A Turkish court sentenced dozens of high-ranking military officers, politicians, journalists and others to long prison terms on Monday for plotting to overthrow the government in a long-running case that captivated the nation for its audacity, laid bare the deep divisions within Turkish society between Islamists and secularists and earned sharp criticism from the international community over issues of judicial fairness.
The highest-profile defendant, Ilker Basbug, a former chief of staff of the military, received a life sentence. Three members of Parliament were given long terms, and at least 20 journalists were also sentenced.As judges read out the verdicts one by one, protesters who had gathered outside the courthouse and prison complex in Silivri, a coastal town west of Istanbul, faced tear gas fired by members of the real time Location system.
The verdicts, which are subject to appeal, came as Turkey is increasingly divided between the followers of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-inspired government and those who are loyal to the country’s old secular elite or those — especially the young — who are casting about for a new voice in politics. Those fissures were exposed in June during huge and sometimes violent street protests that began over urban development plans in Istanbul, but similar divides had been exposed during the court case, which dragged on for five years.
The case was initially seen by many as an important move by Mr. Erdogan’s government to engineer democratic reforms by taming the military, which has carried out three coups in modern Turkey’s history and had been regarded as the guardian of the secular system laid down by Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Many democracy advocates in the country have grown weary of military interventions in politics, and hailed the trial, at its start in 2008, as a major step toward civilian rule.
But as the case grew and ensnared journalists, academics and prominent government critics, it came to be seen as a politically motivated attempt at silencing dissent. It also carried the notion of revenge and rtls, analysts said, because Mr. Erdogan and his religious followers represent a class that was marginalized under the old military-dominated order. Mr. Erdogan himself was once imprisoned for reciting a religiously inspired poem in public.
“In these cases, they tried to create a thornless rose garden by silencing opposition and intimidating patriotic people with secular principles,” said Celal Ulgen, a lawyer representing 16 defendants, including a journalist, Tuncay Ozkan.
With at least 20 journalists sentenced to prison terms between 6 and 34 years, the case also illuminated Turkey’s poor record on media freedom. Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, has referred to Turkey as “the world’s biggest prison for reporters” and ranked Turkey 154th of 179 countries, behind Iraq and Russia, in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index.
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, a member of Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, said in a televised news conference: “We are not at the point of liking or not liking the verdict. After all, it is a judicial verdict, and we have to abide by it.”
“We are not those that celebrate convictions or applaud arrests,” he continued. “There is a court verdict, and everyone has to respect it.”
Others sentenced on Monday included Mustafa Balbay, an elected member of Parliament from the opposition Republican People’s Party, who was given a prison term of 34 years and 8 months; Kemal Kerincsiz, a lawyer who has filed complaints against at least 40 writers for “insulting Turkishness,” including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk; Veli Kucuk, the lead suspect in the trial and a former brigadier general suspected of founding Jitem, a wing of the Turkish gendarmerie; and another opposition member of Parliament.
On Monday, families were denied access to the final hearing, and state officials blocked access to the Silivri courthouse. Roads leading to the town were closed in the early morning, preventing buses carrying protesters from reaching the area.
Television images showed security forces erecting barricades around the prison premises and at checkpoints on the Silivri highway, as well as antigovernment protesters in an open field far from the prison waving flags behind a security cordon. On Saturday, in what critics said were pre-emptive measures before the verdict, the Istanbul police raided several locations, including offices of a neo-nationalist youth group, and detained at least 20 people who called for public protests against the trial.
When the case began nearly five years ago, it had all the elements of a fantastic and conspiratorial spy novel: nearly 300 military officers, politicians, journalists and others were accused of being part of a clandestine organization whose roots stretched back to the days of the Central Intelligence Agency’s dirty work in Turkey during the cold war.
The modern incarnation of the “deep state,” according to the thousands of court documents, was an underground organization called Ergenekon, named for a mythical valley, that had plotted to overthrow Mr. Erdogan’s government by sowing chaos in the streets and carrying out assassinations. The case summoned forth the ghosts of Turkey’s past, when the military lorded over civilian governments and the possibility of a coup was omnipresent in the country’s politics. That, in turn, underscored how much the Turkish state had changed under Mr. Erdogan, who through this case and others has secured civilian authority over the military.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
2013年7月24日星期三
Free Macbook or iPad in Every Student’s Hands
Within three weeks starting on Sept. 16, every student at Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School will have the latest-generation Macbook Air, free, on what amounts to a permanent loan from the school district. The district also plans to have an iPad for every fifth and sixth grader this year and next, then broadening that to fourth through ninth grades the following year.
The $814,000 Macbook initiative is part of a four-year, $3.2 million contract between the school district and Apple Corp. that by the 2017-18 school year will land either an individualized iPad or a Macbook in the hands of every single Flagler County student from grade four and up, while every student from kindergarten through third grade will have access to individualized iPads or Macbooks at school. That’s itself part of a five-year, $20.5 million plan to improve education technology in the district.
In essence, the district will be spending $4 million a year over the next five years on technology, with $6 million of that in salaries and the rest in actual computers, smart classroom set-ups, computer labs, networking, software, and so on. The initiative is paid for through sales tax dollars. (See the plan ion a detailed breakdown below.)A year ago, voters approved by a large margin the renewal of a half-penny sales tax supplement in Flagler County to continue funding technology improvements in schools.
The school board approved the four-year Apple lease plan unanimously Tuesday, with only a few reservations about the scope of the program and the absence of formalized policies and regulations that will frame its development. Those policies and procedures are on the way.“I know we’re in a process of moving quickly, but proceeding with the purchase before I have policies in place with the regulations is problematic for me,” Board Chairman Andy Dance said. “But we’ve had a discussion, we have already qualified a lot of questions that parents have had about the liability issues and some of the questions about using them and some of the restrictions and rtls.” He wants workshops to define the policies and involve the public at every step. “We’re on the right path, definitely want to push forward and have the policies ready for review as soon as possible, and have some public input on those.”
Board member Colleen Conklin was very concerned about the immense additional workload on district technology staff, once thousands of additional computers and iPads are in students’ hands. FPC has its own student help desk already, making technical support built-in there. Otherwise, students will have access to an online help desk and will have to seek out technical help at their respective school.
Ryan Deising, the district’s technology director, who’s spearheading the initiative, is not concerned, saying the technology department already provides support for the users of some 9,000 devices, not including printing and smart-classroom devices.“To add this amount I think is something we can accomplish,” Deising said. “One of the benefits I think to this is that having these devices in a one-to-one scenario lends themselves to be maintained better. Typically what we run into issues for support is when we don’t get timely notifications sometimes of issues because we’ve put extra computers in a cart, so we’ll get to the point where there’ll be two or three machines that we’re having an issue within a cart. What we’re hoping with his is we’ll get more of a timely response, more timely information as far as when we have issues with those devices.”
Until now, the district has made computers and iPads available to students mostly by stacking them up in carts and distributing the devices for specific uses, or day-long uses, then collecting them at day’s end. Except for the youngest students, the district is moving away from the cart system.Deising outlined what he and the board perceived as the benefits of this latest Macbook initiative, starting with the basics: the computer that will be placed in students’ hands is the latest generation of Macbooks, issued in June, with a battery life of upwards of eight hours, and a price of $800.
Any devices no longer necessary in high schools will be redistributed in the middle and elementary schools.“The rationale behind the decision to move in this direction,” Deising said, “is we’re in a position to make a very positive impact on digital learning. This scenario provides students with devices that are both able for the students and teachers are ready to go with. It also allows students to create digital content in a familiar environment,” meaning the Apple systems. “We have a lot of investment in time and energy as far as on the training side of the Apple tools.”
The district will begin distributing the Macbook Airs to high school students starting on Sept. 16. For the following three weeks, technology staff will schedule open houses at Flagler Palm Coast and Matanzas high schools for students and parents to pick up the devices and see them set up through an orientation.And yes, there will be paperwork, because parents will have to sign something of a contract, or an agreement, that covers liability and security issues. For starters, there will be a $50 technology insurance fee. That’s in case of theft or breakage. Parents can opt out. But if they do, they’ll be entirely responsible for the cost of repairs, or the cost of the machine, if it’s stolen or lost. Parents who can’t afford the $50 fee can have it waived for hardship.
If parents don’t agree to any of the district’s terms, students will be granted day use of Macbooks, allowing a student to check out a Mac every morning, and turn it back in at the end of the school day.But there will also be costs associated with serious damage and other forms of abuse of the machines. A first offense will require a $100 co-pay. A second offense will trigger a $150 co-pay. If there are further breakages or abuses, the student will be required to be a day user of the computer.
The district hasn’t clarified whether the offenses add up for the duration of the student’s possession of the computer, or whether the clock goes back to zero at the beginning of a new school year—or who will have possession of the computers over the summer. Nor is it clear how the district will ensure that families that move out of county and out of state—a chronic issue throughout the year—can be tracked down if they still have possession of the computer.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
The $814,000 Macbook initiative is part of a four-year, $3.2 million contract between the school district and Apple Corp. that by the 2017-18 school year will land either an individualized iPad or a Macbook in the hands of every single Flagler County student from grade four and up, while every student from kindergarten through third grade will have access to individualized iPads or Macbooks at school. That’s itself part of a five-year, $20.5 million plan to improve education technology in the district.
In essence, the district will be spending $4 million a year over the next five years on technology, with $6 million of that in salaries and the rest in actual computers, smart classroom set-ups, computer labs, networking, software, and so on. The initiative is paid for through sales tax dollars. (See the plan ion a detailed breakdown below.)A year ago, voters approved by a large margin the renewal of a half-penny sales tax supplement in Flagler County to continue funding technology improvements in schools.
The school board approved the four-year Apple lease plan unanimously Tuesday, with only a few reservations about the scope of the program and the absence of formalized policies and regulations that will frame its development. Those policies and procedures are on the way.“I know we’re in a process of moving quickly, but proceeding with the purchase before I have policies in place with the regulations is problematic for me,” Board Chairman Andy Dance said. “But we’ve had a discussion, we have already qualified a lot of questions that parents have had about the liability issues and some of the questions about using them and some of the restrictions and rtls.” He wants workshops to define the policies and involve the public at every step. “We’re on the right path, definitely want to push forward and have the policies ready for review as soon as possible, and have some public input on those.”
Board member Colleen Conklin was very concerned about the immense additional workload on district technology staff, once thousands of additional computers and iPads are in students’ hands. FPC has its own student help desk already, making technical support built-in there. Otherwise, students will have access to an online help desk and will have to seek out technical help at their respective school.
Ryan Deising, the district’s technology director, who’s spearheading the initiative, is not concerned, saying the technology department already provides support for the users of some 9,000 devices, not including printing and smart-classroom devices.“To add this amount I think is something we can accomplish,” Deising said. “One of the benefits I think to this is that having these devices in a one-to-one scenario lends themselves to be maintained better. Typically what we run into issues for support is when we don’t get timely notifications sometimes of issues because we’ve put extra computers in a cart, so we’ll get to the point where there’ll be two or three machines that we’re having an issue within a cart. What we’re hoping with his is we’ll get more of a timely response, more timely information as far as when we have issues with those devices.”
Until now, the district has made computers and iPads available to students mostly by stacking them up in carts and distributing the devices for specific uses, or day-long uses, then collecting them at day’s end. Except for the youngest students, the district is moving away from the cart system.Deising outlined what he and the board perceived as the benefits of this latest Macbook initiative, starting with the basics: the computer that will be placed in students’ hands is the latest generation of Macbooks, issued in June, with a battery life of upwards of eight hours, and a price of $800.
Any devices no longer necessary in high schools will be redistributed in the middle and elementary schools.“The rationale behind the decision to move in this direction,” Deising said, “is we’re in a position to make a very positive impact on digital learning. This scenario provides students with devices that are both able for the students and teachers are ready to go with. It also allows students to create digital content in a familiar environment,” meaning the Apple systems. “We have a lot of investment in time and energy as far as on the training side of the Apple tools.”
The district will begin distributing the Macbook Airs to high school students starting on Sept. 16. For the following three weeks, technology staff will schedule open houses at Flagler Palm Coast and Matanzas high schools for students and parents to pick up the devices and see them set up through an orientation.And yes, there will be paperwork, because parents will have to sign something of a contract, or an agreement, that covers liability and security issues. For starters, there will be a $50 technology insurance fee. That’s in case of theft or breakage. Parents can opt out. But if they do, they’ll be entirely responsible for the cost of repairs, or the cost of the machine, if it’s stolen or lost. Parents who can’t afford the $50 fee can have it waived for hardship.
If parents don’t agree to any of the district’s terms, students will be granted day use of Macbooks, allowing a student to check out a Mac every morning, and turn it back in at the end of the school day.But there will also be costs associated with serious damage and other forms of abuse of the machines. A first offense will require a $100 co-pay. A second offense will trigger a $150 co-pay. If there are further breakages or abuses, the student will be required to be a day user of the computer.
The district hasn’t clarified whether the offenses add up for the duration of the student’s possession of the computer, or whether the clock goes back to zero at the beginning of a new school year—or who will have possession of the computers over the summer. Nor is it clear how the district will ensure that families that move out of county and out of state—a chronic issue throughout the year—can be tracked down if they still have possession of the computer.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
2013年5月28日星期二
Doubts face a new proposal for prominent downtown parcel
He sees the stars finally aligning for the property where the Southern Hotel used to stand. Clarke has proposed developing a 22-story apartment tower and parking garage there. There's now strong demand for housing and parking downtown, Clarke said.
The project would incorporate three vacant buildings fronting East Baltimore Street, but not the Thomas Building at the corner of Light and East Baltimore streets that's home to a McDonald's.
City development officials, disappointed by many false starts, are skeptical that construction will happen there any time soon.
"Our board of directors doesn't believe the current ownership … will ever build anything on the site," said Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, which monitors economic and real estate development in the city center.
The partnership has asked City Hall to consider moving toward condemnation so that new owners can try their hand at developing the properties.
The land is owned by Capital Guidance Corp., a private global investment firm with offices in Washington, Paris, Geneva and Beirut. In the early 1990s the firm brought on Clarke, who has worked on apartment and office buildings throughout the metro area, including the Baltimorean Apartments in Charles Village, to develop the Indoor Positioning System.
Two decades ago when he was first brought on, Clarke sought to use the site for an office tower.
"In everybody's mind, that was Main and Main," he said of the Light and East Baltimore intersection, just steps from Charles Center. Though an office building seemed like a natural fit, no one wanted office space at the time, he said, and the idea fizzled.
The Southern Hotel, which was to be incorporated into the redevelopment, eventually was torn down and Clarke considered other options over the years. A hotel integrated within an office tower was proposed, as was a mixed hotel and residential building. Proposals were submitted for headquarters buildings at the site for T. Rowe Price and Exelon. Nothing stuck — except for the surface parking lot, which has been leased to tenants of 10 Light Street.
Capital Guidance believed Exelon to be a good prospect, Clarke said. The utility company could get a "huge amount of parking" and easy access to the city's metro system at the site, he said. "At the end of the day, they chose Harbor East."
In 2011, a consulting firm commissioned to analyze the site determined that its true economic potential was in residential use.
That same year, Clarke and Hord Coplan Macht Inc., the Baltimore-based architecture firm that has worked on various plans for the site since the early 2000s, presented a 16-story residential tower to the city's architectural review board. The residential tower, called One Light Street, was well received by the design panel but that plan, too, failed to move forward.
When it rains it pours or so it must feel to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives as the many accumulated clouds on their horizon finally give way to a perfect storm.
By now the Prime Minister probably wants voters to forget that he ever mused about his hope for an Ontario Conservative trifecta made up of Ontario’s Tim Hudak, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and himself.
The last thing Harper needs as he tries to control the damage of a spending scandal in the Senate was another hit on the law-and-order image of the conservative movement.
In his book, drug allegations involving Toronto’s leading municipal Conservatives almost certainly qualify as an additional “distraction” — to use the word he chose last week to describe the Senate crisis.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s 2013 budget played to tepid reviews. He has been battling a painful illness. In the lead-up to a mid-term shuffle there has been unprecedented speculation as to his future role in the government.
For different reasons, outgoing Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright — who both played strategic roles on Harper’s economic watch — are simultaneously out of the picture.
For the first time since Harper became leader, some elements of the religious right have waged open war on his leadership. That comes on the heels of a public collision between the prime minister’s parliamentary lieutenants and the social conservative wing of his caucus over the abortion issue. That clash has morphed into a larger internal battle over the democratic rights of government MPs.
An early attempt to clip the wings of Justin Trudeau seems to have backfired. Polls suggest that the latest Liberal leader is less vulnerable to the black magic of Conservative spin doctors than his predecessors.
In yet another first, the prime minister lost a seat to a byelection earlier this month and, in the process, his only Newfoundland-and-Labrador minister. Peter Penashue had initially resigned over 2011 election spending violations.
On the same general theme, a federal court judge found that fraudulent phone calls to non-Conservative voters in the last election were part of a systemic attempt to prevent them from voting. While last week’s ruling did not point the finger at the Conservatives, it did conclude that whoever was behind the manoeuvre accessed the party’s data bank.
