Staff Correspondent

Life paralysed in Huvinahadagali

HUVINAHADAGALI (BELLARY DISTRICT): Life was paralysed here on Monday following a bandh observed in protest against the Government’s decision to shift the newly established government engineering college to Bellary. The bandh passed off peacefully without any untoward incident being reported.

Around 5,000 people, led by M.P. Prakash and Eti Shambhunath, both former Ministers, took out a mock funeral procession of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and local MLA Chandra Nayak.

They also burnt the effigy of G. Janardhan Reddy, Minister for Tourism, in registration of their protest. Representatives of all political parties except the BJP and various voluntary organisations, participated in the procession.

The entire town was deserted as all shops and business establishments, hotels and restaurants, cinema houses, roadside shops, government offices, banks and educational institutions remained closed throughout the day. Bus services were withdrawn and the taxi services were also limited to the outskirts of the city, causing inconvenience to the people.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Prakash criticised the Chief Minister and Mr. Janardhan Reddy for withdrawing the facility provided to a backward taluk.

He said the engineering college, which had entered its second year, had been an asset to meritorious, but economically weak students from rural areas.

Such being the situation, it was unfair on the part of the Government to shift the college. “If it is keen, the Government can sanction a new engineering college in Bellary”, he added.

Mr. Prakash said the residents of Hadagali had come forward to provide free hostels, with boarding facilities, for the benefit of the students and urged the Government to reconsider its decision.

Struggle to continue

Making it clear that the struggle by the people for the retention of the college here would continue, he said a delegation would meet the Chief Minister soon to find a solution.

Later, the agitators submitted a memorandum to the tahsildar addressed to the Chief Minister.


By Robert Fitzwilson of The Portola Group

September 8 (King World News) - “Government Theft & A Chart That Will Shock You”

The news about the Polish government effectively nationalizing a large part of their citizen's retirement assets triggered a renewed interest in the topic of confiscation.  In truth, confiscation of wealth has been around ever since humans started creating surpluses from their labor and their intellectual efforts....

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Let’s focus on labor.  Very few people have had the genius to create wealth from their minds.  Much of the wealth throughout history has been created by labor.

The moment labor is performed, it has a determinable value in terms of whatever real property, goods and services other people might trade for that effort.  For obvious reasons, the assumption is a free market for the labor and holders of real property, goods and services is available to exchange.  Slavery, of course, is the ultimate form of confiscation.

The problem arises when the laborer wishes to defer converting payments for that labor into valuable items.  Paper currency was invented for just such a purpose.  It was safer and less burdensome to carry around, and allowed the value of the labor to be carried forward in time.  In a world where the amount of paper is roughly equivalent to the amount of real assets, the deferral entails little cost to the laborer.

With the creation of the Federal Reserve 100 years ago, the ability to confiscate property was set in place once again in history.  It was subtle in the beginning, but became overt with the printing of money for President Johnson’s “Guns and Butter” policy of the 1960s, and the termination of gold convertibility by President Nixon in the early 1970s.

Those entering the workforce in the 1970s had been raised by a generally thrifty generation.  Hard work and saving was a way of life for most people, and that ethic was instilled in many young people beginning their careers and families.

Young people experienced something for which most had no understanding.  It was called inflation.  Prices rose, but so did incomes.  Being relatively early in their careers, incomes were not high enough to encounter the 70% marginal Federal bracket, so the inflation seemed of passing interest, but it was not a topic generally being discussed.  Tax brackets were even higher in some other countries.

When inflation did become of interest was during the Arab Oil embargo and the dramatic rise in the price of gasoline.  Even if you could afford the gas, it was very difficult to find.  Many hours were wasted in gas lines.  It was beginning to sink in that something was different, and it was not good.

The other indication that something was amiss came when the so-called “Baby Boomers” started forming families and buying houses.  There was a shortage of houses, so prices rose dramatically.  There was an older generation that was willing to sell their homes to put the proceeds into fixed income which seemed more than adequate for their retirement.

It was a terrible mistake as inflation began a secular rise to 12-14%, impoverishing many of them through high prices and devastating capital losses for holders of fixed income as interest rates rose.

Borrowing was subsidized.  It was possible to make investments that left more cash in your pocket than you invested, and you still owned the investment.  The tax code encouraged borrowing and penalized labor.

Because of general inflation, the household goods needed to complete the homes were rising in price on an accelerating basis.  The saver’s ethic quickly went by the wayside.  The new mantra was buy now, buy big, and use the most financial leverage available to you.

Those who were positioned in real estate, gold, certain ‘hard’ currencies, high-growth equities and energy, minimized the damage from the runaway printing.  Many became quite wealthy.  Those who stored their accumulated labor in paper assets saw their wealth confiscated by uncontrolled currency debasement.  Even the winners were devastated before the cycle was finished in the early 1980s.

It is important to see clearly that the common thread was confiscation through the uncontrolled printing of money.  Confiscation took many forms.  Another came through taxes.  Inflation caused nominal incomes to rise, pushing workers into higher tax brackets.  Rising real estate meant substantially higher property taxes.  Social Security benefits became taxable forcing people to pay a double tax on their earnings.  An excise tax was created for those who had saved 'too much' in their IRAs.  An airtight system of confiscation emerged and continues to this day.

The news from Poland signals that we are now entering a more ominous phase of confiscation.  The genteel veneer of the past 40 years is giving way to “we need it, so we will take it.”  For the people that wishes to realize value received, the net after taxes has to be exchanged immediately for a desired good or service.  Until real rates are restored to fixed income, it is also important to reduce expenses wherever possible.

Savings for later use must be quickly converted to some form of real asset that history has shown retains value such as energy, precious metals and miners, un-leveraged real estate, and pre-paid expenses.  Just look at the extraordinary chart below, which illustrates the performance of key financial assets over the past month, and you will see that the stunning move out of paper assets and into hard assets has already begun at lightning speed.

IMPORTANT - This week’s KWN Weekly Metals Wrap link is now working and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.  The outstanding Bill Fleckenstein and Stephen Leeb audio interviews are also available now and you can listen to them by CLICKING HERE.

The audio interviews with Bill Fleckenstein, Pierre Lassonde, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Art Cashin, James Turk, Eric Sprott, Egon von Greyerz, James Dines, William Kaye, Hugo Salinas Price and Marc Faber are available now. Also, other outstanding recent KWN interviews include Jim Grant and Felix Zulauf to listen CLICKING HERE.

