Μεσόγειο: Mediterranean ΜΕD. By june the 20th, the Interreg MED Programme Monitoring Committee will select those who will have access to the complete application phase and, therefore, to final selection. Although to be confirmed, the complete application phase is expected to open after July, the 1st.As regards to the simple modular projects of the second call, the eligibility check will start in the beginning of June and the results are expected to be out at the beginning of July.


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Agreement for cooperation with the association FREJA
As of the first of December this year, Unibap has entered into a collaboration agreement with the association FREJA, which is an association for girls and non-binary students studying technical physics at Uppsala University.
Hi Lovisa Ekeroot, chairman of FREJA! Can you tell us about FREJA and what you do?
– FREJA is Engineering physicists' association for girls and non-binary persons at Uppsala University. The association was founded to create a community and network for these minorities on the program, to continuously try to attract more girls and non-binaries to study a technical civil engineering education. We hope to be able to offer our members to build up their network even before graduating without them being intimidated by today's and history's gender distribution in our business. One could sum up the association by saying that FREJA is like an inviting hug for a possibly better well-being and a safe point in the education, as a girl or non-binary, where you get the opportunity to develop and broaden your views, without having to take all steps on own hand.
What makes it interesting for FREJA to collaborate with Unibap?
– It feels incredibly fun to work with Unibap, a company that we on the board consider is at the forefront of technology, space technology and innovation. Many of the members of the association study technical physics precisely for the sake of the technology of the future, and to get an insight into what this technology could be, or how to proceed in the creativity, we believe will motivate our members even more to their studies, and can be a contributing factor for more girls and non-binaries to venture into this education!
What do you see as future opportunities in the collaboration with Unibap?
– Personally, I hope that the collaboration with Unibap will continue for several years, with a mutual exchange of knowledge and where I see great advantages that we can already during our years at the university connect to a company like Unibap with their technology and focus on AI. I see great potential for the collaboration to allow Unibap and FREJA to have more direct and personal contact with events, workshops and perhaps even mentorship. A continued collaboration between FREJA and Unibap, I believe, is a winning concept, says Lovisa Ekeroot, chairman of FREJA in conclusion.
Why has Unibap chosen to start this collaboration with FREJA?
– For us at Unibap, it is important to recruit the top talent, so that we can realize our vision to work with innovative and world-leading AI and automation solutions for a more efficient and more sustainable industry and space travel and thereby a better and more sustainable world. By helping FREJA in their work to create a community and a network for women and non-binaries who study technical physics, we want to contribute to more more persons than men, which is the majority today, applying for technical physics and other master's degree programs. For both Unibap's and Sweden's competitiveness, we need to get the smartest talents to work with the challenges of the future – therefore associations like FREJA are needed that help increase the number of applicants and broaden diversity to technical education, says Lena W Jansson, Talent- and Communications Manager at Unibap.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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2015 Chateau Latour Les Forts de Latour Pauillac 375ml
"Great Purity, Class, & Length, Very Latour!" ~96 Andreas Larsson
"All About Grace & Beauty" ~95 James Suckling
"Impressive" ~94+ Robert Parker
95 Point Vintage, Vinous
2nd Label From Chateau Latour
One of the most iconic names in wine is Chateau Latour. This estate is in a class of its own, even among the other four Bordeaux First Growths. It has been the most consistent of them all for over 100 years, producing wines of incredible depth, power and longevity.
This is one of the oldest properties in the Pauillac appellation, its history goes back to the 14th Century when a fortress was erected there during the Hundred Year's War. Château Latour takes its name from the tower that resides on the property. The original tower was built during the hundred years' war, to defend the Garrone estuary. It fell in battle and has since been rebuilt in the same location to house the estate's pigeons.
Les Forts de Latour is the second wine from Chateau Latour. Latour is one of the four original Grand Crus from the 1855 Classification. The special history of this estate in Pauillac mirrors the development of the region as a whole.
In great vintages, the power and energy of Château Latour's wines enable them to continue to develop for several decades with ease. The bouquet and impressions on tasting gradually evolve, becoming increasingly complex, ultimately reaching a peak, after which the tannins soften, and then the wine slowly declines. Beyond the pleasure of drinking them, these wines can produce powerful feelings and unforgettable moments. Château Latour is also known for having the ability to produce fine wines even in difficult years.
On top of that, 2015 was an amazing year for the Left Bank. Vinous Media and Wine Spectator gave this year a 95pt review, where vinous called this the "strongest vintage in a number of years in 2015." and said that the "2015s are spectacularly rich, racy wines loaded with personality." And Wine Spectator said "Pessac is Superb"
Tasting Notes: 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35.6% Merlot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.9% Petit Verdot.
See Critical Reviews for detailed tasting notes.
Good depth with ripe but discreet dark fruit, sage, tobacco leaf, and wild dark berries. Very complete palate with plentiful silky tannin, flavor intense and lingering with great purity, class, and length, very Latour! ~96 Points, Andreas Larsson.
Aromas of blackcurrants, sweet tobacco, fresh herbs, licorice, and cigar box follow through to a full body with tannins that are totally integrated and ultra, ultra-fine, framing the wine and highlighting the subtle, pretty fruit. All about grace and beauty. Keeps getting better. Drink or hold.~95 Points, James Suckling.
Composed of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35.6% Merlot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.9% Petit Verdot, the 2015 Les Forts de Latour needs a fair bit of air to unlock a profound, powerhouse nose of blackcurrant cordial, boysenberries, plum preserves and dark chocolate, with suggestions of Chinese five spice, clove oil, violets and crushed rocks. The palate packs an absolute flavor wallop, bursting with rich, ripe black fruits and loads of spicy sparks, while framed by beautifully plush tannins, finishing long and minerally. Not at all heavy, on the contrary, the Les Forts is both expansive AND tantalizingly refreshing. In terms of evolution, it has barely budged since I last tasted it in 2017. While it's drinking very well right now, it easily has a good 20 years of cellaring ahead, maybe more. Impressive. ~94+ Points, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.
There is a velvet touch to this smooth, rounded wine. With some dark tannins as well as blackberry fruits, it is rich with some concentration. At the same time, the acidity shoots through the wine to give a really fruity aftertaste. ~94 Points, Wine Enthusiast.
On the nose, you get a full array of floral aromatics and a gorgeous exuberance. The gourmet edge that is never far away from the surface in the 2015 vintage is very much in play, along with touches of truffle, cigar box, and an earthy openness even at six years old. A smoked caramel note comes in on the end, as does a hit of mouthwatering salinity. It's not as intense as Forts in vintages like 2010 or 2016 but it has an ease to it that is hugely appealing and can be drunk from now and for at least another 15 years. 0.5% Cabernet Franc completes the blend (the last vintage to contain even a slice of this grape, as it has now been pulled up). 40% of overall production. ~94 Points, Decanter.
The true second wine of the estate is the 2015 Les Forts De Latour and it's slightly more Cabernet dominated with 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35.6% Merlot, and then less than one percent each of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. This ripe, sunny vintage delivered loads of terrific wines and 2015 reveals a vivid purple/opaque color as well as fabulous cassis and jammy currant fruits intermixed with lots of cedarwood, leafy herbs, earth, and graphite. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and nicely structured, it has a wealth of fruit, building yet sweet tannins, no hard edges, and a great, great finish. ~94 Points, Jeb Dunnuck.
The 2015 Les Forts de Latour is silky, perfumed, and wonderfully nuanced from the very first taste. Crushed red berry, cedar, tobacco, mint, and blood orange lend striking aromatic nuance. Ample and resonant in feel, yet with a mid-weight structure, 2015 is a total pleasure to taste today. All of the natural radiance of the warm year comes through in the wine's generous, inviting personality. ~94 Points, Vinous Media.
The nose is elegant, fine, straight, and "strict". It reveals fine notes of blackberry and cassis combined with fine touches of violet/blueberry, a hint of Zan as well as a hint of oak and spices (discreet). The palate is fruity, gourmand, mineral, racy, fine, relatively fat and offers freshness, tension, and righteousness. On the palate, this wine expresses notes of blackberry, cherry and a touch of raspberry associated with slight notes of red fruits acidulous candy as well as slight notes of Zan and discreet notes of chocolate. Tannins are fine, elegant, and supple. Good length. ~92 Points, VertdeVin.


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Osiecznica est une gmina rurale du powiat de Bolesławiec, Basse-Silésie, dans le sud-ouest de la Pologne. Son siège est le village d'Osiecznica, qui se situe environ  au nord-ouest de Bolesławiec et  à l'ouest de la capitale régionale Wrocław.

La gmina couvre une superficie de  pour une population de .

Géographie
La gmina est bordée par les gminy de Boleszkowice, Cedynia, Chojna, Dębno, Moryń et Trzcińsko-Zdrój. Elle est également frontalière de l'Allemagne.

La gmina contient les villages de Bronowiec, Długokąty, Jelenie Rogi, Jeziory, Kliczków, Ławszowa, Luboszów, Ołobok, Osiecznica, Osieczów, Parowa, Poświętne, Przejęsław, Świętoszów et Tomisław.

Annexes

Liens internes
 Liste des gminy de Basse-Silésie

Références

Gmina dans la voïvodie de Basse-Silésie
Powiat de Bolesławiec

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Posted on August 31, 2006, 10:54 PM, by The WAMBAG.
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Posted on August 6, 2006, 12:43 AM, by The WAMBAG.


