This course examines the history of U.S. foreign policy up until the present era with special attention to topics such as U.S. military, economic, and human rights policy. Course also examines the changing concepts of power, the national interest, and grand strategy and learning in U.S. foreign policy as these relate to various world regions.
Apply a biblical perspective to the study of foreign policy and administration (INTEGRATION).
Articulate the key issues in the making of American foreign policy today and historically (CRITICAL ANALYSIS & THINKING).
Assess the current foreign policy decisions in light of the role of the president, Congress, ideology and the international system (CRITICAL ANALYSIS & THINKING).
Become familiar with the role of morality in foreign policy decision-making historically and currently in the US (KNOWLEDGE AND INEGRATION).
Demonstrate effective oral and/or written communication skills while engaging the forgoing topics (RESEARCH & WRITING).
The learning objectives for this course and the program goals should be understood as complimentary and interrelated to each other. In order to be truthful and good statesmen we should have a basic understanding of politics and the ideas that animate the nation. It makes common sense that we should know how institutions work if we are to understand how to effect change for the betterment of society.
In order to be faithful to the mission of Regent University, the Department of Government in Regent University's School of Undergraduate Studies sets forth as its mission the providing of an academically excellent education that equips students to be effective servant-leaders in government and its related areas of interaction or to pursue further education at the post-baccalaureate level.
Government students will display the ability to integrate biblical truth with the study of government (INTEGRATION).
Government students will evidence knowledge of the foundational approaches to and concepts in the study of government (KNOWLEDGE).
Government students will evidence knowledge of the philosophical and moral foundations of government (KNOWLEDGE).
Government students will exhibit critical thinking skills in their analysis of historical texts, documents, and contemporary issues (CRITICAL ANALYSIS & THINKING).
Government students will demonstrate competence in the methods and tools of original quantitative and qualitative research and the ability to formulate and express the results (RESEARCH AND WRITING).
Gregory M. Scott and Stephen M. Garrison,The Political Science Student Writer's Manual, (N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), (0131892592).
Additional materials (e.g., PowerPoint files, quizzes, media, and the like) may be found on Blackboard. Students are responsible for the information and materials distributed through Blackboard and, for on-ground students, in class.
Attendance and Participation: Consistently attend and participate in the class. Your attendance and participation are important means for the instructor to assess your skills, quality of thought, and growth as a student. The attendance policy and procedures are described below. Requirements for your participation in Blackboard discussions —important both for your learning and for your instructor's evaluation of your progress in the course—are described below (see "BLACKBOARD INFORMATION AND REQUIREMENTS").
Policies and Procedures: Carefully follow course policies and procedures regarding writing, academic honesty, submission of assignments, formatting, and other matters, as specified below or through Blackboard. Since following directions is a crucial skill for university graduates—and since the smooth operation of our course depends on all of us meeting each other's expectations—adherence to policies can positively or adversely affect a student's grade.
Writing: All papers and essays at Regent University must follow the writing style format required by the degree specialty for which they are being written. The writing style to be used in this course isTurabian or Chicago. Please read carefully the assigned sections from The Political Science Student Writers's Manual in order to write correctly and effectively.
Course Completion/Incompletes:All courses require extensive engagement (with other students, the instructor, and with the course materials) as well as timely completion of assignments. Many assignments are due weekly. Thus, keeping up with the schedule is essential to your success. Some work is difficult or even impossible to make up (such as discussion with others), so you must plan your schedule carefully. Be sure you can complete this course in the scheduled period. Grades of "Incomplete" will be granted only for true emergency situations, not for poor planning. The policy for grades of "Incomplete" can be found in the School of Undergraduate Studies Catalog, found online.
Blackboard:Students are expected to check the Announcements section of Blackboard each week beginning two weeks before the start of the course. Students must keep their e-mail address current in Blackboard; they are expected to check their Regent e-mail daily to ensure timely receipt of messages from the professor.
Internet and Software:You must have continuous access to a working and dependable Internet provider as well as reliable e-mail software that can send and receive attachments. You must also have access to Microsoft Word 2000 or later for writing assignments.
Minimum Computer Skills: Some basic computer skills you are expected to have mastered before taking an online course include the following: sending and receiving emails, opening or sending an email attachment, searching the Internet, using Microsoft Word and downloading files.
Blackboard has four primary purposes in our courses: (1) to provide a means for students to receive timely information about the course in general, assignments, grades, and announcements from the instructor; (2) to promote thoughtful interaction between the instructor and students and among students themselves as they work through course materials; (3) to provide a means for students to complete quizzes and other forms of evaluation; and (4) to enhance the learning process by providing a variety of materials.
For courses with online discussions, they will be posted in Blackboard. Unless otherwise instructed, the parameters for a student's postings are [200-300] words (please keep the word count in this range). The purpose of these parameters is to promote writing that is both thorough and concise. The instructor will post questions and activities weekly. Discussion questions will be posted in advance. Since not everyone will see things identically, students are to review one another's postings in order to further their insight and learning. This is an important benefit of dialogue.
If you want to share short posts of encouragement and support, use the discussion board tool for this.
Note that the expectations for quality work in the Blackboard group discussions differ from the minimal requirements for attendance.
Please check the Resources link in Blackboard for University Library information and Academic Support information, Blackboard Tutorials and Resources, Academic Honor Code, Writing Styles, Discipline Policies, and Disability Services.