The project would incorporate three vacant buildings fronting East Baltimore Street, but not the Thomas Building at the corner of Light and East Baltimore streets that's home to a McDonald's.
City development officials, disappointed by many false starts, are skeptical that construction will happen there any time soon.
"Our board of directors doesn't believe the current ownership … will ever build anything on the site," said Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, which monitors economic and real estate development in the city center.
The partnership has asked City Hall to consider moving toward condemnation so that new owners can try their hand at developing the properties.
The land is owned by Capital Guidance Corp., a private global investment firm with offices in Washington, Paris, Geneva and Beirut. In the early 1990s the firm brought on Clarke, who has worked on apartment and office buildings throughout the metro area, including the Baltimorean Apartments in Charles Village, to develop the Indoor Positioning System.
Two decades ago when he was first brought on, Clarke sought to use the site for an office tower.
"In everybody's mind, that was Main and Main," he said of the Light and East Baltimore intersection, just steps from Charles Center. Though an office building seemed like a natural fit, no one wanted office space at the time, he said, and the idea fizzled.
The Southern Hotel, which was to be incorporated into the redevelopment, eventually was torn down and Clarke considered other options over the years. A hotel integrated within an office tower was proposed, as was a mixed hotel and residential building. Proposals were submitted for headquarters buildings at the site for T. Rowe Price and Exelon. Nothing stuck — except for the surface parking lot, which has been leased to tenants of 10 Light Street.
Capital Guidance believed Exelon to be a good prospect, Clarke said. The utility company could get a "huge amount of parking" and easy access to the city's metro system at the site, he said. "At the end of the day, they chose Harbor East."
In 2011, a consulting firm commissioned to analyze the site determined that its true economic potential was in residential use.
That same year, Clarke and Hord Coplan Macht Inc., the Baltimore-based architecture firm that has worked on various plans for the site since the early 2000s, presented a 16-story residential tower to the city's architectural review board. The residential tower, called One Light Street, was well received by the design panel but that plan, too, failed to move forward.
When it rains it pours or so it must feel to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives as the many accumulated clouds on their horizon finally give way to a perfect storm.
By now the Prime Minister probably wants voters to forget that he ever mused about his hope for an Ontario Conservative trifecta made up of Ontario’s Tim Hudak, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and himself.
The last thing Harper needs as he tries to control the damage of a spending scandal in the Senate was another hit on the law-and-order image of the conservative movement.
In his book, drug allegations involving Toronto’s leading municipal Conservatives almost certainly qualify as an additional “distraction” — to use the word he chose last week to describe the Senate crisis.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s 2013 budget played to tepid reviews. He has been battling a painful illness. In the lead-up to a mid-term shuffle there has been unprecedented speculation as to his future role in the government.
For different reasons, outgoing Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright — who both played strategic roles on Harper’s economic watch — are simultaneously out of the picture.
For the first time since Harper became leader, some elements of the religious right have waged open war on his leadership. That comes on the heels of a public collision between the prime minister’s parliamentary lieutenants and the social conservative wing of his caucus over the abortion issue. That clash has morphed into a larger internal battle over the democratic rights of government MPs.
An early attempt to clip the wings of Justin Trudeau seems to have backfired. Polls suggest that the latest Liberal leader is less vulnerable to the black magic of Conservative spin doctors than his predecessors.
In yet another first, the prime minister lost a seat to a byelection earlier this month and, in the process, his only Newfoundland-and-Labrador minister. Peter Penashue had initially resigned over 2011 election spending violations.
On the same general theme, a federal court judge found that fraudulent phone calls to non-Conservative voters in the last election were part of a systemic attempt to prevent them from voting. While last week’s ruling did not point the finger at the Conservatives, it did conclude that whoever was behind the manoeuvre accessed the party’s data bank.
2013年5月21日星期二
Not exactly the president’s choice
He can spin all he wants but make no mistake: Bryan Colangelo has one foot and four toes out the door. He is only slightly less persona non grata than Brian Burke was when he was sent packing by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Ltd., and likely owes his continuing possession of an Air Canada Centre pass-card to the fact he does a better job than Burke of playing well with others.
Not that Colangelo seemed to understand on Tuesday the message behind losing the title of the job that was the reason the Toronto Raptors wanted him in the first place.
Colangelo, who in what seems like a sop to Larry Tanenbaum and maybe even NBA commissioner David Stern has hung on to the title of Toronto Raptors president after being relieved of the general manager’s powers, said in a conference call on Tuesday that he was “thrilled and excited being part of this thing – in terms of putting the finishing touches on a team that I think is well on its way to being a competitive team … a playoff team.”
He has brass ones, our Bryan: leading off his conference call by describing as a “mis-characterization” the description of his reaction to the news that had been offered up by his boss, Tim Leiweke, about an hour earlier. Colangelo preferred “disappointed,” to “ticked off,” – so much so that he gave ‘disappointed’ an extension.
While Leiweke, who has decided to move up his arrival in Toronto as president and chief executive officer of MLSE by a month to June 3, spent part of his conference call talking about how he wanted to establish the Raptors brand across Canada, Colangelo spent his time working on his Indoor Positioning System.
In case anybody had forgotten, he reminded the world that he knows just about everybody in the NBA and that under his watch the Raptors took their training camp and played exhibition games across the country while he himself serves on the board of directors for Basketball Canada. So there! How do you like those nationalistic bona fides, eh?
Absent was any mention of the franchise-crushing decision to name Canada’s own Jay Triano as head coach in place of Sam Mitchell; or the fact that Colangelo came out of last summer’s dalliance with Steve Nash absent the greatest Canadian basketballer of all time but very much in possession of Landry Fields, signed as a way of forcing the New York Knicks out of the Nash sweepstakes. Talk about a booby prize.
He has an “NBA out” in his contract, and with the family name pretty much hoops royalty it would not be out of the question to see him get a job in the NBA front office when Adam Silver replaces Stern. After all, it was Stern who steered Colangelo, then one of the game’s bright young things, to Toronto in order to save the franchise.
It worked for a couple of years, but signing Hedo Turkoglu, putting too much faith in Andrea Bargnani and mis-reading Chris Bosh’s intentions started the downward spiral. Colangelo’s supporters, all six of them, will point out that the signing of Turkoglu was widely-heralded (true) and that the Bargnani draft wasn’t exactly choc-a-block with stellar first-rounders (also true) and that because the team was close to a playoff spot Colangelo couldn’t trade Bosh ahead of free agency because he wouldn’t get value (likely true.) But that misses the point; Colangelo isn’t supposed to be as smart as analysts or columnists or fans. He was supposed to be smarter; he was supposed to see stuff the rest of us couldn’t see.
By the end of his conference call, Colangelo seemed to have pulled in his horns. Perhaps Leiweke texted him with a gentle reminder that he’d been stripped of power, not had it re-distributed. By the end he was talking about “helping whoever is in the [G.M.’s] job if they want my help.”
Perhaps it was the realization that nobody much wants him to be part of any “finishing touches,” especially since his finishing touches would likely include signing Rudy Gay to a contract extension, or at least the realization that nobody much wants the guy whose decisions created the need for a rebuild to oversee the rebuild.
In the 21st century, we have U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act,” which would set the interest rate on student loans at the rate at which banks borrow from the Federal Reserve. The justification — if you can call it that — is that if the Federal Reserve lends money to banks at less than 1 percent, the federal government shouldn’t charge students more than that.
A petition to the White House in support of the bill has been singled out by detractors as one of the stupidest responses to the “We the People” initiative, but it has attracted a quarter of a million signatures. If the laws of finance, like the value of pi in Indiana, are put to a vote, Warren’s bill will pass in a landslide.
Memo to the senator and her post-adolescent petition signers: Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you’re right.
The Federal Reserve’s discount rate is lower than the rate charged on student loans because banks, unlike students, provide collateral for loans.
There’s nothing wrong with tying an interest rate to a lender’s level of risk — in fact, banks are criticized by regulators if they don’t. You pay a higher rate on your credit card than your car loan because if you default on a car loan the repo man tows your car away, putting your lender back in funds promptly.
When you default on your credit card, the bank gets in line with everybody else and gets pennies on the dollar. What they lose on each bad debt they have to make up somewhere else.
Student borrowers offer no security, in contrast to those bad banks who, according to Warren’s “fact” sheet, “wrecked our economy.” Most college grads have no immediate source of repayment, and their near-term prospects aren’t much better unless they majored in a subject that will lead to a high-paying job quickly.
So a proposal to charge students the same rate as banks is about as smart as the kid who majors in puppetry and expects to land a high-paying job when he graduates.
Not that Colangelo seemed to understand on Tuesday the message behind losing the title of the job that was the reason the Toronto Raptors wanted him in the first place.
Colangelo, who in what seems like a sop to Larry Tanenbaum and maybe even NBA commissioner David Stern has hung on to the title of Toronto Raptors president after being relieved of the general manager’s powers, said in a conference call on Tuesday that he was “thrilled and excited being part of this thing – in terms of putting the finishing touches on a team that I think is well on its way to being a competitive team … a playoff team.”
He has brass ones, our Bryan: leading off his conference call by describing as a “mis-characterization” the description of his reaction to the news that had been offered up by his boss, Tim Leiweke, about an hour earlier. Colangelo preferred “disappointed,” to “ticked off,” – so much so that he gave ‘disappointed’ an extension.
While Leiweke, who has decided to move up his arrival in Toronto as president and chief executive officer of MLSE by a month to June 3, spent part of his conference call talking about how he wanted to establish the Raptors brand across Canada, Colangelo spent his time working on his Indoor Positioning System.
In case anybody had forgotten, he reminded the world that he knows just about everybody in the NBA and that under his watch the Raptors took their training camp and played exhibition games across the country while he himself serves on the board of directors for Basketball Canada. So there! How do you like those nationalistic bona fides, eh?
Absent was any mention of the franchise-crushing decision to name Canada’s own Jay Triano as head coach in place of Sam Mitchell; or the fact that Colangelo came out of last summer’s dalliance with Steve Nash absent the greatest Canadian basketballer of all time but very much in possession of Landry Fields, signed as a way of forcing the New York Knicks out of the Nash sweepstakes. Talk about a booby prize.
He has an “NBA out” in his contract, and with the family name pretty much hoops royalty it would not be out of the question to see him get a job in the NBA front office when Adam Silver replaces Stern. After all, it was Stern who steered Colangelo, then one of the game’s bright young things, to Toronto in order to save the franchise.
It worked for a couple of years, but signing Hedo Turkoglu, putting too much faith in Andrea Bargnani and mis-reading Chris Bosh’s intentions started the downward spiral. Colangelo’s supporters, all six of them, will point out that the signing of Turkoglu was widely-heralded (true) and that the Bargnani draft wasn’t exactly choc-a-block with stellar first-rounders (also true) and that because the team was close to a playoff spot Colangelo couldn’t trade Bosh ahead of free agency because he wouldn’t get value (likely true.) But that misses the point; Colangelo isn’t supposed to be as smart as analysts or columnists or fans. He was supposed to be smarter; he was supposed to see stuff the rest of us couldn’t see.
By the end of his conference call, Colangelo seemed to have pulled in his horns. Perhaps Leiweke texted him with a gentle reminder that he’d been stripped of power, not had it re-distributed. By the end he was talking about “helping whoever is in the [G.M.’s] job if they want my help.”
Perhaps it was the realization that nobody much wants him to be part of any “finishing touches,” especially since his finishing touches would likely include signing Rudy Gay to a contract extension, or at least the realization that nobody much wants the guy whose decisions created the need for a rebuild to oversee the rebuild.
In the 21st century, we have U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act,” which would set the interest rate on student loans at the rate at which banks borrow from the Federal Reserve. The justification — if you can call it that — is that if the Federal Reserve lends money to banks at less than 1 percent, the federal government shouldn’t charge students more than that.
A petition to the White House in support of the bill has been singled out by detractors as one of the stupidest responses to the “We the People” initiative, but it has attracted a quarter of a million signatures. If the laws of finance, like the value of pi in Indiana, are put to a vote, Warren’s bill will pass in a landslide.
Memo to the senator and her post-adolescent petition signers: Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you’re right.
The Federal Reserve’s discount rate is lower than the rate charged on student loans because banks, unlike students, provide collateral for loans.
There’s nothing wrong with tying an interest rate to a lender’s level of risk — in fact, banks are criticized by regulators if they don’t. You pay a higher rate on your credit card than your car loan because if you default on a car loan the repo man tows your car away, putting your lender back in funds promptly.
When you default on your credit card, the bank gets in line with everybody else and gets pennies on the dollar. What they lose on each bad debt they have to make up somewhere else.
Student borrowers offer no security, in contrast to those bad banks who, according to Warren’s “fact” sheet, “wrecked our economy.” Most college grads have no immediate source of repayment, and their near-term prospects aren’t much better unless they majored in a subject that will lead to a high-paying job quickly.
So a proposal to charge students the same rate as banks is about as smart as the kid who majors in puppetry and expects to land a high-paying job when he graduates.
2013年5月19日星期日
College helping students tackle debt
With tuition costs rising in recent years, many students are turning to loans to pay for college leaving many in debt. Student loan debt surpassed credit card debt in 2010. More and more students graduate with student loans.
An article published in the New York Times entitled "A generation hobbled by the soaring cost of college" states that about two-thirds of bachelor's degree recipients borrow money to attend college, either from the government or private lenders. That number does not include money borrowed from family members.
While the national student loan default rate for students not repaying their loans is over 13 percent, not all borrowing is bad according to Dan Tramuta, associate vice president for student enrollment for SUNY Fredonia and former president of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association.
"It is important that people understand that borrowing isn't the devil. The student loan program is a terrific loan program. It's been a vehicle for many students and families to be able to access higher education and not only gain an undergraduate degree but a post-undergraduate degree," he said. "Borrowing irresponsibly is the Indoor Positioning System."
To encourage responsible borrowing, SUNY Fredonia provides a financial literacy guide to students. This 28-page guide was honored by New York State Higher Educational Services Corporation as being the best in the state about six years ago, Tramuta said. The guide is something the college sends to every accepted freshman and transfer student.
Students also participate in fireside chats on campus as well as access to a loan servicing center for help with questions. The campus also has entrance and exit counseling for all students who take out loans. The school has been chosen for a new SUNY initiative to help students not go into default on their loans. The SUNY Smart Track Initiative is a program that Fredonia has been chosen as one of six pilot schools to participate in.
"I'm really excited about this track initiative. It's about smart borrowing and about awareness early on the moment students walk on our campus. It involves not just the financial aid office but many other student offices on campus which is really critical. It's not just one area, it takes a whole campus to address this issue," Tramuta said.
The program will engage students from before they enter onto campus as well as follow them throughout their college career. As incoming freshmen, students and families will be given information on how to piece together working summer jobs, scholarships and loans to help pay for college. This campuswide effort will track students through undergraduate and past graduation. Tramuta says the campus looks for indicators that students may default on loans.
"We know the pivot points and the factors that would indicate borrowers who might have a high risk for going into default. That could be low income borrowers, borrowers that drop classes. What the engagement piece will do we will begin immediately engaging our freshman borrowers, our returning undergraduates and separated borrowers," he said.
Students will know how to borrow responsibly and to not over borrow. Tramuta said sometimes students will borrow more than they need to cover tuition giving the student a bigger refund back in the spring. Tramuta said if students need extra money during the semester, a campus job is an alternative to borrowing more than is necessary. Through the new initiative, students will also take online quizzes while learning about financial literacy, the importance of budgeting and how to be responsible with credit cards. He wants students to understand borrowing and what smart borrowing is.
The loan service center on campus will use email, snail mail, phone calls and is looking into a smart phone app to keep students informed about their loans as they go through college. Upon graduation the college will also be able to track students with their repayment as well as educating them on repayment options through the smart track initiative.
"Many times students don't know what their options are once they leave us. They don't know there are options that can keep them out of a delinquent default status," Tramuta said. "The student is not going into default intentionally. They may be underemployed or unemployed. Helping students understand their repayment options can make a huge dent in an institutional default rate.
"Our president, President (Virginia) Horvath, has been talking to me about financial literacy the moment she walked on campus in the role of vice president. She's very committed and I think with the smart track initiative we're going to engage borrowers more so than we done in the past," Tramuta added.
The student loan service center will contact graduating seniors and talk to them about knowing their rights and responsibilities as a loan borrower as well as knowing when repayment starts. Typically, loans start repayment six months from graduation unless the student is attending graduate school. Tramuta said students can avoid default status by making the minimum payment. There are other repayment options including income-based, income-contingent and extended repayment. Students can make payments based on what they currently are making or extend the terms of repayment past the typical 10 years.
"A student might have $25,000 in debt which would be $250 a month for 10 years. They may right now be underemployed so maybe all they can afford right now is $40 a month. There's ways to do that until that student gets over that underemployment status and gets more money," he said.
Loans may also be forgiven if a student enters into a teaching position in a low-income school or other service related fields. If a student cannot find a job following graduation, Tramuta said the college will work with the student to offer additional resources to help out students.
An article published in the New York Times entitled "A generation hobbled by the soaring cost of college" states that about two-thirds of bachelor's degree recipients borrow money to attend college, either from the government or private lenders. That number does not include money borrowed from family members.
