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Puffins face extinction in Scotland with overfishing of their main source of food, sandeels, to make animal feed a major problem – Philip Lymbery
Here are the UK's 13 most popular breeds of adorable dog - including the loving Labrador Retriever
Colombian nationals protest in Glasgow and Edinburgh against violent government
Demonstrations in Edinburgh and across the UK have taken place to force the British and Scottish governments into challenging their Colombian counterpart on their human rights.
By Jacob Farr
Thursday, 20th May 2021, 4:55 am
Updated Thursday, 20th May 2021, 4:09 pm
Let us know what you think and join the conversation at the bottom of this article.
The Colombian community in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and London has been demonstrating and standing in solidarity with its fellow citizens in Colombia, who have been protesting against President Ivan Duque and his government.
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Demonstrations took place at the Iron Duke monument on Princes Street with demonstrators showing their solidarity with protestors in Columbia.
Several demonstrations have also taken place in George Square, Glasgow.
Those involved are hoping to pressure the Scottish Government and UK Government into condemning the acts of violence propagated by the state against Columbian citizens.
Maria Reyes Mesa, who runs communications for Columbian citizens in Edinburgh, said: "The number of missing people varies according to the source, but Human Rights organisations claim there are more than 300 people whose whereabouts are still unknown who took part in protests. There are also 10 cases of sexual violence allegedly by the police, and thousands of injured.
"We call on the Columbian government to withdraw all of their troops from the cities and to guarantee the safety of protestors. The government must also now commit to improving healthcare, education, policing and look towards introducing a universal basic income.
The Colombian government has come under severe pressure for their use of violence against protesters domestically.
"We hope that both the UK and Scottish governments can pressure the Columbian government into committing to respecting human rights and to engage with demonstrators genuinely."
On May 12 statistics were released showing that 42 people had been killed during protests - one of which was a police officer.
Demonstrations began on April 28 as protestors rallied against a proposed tax reform that would hurt middle-low earners in the country.
The government had argued that this was a necessary step to help the economically challenged nation.
Colombian protests in Edinburgh
GDP plummeted by 6.8 percent in 2020 whilst unemployment shot up as the coronavirus pandemic caused economic chaos.
After four days of protest in late April, Duque said that he would cancel the tax reforms but from there things began to escalate.
It is believed that the protests are a continuation of those seen across 2019-20 where citizens hit out at rising levels of inequality.
As a result Protesters have blocked key roads leading to shortages of essentials in some areas.
Colombian demonstrators gather to demand action from UK and Scottish governments.
Since then the government has agreed to meet protest leaders but with more and more groups adding their demands, the demands have widened and a quick resolution seems unlikely.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Government strongly supports the efforts being made in Colombia to uphold human rights and secure equality and social justice.
"We share the deep concerns over the violent response to peaceful protest expressed by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and call on the Colombian authorities to ensure that all human rights, including the right to life and the right to freedom of assembly, are fully protected."
Wendy Morton MP, the FCDO Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas, said: "I am deeply saddened by violence in Colombia. My thoughts are with the families of those who have died or been injured. The right to peaceful assembly and association must be guaranteed. We call for the end of violence, and the start of dialogue and transparent investigations."
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Younger social audiences migrating to Instagram and Snapchat
Posted by David Hobart
Younger social media users are leaving Facebook for more visually oriented platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, according to a new study by research enterprise eMarketer. While Facebook is the most popular social network overall in the UK, those aged 24 and under are increasingly migrating to image- and video-focused rivals.
More than 32.5 million UK users currently log in to Facebook every month, but its active share among 12- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 24-year-olds is expected to decrease by an average of around three per cent in 2017. In contrast, Snapchat will see an impressive 19.2 per cent spike in users in the 18 to 24 category this year.
Instagram is also experiencing a surge in user numbers, as a total of 16.7 million people will use the server every month, which is an uptick of 34.8 per cent on the figure from last year. Snapchat is not too far behind, either – 14 million people in the UK will log in at least once a month, for a 20.2 per cent increase over 2016.
Instagram is now a prime destination for brands publishing creative videos, and eMarketer notes that its recent rollout of Stories and other features aimed at engaging with younger audiences makes it the better long-term prospect, and its popularity could stunt Snapchat's recent gains.
"We see teens and tweens migrating to Snapchat and Instagram," eMarketer Senior Forecasting Analyst Oscar Orozco said. "Both platforms have found success with this demographic since they are more aligned with how they communicate – that is, using visual content. Outside of those who have already left, teens and tweens remaining on Facebook seem to be less engaged, logging in less frequently and spending less time on the platform."
Orozco added that those aged between ten and12 are now overlooking Facebook entirely and embracing the Facebook-owned Instagram instead. Meanwhile, Twitter is struggling to keep pace with its three main competitors, as user growth has levelled off this year and could fall to just 0.9 per cent by 2021. A total of 12.6 million UK users are expected to use the platform by the end of this year.
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The ever-changing nature of search environment means that there is no magic bullet in SEO. It is not a one-size fits-all discipline, and it never ends. You have to work hard to find the right blend of targeted keywords for your particular business operating within your particular market at the current point in time. You have to optimise your pages based on those keywords, and deliver compelling, high-impact content. You have to attract incoming links.
Then you have to measure, monitor and refine continuously, tweaking and turning your optimisation efforts based on changing conditions in the marketplace, the search engines and your customers. Take your foot off the gas, and that high ranking you've worked so hard to achieve will gradually (and sometimes not so gradually) start to slip away.
Optimisation is a dynamic and iterative process. And if you want sustained results it needs to be ongoing.


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In Case of Emergency, Call Back-Up Care
The following post was written by Marc Bernica, Senior Vice President, Care Advantage & Product Support Services at Bright Horizons.
It's as dependable as the changing of the seasons: the kids go back to school and they come home with the cold du jour. A nasty cold yours, your spouse's can knock everyone off their feet. But when it's your child who's under the weather, it adds a whole new dimension. Not only is a child's illness worrisome, but it can also create significant challenges at work.
Whether it's a minor cold, an ear infection, or fever, the last thing you want employees worrying about is a) Will I make that big meeting? or b) Do I feel good about the person caring for my sick baby? The latter can undo a workday even when they do make it to that big meeting. So a good backup program has some tall orders to fill. It needs to get people over the "OMG" of wondering, "Who IS this person coming into my house?" and it has to be easy enough to use to leave the lasting impression of, "WOW! That was easy!"
Case Studies in Effective Back-Up Care
Scenario 1: Kyla's son is not feeling well. With a slight fever and a mild reaction from his chicken-pox vaccine, it's safe to say he's not a happy camper. Kyla calls our Bright Horizons backup care contact center and secures in-home care; it takes a few minutes and a caregiver is quickly confirmed. "Jennifer, the caregiver, came over and instantly made me feel comfortable," wrote Kyla later in her feedback. "She brought items over for my son to play with and he went to her immediately." Score one for backup care: it was easy, fast, and solved the problem. Equally important, the caregiver made Kyla feel comfortable; and with the confidence of a program she felt good about, Kyla was able to focus squarely on work.
Scenario 2: One employee has been using in-home care for her children all week; then her 7-month-old suddenly comes down with a cold. The employee later wrote to let us know that while her son "had a rough time, Emma handled it like a champ." Handled it like a champ. That's the level of confidence a successful program needs to do the job. That commitment to doing whatever it takes to get the job done will serve your employees and your company -- not only during flu season but always, regardless of what surprises life brings. Because even though it's the children and elderly loved ones that our centers and providers are directly caring for, it's really the employees that we support.
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I write in response to the Aug. 26 letter by Ron and Debbie Boggs. In their letter, they argue that the observed increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have had only a minor effect on global climate. Their choice of years for comparison seriously distort the actual global climate record. Gordon Aubrecht, in his Sept. 3 letter, explains this well. Temperatures have already shown significant increases. What is most worrying to me are the projections for future climate disruption. If we continue to burn fossil fuels and pollute the atmosphere with unprecedented levels of CO2, the impacts will intensify.
What they have not mentioned is the direct influence of dissolved CO2 on the chemistry of our oceans. When CO2 dissolves in the oceans, it lowers the pH (acid-base balance). This change, called ocean acidification, is already having important effects. In response to rising temperatures and dropping pH levels, some coral reefs are showing decreased calcification, as well as bleaching, which threaten their continued existence.
Many planktonic (tiny floating) organisms in the oceans also possess calcareous skeletons susceptible to acidification. For example, the abundant floating snail-like organisms called pteropods are already suffering from shell thinning. If this continues, they may not be able to maintain their populations. Why should we care about microscopic plankton? These pteropods are a vital food source during certain stages in the life cycles of many important commercial fish that we eat including salmon, pollock, herring and cod.
Other studies have shown that ocean acidification will have a drastic impact on tiny forams (among the most abundant of all marine organisms). If conditions continue to change at current rates, the ocean chemistry will become fatal for these important components of the marine environment before the end of this century.
In the Antarctic Ocean, there have already been dramatic shifts. The primary food of many organisms, including the great whales, are krill. These tiny shrimp-like crustaceans have declined over ten-fold in many parts of the Antarctic since 1976. They are being replaced by a group called salps. These whispy jelly-like organisms are lower in nutrients and less suitable food for whales and others. These changes have the potential to upset the entire Antarctic food chain.
It shouldn't surprise us that 150 years of rapid industrialization has had dramatic effects on the world we live in. If we choose to take a different, more sustainable, path, we can begin to restore our environment.