All assignments (unless otherwise instructed) for this course should be submitted via the "Assignment Link." Papers should be in MS Word format (.doc). When saving your document, the file name should include your name and assignment, in that order –for example, "John Smith, Learning Styles (LSI) and DISC Inventory Essay." When sending your document, give your name and assignment. This makes it easy for your instructor to track your work. See the "Submitting Assignments" section of Blackboard online tutorials for further instructions.
Every assignment must have your name on it, and, if it is more than one page, each page must be numbered. To do that, you will need to know how to use the Header and Footer option under the "View" button in Microsoft Word.
Late assignments are penalized at the rate of one letter grade for every 30 minutes after the assignment is due. In other words, if, for example, an assignment is due at 1 PM and a student turns in the assignment at 1:15, the assignment will immediately be penalized by lowering the final grade of the assignment by one letter grade. If the assignment is turned in at 2:15, the penalty is three letter grades and so on and so forth. Late posts on the Bb discussion board will receive a zero and cannot be made up.
Make-up work and extensions of deadlines are only granted in the following cases: Proven personal serious illness (a doctor's note and doctor's contact information to verify that medical condition requires student to abstain from work for a certain period of time), proven death of a family member or loved-one, and/or natural disaster.
There is no extra credit given under any circumstance. Please ensure diligence and excellence in the completion of all of your work.
The subject line of all e-mail messages related to this course should include the course number (e.g., GENE 101), the location of the course (e.g., VB, DC, DE) and the name of the student (For example, SUBJECT: GENE 101 DE, John Smith). Following these directions enables the professor to identify quickly the student and course, facilitating a timely response. Students should always include their first and last name at the end of all e-mail messages.
Because instructors often need to reach students, all students are required to keep their mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone numbers up to date.
Regent University recognizes the importance of class attendance and participation for students' learning. While attendance alone does not guarantee learning, engagement with the class through regular attendance and participation is essential to learning, both to the individual student and to the class itself as all benefit by others' contributions. At Regent University, class attendance, understood as the act of being present, is considered to be separate from participating in the class, understood as active engagement through discussion and other forms of interaction. Both are valuable to student learning.
Like other institutions of higher education, Regent University is required to maintain accurate attendance records by the U.S. Department of Education.
Attendance is tracked weekly. For any week (7 days from Monday to Sunday) in which a student does not attend class time or, for online classes, log into the course in Blackboard, the student will be marked absent in the Blackboard grade book. The standard by which a final date of attendance in the class is measured will be the last date on which the online student logs into the course in Blackboard or the on campus attends the on-campus class for a course, whichever is more recent. Students should be aware that this date could affect their financial aid and financial obligations.
Normally, expectations for participation—such as those for quality work in the group discussions (including those in Blackboard)--differ from the minimal requirements for attendance. Thus, at the instructor's discretion, a student who is present or absent might lose participation points. Instructors determine whether students may gain back lost participation points (for example, through additional work). Students should be aware that instructors follow their posted policy for receiving late work from students. Work turned in late (papers, discussion board posts, etc.) could result in the loss of participation points or other components of the final course grade. Instructors are responsible to maintain accurate records regarding attendance and to follow course policies for grading student work, including students' participation. Students are responsible to attend and participate in class and to follow campus policies.
Students who have not attended or logged into a class, will, at the end of the second week of the session/semester—in accordance with university practice—be assumed to have unofficially dropped and will be administratively dropped from that class.
Students are on their honor to complete assignments with honesty and integrity. Academic dishonesty involves intentionally or unintentionally stealing the intellectual property of others. Students are expected to be familiar with the university's policy on academic integrity found in both the University Student Handbook and School of Undergraduate Studies Catalog and to follow it. As an academic and Christian community, this university takes seriously the call for integrity and penalizes breaches of of academic integrity.
The schedule below includes the due dates for all assignments in this course. It is recommended that you place this Course Schedule in a convenient place and refer to it each week of the course. You need to follow it closely, as late assignments are subject to a grade reduction. Students are expected to spend fourteen to seventeen hours of classwork per week (to include online work, homework and study time, and, for on-ground students, in-class time) for a three-credit hour class. All courses use group discussion questions on Blackboard. Postings cannot be made up once the week is over, as the rest of the class will have moved on to the next topic.
Assigned readings in the textbook(s) are to be completed each week along with any additional articles, audio clips, and PowerPoint presentations as found in the Course Materials or Assignments section of Blackboard.
Assigned readings in the textbook(s) are to be completed each week, at the discretion of the student, along with any additional articles, audio clips, and PowerPoint presentations as found in the Course Materials or Assignments section of Blackboard. Given the deadlines for assignments and discussion board postings, it is strongly recommended that all readings be completed prior to postings.
MIDTERM EXAM REVIEW SESSION: Wednesday, February 24.
MIDTERM EXAM: Thursday, February 25.
NO CLASS DUE TO SPRING BREAK.
No Class on Thursday, April the 15th due to the professor being at a conference.
Take final exam. Study session two nights before the final exam. There is no quiz this week.
Research paper 10 to 12 pages in length.
The papermust include citations; do NOT use endnotes.
You must choose between MLA, APA, Turabian, or APSA styles, to be applied throughout the entire paper.
The paper must be written Times New Roman font, 12 pitch, page numbered in the upper-right hand corner, with one inch margins.
Include your name, the instructor's name, class name and number, and the date submitted in a title page.
The paper must include the following, in one continuous MS Word file with the main body of the text and citations: a title page, table of contents page, and a bibliography (starting with its own page), none of which count toward the 10 page minimum limit, nor the 12 page maximum limit. In other words, you must have at least 10 pages of actual research and analysis text.