While the national student loan default rate for students not repaying their loans is over 13 percent, not all borrowing is bad according to Dan Tramuta, associate vice president for student enrollment for SUNY Fredonia and former president of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association.
"It is important that people understand that borrowing isn't the devil. The student loan program is a terrific loan program. It's been a vehicle for many students and families to be able to access higher education and not only gain an undergraduate degree but a post-undergraduate degree," he said. "Borrowing irresponsibly is the Indoor Positioning System."
To encourage responsible borrowing, SUNY Fredonia provides a financial literacy guide to students. This 28-page guide was honored by New York State Higher Educational Services Corporation as being the best in the state about six years ago, Tramuta said. The guide is something the college sends to every accepted freshman and transfer student.
Students also participate in fireside chats on campus as well as access to a loan servicing center for help with questions. The campus also has entrance and exit counseling for all students who take out loans. The school has been chosen for a new SUNY initiative to help students not go into default on their loans. The SUNY Smart Track Initiative is a program that Fredonia has been chosen as one of six pilot schools to participate in.
"I'm really excited about this track initiative. It's about smart borrowing and about awareness early on the moment students walk on our campus. It involves not just the financial aid office but many other student offices on campus which is really critical. It's not just one area, it takes a whole campus to address this issue," Tramuta said.
The program will engage students from before they enter onto campus as well as follow them throughout their college career. As incoming freshmen, students and families will be given information on how to piece together working summer jobs, scholarships and loans to help pay for college. This campuswide effort will track students through undergraduate and past graduation. Tramuta says the campus looks for indicators that students may default on loans.
"We know the pivot points and the factors that would indicate borrowers who might have a high risk for going into default. That could be low income borrowers, borrowers that drop classes. What the engagement piece will do we will begin immediately engaging our freshman borrowers, our returning undergraduates and separated borrowers," he said.
Students will know how to borrow responsibly and to not over borrow. Tramuta said sometimes students will borrow more than they need to cover tuition giving the student a bigger refund back in the spring. Tramuta said if students need extra money during the semester, a campus job is an alternative to borrowing more than is necessary. Through the new initiative, students will also take online quizzes while learning about financial literacy, the importance of budgeting and how to be responsible with credit cards. He wants students to understand borrowing and what smart borrowing is.
The loan service center on campus will use email, snail mail, phone calls and is looking into a smart phone app to keep students informed about their loans as they go through college. Upon graduation the college will also be able to track students with their repayment as well as educating them on repayment options through the smart track initiative.
"Many times students don't know what their options are once they leave us. They don't know there are options that can keep them out of a delinquent default status," Tramuta said. "The student is not going into default intentionally. They may be underemployed or unemployed. Helping students understand their repayment options can make a huge dent in an institutional default rate.
"Our president, President (Virginia) Horvath, has been talking to me about financial literacy the moment she walked on campus in the role of vice president. She's very committed and I think with the smart track initiative we're going to engage borrowers more so than we done in the past," Tramuta added.
The student loan service center will contact graduating seniors and talk to them about knowing their rights and responsibilities as a loan borrower as well as knowing when repayment starts. Typically, loans start repayment six months from graduation unless the student is attending graduate school. Tramuta said students can avoid default status by making the minimum payment. There are other repayment options including income-based, income-contingent and extended repayment. Students can make payments based on what they currently are making or extend the terms of repayment past the typical 10 years.
"A student might have $25,000 in debt which would be $250 a month for 10 years. They may right now be underemployed so maybe all they can afford right now is $40 a month. There's ways to do that until that student gets over that underemployment status and gets more money," he said.
Loans may also be forgiven if a student enters into a teaching position in a low-income school or other service related fields. If a student cannot find a job following graduation, Tramuta said the college will work with the student to offer additional resources to help out students.
2013年5月14日星期二
Upper Gwynedd man among trio nabbed in alleged interstate marijuana scheme
An Upper Gwynedd man and two other men face felony drug charges after allegedly attempting to pick up a large shipment of marijuana — hidden inside a pallet of boxes — that was sent from California to the K’NEX toy manufacturing facility in Hatfield last month.
Nghia Binh Thach, 37, of the 600 block of Whittaker Place, along with Hieu Thach, 26, and Hai Danh, 33 — both of Camden, N.J. — have been arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and related offenses.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on April 12 police were notified by K’NEX staff that they had received a delivery of 10 boxes on a pallet, wrapped in plastic, that had been shipped from California to the factory at 2990 Bergey Road, and that paperwork associated with the shipment indicated that K’NEX was the intended receiver.
Police said the boxes contained cases of martini shakers, and further inspection revealed a total of 47 pounds of marijuana — packaged in one-pound bags — inside six of the Indoor Positioning System, with an estimated street value of $164,500 to $282,000.
Around 7:30 a.m. on April 16, the affidavit states, Hatfield detectives received a call from K’NEX advising them that a male was on location at the factory requesting to pick up the pallet. Police responded to the scene and took the man, Nghia Thach, into custody and, according to the affidavit, found a U-Haul Self Storage security access card in his possession.
A subsequent search of the storage locker turned up an additional 15 pounds of marijuana — also packaged in one-pound bags, with a total street value of $52,500 to $90,000 — along with 115 cases of martini shakers, the affidavit states.
Hatfield detectives received another call from K’NEX alerting them that two Asian men — later identified as Hieu Thach and Hai Danh — were at the facility asking to pick up the same shipment of 10 boxes, police said. When detectives arrived, the two men had departed, but a man called K’NEX shortly after, inquiring about the pallet and asking if he could send his drivers back to pick up the shipment of martini shakers; a detective got on the phone and told the caller he could send his drivers back, according to the affidavit.
Limited mobile device storage capacities and expensive capacity steps have produced a growing market for alternative storage options. Already on the market, there are several generations of wireless portable hard drives and flash drives that typically have ranged from $100-$200 and offer robust capacity so that users can essentially take all of their content with them anywhere. These devices offer benefits including that large capacity as well as battery life from 5-10 hours, the ability to produce their own wireless networks and to pass-through connect to another network. Some can even be set up as a NAS. There are also card readers designed for mobile devices which are very inexpensive options, but they don't feature solid support found with established brands and often cannot be shared across mutiple devices and operating systems.
The Kingston MobileLite Wireless fits somewhere in the middle of those options. With it, users can expand storage in a smaller footprint and at a cheaper price point than wireless HDDs, and they gain a well-designed Kingston app and can use existing storage from both flash drives and compatible memory cards to provide flexibility. There are workflow gains for some, like photographers who may want to instantly see their shots on a larger tablet screen. There are also sharing benefits, for instance in the event that multiple users need access to the connected storage device all at once.
In order to get the Kingston MobileLite Wireless up and running, users need to make sure it is charged first. The battery level LED shows green if the device is at 50% or greater, orange for 25-50% and red for 25% or less. To charge, users can just plug in the MobileLite Wireless to a USB port. When the device has a charge, users can press and hold the power button for three seconds to operate the device, initiating the power-on sequence that turns on the power and Internet LEDs. Assuming users have a memory card or flash drive with content loaded, users can then connect to the MobileLite Wireless network which the device produces, and then insert their memory card or USB flash drive. The MobileLite Wireless also features pass-through connect so that users can access the Internet while using their MobileLite Wireless.
The app can be downloaded for both Android and iOS devices (we used an iPad for testing) and has a smooth interface that users will find intuitive. From the outset, SD cards and flash drives appear and users can select one from which they want to access content. From there, all of the data is divided into four categories: files, photos, videos and music. Users can select to view files such as photos by thumbnail, list or watch a slideshow. Playing media also works simply with users doing so by performing essentially the same functions natively found on their device. Icons at the bottom of the screen also enable sharing to the camera roll for photos, moving files to the user device or deleting files.
There is also a setting button at the bottom of the screen. Clicking this icon displays the device's name, its battery life and firmware version as well as all of the MobileLite's connection status. Users can password protect the network using WPA2 security which is helpful in public settings like a coffee shop, and they can select a network through which they want to connect on top of their connection to their MobileLite Wireless.
Another interesting, handy feature of the MobileLite Wireless is the battery bank feature that enables users to charge a mobile device using the mobile device's USB cable for emergency charging. As one could expect, this cannot be done with wireless storage mode active and it does reduce the overall battery life for playback and viewing files. However, the feature is yet another that adds value to the device. To start charging, users connect their device to MobileLite Wireless and then press the power button for one second. (This startup and the three second startup are so that users won't accidentally turn the device on or off.) The battery LED flashes red rapidly, but that just means the device is charging. This isn't an alternative to using a mobile device's native power adapter, but it will get the device more than enough juice to make a few important phones call in a jam.
Nghia Binh Thach, 37, of the 600 block of Whittaker Place, along with Hieu Thach, 26, and Hai Danh, 33 — both of Camden, N.J. — have been arrested and charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and related offenses.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on April 12 police were notified by K’NEX staff that they had received a delivery of 10 boxes on a pallet, wrapped in plastic, that had been shipped from California to the factory at 2990 Bergey Road, and that paperwork associated with the shipment indicated that K’NEX was the intended receiver.
Police said the boxes contained cases of martini shakers, and further inspection revealed a total of 47 pounds of marijuana — packaged in one-pound bags — inside six of the Indoor Positioning System, with an estimated street value of $164,500 to $282,000.
Around 7:30 a.m. on April 16, the affidavit states, Hatfield detectives received a call from K’NEX advising them that a male was on location at the factory requesting to pick up the pallet. Police responded to the scene and took the man, Nghia Thach, into custody and, according to the affidavit, found a U-Haul Self Storage security access card in his possession.
A subsequent search of the storage locker turned up an additional 15 pounds of marijuana — also packaged in one-pound bags, with a total street value of $52,500 to $90,000 — along with 115 cases of martini shakers, the affidavit states.
Hatfield detectives received another call from K’NEX alerting them that two Asian men — later identified as Hieu Thach and Hai Danh — were at the facility asking to pick up the same shipment of 10 boxes, police said. When detectives arrived, the two men had departed, but a man called K’NEX shortly after, inquiring about the pallet and asking if he could send his drivers back to pick up the shipment of martini shakers; a detective got on the phone and told the caller he could send his drivers back, according to the affidavit.
Limited mobile device storage capacities and expensive capacity steps have produced a growing market for alternative storage options. Already on the market, there are several generations of wireless portable hard drives and flash drives that typically have ranged from $100-$200 and offer robust capacity so that users can essentially take all of their content with them anywhere. These devices offer benefits including that large capacity as well as battery life from 5-10 hours, the ability to produce their own wireless networks and to pass-through connect to another network. Some can even be set up as a NAS. There are also card readers designed for mobile devices which are very inexpensive options, but they don't feature solid support found with established brands and often cannot be shared across mutiple devices and operating systems.
The Kingston MobileLite Wireless fits somewhere in the middle of those options. With it, users can expand storage in a smaller footprint and at a cheaper price point than wireless HDDs, and they gain a well-designed Kingston app and can use existing storage from both flash drives and compatible memory cards to provide flexibility. There are workflow gains for some, like photographers who may want to instantly see their shots on a larger tablet screen. There are also sharing benefits, for instance in the event that multiple users need access to the connected storage device all at once.
In order to get the Kingston MobileLite Wireless up and running, users need to make sure it is charged first. The battery level LED shows green if the device is at 50% or greater, orange for 25-50% and red for 25% or less. To charge, users can just plug in the MobileLite Wireless to a USB port. When the device has a charge, users can press and hold the power button for three seconds to operate the device, initiating the power-on sequence that turns on the power and Internet LEDs. Assuming users have a memory card or flash drive with content loaded, users can then connect to the MobileLite Wireless network which the device produces, and then insert their memory card or USB flash drive. The MobileLite Wireless also features pass-through connect so that users can access the Internet while using their MobileLite Wireless.
The app can be downloaded for both Android and iOS devices (we used an iPad for testing) and has a smooth interface that users will find intuitive. From the outset, SD cards and flash drives appear and users can select one from which they want to access content. From there, all of the data is divided into four categories: files, photos, videos and music. Users can select to view files such as photos by thumbnail, list or watch a slideshow. Playing media also works simply with users doing so by performing essentially the same functions natively found on their device. Icons at the bottom of the screen also enable sharing to the camera roll for photos, moving files to the user device or deleting files.
There is also a setting button at the bottom of the screen. Clicking this icon displays the device's name, its battery life and firmware version as well as all of the MobileLite's connection status. Users can password protect the network using WPA2 security which is helpful in public settings like a coffee shop, and they can select a network through which they want to connect on top of their connection to their MobileLite Wireless.
Another interesting, handy feature of the MobileLite Wireless is the battery bank feature that enables users to charge a mobile device using the mobile device's USB cable for emergency charging. As one could expect, this cannot be done with wireless storage mode active and it does reduce the overall battery life for playback and viewing files. However, the feature is yet another that adds value to the device. To start charging, users connect their device to MobileLite Wireless and then press the power button for one second. (This startup and the three second startup are so that users won't accidentally turn the device on or off.) The battery LED flashes red rapidly, but that just means the device is charging. This isn't an alternative to using a mobile device's native power adapter, but it will get the device more than enough juice to make a few important phones call in a jam.
2013年1月8日星期二
An excerpt from Stanley McChrystal’s “My Share of the Task”
The interior of the UH-60 Black Hawk was dark to avoid presenting a glowing target in the night sky. Gunners on either side of the helicopter manned machine guns, maintaining a constant vigil for enemy threats. Below, the rugged Afghan landscape, devoid of any speck of man- made light, was even darker. I could just make out hills, valleys, and an occasional mud- brown compound. Inside the aircraft it was cold, and I pulled my parka tightly around me. The army- issue gear was far better than it had been in the early years of my career, but lately I seemed to feel the cold more than I had back then. It was 2009 and at fifty five, I wasn’t the young lieutenant I’d been thirty- four years earlier. At best, I was a well- worn version of the officer who had spent so many nights like this one alongside warriors.
In a few hours it would be Christmas. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it would be my last as a soldier.
I looked around at the other men on the aircraft. Although we all wore headsets connected through the UH-60’s intercom system, we rarely spoke. Normally during long night flights, men were lost in thought, and, especially tonight, I respected their solitude. The eight years of war since 9/ 11 had meant several Christmases away from home for most of these men. For soldiers at war, there’s comforting continuity in the traditions and inevitability of Christmas. We savored memories of Christmases past, made the most of, or endured, the one we had at the time, and dreamed incessantly about those we’d have in the future. I felt a bit like Dickens’s Scrooge pushing them so hard on a night that should be special. For each of us, Christmas stirred deep memories and strong emotions. But this was the life of our choice.
Sitting directly across from me was my aide, Major Casey Welch, no doubt thinking about his wife and two small children. Casey had spent twenty- seven months in combat in Iraq, including a tough year in Samarra. He had been home for only five months when I had been designated to command in Afghanistan and he had volunteered to deploy again.
Sitting next to Casey was an unimposing figure hunched over a dimly lit laptop. The reading glasses and lines on his face matched mine. I couldn’t help but smile slightly as I watched him work. Mike Hall was my old friend and, more important, the finest soldier I’d ever known. After over thirty years of service and then eighteen months at a good civilian job, a phone call had brought the retired command sergeant major back on active duty to become the senior enlisted adviser of all international forces in Afghanistan. Now he would spend yet another Christmas away from his wife, Brenda, and son, Jeff.
Charlie sat to my left, close by, as always. I had known Colonel Charlie Flynn since he was a lieutenant twenty- three years earlier, and I remembered how his first child, Molly, had been born while Charlie was deployed to the first Gulf War. A couple of years later he’d commanded a company for me in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his young son Sean was climbing over pews at Christmas Eve Mass in the historic Fort Lewis chapel. Thirteen years later, upon his redeployment in 2008 from his fourth combat tour— fifteen months commanding a brigade combat team in Iraq— I’d asked him to join me in the Pentagon as my executive assistant. When alerted for Afghanistan in May of 2009, the first two officers I sought to form the nucleus of the team were Charlie and his older brother Mike.
Just behind the bird’s pilots sat Chief Warrant Officer Shawn Lowery, the man responsible for our security. With a shaved head and a serious countenance, Shawn’s all-business gravitas masked a dry, wicked sense of humor. He’d pronounced himself “unenthusiastic” about my decision not to wear body armor some months prior, but took the decision in stride. Shawn had been back from his most recent tour in Afghanistan less than a year when I was notified to deploy. But he had volunteered without hesitation to go forward again.
As the December air rushed in the open windows where the door guns were mounted, I readied myself for the next stop. Continuing a tradition of military commanders, starting that afternoon we’d begun a journey to visit six outposts on Christmas Eve. The next would be the fi fth. At each location we spent time with soldiers, gave them a short talk, normally in their mess hall, and took the opportunity to circulate, pose for pictures that they could send home, and, most important, thank them. It was tiring but unfailingly inspiring to me. A few hours later, on Christmas Day, we’d launch again to six other bases, several manned by soldiers from our coalition partners. Christmases with Polish and Romanian troops, including religious ceremonies in crude bunkers and huts, were deeply spiritual experiences.
