. (Varennes 2001: 6)

As Okombo (2001: 14–17) argues, the best languages for passing on information in Africa include not only the official and national languages but also the various indigenous languages, braille for the blind and sign language for the Deaf. The braille and sign language users are considered a disadvantaged minority whose language rights must be catered for. Okombo argues that it is not enough to use sign language in Kenya; rather, a local variety of the sign language, namely, Kenyan sign language is the most ideal language to use.

In addition, to the best of my knowledge, only the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) and Kenyatta University have programmes training teachers for the handicapped. It is noted that members of the deaf community join school having learnt Kenyan sign language at home (Adoyo 2002). But at school they are subjected to either American sign English or sign exact English. The sequel of this practice is that the Deaf do not learn much. As if that is not enough, their blind counterparts have no reference materials published in braille. Thus blind people depend on the goodwill of their seeing colleagues to read for them. In this scenario, how sensitive are language planners to the language and democratic rights of the handicapped?

 Kenya is now ripe for a Kenyan Sign Language Act to streamline the issues above.

In part two we will discuss the hows and the whens......

Barriers to Effectively Educating the Deaf in Kenya

Barriers to Effectively Educating the Deaf in Kenya

Jack Owiti the hearing interpreter and fluent KSL signer.

Jack Owiti the hearing interpreter and fluent KSL signer.

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Sights of Interpreting in Kenya

Capacity building for young interpreters in always my joy and pleasure. Mentoring is a double edged sword for interpreters. The joy of seeing your protegee take on assignments is priceless.

The Three Princes of Serendip

The king is pleased, but fearing that his sons' education may have been too sheltered and privileged, feigns anger at them for refusing the throne and sends them away from the land.

read more .....

What is the relationship between sex and politics? Any answers?

What is the relationship between sex and politics? Any answers?

- people can abstain from both

- involves both male and female
- there is always loyalty and betrayal
- causes an adrenaline rush every time you engage in it
- short lived gratification if done for selfish gain
- source of income for a select few
- like politics a good lay always has a great following - try see a dude or chic with a great track record you will not believe the trail of possible partners.
- largest economic activity carried out by both the poor and the rich, people in Kibera and Lavington all engage in sex and politics at some point in their lives, spend huge sums of money to get more of it - by buying favors, opportunities or partnerships.
- depending on the levels there are few or no credentials to participate so long as you have the skills to negotiate, influence and persuade you are in!
- if you have money you can buy! see our politicians during campaign on K street, sugar mummies, daddies
- there is institutions for the practice of both - parliament for politics, marriage for sex BUT people engage in them without regard for these institutions
- there is always a push for the young blood to get into politics while the young are urged to abstain from sex
- the original intended purposes are not always in mind of those participating - not all politicians are development, good governance oriented - not all having sex want children, love, marriage etc
- rules apply yet they are broken left, right and center.....level playing field? not necessarily
- trivial issues always show up when things go wrong - during the break up the parties will hang all the dirty linens for all to see.....he snores, knows on style, etc etc political trouble is about who should be allowed to speak, who signs what, who is more powerful, types of cars, no. of bodyguards, etc etc
- one can skip, hop, step and jump from one party to another, similarly sex partnerships can be simple as changing clothes there is always multiple partnerships.....BUT again there are those who are very loyal, faithful and focused.
- atl east in Kenya this week, national headlines were on sex and politics!

To Be Continued

Special thanks to PMO for the inspiration.
OJ Scribe - Dexterity Media (c) 2009

corrupted Kenyan National Anthem - for the thieves and politicians

corrupted Kenyan National Anthem - for the thieves and politicians

FOR KENYANS ONLY Politicians of all persuasions
Strip this our land and nation.
Fortunes motivate us and keep us.
May we steal with impunity
Dodge taxes in unity;
Plenty be sourced within our dockets.
Let all politicians arise
With scams both wily and foolproof.
Eating be our earnest endeavor,
And our cake-stand of Kenya ,
Heritage of plunder,
May we fight forever to perpetuate

O God of all creation,

Bless this our land and nation.

Justice be our shield and defender,

May we dwell in unity,

Peace and liberty.

Plenty be found within our borders.


Meet the new $100 bill

A redesigned $100 note will begin circulating Oct. 8. The new $100 bill has new security features that include a blue 3-D security ribbon that is easier for the public to authenticate, but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate, the Federal Reserve says.

The new note also has a color-shifting Liberty Bell.