text:
Q: Best way to Login a User of a Custom Software I have a C# WPF desktop application and I need to keep track of the current user of the program (not the Windows User, just the user registered in the program, by a registration form and saved in the programs own Data Base).
I am looking for the best way to handle this, and looking on the web just shows me ASP.NET examples or how to get the Window's current logged user. Right now I can think of these options:

*

*Make a global variable that can be accessed inside the whole app and hold the user there.

*Make a DB table to hold the current logged user after the login is validated, so checking that table everywhere in the program will give me logged user.

*Use some kind of Class already made for this, but I have no knowledge about and you guys will tell me about it.

I like more option #1, but I would like to know if there is any "common" and "recommended" way of doing it before jumping into coding it.

A: I'd recommend creating a User class that defines a user with all the info you need. Then create an instance when the user logs in, and pass that instance around as a parameter to functions etc that need it.
If you can find a .Net class that already does this, that'd be great, too! I've used Windows/Active Directory authentication in some apps, and that dovetails nicely with .Net. https://www.google.com/search?q=c%23%20active%20directory%20authentication
Here are a few objections I have to the other options:

*

*Global variables - tend to clutter code. They also tend to violate the Single-Responsibility principle

*DB table - adds complexity as you have to clean up from an unclean application exit. Also adds a little more storage requirement

Single-Responsibility principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_responsibility_principle