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Ronnie Chen: "Staying Alive: Patterns for Failure Management from the Depths" - Chaos Conf 2018
Chaos Engineer
Hi everyone. So, this talk is about failures. What they look like, how to prepare for them, and how to survive them. My name is Ronnie Chen, and I'm an engineering manager at Twitter. I'm also a technical diver.
My first introduction to the world below the surface was when I was standing on a tiny rowboat in the middle of a lake when I was about two years old. I saw some seaweed floating in the water, so I reached over for it. I lost my balance, and fell in. Everything went dark.
I passed out in that water, and almost drowned that day. Since that, I've had a healthy fear of the water my entire life. Diving was something that was a way to give me a new relationship with the ocean. A way for me to explore safely. To help myself become more comfortable, I started pursuing more and more training. First, advanced certifications, then rescue diving. And then I started my technical training. In my first year, I did almost 200 dives.
My training certified me to go on increasingly deeper dives. I learned how to safely explore shipwrecks buried way below recreational scuba limits. Once I learned how to dive on a rebreather, I was able to do expeditions that lasted up to five hours in a single stretch. A rebreather is a portable gas blending and recycling device. It purifies the air that you're exhaling so that you waste less gas. This is the same life support technology that's used in spacesuits.
330 feet below the surface means that your body is being exposed to 10 atmospheres of pressure. The deeper you go, the higher the partial pressure of Nitrogen in your breathing gas, which acts as a narcotic that slows down your brain.
Time literally starts to slow down. As you breathe, gas accumulates in your bloodstream, and it needs to be off-gassed slowly, or else you face decompression sickness, which can cause muscle pain, vertigo, nausea, difficulty breathing, what's called the chokes, paralysis, internal bleeding, and of course, death.
In these conditions, you can no longer rely on the surface as a means to escape. You're frequently hours from the surface, and even longer from emergency medical support.
that's just a fraction of the things that can go wrong while diving on a rebreather. I'm not going to go through the whole list, but one of my favorites is number 12, which is that the chemical scrubber that's used to remove carbon dioxide from the gas that you exhale can turn into a caustic soda that will give you chemical burns on your mouth, airways and lungs. Yes, mixed with water, the thing that is purifying your breathing gas will literally kill you.
Underwater explorer Jill Heinerth gave a talk on rebreather safety when I first started technical diving. If you own a rebreather for five years, two percent of you are going to die on it. One person out of 50 in just five years. When you're a diver facing these kinds of odds, you know that your survival depends on your ability to persevere through failure, because avoiding them isn't an option.
When we think about failures, we tend to think that they occur because of a solitary catalyst, but that's a really simplistic and harmful way to think about failures. If it was that simple, mortality rates for diving wouldn't be as high as it is. All you'd have to do is slap in a redundant system, budget in a little bit of extra breathing gas, and you'd be done.
Every person who starts technical diving already knows how failures start. On your very first day of technical training is when you start preparing for compounding failures. In the pool, on that first day, in the middle of doing all of those safety drills, my dive instructor swam up behind me when I didn't notice, and reached over and turned off the gas on my tank. My next breath never came.
How I responded in those next few moments would determine whether or not I was able to continue pursuing technical training. Panic, freak out, swim to the surface, and I would be removed from the class. If I could figure out how to survive and use the tools and my training, my lessons could continue. In the kinds of environments that we would be exposed to, every person on the dive team needed to be able to deal with compounding factors and multiple catalysts.
In all of my years of diving, in the hundreds of dives that I've done, I've never done the same dive twice. The current was different, the surge, the chop at the surface, the visibility, the water temperate, the time of day, the time of year, my dive team, my gear, my level of experience, my state of mind. A thousand tiny interactions that all contribute to every outcome, good or bad, on every dive. No dive has ever been under the same conditions, and no failure has, either.
Here, we see a failure cascade. A catastrophe where a chain of factors all contribute to the progression. You have a rebreather malfunction, which maybe you would have caught if you hadn't skipped your pre-dive check. Your back-up tank has a leak, and it's running low because of a faulty O-ring. Your buddy is too far away from you, and they're distracted by something else. The dive light doesn't get their attention because the beam has lower contrast in the daytime.
In all of this activity, you accidentally kick up some silt, and the visibility drops. Your air consumption goes up because you're stressed, and you breathe through the last of your air reserves in your tank, at which point, you swim for the surface, even though you have a decompression obligation. That's a catastrophe.
But, a change in any of these circumstances could have stopped that cascade in its tracks. At least eight different things had to go wrong for this critical accident to occur.
A change of time, a difference in visibility, the choice of a different partner, and the story that you tell at the end of your day would be different. Was that O-ring in item number three faulty because it was a factory defect? Was it because it got pinched when you were screwing in your regulator because you were distracted in the parking lot earlier? Was it under greater stress because it was a cold day? Or because you store all your gear in the parking garage, and the exhaust fumes degraded the rubber?
If you focus just on that initial factor, that rebreather malfunction, you have failed to capture all of the nuances of how that accident occurred. A post-mortem that blamed this incident on a simple mechanical failure would cover only 12.5% of all of the issues that conspired to lead up to this accident. Focus your investigation there, and what's upstream of that, and you're choosing to ignore all of the ways that situational and behavioral factors impacted your outcome.
So then, what does it even mean to have safety in a complex system? Most of the time, we can't even reliably identify all of the contributing factors for this complex failure. It's a long and frustrating battle to try to play Whack-A-Mole to eliminate failures one-by-one.
Staying alive in this world requires us to prepare ourselves to manage those inevitable failures when they happen. Pressure makes people worse at carrying out even the most basic tasks, and it's so important to build up familiarity before you need it. One of my first tech training drills combined a very standard out-of-air situation with running a safety line. Two incredibly simple tasks that I was already comfortable with independently. Out-of-air, you share your regulator and put your own back up in your mouth. Running a safety line, you hold it, keep tension, and swim. Put them together, and I hit my cognitive load. My faulty human brain simply couldn't keep my buoyancy and handle both things together.
My instructor swam up to me and signaled that he was out of air. I gave them my regulator, but in doing so, released tension on my line. Now it's catching on my fins. By the time I put my own back up in my mouth and catch my breath, they're swimming for the exit, but my line is tangled around my fins. As this happens, the air just keeps dropping.
My air consumption actually tripled in this exercise. Stress had completely overloaded my brain, but after we practiced that drill a few times, it was just simple. Share, back up, keep swimming.
When the pressure is on, whether it's being on call, managing an outage, having built that confidence and that muscle memory from running previous drills, frees up your mental CPU for key decision-making. Even excellent, detailed run books are not a match for exposure to the real process. Don't wait for a failure to test that recovery plan. If you actually do run-throughs and practice operating under pressure, you'll not only understand the limits of your system, but raise your own capacity to act smoothly as circumstances get tougher.
By the time I was ready for my rebreather certification tests, a three-part failure just felt routine. Straight forward enough that another instructor friend of mine took it upon himself to do some additional fault injection during my exams. While I was going through my drills, he was floating above me in the water, selectively deflating buoyancy gear, tangling up my line. What he didn't know that day was that I was also fighting through a wicked case of the stomach flu, which was making me seasick in the unusually high chop that day.
Layers and layers of chaos. Nothing that I could have anticipated or practiced for without being in that situation. Surviving that experience gave me the tools to keep my cool when I faced real incidents that started off challenging and got tougher. Nothing could have prepared me for how to handle that stress except actually being there.
One strategy that we use a lot in dive training is having the least experienced person lead the dive. Your whole team works together, runs the drills, makes the dive plan, does contingency planning, but the person who's actually leading the mission, who swims in front, is the least experienced person in the group. This is a suggestion that tends to make a lot of people uncomfortable. If that's you, I'm going to ask you to lean into that feeling a little bit, and examine why it makes you feel that way. What are you nervous about? And what does that say about your confidence in the system?
One thing that becomes clear when you operate in this way is that the best way for the mission to succeed is to make sure that all of the members of the team are succeeding. If your most experienced person leads, you're more likely to leave someone behind without realizing it. If you want to increase the chances that everyone makes it back to the boat, and that the team isn't pushed past its true operating capacity, look to bring up the floor. Your floor of experience.
In failure incidents, the limiting factor to how bad it gets is measured by that floor. If your inexperienced people are leading, they're learning and growing, and being able to operate with a safety net. When you do this, all kinds of hidden dependencies reveal themselves, too. Every undocumented assumption, every piece of ancient team lore that you didn't even know that you were relying on, comes to light.
If you fail to lift the newcomers up, you have to do everything yourself. You become a single point of failure that's weighing down the team. The moment that you're compromised, the operating capacity of your entire team tanks. Where's the resilience in that?
What happens when a team is trained and designed to ensure that even the most inexperienced person is empowered to make mission critical decisions? Everyone gets to tackle harder missions, because your overall competency level is elevated. Every time you do this, it's an opportunity to help your team build better judgment, and ultimately that's what it's all about.
Because complex systems are constantly evolving, the best weapon for failure that you have is judgment. All the training and rules are just a proxy for that. Training gives you a solution for a known well-defined problem. But, we know that the real incidents that we face are much more chaotic. In the midst of an incident, you're making a decision call based on the available information, under time pressure, and your judgment is what you're counting on to take you home at the end of the day.
So, there's a couple of ways that we can refine our judgment so that we're better at making these decisions. Some of these may look familiar to you in the tech industry. Post-mortems is the one that everyone already knows, but remember, if you focus on a single event, you're ignoring the bulk of the problem. Blameless isn't just about feeling good and making sure that everyone doesn't feel bad about what happened. When you focus on pointing blame, you're blinding yourself to all of the other factors in play, and engaging in post-mortem theater.
You want to look at your entire safety framework and identify key pieces where the cascade could have stopped, but didn't. Your whole goal is to gain a better understanding of the entire ecosystem, so you can address the weak points, but you don't have to wait for a failure to happen organically to start doing this kind of work. A pre-mortem is an effective way to start surfacing doubts and concerns and make contingency plans.
Before a dive, we would discuss the risks in play, and talk about what would happen if we had to abort a dive early, or the current is stronger than we expected, or of the rollout that needs to take eight hours goes haywire 30 minutes in. What are your options?
Talking about mitigation strategies for these failures help to prepare you for when the pressure is really on. When you're doing this exercise, look at both the likely failures and the high regret failures. Ignoring those high regret incidents means you're playing the odds, and when that happens, you have to be willing to experience that corresponding level of regret.
Fire drills. Running a fire drill allows you to prove that your plans and your safety systems are functional. Doing this well requires that you start with the basics. Following a run book, verifying that it does what it claims to do. You need a shared baseline confidence in daily simple failure recovery before you can start getting fancy. Only then can you start adding complexity. Designate an arsonist to create a failure scenario and evaluate your response. See where your weak points are, and iterate from there. Every time you run a scenario, it's going to be different, just like every dive is different. Do you know what to do once you've identified the problem? Are your tools sufficient to resolve the issue? What training gaps have you identified?
And last, revisit the past decisions that you've made. When we look back on our actions, we tend to restrict it to cases where failure has occurred, the classic post-mortem. But, survivorship bias means that we tend to assume that if nothing bad happened, your judgment was sound and the decisions were good. But, if you revisit successful operations, you may find a dependency on blind luck that lets you know that the clock is ticking until a repeat incident happens. Revisiting your rationale and sharing it is how judgment across your team gets refined.
The last thing I want to talk about today is success. In diving, the best rescue is the one that you didn't have to do. The best incidence response is when there's not an incident at all. Our culture has a tendency to reward heroic action, but that's based on response to failure. It's really important to recognize that true success lies in a job done quietly and without incident day after day. When a fail over is boring and routine, that often goes unrecognized. Nobody gets pizza and gets sent home early. But, we do the opposite of that all of the time. So, we need to remember that success can be boring and safe.
If you're interested in learning more about complex systems and how they fail, here's some links to get started, and I'll be sharing these slides from my Twitter account after this talk. With that, I hope that I gave you some concrete suggestions to make the work that you do a little bit safer. Thank you.
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Q: Does Assetic allow you to never publish resources? Symfony2 features Assetic, which appears to be a kind of asset pre-processor.  It has the ability to load assets from any path.
Right now, Symfony2 requires that you "publish" assets from your bundles which to me seems unwieldy.
Is it possible or a good idea to totally sidestep having to publish assets by having your controllers and templates prepare everything via Assetic?