The design for the new $100 note was released in 2010, but its introduction was held up due to an unexpected production delay, the Federal Reserve said. To ensure a smooth transition to the redesigned note, the U.S. Currency Education Program is reaching out to businesses and consumers around the world to raise awareness about the new design and to inform them how to use its security features, the agency said.

A video from the Federal Reserve on how and why the new bill was developed is available here.


Tips and Tricks for Shopping on eBay

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eBay Tips and Tricks

Photo Credit

A lovely CF reader sent in this request:

Could you do an article on how to shop for clothes on eBay? Finding reputable sellers, things to look for when shopping vintage, etc.

I always say that eBay is one of the greatest place to find vintage clothes, especially if you don't have many vintage shops in your area. However it can sometimes be hard to find reputable sellers, as well as clothing that fits and is of high quality - unless you know the tricks.

One of the greatest things about eBay is that it promotes reusing and recycling items - instead of buying new, you can help the environment AND score amazing vintage pieces. Obviously, it's not for everyone, but if you know what to look for, almost everyone can find something they love on eBay!

Tips & Tricks to Navigating eBay

1. Use the right keywords. Know what you are looking for. If you want to leisurely explore one topic, go ahead and search for "vintage". If you want to find a series of specific items, do your research - if you want to find vintage shoes in a specific color, use those keywords!

2. Check the photos. Photos are important and should always be examined carefully. First off, make sure they aren't the exact same photos of a similar item listed - that could indicate a scam. If you are ever unsure about a product, it is your right as a buyer to ask for more photos of the product. If they can't get you any, do not buy from that seller - that is a definite red flag!

3. Check the measurements. Any good clothing seller on eBay, especially any good vintage seller, will list the measurements and approximate size (in modern terms) of the garment. If they don't have the measurements listed, you can always ask for them.

4. Know your measurements. This relates to number three - make sure you know your exact measurements, so that you can at least estimate if the garment will fit your correctly. In general, make sure you know your bust, waist, and hip measurements, plus the length of your arms and your inseam.

5. Check the seller's feedback. Make sure they have good feedback from a large number of people. Not to say that new sellers are bad sellers, but you want to make sure the person you are buying from isn't just going to take your money and run. If you really love the items the seller stocks, keep an eye on them and wait for them to get more feedback. In general, if they have so-so or bad feedback, I would avoid buying from them! There are tons of great eBay sellers out there with outstanding feedback that won't rip you off.

6. Make sure the pricing is accurate. Do your research on the item - find out how much it typically costs in mint condition (this can sometimes be difficult, but it can be worth it, especially if you're looking at rare vintage pieces). Be careful if it is overpriced and even MORE careful if it is underpriced - you might not be getting what you think you are! In general, if a price looks way too good to be true, it probably is.

7. For vintage clothes and accessories, make sure they list the condition. An item could look great in the picture, but it could be threadbare in reality or they could be cleverly hiding a tear. If they don't list the condition, you can always ask them. And if they won't give you a straight answer, don't buy from them!

8. Read the description carefully. Check for typos, inaccuracies, mistakes, etc. I know this sounds petty, but it never looks professional to have misspellings, especially if you are trying to make money! A typo isn't necessarily a reason to abandon a garment, but if there are other things that seem amiss (a lack of sizing, sketchy feedback, saying it is a red purse when the picture is of a black purse), they could definitely indicate an illegitimate seller.

9. Check each seller's profile. Trust your instinct - if they seem a little sketchy, they likely are. Most of my favorite eBay vintage sellers have amazing and customized profiles with pictures and logos.

Finding reputable sellers and fabulous garments on eBay can be difficult at times, but just remember to always follow your instincts - if it seems sketchy, don't put your finances in jeopardy!

What do you think?

Do you have any tips for shopping on eBay? Is there anything I've missed? Let me know in the comments!


Some people may wonder why bother making your own pizza when all you need to do is buy a ready made pizza or pizza dough.

Making your own pizza dough is a snap. And it is sure to be a fun cooking project for you, your friends and family.

Making pizza dough is not difficult at all. And if you own a home bread machine all you need to do is follow the directions and recipe guidelines of your bread maker for pizza dough and voila you can have your first pizza dough ready for any ingredients your imagination dictates.