Soothed by the rhythmic vibration of the rotors, my mind wandered to the more than half century of Christmases I’d experienced. I remembered early- morning excitement as my four brothers, one sister, and I rushed down to the living room of our small Arlington, Virginia, house, where presents from Santa Claus were reliably piled for each of us. I most loved getting toy soldiers I could use with the handcrafted wooden forts my father built and my mother painted. During the years my father was in Vietnam, my mother struggled to make Christmases special. I could only guess how my father felt until I got a taste as a young captain in Korea during my first yearlong separation from my wife, Annie. Along the DMZ on Christmas Eve, a well- intentioned morale visit to our unit by a USO tour only made me miss Annie, and Christmas, all the more.
Becoming a father made Christmas more important to me than ever. Fatherhood was a great excuse to play with toys again. I remember the fun Annie and I had staying up late assembling a plastic fort for my son Sam’s Rambo figurines, and I could still hear my father shaming me into finally buying Annie a color TV. Even memories of punji stake– like pain from stepping barefoot on a rogue Lego block now brought a smile. I wanted the young men and women I’d visit that night to know that I understood the ache inherent in Christmas so far from home.
I had spent four straight Christmases, starting in 2004, in Iraq or Afghanistan, typically traveling to be in one location on Christmas Eve, then making a night flight to be in the other on Christmas Day. I’d listen to Christmas music on my iPod, particularly Alabama’s “Christmas in Dixie,” which made me homesick, but I couldn’t help it. And I knew that as much as I missed Annie and Sam, young soldiers bore the heavier burden of missing the all- too- temporary magic of their children’s holiday joy.
As we reached the forward operating base, or FOB, we could see from the air the series of simple buildings constructed of Afghan bricks and mortar. It was a small, fortified outpost manned by a combined U. S. and Afghan force totaling about seventy- five soldiers. Its position on high ground above Afghanistan’s open terrain gave it a deceptively imposing Beau Geste– like appearance. But its only real strength lay in the effectiveness of the soldiers inside. In a few minutes I’d be able to see that for myself. We landed a couple hundred meters away and walked with the commanding officer through the gate and into the outpost.
Because it was dark and cold, we met the soldiers inside. Like most small outposts, this one was rudimentary but functional. Generators provided power. There was a small operations and communications center, bay barracks in which groups of soldiers arranged bunks and gear, and a mess hall. Small trees and other decorations, obviously sent by loved ones, brought Christmas into the crude surroundings. Except for some of the more modern equipment, soldiers on similar counterinsurgency duty in the American West in 1868, the Philippines in 1900, Malaya in 1950, Indochina in 1952, Algeria in 1956, or Vietnam in 1965 might have found the outpost familiar. It was warfare at its most basic, where success depended more on lieutenants, sergeants, and privates in lonely forts or on small patrols than on grand plans in a generals’ headquarters.
As always, the officers and senior noncommissioned officers were polite and forthcoming, but the younger troops were initially distant and uncommunicative, as though they were only there because they’d been directed to show up. Their reticence didn’t bother me. It was always that way. Only afterward, when Mike Hall and I spoke to them as a group, presented some hard-earned awards, and then mingled, offering to pose for pictures and answer questions, did they loosen up. Before long, the gathering became animated, and I felt connected to them.
As we prepared to reboard the UH-60 to fl y to our final stop for the night, several groups asked to take pictures with Mike and me. While we assembled one group, I introduced myself to a young soldier. As I always tried to do, I began by looking at the rank and name tape on his combat uniform so I could address him as personally as possible. I read his name and paused. Then I asked him quietly if his father had been a soldier. He said that he had. I cautiously asked if his father had been a Ranger. The young man, anticipating what I was trying to determine, confirmed that his father had been a Ranger whom I had known well. After leaving the Rangers, his father had joined an elite Army commando unit and had been killed in 2005 in a nighttime raid on an Al Qaeda safe house. He had been lost under my command, during a summer of bitter fighting in Iraq’s Western Euphrates River valley, at a critical juncture in a war that now felt a lifetime past. Now his young son had taken his place in the ranks. For a moment I was silent.
There was no outward drama or emotion. The young man clearly sought no special recognition. It felt strangely natural. I asked about his mother and soon moved on to talk to other young soldiers. But as I did, it struck me that, in an era when military service is a question of choice, he, like his father, had chosen to spend Christmas in rough surroundings. I looked around the room at the young soldiers and their slightly older sergeants. They had all made the same choice.
On the flight north that night, I absorbed the continuity of war. I knew from history that war comes with frightening regularity, often fought over the same ground and similar causes as previous conflicts. Wars often begin with enthusiastic vigor but typically settle into costly, dirty business characterized for soldiers by fear, frustration, and loneliness.
There was also continuity in soldiers. In the young soldiers on outposts, in the sergeants and junior officers who led them, and particularly in the team of professionals I worked alongside each day— the Charlies, Mikes, Caseys, and Shawns— I felt the unbroken tradition of commitment to a mission, and a fierce commitment to one another. Like the generations they followed and those they now led, they came forward when called and sacrificed when needed. They did so quietly, often in shadows, with no expectation of reward. They were no better than their grandfathers, and not a bit worse.
In a few hours it would be Christmas. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it would be my last as a soldier.
I looked around at the other men on the aircraft. Although we all wore headsets connected through the UH-60’s intercom system, we rarely spoke. Normally during long night flights, men were lost in thought, and, especially tonight, I respected their solitude. The eight years of war since 9/ 11 had meant several Christmases away from home for most of these men. For soldiers at war, there’s comforting continuity in the traditions and inevitability of Christmas. We savored memories of Christmases past, made the most of, or endured, the one we had at the time, and dreamed incessantly about those we’d have in the future. I felt a bit like Dickens’s Scrooge pushing them so hard on a night that should be special. For each of us, Christmas stirred deep memories and strong emotions. But this was the life of our choice.
Sitting directly across from me was my aide, Major Casey Welch, no doubt thinking about his wife and two small children. Casey had spent twenty- seven months in combat in Iraq, including a tough year in Samarra. He had been home for only five months when I had been designated to command in Afghanistan and he had volunteered to deploy again.
Sitting next to Casey was an unimposing figure hunched over a dimly lit laptop. The reading glasses and lines on his face matched mine. I couldn’t help but smile slightly as I watched him work. Mike Hall was my old friend and, more important, the finest soldier I’d ever known. After over thirty years of service and then eighteen months at a good civilian job, a phone call had brought the retired command sergeant major back on active duty to become the senior enlisted adviser of all international forces in Afghanistan. Now he would spend yet another Christmas away from his wife, Brenda, and son, Jeff.
Charlie sat to my left, close by, as always. I had known Colonel Charlie Flynn since he was a lieutenant twenty- three years earlier, and I remembered how his first child, Molly, had been born while Charlie was deployed to the first Gulf War. A couple of years later he’d commanded a company for me in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and his young son Sean was climbing over pews at Christmas Eve Mass in the historic Fort Lewis chapel. Thirteen years later, upon his redeployment in 2008 from his fourth combat tour— fifteen months commanding a brigade combat team in Iraq— I’d asked him to join me in the Pentagon as my executive assistant. When alerted for Afghanistan in May of 2009, the first two officers I sought to form the nucleus of the team were Charlie and his older brother Mike.
Just behind the bird’s pilots sat Chief Warrant Officer Shawn Lowery, the man responsible for our security. With a shaved head and a serious countenance, Shawn’s all-business gravitas masked a dry, wicked sense of humor. He’d pronounced himself “unenthusiastic” about my decision not to wear body armor some months prior, but took the decision in stride. Shawn had been back from his most recent tour in Afghanistan less than a year when I was notified to deploy. But he had volunteered without hesitation to go forward again.
As the December air rushed in the open windows where the door guns were mounted, I readied myself for the next stop. Continuing a tradition of military commanders, starting that afternoon we’d begun a journey to visit six outposts on Christmas Eve. The next would be the fi fth. At each location we spent time with soldiers, gave them a short talk, normally in their mess hall, and took the opportunity to circulate, pose for pictures that they could send home, and, most important, thank them. It was tiring but unfailingly inspiring to me. A few hours later, on Christmas Day, we’d launch again to six other bases, several manned by soldiers from our coalition partners. Christmases with Polish and Romanian troops, including religious ceremonies in crude bunkers and huts, were deeply spiritual experiences.
Soothed by the rhythmic vibration of the rotors, my mind wandered to the more than half century of Christmases I’d experienced. I remembered early- morning excitement as my four brothers, one sister, and I rushed down to the living room of our small Arlington, Virginia, house, where presents from Santa Claus were reliably piled for each of us. I most loved getting toy soldiers I could use with the handcrafted wooden forts my father built and my mother painted. During the years my father was in Vietnam, my mother struggled to make Christmases special. I could only guess how my father felt until I got a taste as a young captain in Korea during my first yearlong separation from my wife, Annie. Along the DMZ on Christmas Eve, a well- intentioned morale visit to our unit by a USO tour only made me miss Annie, and Christmas, all the more.
Becoming a father made Christmas more important to me than ever. Fatherhood was a great excuse to play with toys again. I remember the fun Annie and I had staying up late assembling a plastic fort for my son Sam’s Rambo figurines, and I could still hear my father shaming me into finally buying Annie a color TV. Even memories of punji stake– like pain from stepping barefoot on a rogue Lego block now brought a smile. I wanted the young men and women I’d visit that night to know that I understood the ache inherent in Christmas so far from home.
I had spent four straight Christmases, starting in 2004, in Iraq or Afghanistan, typically traveling to be in one location on Christmas Eve, then making a night flight to be in the other on Christmas Day. I’d listen to Christmas music on my iPod, particularly Alabama’s “Christmas in Dixie,” which made me homesick, but I couldn’t help it. And I knew that as much as I missed Annie and Sam, young soldiers bore the heavier burden of missing the all- too- temporary magic of their children’s holiday joy.
As we reached the forward operating base, or FOB, we could see from the air the series of simple buildings constructed of Afghan bricks and mortar. It was a small, fortified outpost manned by a combined U. S. and Afghan force totaling about seventy- five soldiers. Its position on high ground above Afghanistan’s open terrain gave it a deceptively imposing Beau Geste– like appearance. But its only real strength lay in the effectiveness of the soldiers inside. In a few minutes I’d be able to see that for myself. We landed a couple hundred meters away and walked with the commanding officer through the gate and into the outpost.
Because it was dark and cold, we met the soldiers inside. Like most small outposts, this one was rudimentary but functional. Generators provided power. There was a small operations and communications center, bay barracks in which groups of soldiers arranged bunks and gear, and a mess hall. Small trees and other decorations, obviously sent by loved ones, brought Christmas into the crude surroundings. Except for some of the more modern equipment, soldiers on similar counterinsurgency duty in the American West in 1868, the Philippines in 1900, Malaya in 1950, Indochina in 1952, Algeria in 1956, or Vietnam in 1965 might have found the outpost familiar. It was warfare at its most basic, where success depended more on lieutenants, sergeants, and privates in lonely forts or on small patrols than on grand plans in a generals’ headquarters.
As always, the officers and senior noncommissioned officers were polite and forthcoming, but the younger troops were initially distant and uncommunicative, as though they were only there because they’d been directed to show up. Their reticence didn’t bother me. It was always that way. Only afterward, when Mike Hall and I spoke to them as a group, presented some hard-earned awards, and then mingled, offering to pose for pictures and answer questions, did they loosen up. Before long, the gathering became animated, and I felt connected to them.
As we prepared to reboard the UH-60 to fl y to our final stop for the night, several groups asked to take pictures with Mike and me. While we assembled one group, I introduced myself to a young soldier. As I always tried to do, I began by looking at the rank and name tape on his combat uniform so I could address him as personally as possible. I read his name and paused. Then I asked him quietly if his father had been a soldier. He said that he had. I cautiously asked if his father had been a Ranger. The young man, anticipating what I was trying to determine, confirmed that his father had been a Ranger whom I had known well. After leaving the Rangers, his father had joined an elite Army commando unit and had been killed in 2005 in a nighttime raid on an Al Qaeda safe house. He had been lost under my command, during a summer of bitter fighting in Iraq’s Western Euphrates River valley, at a critical juncture in a war that now felt a lifetime past. Now his young son had taken his place in the ranks. For a moment I was silent.
There was no outward drama or emotion. The young man clearly sought no special recognition. It felt strangely natural. I asked about his mother and soon moved on to talk to other young soldiers. But as I did, it struck me that, in an era when military service is a question of choice, he, like his father, had chosen to spend Christmas in rough surroundings. I looked around the room at the young soldiers and their slightly older sergeants. They had all made the same choice.
On the flight north that night, I absorbed the continuity of war. I knew from history that war comes with frightening regularity, often fought over the same ground and similar causes as previous conflicts. Wars often begin with enthusiastic vigor but typically settle into costly, dirty business characterized for soldiers by fear, frustration, and loneliness.
There was also continuity in soldiers. In the young soldiers on outposts, in the sergeants and junior officers who led them, and particularly in the team of professionals I worked alongside each day— the Charlies, Mikes, Caseys, and Shawns— I felt the unbroken tradition of commitment to a mission, and a fierce commitment to one another. Like the generations they followed and those they now led, they came forward when called and sacrificed when needed. They did so quietly, often in shadows, with no expectation of reward. They were no better than their grandfathers, and not a bit worse.
2012年11月1日星期四
New Details on Benghazi
On the night of the 9/11 anniversary assault at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the Americans defending the compound and a nearby CIA annex were severely outmanned. Nonetheless, the State Department never requested military backup that evening, two senior U.S. officials familiar with the details of military planning tell The Daily Beast.
In its seventh week, discussion about what happened in Benghazi has begun to focus on why military teams in the region did not respond to the assault on the U.S. mission and the nearby CIA annex. The only security backup that did arrive that evening were former special-operations soldiers under the command of the CIA—one from the nearby annex and another Quick Reaction Force from Tripoli. On Friday, Fox News reported that requests from CIA officers for air support on the evening of the attacks were rejected.
It’s unlikely any outside military team could have arrived in Benghazi quickly enough to save Ambassador Chris Stevens or his colleague Sean Smith, both of whom died from smoke inhalation after a band of more than 100 men overran the U.S. mission at around 9:30 p.m. that evening and set the buildings inside ablaze.
But military backup may have made a difference at around five the following morning, when a second wave of attackers assaulted the CIA annex where embassy personnel had taken refuge. It was during this second wave of attacks that two ex-SEALs working for the CIA’s security teams—Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods—were killed in a mortar strike.
Normally it would be the job of the U.S. ambassador on location to request a military response. But Stevens likely died in the first two hours of the attack. The responsibility for requesting military backup would then have fallen to the deputy chief of mission at Benghazi or officials at the State Department in Washington.
“The State Department is responsible for assessing security at its diplomatic installations and for requesting support from other government agencies if they need it,” a senior U.S. Defense official said. “There was no request from the Department of State to intervene militarily on the night of the attack.”
The president, however, would have the final say as to whether or not to send in the military. By 11 p.m. Benghazi time, 90 minutes after the assault began on the U.S. mission, Obama met with the National Security Council to discuss the attack. NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor said the president “ordered Secretary Panetta and Chairman Dempsey to begin moving assets into the region to prepare for a range of contingencies” at that meeting.
According to the senior Defense Department official, those assets included a special operations team from central Europe to be staged at the Sigonella Naval Air Station in Italy and other small teams of Marines deployed at U.S. Naval bases known as FAST platoons. (These details were first reported by Fox News.) By the time the special operations team and the Marines were prepared to go forward with the rescue mission, however, the first wave of the attack was over.
Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said, “I think what’s getting lost about that night is that four Americans were killed and dozens more were in harm’s way … Everyone in the U.S. government and at every agency immediately had the exact same goal of finding a way to help them.”
George Little, the chief spokesman for the Pentagon, said Wednesday, “I’m not going to get into the specifics of what we discussed with our State Department partners on the night of the attack. The fact of the matter is that all of us wanted to find a way to respond to the unfolding situation in Benghazi. Both the State Department and the Department of Defense acted quickly to identify response options and to start moving out quickly.”
Panetta said last week that he and the military’s leadership did not have enough “real-time information about what’s taking place” to send in reinforcement that evening. However, three U.S. Defense and intelligence officials confirm to The Daily Beast that a surveillance drone was at the scene of the attack while personnel were evacuated from the diplomatic compound to the CIA annex—though the drone was not present at the beginning of the attack.
In its seventh week, discussion about what happened in Benghazi has begun to focus on why military teams in the region did not respond to the assault on the U.S. mission and the nearby CIA annex. The only security backup that did arrive that evening were former special-operations soldiers under the command of the CIA—one from the nearby annex and another Quick Reaction Force from Tripoli. On Friday, Fox News reported that requests from CIA officers for air support on the evening of the attacks were rejected.
It’s unlikely any outside military team could have arrived in Benghazi quickly enough to save Ambassador Chris Stevens or his colleague Sean Smith, both of whom died from smoke inhalation after a band of more than 100 men overran the U.S. mission at around 9:30 p.m. that evening and set the buildings inside ablaze.
But military backup may have made a difference at around five the following morning, when a second wave of attackers assaulted the CIA annex where embassy personnel had taken refuge. It was during this second wave of attacks that two ex-SEALs working for the CIA’s security teams—Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods—were killed in a mortar strike.