A: I think it's good to use Assetic to prepare your resources (maybe do some minification or similar). But as far as I know, Assetic also requires you to "publish" (e.g. "dump") your assets. This is done using the "assetic:dump" command.
You can also run Assetic in debug-mode, having it checking for changes in your assets (--watch) and then dumping them.
For me the assets "publishing" haven't been that much of work, since I add the --symlink flag to the "assets:install" command when I run it. This creates symlinks for each web/bundles/bundlename-folder, referencing to the bundles/MyCompany/MyBundle/Resources/public-folder.
The only situation where I have to re-run the publishing command is when adding new bundles (or when adding a public folder to any of my own bundles).
I hope this answers your question. If not, please add some additional comments on what you feel is unwieldy and how you would like Symfony2 to behave :)
UPDATE 2012-01-23
Since your last comment I've been working some more with Symfony2. Yesterday I had an idea - perhaps you can register your own Twig function to handle the assets, and then use something like Synfony2's FileLocator to find the files (which you then pass to Assetic)?
Maybe not the best way to handle assets, but a solution that is more compliant with your request, at least :-)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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La casa Cleto és un edifici a la vila d'Horta de Sant Joan (Terra Alta) inclòs a l'Inventari del Patrimoni Arquitectònic de Catalunya. Construcció de planta gairebé rectangular entre mitgeres que té la façana al carrer Pablo Ruiz Picasso (abans carrer del Mig). És d'estil gòtic-renaixentista i es troba en força bon estat de conservació. La façana és de carreus de pedra ben escairats i regulars. Té la porta d'entrada d'arc de mig punt amb dovelles de grandària força gran. Les obertures són disposades amb ordre. Al primer pis hi ha un balcó i una finestra, ambdós amb llindes de pedra motllurades. El segon pis, corresponent a les golfes, té dues finestres de llinda de pedra recta. Una altra finestra petita s'obre a la planta baixa, a un costat de la porta. Tant l'arc de la porta com les llindes i els brancals de les finestres del primes pis són emblanquinades. La teulada és de ràfec ample, amb caps de biga i travessers de fusta i al damunt teula àrab. L'interior ha estat modificat i adaptat a les necessitats. Façana parcialment rehabilitada; neteja dels carreus de la façana.

Referències

Vegeu també
 Llista de monuments d'Horta de Sant Joan

Edificis renaixentistes de la Terra Alta
Habitatges de la Terra Alta
Patrimoni monumental d'Horta de Sant Joan
Edificis gòtics d'Horta de Sant Joan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