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Teodoro Zamora’s Commission

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

On a humid November day in 1863, Teodoro Zamora and his two brothers rode to the mouth of the Rio Grande. After tying their horses to a lone tree, they walked to where Col. Edmund Davis of the First Texas Cavalry Regiment stood, waiting.

Davis was a tall, lean man who served for six years as the 12th District judge of Brownsville, Tex. He ruled over land disputes, fought beside the Rangers during the Texas Revolution and sentenced criminals to the penitentiary. But after Texas seceded from the Union, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Discharged from his judgeship, Davis fled from Texas to New Orleans and finally to Washington, where Abraham Lincoln commissioned him as a colonel.

Now, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, Davis handed Teodoro Zamora a commission as a lieutenant in the Union Army. Read more…

Lincoln Looks South of the Border

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

In July 1863, just weeks after the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln turned his attention to the Rio Grande borderlands of Confederate Texas. On July 31, the president wrote Francis P. Blair Sr., one of his most powerful supporters, “Yesterday I commenced trying to get up an expedition for Texas. I shall do the best I can.” By November, 6,000 Union troops had landed in South Texas.

What brought this remote region of the Confederacy to the attention of the American president? The Civil War wasn’t the only conflict on Lincoln’s mind. Engaged in a desperate struggle for union, the administration had been unable to halt Emperor Napoleon III’s deployment of French troops to Mexico in early 1862. The French leader invaded Mexico as part of his “Grand Scheme” to replace the democratically elected government of Benito Juárez with a European monarch, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Maximilian was but a pawn in Napoleon’s complex game: By using his army to establish the Austrian on the Cactus Throne, Napoleon III sought to check the growing American influence in the Western Hemisphere and restore a powerful French presence in North America. Read more…

The Russians Are Coming!

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

The Moroccan Front

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

The Civil War arrived in Morocco in February of 1862, when two Confederate naval officers took a walk in Tangier. The men, Henry Myers and Thomas T. Tunstall, were on an errand to buy coal and bring it back to their ship, the Sumter, which was laid up for repairs nearby in Gibraltar, a British territory near the southern tip of Spain. Myers and Tunstall hoped to find coal in the Spanish city of Cádiz, but the steamer they took to Spain made a quick stop in Tangier en route.

Before the Sumter landed in Gibraltar, it had been destroying United States commercial ships on both sides of the Atlantic, burning them down to the water. The Sumter’s search-and-destroy missions were part of the Confederate navy’s strategy to weaken Union commerce. By this point in the Civil War, the naval battle had reached the Mediterranean. Read more…

A Brilliant Mess

Timothy Egan

How can you have 10 days that shook the world when it was never gamed out, move by move, by the pedigreed cardinals of geopolitical intrigue? The answer is in the very thing that my colleague-for-a-day, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, decried in his self-serving opinion piece on Thursday — American exceptionalism.

It was little noticed, but President Obama made a point of highlighting the special burden of “the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.” He used those words twice — once in deciding to give Congress a say on striking Syria, and again in the Tuesday night speech pleading his case.

That democracy, in all its messy, inconsistent, incoherent cacophony, was there for the world to watch in the September standoff. Some of it was pigs-fly-thrilling — hard-right conservatives joining voices with peacenik libs. Some of it was comic — John McCain playing poker on his cellphone while Congress mulled a military strike. Much of it was appalling. This is what happens when you let 535 elected representatives have an actual role in foreign policy.
Read more…

Forbes and Aspinwall Go to War

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

John Murray Forbes was feeling “half ill” in his Milton, Mass., home on Saturday March 14, 1863, when he received a brief telegram from Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. The secretary wanted to meet with him the next day at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan. Forbes, a man who once served tea to John Brown, “could not refuse.” Shaking off his sickness, Forbes hurried overnight to New York. The next day, he sat down with Chase, like him an ardent abolitionist. This was no ordinary meeting: also attending were Navy Secretary Gideon Welles and the New York businessman William H. Aspinwall, the owner of the lucrative gold-hauling Pacific Mail Steamship Company.

While not friends, the four were acquainted with one another. Forbes and Aspinwall came from tightly knit Yankee families that pioneered America’s trade with China in tea, silk and opium. Welles and Forbes met each other during the ill-fated Peace Convention in Washington in early 1861. That winter, Aspinwall had discussed with the Buchanan administration and the incoming Lincoln administration the relief of Fort Sumter, and he met Forbes then. From the war’s beginning, Welles used both men to charter and buy steamers to blockade Southern ports and chase down Confederate commerce raiders. Once the war began, Forbes, a staunch Republican, and Aspinwall, a longtime admirer of the cashiered George McClellan, rallied men like themselves into Union Leagues to back the war effort. Read more…

Holland’s Plan for America’s Slaves

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

In 1863, American blacks were not the only enslaved people with emancipation on the mind. On the northeastern coast of South America, in the Dutch colony of Suriname, some 30,000 slaves also prepared for their day of freedom, which would arrive with the government’s emancipation mandate of July 1, 1863, six months after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

As in the United States, a certain nervousness prevailed. The Surinamese planter class feared a resulting decline in agricultural production in the Dutch colony and hoped to recruit additional laborers from abroad to aid the post-emancipation economy. Meanwhile, many whites in the United States feared emancipation and a post-slavery society for both economic and racist reasons. And for many, including Congress and President Lincoln, colonization was a popular alternative.

It makes sense that in light of these twin anxieties, the Dutch and the Americans might try to work out some sort of grand, post-slavery bargain. But it is only in recent years that evidence scattered across archives in Europe and the Caribbean has come to light documenting the resulting web of trans-Atlantic diplomatic correspondence – including, most notably, a cache of documents from the Netherlands’ national archives in The Hague showing how the Dutch made a serious attempt to acquire American freedmen. Read more…


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Susan Ferguson - Manitou Springs, Colorado. USA

Born in the deep South - now living high in the Rockies,

I enjoy being a woman of this certain age but will always strive to be a child of the 50's & 60's.

I am not a writer or a photographer but have a love and need to share ...my thoughts and opinions, my surroundings, my feelings and art.

There's this on-going love affair with my husband, Larry. We've been hanging out together for almost thirty years. He IS a writer and a photographer!

We make things, we work with our hands, we share a real studio and a joy for each and every day. I blog about it all at Windrock Studio and I'm so happy to be a part of this wonderful group.


Picnics 101: 12 Perfectly Packable Recipes (and Tips)

Packed Sandwiches

Weighting assembled sandwiches helps to soften the bread and compress the layers, making the sandwiches easier to eat. When using store-bought roasted peppers from a jar, don't discard the flavorful oil they're packed in; brush it on bread, as in this recipe, or drizzle over salads and mixed roasted vegetables.