Normally it would be the job of the U.S. ambassador on location to request a military response. But Stevens likely died in the first two hours of the attack. The responsibility for requesting military backup would then have fallen to the deputy chief of mission at Benghazi or officials at the State Department in Washington.
“The State Department is responsible for assessing security at its diplomatic installations and for requesting support from other government agencies if they need it,” a senior U.S. Defense official said. “There was no request from the Department of State to intervene militarily on the night of the attack.”
The president, however, would have the final say as to whether or not to send in the military. By 11 p.m. Benghazi time, 90 minutes after the assault began on the U.S. mission, Obama met with the National Security Council to discuss the attack. NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor said the president “ordered Secretary Panetta and Chairman Dempsey to begin moving assets into the region to prepare for a range of contingencies” at that meeting.
According to the senior Defense Department official, those assets included a special operations team from central Europe to be staged at the Sigonella Naval Air Station in Italy and other small teams of Marines deployed at U.S. Naval bases known as FAST platoons. (These details were first reported by Fox News.) By the time the special operations team and the Marines were prepared to go forward with the rescue mission, however, the first wave of the attack was over.
Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said, “I think what’s getting lost about that night is that four Americans were killed and dozens more were in harm’s way … Everyone in the U.S. government and at every agency immediately had the exact same goal of finding a way to help them.”
George Little, the chief spokesman for the Pentagon, said Wednesday, “I’m not going to get into the specifics of what we discussed with our State Department partners on the night of the attack. The fact of the matter is that all of us wanted to find a way to respond to the unfolding situation in Benghazi. Both the State Department and the Department of Defense acted quickly to identify response options and to start moving out quickly.”
Panetta said last week that he and the military’s leadership did not have enough “real-time information about what’s taking place” to send in reinforcement that evening. However, three U.S. Defense and intelligence officials confirm to The Daily Beast that a surveillance drone was at the scene of the attack while personnel were evacuated from the diplomatic compound to the CIA annex—though the drone was not present at the beginning of the attack.
2012年10月17日星期三
IT expert creates mobile app to warn fisherman-father of bad weather
Being the son of a fisherman, Rolly Rulete knows quite well what it’s like to be at the mercy of the weather at sea. So using his ingenuity, the computer programmer has found a way to alert his father to an approaching storm with just a few taps of the finger on his cell phone.
Now the hard part is teaching the 53-year-old tuna fisherman how to use a cell phone.
Rulete, 28, is the creator of a mobile application for the government’s flood and weather forecasting tool, Project Noah, or Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, a two-year public-private venture powered by Smart Communications Inc.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Smart launched Wednesday the mobile app developed by Rulete to provide cell phone users on-time information on the weather, including information on the track of storms and the intensity of rains.
The mobile app is available initially only on Android smartphones and tablet computers, but developers are working on versions for Apple and Nokia software.
At the launch of the project at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Science Center, Rulete demonstrated how to navigate the app, basically a miniature version of the Noah website.
Rulete, who grew up in Bislig, Surigao del Sur, but now lives in Davao City, donated the rights for the mobile app to Project Noah in the hope the technology would be made available to more people, among them his own father, Mamerto.
“I was motivated to develop this app because I knew it could really be helpful to fishermen like my father,” he said in an interview.
Rulete, a computer science graduate from the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, said most fishermen depended only on television or radio for information on the weather, putting them at risk as they spent whole days out at sea.
He said that in the 1980s an uncle, also a fisherman, went missing in stormy waters, and was never found.
Now Rulete is training village officials in coastal communities, like his hometown, in navigating the Noah mobile app to send out warnings and alerts to fishermen at sea.
“My father is not very good with cell phones and computers, and I think other fishermen are like [him],” Rulete said.
Smart public affairs head Ramon Isberto said Rulete belonged to a new breed of IT technicians called “apptivists,” or people “who were generating applications for innovations for social good.”
“His heart is in the right place… His father is a fisherman so he is very sensitive to weather, and because his father is always at the mercy of the weather,” Isberto said.
Until Wednesday, Noah was available only on its website noah.dost.gov.ph. But now, with the mobile app, Android users can access weather information on the fly.
Since July, Noah has been giving the public access to information taken from the weather bureau’s Doppler radars, satellite imagery, rain and stream gauges, and other forecasting tools in real or near-real time.
Noah’s objective is to improve rain and flood forecasting through speedier and more accurate reporting and wider dissemination of weather information.
Using the mobile app, cell phone users can access Noah’s data taken from a variety of tools, including satellite images, rain and stream gauges, and Doppler radars.
A separate app called “Flood Patrol” enables smartphone users to report flooding in their areas, including the time and date, location and depth of the flood. They can also post pictures and view the reports of other users.
Now the hard part is teaching the 53-year-old tuna fisherman how to use a cell phone.
Rulete, 28, is the creator of a mobile application for the government’s flood and weather forecasting tool, Project Noah, or Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, a two-year public-private venture powered by Smart Communications Inc.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Smart launched Wednesday the mobile app developed by Rulete to provide cell phone users on-time information on the weather, including information on the track of storms and the intensity of rains.
The mobile app is available initially only on Android smartphones and tablet computers, but developers are working on versions for Apple and Nokia software.
At the launch of the project at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Science Center, Rulete demonstrated how to navigate the app, basically a miniature version of the Noah website.
Rulete, who grew up in Bislig, Surigao del Sur, but now lives in Davao City, donated the rights for the mobile app to Project Noah in the hope the technology would be made available to more people, among them his own father, Mamerto.
“I was motivated to develop this app because I knew it could really be helpful to fishermen like my father,” he said in an interview.
Rulete, a computer science graduate from the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, said most fishermen depended only on television or radio for information on the weather, putting them at risk as they spent whole days out at sea.
He said that in the 1980s an uncle, also a fisherman, went missing in stormy waters, and was never found.
Now Rulete is training village officials in coastal communities, like his hometown, in navigating the Noah mobile app to send out warnings and alerts to fishermen at sea.
“My father is not very good with cell phones and computers, and I think other fishermen are like [him],” Rulete said.
Smart public affairs head Ramon Isberto said Rulete belonged to a new breed of IT technicians called “apptivists,” or people “who were generating applications for innovations for social good.”
“His heart is in the right place… His father is a fisherman so he is very sensitive to weather, and because his father is always at the mercy of the weather,” Isberto said.
Until Wednesday, Noah was available only on its website noah.dost.gov.ph. But now, with the mobile app, Android users can access weather information on the fly.
Since July, Noah has been giving the public access to information taken from the weather bureau’s Doppler radars, satellite imagery, rain and stream gauges, and other forecasting tools in real or near-real time.
Noah’s objective is to improve rain and flood forecasting through speedier and more accurate reporting and wider dissemination of weather information.
Using the mobile app, cell phone users can access Noah’s data taken from a variety of tools, including satellite images, rain and stream gauges, and Doppler radars.
A separate app called “Flood Patrol” enables smartphone users to report flooding in their areas, including the time and date, location and depth of the flood. They can also post pictures and view the reports of other users.
2012年10月11日星期四
Three important news items about timing
When is the last time you ran a race where you got your mile split times called out to you by a volunteer? If you’re new to running, it may be you’ve never heard a split called, but long-time runners remember the days before lap-counting watches and Garmins, when it was very important to have a volunteer call out mile split times. I’m sure many of you have run races where a digital display gave you your elapsed time along the course, such as the Dallas Marathon, formerly White Rock, but the greatest service is hearing the time called to you, so you don’t miss it.
Except for last year, the Dallas Running Club has provided this service every year at the Half, and they plan to do it again this year on Sunday November 4th. As a runner, you’ll appreciate it I’m sure because you’ll get gun time information, even if your timing device gives you chip time.
Bob Freeman has headed up this volunteer effort for some years, managing the timers, and I’ve had the pleasure of working for him in the past. Basically what happens is this. The volunteers stage at a convenient location, say a mile or so into the course, then listen for the gun by cell phone and start their watches. From there they are dropped off one by one at all the mile marks. I once worked at the half-mile helpfully marked by Ken Ashby, and the runners were grateful to get an early split and adjust pace.
Bob tells me that this year he is short of volunteers, and because I believe the timers provide a real value to the race experience, I promised him I would ask you to step up and volunteer for one of the jobs. And now I’m going to “sell” you on it!
First, if you’ve never done it before, it’s incredibly fun. You’ll get instructions on how to yell out the splits as the runners pass you, nice and loud, and you’ll have lots of time to see your friends, get lots of thanks from the runners and have a great view of the race. So if you’re new to all this and would like to get involved, I promise you’ll get a lot of love from the DRC if you step up. Also, if you’re injured and want to come to the race, this is a great way to visit and keep busy.
The head of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit gave me an exclusive interview last week on the agency’s restructuring. Chief Supt. Dan Malo said the more that 400 employees of the CFSEU will now be dedicated to tackling gang violence.
Parts of the agency that previously did longer-term organized crime investigations will now be joining the efforts to tackle the most violent gang members instead. The bigger investigations will be done by the RCMP’s federal policing sections in B.C.
Malo also said the Gang Task Force will be eliminated in name, given that all of CFSEU now has the same mandate as the GTF, which was a unit with the CFSEU.
Malo said he has consulted with the 14 member agencies – the RCMP and municipal police, plus the organized crime agency – as well as the BC government, so everyone is in agreement this is the best way to proceed.
There are now 188 gangs and crime groups in B.C., Malo said. That is up from just 51 in 2003. Of course there is a lot more intelligence being gathered now than there was then, so some of the increase is due to more detailed information-gathering.
Except for last year, the Dallas Running Club has provided this service every year at the Half, and they plan to do it again this year on Sunday November 4th. As a runner, you’ll appreciate it I’m sure because you’ll get gun time information, even if your timing device gives you chip time.
Bob Freeman has headed up this volunteer effort for some years, managing the timers, and I’ve had the pleasure of working for him in the past. Basically what happens is this. The volunteers stage at a convenient location, say a mile or so into the course, then listen for the gun by cell phone and start their watches. From there they are dropped off one by one at all the mile marks. I once worked at the half-mile helpfully marked by Ken Ashby, and the runners were grateful to get an early split and adjust pace.
Bob tells me that this year he is short of volunteers, and because I believe the timers provide a real value to the race experience, I promised him I would ask you to step up and volunteer for one of the jobs. And now I’m going to “sell” you on it!
First, if you’ve never done it before, it’s incredibly fun. You’ll get instructions on how to yell out the splits as the runners pass you, nice and loud, and you’ll have lots of time to see your friends, get lots of thanks from the runners and have a great view of the race. So if you’re new to all this and would like to get involved, I promise you’ll get a lot of love from the DRC if you step up. Also, if you’re injured and want to come to the race, this is a great way to visit and keep busy.
The head of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit gave me an exclusive interview last week on the agency’s restructuring. Chief Supt. Dan Malo said the more that 400 employees of the CFSEU will now be dedicated to tackling gang violence.
Parts of the agency that previously did longer-term organized crime investigations will now be joining the efforts to tackle the most violent gang members instead. The bigger investigations will be done by the RCMP’s federal policing sections in B.C.
Malo also said the Gang Task Force will be eliminated in name, given that all of CFSEU now has the same mandate as the GTF, which was a unit with the CFSEU.
Malo said he has consulted with the 14 member agencies – the RCMP and municipal police, plus the organized crime agency – as well as the BC government, so everyone is in agreement this is the best way to proceed.
There are now 188 gangs and crime groups in B.C., Malo said. That is up from just 51 in 2003. Of course there is a lot more intelligence being gathered now than there was then, so some of the increase is due to more detailed information-gathering.
2012年9月20日星期四
Concierge Auctions and Montana Living
Ponderosa Ranch, a 180-acre sportsman's paradise located in Montana's Madison River Basin, a property, has gone under contract through Concierge Auctions. The NYC-based real estate auction firm, which has sold multiple ranch properties out West in recent months, sold the ranch estate in cooperation with Martha Johnson of Montana Living ~ Big Sky Real Estate. Johnson represented both the seller and buyer.
"I've had extensive experience selling cars and art through auction. Now, having successfully used the process to sell Ponderosa Ranch, Concierge will undoubtedly be a first consideration the next time I plan for a significant real estate transaction, whether buying or selling," stated the seller, John Staluppi, Jr. "The Concierge staff are seasoned professionals and identified hundreds of interested buyers from around the world in just one month's time. I was pleased with the entire experience and wish the new owners many years of enjoyment with the property."
Concierge Auctions' global exposure campaign generated 901 inquiries and 32 showings over a four-week marketing period. The auction website received an impressive 30,000+ visitors from all US states led by California, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Colorado and 126 international countries led by Canada, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Mexico. The buyer is from New Orleans.
"Having worked with Concierge Auctions twice in the past year at the prestigious Yellowstone Club and The Club at Spanish Peaks in nearby Big Sky, it's clear that their team effectively fosters quick sales to highly qualified luxury buyers," stated Martha Johnson, Broker/Owner of Montana Living ~ Big Sky Real Estate. "Ponderosa Ranch is a luxury sporting ranch that demanded a sophisticated buyer. In the end, working as a team, we found the ideal family with an appreciation for its countless amenities, its location being surrounded by a national forest and its proximity to the best blue ribbon trout streams in the world."
Poised majestically along Montana's Raynolds Pass, a gateway to Yellowstone National Park and mere minutes from some of the best fly fishing in the world, Ponderosa Ranch boasts views of the extraordinary Gravelly and Madison Mountain Ranges and Henry's Lake. The landscape hosts an abundance of wildlife and wildflowers with one edge bordering National Forest and another backing up to the state of Idaho. With a combined total of over 25,000 square feet, the houses at the Ponderosa Ranch can easily accommodate a group of over 25 family members and guests. The Great House is a 9,000-square-foot log cabin-style home, built in 1997 and expanded upon and updated in 2010. The six-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bathroom property features state-of-the-art workmanship with panoramic views from every window, vaulted ceilings and an impressive Montana granite fireplace. There is radiant floor heat throughout, private decks, a Jacuzzi and a three-car, attached garage. The five-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom Guest House contains 6,000 square feet and has all the details and finishes of the Great House on a slightly smaller scale. Residents can literally hunt off the front porch and fish in the 1/4-acre pond stocked with more than 300 rainbow trout. Snowmobiling and four-wheeling is also popular, and there is a year-round saltwater pool accessible from the main house via an enclosed walkway. The game room is complete with a billiards table, bar and exercise facilities, and there is an outdoor spa. Also on the property is a caretaker's cottage with two bedrooms, three bathrooms and two-and-a-half-car garage.
"Concierge Auctions has a proven track record of successfully selling luxury high-end properties including ranches, which fit our mold as each is distinct and one-of-a-kind," stated Laura Brady, Vice President of Marketing for Concierge Auctions. "Mr. Staluppi and his family are ideal clients, as they understand the intricacies and effectiveness of the auction process. Now, just weeks after announcing the auctions of Ponderosa Ranch and Paintbrush Ranch - the Staluppi family's other ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - both are now heading to the closing table."
"I've had extensive experience selling cars and art through auction. Now, having successfully used the process to sell Ponderosa Ranch, Concierge will undoubtedly be a first consideration the next time I plan for a significant real estate transaction, whether buying or selling," stated the seller, John Staluppi, Jr. "The Concierge staff are seasoned professionals and identified hundreds of interested buyers from around the world in just one month's time. I was pleased with the entire experience and wish the new owners many years of enjoyment with the property."
Concierge Auctions' global exposure campaign generated 901 inquiries and 32 showings over a four-week marketing period. The auction website received an impressive 30,000+ visitors from all US states led by California, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Colorado and 126 international countries led by Canada, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Mexico. The buyer is from New Orleans.
"Having worked with Concierge Auctions twice in the past year at the prestigious Yellowstone Club and The Club at Spanish Peaks in nearby Big Sky, it's clear that their team effectively fosters quick sales to highly qualified luxury buyers," stated Martha Johnson, Broker/Owner of Montana Living ~ Big Sky Real Estate. "Ponderosa Ranch is a luxury sporting ranch that demanded a sophisticated buyer. In the end, working as a team, we found the ideal family with an appreciation for its countless amenities, its location being surrounded by a national forest and its proximity to the best blue ribbon trout streams in the world."
Poised majestically along Montana's Raynolds Pass, a gateway to Yellowstone National Park and mere minutes from some of the best fly fishing in the world, Ponderosa Ranch boasts views of the extraordinary Gravelly and Madison Mountain Ranges and Henry's Lake. The landscape hosts an abundance of wildlife and wildflowers with one edge bordering National Forest and another backing up to the state of Idaho. With a combined total of over 25,000 square feet, the houses at the Ponderosa Ranch can easily accommodate a group of over 25 family members and guests. The Great House is a 9,000-square-foot log cabin-style home, built in 1997 and expanded upon and updated in 2010. The six-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bathroom property features state-of-the-art workmanship with panoramic views from every window, vaulted ceilings and an impressive Montana granite fireplace. There is radiant floor heat throughout, private decks, a Jacuzzi and a three-car, attached garage. The five-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom Guest House contains 6,000 square feet and has all the details and finishes of the Great House on a slightly smaller scale. Residents can literally hunt off the front porch and fish in the 1/4-acre pond stocked with more than 300 rainbow trout. Snowmobiling and four-wheeling is also popular, and there is a year-round saltwater pool accessible from the main house via an enclosed walkway. The game room is complete with a billiards table, bar and exercise facilities, and there is an outdoor spa. Also on the property is a caretaker's cottage with two bedrooms, three bathrooms and two-and-a-half-car garage.