When my kids were not in school it felt so easy to truly connect with them. We were together all day and those moments were we could have a powerful one-on-one connection would simply happen.
And yes, sometimes, I had to make a conscious effort to make sure we connected during the day but it never felt hard to do.
During the first few weeks of school all we did was connect after school but then we got into the routine of our new lives. This sometimes meant my kids would run errands with me after school, doctor's visits that would cut into the after school time, we got stuck in traffic, everyone was hungry and dinner had to be made almost as soon as we got home, and the list goes on.
The time between the end of the school day and bedtime started feeling very very short.
I started realizing that some days came and went and we didn't spend true, deep quality time together. Yes, we were together, we did stuff together and even played together but that deep connection simply wasn't happening on some days because we had too many distractions.
Then the kids started having more meltdowns and tantrums, they started fighting more with each other and I went to bed too many times feeling like school got the best of them. I felt guilty too – guilty that we weren't really connecting.
So, instead of dwelling on this, I did the only thing I could: change things.
The most important thing you can do for your child every day, especially if they go to school, is to pause your life and give them 100% of your undivided attention (this means no cell phones or other distractions, just 100% of YOU), even if it's just for 10 minutes.
This has made such a positive change in our lives – the kids are happier, I don't feel guilty anymore, we get to truly connect, and this also means my kids listen to directions better and are a lot more helpful.
Every day after we get back from school, we put everything down, take our shoes off and go snuggle on the couch or bed while talking about our day. There's something magical that happens when it's just you and your children.
Granted, my kids are younger and they love to snuggle. If you have older children you can just sit next to them and have a chat.
It might feel weird or forced at first and that is okay. You might have awkward silences or won't know what to do, but that's okay. All that matters is that your child sees you are truly there, without any distractions, without your phone and without rushing.
You are simply there, listening, playing, talking, laughing, or sitting in quiet and truly seeing your child for who they are. Connecting on a deeper level.
You can't do this if you're feeling stressed, rushed or if your mind is elsewhere, because true connection comes when we can quiet our minds and just be present in the moment with our kids.
And, it is never too late to create a space where you can connect with your child and it is never too early! Even if you have young kids, create the routine of having this one-on-one connection because it will eventually become an important part of their lives.
Think of how this can fit in your current lifestyle. You don't have to go out of your way, you can incorporate it during the time you're at home, or by going out together. It can be snuggles, it can be tickles, it can be serious conversations, cooking together or just sitting next to each other. Be flexible, be open but be consistent in spending quality time together.
So, why is this is important?
Children learn best when they feel loved, children respect and understand better when they're in a safe environment, children are more open to discipline when it comes from a place of love rather than anger.
Children, just like any other human being, prefer to talk to a happy, calm adult than a stressed-out one. And when they know they get this version of you every day, they will find comfort, love, and guidance in you. They will listen, they will trust, they will behave better and most importantly, they will know they can count on you. They will come to you when they need help.
This is what my mother did and to this day we are very very close. I knew that no matter what I could count on her, that I could tell her anything and she wouldn't judge me. We had every day a special time when we hung out together and just chatted. Even on those day where I was a mean teenager, she was there, not forcing anything, just being present.
This made such a difference in my life. And it also made me come to my mom every time I needed advice and I needed help because after a while I truly understood she loves me no matter what and I can count on her like I can count on no one else.
When you take time out of your day to connect with your child, everyone in the family does better. There's more peace, more understanding and more love.
This is the type of environment we all thrive in. Think about it, when you have to do something at work do you do it happily when your boss yells at you or when he talks patiently? Do you prefer to work for someone who appreciates you or someone who makes you feel rushed every time you talk to them?
A good rule to live by is to treat your children how you would like to be treated…and wouldn't you love to know there was someone you could talk to every day, that truly cares about you, that will listen, advice you and comfort you, no matter what.
When we parent from a place of love, we can make a bigger impact in our children lives.
Trust your inner guidance. Tune out the outside voices. You know exactly what to do and what your child needs. So, stop reading this post and go kiss your child now.
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THE PRIZE: IRAQ'S OIL
by Michael Schwartz
Of Course Iraq War Crisis Is About Oil, Say Industry Experts (Dec. 2002)
The struggle over Iraqi oil has been going on for a long, long time. One could date it back to 1980 when President Jimmy Carter -- before his Habitat for Humanity days -- declared that Persian Gulf oil was "vital" to American national interests. So vital was it, he announced, that the U.S. would use "any means necessary, including military force" to sustain access to it. Soon afterwards, he announced the creation of a Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force, a new military command structure that would eventually develop into United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and give future presidents the ability to intervene relatively quickly and massively in the region.
Or we could date it all the way back to World War II, when British officials declared Middle Eastern oil "a vital prize for any power interested in world influence or domination," and U.S. officials seconded the thought, calling it "a stupendous source of strategic power and one of the greatest material prizes in world history."
The date when the struggle for Iraqi oil began is less critical than our ability to trace the ever growing willingness to use "any means necessary" to control such a "vital prize" into the present. We know, for example, that, before and after he ascended to the Vice-Presidency, Dick Cheney has had his eye squarely on the prize. In 1999, for example, he told the Institute of Petroleum Engineers that, when it came to satisfying the exploding demand for oil, "the Middle East, with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies." The mysterious Energy Task Force he headed on taking office in 2001 eschewed conservation or developing alternative sources as the main response to any impending energy crisis, preferring instead to make the Middle East "a primary focus of U.S. international energy policy." As part of this focus, the Task Force recommended that the administration put its energy, so to speak, into convincing Middle Eastern countries "to open up areas of their energy sectors to foreign investment" -- in other words, into a policy of reversing 25 years of state control over the petroleum industry in the region.
The Energy Task Force set about planning how to accomplish this historic reversal. We know, for instance, that it scrutinized a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, together with the (non-American) oil companies scheduled to develop them (once the UN sanctions still in place on Saddam Hussein's regime were lifted). It then worked jointly with the administration's national security team to find a compatible combination of military and economic policies that might inject American power into this equation. According to Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, the National Security Council directed its staff "to cooperate fully with the Energy Task Force as it considered the 'melding' of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: 'the review of operational policies towards rogue states,' such as Iraq, and 'actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.'"
While we cannot be sure that this planning itself was instrumental in setting the U.S. on a course toward invading Iraq, we can be sure that plenty of energy was being expended in Washington, planning for the disposition of Iraq's massive oil reserves once that invasion was successfully executed. In 2002, just a year after Cheney's Task Force completed its work, and before the U.S. had officially decided to invade Iraq, the State Department "established a working group on oil and energy," as part of its "Future of Iraq" project. It brought together influential Iraqi exiles, U.S. government officials, and international consultants. Later, several Iraqi members of the group became part of the Iraqi government. The result of the project's work was a "draft framework for Iraq's oil policy" that would form the foundation for the energy policy now being considered by the Iraqi Parliament.
The specific prize in Iraq is certainly worthy of almost any kind of preoccupation. Indeed, Iraq could someday become the most important source of petrochemical energy on the planet.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iraq possesses 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, third largest in the world (after Saudi Arabia and Iran). About two-thirds of its known oil reserves are located in Shia southern Iraq, and the final third in Kurdish northern Iraq. However, in energy terms, only about 10 percent of the country has actually been explored and there is good reason to believe that modern methods -- which have not been applied since the beginning of the Iraq-Iran War in 1980 -- might well uncover magnitudes more oil. Estimates of the possible new finds offered by officials of various interested governments range from 45 billion to 214 billion additional barrels, depending on the source; but some non-governmental experts see the final treasure exceeding 400 billion barrels. If the latter figure is correct, then Iraq would likely become the world's largest source of oil.
For the most part, Iraq's petroleum has "attractive chemical properties;" that is, its oil is considered to be of very high quality. Moreover, both its current fields and many of the potential new discoveries would be extremely cheap to access, if security weren't such a problem today in Iraq. James Paul of the international policy monitoring group, the Global Policy Forum, offers this positive view: "According to Oil and Gas Journal, Western oil companies estimate that they can produce a barrel of Iraqi oil for less than $1.50 and possibly as little as $1.... This is similar to production costs in Saudi Arabia and lower than virtually any other country."
With the price of a barrel of crude oil today above $64 a barrel, the potential for profits is stupendous and the only question is: Who will pocket them -- the oil companies or the Iraqi government -- and, if the former, which oil companies those will be? It is not inconceivable that any major oil companies able to claim a large portion of the Iraqi oil spoils could double, triple, or even quintuple their already gigantic global profits.
Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi oil never fulfilled the potential of even its proven oil fields. A modest goal for the country's oil industry would have been producing 3.5 million barrels per day, but the temporary disruptions caused by the Iraq-Iran War and the more permanent ones caused by UN sanctions imposed after the Gulf War in 1991 severely limited production. From the late 1990s until the American invasion in 2003, Iraq averaged around 2.5 million barrels per day.
Knowledge of this level of underproduction was certainly one factor in Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz's pre-war prediction that the administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq would pay for itself; he hoped for a quick postwar increase in production to 3.5 million barrels per day or, at the $30 per barrel price of oil at that time, close to $40 billion per year in revenues. An expected expansion in production levels (once the oil giants were brought into the mix) to perhaps 6.5 million barrels, through the development of new oil fields or more efficient exploitation of existing fields, had the potential to more than cover the expected American short-term military costs and leave the new Iraqi government flush as well.
This, then, was the allure of melding energy policy and military policy, as Cheney's energy group and allied administration officials envisioned it.
The first grab for the oil
With all this history, the particular way the U.S. sprang into action as soon as its forces arrived in Baghdad was hardly surprising. While American troops simply stood by as unrestrained looting severely damaged the dawn-of-civilization treasures in the National Museum, compromised the ability of hospitals to deliver health care, and destroyed many government offices, large numbers of American soldiers were deployed to protect the Oil Ministry and its associated holdings. This effort was certainly emblematic of the newly established occupation's priorities.
Not long after President Bush declared "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" under a "Mission Accomplished" banner on the deck of the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, Paul Bremer, the new head of the American occupation, promulgated a series of laws designed, among other things, to kick-start the development of Iraqi oil. In addition to attempting to transfer management of existing oil facilities (well heads, refineries, pipelines, and shipping) to multinational corporations, he also set about creating an oil-policy framework, unique in the region, that would allow the major companies to develop the country's proven reserves and even to begin drilling new wells.
All these plans were, however, quickly frustrated, both by the growing Sunni insurgency and by civil resistance. Iraq's oil workers quickly unionized -- even though Bremer extended Saddam's prohibition on unions in state-owned companies -- and effectively resisted the transfer of management duties to foreign companies. In one noteworthy moment, the oil workers actually refused to take orders from Bechtel officials in the oil hub of Basra, thus preserving their own jobs as well as the right of the Iraqi state-owned Southern Oil Company to continue to control the operation in that region. Bechtel's management contract was subsequently voided.
At the same time, the growing insurgency, acting on a general Iraqi understanding that a major goal of the occupation was to "steal" Iraqi oil, systematically began to attack the oil pipelines that traveled through the Sunni areas of the country. Within a few months, all oil exports in the northern part of Iraq were interrupted -- and the northern export pipelines have remained generally unusable ever since.
To resistance of various sorts must be added the "contribution" of the major American corporations involved in "reconstructing" Iraq, notably Halliburton and Bechtel. These crony corporations, with close ties to the Bush administration, accepted huge fees to rehabilitate dilapidated or damaged oil facilities. Almost without fail, they chose not to repair existing plants locally or to employ the raft of skilled Iraqi technicians who had used remarkable ingenuity in maintaining these facilities during a dozen years of UN sanctions. Working under cost-plus agreements that guaranteed a fixed profit rate no matter how much an operation ultimately cost, they preferred instead to install expensive new proprietary equipment. Then, in the absence of any outside oversight, they ran up huge expenses and frequently failed to complete their contracts, leaving the oil facilities they were servicing in states of disrepair or partial repair -- and equipped with technology that local technicians could not service.
Meanwhile, the major oil companies refused Bremer's invitation to invest their own money in Iraqi projects, pointing out the obvious -- that the insurgency and the spreading chaos made such investments unwise. In addition, they were well aware that Bremer's regime in Baghdad lacked clear authority to sign contracts with them. This, in turn, meant that their investments might be in jeopardy once a legitimate government took power. When technical sovereignty was finally handed over to an appointed Iraqi government headed by the CIA's favorite Iraqi exile, Iyad Allawi, in June 2004, the new premier embraced Bremer's policy, but to no avail. The international oil companies were no more impressed with his future than they had been with Bremer's. Like Wolfowitz, they knew that Iraq "floats on a sea of oil"; unlike him, they were no dreamers. They weren't willing to risk their capital in the dangerous and legally ambiguous circumstances then prevailing.
As a result, the first two years of Bush administration efforts to "access" Iraqi oil failed -- and dismally so at that. Average production never exceeded the bottom-of-the-barrel 2.5 million barrels Saddam's regime managed to extract on its worst days. By 2006, production had slipped below 2 million barrels per day.