Recipe: Pressed Salami Sandwiches


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YF-17 Cobra

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet traces its direct ancestry to the Northrop Cobra, a twin engine multimission fighter design developed for the export market in the late 1960s. The YF-17 was a fighter aircraft prototype developed to demonstrate advanced technology applicable to air combat. Distingwishing features include the moderately swept wing, with the large highly swept leading edge root extentions, differential area ruling of the fuselage, underwing inlets with wing root slots for fuselage boundary layer diversion, twin vertical tails, and twin jet engines.

In the Vietnam War, the lack of maneuverability of US fighters at transonic speeds provided key advantages to nimble enemy fighters. Industry, the Department of Defense (DOD), and NASA were all stimulated to sponsor research to achieve unprecedented transonic maneuverability while maintaining excellent handling qualities. In the early 1970s the Air Force pressed for development of a new generation of lightweight fighters-single-seat jet aircraft "optimized" for agility and air combat maneuvering, with high thrust-to-weight ratios (above 1 to 1), and good acceleration. Out of this interest came the so-called "Lightweight Fighter" program.

In the early 1960's, the Northrop Company had noticed an improvement in the maximum lift of the F-5 aircraft because of a small flap actuator fairing that extended the wing root leading edge. This phenomenon spurred interest in the effects of inboard vortex flows and led to a cooperative NASA and Northrop study. The cooperative study of hybrid wings centered on the use of relatively large, highly swept wing extensions at the wing-fuselage intersection, which promoted strong beneficial vortex-flow effects. The scope of the study included parametric studies to maximize the lift- and stability-enhancing effects of the wing extension concept, which became known at Northrop as the leading-edge extension (LEX). Studies were also directed at cambering the leading edge of the LEX to suppress the vortex at low angles of attack, and thereby minimize drag at cruise conditions. Northrop applied a large highly swept LEX to the YF-17 prototype aircraft to enhance lift and stabilize the flow over the YF-17 main wing at high angles of attack. The integration of the large LEX surfaces and the placement of the twin vertical tails provided exceptional tail effectiveness at high angles of attack. The small strakes added to the forward fuselage nose by Northrop resulted in extremely high directional stability at high angles of attack.

Northrop placed a high priority on superior high-angle-of-attack characteristics and a high degree of inherent spin resistance for the YF-17. The company had also placed priorities in these areas during the development of the F-5 and T-38 aircraft, which had become known for outstanding resistance to inadvertent spins. To provide superior handling qualities at high angles of attack for fighter aircraft, Northrop provided the airframe with the required levels of aerodynamic stability and control characteristics without artificially limiting the flight envelope with the flight control system. This approach proved to be highly successful for the YF-17 [and was adopted by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) and used in all variants of the F/A-18 aircraft]. Handling characteristics at high angles of attack were excellent. The YF-17 could achieve angles of attack of up to 34 deg in level flight and 63 deg could be reached in a zoom climb. The aircraft remained controllable at indicated airspeeds down to 20 knots. Northrop consequently claimed that their lightweight fighter contender had no angle-of-attack limitations, no control limitations, and no departure tendencies within the flight envelope used for the evaluation.

The basic wing plan form combined with the lead edge root extension, is ideitified as a hybrid wing. The vortex flow generated by the extension significantly increases lift, reduces buffet intensity and drag, and improves handling qual1ities. Leading edge and trailing, edge flaps are used to vary the wing's camber for maximum maineuvering performance.

The aircraft configuration is area-ruled to achieve at smooth overall area distribution. However, within the smooth overall area distribution, the area ruling above and below the wing is apportitoned to create favorable supersonic lift interference (increased lift at a given angle of attack) for minimum drag-due-to-lift with a small increase in zero-lift drag.

The horizontal tail is located below tbe wing to provide increasing longitudinal stability at high angles of attack approaching maximum lift, and to reduce buffeting from the wing wake at high-G flight conditions. The tail is sized larger than the minimum required for stability and control in order to lower trim drag and increase supersonic sustained maneuvering performance.

The vertical tails are sized and located to provide positive directional stability beyond the maximum trimmed angles of attack across the speed range. The twin vertical tails are canted outboard for proper placement relative to the vortex flow generated by the wing leading-edge extensions. The forward location of the verticals was selected to preclude reduction of horizontal tail effectivness caused by interference withi the canted vertical tailis, provide low supersoonic drag through the favorable influence on the area distribution of the aircraft, and integrate more effectively the vertical tail sutpporting structure and horizonta tail actuators into the fuselage design.

Two General Electric YJ101 continuous-bleed, afterburning turbojet engines in the 15,000-pound-thrust class are installed in the aft fuselage. The location of the engine inlets under the wing minimizes flow angularity to the inlet and places the inlet in a positzioen to take advantage of the compression effects of the wing leading edge root extension, thus decreasing inlet flow Mach number and increasing pressure rececovery at angles of attack. The key feature of airframe/inlet integration is a longitudinal slot through the wing root which allows passage of fuselage boundary layer air through the slot and over the top of the wing. Thickening of the boundary layer is prevented and a narrow fuselage boundary-layer gutter can be used, resulting in a low-drag installation while maintaining high-quality airflow to the engine inlet.

Outstanding visibility is achieved by the canopy shape and location. The pilot has full aft vision at eye level and above. Armament consists of one M61 20mm cannon and two wingtip-mounted AIM-9E missiles. External store pylons are located at wing stations 78 and 138 (left and right) and on the fuselage centerline.

The YF-17 was an advanced technology prototype fighter aircraft whose flight control system was designed to comply with MIL-F-9490C except for variations as allowed by the procurring activity for prototype aircraft. The YF-17 control system includes a control augmentation system (CAS) using both electronic and mechanical elements in the pitch axis, a fly-by-wire control augmentation system for aileron control, and mechanical control with electronic stability augmentation (SAS) in the yaw axis. Also, this aircraft had a mechanical rolling tail control and electronically controlled maneuvering leading-edge and trailing-edge flaps. Both digital and analog computations are utilized. The actuators are electrohydraulic and electromechanical.

Midway down the development path the stakes changed; what had been a technology demonstration became a Department of Defense competition for a new fighter for both the Air Force and Navy, and for allied nations as well. In April 1974, the LWF Program changed from a technology demonstration program to a competition for an Air Force Air Combat Fighter (ACF), and the flight-test programs for the YF-16 and YF-17 were rushed through in a few months instead of the planned 2 years. First flight of the YF-17 was in June 1974. By this time, the Air Force had decided to proceed with Air Combat Fighter (ACF) Program, based on flight testing of the YF-16 and YF-17 prototypes. The Navy was also initiating a program to develop a new VFAX in this time period--a strike fighter to replace both the F-4s and A-7s in its carrier air wings.