We hope you enjoy the products available on LocoSoco and through our partners but if for any reason you're not entirely satisfied, it's easy to return with our 30 day returns policy. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unopened, unused and in the same condition that you received it.
To return your product, please request an RMA number and free postage label by sending an email to customerservices@locoso.co.
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We are currently seeking talented Modeling Analyst Senior for our San Antonio, TX facility.
Develop and analyze data to predict business results or member behavior. Expert knowledge in statistics, mathematics, and tools used in predictive modeling. Partner cross-functionally with business to deliver breakthrough analytical solutions to support a winning strategy in a continually changing business environment.
Lead the development, enhancement and implementation of statistical and other quantitative models to support forecasting, member behavior based scoring and other business applications.
Understand technical issues in econometric and statistical modeling and apply these skills toward solving business problems.
Identify opportunities to apply quantitative methods to improve business performance.
Full ownership of the model development process and relationship with the business customer: from conceptualization through data exploration, model selection and validation, implementation, business user training and support.
Strong understanding of the model lifecycle management process with ability to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in business applications.
Develop model monitoring plan, monitor statistical model performance, and provide technical guidance to business leadership.
Communicate technical subject matter clearly and concisely to individuals from various backgrounds.
4 additional years of related experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted in lieu of a degree OR A Master's Degree in Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, Actuarial Sciences or related field OR A PhD in Statistics, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, Actuarial Sciences or related field.
Expert knowledge in several statistical techniques (Generalized linear modeling, Time Series, CART, Decision Trees, Neural Networks,Factor analysis experimental design, hypothesis testing, and/or advance techniques). Successful completion of a job-related assessment may be required.


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Home Grimes
How Did Grimes And Elon Musk Meet?
Grimes is a Canadian electronic musician, singer, and songwriter who became famous after releasing her third studio album, Visions, in 2012. The singer is also famous for her controversial relationship with billionaire Elon Musk. Although they have now broken up, how did they meet?
Elon Musk and Grimes met through a Twitter conversation.
(L) Grimes | MPH Photos; (R) Elon Musk | Phil Stafford / shutterstock.com
The couple had a lot going on during their relationship. So, let's take a brief look at how they met and their relationship timeline.
Where did Grimes and Elon Musk meet?
Elon Musk is a nerd and doesn't hesitate to show it on Twitter. Sometime in 2018, he made a tweet shading Warren Buffet. Then some days later, he posted two words, ringing a bell for Grimes' fans. The Canadian singer had made a similar post when she was promoting one of her albums in 2015.
Rococo basilisk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2018
Elon Musk took a bold step and slid into her DM – that's something to learn from the billionaire on shooting your shot. Well, she responded, and they started a low-key romance. Amber Heard and Elon Musk had just broken up, so Elon and Grimes kept their relationship private.
How Tall Is Elon Musk? Exact Height Revealed
Did Elon Musk Grow Up Rich?
Is Grimes Vegan?
Are Grimes and Elon Musk married?
Grimes and Elon Musk had a really inconsistent relationship. On several occasions, they parted ways. But before fans would process the information, they'd have gotten back together. Anyway, they eventually broke up and went their separate ways.
Are Grimes and Elon Musk dating?
Grimes and Elon Musk officially announced their relationship in 2018 by appearing together at the MET Gala. People said that they looked like an odd couple because Elon is a nerd, and Grimes seemed otherworldly.
Some fans even advised Grimes to break up with the billionaire because her social media posts seemed to change when they got together.
Did she take the advice? Not particularly because the couple dated for three years. They had their bad times in the relationship, leading to them breaking up sometimes. But eventually, they broke up officially on September 24, 2021.
Do Grimes and Elon Musk have children?
Elon Musk seems to have a special kind of love for children because, by 2022, he already has eight children. Of Elon's eight kids, two are with Grimes.
In May of 2021, Grimes and Musk welcomed a boy into the world whom they named X Æ A-Xii. The boy, who they refer to as X, was given the name X Æ A-12. When he was born, however, to comply with legislation governing birth certificates in California, his name was formally changed to X Æ A-Xii.
It should be pronounced as X Ash A Twelve to address the child properly.
The name of their second child is Exa Dark Sideræl Musk. She was born through a surrogate because the Canadian singer had complications after giving birth to her first son.
Why did Grimes and Elon Musk break up?
There are some relationships that last forever, where you just keep meeting constant "couple goals" and everything just feels lovely for both. However, it looks like Elon Musk and Grimes' relationship does not fall under that category.
Fans weren't too surprised when they broke up because their union was too strange to comprehend. But, what was the reason behind their split despite having two children together?
The couple decided that letting go of each other would be better than holding on to a relationship that had no bearing. They were in a long-distance relationship, meaning that they did not always get to spend time together as often as they wanted. Plus, the pandemic didn't make the situation any better since they could not travel freely.
Additionally, they also had demanding careers. Elon Musk managed his car and space companies while Grimes had her music career to face. Plus, it wasn't easy to keep things together with two children in the picture.
Are Elon Musk and Grimes still friends?
Despite breaking up, Elon Musk and Grimes are still friends. She even said that she still loves the billionaire. However, it's best to let some things go rather than try to fix them. Additionally, they have two children together. So even if they didn't want to remain friends, their kids would always bring them together.
Does Grimes get money from Elon Musk?
Dating a billionaire comes with baseless rumors like, "does Grimes receive financial support from Elon Musk?" However, Grimes cleared the air by letting people know that she doesn't receive financial support from the Tesla CEO. She does appreciate what he's doing to make the world a better place.


My Samsung Galaxy S7 (SM-G930V REV 0.6) has started experiencing high battery usage after the April 2019 Software Update (R16NW.G930VVRS9CSC1) pushed by Verizon on 4/3/2019. A fully charged battery will not last overnight with the phone idle. The battery usage indicates Android OS is using upto 63% of the battery and Android System is using 24% of the system. Prior to the update, the phone could run 36-48 hours when idle and 24 - 36 hours with moderate use.
I have tried Clearing the system Cache and a "Battery Recalibration", the issue appears to be the mAh usage by Android OS and Android System.
Has a default been changed in the Software Update, that needs to be changed to prevent this battery drain?
I am having the same issue since this update on April 2nd.
CarmenT_VZW, your link is bad.
We always want you to have the power that you need lovewafer. I am sorry to hear you are having issues with your battery, and we want to be sure we find out the cause so we can fix this. First, you will want to put your phone in Safe Mode for 24 hours. This will tell us if it is an app that is causing this battery issue. You can find those steps here: http://spr.ly/6609Ejt29 Let us know how this goes.
We are sorry to read that the link did not work for you. Here is another link that you can try: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-203892/ It has the same steps and has been tested to work. After your device has been used in Safe Mode, let us know if the battery drain was the same. Thanks.
I am having the same problem. I also have tried system cache clearing, battery reset, and safe mode for 24 hours. Nothing has helped. I have also started uninstalling a number of little-used apps. Still no success. I have noted a significant number of auto app updates in the last several days. No improvement from this either.
I am having the same issue, and have tried the same remedies. In SafeMode, I get 15 hours of battery life without using the phone much during that time. It showsAndroid OS using about half the battery during that time. My wife's S7 has the same issue. Sounds like a problem with the update.
I hope Verizon can figure this out before we give up and go to another carrier.


Firefighters in Northamptonshire began a 24-hour strike this morning in response to an ongoing national dispute about new pension reforms, which will see 60-year-old firefighters required to meet fitness standards of colleagues 40 years younger.
Around 170 county firefighters who are members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) took industrial action from 7am this morning, until 7am tomorrow (Thursday).
Benjamin Muddle, FBU representative for Northamptonshire who picketed with colleagues at the Upper Mounts fire station in Northampton town centre, said that Government promises to improve the situation were "lies".
He said: "Essentially, if your fitness levels don't meet the standards of a 20-year-old when you are 60, or you leave the job from the age of 55 because of this, you get your pension cut.
While the strikes coninue, Northamptonshire Fire Service will be carrying out reviewed contingency measures after the average response times increased during strike action last year.


PUPPIES WILL BE HERE NEXT WEEK !!!!!!!
We are a small breeder located in Muscle Shoals, Alabama who love breeding and raising Olde English Bulldogges. All of our dogs possess traits like health temperment and beauty that we think all Olde English Bulldogges should have. All of our dogs are raised in a family setting with all types of other animals.
All of our dogs are registered with the IOEBA. We raise healthy athletic dogs that are let out to play and socialize daily. Our puppies come with a one year health guarantee that is outlined in our puppy contract. We raise and treat our dogs as part of our family. We always strive to improve the breed of the Olde English Bulldogge.


The organization of human life and labor can be viewed as a form of technology, one that has been neglected and has lagged behind the times. There is much need for researching alternative organizational models in order to overcome the types of crises the human race faces today. This project organizes and presents the history of an ideology that presents an alternative that seems very viable today. Anarchism proposes the nonhierarchical, noncoercive, free, voluntary and cooperative organization of people.