U.S. Lays Out Plans To Hand Over Iraqi Oil Fields To Corporations (2004)
It is difficult to judge how much Bremer's inability to implement the pre-planned oil policy contributed to the Bush administration decision to reverse its plans for Iraqi "democracy" -- which, as Juan Cole has pointed out, involved council-based elections, an electorate restricted to a small elite, and Bremer as "a MacArthur in Baghdad for years" -- and push for an elected Iraqi government. It certainly is true, however, that this change triggered a campaign aimed at the "capture of new and existing oil and gas fields."
As soon as the first elections for a temporary Iraqi government were completed in January 2005 American officials in Iraq began lobbying forcefully for adoption of the very policy that the State Department's pre-invasion Future of Iraq project had drafted. The State Department planners had concluded that Production Sharing Agreements -- a method that granted multinational oil companies effective control of oil fields without transferring permanent ownership to them -- would be the basic instrument through which a future "independent" Iraq would develop new oil fields. Wary by now of being seen as the chief advocate of this policy, which it so desperately wanted in place, the Bush administration concocted a strategy that would enlist the international community in pressuring Iraq to adopt its program.
This was done by making the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a key player in Iraqi oil policy. Through loans in the 1980s and reparations imposed for his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saddam had accumulated $120 billion in external debt, the largest per capita debt in the world and a potentially insurmountable obstacle to economic recovery, even in oil-rich Iraq. One option available to the new government was to declare this debt "odious," a technical term in international law referring to debt accumulated by authoritarian rulers for their own personal or political aggrandizement.
Saddam's expansionist war against Iran, his use of public funds to build ostentatious monuments and palaces, his transfer of billions to his personal accounts, and his failure to maintain the infrastructure of the country all were excellent evidence that the debt was indeed odious; and the U.S. claimed as much for almost $40 billion of it, held by 19 industrialized countries known as the Paris Club. Instead of seeking to cancel this debt (and the remaining $80 billion) entirely, however, the Bush administration sent James Baker, former Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, to the Paris Club to negotiate conditional forgiveness. The resulting agreement immediately forgave $12 billion, but left $28 billion on the books. A second $12 billion would be abrogated when the Iraqi government signed onto "a standard International Monetary Fund program," and a further $8 billion three years later, after the IMF confirmed Iraqi compliance. Even if "successful," almost $8 billion would still be outstanding to the Paris Club -- together with $80 billion not covered by the agreement.
The "standard International Monetary Fund program," not surprisingly, included the now familiar American policies regarding Iraqi oil, as well as the use of Profit Sharing Agreements and a host of other provisions that would open the Iraqi economy as a whole, and the oil sector in particular, to investment by multinational corporations. Among the most punitive of the provisions was a demand for an end to the economic breadbasket that guaranteed all Iraqi families low prices for fuel and food staples. In a country with, by 2005, somewhere between 30 percent and 70 percent unemployment, average wage levels under $100 per month, and escalating inflation, these Saddam-era subsidies meant the difference between basic subsistence and disaster for a large proportion of Iraqis.
Independent journalists Basav Sen and Hope Chu summarized the new agreement: "A move that appears on the surface to be beneficial for Iraq -- debt cancellation -- is being used as a tool of control by the World Bank, the IMF and the wealthy creditor countries. What is more, it is a tool of control that will last long after the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces."
Zaid Al-Ali, an international lawyer working on development issues in Iraq, described the agreement as a "perfect illustration of how the industrialized world has used debt as a tool to force developing nations to surrender sovereignty over their economies."
The newly elected Iraqi National Assembly promptly denounced this agreement as "a new crime committed by the creditors who financed Saddam's oppression." This forceful expression reflected the opinions of the Assembly's constituents. After all, 76 percent of Iraqis believed that the main reason for the Bush administration's invasion was "to control Iraqi oil."
As it happened, the protest did not prevent that government from endorsing the deal. Otherwise, it faced the prospect of the U.S. -- which still had operational control over Iraqi finances -- simply appropriating most of its revenues for debt service. When the agreement was announced, interim Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan, a British-trained technocrat, publicly protested the provisions eliminating fuel and food subsidies. He was subsequently pushed out.
The U.S. then began pressuring the Iraqi government to draft a definitive petrochemical law that would conform to the IMF guidelines. Given the levels of resistance to the very idea, this work was conducted in secret and took until the end of 2006 to complete. As independent journalist Joshua Holland described the process:
"Just months after the Iraqis elected their first constitutional government, USAID sent a BearingPoint adviser to provide the Iraqi Oil Ministry 'legal and regulatory advice in drafting the framework of petroleum and other energy-related legislation, including foreign investment'.... The Iraqi Parliament had not yet seen a draft of the oil law as of July [2006], but by that time... it had already been reviewed and commented on by U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, who also 'arranged for Dr. Al-Shahristani to meet with nine major oil companies -- including Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips -- for them to comment on the draft.'"
Even the Iraqi Study Group, James Baker's Commission, got into the act at the end of 2006, devoting three pages of its proposal for a partial redeployment of American forces from Iraq to exhorting the Iraqis to enact a petrochemical bill that would place its oil reserves in the hands of the major oil companies.
Iraq's New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatization
When the "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was finally delivered to the Iraqi Parliament on February 18, 2007, key provisions had already been leaked and immediately denounced by the full spectrum of the Iraqi opposition. Taking turns registering dismay were the majority of the Parliament, a wide range of government officials, the leadership of major Sunni political parties, the union of oil workers, the Sadrists -- the most powerful Shia grouping -- and the visible leadership of the insurgency.
All this led to many changes in the law, including the removal of all mention of either privatization or Production Sharing Contracts, which would have given multinational oil companies 15-25 years of basically unregulated operational control over Iraqi oil facilities. The amended version in no way excluded the use of PSAs, but it removed the explosive designation from the actual wording of the law.
1953 Iraq oil infrastructure (Iraq Directorate-General of Propaganda, Baghdad, 1953)
It is worth reviewing the logic of PSAs to understand why the U.S. was so determined to make them a part of the law, and why many Iraqis were so ferociously opposed.
Production sharing agreements are generally applied in circumstances where there is a strong possibility that oil exploration will be extremely costly or even fail, and/or where extraction is likely to prove prohibitively expensive. To offset huge and risky investments, the contracting company is guaranteed a proportion of the profits, if and when oil is extracted and sold. In the most common of these agreements, the proportion remains very high until all development costs are amortized, allowing the investing company to recoup its investment expenditures (if oil is found), and then to be rewarded with a larger-than-normal profit margin for the remainder of the contract which, in the Iraqi case, could extend for up to 25 years.
This is perhaps a reasonably fair, or at least necessary, bargain for a country which cannot generate sufficient investment capital on its own, where exploration is difficult (perhaps underwater or deep underground), where the actual reserves may prove small, and/or where ongoing costs of extraction are very high.
None of these conditions apply in Iraq: huge reservoirs of easily accessible oil are already proven to exist, with more equally accessible fields likely to be discovered with little expense. This is why none of Iraq's neighbors utilize PSAs. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates all pay the multinationals a fixed rate to explore and develop their fields; and all of the profits become state revenues.
The advocates of PSAs in Iraq justify their use by arguing that $20 billion would be needed to develop the Iraqi fields fully and that favorable PSAs are the only way to attract such heavy doses of finance capital under the current highly dangerous circumstances. This assertion seems, however, to be little more than a smokescreen. No major oil companies are willing to invest in Iraq now, no matter how sweet the deal. If order is restored, on the other hand, Iraq would have no trouble attracting vast amounts of finance capital to develop reserves that could well be worth in excess of $10 trillion and hence would have no need whatsoever for PSAs.
Based on leaked information, journalists reported that the PSAs envisioned by the Iraqi petrochemical law contained extremely favorable provisions for the oil companies, in which they would be entitled to 70 percent of profits until development expenses were amortized and 20 percent afterwards. This would have guaranteed them at least twice the typical profit margin over the long run and many times that figure during the initial years.
There are other elements in the law (and the possible PSA contracts) that have also roused resistance inside Iraq. Among the most controversial:
Insofar as PSAs or their legal equivalent were enacted, Iraq would lose control over what levels of oil the country produced with the potential to substantially weaken the grip of OPEC on the oil market.
The law would allow the oil companies to fully repatriate all profits from oil sales, almost insuring that the proceeds would not be reinvested in the Iraqi economy.
The Iraqi government would not have control over oil company operations inside Iraq. Any disputes would be referred instead to pro-industry international arbitration panels.
No contracts would be public documents.
Contacting companies would not be obliged to hire Iraqi workers, and could pursue the current policy of employing American technicians and South Asian manual laborers.
Several African countries with vast mineral riches have been subjected to these sorts of conditions, with large multinational companies extracting both minerals and profits while returning only a tiny fraction of the proceeds to the local population. As the resources are taken out of the ground and the country, the local population actually becomes poorer, while the potential for future prosperity is drained.
The draft petrochemical law, if enacted and implemented, could ensure that Iraq would remain in a state of neoliberal poverty in perpetuity, even if order did return to the country.
The petrochemical law is hardly assured of successful passage, and -- even if passed -- is in no way assured of successful implementation. Resistance to it, spread as it is throughout Iraqi society, has already shown itself to be a formidable opponent to the dwindling power of the American occupation.
The Parliament itself may be the first line of defense. It challenged the original IMF agreement and has refused to consider the bill for two months, already missing a March deadline for passage that American politicians of both parties had pronounced an important "benchmark" by which to judge the viability of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
In addition, the government officials responsible for administering the oil industry could prove formidable opponents. Rafiq Latta, a London-based oil analyst, told Nation reporter Christian Parenti, "The whole culture of the ministry opposes [the law].... Those guys ran the industry very well all through the years of sanctions. It was an impressive job, and they take pride in 'their' oil."
Perhaps most formidable of all is the Federation of Oil Unions, with 26,000 members and allies throughout organized labor. The oil workers overturned contracts in 2003 and 2004 that would have placed substantial oil facilities under multinational corporate control; and they initiated a vigorous campaign against the U.S. sponsored oil program as early as June 2005 -- calling a conference to oppose privatization attended by "workers, academics, and international civil-society groups." In January 2006, they convened a convention composed of all major Iraqi union groups in Amman, Jordan, which issued a manifesto opposing the entire neo-liberal U.S. program for Iraq, including any compromise on national control of oil production.
At a second Amman labor meeting in December of 2006, the Federation of Oil Unions announced its opposition to the pending law even before it was released. Iraq's trade unions, speaking in a single voice, declared that:
"Iraqi public opinion strongly opposes the handing of authority and control over the oil to foreign companies, that aim to make big profits at the expense of the people. They aim to rob Iraq's national wealth by virtue of unfair, long term oil contracts that undermine the sovereignty of the State and the dignity of the Iraqi people."
When the bill was made public, oil union president Hassan Jumaa denounced it before yet another protest meeting, stating:
"History will not forgive those who play recklessly with our wealth... We consider the new law unbalanced and incoherent with the hopes of those who work in the oil industry. It has been drafted in a great rush in harsh circumstances."
He then called on the government to consult Iraqi oil experts (who had not participated in drafting the law) and "ask their opinion before sinking Iraq into an ocean of dark injustice."
If the oil workers and their union allies decide to organize protests or strikes, they are likely to have the Iraqi public on their side. Fully three-quarters of Iraqis believe that the United States invaded in order to gain control of Iraqi oil, and most observers believe they will surely agree with the oil workers that this law is a vehicle for that control. Even Iyad Allawi has now publicly taken a stand opposing it, perhaps the best indication that opposition will be virtually unanimous.
Finally -- and no small matter -- the armed resistance is also against the oil law. The Sunni insurgency underscored its opposition by assassinating Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, a major advocate of the pending law, on the day the bill was made public. The significance of the opposition of the Sunni insurgency is amplified by the stance of the Sadrists, the most rebellious segment of the Shia majority. Sadr spokesman Sheikh Gahaith Al Temimi warned journalist Christian Parenti that while the Sadrists would "welcome" foreign investment in oil, they would do so only "under certain conditions. We want our oil to be developed, not stolen. If a bad law were to be passed, all people of Iraq would resist it."
It seems clear that what the oil law has the power to do is substantially escalate the already unmanageable conflict in Iraq. Active opposition by the Parliament alone, or by the unions alone, or by the Sunni insurgency alone, or by the Sadrists alone might be sufficient to defeat or disable the law. The possibility that such disparate groups might find unity around this issue, mobilizing both the government bureaucracy and overwhelming public opinion to their cause, holds a much greater threat: the possibility of creating a unified force that might push beyond the oil law to a more general opposition to the American occupation.
Like so many American initiatives in Iraq, the oil law, even if passed, might never be worth more than the paper it will be printed on. The likelihood that any future Iraqi government which takes on a nationalist mantel will consider such an agreement in any way binding is nil. One day in perhaps the not so distant future, that "law," even if briefly the law of the land, is likely to find itself in the dustbin of history, along with Saddam's various oil deals. As a result, the Bush administration's "capture of new and existing oil and gas fields" is likely to end as a predictable fiasco.
2003 Iraq oil infrastructure (Map: CIA)
© 2007 Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency, and on American business and government dynamics. His books include Radical Protest and Social Structure, and Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda (edited, with Clarence Lo). His work on Iraq has appeared on numerous Internet sites including Tomdispatch, Asia Times, Mother Jones, and ZNet, and in print in Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine. His email address is Ms42@optonline.net This article first appeared in Tomdispatch.com and is reprinted by permission
Albion Monitor May 10, 2007 (http://www.albionmonitor.com)