In general the pilots reported no trouble adapting to the aircraft and reported that it was easy to fly. There were no familiarization flights. All 25 research flights were full-data flights. They obtained data on afterbody pressures, vertical-fin dynamic loads, agility, pilot physiology, and infrared signatures. Average flight time was 45 minutes, although two flights involving in-flight refueling lasted approximately one hour longer than usual. Dryden Project Manager Roy Bryant considered the program a success. Center pilots felt that the aircraft was generations ahead of then current active military aircraft.

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Qualifications for Faculty

For faculty teaching at Gordon-Conwell, be it at the Hamilton, Boston, Charlotte or Jacksonville campus, the normal academic load is seven courses per year. It is understood that the person seeking a faculty position will have demonstrated competence in the classroom and scholarly participation in the field. In almost all cases, the ideal candidate should have graduate theological training.

Candidates for teaching positions will be persons of outstanding Christian character who have a history of significant involvement with the local church. The candidate should also be a person with flexibility to work with colleagues who come from different backgrounds with a variety of theological orientations within the evangelical tradition. It is expected that faculty members at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary will be concerned for the total development of students including their spiritual nurture. The seminary student population is drawn from over 100 different denominations and a large number of countries of origin, with a student body of over 2,000 degree students.

It is expected that candidates will be able to affirm Gordon-Conwell’s statement of faith, the articles of the mission statement and community life statement. The history and tradition of the seminary is an important context for those interested in teaching here to understand.

Women and minority candidates are encouraged to apply. For those interested in an open position, a formal curriculum vita, a list of at least three references, and a cover letter should be sent to the academic dean of the respective campus where the position will be located.


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Advertising or Not, Billboards Have a Towering Presence

Slide Show

Building Blocks

The collapse of a billboard along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Jan. 13 has turned the city’s attention again to the presence of highway billboards: how many are legal, how many are safe and what are they doing there in the first place? “In the realm of outdoor advertising in the city, definitive answers can be elusive,” Patrick McGeehan reported in The Times on Friday.

What is beyond doubt is how much of an impact billboards have on the cityscape. Read more…

Dangerous and Deadly 24 Hours on New York Roads

Gardening Off the Long Island Expressway

DandelionThe harvest. (Photo: Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times)

One does not often see people with gardening tools digging around the grassy areas lining the Long Island Expressway, so when I saw a man and woman digging up weeds there on Saturday morning in Queens, where the expressway crosses the Grand Central Parkway, I pulled over and approached this older couple.

The couple signaled that they spoke Greek and did not understand English. We managed to communicate. They showed me plastic bags full of dandelion leaves and showed me how they dug them. The man conveyed that he was not interested in speaking. The woman, who wrote her name in my notebook as Mariko Stezjo, motioned to show that they ate the greens and returned to her digging, in the morning drizzle, as the traffic whizzed by.

Spreading a Star-Spangled Message

For a man who stands on a bridge every day waving flags, Luis is a very private person. He will not reveal his last name or say much of anything about his personal life. But he is more than happy to spread his public message, which is … well, what exactly is it?

“My message is to love each other,” he said while standing on a footbridge spanning the Long Island Expressway in Queens recently, while traffic roared underneath.

It is unclear whether the drivers he preaches to daily get his exact message. After all, they are usually trying to negotiate heavy traffic when viewing Luis, a somewhat maniacal-looking figure wearing an ornate costume and waving his American flags at cars and trucks on major arteries feeding commuters into Manhattan.
Read more…


Contents that have the tag: "art"

added to this topic, including challenges, vision and ideas

  • Cultural committee for Rovaniemi - European Capital of Culture 2026
    Forming a committee to organize cultural events, fairs etc. to promote and prepare for the term of Rovaniemi as the European Capital of Europe. The committee should include representatives of various fields of culture, such as ministry of culture, faculty of arts in the University of Lapland and cultural organizations.


Archive for the ‘Ecophilosophy’ Category

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Consequently Monbiot argues that

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Last night I went to see the Age of Stupid at the Watershed followed by a brief talk by author and activist Mark Lynas.

During the Q+A session I asked Mark to clarify why he has recently come out in support of nuclear power on his blog in a piece entitled Why Greens must Learn to love Nuclear Power and whether the ensuing response from Greenpeace had changed his opinion. This led to slightly flustered looking Lynas claiming that decentralised renewable energy sources could not take over from fossil fuels rapidly enough to avoid risking climate destabilisation (a global temperature rise of over 2 degrees centigrade from preindustrial times which threatens to unleash various positive feedback loops which will amplify the anthropogenic forcing from fossil fuel usage and deforestation), and that the case against nuclear power is based on ‘flimsy evidence.’ This second claim in particular was met by a loud chorus of bollocks from several members of the audience, re-creating the polarised debate seen on Lynas’s blog where nuclear power is equally fiercely championed and opposed by different groups who selectively support contradictory evidence to support their claims, although all the participants undoubtedly have genuine concern over climate change and other environmental and social policy motivating their postions.

I don’t profess to be a nuclear physicist, or to fully understand the (currently largely hypothetical) claims made by Lynas and others surrounding fourth generation nuclear technologies. As someone who believes in nuclear disarmament I am sceptical of nuclear technologies because of their far from flimsy ties with nuclear weapons, along with the historical baggage the nuclear industries carry with regards to cost, efficiency (which is highly disputed, and both sides selective usage of supporting evidence makes it very difficult to make an informed decision here as elsewhere in this debate), waste disposal and safety, all of which have to be long term concerns when considering the long half life of some of the radioactive material utilised in nuclear power generation. Additionally I am sceptical, as are many environmental campaigners, of the quick and easy technological fixes to climate change offered up by capitalist industry. Biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, nuclear power and other technologies have been trumpeted by sections of business (usually those with vested financial interests in the technologies) as the answer to climate change. Of course there is no single silver bullet which will suddenly make everything okay and allow overconsumption to become ethically acceptable again, however at the same time it is important to remember that our understanding of climate change largely arises from advances in technology, and that the many of the renewable technologies being developed are again viable only thanks to numerous advances in technology; while it may not provide us with the solution, technology does provide us with a range of useful measures with which to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

This doesn’t mean that I think we should exclude nuclear power tout court as a potential short term measure to aid a transition to renewable energy sources, if indeed it transpires as Lynas claims and we are faced with a short term option of fossil fuels or nuclear. However whether this really is the case ought to be the investigation of in depth and readily available analyses.