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
9 Reasons To Love 'The Queen Of Saratoga,' Marylou Whitney
CULTURE / ARTS, EXCLUSIVES / FEATURES, LUXURY / TRAVEL, SPORTS / RACING
From Gotham to Hollywood, Saratoga's favorite daughter blazed an amazing trail.
1 month ago by Will Levith
Marylou Whitney, with her husband John Hendrickson, on one of the many Opening Days at Saratoga Race Course they attended together. (Cathy Duffy)
In the 1980s and '90s, I defined the "good life" in Saratoga Springs as eating at Compton's and PJ's from time to time, occasionally getting treated to an ice cream sundae at Stewart's and acquiring heaps of baseball cards at The Vault. (Like I said, life was good!) But let's be real for a second: Just 15 minutes away from where I grew up on Second Street was the definition of what Robin Leach was really talking about. No Saratogian, no matter how big their North Broadway mansion is, will ever even approach the fabulous life the late Marylou Whitney lived in her 93 years on earth. Short of catching a glimpse of her at the track or making her grand entrance at the annual Whitney Gala, none of us mere mortals could ever imagine what it was like actually being Marylou. Throughout the years, though, we got more than our fair share of teases at her amazing life. What follows is a handy crib-sheet, featuring nine examples of Marylou Whitney's wild, fascinating journey. There will never be another Marylou Whitney. Not now. Not ever.
1. When she was a single woman in New York City, Marylou once garnered the attention of gossip columnists when she rode a horse from Central Park to a nearby supper club, tying her steed to a sturdy fence before enjoying a night out with a friend.
2. In 1958, Marylou—billed as Mary Hosford—made her silver screen debut (her only appearance in a motion picture) as Anne Love Price in The Missouri Traveler. In one scene, seemingly stripped from her own headlines, she has a public argument with a dastardly man about where he's tying up his horse.
3. Whitney owned more than 10 residences in her lifetime, including her main home, the 135-acre Cady Hill house in Saratoga; a 550-acre farm in Lexington; swanky addresses on Fifth Avenue in New York City, in Palm Beach, FL and in Spain; as well as a 50,000-acre estate in the Adirondacks known as Whitney Park.
4. Nodding to her proclivity for making a grand entrance in something other than a limousine, Whitney kicked off the 1988 Saratoga summer meet at Saratoga Race Course by riding in on an elephant.
5. Whitney was a client of Canadian high-fashion designer Arnold Scaasi, whose A-List clientele included everyone from First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and philanthropist/socialite Brooke Astor to superstar singer and actress Barbra Streisand.
6. Whitney's third husband, John Hendrickson, once claimed that it was his idea to sign a prenuptial agreement with her, because if anything happened, he didn't "want Marylou to come after his tennis racquets."
7. At Whitney Galas held in different years in Saratoga, all at the Canfield Casino, Marylou Whitney made her entrance in a double-decker bus, hot-air balloon and coronation coach.
8. In a "postcard" to Women's Wear Daily in 2003, Whitney wrote about a weekend in her life during track season in Saratoga. It included a private screening of Seabiscuit, lunch at the Meeting Room (a private club adjacent to the racetrack), dinner at the Wishing Well and an afterparty at her Saratoga estate, which took place inside a Comanche Indian-built teepee.
9. One year, Whitney was making her big entrance at a Wizard Of Oz-themed Whitney Gala, when she lost a $250,000 emerald from her Glinda The Good Witch costume. A Saratoga construction worker later located it, returned it and got a $5000 finder's fee, along with a seat in a private box at the racetrack.
Will Levith
Will Levith is the Director of Content for saratogaliving.com and the Executive Editor for saratoga living magazine. He's a native Saratogian and graduate of Saratoga Springs High School. His work has been published by Esquire, Playboy, Condé Nast Traveler, Men's Health, RealClearLife and many others.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


You do not need to login to view the class schedules. This includes all academic courses offered online and on campuses. Remember, you'll need to talk to your advisor to register for classes.
Find your advisor by going to your MyVU account.
You have many paths to academic success at Vincennes University.
Need some help with Blackboard? The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes improved teaching and learning by encouraging and supporting efforts to explore the teaching and learning process.
Cope Student Support Services provides a comprehensive range of student services to first generation, low income, or disabled students aimed at enhancing students' academic, personal, financial, and social development, in order to increase their retention, graduation, and transfer to four-year colleges.
Student Transition into Educational Programs is designed to give LD students the opportunity to develop their own unique abilities and to achieve their highest academic potential. Students will develop a sense of self-worth and the skills needed to function and learn independently in college.
The Student Success Center is dedicated to improving Vincennes University student's persistence and degree/certificate completion. All VU students are welcome to take advantage of opportunities offered by SSC. The SSC's primary focus is to serve those students who enter VU with the greatest risk of not completing: students who may be undecided about a career path or major and those who need significant remediation.
The Vincennes University Summer Bridge Program is designed to provide incoming and freshman level students with a summer college orientation experience and the opportunity to get a head start on their academic goals.
Request your official transcript from Vincennes University.
You can find free tutoring and labs for almost every single subject offered at VU.
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Take advantage of these resources for your academic success!