text:
Berry Classmates
Missing Bucs Page 1
Quiz Page
The Year Was 1969
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Michael Rasco
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Jimmy Ray
Birthday: March 04, 1951 Occupation: Sales Director Marital Status: Married No. of Children: 2
From Jimmy: Life is Good Send Jimmy a Message
Jeffrey Requette
Edward Rew
Birthday: July 02, 1951 Occupation: Teacher-Physical Education Website: camp-icthus.org Marital Status: Married No. of Children: 4
From Edward: Attended Auburn University after graduating from Berry. Joined the athletic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ and competed on their wrestling team. Went back to Auburn as a graduate assistant coach. Coached wrestling and taught high school biology for seven years. Started a summer camp ministry and taught elementary PE. Married to a wonderful lady and I have 4 great kids. God is good. Send Edward a Message
Patty Sharp (Reynolds)
Birthday: May 06, 1951 Occupation: retired Marital Status: Married No. of Children: 1
From Patty: My high school days are memories filled with great times and wonderful friends. I enjoy hearing about everyone as the years have gone by. After Berry, I went to Judson College for a year before transferring to Auburn University. I married Harris Reynolds and soon moved to Gulf Breeze/Pensacola, Florida where we have lived for 37+ years. Our daughter is married living in Tallahassee to a wonderful guy so another fun city to visit! She is busy with our 3 grandchildren...two step-gift boys and a baby girl born this year! Brother Jim Sharp is married to Jane Watkins in Birmingham and I always look forward to our reunions. We have a farm near Auburn that we visit often so now an even more Auburn fan! War Eagle!!! We are both officially retired and having a blast traveling and being on the go! Send Patty a Message
Timothy (Tim) Richardson
Birthday: August 01, 1951 Occupation: Executive Manager Marital Status: Married No. of Children: 3
From Timothy (Tim): After graduating from Berry, I attended Auburn University where I graduated with a BS degree in Education in 1973. After selling cars for several years at Royal Oldsmobile in Hoover I moved to Southern California in 1979. I was a tour guide for Universal Studios for 1 year where I met my wife in 1980. We married in 1981 and will celebrate our 29th year in June. I got back into the Automobile business in 1980 and still going strong today. I'm the Executive Manager for a Nissan and VW store in Palmdale, California. I have 3 sons; my oldest Dana is an Video game designer and producer for Walt Disney studios, my second son, Justin is my used car manager and IT manager for our Nissan and VW stores. And my youngest Jake, is an actor. He has been acting since he was 6. You can google "Jake Richardson" and see some of the things he's done. I come to B'ham a couple of times a year to visit my dad, so who knows maybe I'll make the reunion. My life has been blessed the last 41 years. Send Timothy (Tim) a Message
Kathy Rikard
Vikki Robbins
Jim Roberts
Birthday: November 06, 1950 Occupation: retired Marital Status: Married No. of Children: 2
From Jim: I was drafted in the Army in 1970. After the Army, I went into law enforcement in 1972 and earned a degree in Criminal Justice from University of Montevallo in 1977 while working full time. I returned to military service with the Alabama Army National Guard. I retired in 2002 after having my own business for 12 years. I enjoy salt water fishing especially for salmon and halibut in Sitka, Alaska. I have made extensive trips to Mexico and Central America during the past 40 years. I enjoy traveling and cruising. I will be at the reunion Friday night hope to see many old friends. If I don't see any of you, I live off of Valleydale Road and I maintain "Office Hours" at Ragtime Cafe most every night. Send Jim a Message
Susan Branch (Roberts)
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Send Susan a Message


text:
Contemporary Music / Folk / Indie / Past Daily Soundbooth / Popular Culture
Shannon Lay - Going from thrashing to soothing - all good fun.
Shannon Lay – In Session/Mini-Concert – 2016 – Past Daily Soundbooth
by gordonskene · Oct 24, 2018
Shannon Lay – Going from thrashing to soothing – all good fun.
https://oildale.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/22000931/Shannon-Lay-live-at-The-Box-Shop-Pressure-Drop.tv-Dec-13-2016.mp3
Shannon Lay – In session/mini-concert from The Box Shop, San Francisco – Dec, 13, 2016 – Pressure Drop.tv –
Shannon Lay tonight – continuing our survey of all things L.A. this week. Shannon Lay leads a double life – as lead guitarist for The Feels, a rather high-voltage All-Female Punk Band (also from L.A.) and this persona; as Indie/nu-Folk/acoustic/alternative singer-songwriter – Shannon Lay is equally comfortable in both roles. But tonight we're focusing on the mellow side of this extraordinary singer.
Lay has been gathering a solid following and spreading her influence throughout Europe, having played, among others, Route du Rock in Paris and being one of the highlights of that festival.
To get a little background on this upwardly mobile artist, I ran across a very good article in i-D Vice from September 2017, where we get filled in on the particulars:
Lay grew up in Redondo Beach, California. She mostly skated, or hung out by the pier. At 13, she started playing guitar. "It was a nice way for me to expend myself and have a good time." She'd bring in songs ("some Neil Young, 'Blackbird,' the classics") and her instructor at a local music shop would teach her how to play them. "For the longest time," Lay says, "I just kind of listened to what everyone else was into." Then she heard The Velvet Underground. "That was the door that I walked through like, 'Oh my god, everything's gonna be okay.' I started listening to X, Animal Collective, Bob Dylan. Björk changed my fucking world! You find that one thing, and it becomes a gateway."
A decade ago, Lay left Redondo Beach at 17. Although she considered decamping to San Francisco or Chicago, she landed in nearby L.A. "I moved in with this girl I didn't know, and we were sharing a studio apartment. I was working at a weed store; it was a whirlwind," Lay laughs. She wanted to join a band, so she went on Craigslist and found one. "They were called Facts on File. It was these two older people, Joe and Molly. They were so awesome; they really built my confidence in a way I didn't have before."
That was part of a larger article/review of her latest album Living Water, which came out last September.
So that's a little background to fill you in if you don't already know. From this point on, I would suggest you hit the play button and get acquainted. There's a lot to discover.
Next story October 25, 1978 – Dollar Sinks On Anti-Inflation – Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty Stays Elusive – Los Angeles Surveys The Damage
Previous story Sir Colin Davis And The Boston Symphony – In Concert At Tanglewood – 1976 – Past Daily Mid-Week Concert
It's 1979 – You're A Teenager – You Live In L.A. – You Have Choices: Disco, Rock Or Punk?
A Word With Duke Ellington And Esquire: Well-Dressed Man For 1947 – Past Daily Weekend Pop Chronilces
Kate Bush – Live – Manchester Apollo – 1979 – Past Daily Soundbooth


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Home | About Us | Services | History | Contact Us | Gallery
Woodrow and Jessie Selby began their business in September 1952 working out of their home in Pocomoke City, MD. Woodrow had previously worked for a local sign company. He bought an old sedan delivery truck, a few tools and called his new company Selby Neon Signs, specializing in neon repairs. In 1957, Woody and Jessie bought a piece of property, built a cinder-block building with an apartment upstairs, bought a hand-operated crane truck and changed the name of the company to Selby Sign Company.
By the 1960's, the sign business began to change. Neon signs were going out of fashion and plastic signs were all the rage. Nearby Ocean City, Maryland was experiencing tremendous growth and that is where Woody focused his attention. As the demand for large, internally-lighted signs grew, the facility and staff in Pocomoke were expanded, and equipment was added. The company was incorporated in 1965 under the name Selby Sign Company, Inc.
Woodrow and Jessie Selby's two sons, Steve and David, were raised learning the sign trade. When Woody passed away in 1983, they continued to run the business with Jessie as president. Throughout the 80's and 90's, Selby Sign Company expanded its products and services to keep up with the tremendous changes in the sign industry. Computer-aided design and graphics, a CAD-CAM router system, a computer break, a diverse fleet of trucks and a well-trained staff gave Selby Sign Company an edge on the competition and its territory expanded to cover the entire Delmarva Peninsula and beyond.
In 2004, Jessie stepped down and David became president of the company, and Steve, vice-president. There is currently a staff of 25, and many key employees have been with the company thirty years or more. The Selby family and employees look forward to many more years of producing quality sign products for businesses on the Eastern Shore. A lot of things have changed since 1952, but not Selby Sign Company's commitment to quality. That is why our company motto is "A Sign of Excellence".
Copyright © 2021 Selby Sign Co. All Rights Reserved | 2138 Bypass Road, Pocomoke City, MD 21851


The following paragraph is the conclusion to the essay "The World as I See It," which is taken from the abridged edition of Einstein's book bearing the same title. In the abridged edition (Philosophical Library, New York, 1949), the essay appears on pp. 1-5.


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Eutrepsia prumnides är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Druce 1895. Eutrepsia prumnides ingår i släktet Eutrepsia och familjen mätare. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Mätare
prumnides


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Press Release: Education Software Solutions [August 9, 2021]
Parentpay Group announces acquisition of ESS in a deal that cements its position as the UK'S leading ed-tech
ParentPay Group, Europe's leading provider of cashless payments and parental engagement solutions for schools, has today completed its acquisition of Education Software Solutions (ESS) from Montagu Private Equity LLP, in a deal that makes the enlarged group the UK's largest education technology business.
ParentPay started the cashless payment revolution in schools in 2004, and has since simplified the lives of millions of parents and streamlined the payment operations of thousands of schools by removing cash from the classroom.
Following the acquisition of ESS, ParentPay can now offer its customers a much wider range of products including SIMS, the UK's leading education management information system, and ESS Reading Cloud. The transaction also marks ParentPay's entry into the further and higher education sector and libraries, through the acquisition of ESS' UNIT-e and LMC software solutions.
ParentPay will continue to offer its market-leading payment collection, parental engagement and meal management solutions to schools, their pupils, parents and teachers, and caterers, and expects to expand its customer base, which already covers 6 million pupils, as a result of this acquisition.
The acquisition is backed by Montagu, a leading European private equity firm, which will take a significant minority interest in the ParentPay Group as part of the deal.
Mark Brant continues as CEO, with Clint Wilson and Andrew Neubauer remaining in their roles as Group Corporate Development Director and Executive Chairman respectively.
Commenting on the merger, Mark Brant, Group CEO of ParentPay, said:
"Today marks the coming together of ParentPay and ESS, two well-known and established ed-tech businesses with highly complementary products, people and values. Our customers trust us to deliver quality products and services and we maintain and earn that trust by continuing to innovate for them in response to their needs. This deal means that our customers can now look forward to accelerated product development and in due course a seamless integration of ESS and ParentPay products.
"While I am delighted as to what the deal means for our customers, I am equally excited by the career development opportunities it represents for our valued employees. We all have exciting times ahead."
Clint Wilson, Group Corporate Development Director at ParentPay, said:
"It has been so satisfying to see ParentPay grow from an idea hatched by a former teacher almost 20 years ago to the position it is in today. The inspiration to find a solution to children carrying cash to school in their pockets has led to ParentPay becoming the UK's leading ed-tech business.
"Throughout this remarkable journey, we've never compromised our core ethos or values. We were driven by a desire to make life easier for families while freeing schools from the burden of unnecessary administration, and this acquisition will help us further live up to these ideals."
Andrew Neubauer, Chairman of ParentPay, said:
"ESS is a gem of a business that was unduly neglected by Capita in recent years. Our job is to re-affirm ESS as the leading UK developer of MIS for schools and demonstrate to customers that ESS can match the standards of service, delivery and reliability for which ParentPay is widely admired.
"As a privately owned business, for the past 16 years ParentPay has been able to reinvest virtually every penny it has made back into its business. By remaining privately owned, we are free to continue that policy post acquisition. As a result, we expect to invest over £40 million into ESS development in the next 4 years, allowing us to deliver world class integrated solutions that will make a genuine difference to education outcomes in schools."
Edward Shuckburgh, Director at Montagu, added:
"With complementary products and a shared vision, ParentPay's merger with ESS will enable the enlarged group to really drive forward innovation to the benefit of its customer base. We look forward to partnering with them on this journey."
The deal is the latest in a line of strategic mergers and acquisitions that have, along with strong organic growth, enabled ParentPay Group to establish market-leading positions: Between 2017 and 2021, Schoolcomms, Cypad, WIS in the Netherlands and three school meal and payment management businesses in Germany all joined the ParentPay Group. In 2016, the Group launched nimbl, the pre-paid app and debit card for children and young adults, and in 2018 launched Just Education, its digital platform for supply teachers.
ParentPay Group, Europe's leading provider of cashless payments and parental engagement solutions for schools, has completed its acquisition of Education Software Solutions from Montagu Private Equity LLP, in a deal that makes the enlarged group the UK's largest education technology business. The acquisition is backed by Montagu, a leading European private equity firm, which will take a significant minority interest in the ParentPay Group as part of the deal.
Education Software Solutions