What I don’t think anyone in the room last night would have debated, much less hurled obscenities at, is the call for huge emission cuts to be generated through cutting consumption and massive investment in renewable technologies. Once we have calculated what we can collectively generate from renewable sources, including large scale international projects such as solar farming in deserts and vast offshore wind farms connected to a direct current grid which allows the long range transportation of electricity with minimal power loss
en route, then we can start to look at what other less appealing steps we need to take. Given a choice between consuming a bit less and not flying or building a new generation of nuclear power stations I would choose the former every time, but I don’t know if that truly is a realistic choice because there isn’t readily available data.

In the book Heat, George Monbiot’s thoughtful and honest analysis of the conflicting information available on nuclear power draws the conclusion that it’s impossible to get an entirely truthful or objective picture of nuclear’s possibilities, however the enduring risks regarding weapons proliferation, waste disposal, long term costs etc mean that nuclear should only be a last ditch resort to be used after all other avenues prove insufficient to provide humanity with power, and I would tend to agree there. However given the urgency of concerted action over climate change it may be that as Lynas, James Lovelock and others have argued, short term usage of nuclear power can be a large and valuable contributor to the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the way the debate over nuclear ought to be approached, and it is a debate which needs to be happening at the moment, should be to encourages consensus and diversity of voices wherever possible, rather than the manichaen pro/anti dogma seen last night and elsewhere. We should start off by looking at what all of us – Mark Lynas and Greenpeace included – can agree upon as useful and necessary steps towards combating climate change and after that we can debate how (if at all) we need to start implementing less than ideal decisions such as turning to nuclear power based on a pragmatic perspective of how best to prevent climate chaos.

This begs the question as to how we can try and create debates which are inclusive and based on direct democracy and consensus rather than simply having two opposing sides trading insults, and given the antagonistic and hyper-competitive society we inhabit I don’t feel it’s an easy question to answer. When a group of concerned and intelligent people resort to dogmatic, polarised positions in place of consensual and informed debate on important issues, it’s fair to say that we really are living in the Age of Stupid. So how do we get out?

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This is a response to some heated debate currently occurring on Bristol Indymedia…

Some thoughts on the Proff’s

‘Climate change is happening. We, and the generations before us, have caused it. It should not matter whether we believe it or not.”‘

And Art’s reply

‘Just read that last sentence again – “It should not matter whether we believe it or not”.

AH YES IT S*DDING WELL DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

I think both positions here can be understood as being right in very different ways. While you appear to have diametrically opposed positions, this is mainly because you are looking at the same question in different ways.

While the first part of the Proff’s sentence is very dubiously if painstakingly analyzed; while the climate on Earth is obviously changing as it’s a nonlinear dynamical system, it is not certain that ‘we’ have caused it. The best available evidence (IPCC) suggests that it is very likely (90-95% chance) that we are responsible for changes in the global climate. Very likely and certain are very different… However if it is very likely that we are doing something which is going to create an immense amount of suffering for humans and a huge number of extinctions among other life forms on Earth, then taking action on the issue seems the only logical outcome from a systemic perspective. While some individuals may benefit short term from continuing with our current systems (for example the oil industries who once again are reporting record profits), the social and environmental ecologies as a whole would benefit from changing structures so that operate in a ecologically sustainable way.

The proff is right however insofar as his statement sits within the philosophical tradition of realism – the commonsense contention that the world exists outside of our belief structures (as with many things in life, this is not a certainty – I could be a dream, a brain in a jar or innumerable other things which could not be empirically verified, however the probability of such scenarios seems incredibly small). If I decide not to believe the the moon exists few people would argue that my belief structure will mean the moon would no longer exist. If I decide not to believe in cancer, malaria and aids then those illnesses will not stop killing people. Similarly deciding to believe that ACC is not happening and that expecting that this belief means that my ecological footprint does not have material consequences is clearly ludicrous. Until advances in science which evolved during the last century people did not believe in quarks or quantum mechanics. This did not mean that they did not exist. Until recently people did not believe that their radiative forcing was likely to impact on the global climate in ways which are detrimental to other humans and animals. That people did not understand the ramifications of their actions did not mean that those consequences failed to occur, although the scale to which the human population and mechanized industrialization have grown has made these consequences at a global scale more apparent..

By contrast Art is right in that for action to be taken on a variety of social and environmental issues it helps for people to believe in those causes. Only through such socially held belief and desire is beneficial action likely to be taken to remedy problems. During the 20th Century a sustained campaign by feminists saw the democratic right to vote extended to women, alongside other changes to patriarchal society such as (more) equal pay for different sexes and equal rights for women. These changes to the fabric of society occurred precisely because people believed in the justice of the feminist cause. Had no one believed that women deserved the right to vote, then they would have remained without it. This example highlights the importance of what people believe. While the beliefs themselves do not effect material reality, the actions of those people who hold the beliefs can and does effect change.

Consequently while I would argue that while the scientific reality of whether or not anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and land usage change (particularly deforestation) is not dependent on whether or not people believe in them, the potential capacity we have to act on the scientific evidence available to us – which currently suggests that it is very likely that we are altering the global climate in a way that will cause suffering for billions of humans and extinction for many other species of life – does depend on whether people that science, and also on whether or not people exist in social systems whereby they believe that they have the capacity to collectively effect changes to minimise the suffering of other people and animals.

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Much of the rhetoric surrounding Anthropogenic Climate Change has thus far rested on the notion that human pollution is destroying the world, and that consequently we need to take action in order to save the world…

Put simply this isn’t true. The planet that we live on is far too big, and far too flexible a system for us to ‘destroy.’ Even if we tried really hard, say releasing all the world’s nuclear weapons simultaneously, we wouldn’t destroy the Earth. We would wipe out most currently existing life forms from the face of the planet, almost certainly including humanity, but life would go on, and slowly, over a number of millennia, life would evolve increasing complexity again. Of course a similar kind of scenario occurred about 250 million years ago, in what is known as the Permian-Triassic extinction event, in which 95% of marine life and 70% of land based vertebrates became extinct. The cause of the Permian-Triassic extinction is not definitively known, though many experts believe that the extinctions were the result of an asteroid hitting Earth.

Despite the enormous extent of the ecological damage caused by the Permian-Triassic extinction, life went on. It recovered and evolved over millions of years until we reach today’s state of affairs. The notion that ACC; whose most extreme scientific predictions would see it reach near permian extinction levels, but the vast majority of evidence suggests much lower levels of warming, would destroy life in a way that an asteroid hitting the planet could not is quite comical.