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Home > About Metro > Los Angeles Community College District and L.A. Metro Team Up to Launch Fareless Transit 'GoPass' Program for District Students
Los Angeles Community College District and L.A. Metro Team Up to Launch Fareless Transit 'GoPass' Program for District Students
Joni Honor | Dave Sotero
GoPass addresses transportation equity and increases access to higher education
LOS ANGELES (December 7, 2021) — The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) have launched the revolutionary GoPass program for LACCD students today. All LACCD students will be eligible to participate in the GoPass Program. The GoPass enables students to ride all buses and trains operated by Metro and participating transit agencies — completely free of charge — beginning December 1, 2021 through December 31, 2022.
LACCD Board President, Steve Veres, LACCD Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez, Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins and a group of LACCD students announced the new fareless card at a Metro B Line (Red) Station near Los Angeles City College to officially kick off the district's GoPass program. The GoPass will allow students to seamlessly use Metro buses and trains, just in time for the start of Winter and Spring semester registration.
Just one-quarter of students in the district reported regularly using public transit to attend class prior to the COVID-19 pandemic—mainly because of cost concerns. GoPass removes one more barrier to post-secondary education access for low-income students.
"It is fitting that transit equity in Los Angeles County takes a big step here today," said LACCD Board President Steve Veres. We have been advocating in support of this issue for over 4 years. This fareless transit system for all students, particularly for community college students, is transformational for over fifty percent of our students, who've told us they have difficulty paying for public transport. This effort will undoubtedly bring improved quality of life and peace of mind to many of our student's, allowing them to focus on their academic success."
The LACCD student body comes from predominantly underrepresented communities. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of LACCD students come from low-income backgrounds and over fifty-one percent (51%) of LACCD students live below the poverty line. In a recent LACCD student survey, fifty-five percent (55%) of respondents reported housing insecurity and sixty-three percent (63%) of students reported food insecurity. For these students a fareless public transit pass could be life-changing and could be the difference between them spending money on food, or spending it on transit to get to school and complete their degree.
Metro provides a lifeline to lower-income and working-class Angelenos, with eighty-one percent (81%) reporting an annual income less than $40,000 in a 2019 survey. Making the system more equitable through programs like GoPass has a direct benefit to those most in need.
This landmark program is the result of strong and successful grassroots advocacy from LACCD students, LACCD Board of Trustees and a Fareless Transit Initiative Task Force set up by Metro to reduce inequity in transportation. Students engaged in the hard work of coalition building to gain support, winning the endorsement of the Metro Board of Directors and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who voted unanimously to approve the LACCD Student Transit Pass Pilot Program in September, resulting in the launch of the GoPass program today.
Because the majority of students travel to their campus multiple times a week, the use of public transportation will mitigate traffic congestion, reduce air emissions, and make college campuses more accessible to the students of Los Angeles.
"A recent study completed by the Hope Center found that students spend a fifth of their total living expenses on transportation, and this is especially true for community college students who almost exclusively commute to campus," said Metro CEO Stephanie N. Wiggins. "It is clear that students with subsidized transportation perform better at school, allowing them to focus on what really matters: their education. We created the GoPass program because we do not want transportation to be one of the barriers students must face in completing their college education."
The GoPass program provides fareless transit to students in elementary, middle and high schools, and today will be made available to all Los Angeles Community College District students.
"For years, students have told us that transportation is a significant burden impacting their ability to attend and access our colleges," said LACCD Chancellor Francisco C. Rodriguez, Ph.D. "Today we can feel proud of the work we've done to bring this effort to communities who stand to benefit the most. We commend our partners at LA Metro and the County Board of Supervisors for having the foresight to move forward on this Initiative. Establishing fareless transit for LACCD students eases the financial burden and further increases educational access and opportunity for our most underserved students. I am committed to working alongside Metro to find the resources for the GoPass because our students need to get back to school in order for our economy to bounce back and recover from the devastating impact of this global pandemic."
With Metro's vision, forward-looking approach, and the dedicated work of advocates including many LACCD students, the GoPass program was formed with equity and the needs of students as a priority.
"It has been truly inspiring to be part of a student advocacy team that was able to turn fareless transit from an idea to reality," said former LACCD Student Leonardo Gonzalez. "Students from across our District will now have reliable, equitable, and convenient transportation to get to class. This initiative will allow students to focus on their academics and work toward realizing their educational dreams."
Leonardo, a former LACCD student, rallied and organized students to advocate for the fareless initiative. He is now a student at the University of California at Berkeley.
About the Los Angeles Community College District
We are the Colleges of Los Angeles! LACCD (www.laccd.edu) is the nation's largest community college district, educating about 250,000 students annually at its nine colleges that serve the residents of more than 36 cities and communities from 900 square miles of Los Angeles County. Since 1969, the District has been providing an important learning pathway for students seeking transfer to four-year colleges or universities while also offering two-year degrees and certificated training programs to Southern California's diverse workforce in many specialized trades and professions. Follow us on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/LACCD, @LACCD, and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/laccd @laccd and Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/laccd_edu/ @laccd_edu.
Editor's Note: Metro Operators are crucial to keeping LA moving. Metro is currently hiring more than 500 bus operators and is offering a $3,000 bonus for coming aboard. This is a great career opportunity. Metro offers competitive hourly rates starting at $17.75 for a 30-hour job as bus operators with benefits that include health insurance, tuition reimbursements, paid training, retirement plan options and flexible working hours. Please encourage friends, family and community members to become a part of the Metro team that provides excellence in service and support and keeps our region moving. Apply at metro.net/driveLA.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is currently providing lifeline service for essential trips and frontline workers. Metro continues building the most ambitious transportation infrastructure program in the United States and is working to greatly improve mobility through its Vision 2028 Plan.
Metro has proudly pledged to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Health and Safety Commitment Program to help ensure the safe return of transit riders as the U.S. recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay informed by following Metro on The Source and El Pasajero at metro.net, facebook.com/losangelesmetro, twitter.com/metrolosangeles and twitter.com/metroLAalerts and instagram.com/metrolosangeles
Metro Media Relations
One Gateway Plaza
mediarelations@metro.net