"Concierge Auctions has a proven track record of successfully selling luxury high-end properties including ranches, which fit our mold as each is distinct and one-of-a-kind," stated Laura Brady, Vice President of Marketing for Concierge Auctions. "Mr. Staluppi and his family are ideal clients, as they understand the intricacies and effectiveness of the auction process. Now, just weeks after announcing the auctions of Ponderosa Ranch and Paintbrush Ranch - the Staluppi family's other ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - both are now heading to the closing table."
2012年9月18日星期二
Researchers tag great white sharks off Cape Cod
The scientists and fishermen on board the Ocearch, a repurposed crabbing vessel, received word that their scouting boat had hooked a great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.
They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.
Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."
Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area.
"We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.
Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.
The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes.
"I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."
The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.
While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.
Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.
Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say.
"These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."
The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it's also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.
Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.
Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.
Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.
Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.
Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.
The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.
McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.
The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.
They measured the fish — 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds — and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.
McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.
After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.
McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups.
"That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."
They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
"I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.
Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark Wranglers."
Now, Ocearch has come to Cape Cod for a few weeks, minus the reality show and plus local scientists, to help shed light on the sharks' migration patterns, protect breeding and birthing sites, improve public safety and raise awareness about the threatened species that is a rising presence in the area.
"We have massive knowledge gaps about how to protect their future," said Fischer, Ocearch's expedition leader.
Ocearch's real-time satellite tags last five years. Each time sharks' dorsal fins breaks the surface, the tags ping a satellite and mark an online map, accessible to researchers and the public.
The work is dangerous for both man and fish. One shark died on the lift in South Africa. The crew tries to return sharks to the water within 15 minutes.
"I used to be nervous of what they'd do to me," co-captain Jody Whitworth said. "Now I worry that we'll hurt them."
The Cape Cod expedition faces another challenge: finding the fish.
While great white sightings have risen near Cape Cod, they are much more common off South Africa or Australia.
Skomal estimates 30 great whites roam the Cape Cod coast on any given day. The Ocearch crew hopes to tag five.
Protecting these sharks is key, researchers say.
"These predators keep the next lower level in check," said Bob Hueter, of Mote Marine Laboratory, one of the research organizations working with the Cape Cod expedition. "It's a system of checks and balances."
The great white is the "lion of the ocean," keeping seal, squid and fish populations in check, Fischer said. But it's also the shark that people are most interested in, making it a gateway for ocean conservation and advocacy, he said.
Catching a shark starts with chum, drawing sharks to the boat by placing whale blubber and other shark favorites in the water a mile out from the ship.
Fischer says the crew doesn't draw sharks, as critics have claimed, but merely leads nearby sharks to the boat.
Most of Fischer's crew spends each day on a boat barely bigger than the great whites, traveling among chum locations and looking for sharks.
Just after dusk on Sept. 13, they spotted a great white and hooked it. Then, the small boat's crew slowly led the shark four miles to the 126-foot Ocearch.
Ocearch Capt. Brett McBride guided the shark onto the wooden platform with metal sides. Barefoot, he jumped in too. The lift slowly rose out of the water, level with Ocearch's deck.
The shark thrashed and bared her teeth as the water receded, curving her head and tail into the air.
McBride threw a wet towel over her eyes and removed the two-foot hook from her mouth. He pumped water over her gills with two large hoses.
The crew jumped onto the lift in their jeans and long-sleeve shirts, and the clock began.
They measured the fish — 14 feet, 8 inches and 2,292 pounds — and screwed the satellite tag, an accelerometer and an acoustic tag onto her dorsal fin with a power drill. Researchers collected blood and tissue samples.
McBride named the female shark Genie after renowned shark researcher Eugenie Clark.
After nearly 15 minutes, everybody scrambled off as the lift was lowered back into the water.
McBride grabbed Genie's tail and slowly guided her back into the ocean. They were done in 16 minutes flat. Genie drifted down into the dark water. The crew clinked beer cans and soda cups.
"That one shark alone was worth the trip," McBride said, noting she might lead researchers to breeding and birthing sites. "Any time we tag a great white shark it adds tremendous information to what we already know, which is very little."
2012年9月6日星期四
Kloppers bent in crosshairs
WHETHER it is fair or not the absoluteness is that the managers of Australia's above miners charge to absolve their jobs.
There is no agnosticism that they accept no ascendancy over falling adamant ore and atramentous prices, which are the aftereffect of alien factors.
So it comes down to their abode to accord with the arduous ambiance and their acknowledgment strategies.
Should they accept advancing the abatement in bolt prices and are their antithesis bedding in adjustment to acclimate the storm?
Andrew Forrest, whose Fortescue Metals has the a lot of alarming antithesis sheet, has amnesty because he is the above shareholder.
It has been BHP Billiton bang-up Marius Kloppers whose administration has been the accountable of belief as his investment roadshow has trundled through Britain and Australia.
The a lot of contempo activate is the slump in the amount of adamant ore over the accomplished brace of months and its decidedly aciculate abatement over contempo weeks.
He has already copped criticism for the accretion of $20 billion of oil/shale gas assets in the US, which afterwards alone a year accept been accounting down.
Kloppers sees the advance into oil and gas that these assets accept delivered as a cardinal beat for him and the company, and takes the appearance this has put him in adequate account with the investment community.
In approach the absorber that activity assets accommodate the aggregation is a plus, but the amount paid and the authentic assets in catechism accept angry a analytical bazaar eye on BHP.
Previously he has had to abrasion accusation for the abortion to assassinate a alliance with Rio, and to get his easily on Canadian potash assets, both of which in my appearance were strategically alive moves.
The potash amount has remained abiding in the 18 months aback BHP attempted this acquisition.
Kloppers now faces his bigger claiming - to argue investors that BHP was able for an adamant ore amount that is beneath $US90 a tonne and that the accumulation can acclimate this bearings bigger than its peers.
BHP's aboriginal band of advance is to outline how boxy the bazaar is, but aswell to advance to investors that the aggregation provided them with abounding warning.
In particular, BHP now consistently refers to the two cogent addresses - one accustomed by administrator Jac Nasser to a business cafeteria in Sydney and one by Kloppers to an broker appointment in May.
More detail was independent in Kloppers' abode but it was overshadowed by Nasser's ad-lib acknowledgment during a columnist appointment in which he accepted that the $80 billion basic investment that BHP had connected announced of would be scaled back.
On the added ancillary of the world, Kloppers was cogent investors that the 15 per cent advance in Chinese animate burning over the 10 years to 2010 would abatement aback in allotment and in complete terms. And by 2025 it will alpha to shrink.
The catechism is whether these warnings were delivered with adequate accent to complete the admonishing bells. There is aswell a catechism over whether the timing will ultimately be accurate.
BHP has a point that the bazaar abandoned the signals and connected its adulation activity with adamant ore.
But annihilation in the Kloppers speech, or in a bulletin from any added producer, would accept led the bazaar to accept the adamant ore amount would be area it is today.
Indeed no producers, including BHP, are even now suggesting that the adamant ore amount will break this low over the average term.
Everyone holds the appearance that already the locally produced Chinese stockpiles are depleted the excess will abandon and rational appraisement will resume at about above $US100 a tonne.
But no one is too agog to adumbrate if that ability be. And a lot can change amid now and if this appraisement acclimation takes place.
In the aboriginal case, there will be basic and labour curtailment - which agency that those companies that accept the antithesis bedding to accompany projects in developed countries with beneath absolute accident will be able to do so after the amount aggrandizement that has bedeviled them over the accomplished few years. But even if companies wish to aces up projects that accept been put on ice, it will yield years to get them up and active again.
For example, even if the adamant ore amount rebounds to adequate levels, it would be a few years afore BHP Billiton could restart its alien Port Hedland harbour expansion.
In the abbreviate to average term, companies like BHP are added acceptable to sit on their hands, even if they accept the antithesis area to invest. If assets are to be maintained, chargeless banknote breeze this year at atomic will be curtailed.
There is no agnosticism that they accept no ascendancy over falling adamant ore and atramentous prices, which are the aftereffect of alien factors.
So it comes down to their abode to accord with the arduous ambiance and their acknowledgment strategies.
Should they accept advancing the abatement in bolt prices and are their antithesis bedding in adjustment to acclimate the storm?
Andrew Forrest, whose Fortescue Metals has the a lot of alarming antithesis sheet, has amnesty because he is the above shareholder.
It has been BHP Billiton bang-up Marius Kloppers whose administration has been the accountable of belief as his investment roadshow has trundled through Britain and Australia.
The a lot of contempo activate is the slump in the amount of adamant ore over the accomplished brace of months and its decidedly aciculate abatement over contempo weeks.
He has already copped criticism for the accretion of $20 billion of oil/shale gas assets in the US, which afterwards alone a year accept been accounting down.
Kloppers sees the advance into oil and gas that these assets accept delivered as a cardinal beat for him and the company, and takes the appearance this has put him in adequate account with the investment community.
In approach the absorber that activity assets accommodate the aggregation is a plus, but the amount paid and the authentic assets in catechism accept angry a analytical bazaar eye on BHP.
Previously he has had to abrasion accusation for the abortion to assassinate a alliance with Rio, and to get his easily on Canadian potash assets, both of which in my appearance were strategically alive moves.
The potash amount has remained abiding in the 18 months aback BHP attempted this acquisition.
Kloppers now faces his bigger claiming - to argue investors that BHP was able for an adamant ore amount that is beneath $US90 a tonne and that the accumulation can acclimate this bearings bigger than its peers.
BHP's aboriginal band of advance is to outline how boxy the bazaar is, but aswell to advance to investors that the aggregation provided them with abounding warning.
In particular, BHP now consistently refers to the two cogent addresses - one accustomed by administrator Jac Nasser to a business cafeteria in Sydney and one by Kloppers to an broker appointment in May.
More detail was independent in Kloppers' abode but it was overshadowed by Nasser's ad-lib acknowledgment during a columnist appointment in which he accepted that the $80 billion basic investment that BHP had connected announced of would be scaled back.
On the added ancillary of the world, Kloppers was cogent investors that the 15 per cent advance in Chinese animate burning over the 10 years to 2010 would abatement aback in allotment and in complete terms. And by 2025 it will alpha to shrink.
The catechism is whether these warnings were delivered with adequate accent to complete the admonishing bells. There is aswell a catechism over whether the timing will ultimately be accurate.
BHP has a point that the bazaar abandoned the signals and connected its adulation activity with adamant ore.
But annihilation in the Kloppers speech, or in a bulletin from any added producer, would accept led the bazaar to accept the adamant ore amount would be area it is today.
Indeed no producers, including BHP, are even now suggesting that the adamant ore amount will break this low over the average term.
Everyone holds the appearance that already the locally produced Chinese stockpiles are depleted the excess will abandon and rational appraisement will resume at about above $US100 a tonne.
But no one is too agog to adumbrate if that ability be. And a lot can change amid now and if this appraisement acclimation takes place.
In the aboriginal case, there will be basic and labour curtailment - which agency that those companies that accept the antithesis bedding to accompany projects in developed countries with beneath absolute accident will be able to do so after the amount aggrandizement that has bedeviled them over the accomplished few years. But even if companies wish to aces up projects that accept been put on ice, it will yield years to get them up and active again.
For example, even if the adamant ore amount rebounds to adequate levels, it would be a few years afore BHP Billiton could restart its alien Port Hedland harbour expansion.
In the abbreviate to average term, companies like BHP are added acceptable to sit on their hands, even if they accept the antithesis area to invest. If assets are to be maintained, chargeless banknote breeze this year at atomic will be curtailed.
2012年9月4日星期二
Greece sees its borrowing costs dip
Greece's concise borrowing costs eased hardly in a treasury bill bargain Tuesday, but the debt-wracked country still had to allurement investors with a 4.54 per cent acknowledgment for cardboard crumbling in six months' time.
The debt administration bureau said the bargain aloft 1.14 billion. The antecedent auction of six-month treasury bills brought in 812.5 actor alms a 4.68 per cent absorption rate.
By comparison, investors are able to acquire a slight accident to get their easily on German six-month bills, which are apparent as a safe anchorage during afflicted times.
Since 2010, Greece has been clumsy to accounts its government absurdity through the accepted aisle of affairs bonds, which were demoted to non-investment brand afterwards it emerged that the country's arrears was abundant college than ahead admitted.
Instead, Athens relies on all-embracing accomplishment loans, accepted on action it accouterments acrid acerbity measures to acclimatized the arrears and ameliorate an abridgement already in its fifth year of recession.
But bailout payments were delayed by political alternation and backward reforms, banishment the country to await anytime added on treasury-bill sales — initially advised to acquiesce it some anatomy of bazaar access.
Last month, Greece awash 5 billion account of three-month debt to pay off a crumbling band captivated by the European Central Bank. The treasury bills are mostly bought by cash-needy calm banks that use them as accessory to tap emergency European funds.
To authorize for the next, 31 billion accomplishment accommodation installment, the conservative-led administering affiliation accept to plan out a new 11.5 billion acerbity amalgamation for 2013-14 that has to be accustomed by bailout creditors afterwards this month.
The anticipation of new affliction afterwards two-and-a-half years of assets cuts and tax hikes has angered unions — including police, board and university teaching agents — who are planning a alternation of protests or strikes in the next few days.
On Tuesday, about 200 pensioners from a Communist-backed abutment pushed their way into the Health Ministry during an Athens assemblage adjoin healthcare cuts. The beef concluded peacefully.
Private doctors and pharmacists this anniversary banned to accumulate extending acclaim to Greece's better state-run healthcare provider, EOPYY, acquainted the government has not paid them for months.
It seems that gun ascendancy should be a no-brainer. Our city-limits and added communities beyond this country accept afresh apparent the adverse after-effects of the abusage of accoutrements by accustomed citizens, including by adolescent teens.
When I was a growing up in Baltimore humans acquainted safe. We went out abandoned at night; I generally went to the library abandoned afterwards aphotic at age 10. We never heard about shootings. They seemed to be alone in cowboy movies.
The availability of accoutrements to any two-legged animal who could allocution afflicted all that. It's accurate that animal beings can get actual angry, conceivably even affronted abundant to kill. But if accoutrements weren't so readily accessible that acrimony ability be bidding in beneath baleful ways.
I agnosticism that the Founding Fathers meant for anyone to accurately backpack a gun. Didn't they allege about a militia? That chat in itself implies control.
The debt administration bureau said the bargain aloft 1.14 billion. The antecedent auction of six-month treasury bills brought in 812.5 actor alms a 4.68 per cent absorption rate.
By comparison, investors are able to acquire a slight accident to get their easily on German six-month bills, which are apparent as a safe anchorage during afflicted times.
Since 2010, Greece has been clumsy to accounts its government absurdity through the accepted aisle of affairs bonds, which were demoted to non-investment brand afterwards it emerged that the country's arrears was abundant college than ahead admitted.
Instead, Athens relies on all-embracing accomplishment loans, accepted on action it accouterments acrid acerbity measures to acclimatized the arrears and ameliorate an abridgement already in its fifth year of recession.
But bailout payments were delayed by political alternation and backward reforms, banishment the country to await anytime added on treasury-bill sales — initially advised to acquiesce it some anatomy of bazaar access.
Last month, Greece awash 5 billion account of three-month debt to pay off a crumbling band captivated by the European Central Bank. The treasury bills are mostly bought by cash-needy calm banks that use them as accessory to tap emergency European funds.
To authorize for the next, 31 billion accomplishment accommodation installment, the conservative-led administering affiliation accept to plan out a new 11.5 billion acerbity amalgamation for 2013-14 that has to be accustomed by bailout creditors afterwards this month.
The anticipation of new affliction afterwards two-and-a-half years of assets cuts and tax hikes has angered unions — including police, board and university teaching agents — who are planning a alternation of protests or strikes in the next few days.
On Tuesday, about 200 pensioners from a Communist-backed abutment pushed their way into the Health Ministry during an Athens assemblage adjoin healthcare cuts. The beef concluded peacefully.
Private doctors and pharmacists this anniversary banned to accumulate extending acclaim to Greece's better state-run healthcare provider, EOPYY, acquainted the government has not paid them for months.
It seems that gun ascendancy should be a no-brainer. Our city-limits and added communities beyond this country accept afresh apparent the adverse after-effects of the abusage of accoutrements by accustomed citizens, including by adolescent teens.
When I was a growing up in Baltimore humans acquainted safe. We went out abandoned at night; I generally went to the library abandoned afterwards aphotic at age 10. We never heard about shootings. They seemed to be alone in cowboy movies.
The availability of accoutrements to any two-legged animal who could allocution afflicted all that. It's accurate that animal beings can get actual angry, conceivably even affronted abundant to kill. But if accoutrements weren't so readily accessible that acrimony ability be bidding in beneath baleful ways.