But if you are making your very own pizza dough from scratch, no sweat. All you need are the following basic ingredients for a basic pizza dough: Beer 1 cup, 1 tablespoon of shortening, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2-3/4 cups of flour, and 1-1/4 teaspoon of yeast. Cornmeal is optional, but if you have cornmeal on hand great, all you will need is 2 tablespoons.

How to put it all together is even easier: You will need a large mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, a fork, rolling pin optional, cellophane or plastic wrap, tea towel, baking pan(s) and an oven.

Measure and pour beer in to a large mixing bowl. Next add 1 tablespoon of shortening and sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2-3/4 cups of flour, and 1-1/4 teaspoon of yeast. Mix all of these six ingredients using a fork. The key is not to over work the dough… just mix enough so that all the liquid and dry ingredients (sugar, salt, flour, and yeast) are blended in.

Let the dough rest in mixing pan covered with cellophane or plastic wrap and cover again with a clean tea towel for about 40 minutes. The dough will have risen.

Remove pizza dough from mixing bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll out pizza dough into two 12-inch or one 14-inch size. Or pat the dough into the desired baking pans. Top with your favorite toppings.

Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes or until the top edge of the crust is lightly browned and toppings are browned or bubbling. The bake time will vary with the ingredients used. Keep watch over baking pizza. Check the bottom of the pizza by lifting the edge of the pizza to check the bottom to be sure it is not burning.

Note: If dough is sticky to handle add enough flour (little is best) so that dough is not sticky. If you desire, before you add the pizza dough to the pan sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon of cornmeal in bottom of pan and then place rolled dough on top of the cornmeal.

Pizza toppings are endless. You can use the traditional tomato pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni. But you can also add to these ingredients… red or green peppers, onions, fresh garlic, artichoke, olives black or green, other ingredients include different meats such as chicken, meatballs, hamburger, salami, bacon, ham, and so on.

Consider a meatless pizza. The list is endless for cheeses and other vegetables. Try eggplant, zucchini, minced carrot, celery, celery root, different types of onions. Consider other ingredients, add different seasonings such as basil leafs, parsley, and tarragon. Consider pesto sauce as your base sauce or just use a light drizzle of olive oil.

Home-made pizzas allow your imagination to soar. Be creative.


Desktop and Laptops

Consultation and assistance are available to departments and individuals on the Tufts Medford campus for computer purchases.
Data recovery is the process of extracting and recovering data (files) from a computer whose hard drive has failed.
Laptops are available for use by faculty, staff, and graduate students when traveling for Tufts programs or business.
Provides access to Adobe and Microsoft software installations on Tufts-owned Windows computers via the LANDesk software deployment portal.
Tufts computers can be recycled or donated to non-profits in the local area when they are no longer needed for institutional use.


Patrolling Police Spending

The study justifying substantial increases in Austin’s police staffing doesn’t present any evidence that its recommendations are the most effective way to reduce crime.

Public safety has grown dramatically as a share of total City government spending. The shift happened between 1995-2005. This table is from the 2005 City of Austin Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

In 2012, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) wrote a police staffing document that is the present-day justification for significant “sworn” (i.e. personnel that carry a badge as opposed to a clerical or information technology worker) staffing increases at the Austin Police Department (APD).  While the document (PDF) is 133 pages long, it doesn’t explain how its recommended staffing boosts will increase public safety outcomes and simply assumes that more staffing and greater “uncommitted time” should be a policy-making goal.

Here are the five key points the study makes that Austin residents should know.

1. It rejects the two-per-thousand ratio

Previously, the Austin City Council chose to accept the “2 sworn officers per 1,000 residents” folk metric. The two-per-thousand metric was politically powerful because it was constantly invoked at a time when crime was decreasing in Austin. “Why mess with success?” was probably the thought driving policymaker acquiescence.

Austin’s violent crime rate trend via the APD Annual Report for 2014

That said, the PERF study points out that said metric doesn’t have any objective, empirical basis and should not be used as the rationale for police staffing.  Given the national trend towards lower crime (PDF), as well as the aging and “gentrification” of Austin, it’s likely the two-per-thousand ratio got a lot of undue credit.

This is troubling.  Said metric was consistently the “best practice” cited to justify a significant run-up in the share of of the City budget and Austinites’ personal income that APD consumes.

The City’s general fund spending has increased faster than the median income. And most of that increase is the result of police department spending, according to former Council Member Bill Spelman’s analysis (PDF).

As a result, policymakers should embrace a more rigorous stance when vetting police staffing. It would be unfortunate if City Council simply substituted one unproven rule-of-thumb for another one that is even more costly.