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How to Measure the Revenue Impact of Changes in Tax Rates
Report Taxes
August 9, 1996 31 min read Download Report
Daniel Mitchell
Former McKenna Senior Fellow in Political Economy
Daniel is a former McKenna Senior Fellow in Political Economy.
Table and Charts:
Table 1: The Administration and Congress Both Acknowledge That Faster Growth Will Reduce the Budget Deficit
Chart 1: The Laffer Curve
Chart 2: Wealthy Taxpayers Rely Less on Wage and Salary Income Than Any Other Income Class
Chart 3: Changes In Tax Rates Have Little Effect on Revenues
Chart 4: Rich Pay More Following 1920s Tax Cuts
Chart 5: Rich Paid More Under 1960s Kennedy Tax Cuts
Chart 6: Reagan Tax Cuts Generated 31% More Tax Revenue From the Wealthy
Chart 7: Higher Tax Rates, Lower Revenue
One of the most important fiscal policy debates developing in this election involves the question of whether changes in tax policy have "supply-side" effects. In other words, will lower tax rates increase economic growth, resulting in more jobs, higher wages, and bigger profits? If the answer is yes -- meaning that lower tax rates cause taxable income to rise -- it is reasonable to argue that a tax cut will be at least partially self-financing. The extent to which increased revenue from a bigger tax base helps offset the revenue loss from lower tax rates then becomes an empirical question. This is what "static" versus "dynamic" scoring is all about. Static analysis assumes that tax changes have no impact on economic growth, meaning no increases in revenue; dynamic analysis recognizes that taxes do affect the economy. Unfortunately, government estimators use a static approach.
The battle over revenue-estimating methodology may seem an esoteric, inside-the-Beltway issue, but it has important implications. Politicians generally favor tax cuts, but they do not relish voting for higher deficits and certainly are loathe to approve offsetting savings from the spending side of the budget. Dynamic scoring, assuming it is used properly, can facilitate sound tax policy by reducing the politically "unpleasant" side-effects of tax cuts.1 In the short term, a proper understanding of the importance of dynamic scoring would make it easier either to repeal the 1990 and 1993 tax hikes or to provide an across-the-board reduction in tax rates.2 In the long term, the move to a flat tax would be expedited if dynamic scoring were used to allow the lowest possible rate.
Because dynamic scoring would make tax rate reductions more attractive, it is understandable that those who oppose tax cuts want to maintain the current system of static scoring. An objective examination of the historical evidence, however, demonstrates that dynamic scoring gives policymakers more accurate information.3 When taking steps to modernize the revenue-estimating process, policymakers should consider the following points:
Learn from history. Static scoring routinely overestimates how much revenue will be generated by tax increases. The 1990 luxury tax, the income tax rate increases of 1990 and 1993, and the 1986 capital gains tax rate increase are all examples in which revenues fell far short of static predictions. By contrast, the 1981 Reagan tax cuts, the 1978 capital gains tax reduction, the Kennedy tax cuts of the 1960s, and the 1986 Tax Reform Act all demonstrate how pro-growth tax changes will generate revenue feedback.4
Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. It is impossible to predict all the effects of any single change in government policy. The fact that dynamic scoring cannot pinpoint all the multiyear effects of a change in tax policy, however, is not an argument for maintaining a static process guaranteed to give an answer that is wrong and farther from the truth.
Not all tax cuts are created equal. The higher the tax rate, the bigger the supply-side response when the rate is reduced. Likewise, reducing tax rates on capital income, which is more easily controlled by the taxpayer, will have a greater impact than similar tax reductions on labor income. And some tax cuts, such as credits, will have little or no revenue feedback effects since incentives to engage in productive behavior remain unchanged.5
Open the process to public scrutiny. Even though they are the ones who pay the bills, taxpayers today are not allowed to examine the static models and methodology used by revenue estimators at the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury Department. Whether or not the revenue-estimating process is improved, policymakers should insist on full disclosure. If policymakers adopt dynamic scoring, an open process will keep the system honest by inhibiting those who are tempted to exaggerate the benefits of tax cuts.
The goal of tax policy is to maximize growth, not tax revenues. For years, budget deficits have played a big role in the political debate. As a result, some tax policy proposals, such as reductions in the capital gains tax, are judged primarily by their effect on tax collections. This myopic approach inevitably interferes with sound tax policy and should be discarded.
Include estimates of private and governmental compliance costs. According to the Tax Foundation, the current tax system imposes $225 billion in compliance costs on the productive sector of the economy.6 In addition to these private costs of lawyers, lobbyists, accountants, tax preparers, and lost man-hours, about $13 billion in direct government expenditures is associated with taxation.7 Yet revenue estimators confess that "staff does not estimate the administrative costs incurred by either the IRS or taxpayers that may result from proposed legislation."8
What is Static Scoring, and Who Does It?
There are two official sources of revenue estimates in Washington. The Administration uses the Office of Tax Analysis (OTA), which is part of the Treasury Department, and Congress uses the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). Both use static scoring, though it is important to define the term.
Static scoring does not mean there is absolutely no recognition that taxpayers might modify their behavior in response to changes in tax policy. Defenders of the status quo thus argue that dynamic effects are incorporated into revenue forecasts. To a limited extent, they are right.9 If asked to estimate the revenue impact of a change in the gasoline tax, for instance, the current process attempts to measure the degree to which the change in the tax will affect the amount of gasoline purchased. Likewise, changes in income tax rates will include some calculation of tax avoidance behavior.10
Missing from the equation, however, is any effort to capture the revenue effects caused by changes in macroeconomic variables. Revenue estimators assume that economic growth, job creation, and income will remain unchanged, regardless of how much taxes are reduced or increased. The Treasury Department's Office of Tax Analysis, for example, in a 1995 analysis of the flat tax wrote that:
no attempt is made to estimate the tax-induced behavioral responses of either individuals or corporations. Following the standard revenue estimating conventions used by both the Office of Tax Analysis and the Joint Committee on Taxation, the macroeconomic aggregates, such as the level of compensation, prices, employment, and gross domestic product, have been assumed to be unchanged by the proposal.11
These assumptions effectively require the Treasury Department and the Joint Committee on Taxation to ignore the real world. This may be a reasonable approach for minor alterations of the tax code,12 but it certainly produces inaccurate answers when examining significant changes. Thus, if asked to predict what would happen if tax rates were doubled, for instance, revenue estimators would assume that tax collections, with some minor modifications, would double as well. Some may think this is an exaggeration, but consider the actions of the Joint Committee on Taxation. In 1988, Senator Robert Packwood (R-OR), ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, asked the JCT to estimate the revenue impact if the government confiscated all income over $200,000 annually.
The revenue estimators at JCT responded that such a tax would raise $104 billion the first year, $204 billion the second year, $232 billion the third year, and $263 billion and $299 billion in the fourth and fifth years, respectively.13 As Senator Packwood noted, however, this view of the world is impractical because it "assumes people will work if they have to pay all their money to the Government. They will work forever and pay all of the money to the Government when clearly anyone in their right mind will not."14
To be fair, the revenue estimators are not really the ones at fault.15 The decision to modernize and improve the scoring process will have to come from the top. At the Office of Tax Analysis, presidentially appointed officials at the Treasury Department are the only ones with the power to authorize this change. On Capitol Hill, this power lies with the Members of Congress who serve on the Joint Committee on Taxation, particularly the Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Indeed, the JCT has set up a Revenue Estimating Advisory Board to explore "ways to improve the estimating process and estimating methodology."16
What is Dynamics Scoring?
In simple terms, dynamic scoring means that estimates would be designed to capture revenue effects from changes in overall economic conditions. Instead of deliberately ignoring these variables, as is the convention today, revenue estimators would predict whether a change in policy would be likely to affect the level of compensation, prices, employment, and gross domestic product (GDP). If there is an effect on one or more of these variables, they would then calculate the amount of revenue feedback or loss.
How would this work? Take the example of the 15 percent across-the-board tax cut proposed some weeks ago by Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI). Static revenue estimates reportedly show this proposal reducing tax revenues by about $500 billion over a six-year period.17 If such a proposal boosted the economy's rate of growth by one-half of one percentage point over the same period, however, Congressional Budget Office sensitivity tables (designed to measure the effects of selected economic changes on budget projections) indicate that $170 billion of that loss would be recouped in the form of revenue feedback and lower interest costs. Administration figures show the feedback would be more than $200 billion.
As shown in Table 1, both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) agree that faster growth helps reduce the budget deficit. These numbers work both ways, incidentally, with slower growth boosting the budget deficit. The key questions are whether a change in tax policy will promote growth and, if so, by how much.
Contrary to popular wisdom, dynamic scoring does not mean that tax cuts pay for themselves. The degree of revenue feedback depends on what tax rate is being reduced and by what amount. Only in extremely rare circumstances is it believed that a tax rate reduction will generate enough economic activity to offset all of the revenue loss associated with the lower rate.
Chart 1, popularly known as the Laffer curve, illustrates this principle. A zero rate tax will stimulate considerable growth but, by definition, collects no revenue. A 100 percent tax rate also generates no revenue, however, because it eliminates all incentive to earn income -- not to mention what happens to the rest of the economy. What happens, though, if the government imposes a tax rate of, say, 10 percent? With a low, flat rate, almost all taxpayers presumably will continue to work, so the government will collect one-tenth of the income earned. As tax rates rise, however, taxpayers gradually become discouraged and reduce their earnings. As long as tax rates are not excessive, the increase in revenue associated with the higher tax rate exceeds the revenue loss caused by lower levels of income. At some point, however, the tax rate reaches a revenue-maximizing level. Any efforts to raise tax rates beyond this level will reduce revenues because of the fall in taxable income.
Tragically, there are some taxes in America that fall on the wrong side of the Laffer curve. These include:
Income tax rates on the rich. Wealthy taxpayers are particularly sensitive to high tax rates. Not only can they afford the best tax lawyers, accountants, and financial planners, but they also receive most of their income in the form of dividends, interest, capital gains, and other business income (see Chart 2). When tax rates become too onerous, these taxpayers can shift their assets to tax-free status, move their money offshore, or take other steps to alter the timing or composition of their income.18 According to recent research by James Poterba of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lower tax rates on the richest 0.5 percent would generate higher rather than lower tax revenues.19
Estate taxes. The government confiscates 55 percent of a person's assets in excess of $4 million upon death.20 Those smart enough to build up businesses and portfolios of this value, however, typically are also smart enough to protect their families' wealth from the government.21 Thus, even though the estate tax collects about $15 billion annually, it is estimated that the government loses money because of reduced income tax collections caused by aggressive estate planning (which occurs in the years prior to death when wealthy taxpayers transfer funds, cease working, set up trusts, give to charity, and take other steps to reduce the tax value of their assets).22
Capital gains taxes. Revenue estimators from both Congress and the Administration acknowledge that lower capital gains taxes will boost sales (or realizations) of stock, bonds, real estate, and other assets. This "unlocking effect," by itself, may be large enough to produce a net revenue increase.23 Unfortunately, both the JCT and the OTA fail to calculate the impact of lower capital gains taxes on economic growth. If the revenue estimates included the effects of higher growth, they almost surely would show a significant revenue gain. Tax rates that are so punitive that they actually lose revenue certainly should be reduced. The lower rate would please conservatives who favor economic growth, and should please liberals who want the government to collect more money.24 It is important to recognize, however, that there is a huge difference between the revenue-maximizing tax rate and the growth-maximizing tax rate. Largely because of hefty value-added taxes (a form of national sales tax), many countries in Europe take a much higher percentage of their citizens' money than America does.25 These nations may be near the revenue-maximizing point of the Laffer curve, but it comes at a heavy price. European countries, compared to the United States, suffer from higher unemployment, slower growth, larger budget deficits, and lower incomes.
Historical Examples
The strong theoretical argument for dynamic scoring is augmented by a great deal of historical evidence. The United States has experienced significant shifts in tax policy over the years, and the historical record both demonstrates the shortcomings of static analysis and provides ample proof that the revenue-estimating process should be modernized.
Before looking at specific examples, however, it may be useful to look at the broad picture. As Chart 3 illustrates, tax revenues traditionally have consumed about 19 percent of America's economic output.26 This relationship has been remarkably stable even though tax rates have shifted by large amounts. At times, the top income tax rate has exceeded 90 percent, while at other times it has fallen to less than 30 percent. The chart also shows income tax collections as a percentage of GDP. As is the case with total tax revenues, income tax collections are remarkably stable, hovering between 8 percent and 9 percent. The only two times they reached 9.4 percent or more, in 1969 and 1981, the economy fell into recession.27
The Tax Cuts of the 1920s
Tax rates were slashed dramatically during the 1920s, falling from 73 percent to 24 percent.28 The economy boomed, growing at an average annual rate of 6 percent between 1921 and 1929.29 Personal income tax revenues increased substantially, rising from $719 million in 1921 to $1,160 million in 1928.30 This 61 percent increase in revenue occurred at a time of no inflation. As Chart 4 shows, the percentage of the tax burden borne by the rich jumped dramatically, climbing from 44.2 percent in 1921 to 78.4 percent in 1928. These results, not surprisingly, would not have been predicted by static analysis.
The Kennedy Tax Cuts
Lower taxes on savings and investment were approved in 1962, followed by across-the-board tax rate reductions in 1964. Economic growth picked up, with GDP increasing at an average annual rate of 5 percent between 1961 and 1968.31 The Kennedy tax cuts triggered the longest expansion in America's history, and revenues grew by 62 percent over the seven-year period.32 One of the most compelling pieces of supply-side evidence is the way different income groups responded to lower tax rates. As seen in Chart 5, wealthy taxpayers wound up paying significantly more tax revenues after their tax rates were reduced -- exactly as dynamic forecasting would have predicted.
The 1978 Capital Gains Tax Cut
The more control a taxpayer has over a taxable activity, the more pronounced the supply-side effect. Capital gains taxes are the best example of this phenomenon since a taxpayer can avoid the tax by not selling assets. In 1968, legislation was approved raising the capital gains tax from 25 percent to 49 percent. (Effective tax rates almost always were higher--sometimes over 100 percent -- since the government did not, and still does not, allow taxpayers to adjust asset prices for inflation.) Not surprisingly, capital gains revenues were sluggish throughout the 1970s. In 1978, however, the rate was reduced to 28 percent.33 The very next year, revenues jumped 45 percent.34 Capital gains tax revenues continued to rise, climbing even more when the Reagan tax cuts lowered the rate even further, down to 20 percent in 1981.
Windfall Profits Tax
During the Carter Administration, a heavy tax was imposed on crude oil. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in 1979 that the tax would collect $184.5 billion between 1980 and 1985. But it brought in just $77.7 billion.35 To be fair, the huge revenue gap probably was due to President Reagan's decision to decontrol oil prices, something the JCT could not have predicted in 1979. At the same time, however, foreknowledge of this move may have caused the revenue estimators to make an even bigger mistake, since most liberals believed that restoring competition to the petroleum market would cause oil prices to skyrocket.36
The Reagan Tax Cuts
Campaigning on across-the-board tax cuts, Ronald Reagan took office at a time when the economy was in horrible shape. The economy was in the middle of a severe double-dip recession. Inflation was running at double-digit rates, unemployment was rising, and interest rates had climbed to more than 20 percent.37 Critics claimed the tax cuts would be inflationary and would do nothing to boost growth, but just the opposite happened. Americans did not receive a net tax cut until sometime between July 1982 and January 1983 because previously legislated payroll tax increases and bracket creep offset the portions of the tax cut that took effect in 1981 and 1982.38 Once the tax cuts did take effect, the longest peacetime economic expansion in the nation's history began.39
The most comprehensive analysis of the revenue effect of the Reagan tax cuts shows two things: The lower tax rates on the rich more than paid for themselves, and there were substantial feedback effects from lower tax rates on other income classes as well (see Chart 6). Defenders of high tax rates condemn the Reagan program, noting that tax revenues in the early 1980s were well below the Administration's original projections.40 But this reasoning is seriously flawed. First, it blames the tax cuts for the second half of the double-dip recession of 1980-1982, a drop in the economy that began before the economy received a tax cut. Second, it fails to recognize the irony that two-thirds of the revenue shortfall occurred because inflation was reduced much faster than was originally thought.41 Significantly, the forecast of the Democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office closely matched the Administration's.42
The 1986 Tax Reform Act
This legislation provides one of the best examples of why dynamic forecasting is needed. The Tax Reform Act lowered tax rates on individual income and increased the tax burden on corporate income.43 According to the static estimates, the shift in taxes amounted to more than $100 billion over the five-year period. Actual tax collections, however, showed a very clear and pronounced supply-side effect. As taxpayers responded to lower rates, individual income tax revenues grew faster than expected, nearly 6 percent above projections. The higher tax burden on corporate income, meanwhile, had the opposite effect. Corporate income tax receipts were very sluggish, falling nearly 25 percent below the static estimates.44
The divergent responses of personal and corporate income tax collections are critical. Defenders of static forecasting always try to argue that the dynamic effects are a coincidence. The booming economy and rapid revenue growth of the 1920s, 1960s, and 1980s, for instance, are said to have had nothing to do with lower tax rates. Likewise, the economy's poor performance during the 1930s, 1970s, and 1990s is said to be just bad fortune completely unrelated to higher tax rates. These arguments fall apart when analyzing the Tax Reform Act, since it is impossible to blame sluggish corporate tax collections on a weak economy while at the same time claiming that strong personal tax collections are the result of a strong economy.
The 1986 Capital Gains Tax Rate Increase
As part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, policymakers increased the capital gains tax from 20 percent to 28 percent. Two noteworthy things happened. Capital gains realizations (asset sales) and revenues soared before the tax rate increase took effect and then collapsed by more than 50 percent when the higher rate took effect.45 When the Congressional Budget Office put together its revenue baseline in 1990, however, it assumed that capital gains realizations would grow at the same rate they did during the early 1980s when the tax rate was low. This proved to be a huge error. In fact, the high capital gains tax discouraged asset sales, and realizations were stagnant, usually less than half of CBO's projections.46 Moreover, the Joint Committee on Taxation used this inflated baseline in 1990 to put together static revenue estimates suggesting that a reduction in the rate would lose money and primarily benefit the wealthy. But the 1986 increase in the capital gains tax rate actually hurt middle-income taxpayers more than the rich, since the tax rate on their gains rose from 14 percent to 28 percent.47