I agnosticism that the Founding Fathers meant for anyone to accurately backpack a gun. Didn't they allege about a militia? That chat in itself implies control.
2012年8月20日星期一
Programming threatened as Louisiana Public
A brief conversation with Louisiana Public Broadcasting President Beth Courtney makes one thing clear: She does not mince words.
It's apparent, as well, that she will not let her station go down without a fight.
Louisiana Public Broadcasting is funded partially through the Public Broadcasting System, and the head of the latter is nearly always on the chopping block. Federal funds pay a portion of the bills for PBS, and in turn pay a portion of the bills for LPB.
Last month the U.S. House Republicans announced legislation aimed at cutting off federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS, saying it could get along just fine without taxpayer help.
"Just because you have a bookstore doesn't mean you don't need libraries," Courtney said. "I'm not going quietly into the night."
The move comes on the heels of PBS' record 58 Emmy Awards nominations. The mass following of "Downton Abby" alone has pushed public broadcasting into a new dimension where young adults tune in at the rate of small children to "Sesame Street." That is to say, PBS is hip.
The state of Louisiana has been chipping away at LPB's budget since 2008; it's now down 37 percent. Another nearly $2 million in cuts from the federal government could be the death blow.
"You get ($2 million) with the decline in state funding, and it would be devastating to our budget," Courtney said. "That money is really important."
If the proposed cuts pass, Louisiana residents would lose local programming first. That includes "Louisiana Public Square," "The State We're In," "Atchafalaya Houseboat" and dozens of other programs that tell Louisiana's stories of creek banks, farm houses and skyscrapers.
Much of the PBS/LPB programming that goes to DVD or book ends up in Central Louisiana libraries.
"I was surprised at the variety and substance of material we have (in the parish library system)," said Rapides Parish Library Director Steve Rogge. "The latest is a documentary called 'Too Important to Fail' -- it's about African-American teenagers and the dropout rate. And there are materials on the Dust Bowl and Huey Long -- solid topics."
It's losing the children's programming, though, that would be most detrimental.
"What LPB does for our school children is amazing," said Carole Baxter, a Friends of LPB board member from Alexandria.
PBS/LPB is not just "Clifford, the Big Red Dog" and "Arthur." Children's educational programming is top priority for LPB. Louisiana educators avail themselves of LPB's materials to makes ends meet in the classrooms.
"Teachers can download programming to their (digital devices, including Promethean Boards)," Baxter said. "They can't get things off the internet because of all the (potential viruses). They can download this programming safely."
Angie Delrie, Library Media Specialist at W.O. Hall Elementary, said PBS Kids is an invaluable resource.
"They have such a wide range of subject areas and interesting topics," she said. "I don't think teachers or parents realize how many resources are at their fingertips."
The funding strain could be the reason, Delrie said. She said she hasn't seen much literature available to promote PBS Kids.
"A child or even a teacher could be on for days and never access all the resources," Delrie said. "And it's all free."
Free resources to teachers is more important now than ever, as the Louisiana education system is revamped this year.
"With our new common core, (PBS Kids) gives the kids a technology base for their learning," Delrie said. "We are to provide every type of learning we can to the kids. PBS provides technology learning, and through handouts I can print out for activities, it provides hands-on learning."
It's apparent, as well, that she will not let her station go down without a fight.
Louisiana Public Broadcasting is funded partially through the Public Broadcasting System, and the head of the latter is nearly always on the chopping block. Federal funds pay a portion of the bills for PBS, and in turn pay a portion of the bills for LPB.
Last month the U.S. House Republicans announced legislation aimed at cutting off federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS, saying it could get along just fine without taxpayer help.
"Just because you have a bookstore doesn't mean you don't need libraries," Courtney said. "I'm not going quietly into the night."
The move comes on the heels of PBS' record 58 Emmy Awards nominations. The mass following of "Downton Abby" alone has pushed public broadcasting into a new dimension where young adults tune in at the rate of small children to "Sesame Street." That is to say, PBS is hip.
The state of Louisiana has been chipping away at LPB's budget since 2008; it's now down 37 percent. Another nearly $2 million in cuts from the federal government could be the death blow.
"You get ($2 million) with the decline in state funding, and it would be devastating to our budget," Courtney said. "That money is really important."
If the proposed cuts pass, Louisiana residents would lose local programming first. That includes "Louisiana Public Square," "The State We're In," "Atchafalaya Houseboat" and dozens of other programs that tell Louisiana's stories of creek banks, farm houses and skyscrapers.
Much of the PBS/LPB programming that goes to DVD or book ends up in Central Louisiana libraries.
"I was surprised at the variety and substance of material we have (in the parish library system)," said Rapides Parish Library Director Steve Rogge. "The latest is a documentary called 'Too Important to Fail' -- it's about African-American teenagers and the dropout rate. And there are materials on the Dust Bowl and Huey Long -- solid topics."
It's losing the children's programming, though, that would be most detrimental.
"What LPB does for our school children is amazing," said Carole Baxter, a Friends of LPB board member from Alexandria.
PBS/LPB is not just "Clifford, the Big Red Dog" and "Arthur." Children's educational programming is top priority for LPB. Louisiana educators avail themselves of LPB's materials to makes ends meet in the classrooms.
"Teachers can download programming to their (digital devices, including Promethean Boards)," Baxter said. "They can't get things off the internet because of all the (potential viruses). They can download this programming safely."
Angie Delrie, Library Media Specialist at W.O. Hall Elementary, said PBS Kids is an invaluable resource.
"They have such a wide range of subject areas and interesting topics," she said. "I don't think teachers or parents realize how many resources are at their fingertips."
The funding strain could be the reason, Delrie said. She said she hasn't seen much literature available to promote PBS Kids.
"A child or even a teacher could be on for days and never access all the resources," Delrie said. "And it's all free."
Free resources to teachers is more important now than ever, as the Louisiana education system is revamped this year.
"With our new common core, (PBS Kids) gives the kids a technology base for their learning," Delrie said. "We are to provide every type of learning we can to the kids. PBS provides technology learning, and through handouts I can print out for activities, it provides hands-on learning."
2012年8月1日星期三
Mobile Science Museum Visits Homeless Children
The Cal State Long Beach Mobile Science Museum paid a visit to more than 100 children of homeless Long Beach families Tuesday as part of a free, two-week science education camp.
The museum on wheels arrived at the Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center at the Villages at Cabrillo around 9 a.m. Tuesday, where about 120 children kindergarten through 8th grade gathered to experience the wide world of science.
Wrapping up the a two-week summer program dubbed See Us Succeed, the MSM presented more than 40 exhibits devoted to sciences ranging from astronomy to zoology. The hands-on displays, which include a marine touch tank and a motion chair, are designed to bring a museum experience to those unable able to visit them.
Started in 1980, the MSM has since grown into one of Cal State Long Beach’s most successful community outreach programs, according to the university.
“It’s one of the more exciting things that I do because it’s something that these kids would never have the opportunity to take part in,” said Laura Henriques, chair of the CSULB Science Education Department, in a statement. “It gives parents time to seek employment or more permanent housing or do things without having to worry about their kids being in safe programming,” she said.
Another one of the many challenges facing families in the homeless community is where to go during the day when shelters close their doors. Adressing that need and more, the program and the credentialed teachers and students of the MSM are ensuring that of all the things local underpiveleged youth lack, a memorable museum visit won’t be one of them.
Made possible by a grant from the Verizon Foundation, the program is a partnership of the Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center for Homeless Students, which serves more than 300 students a year, and the Long Beach Unified School District, which serves more than homeless 5,000 students a year, according to their web sites.
The center is named for its founder, McLeod Bethune, who was born to slaves in 1875 and committed her life to ensuring that others had the access to education that she did not as a child.
Adrian, a 23-year-old largely overshadowed by American stars such as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, made a name for himself by winning the 100-meter Olympic freestyle Wednesday. He lunged to the wall to edge James "The Missile" Magnussen by one-hundredth of a second — the slightest margin possible — and again deny Australia its first individual swimming gold of the London Games.
Adrian pounded the water, then put his hands over his eyes while dangling over the lane rope, as if he couldn't believe the "1" beside his name. Magnussen hung at the end of the pool, staring straight ahead at the wall in disbelief, the wall he got to just a fraction of a second too late.
"It's not who swims the fastest time this year," said Adrian, a not-so-subtle dig at Magnussen posting the best time ever in a textile suit back in March. "It's who can get their hands on the wall first here tonight."
The Aussies took another bitter defeat in the final event of the evening, again to their American rivals as Schmitt chased down Alicia Coutts for gold in the 4x200 freestyle relay.
Schmitt dived in the water about a half-second behind but passed Coutts on their first return lap and won going away in 7 minutes, 42.92 seconds. The Australians settled for another silver in 7:44.41, while France took the bronze.
Schmitt is turning into one of the biggest American stars of the games, picking up her second gold to go along with a silver and a bronze. Seventeen-year-old Missy Franklin also claimed her second gold swimming the leadoff leg, and Dana Vollmer now has two golds in London. Shannon Vreeland rounded out the gold medal-winning quartet.
The museum on wheels arrived at the Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center at the Villages at Cabrillo around 9 a.m. Tuesday, where about 120 children kindergarten through 8th grade gathered to experience the wide world of science.
Wrapping up the a two-week summer program dubbed See Us Succeed, the MSM presented more than 40 exhibits devoted to sciences ranging from astronomy to zoology. The hands-on displays, which include a marine touch tank and a motion chair, are designed to bring a museum experience to those unable able to visit them.
Started in 1980, the MSM has since grown into one of Cal State Long Beach’s most successful community outreach programs, according to the university.
“It’s one of the more exciting things that I do because it’s something that these kids would never have the opportunity to take part in,” said Laura Henriques, chair of the CSULB Science Education Department, in a statement. “It gives parents time to seek employment or more permanent housing or do things without having to worry about their kids being in safe programming,” she said.
Another one of the many challenges facing families in the homeless community is where to go during the day when shelters close their doors. Adressing that need and more, the program and the credentialed teachers and students of the MSM are ensuring that of all the things local underpiveleged youth lack, a memorable museum visit won’t be one of them.
Made possible by a grant from the Verizon Foundation, the program is a partnership of the Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center for Homeless Students, which serves more than 300 students a year, and the Long Beach Unified School District, which serves more than homeless 5,000 students a year, according to their web sites.
The center is named for its founder, McLeod Bethune, who was born to slaves in 1875 and committed her life to ensuring that others had the access to education that she did not as a child.
Adrian, a 23-year-old largely overshadowed by American stars such as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, made a name for himself by winning the 100-meter Olympic freestyle Wednesday. He lunged to the wall to edge James "The Missile" Magnussen by one-hundredth of a second — the slightest margin possible — and again deny Australia its first individual swimming gold of the London Games.
Adrian pounded the water, then put his hands over his eyes while dangling over the lane rope, as if he couldn't believe the "1" beside his name. Magnussen hung at the end of the pool, staring straight ahead at the wall in disbelief, the wall he got to just a fraction of a second too late.
"It's not who swims the fastest time this year," said Adrian, a not-so-subtle dig at Magnussen posting the best time ever in a textile suit back in March. "It's who can get their hands on the wall first here tonight."
The Aussies took another bitter defeat in the final event of the evening, again to their American rivals as Schmitt chased down Alicia Coutts for gold in the 4x200 freestyle relay.
Schmitt dived in the water about a half-second behind but passed Coutts on their first return lap and won going away in 7 minutes, 42.92 seconds. The Australians settled for another silver in 7:44.41, while France took the bronze.
Schmitt is turning into one of the biggest American stars of the games, picking up her second gold to go along with a silver and a bronze. Seventeen-year-old Missy Franklin also claimed her second gold swimming the leadoff leg, and Dana Vollmer now has two golds in London. Shannon Vreeland rounded out the gold medal-winning quartet.
2012年7月31日星期二
What’s up with China’s pond success?
When Chinese swimmers started alarming rivals out of the baptize in London’s Olympic pool, whispers bound followed. Is China cheating the action again, as it did in the 1990s, if drug-fueled, muscle-bound swimmers emerged from boilerplate to exhausted the world? Alain Bernard, the 2008 Olympic bathe best from France, was a part of those who wondered.
“I’m for apple-pie sport, afterwards doping, and I absolutely achievement the authorities in allegation of this are accomplishing their job in acceptable censor and absolutely well,” he said. “Unfortunately, I wish to say that there is no smoke afterwards fire. But today there is no affidavit to appearance that any Chinese has activated absolute in this competition.”
At a conference Monday in London, reporters brindled Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee’s medical agency chairman, with questions about Ye Shiwen, China’s 16-year-old pond sensation. Ljungqvist said “it is actual sad that an abrupt achievement be amidst by suspicions.”
“Suspicion is center an allegation that something is wrong,” Ljungqvist said. “I don’t like that. I would rather accept facts.”
Unlike the 1990s, however, there are believable explanations this time for why China is the pond abnormality of the 2012 Games.
For example, Ye’s alarming apple almanac in the 400 medley, if she swam the endure 50 meters faster than American Ryan Lochte did in acceptable the agnate men’s race, isn’t alone attributable to her ample easily and feet. It aswell is at atomic partly because China, which has developed to become the world’s second-largest economy, now throws big checks at some of swimming’s sharpest minds. China has angry to adopted trainers to get their apprenticeship programs, ability and methods, not alone to hone its pond stars but to accomplish them added angled and relaxed, too. The abstraction is that blessed swimmers are fast swimmers.
Ye has accomplished in Australia with two well-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. Wood has had a arrangement with the Chinese Pond Association back 2008, and 15 of China’s swimmers in London, additional 5 of its broadcast swimmers, accept accomplished at his academy arctic of Brisbane, alternating through in groups for a brace of months at a time, he told The Associated Press.
“I get paid per month, per swimmer four times added than I do with my home swimmers,” Wood said from Australia afterwards Ye able calmly fastest Monday in the 200 assortment heats. China pays him bonuses for Olympic gold and for swimmers’ claimed bests, and he aswell got a benefit for Ye’s 200 assortment apple championship win in 2011.
“China is putting a lot of money into its affairs and I am alone too blessed to plan with them,” he said. “The accomplished Chinese aesthetics is that they wish to be the best they can.”
Not alone is training across advertisement Chinese swimmers to added adult coaching, it is teaching them about activity and the added world. In Australia, they and their coaches are acquirements to let their hair down a bit and about themselves. For a acclimatized eyewitness of China and its state-run action system, the worldlier Chinese swimmers assuming so able-bodied in London are absolutely a new breed. These aren’t the automatons of old, with monosyllabic banal responses about how beholden they are to their citizenry and acutely so apprenticed of activity alfresco China’s government-funded badge factories with their bullwork of training and yet added training far from ancestors and friends.
Sun Yang, China’s aboriginal man to win an Olympic pond gold, radiates self-assurance, backbone and zeal. The 6-foot-6 swimmer with admeasurement 45 anxiety roared, formed the baptize with his fists, wept and remembered to acknowledge his mom and dad — “Really abundant parents, they gave me so much” — afterwards crushing arresting best Park Tae-hwan of South Korea in the 400 free. Sun is a part of those who accept accomplished in Australia.
Backstroker Fu Yuanhui, a aerated 16-year-old, angry out for her semifinal in a silly, furry, Santa Claus-type hat and a abominable grin. Lu Ying, argent advocate abaft the United States’ Dana Vollmer in the 100 fly, gave a long, anxious acknowledgment about why Australia was such an account for her. She said she was decidedly afflicted by the activity of the Australian swimmers she accomplished with and how they counterbalanced plan and play.
Foreign ability is aswell compensating for weaknesses in Chinese coaching. Wood said abounding top coaches in China’s ambit are retired swimmers. They apply on achievement technique, but “are not actual able-bodied up on biomechanics or any of the action science.”
“I’m for apple-pie sport, afterwards doping, and I absolutely achievement the authorities in allegation of this are accomplishing their job in acceptable censor and absolutely well,” he said. “Unfortunately, I wish to say that there is no smoke afterwards fire. But today there is no affidavit to appearance that any Chinese has activated absolute in this competition.”
At a conference Monday in London, reporters brindled Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee’s medical agency chairman, with questions about Ye Shiwen, China’s 16-year-old pond sensation. Ljungqvist said “it is actual sad that an abrupt achievement be amidst by suspicions.”
“Suspicion is center an allegation that something is wrong,” Ljungqvist said. “I don’t like that. I would rather accept facts.”
Unlike the 1990s, however, there are believable explanations this time for why China is the pond abnormality of the 2012 Games.
For example, Ye’s alarming apple almanac in the 400 medley, if she swam the endure 50 meters faster than American Ryan Lochte did in acceptable the agnate men’s race, isn’t alone attributable to her ample easily and feet. It aswell is at atomic partly because China, which has developed to become the world’s second-largest economy, now throws big checks at some of swimming’s sharpest minds. China has angry to adopted trainers to get their apprenticeship programs, ability and methods, not alone to hone its pond stars but to accomplish them added angled and relaxed, too. The abstraction is that blessed swimmers are fast swimmers.