Cover Pages: Mailing List and Web Site for ISO's Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL).
Mailing List and Web Site for ISO's Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL).
Ken Holman and Eric van der Vlist have set up a web site to support the ISO SC34/WG1 work on the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL). DSDL [ISO/IEC 19757] is a relatively new project under International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Committee, Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 34, Working Group 1. The project objective is "to create a framework within which multiple validation tasks of different types can be applied to an XML document in order to achieve more complete validation results than just the application of a single technology." DSDL is to be a "multipart International Standard defining a modular set of specifications for describing the document structures, data types, and data relationships in structured information resources. Two kinds of integrated specifications are included: specifications for describing aspects of validity of a document, and rules for combining and packaging a collection of processes applicable to the task of validating a document. This integration makes DSDL applicable to both business and publishing applications of structured information resources." Much of the DSDL work is expected to be conducted via email. In addition to the moderated members-only mailing list, an open unmoderated list dsdl-comment@dsdl.org has been set up for public contributions.
"ISO Publishes Initial Draft Portions of the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL)." 2001-12-13 announcement.
Document Schema Definition Languages (DSDL) — Part 4: Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language — NVDL. FCD 2005-01-03.
"Final Committee Draft of ISO Schematron Released for Public Review." News story 2004-11-09.
"RELAX NG XML Schema Language Published as an ISO Standard (DSDL Part 2)." News story 2003-12-15.
"Document Schema Definition Languages (DSDL)" - Main reference page.
Prev: UK Inland Revenue Internet Service Technical Pack Provides XML Schemas for Tax Software Developers.
Next: Updated TEI PizzaChef Tool Supports XML DTD Generation.


For a spider, on top of the water spout offers great views, along with opportunities to be seen, as well as, heard. It is where tight webs are formed, and wings are discovered. It is also a precarious place where in a little rain can wash the spider down — tumbling in a mucky puddle every now and again — wings and all! This is when she learns that webs are not necessarily nets and wings are not floatation devices. She embraces the views as much the muck, with the understanding that there is nothing like a good rain for clarity.