The Luxury Tax
The 1990 budget agreement included provisions imposing excise taxes on products thought to be purchased by the "rich," including luxury boats and private airplanes. These taxes backfired so badly that Congress repealed them. Actual collections from the boat tax reached $32.5 million, according to the Treasury Department, far below the $53 million originally forecast.48 The Joint Committee on Taxation, meanwhile, admitted that the airplane tax collected just 10 percent of the static estimate.49
Defenders of the tax have tried to argue that the revenue shortfall was coincidental,50 but the actual effects are even worse than these numbers indicate. When boat builders lost their jobs and boatyards shut down, the federal government lost income and payroll taxes and also had to pay out unemployment benefits.51 The static estimates recognized that some people might have lost jobs as a result of the tax but assumed that those workers would immediately get jobs someplace else paying the same wage.52 Life in the real world, unfortunately, does not operate as flawlessly as these static blackboard models.
The Bush Tax Rate Increase
In 1990, President Bush reneged on his no-new-taxes promise and signed into law a major tax increase, including an increase in the top rate from 28 percent to 31 percent. Rather than bring in new revenues, however, the government began to collect less revenue than was projected before tax rates were increased.53 In 1991 alone, revenues fell by more than $6 for every $1 the tax increase was supposed to generate.54
Defenders of static scoring admit this happened but blame the stagnant economy for the drop in revenues. Since the tax increase certainly helped throw the economy into the tank, however, this excuse rings hollow. Even if one accepts the unlikely assumption that the tax increase had nothing to do with the recession, there are other compelling numbers showing the dynamic effect. In 1991, income tax receipts from those making more than $200,000 fell by more than 6 percent.55 Yet tax collections from those making less than that rose by 1 percent. In other words, the government wound up collecting less in revenue from the taxpayers who were slapped with higher tax rates, but collecting more from those whose taxes did not go up.
The 1993 Clinton Tax Rate Increase
Without a vote to spare in either the House or the Senate, President Clinton during his first year in office imposed the largest tax increase in history. His increase in tax rates, from 31 percent to 39.6 percent,56 was the biggest jump since Herbert Hoover boosted the rate from 25 percent to 63 percent in 1930. Harvard economist Martin Feldstein estimates that the tax rate increase raised only one-third of the promised revenue.57 The combined effect of the Bush and Clinton tax rate increases has been an utter failure. As shown in Chart 7, revenues from the personal income tax actually have declined as a percentage of economic output since Reagan left office.58
Revenue Estimates and the Flat Tax
The perils and pitfalls of static forecasting are clearly evident in the flat tax debate. Representative Richard Armey (R-TX) resuscitated the idea of moving to a simple and fair one-rate tax system in 1994. Almost immediately, the proposal was attacked by the Administration. Shortly before the mid-term elections that year, the press reported a Treasury Department estimate that the flat tax would require a rate of 25.8 percent to be revenue neutral.59 Six months later, the Administration criticized the flat tax yet again, but this time charged that the rate would have to be 22.9 percent to avoid increasing the deficit.60 More recently, the Treasury Department issued its third static estimate of the flat tax, this time claiming that the revenue neutral rate would be 20.8 percent.61
The Clinton Administration's inability to settle on a single rate is instructive for two reasons. It demonstrates that even static revenue estimates, which involve more simplistic calculations, are far from exact. Even more important, the White House inadvertently has provided compelling evidence for the flat tax. The Treasury Department's most recent estimate, predicting a revenue neutral rate of 20.8 percent, is still exaggerated.62 But it confirms that Representative Armey's 20 percent flat tax, which includes $40 billion in budgetary savings,63 is deficit-neutral -- even using static analysis.
Not surprisingly, dynamic estimates of the flat tax, using more sophisticated econometric and modeling techniques, find that growth increases significantly. This additional growth, as illustrated earlier, results in substantial revenue increases. An important question, of course, is who benefits from the economy's expansion. Representative Armey and Senate co-sponsor Richard Shelby (R-AL) believe that taxpayers should reap the benefit of faster growth. As a result, they reduce the flat rate to 17 percent in the third year.
Numerous studies support the contention that the economy will expand dramatically if the existing tax code is replaced by a single-rate flat tax. For example:
Professor Dale Jorgenson, Chairman of the Economics Department at Harvard, testified before the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform that a single-rate system could boost the economy by 15 percent or more within a decade.64
University of California professor Alan Auerbach, formerly an economist with the Joint Committee on Taxation, estimates that the economy would be 5.7 percent larger within five years with a flat tax.65
Stanford University economist Michael Boskin, a former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has testified that a flat tax would boost growth by 10 percent within ten years.66
Even without growth effects, two former Treasury Department economists estimate that a flat tax would be revenue neutral at 17 percent.67
Boston University economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff estimates that a move to a single-rate tax that does not double-tax capital income would raise living standards by between 7 percent and 14 percent.68
A study by two academic economists found that a 17 percent flat tax would boost growth so much that tax revenues would increase by 1.8 percentage points.69
Questions and Answers About Dynamic Scoring
Q: Will lower tax rates reduce the underground economy, and will dynamic forecasting reflect this shift?
A: Yes, but probably not enough to affect revenue forecasts. By definition, measuring the size of the underground economy is difficult. Those that have tried have produced estimates ranging from a low of 5 percent of GDP to a high of more than 25 percent of GDP.70 An added problem is that no one knows how much of the underground economy exists for the purpose of evading taxes. It is safe to assume that most drug dealers, bookies, and prostitutes do not pay taxes, but that will not change if tax rates are lowered. For activities that are legal, however, lower tax rates would reduce tax evasion. The American Bar Association conducted a three-year study which concluded that lower tax rates encourage greater compliance.71
Q: What safeguards would be needed to ensure that the party in power did not abuse dynamic forecasts?
A: This is a legitimate concern. Politicians often exaggerate the benefits of legislation they support, and it does not take a wild imagination to envision revenue estimators pressured to produce excessively optimistic numbers. The Congressional Budget Office, for instance, was often accused of tailoring its figures to help the Democrats when they were in the majority.72 This is why public disclosure of the model and methodology is so important. If outside experts were allowed to review all decisions, the potential for mischief would shrink dramatically.73
Q: Should there be dynamic forecasts of spending legislation?
A: If the scientific evidence is clear, the answer is yes. Considerable research has been done to show that government spending, particularly for consumption items, is a drag on economic growth.74
Incorporating this new research into budget analysis would help policymakers make proper decisions. As with dynamic scoring of tax legislation, full disclosure is critical. The Congressional Budget Office, for instance, used a version of dynamic scoring during the debate over the 1995 Balanced Budget Act. Unfortunately, in predicting dramatic reductions in interest rates following enactment of legislation to reduce budget deficits,75 the CBO was almost surely wrong.76 If the CBO had to publish its analyses and defend them before outside experts, estimators would be forced to refine and improve their techniques.
During the post-Reagan years, the economy has experienced its worst seven-year performance since the end of World War II.77 The average family has lost more than $2,000 of real purchasing power,78 and there is little reason for optimism about the future. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that economic growth over the next ten years will average only 2.1 percent if current tax and spending policies are maintained.79
America can do better. From the end of World War II until the end of the Reagan years, the economy's growth rate averaged well over 3 percent -- and that includes recession years.80
To get America growing again, tax policy will have to change. In the short term, immediate tax rate reductions are needed to boost growth; in the long term, the entire tax code should be replaced by a simple, flat tax. Unfortunately, these pro-growth changes will be harder to achieve if revenue estimators continue to use outdated and inaccurate static models. Dynamic revenue estimates, by contrast, would provide policymakers with more accurate information. Dynamic forecasting is based on a proper understanding of how the economy works, and history has shown this approach to be far more realistic.
It is conventional wisdom that voting for lower spending is bad politics. This fear may or may not be justified, but it certainly is true that lower spending is good economics. Ideally, lawmakers would want to reduce both taxes and spending as part of an overall effort to boost growth and enhance freedom.
Harvard Professor Martin Feldstein, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, estimates that repeal of the higher tax rates approved in 1993 would result in a revenue loss of less than $10 billion, or less than one-third of the static estimate. For further detail, see Martin Feldstein, "The Case for Dynamic Analysis," The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 1994.
Somewhat startlingly, an opponent of tax rate reductions admitted recently that the revenue feedback effect of lower tax rates was 35 percent. See Lawrence Chimerine, "Return of the Supply-Siders," The Washington Post, July 23, 1996.
For a detailed analysis of the positive effects of lower tax rates, see Daniel Mitchell, "The Historical Lessons of Lower Tax Rates," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1086, July 19, 1996.
Tax cuts also stimulate the economy according to Keynesian theory, but the analysis is based on stimulating consumer spending by putting dollars back in people's pockets while ignoring the offsetting effect that occurs when government borrowing reduces private investment spending by a similar amount.
"Compliance Costs of Alternative Tax Systems, II," House Ways and Means Committee Testimony, Tax Foundation Special Brief, March 1996.
Arthur Hall, "Growth of Government Tax Industry Parallels Growth of Federal Tax Code," Special Report No. 39, Tax Foundation, September 1994.
Discussion of Revenue Estimation Methodology and Process, Joint Committee on Taxation, JCS-14-92, August 13, 1992.
For good descriptions of the current revenue estimating process, see joint hearing, Review of Congressional Budget Cost Estimating, Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, and Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate, Serial No. 104-1, January 10, 1995, and Jane G. Gravelle, "Dynamic Revenue Estimating," CRS Report for Congress, Congressional Research Service, December 14, 1994.
When estimating the effect of higher tax rates in 1993, the JCT examined several non-macroeconomic factors, such as "shifting from investments which yield interest and dividend income, taxed at the new higher rates, into investments that provide capital appreciation, which is taxed at unchanged lower rates. Also considered were shifts from taxable to tax-exempt assets, conversion to C corporation business form, conversion of wage income into tax-deferred compensation or tax-exempt fringe benefits, and increased noncompliance and avoidance." All these factors, however, only reduced the pure static revenue loss by 7 percent over the five-year period. See Staff Paper, Methodology and Issues in the Revenue Estimating Process, Joint Committee on Taxation, January 24, 1995.
Office of Tax Analysis, Department of the Treasury, "Preliminary Analysis of a Flat Rate Consumption Tax," March 10, 1995.
Statement of Alan Greenspan, Chairman, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, in joint hearing, Review of Congressional Budget Cost Estimating.
Letter to Senator Bob Packwood from Joint Committee on Taxation, November 15, 1988.
Congressional Record, November 14, 1989, p. S15534.
The Joint Tax Committee learned an important lesson from this episode. When Senator Packwood made a similar request in 1994, the committee responded by reporting the amount of after-tax income over $200,000 while noting that "If the 100-percent tax rate were to be in effect for a substantial period of time, so that taxpayers would have no rational hope of avoiding or evading the 100-percent tax in the outyears by deferring income to lower rate years or using other tax avoidance or deferral plans, then in our judgment there would be a substantial reduction in income-producing activity in the economy and, thus, a significant reduction in tax receipts to the Federal government." Letter to Senator Packwood, October 12, 1994.
"Joint Tax Committee Announces Changes in Revenue-Estimating Process," Bureau of National Affairs Daily Tax Report, May 19, 1995, p. G14.
Dan Balz and Blaine Harden, "Dole to Propose Cutting Income Tax Rates by 15%," The Washington Post, August 5, 1996.
This was especially evident at the end of 1992 when corporate executives, sports figures, and the future First Lady all arranged to realize income in 1992 that normally would have been received in 1993. The reason, of course, was to avoid the widely expected higher tax rates that were supported by President-elect Bill Clinton.
Alan Murray, "Dole Seeking Credible Economic Plan," The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 1996.
Conference Report, H.R. 2264, The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Congressional Record, August 4, 1993.
For more information on the estate tax, see William Beach, "The Case for Ending the Estate Tax" Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, forthcoming.
B. Douglas Bernheim, "Does the Estate Tax Raise Revenue?" in Tax Policy and the Economy, Vol. 1, ed. Lawrence H. Summers (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, MIT Press, 1987).
Gravelle, "Dynamic Revenue Estimating."
This may be a rash assumption. In his insightful book Getting it Right (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996), Harvard economist Robert Barro polled liberal friends and colleagues and was surprised to find that many of them favored keeping tax rates high, even if the government collected fewer taxes.
For further information on value-added taxes, see Daniel Mitchell, "How a Value Added Tax Would Harm the U.S. Economy," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 940, May 11, 1993.
"Return of the Tax Olympiad," The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 1993.
Alan Reynolds, "Estimates vs. Reality," in Unleashing America's Potential: A Pro-Growth, Pro-Family Tax System for the 21st Century, Report of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, reprinted in Tax Notes, January 22, 1996.
Tax Foundation, Facts and Figures on Government Finance, 1988-1989 Edition (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988).
Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part 1, 1976.
Christopher Frenze, "The Mellon and Kennedy Tax Cuts: A Review and Analysis," Staff Study, Joint Economic Committee, June 18, 1982.
Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the President, 1996, February 1996.
Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 1997, Historical Tables, 1996.
Bruce Bartlett, "The Case for Ending the Capital Gains Tax," Financial Analysts Journal, May-June 1985.
Lawrence B. Lindsey, The Growth Experiment: How the New Tax Policy Is Transforming the U.S. Economy (New York, N.Y.: Basic Books, 1990).
Bruce Bartlett, "Static Scoring Gets It Wrong," The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 1994.
For a thorough discussion of this issue, see Free Market Energy: The Way to Benefit Consumers, ed. S. Fred Singer (New York, N.Y.: Universe Books, 1984).
Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the President, 1996.
Lindsey, The Growth Experiment: How the New Tax Policy Is Transforming the U.S. Economy.
Robert Bartley, The Seven Fat Years (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
The White House, Claim and Response Packet to Most Frequent Supply-Side Claims, July 1996.
Gary Robbins and Aldona Robbins, "Cooking the Books: Exposing the Tax and Spend Bias of Government Forecasts," Institute for Policy Innovation Policy Report No. 129, February 1995.
Bruce Bartlett, "Premature Ambush of Tax Cut Scorecard," The Washington Times, August 5, 1996.
Taxes on business are an illusion. Even when collected at the corporate level, all taxes ultimately are paid by individuals. When government imposes taxes on a "corporation," the real effect is lower profits for shareholders, lower wages for workers, and higher prices for consumers.
Robbins and Robbins, "Cooking the Books: Exposing the Tax and Spend Bias of Government Forecasts."
Christopher Frenze, "Capital Gains and the Revenue Estimation Process," Economic Update, Joint Economic Committee, September 1995.
Christopher Frenze, "Massive CBO Errors in Capital Gains Projections," Policy Analysis, Joint Economic Committee, February 1992.
Alvin Rabushka, "Ten Myths About Higher Taxes," Essays in Public Policy (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1993).
Lucinda Harper and David Wessel, "A Primer: What Congress Will Face in Debate Over Taxes and Revenue," The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 1994.
Staff Paper, Methodology and Issues in the Revenue Estimating Process.
U.S. General Accounting Office, Luxury Excise Tax Issues and Estimated Effects, GAO/GGD-92-9, February 1992.
Joint Economic Committee, 1992 Annual Report, April 1992.
J. D. Foster, "The Prospects for Improving Official Revenue Estimates," Tax Foundation Special Brief, February 1995.
Office of Management and Budget, Mid-Session Review of the Budget, July 16, 1990, and Budget of the United States Government, FY1997, Historical Tables, 1996.
U.S. General Accounting Office, 1991 Budget Estimates: What Went Wrong, GAO/OCG-92-1, January 1992.
Paul Gigot, "Oops! Weren't We Going to Soak the Rich?" The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 1993.
He also lifted the cap on the amount of income subject to the Medicare 2.9 percent payroll tax. This means the effective top rate is really 42.5 percent.
Martin Feldstein, "What the '93 Tax Increases Really Did," The Wall Street Journal, October 25, 1995.
Congressional Budget Office, Economic and Budget Outlook, Fiscal Years 1997-2006, May 1996.
"Treasury Analysis Finds GOP 'Flat Tax' Too Costly," The Washington Post, October 31, 1994.
U.S. Department of the Treasury, "A Preliminary Analysis of a Flat Rate Consumption tax," April 1995.
U.S. Department of the Treasury, "An Analysis of the New Armey-Shelby Flat Tax Proposal," January 1996.
Letter to Senator Connie Mack from Congressional Budget Office, March 28, 1995.
Office of Representative Richard Armey, The Treasury Department Analysis of the Flat Tax, unpublished paper.
Dale Jorgenson, "The Economic Impact of Fundamental Tax Reform," testimony before Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, June 6, 1995.
Alan Auerbach, "Tax Reform, Capital Allocation, Efficiency and Growth," unpublished draft, December 21, 1995, prepared for Brookings Institution Conference on Fundamental Tax Reform, February 15-16, 1996.
Michael Boskin, "A Framework for the Tax Reform Debate," testimony before Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, June 6, 1995.
Gary Robbins and Aldona Robbins, "Which Tax Reform Plan? Developing Consistent Tax Bases for Broad-Based Tax Reform," Institute for Policy Innovation Policy Report No. 135, January 1996.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff, "The Economic Impact of Replacing Federal Income Taxes With a Sales Tax," Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 193, April 15, 1993.
Barry J. Seldon and Roy G. Boyd, "The Economic Effects of a Flat Tax," NCPA Policy Report No. 205, June 1996.
Paul Starobin, "The Economy You Can't See," National Journal, June 18, 1994.
American Bar Association, Commission on Taxpayer Compliance, Report and Recommendations, July 1987.
Edward McFadden, "Clinton's Funny-Number Factory," The American Spectator, November 1992.
Section 4 of H. Con. Res. 170, introduced by Representative Tom Campbell (R-CA), would require both the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation to divulge their methodology.
Eric M. Engen and Jonathan Skinner, "Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series, No. 4223, December 1992; Daniel Landau, "Government Expenditure and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Survey," Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 49 (January 1983), pp. 783-792; John McCallum and Andre Blais, "Government, Special Interest Groups, and Economic Growth," Public Choice, Vol. 54 (1987).
Congressional Budget Office, "Economic and Budget Outlook, December 1995 Update," CBO Memorandum, December 1995.
Daniel Mitchell, "The Deficit Hawks Lay an Egg," The Wall Street Journal, July 23, 1996.
Median Family Income, Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce.
Congressional Budget Office, Economic and Budget Outlook, Fiscal Years 1997-2006.
IRS Funding: Don't Feed the Mouth That Bites You
Instead of Fighting Tax-Cutting States, Feds Should Follow Their Example
Plague of Taxes Sparks New York Exodus