Equally the notion that carbon dioxide is ‘pollution’ that it is a substance which is inherently harmful and bad for the planet is just plain wrong. Without the heat trapped by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the Earth would be too cold for human life to have evolved. What is happening with anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation is that the stable balance of gases which have allowed our species to flourish are being altered in such a way that the continuation of climatic conditions which permit us to maintain social stability; the ability to feed and shelter everyone are likely to change so that life becomes harder for humans.

So when ecological activists want to take action against ACC, what exactly is it they stand for if it isn’t saving the world? There can be many answers, but for me it is mainly a case of humanitarian action. Unlike the planet, the human species is fairly fragile. Small changes to the ecosystems which we depend upon for food, water, shelter and material prosperity have dramatic effects to the societies which we inhabit. In particular the growth of the global human population over the last hundred years means that hundreds of millions of humans around the globe are highly dependent on the stable ecosystems they reside within. ACC risks destabilizing many of these ecosystems.

For example the fertility of rice flowers falls from 100% at 35 degrees C to 0% at 40 degrees C. This means that even a modest warming of 2 degrees will see rice fertility drop by over 30% in warm climates. Similar trends in crop fertility have been found in wheat, maize, soybeans and peanuts – many staple foods in developing nations. Consequently recent research has suggested that global rice production will fall by 5-11% by 2020 and between 11 and 46% by 2050. Consider for a moment that rising population allied with land change use and the rising cost of oil have created widespread food shortages and food riots in many parts of the world and you quickly see why if these estimates are correct they will lead to human suffering on an enormous scale.

As with most effects of ACC the impacts will not be homogeneous; some areas of the globe where the climate is currently just too cold for crop production will become more fertile, however this will be more than offset by the amount of productive capacity lost. Furthermore many of the harshest impacts will occur in the least developed areas, which are also the least able to cope with crisis, as their lack of wealth means that many areas (particularly in Africa) will not be able to afford to import food from other regions. This impact has nothing to do with the world being destroyed, indeed the specter of millions of poor people starving to death is somewhat more mundane than the meta-narrative of saving the world, but nonetheless this is the path we are currently heading down.

Food production is just one areas where the detrimental effects of ACC to humans are obvious. The increased temperature is a consequence of an increase in energy in the Eath’s atmosphere which will mean an increase of droughts, of floods, forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and other extreme climactic events, all of which tend to be detrimental to human life. Equally, the anticipated rise in sea levels will mean the displacement of millions of humans from their homes. Already this has begun on the low lying islands of Tuvalu where evacuation plans have been prepared, and areas of Bangladesh, where villagers are losing their homes to rising waters. The refugee crisis threatened by one impact of ACC and exasperated by the food crisis which is expected to be another suggests that ACC will begin to dramatically increase human suffering and misery in many of the world’s poorest areas.

Whereas the notion that ecologists seek to save the world is laughable, people are trying to effect changes that will greatly reduce human suffering in years to come. I have no interest in ‘saving the world’… It simply isn’t necessary. I am however interested in trying to make the world a less adverse environment for people to live in. That this adversity will mainly be felt by many of the world’s poorest people, whose labour is most likely directly tied to their physical ecosystem through subsistence agriculture, and that it is primarily caused by the world’s richest people – those with jet set lifestyles, private yachts and air conditioned mansions – only heightens the sense of social injustice.

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Bateson 1972:491

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A way of using nanoparticles to investigate the mechanisms underlying 'mystery' cases of infertility has been developed by scientists at Oxford University.

The technique, published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, could eventually help researchers to discover the causes behind cases of unexplained infertility and develop treatments for affected couples. The method involves loading porous silica nanoparticle 'envelopes' with compounds to identify, diagnose or treat the causes of infertility.

'An attractive feature of nanoparticles is that they are like an empty envelope that can be loaded with a variety of compounds and inserted into cells,' says Dr Natalia Barkalina, lead author of the study from the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University. 'The nanoparticles we use don't appear to interfere with the sperm, making them a perfect delivery vessel.

'Now, we can simply expose sperm to nanoparticles in a petri dish. It's so simple that it can all be done quickly enough for the sperm to survive perfectly unharmed.'

The team, based at the Institute of Reproductive Sciences, used boar sperm because of its similarities to human sperm, as study co-author Celine Jones explains: 'It is similar in size, shape and activity. Now that we have proven the system in boar sperm, we hope to replicate our findings in human sperm and eventually see if we can use them to deliver compounds to eggs as well.'


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SCRC Article Library: Tariffs: Tariff and Tax in International Trade

Tariffs: Tariff and Tax in International Trade

Published on: Jan, 15, 2011

by: Winston Cockburn, MBA ‘05 Michael Johnston , MBA ‘05 Steven Edwards, Co-Director SCRC North Carolina State University

Tariffs (1)

A tariff or customs duty is a tax levied upon goods as they cross national boundaries, usually by the government of the importing country. The words tariff, duty, and customs are generally used interchangeably.

Tariffs may be levied either to raise revenue or to protect domestic industries, but a tariff designed primarily to raise revenue may exercise a strong protective influence and a tariff levied primarily for protection may yield revenue. Gottfried Haberler in his Theory of International Trade suggested that the best objective distinction between revenue duties and protective duties (disregarding the motives of the legislators) is to be found in their discriminatory effects as between domestic and foreign producers.

If domestically produced goods bear the same taxation as similar imported goods, or if the goods subject to duty are not produced at home, even after the duty has been levied, and if there can be no home-produced substitutes toward which demand is diverted because of the tariff, the duty is not protective. A purely protective duty tends to shift production away from the export industries into the protected domestic industries and those industries producing substitutes for which demand is increased. On the other hand, a purely revenue duty will not cause resources to be invested in industries producing the taxed goods or close substitutes for such goods, but it will divert resources from the production of export goods to the production of those goods and services upon which the additional government receipts are spent.

From the purely revenue standpoint, a country can levy an equivalent tax on domestic production, to avoid protecting it, or select a relatively small number of imported articles of general consumption and subject them to low duties so that there will be no tendency to shift resources into industries producing such taxed goods (or substitutes for them). During the period when it was on a free-trade basis, Great Britain followed the latter practice, levying low duties on a few commodities of general consumption such as tea, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. Unintentional protection was not a major issue, because Britain could not have produced these goods domestically. If, on the other hand, a country wishes to protect its home industries its list of protected commodities will be long and the tariff rates high.