text:
London's Met Police switches on live facial recognition, flying in face of human rights concerns
Natasha Lomas @riptari / 3 years
While EU lawmakers are mulling a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition to safeguard individuals' rights, as part of a risk-focused plan to regulate AI, London's Met Police has today forged ahead with deploying the privacy hostile technology — flipping the switch on operational use of live facial recognition in the U.K. capital.
The deployment comes after a multi-year period of trials by the Met and police in South Wales.
The Met says its use of the controversial technology will be targeted to "specific locations… where intelligence suggests we are most likely to locate serious offenders."
"Each deployment will have a bespoke 'watch list', made up of images of wanted individuals, predominantly those wanted for serious and violent offences," it adds.
It also claims cameras will be "clearly signposted," adding that officers will be "deployed to the operation will hand out leaflets about the activity."
"At a deployment, cameras will be focused on a small, targeted area to scan passers-by," it writes. "The technology, which is a standalone system, is not linked to any other imaging system, such as CCTV, body worn video or ANPR."
The biometric system is being provided to the Met by Japanese IT and electronics giant, NEC.
In a press statement, assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave claimed the force is taking a balanced approach to using the controversial tech.
"We all want to live and work in a city which is safe: the public rightly expect us to use widely available technology to stop criminals. Equally I have to be sure that we have the right safeguards and transparency in place to ensure that we protect people's privacy and human rights. I believe our careful and considered deployment of live facial recognition strikes that balance," he said.
London has seen a rise in violent crime in recent years, with murder rates hitting a 10-year peak last year.
The surge in violent crime has been linked to cuts to policing services — although the new Conservative government has pledged to reverse cuts enacted by earlier Tory administrations.
The Met says its hope for the AI-powered tech is that it will help it tackle serious crime, including serious violence, gun and knife crime and child sexual exploitation, and that it will "help protect the vulnerable."
However, its phrasing is not a little ironic, given that facial recognition systems can be prone to racial bias, for example, owing to factors such as bias in data sets used to train AI algorithms.
So in fact there's a risk that police use of facial recognition could further harm vulnerable groups who already face a disproportionate risk of inequality and discrimination.
After 2yrs trials which an independent review showed 9% accuracy, the Met police start live facial recognition in London.
This is a shameful disrespect of the British people & we know it's racially biased. STOP IT
Quotes @silkiecarlo https://t.co/vPc4sztFdm
— Noel Sharkey (@NoelSharkey) January 24, 2020
Yet the Met's PR doesn't mention the risk of the AI tech automating bias.
Instead it makes pains to couch the technology as an "additional tool" to assist its officers.
"This is not a case of technology taking over from traditional policing; this is a system which simply gives police officers a 'prompt', suggesting 'that person over there may be the person you're looking for', it is always the decision of an officer whether or not to engage with someone," it adds.
While the use of a new tech tool may start with small deployments, as is being touted here, the history of software development underlines how potential to scale is readily baked in.
A "targeted" small-scale launch also prepares the ground for London's police force to push for wider public acceptance of a highly controversial and rights-hostile technology via a gradual building out process… AKA surveillance creep.
On the flip side, the text of the draft of an EU proposal for regulating AI which leaked last week — floating the idea of a temporary ban on facial recognition in public places — noted that a ban would "safeguard the rights of individuals." Although, it's not yet clear whether the Commission will favor such a blanket measure, even temporarily.
U.K. rights groups have reacted with alarm to the Met's decision to ignore concerns about facial recognition.
Liberty accused the force of ignoring the conclusion of a report it commissioned during an earlier trial of the tech — which it says concluded the Met had failed to consider human rights impacts.
It also suggested such use would not meet key legal requirements.
"Human rights law requires that any interference with individuals' rights be in accordance with the law, pursue a legitimate aim, and be 'necessary in a democratic society'," the report notes, suggesting the Met earlier trials of facial recognition tech "would be held unlawful if challenged before the courts."
When the Met trialled #FacialRecognition tech, it commissioned an independent review of its use.
Its conclusions:
❌The Met failed to consider the human rights impact of the tech
❌Its use was unlikely to pass the key legal test of being "necessary in a democratic society"
— Liberty (@libertyhq) January 24, 2020
A petition set up by Liberty to demand a stop to facial recognition in public places has passed 21,000 signatures.
Discussing the legal framework around facial recognition and law enforcement last week, Dr. Michael Veale, a lecturer in digital rights and regulation at UCL, told us that in his view the EU's data protection framework, GDPR, forbids facial recognition by private companies "in a surveillance context without member states actively legislating an exemption into the law using their powers to derogate."
A U.K. man who challenged a Welsh police force's trial of facial recognition has a pending appeal after losing the first round of a human rights challenge. Although in that case the challenge pertains to police use of the tech — rather than, as in the Met's case, a private company (NEC) providing the service to the police.


Abstract. The Southern Ocean accounts for 40% of oceanic CO2 uptake, but the estimates are bound by large uncertainties due to a paucity in observations. Gap-filling empirical methods have been used to good effect to approximate pCO2 from satellite observable variables in other parts of the ocean, but many of these methods are not in agreement in the Southern Ocean. In this study we propose two additional methods that perform well in the Southern Ocean: support vector regression (SVR) and random forest regression (RFR). The methods are used to estimate ΔpCO2 in the Southern Ocean based on SOCAT v3, achieving similar trends to the SOM-FFN method by Landschützer et al. (2014). Results show that the SOM-FFN and RFR approaches have RMSEs of similar magnitude (14.84 and 16.45µatm, where 1atm = 101325Pa) where the SVR method has a larger RMSE (24.40µatm). However, the larger errors for SVR and RFR are, in part, due to an increase in coastal observations from SOCAT v2 to v3, where the SOM-FFN method used v2 data. The success of both SOM-FFN and RFR depends on the ability to adapt to different modes of variability. The SOM-FFN achieves this by having independent regression models for each cluster, while this flexibility is intrinsic to the RFR method. Analyses of the estimates shows that the SVR and RFR's respective sensitivity and robustness to outliers define the outcome significantly. Further analyses on the methods were performed by using a synthetic dataset to assess the following: which method (RFR or SVR) has the best performance? What is the effect of using time, latitude and longitude as proxy variables on ΔpCO2? What is the impact of the sampling bias in the SOCAT v3 dataset on the estimates? We find that while RFR is indeed better than SVR, the ensemble of the two methods outperforms either one, due to complementary strengths and weaknesses of the methods. Results also show that for the RFR and SVR implementations, it is better to include coordinates as proxy variables as RMSE scores are lowered and the phasing of the seasonal cycle is more accurate. Lastly, we show that there is only a weak bias due to undersampling. The synthetic data provide a useful framework to test methods in regions of sparse data coverage and show potential as a useful tool to evaluate methods in future studies.
How to cite: Gregor, L., Kok, S., and Monteiro, P. M. S.: Empirical methods for the estimation of Southern Ocean CO2: support vector and random forest regression, Biogeosciences, 14, 5551-5569, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5551-2017, 2017.