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Bosnia Fostering Interventions for Rapid Advancement (FIRMA)
Bosnia Fostering Interventions for Rapid Advancement (FIRMA) Under the FIRMA project, JAA worked directly with numerous institutions supporting private sector development including: trade associations, the industry committees, Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and a…
Jordan Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality (SABEQ) JAA contributed to a USAID project that worked with both the public and private sectors to enhance economic competitiveness and productivity in Jordan in…
Building Competitiveness in Africa's Agriculture: A Guide to Value Chain Concepts and Applications Sponsored by the World Bank, JAA prepared a toolkit of implementation approaches based on value chain principles to enhance the…
Best Practices Sourcebook: Spatial Approaches to Promoting Agro-Industrial Investment, Food and Agriculture Organization JAA built the Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) institutional capacity to assist governments in designing development strategies for their agro-industries. JAA…
Livelihoods and Enterprises for Agricultural Development (LEAD) in Uganda
Livelihoods and Enterprises for Agricultural Development (LEAD) in Uganda JAA, as part of a team, implemented the Livelihoods and Enterprise for Agricultural Development (LEAD) project in Uganda, a Feed the Future activity. This…
Agribusiness and Trade Promotion (ATP and E-ATP) in West Africa The ATP and E-ATP programs increased the value and volume of intra-regional trade in maize, rice, millet, sorghum, poultry, and other agricultural commodities…
Senegal 10-year SAGIC/PCE Program
Senegal 10-year SAGIC/PCE Program The 10-year SAGIC/PCE program addressed Senegal's food security and nutrition challenges. Though it initially emphasized export-oriented value chains to increase broad-based economic growth and foreign investment, PCE became the…
Tanzania Cluster Competitiveness Programme (TCCP)
Tanzania Cluster Competitiveness Programme (TCCP) TCCP built the capacity of key industry clusters and provide policy advice rooted in private sector experience, public sector institutions, multilateral donors, and development partners, helping them to…
Georgia Economic Prosperity Initiative JAA contributed to the successful achievement of the major project targets - in investment, mobilization of domestic finance, exports and job creation. In the first two years of the…
Zimbabwe ZIMBISA: National Competitiveness Commission, National Competitiveness Reporting and Public-private Dialogue
Zimbabwe ZIMBISA: National Competitiveness Commission, National Competitiveness Reporting and Public-private Dialogue ZIMBISA is a Zimbabwean trust established with the goal of helping Zimbabwe achieve sustained economic growth and reduce poverty by fulfilling the…
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Home » News » In production: Sammy Paramaribo!
We have a great production coming up! It's not in Curaçao this time, but Surinam! Michel Drenthe will be the line producer of Sammy Paramaribo. This is a great opportunity to work with Eddy Wijngaarde (The Back Lot), Marc Bary (Ijswater Films), Barbara Bredero (Moving Movies), Mirjam Marks and others!
Sammy Paramaribo is a short (5 episodes) children's series about a girl called Sammy from Almere, who goes on a holiday to visit her family in Paramaribo. This project is produced by Ijswater Films in cooperation with KRO-NCRV and will be supported by the Mediafonds. This project was created by Sabrina Sugiarto.