text:
Angustifodilactones are natural compounds isolated from Kadsura and showing some activity against HIV in the cell culture.

See also
 Angustific acid
 Neokadsuranin

References

Lactones
Cyclopropanes
Oxygen heterocycles
Heterocyclic compounds with 5 rings


Students new to University High School should contact Ms. Boyd in the guidance department to set up an appointment to register for school. Please call 386-968-0013 ext. 46219.
Families new to UHS please visit our virtual tour page to learn more about the school and activities.
The Guidance Department at University High School will be hosting an evening event for our students and parents. Students and their parents are invited to attend, to pick up course requests for the 2015-16 school year and request changes, if needed. Counselors will be providing information regarding schedules and scholarships and will answer any questions you may have.


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text:
Lehigh Regional Medical Center is actively monitoring COVID-19 with state and local health departments, and the CDC. For more information, click here.
Joint Commission Seal of Approval
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Lehigh Medical Group
Accepting Health Plans
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1500 Lee Blvd., Lehigh Acres, FL 33936Get Directions
News2017AugustPathologist at Lehigh Regional ...
Pathologist at Lehigh Regional Medical Center Selected to Join Expert Panel
Written By: Jennifer Marshall
Dr. Patricia Gregg, the Medical Director of Laboratory for Lehigh Regional Medical Center, is passionate about "doing the right things and doing things right." Her ongoing work to implement the latest evidence-based guidelines involves a great deal of collaboration between the different departments of this growing community hospital in Lehigh Acres.
Recently, her participation in the College of American Pathologists (CAP) House of Delegates led to an opportunity to participate in the strenuous work of evidence-based guideline development. "So much progress has been made in cancer diagnostic testing and treatment recently, especially in the subset of cancers called lymphomas, that a guideline for optimal handling of specimens from these patients is warranted. This will help ensure that a patient who first presents to a facility where only a few patients with lymphoma are seen can have the same high-quality pathology care as someone who first presents to a higher-volume center," explains Dr. Gregg.
The evidence-based guideline is being developed through a partnership between the American Society for Clinical Pathology (CAP) and the American Society of Hematology. The interdisciplinary guideline panel will systematically identify and review published evidence to answer key clinical questions for the initial diagnosis of patients with lymphomas. The guideline is expected to be published in early 2019.
Lehigh Regional Medical Center Opens Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center News Continue Reading
Lehigh Regional Medical Center Holds Ribbon-Cutting To Commemorate Opening New Behavioral Health Unit News Continue Reading
See what our patients are saying about us! July 2018 News Continue Reading
Lehigh Regional Medical Center
1500 Lee Blvd.
Lehigh Acres, FL 33936