Transit Duties

This type of duty is levied on commodities that originate in one country, cross another, and are consigned to a third. As the name implies, transit duties are levied by the country through which the goods pass. Such duties are no longer important instruments of commercial policy, but, during the mercantilist period (17th and 18th centuries) and even up to the middle of the 19th century in some countries, they played a role in directing trade and controlling certain of its routes. The development of the German Zollverein (customs union) in the first half of the 19th century was partly the result of Prussia’s exercise of its power to levy transit duties. The most direct and immediate effect of transit duties is to reduce the amount of commodities traded internationally and raise their cost to the importing country. In 1921 the Barcelona Statute on Freedom of Transit abolished all transit duties.

Export Duties

Export duties are no longer used to a great extent, except to tax certain mineral and agricultural products. Several resource-rich countries depend upon export duties for much of their revenue. Export duties were common in the past, however, and were significant elements of mercantilist trade policies. Their main function was to safeguard domestic supplies rather than to raise revenue. Export duties were first introduced in England by a statute of 1275 that imposed them on hides and wool. By the middle of the 17th century the list of commodities subject to export duties had increased to include more than 200 articles. With the growth of free trade in the 19th century, export duties became less appealing; they were abolished in England in 1842, in France in 1857, and in Prussia in 1865. At the beginning of the 20th century only a few countries levied export duties: for example, Spain still levied them on coke and textile waste; Bolivia and Malaya on tin; Italy on objects of art; and Romania on hides and forest products. The neo-mercantilist revival in the 1920s and 1930s brought about a limited reappearance of export duties. In the United States, export duties were prohibited by the Constitution, mainly because of pressure from the South, which wanted no restriction on its freedom to export agricultural products.

If the country imposing the export duty supplies only a small share of the world’s exports and if competitive conditions prevail, the burden of an export duty will likely be borne by the domestic producer, who will receive the world price minus the duty and other charges. But if the country produces a significant fraction of the world output and if domestic supply is sensitive to lower net prices, then output will fall and world prices may rise and as a consequence not only domestic producers but also foreign consumers will bear the export tax. How far a country can employ export duties to exploit its monopoly position in supplying certain raw materials depends upon the success other countries have in discovering substitutes or new sources of supply.

Import Duties

Import duties are the most important and most common types of custom duties. As noted above, they may be levied either for revenue or protection or both, but tariffs are not a satisfactory means of raising revenue, because they encourage uneconomic domestic production of the dutied item. Even if imports constitute the bulk of the available revenue base, it is better to tax all consumption, rather than only consumption of imports, in order to avoid uneconomical protection.

Import duties are no longer an important source of revenues in developed countries. In the United States, for example, revenues from import duties in 1808 amounted to twice the total of government expenditures, while in 1837 they were less than one-third of such expenditures. Until near the end of the 19th century the customs receipts of the U.S. government made up about half of all its receipts. This share had fallen to about 6 percent of all receipts before the outbreak of World War II and it has since further decreased.

A tariff may be either specific, ad valorem, or compound (i.e., a combination of both). A specific duty is a levy of a given amount of money per unit of the import, such as $1.00 per yard or per pound. An ad valorem duty, on the other hand, is calculated as a percentage of the value of the import. Ad valorem rates furnish a constant degree of protection at all levels of price (if prices change at the same rate at home and abroad), while the real burden of specific rates varies inversely with changes in the prices of the imports. A specific duty, however, penalizes more severely the lower grades of an imported commodity. This difficulty can be partly avoided by an elaborate and detailed classification of imports on the basis of the stage of finishing, but such a procedure makes for extremely long and complicated tariff schedules. Specific duties are easier to administer than ad valorem rates, for the latter often raise difficult administrative issues with respect to the valuation of imported articles.

A list of all import duties is usually known as a tariff schedule. A single tariff schedule, such as that of the United States, applies to all imports regardless of the country of origin. This is to say that a single duty is listed in the column opposite the enumerated commodities. A double-columned or multi-columned tariff schedule provides for different rates according to the country of origin, lower rates being granted to commodities coming from countries with which tariff agreements have been negotiated. Most trade agreements are based on the most-favored-nation clause (MFN), which extends to all nations’ party to the agreement whatever concessions are granted to the MFN.

Every country has a free list that includes articles admitted without duty. By looking at the free list and the value of the goods imported into the United States under it one might be led to conclude that tariff protection is very limited, for more than half of all imports are exempt from duties. Such a conclusion, however, is not correct, for it ignores the fact that the higher the tariff, the less will be the quantity of dutiable imports. Attempts to measure the height of a tariff wall and make international comparisons of the degree of protection, based upon the ratio of tariff receipts to the total value of imports, are beset by difficulties and have little meaning.

A better method of measuring the height of a tariff wall is to convert all duties into ad valorem figures and then estimate the weighted-average rate. The weight should reflect the relative importance of the different imports; a tariff on foodstuffs, for example, may be far more important than a tariff on luxuries consumed by a small group of people.

A more appropriate measure of protection is that of effective protection. It recognizes that the protection afforded a particular domestic industry depends on the treatment of its productive inputs, as well as its outputs. Suppose, for example, that half of the inputs to an industry are imported and subject to a duty of 100 percent. If the imports with which the industry competes are subject to a duty of less than 50 percent there is no effective protection.

(1) “international trade.” Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.


Multiple Myeloma

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What Is Multiple Myeloma? TOPICS

What is multiple myeloma?

Multiple myeloma is characterized by several features, including:

Low blood counts

Bone and calcium problems

Kidney problems

Monoclonal gammopathy

Having many copies of the same antibody is known as a monoclonal gammopathy. This condition can be found with a blood test. Although people with multiple myeloma have a monoclonal gammopathy, not everyone with monoclonal gammopathy has multiple myeloma. It can also occur in other diseases, such as Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia and some lymphomas. It can also occur in a disorder known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), which does not cause problems like multiple myeloma does. However, some people with MGUS will eventually go on to develop multiple myeloma or other diseases.

Light chain amyloidosis

Antibodies are made up of protein chains joined together – 2 short light chains and 2 longer heavy chains. In light chain amyloidosis, abnormal plasma cells make too many light chains. These light chains can deposit in tissues, where they build up. This accumulation of light chains can lead to an abnormal protein in tissues known as amyloid. The buildup of amyloid in certain organs can lead them to enlarge and not work well. For example, when amyloid builds up in the heart, it can cause an irregular heart beat and cause the heart to enlarge and get weaker. A weak heart can lead to a condition called congestive heart failure, with symptoms like shortness of breath and swelling in the legs. Amyloid in the kidneys can cause them to work poorly. This may not cause symptoms early on, but the poor kidney function may be found on blood tests. If it gets worse, amyloid in the kidney can lead to kidney failure. See the section “Signs and symptoms of multiple myeloma” for more information about the signs and symptoms of light chain amyloidosis.