Ye has accomplished in Australia with two well-recognized coaches, Ken Wood and Denis Cotterell. Wood has had a arrangement with the Chinese Pond Association back 2008, and 15 of China’s swimmers in London, additional 5 of its broadcast swimmers, accept accomplished at his academy arctic of Brisbane, alternating through in groups for a brace of months at a time, he told The Associated Press.
“I get paid per month, per swimmer four times added than I do with my home swimmers,” Wood said from Australia afterwards Ye able calmly fastest Monday in the 200 assortment heats. China pays him bonuses for Olympic gold and for swimmers’ claimed bests, and he aswell got a benefit for Ye’s 200 assortment apple championship win in 2011.
“China is putting a lot of money into its affairs and I am alone too blessed to plan with them,” he said. “The accomplished Chinese aesthetics is that they wish to be the best they can.”
Not alone is training across advertisement Chinese swimmers to added adult coaching, it is teaching them about activity and the added world. In Australia, they and their coaches are acquirements to let their hair down a bit and about themselves. For a acclimatized eyewitness of China and its state-run action system, the worldlier Chinese swimmers assuming so able-bodied in London are absolutely a new breed. These aren’t the automatons of old, with monosyllabic banal responses about how beholden they are to their citizenry and acutely so apprenticed of activity alfresco China’s government-funded badge factories with their bullwork of training and yet added training far from ancestors and friends.
Sun Yang, China’s aboriginal man to win an Olympic pond gold, radiates self-assurance, backbone and zeal. The 6-foot-6 swimmer with admeasurement 45 anxiety roared, formed the baptize with his fists, wept and remembered to acknowledge his mom and dad — “Really abundant parents, they gave me so much” — afterwards crushing arresting best Park Tae-hwan of South Korea in the 400 free. Sun is a part of those who accept accomplished in Australia.
Backstroker Fu Yuanhui, a aerated 16-year-old, angry out for her semifinal in a silly, furry, Santa Claus-type hat and a abominable grin. Lu Ying, argent advocate abaft the United States’ Dana Vollmer in the 100 fly, gave a long, anxious acknowledgment about why Australia was such an account for her. She said she was decidedly afflicted by the activity of the Australian swimmers she accomplished with and how they counterbalanced plan and play.
Foreign ability is aswell compensating for weaknesses in Chinese coaching. Wood said abounding top coaches in China’s ambit are retired swimmers. They apply on achievement technique, but “are not actual able-bodied up on biomechanics or any of the action science.”
2012年7月30日星期一
Early Travers Thoughts
It seems a bit funny now, but it was alone a brace of weeks ago, appropriate afterwards the retirement of Belmont Stakes champ Union Rags and the advertisement that a accessory affliction affected Bodemeister to absence training at a acute time, if there was abundant afflicted handwringing over how abhorrent this year’s Travers was traveling to be. It’s amazing how bound perceptions can change.
This Travers, at Saratoga on August 25, will accept a covering name afterwards all. That, of course, is Paynter, and I say that as one who absolutely brand Alpha as a chase horse. But a day afterwards Alpha able for the Travers with a absolute account in Saratoga’s Jim Dandy, and two canicule afterwards Street Life punched his Travers admission with a achievement in the Curlin at the Spa, Paynter addled in Sunday’s Haskell at Monmouth.
Even if you accept alone been about antagonism for two minutes, you could acquaint just by searching at it that Paynter’s Haskell was a ample cut aloft the pertinent performances that anon preceded it. I mean, Hansen could go out and win Saturday’s West Virginia Derby by 20 lengths (which he might, but I still accept he’s a abundant bigger fit for the seven furlongs of the King’s Bishop on the Travers undercard than the 10 furlongs of the Travers itself), and that would be a big addition for Travers promotion. But that wouldn’t change the actuality that Paynter is the able Travers favorite, and carefully the horse to beat.
I still haven’t bought into Street Life yet. He is bigger and he is in abundant hands, but I anticipate he about is still a grinder who got a abundant set up in the Curlin. Alpha is a altered story. Yes, he got abroad with simple fractions in his front-running Jim Dandy victory. But Alpha is best as a closer, and he in fact deserves credibility for accepting acceptable abundant to acclimate to a paceless bearings Saturday. I admired his successful, if temporary, change of active appearance against speed. To me, that is an apparent assurance of an arising horse, just as a horse who loses his positional acceleration is usually a assurance of decline.
I couldn’t advice but admiration if Winter Memories swishing her appendage and swerving about in the amplitude en avenue to her achievement in Saturday’s Diana at Saratoga wasn’t a assurance that she ability be accepting apathetic with this antagonism thing. She acutely wasn’t focused.
It is actual air-conditioned that two old, able geldings won the two big weekend contest at Del Mar – Abuse Cruise in Saturday’s San Diego Handicap and Amazombie in Sunday’s Bing Crosby. Abundant belief both, but do these performances angle up to scrutiny? Amazombie, endure year’s best macho sprinter, got a absolute cruise in the Crosby sitting just off a contested clip and exhausted a admired in The Factor who is just not himself appropriate now.
As for Abuse Trip, he is acutely at his best aback in Southern California and aback with trainer Ron Ellis. But what does it say about the San Diego ‘cap that if he was in New York with a trainer (Rick Dutrow) who wins with acutely 83% of his starters, Abuse Cruise wasn’t even an brief stakes horse?
The chargeless Wi-Fi at Saratoga is a abundant idea, and because every bazaar coffee boutique in America has offered this for years, it’s amazing this hasn’t been a accepted advantage at every clue in the land. I accept noticed that duke captivated tablets are acceptable added all-over at advance with anniversary casual week. I use one, and it acquainted like a affluence accepting able to bet with it at Saratoga. I even noticed a brace of guys walking about Restaurant Row there staring at laptops. Presumably, they were application Formulator.
Unfortunately, I can’t say annihilation nice about the widened, acute Mellon accommodation advance at Saratoga. Is it absolutely accessible that, if this activity was undertaken endure fall, no one at NYRA advised that the acute alfresco abuse on the Mellon accommodation would accomplish afterward horses on the far about-face in clay contest about impossible? Really? Of course, annihilation important happens on the far turn, anyway.
This Travers, at Saratoga on August 25, will accept a covering name afterwards all. That, of course, is Paynter, and I say that as one who absolutely brand Alpha as a chase horse. But a day afterwards Alpha able for the Travers with a absolute account in Saratoga’s Jim Dandy, and two canicule afterwards Street Life punched his Travers admission with a achievement in the Curlin at the Spa, Paynter addled in Sunday’s Haskell at Monmouth.
Even if you accept alone been about antagonism for two minutes, you could acquaint just by searching at it that Paynter’s Haskell was a ample cut aloft the pertinent performances that anon preceded it. I mean, Hansen could go out and win Saturday’s West Virginia Derby by 20 lengths (which he might, but I still accept he’s a abundant bigger fit for the seven furlongs of the King’s Bishop on the Travers undercard than the 10 furlongs of the Travers itself), and that would be a big addition for Travers promotion. But that wouldn’t change the actuality that Paynter is the able Travers favorite, and carefully the horse to beat.
I still haven’t bought into Street Life yet. He is bigger and he is in abundant hands, but I anticipate he about is still a grinder who got a abundant set up in the Curlin. Alpha is a altered story. Yes, he got abroad with simple fractions in his front-running Jim Dandy victory. But Alpha is best as a closer, and he in fact deserves credibility for accepting acceptable abundant to acclimate to a paceless bearings Saturday. I admired his successful, if temporary, change of active appearance against speed. To me, that is an apparent assurance of an arising horse, just as a horse who loses his positional acceleration is usually a assurance of decline.
I couldn’t advice but admiration if Winter Memories swishing her appendage and swerving about in the amplitude en avenue to her achievement in Saturday’s Diana at Saratoga wasn’t a assurance that she ability be accepting apathetic with this antagonism thing. She acutely wasn’t focused.
It is actual air-conditioned that two old, able geldings won the two big weekend contest at Del Mar – Abuse Cruise in Saturday’s San Diego Handicap and Amazombie in Sunday’s Bing Crosby. Abundant belief both, but do these performances angle up to scrutiny? Amazombie, endure year’s best macho sprinter, got a absolute cruise in the Crosby sitting just off a contested clip and exhausted a admired in The Factor who is just not himself appropriate now.
As for Abuse Trip, he is acutely at his best aback in Southern California and aback with trainer Ron Ellis. But what does it say about the San Diego ‘cap that if he was in New York with a trainer (Rick Dutrow) who wins with acutely 83% of his starters, Abuse Cruise wasn’t even an brief stakes horse?
The chargeless Wi-Fi at Saratoga is a abundant idea, and because every bazaar coffee boutique in America has offered this for years, it’s amazing this hasn’t been a accepted advantage at every clue in the land. I accept noticed that duke captivated tablets are acceptable added all-over at advance with anniversary casual week. I use one, and it acquainted like a affluence accepting able to bet with it at Saratoga. I even noticed a brace of guys walking about Restaurant Row there staring at laptops. Presumably, they were application Formulator.
Unfortunately, I can’t say annihilation nice about the widened, acute Mellon accommodation advance at Saratoga. Is it absolutely accessible that, if this activity was undertaken endure fall, no one at NYRA advised that the acute alfresco abuse on the Mellon accommodation would accomplish afterward horses on the far about-face in clay contest about impossible? Really? Of course, annihilation important happens on the far turn, anyway.
2012年7月26日星期四
More not necessarily bigger for 'Step Up'
With "Step Up Revolution," their additional summertime at-bat afterwards "Rock of Ages," producers Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot acknowledgment to one of the things they do best _ authoritative adolescent unknowns attending like the next big thing. In its fourth installment, however, the "Step Up" authorization has traded an air of authoritativeness for one of predictability. While die-hard admirers and ball fanatics will acknowledge on the aperture weekend, advancing antagonism from superheroes and beautiful animation characters may apathetic drive in consecutive weeks.
After dancing its way beyond Baltimore and New York City in antecedent iterations, "Step Up" moves to Miami, area homeboys Sean and Eddy accept been best buds back toddler-hood and now advance a bounded ball beam mob accepted as, well, "The Mob," just to accumulate things simple. Together with their crew, including choreographers, beheld artists and a DJ, the guys accept been busting out abruptness ball numbers all over Miami and cutting video to attack in a YouTube challenge to win $1 million.
Sean's day job as a aide at a affluence auberge helps abutment his ball addiction and pay the hire on the abode he shares with his single-mom sister and niece. When Emily Anderson turns up at the auberge _ endemic by her ancestor Bill , a adamant real-estate developer _ for a summer of bartending while advancing to audience for a coveted atom with a high-toned bounded ball company, allure accordingly blaze amid the two.
As it turns out, above Emily needs Sean's advice added than she suspects. Seems that the ball aggregation administrator thinks Emily is a accomplished aerialist but anguish a bit too deeply to be absolutely creative. So if she wants to accomplish it assimilate the roster, Emily is traveling to charge some new moves, which she abstracts Sean can advice bear already she discovers he's one of the motivators abaft The Mob. Afterwards her video debut, a adult amount in a crowded, adorned restaurant, draws millions of hits online, Emily's brought on with the accumulation as they plan their next abandoned "mission."
However there's one above obstacle looming over the pair's adventurous beatitude and able success: Emily's dad is bent to body a new affluence development afterwards razing the multiracial association area Sean lives and hangs out with added Mob members. Although Sean agrees to accumulate Emily's character buried while she rehearses and performs with his crew, if chat gets out, his artery cred will be absolutely shot, which could complicate that business about acceptable the YouTube video contest. Emily has addition idea, though, auspicious Sean and The Mob to angle up to her dad's development affairs with some proactive ball interventions.
Much like hit-making music producers, Shankman and Gibgot accept orchestrated a decidedly acceptable alternation that takes able filmmakers and performers and turns them into apparent professionals, like administering alum John M. Chu and above man-candy ballerina Channing Tatum. Authoritative his feature-filmmaking debut, music-video and TV administrator Scott Speer acquits himself adequately, decidedly back the cine is added affiliated to a long-form video project.
Playwright and first-time biographer Amanda Brody plays it safe, abrogation the pyrotechnics to the choreography aggregation and afraid to the franchise's accurate dance-romance formula, which offers few surprises but delivers effectively. The attack to add a atom of amusing appliance to an about airy ball car by staging ball protests adjoin the resort development is appealing abundant a nonstarter, decidedly back there's no adumbration that The Mob's actionable assemblies are alluring the atomic law-enforcement attention.
Abercrombie & Fitch archetypal Guzman looks every bit the metrosexual adventurous lead, but aswell makes a aboveboard accomplice for "So You Think You Can Dance" brilliant McCormick. Fortunately, neither is alleged aloft to amplitude too far in the acting administration and both are able to get by with acceptable looks and blatant moves. Supporting cast-members are able if not outstanding, but it's the choreographers, led by authorization vet Jamal Sims, who absolutely put the flash on the production.
"Revolution's" mix of choreography, allegory avant-garde ball and street-style achievement that incorporates hip-hop, step, acrobatic moves and Cirque du Soleil-style aeriform stunts, forms an energetic, consistently alive mosaic. Several above set pieces, including the aperture city Miami arrangement absorption about a array of low-riders, advice ballast cogent artifice developments, even if they add little anecdotal impetus.
By now, however, 3-D ball performances are accepted for the brand and with the barring of a few notable aeriform tricks, "Revolution" doesn't action abounding stylistic innovations, although the soundtrack featuring performances by Far East Movement Timbaland and J-Lo, is appropriately propulsive.
After dancing its way beyond Baltimore and New York City in antecedent iterations, "Step Up" moves to Miami, area homeboys Sean and Eddy accept been best buds back toddler-hood and now advance a bounded ball beam mob accepted as, well, "The Mob," just to accumulate things simple. Together with their crew, including choreographers, beheld artists and a DJ, the guys accept been busting out abruptness ball numbers all over Miami and cutting video to attack in a YouTube challenge to win $1 million.
Sean's day job as a aide at a affluence auberge helps abutment his ball addiction and pay the hire on the abode he shares with his single-mom sister and niece. When Emily Anderson turns up at the auberge _ endemic by her ancestor Bill , a adamant real-estate developer _ for a summer of bartending while advancing to audience for a coveted atom with a high-toned bounded ball company, allure accordingly blaze amid the two.
As it turns out, above Emily needs Sean's advice added than she suspects. Seems that the ball aggregation administrator thinks Emily is a accomplished aerialist but anguish a bit too deeply to be absolutely creative. So if she wants to accomplish it assimilate the roster, Emily is traveling to charge some new moves, which she abstracts Sean can advice bear already she discovers he's one of the motivators abaft The Mob. Afterwards her video debut, a adult amount in a crowded, adorned restaurant, draws millions of hits online, Emily's brought on with the accumulation as they plan their next abandoned "mission."
However there's one above obstacle looming over the pair's adventurous beatitude and able success: Emily's dad is bent to body a new affluence development afterwards razing the multiracial association area Sean lives and hangs out with added Mob members. Although Sean agrees to accumulate Emily's character buried while she rehearses and performs with his crew, if chat gets out, his artery cred will be absolutely shot, which could complicate that business about acceptable the YouTube video contest. Emily has addition idea, though, auspicious Sean and The Mob to angle up to her dad's development affairs with some proactive ball interventions.
Much like hit-making music producers, Shankman and Gibgot accept orchestrated a decidedly acceptable alternation that takes able filmmakers and performers and turns them into apparent professionals, like administering alum John M. Chu and above man-candy ballerina Channing Tatum. Authoritative his feature-filmmaking debut, music-video and TV administrator Scott Speer acquits himself adequately, decidedly back the cine is added affiliated to a long-form video project.
Playwright and first-time biographer Amanda Brody plays it safe, abrogation the pyrotechnics to the choreography aggregation and afraid to the franchise's accurate dance-romance formula, which offers few surprises but delivers effectively. The attack to add a atom of amusing appliance to an about airy ball car by staging ball protests adjoin the resort development is appealing abundant a nonstarter, decidedly back there's no adumbration that The Mob's actionable assemblies are alluring the atomic law-enforcement attention.
Abercrombie & Fitch archetypal Guzman looks every bit the metrosexual adventurous lead, but aswell makes a aboveboard accomplice for "So You Think You Can Dance" brilliant McCormick. Fortunately, neither is alleged aloft to amplitude too far in the acting administration and both are able to get by with acceptable looks and blatant moves. Supporting cast-members are able if not outstanding, but it's the choreographers, led by authorization vet Jamal Sims, who absolutely put the flash on the production.
"Revolution's" mix of choreography, allegory avant-garde ball and street-style achievement that incorporates hip-hop, step, acrobatic moves and Cirque du Soleil-style aeriform stunts, forms an energetic, consistently alive mosaic. Several above set pieces, including the aperture city Miami arrangement absorption about a array of low-riders, advice ballast cogent artifice developments, even if they add little anecdotal impetus.
By now, however, 3-D ball performances are accepted for the brand and with the barring of a few notable aeriform tricks, "Revolution" doesn't action abounding stylistic innovations, although the soundtrack featuring performances by Far East Movement Timbaland and J-Lo, is appropriately propulsive.
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