text:
More than one-third would ditch TV licence as online viewing increases
Irish adults are considering scrapping their TV licences as online TV viewing increases, Pure Telecom has found. We commissioned a survey that revealed more than one-third of adults would consider ditching their TV licence in favour of solely watching internet-reliant TV and video content. The research, carried out by iReach in May 2016 on behalf of Pure Telecom, surveyed 1,000 online adults across Ireland.
All households must pay for a TV licence if they are in possession of a television set capable of receiving television broadcasts. However, our research found that as streaming channels continue to roll out their own top quality TV series and movies, people are reconsidering their annual 160 fee. TV licence revenue in 2015 was 214 million.
Young adults setting the trend
Millennials are the most likely to scrap their TV licence in favour of watching internet-only content, with 15% saying they intend to stop paying the fee in the next five years and a further 28% saying they would consider it. Overall, of the 86% of online adults that pay for a TV licence, 36% said they will consider, or already intend on, ditching it in the next five years.
Our survey also found that almost one-quarter (23%) of Irish households have abandoned paid TV services, such as satellite or cable, in the past five years due to an increase in viewing content online. Some 37% intend to cancel their paid TV contracts in the next five years as they view more internet-reliant TV and video.
Paul Connell, Director, Pure Telecom
Some 88% of adults with a fixed-line broadband connection stream video content increasing to 95% for millennials. Of the adults who do not currently have a fixed-line broadband service at home (19%), almost one-third (31%) are likely to get one in the next five years with the sole purpose of accessing more video and TV content online.
The online survey showed that a typical person watches 5.5 hours of streamed and internet-driven video per week, with men watching 6.75 hours and women watching five hours. Millennials, meanwhile, watch eight hours, reflecting the growing phenomenon of binge watching TV shows.
Paul Connell, Director, Pure Telecom, said: These results reflect what we have been seeing in Pure Telecom for the last few years particularly in the past 12 months. Media consumption is evolving and internet traffic is at an all-time high due to customers watching and downloading content online.
"Streaming channels are producing top quality original TV shows and movies, which people can watch at any time that suits them. However, streaming channels add another household bill to the mix, so people who are already active users of the internet are starting to think about what other expenses they can do without.
As reliance on internet-driven content increases, people need the bandwidth and broadband speeds to get the best quality. That is why we launched our Lightning Fibre service this May, which can provide customers with speeds of 1,000Mbps the fastest internet speeds in the country."
Irish adults are considering scrapping their TV licences as online TV viewing increases, Pure Telecom has found.... Continue
We're hiring! Advance your career with Pure Telecom
If you're smart, ambitious, and interested in telecommunications, then consider advancing your career with Pure Telecom!... Continue
Research: Smartphones overtake laptops as most popular device for getting online
In the UK, Ofcom has published its 2015 Communications Market Report and here, in some handy bullet points, is what the research revealed... Continue


text:
Tech giant Bose reveals it is shutting 119 stores across the world
Yet another household name retailer has pulled the plug, with every store in Australia set to fold – taking crucial jobs with them.
Alexis Carey@carey_alexis
Shoppers are turning their backs on Aussie retailers
Aussie retailers are feeling the pinch as mass closures and job losses are on the horizon.
Bose is closing 119 global stores. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
Headphone giant Bose has announced it will close every Australian store – along with outlets across the globe.
The shock news was revealed this afternoon, with the high-end headphone and speaker retailer announcing its remaining 119 brick-and-mortar stores in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia are set to close globally in the next few months.
The exact number of Australian stores – and jobs – set to be lost is not yet known, and Bose confirmed other details, including the number of employees affected, will remain private.
The company said it will be offering "outplacement assistance and severance to affected employees".
The company has largely blamed the "dramatic shift to online shopping in specific markets" for the shock announcement.
"Originally, our retail stores gave people a way to experience, test, and talk to us about multi-component, CD and DVD-based home entertainment systems," Bose's vice president of global sales Colette Burke said in a statement.
"At the time, it was a radical idea, but we focused on what our customers needed, and where they needed it – and we're doing the same thing now. It's still difficult, because the decision impacts some of our amazing store teams who make us proud every day.
"They take care of every person who walks through our doors – whether that's helping with a problem, giving expert advice, or just letting someone take a break and listen to great music. "Over the years, they've set the standard for customer service. And everyone at Bose is grateful."
Bose stores will remain open in other parts of the world, including approximately 130 stores in China and the United Arab Emirates and additional stores in India, southeast Asia and South Korea.
Bose is shuttering stores across the globe. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied
Bose was launched in 1964 and opened its first store in 1993. It is based in Massachusetts in the US and is best known for its home audio systems and speakers, noise-cancelling headphones, professional audio products and car sound systems.
Social media has been flooded with comments from Bose fans who have been left stunned by the news, which comes just days after a string of other high-profile retail collapses in this country which commentators have dubbed a "retail apocalypse".
Another one bites the dust...@Bose will close 119 bricks-and-mortar stores globally, including all Australian outlets
But it'll still be open for business online (and likely in some remaining stores in Asia)
Job losses not yet known
— Gemma Felicity Acton (@GemmaActon) January 16, 2020
RETAIL WOES
The announcement comes hot on the heels of a slew of other high-profile Australian businesses that have folded in the first fortnight of 2020.
It started early on January 7 when it was revealed department store Harris Scarfe was set to shut 21 stores across five states over the course of just one month after the retailer was placed in receivership in December.
Just days later, McWilliam's Wines – the country's sixth-largest wine company that has been run by the same family for more than 140 years – announced it had also appointed voluntary administrators.
Then it was popular video game chain EB Games' turn, with the business confirming it was closing at least 19 stores across the country within weeks, while fashion chain Bardot is also planning to shutter 58 stores across the nation by March.
EB Games will close at least 19 Aussie stores. Picture: AAP Image/Matt LoxtonSource:News Corp Australia
And this week, it also emerged Curious Planet – the educational retailer previously known as Australian Geographic, which is owned by parent company Co-op Bookshop – would pull 63 stores across Australia after failing to find a buyer for the brand, while denim chain Jeanswest entered voluntary administration just yesterday.
The total confirmed number of bricks-and-mortar stores earmarked for closure has already risen to 161 this year alone.
2020s dismal first fortnight for retail follows a horror 2019 that brought the collapse of a slew of Aussie businesses, with some international players also folding in recent months.
Last January, menswear retailer Ed Harry went into voluntary administration, and a week later, Aussie sportswear favourite Skins also revealed it was on the brink of failure after applying for bankruptcy in a Swiss court.
At the end of the month, the Napoleon Perdis beauty empire announced the cult make-up chain's 56 Aussie stores had closed for stocktake. Administrators were appointed, and scores of stores have since collapsed.
Footwear trailblazer Shoes of Prey also met its demise in March last year along with British fashion giant Karen Millen, which in September revealed it would soon shut all Aussie stores, leaving around 80 jobs in peril.
While 21 Harris Scarfe department stores will shutter. Picture: Brendan RadkeSource:News Corp Australia
In October, celebrity chef Shannon Bennett's Melbourne burger chain Benny Burger was also placed into administration, followed by seven Red Rooster outlets in Queensland just days later and then Aussie activewear sensation Stylerunner, which has since been sold to Accent Group Limited.
In November, it was revealed that popular furniture and homewares company Zanui was in trouble after it abruptly entered voluntary administration, leaving angry customers in the lurch.
Later that month, Muscle Coach, a leading fitness company, was put into voluntary administration after a director received a devastating diagnosis and the company racked up debts of almost $1 million.
Then it was the famous Criniti's restaurant chain's turn to enter into voluntary administration, with several of the 13 sites across the country set to close for good. It was closely followed by discount legend Dimmeys.
Staggering cost of Jeanswest collapse
Supermarket giant's $500m Aussie disaster
Supermarket giant pulls out of Australia
'Downward spiral': DJs' fatal mistake
Subway worker caught in 'revolting' act
Target price tag sparks customer rant
David Jones to shut three-year-old store
'Big W abandoned us': Fury as stores close


Sunnyridge | Everett Whitehead & Son, Inc.
This industrial cooler was built for Sunnyridge Farms and consisted of a 10,000 s.f. pre-engineered metal building by Metallic Building Company.
This facility is used for the storage, packing and distribution of locally grown blueberries. Sunnyridge Farms is located on Martin Luther King Blvd., in Winter Haven, Florida.


text:
Hunter Fraud Score is a rating score launched locally in India by Experian Credit information company of India (ECICI), to detect fraud in credit applications to banks and insurance companies and help them lower their losses.

Key features
 Screening data at first level and to identify inconsistencies
 More the data is found, more are the chances of fraud level
 Data sources are used which include intelligence for smart detection
 Prioritising investigations depending upon fraud level.
Closed user group (CUG)

Presently, Experian maintains a network of 112 financial institutions and 21 life insurer companies as a part of the CUG, that covers 70 per cent of the retail banking applications whose data is verified timely. With increase in these numbers, it can become a more complicated and secured database.

Methodology
There are various criteria based on which information is matched in the loan application from different data sources and inconsistencies after that are identified. The company has some sophisticated analytical solutions which allows it to create an advanced analytical approach, to predict and calculate some authentic score that can help banks lower their losses. A data repository has been created to collect the data of all the past customers in addition to their KYC norms data, on which data mining is performed to filter out the useful minute details and extrapolate the user's data. The solution has some customised rules to analyse different data sources to highlight inconsistencies and discrepancies so that it can match with the known fraud data. The results calculate the level of fraud risk and any application if found suspicious is moved into a special investigation tool to take further action.

Under Section 45 of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, if three years duration is crossed for any reason to reject an insurance claim then it can not be rejected after that period. So, this repository would help them catch criminals before they breach the obstacles to commit fraud. Data from life insurers reveals that there is about 20 per cent rise year by year in fraudulent claims. A nexus has been identified of fraudulent people who get their claims passed through their relatives in the authorities which pass the claims. Depending on the screening, businesses will be able to identify applications that have high probability of potential fraud.

References

Market research
Year of establishment missing