Other names for light chain amyloidosis include AL and primary amyloidosis. This is sometimes considered a separate disease from multiple myeloma, but because treatment is often similar to that of myeloma, we will discuss it in this document.

Light chain amyloidosis is only one of the diseases where amyloid builds ups and causes problems. Amyloidosis can also be caused by a genetic (hereditary) disease called familial amyloidosis. Long-standing (chronic) infection and/or inflammation can also cause amyloidosis. This is known as secondary or AA amyloidosis. This document does not talk about these other kinds of amyloidosis.

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance

In monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), abnormal plasma cells produce many copies of the same antibody (a monoclonal antibody protein). However, these plasma cells do not form an actual tumor or mass and do not cause any of the other problems seen in multiple myeloma. MGUS usually does not affect a person’s health. In particular, it doesn’t cause weak bones, high calcium levels, kidney problems, or low blood counts. It’s most often found when a routine blood test finds a high level of protein in the blood and further testing shows the protein is a monoclonal antibody. In MGUS, the number of plasma cells may be increased, but they still make up less than 10% of the cells in the bone marrow.

Some people with MGUS will eventually develop multiple myeloma, lymphoma, or amyloidosis. Each year, about 1% of people with MGUS develops one of these diseases. The risk is higher in people whose protein levels are particularly high. Patients with MGUS don’t need treatment, but they are watched closely to see if they get a disease that does need to be treated, such as multiple myeloma.

Recently, scientists have studied the genes of the plasma cells in patients with MGUS. They found that the genetic make-up of these plasma cells resembles myeloma plasma cells more than it resembles that of normal plasma cells. This suggests that these cells are truly malignant, not just slow growing. Because people with MGUS are generally elderly, they may not live long enough for it to transform into myeloma.

Solitary plasmacytomas

This is another type of abnormal plasma cell growth. Rather than many tumors in different locations as in multiple myeloma, there is only one tumor, hence the name solitary plasmacytoma.

Most often, a solitary plasmacytoma develops in a bone, where it may be called an isolated plasmacytoma of bone. When a plasmacytoma starts in other tissues (such as the lungs or other organs), it is called an extramedullary plasmacytoma. Solitary plasmacytomas are most often treated with radiation therapy. Sometimes surgery may be used for a single extramedullary plasmacytoma. As long as no other plasmacytomas are found later on, the patient’s outlook is usually excellent. However, since many people with a solitary plasmacytoma will develop multiple myeloma, these people are watched closely for signs of this disease.

Last Medical Review: 05/22/2014
Last Revised: 06/16/2014


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Dane van Niekerk

First name

Middle name

 van Niekerk

Name as you are most commonly referred

 Dane van Niekerk

Nickname (and why you got this name)

  "D"- just a quicker way of calling me

Date, month, year of birth

City and country of birth

Pretoria, South Africa

Domestic team

 Eastern Province

Playing role in the team

 All- rounder

Batting Style

Bowling Style

 Right arm Leg Break

Specialist fielding position (if applicable)

In 50 words, introduce yourself to the world

My love for cricket started at the age of 4, playing with my older brother. I captained our national u19 team at the age of 16. I made my debut for South Africa at the age of 15. My other habits are playing hockey and softball. I'm not to bad of a cook as well.

Do you work or study while playing cricket?

What was your most recent performance in a domestic tournament?

I scored 102* off 120 balls and bowled 10 overs for 33 runs vs. Boland

In what year did you first represent your country in a cricket match/series?

I made my debut on 9 March 2009 in the Women's World Cup in Australia

Have you represented your country in any other sport before?  When and where?

Relatives who have represented your country in cricket before?

Relatives who have represented your country in any other sport before?

Who is your favourite cricketer, and why?

Shane Warne, he is the best spinner in the World.

Which international cricketer would you most liken your playing style to, and why?

To myself, there is only one of me and I have to make myself known as a cricketer

What is your best cricketing moment/performance to date?

Best moment would be playing in Bangladesh in front of 15 000 spectators and 2 million viewers while winning the series.

What is the favourite cricket ground you have played on, and why?

Sher- el- Bangla Stadium, just because of the support for Women's cricket that crowd showed every game.

Want is your cricketing ambition?

To contribute to my team as much as I possibly can in winning a World Cup.


The official website for European football

2012/13 first qualifying round

The draw split a record 44 entrants into 11 groups of four.

2012/13 first qualifying round

Group 1: Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Moldova*
(19-24 October)

Group 2: England, Italy, Northern Ireland*, Israel
(10-15 September)

(1-6 October)

Group 4: Czech Republic, Iceland, Estonia, Slovenia*
(6-11 September)

Group 6: Sweden, Austria*, Croatia, Azerbaijan
(29 October-3 November)

Group 7: Germany, Russia, Greece*, Romania
(29 October-3 November)

Group 8: Netherlands*, Ukraine, Montenegro, Kazakhstan
(20-25 October)

(1-6 October)

Group 10: Norway, Wales, Latvia*, Turkey
(4-9 September)

Group 11: Spain, Poland, Faroe Islands, Slovakia*
(3-8 September)

08.30CET, 15 November, Nyon

The first qualifying round draw features all 44 entrants, split into 11 groups of four. There are three seeding pots according to the coefficient ranking list. The 11 nations with the highest coefficient are in Pot A, the next 11 in Pot B, with the remainder in Pot C. Each group will contain one team from each of Pots A and B, and two from Pot C, with hosts then appointed for mini-tournaments between 1 August and 31 October 2012.

The 11 group winners and five runners-up with the best record against the sides first and third in their section will go into the second qualifying round in spring 2013. Four teams will eventually qualify for the final tournament which, as in previous years, will be held in UEFA's hometown of Nyon, Switzerland from 25 to 28 June 2013.

Pot A: Germany, Spain, France, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Denmark, England

Pot B: Belgium, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, Poland, Finland, Wales, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Austria

Pot C: Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Romania, Belarus, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Croatia, Greece, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Israel, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovakia

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Final tournament

  • © 1998-2014 UEFA. All rights reserved.


Direct current DC

"DC" stands for Direct Current, which can refer to either voltage or current in a constant polarity or direction, respectively. These experiments are designed to introduce you to several important concepts of electricity related to DC circuits.

Last Update: 2010-11-19