Our Master Collection® line of holsters are nothing short of the finest in gun leather. The Master Collection® upgrade uses the same Hermann Oak domestic steer hide but in a thinner stock laminated together to keep the form factor and weight at a minimum. The end result is a double layered leather so that you have smooth leather on both faces creating a smooth interior and exterior to the holster. This also lends to the ultra detailed molding on the interior so that your firearm fits perfectly into the holster.
What is the advantage of the Master Collection® upgrade?
First and mainly, it creates a smooth interior to the holster which helps with finish wear on your firearm... but it will not prevent finish wear. Finish wear on a firearm that is holstered is inevitable. Holsters hold your firearm in place with friction. When you draw or holster your firearm you are rubbing the finish at those pinch points. In short, it helps delay the inevitable result of carrying a firearm...finish wear.
Second, you may experience a stiffer holster. Because of the lamination process, the more layers of materials with grain running in different directions coupled with cement securing them together results in added strength. This may require a little more time and effort during the break-in in process.
The Master Collection® upgrade is available as an option to all of our holsters. Get one on order today by visiting our shop. If you have any questions please contact us.


Follow these steps to maintain a presence in the Jabber online community, such as retrieving a list of friends from the roster.
In the previous article, we talked about how you can connect to a Jabber online community using the XMPP peer-to-peer protocol. In this article, we will be looking at maintaining our online presence.
However, before we continue, let me say that there are some features that we will not be looking at, such as creating an account, maintaining your roster, etc. These features can be found in any standard Jabber IM client.
And since Jabber allows developers to specify a resource to distinguish different connection log-ins simultaneously to a same account, our application will only read the roster, initiate application-to-application chat, and leave the account and user management aspects to these IM clients.
As in the previous article, all code examples will use the Smack XMPP library.
One of the first things we should probably do once we have logged in to a Jabber server is to let others know about our availability. We do this by sending a Presence packet. The Presence packet allows us to specify our availability and also to attach a short note like "I am available".
From the code above, we create the Presence where the type is Presence.Type.available. The 'available' here refers to the user logs in to the server; and 'unavailable' when the user logs out. However, the Presence.Type information is normally handle by the Jabber server.
To indicate of your availability to chat, you have to use Presence.Mode. This is set using setMode() method. Finally, we attach a short message to the presence information using the setStatus() method. Figure 1 shows how your presence will appear to others.
The second thing that you will want to do after you have announced your online presence is to get a list of friends and buddies, which is stored in the roster. The roster will return RosterEntry objects.
As you are probably aware, users changes their status all the time. To keep track of their presence information, you have to implement RosterListener. The listener will notify you if the presence of user changes and whether entries have been added, deleted or updated.
The final piece of information that you may want to get from the Jabber server is the list of themed conference rooms--each conference room will host users discussing a particular topic.
Conference rooms are organized under multi-user chat services. So what we need to do is to get the list of services, then list all the conference rooms under the service. You can get the service and conference rooms from MultiUserChat class.
One thing you do have to keep in mind whenever you are accessing information the Jabber servers is to run your code in a separate thread; the reason is that a call, for example MultiUserChat.getServiceNames(), may block because of heavy server load or network lag. So if you are running this on the main application thread then your Swing application may seem slow or sluggish.
The following sample code in this ZIP file shows a working example of all that is discussed in this article. Unzip the file. The directory is a NetBeans project so you can open it with NetBeans.
To build from the source, you will need to add smack.jar and smackx.jar into NetBeans project. See the previous article on how to do this.
After you have logged in, the application list your buddies from your roster and the list of available conference rooms. Note that these data are loaded in a separated thread so if nothing shows up be patient; especially the conference room list. The core of these operations are performed in JabberEnvironment.java file, line 116.
Figure 2 and Figure 3 show the list of buddies in your roster and the list of available rooms under a particular service, respectively.
Note that with certain Jabber servers, not all the room information is available, eg. jabber.org does not maintain room description. So when you select a conference room to view its information, you may get a NullPointerException. The part of the code that handles this in the Smack library does not check for this.
In the next article, we will look at how to join conference rooms and initiate chat with other users. Once we understand that, we can then build our application on top of XMPP's infrastructure and leverage these peer-to-peer features.
Note: In this article, XMPP and Jabber means the same thing although XMPP is a protocol and Jabber is a peer-to-peer server that implements this protocol.
Lee Chuk-Munn is a staff engineer at Sun Microsystems.