2. The study provides no evidence that “uncommitted time” is a productive way to reduce crime

The PERF’s study’s most costly recommendation is to increase patrol staffing to achieve 33% uncommitted time alongside 45% of a patrol officers’ time spent on responding to calls for service (CFS) and 22% on “self-initiated” activity.  As of 2012, patrol officers spent 57% of their time on CFS, 21% on self-initiated activity (e.g. initiating a traffic stop), and 22% on uncommitted time.

So, what’s the rationale for the need to fund additional uncommitted time? Here’s the explanation found in the study:

“An old rule of thumb, recognized before community policing became prevalent, was that one-third of an officer’s time should be spent on calls for service, one-third on self-initiated activity, and one-third on uncommitted patrol time.”

And that’s pretty much it.  There’s no evidence that departments with this ratio of activity perform better on crime reduction.  Not a single study or benchmark or chart is provided indicating that this allocation is superior.  It is simply asserted, much in the same way the the two-per-thousand ratio was. The new PERF staffing recommendations actually create a 2.11 officers per 1,000 residents ratio, exceeding the two-per-thousand ratio.

A rigorous approach to police spending would examine opportunity costs to determine the most productive use of public dollars.  Is additional patrol spending superior to, say, targeted programs such as after-school activities or post-incarceration support?  Marginal value-add is not a concept entertained by the study (or Austin’s recent public safety budget spending).

3. The PERF study avoids longitudinal data on calls for service

Given the importance of CFS to patrol work, it was odd that the PERF study didn’t feature any data on the number of calls handled over time.  As former Council Member Bill Spelman pointed out (PDF), dispatches per capita decreased over the last decade.

It might be a wise use of patrol time to have longer, higher “quality” responses to calls. Or perhaps the nature of the calls being handled has changed.  But by skipping an analysis of trends in calls for service, the study leaves it unclear what a sensible linkage between calls for service per capita and patrol hours consumed per call might be.

4. There’s no analysis of the impact on response-time to the most dangerous crimes

Saturating the City with patrol cars can potentially improve the response time to “high-priority” calls (e.g. domestic violence or other violent assaults that are in progress).  Unfortunately, the PERF study simply alludes to this potential decrease in response time without any actual figures.  There’s no model of how an increase in staffing might impact response times, much less if that decrease in response time is of public value given opportunity costs.

5. Our land use and transportation policies shape our policing costs

Here’s a list of the most common dispatch events recorded by APD in 2012 (including CFS and self-initiated events logged into the dispatch system):

Patrol officers spend a lot of time enforcing order on roads given our car-centric transportation policy.  And when they are not enforcing order on roads, our patrol officers are driving on those roads to answer calls over sprawling sectors.  Sprawl also makes it harder to productively use “uncommitted time”, as officers have to drive and park to their community sessions, eating up valuable time.

Thanks for reading “Patrolling Police Spending”.  Want to make a comment? Tweet at the author or comment on Facebook.

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Sentence Examples with the word REASONABLE CERTAINTY

Coulomb, 2 however, by using long and thin steel rods, symmetrically magnetized, and so arranged that disturbing influences became negligibly small, was enabled to deduce from his experiments with reasonable certainty the law that the force of attraction or repulsion between two poles varies inversely as the square of the distance between them.

Further, it may be concluded with reasonable certainty that the passages that affirm a moral government of the world are additions by pious editors who wished to bring the book into harmony with the orthodox thought of the time.


Collaborative Problem Solving Model – Adolescent Boys Unit

The Collaborative Problem Solving model within our Adolescent Boys Unit follows the principals outlined by Ross Greene, Ph. D in the book, “The Explosive Child.” Through the use of empathy we work with patients to identify specific skills that are considered “lagging” and teach the patient how to overcome these skill deficits. We have identified the following ten primary skill deficits that typically precipitate admission to our facility:

Expressing Self

Planning and Preparation

Problem Solving

Managing Emotions

Rigid Thinking

Social Skills

Lacking in these skills can lead to anger, frustration, sadness, and anxiety as the adolescent struggles to express and interact appropriately. These increasingly intense emotions can then manifest into increased aggression towards oneself and others.
Within the CPS model, patients explore a different skill daily through therapeutic groups and role play. These skills are reviewed throughout treatment and then transitioned following discharge into the home environment through instruction and implementation plans provided to the parents or other caregivers by the patient’s case manager.