A witty dramedy, that will make you laugh, cry and wish you had no regrets in life, it is a surprisingly entertaining and unpredictable film. Opening act: troubled and depressed divorced mess of a man-child Ron Hollar (Sharlto Copley) wearing only boxers stands in front of a door knocking, only to discover all bathrooms are being occupied by his parents. In his desperation to relieve himself, he walks to the kitchen and grabs a water decanter and proceeds to relieve himself. Father, Don Hollar (Richard Jenkins), walks-in on him. Humiliated and embarrassed, he asks his father to turn away and let him finish what he started (audience breaks out laughing). We then hear a thump coming from upstairs, the men run and find mother Sally Hollar (Emmy-winning Martindale) lying on the floor unable to move. Don asks her to stop playing and tells her to get up, but soon realizes that this is a real medical emergency- for God's sake the woman is having a seizure, and soon learns, she has a brain tumor. And so, life begins to take a different turn for this loving and dysfunctional family, which is suddenly forced to face its troubled demons. Isn't that what life is made of: laughter and tears?
After hearing of the news, that Sally is in the hospital, pushy and very pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Kendrick) buys her boyfriend, John Hollar (Krasinski, longtime costar of "The Office") a ticket back to his rural hometown in Ohio. The news that Sally has been growing a tumor in her brain for the last fifteen years forces everyone to reflect on their lives and confront the reasons why they all are unhappy and full of regret. John is faced with the realization that, perhaps, his graphic novelist career path was not the right path to follow, as he feels more of a struggling artist in NYC than an accomplished creative genius. The patriarch, Don Hollar, is not only depressed and anxious to see his wife sick in the hospital, but his once booming business is now bankrupt. The thought of losing his wife, and losing what he has sooo hard worked for his entire life-scares the living hell out of him. He tells his son, John, if I could do it all over again- I would do things differently. John, later, hears from his ill mother, that she never should've married Don, which only pushes John over the edge, as he himself is already dealing with the anxiety of his unhappy life back in New York City. Ron Hollars is in a totally different screwed-up world; not only is he dealing with a divorce that he himself wanted, but regrets having done so, and stalks his ex-wife and daughters, making ex-wife and children uncomfortable and fearful that Ron, is really losing it. Throughout all of this ordeal, suffering, and disappointment, girlfriend Rebecca and mother Sally, manage to always keep things together and keep the family focused and centered, like the good matriarchs they are. In spite of all the personal crises they all seem to be dealing with at the same time, we get a glimpse of a family, that sticks together and focuses on making things right again.