The objective of the thesis is to define alternative approaches for the development of ultra-low energy, mass market, rural Scottish housing.
The majority of the mass market rural housing over the past 50 years share design styles and layouts typical with suburban development across the UK. The form of these design models is not inherently energy efficient nor does it create a respectful dialogue with existing rural environments. These issues are recognised by Scottish Government with net Zero Carbon new housing by 2016/17 and new design guidance and legislation to address Placemaking in Scotland. However zero carbon legislation and design guidance is not fully developed and rarely demonstrated successfully in unison. In the UK 66% of residential energy use is used for space heating demand, however UK legislation focuses on renewable energy generation to offset carbon emissions rather than reduction of space heating to minimal figures. In addition the UK's low carbon legislation assessment software (SAP) does not consider regional climatic variation, using average UK climate data for space heating calculations, across the UK, particularly in Scotland the variation will have a significant effect on heating demand.
Alex Pearson is a PhD researcher and tutor at the University of Dundee. He graduated from Dundee School of Architecture with a Masters of Architecture in 2009. Since graduating he has undertaken a Doctoral research study entitled An investigation of Contextually Responsive Ultra-Low Energy Housing in Rural Scotland: A Case Study. This research seeks to suggest an alternative form of rural development which is combines appropriate scale, identity and environmental aspects for a contemporary Scottish rural context. In 2012 he gained his Passivhaus consultant accreditation and spoke at the 16th Annual Passivhaus Conference in Germany.


For the first time in the world, a research team has designed and fabricated single-component organic molecules that are conductive like metal under normal pressure, despite the fact that the molecules contain neither multiple molecules nor metal elements. Because the molecules are completely pure, they are more durable and stable compared to conventional chemically doped organic conductive materials. The new molecules may be applied to solar cell electrodes and touch panels.


Connie Elizabeth Lukehart, 78, passed away September 30, 2014 in Gilbert, Arizona. A memorial service will be held on Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 2 PM, at Bunker's Garden Chapel, 33 N. Centennial Way, Mesa, AZ.
I send my heartfelt condolences to the Lukehart family for the loss of your wonderful mom. I have such memories of her big beautiful smile and her devotion to her beloved Junior and all three of her kids. I have stopped by the cemetery on numerous occasions, to tend to the graves of my grandmother and step-dad, and always stop by your dad's grave. It is sadly sweet that she will now be re-united with the love of her life after so many years.
To the Lukehart family, I'm very sorry for your loss. I wanted to offer you some comfort that I've found in the Bible. Isaiah 25:8 says "God will swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will wipe away the tears from all faces." Please accept my deepest condolences.


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As more and more countries and banks lose their credit rating there is a scarcity of safe assets. As if closing the eyes and pretending unsafe assets are safe should help! If there are too few safe assets, there is a very good answer to that – then the interest rate on (good) sovereign bond must drop. If sovereign bond interest rates drop into negative territory? So what?
As it is with interest rates on sovereign bonds considerably under inflation rates the real interest rate IS negative.
The fact is that there are so many losses – impaired and unimpaired – out there: There comes a time when reality must kick in.
Banks can lend out money to good projects because the banks themselves can't borrow: The banks creditors have lost confidence that they will ever see their money again. It could be because they won't.
Diminished circulatory velocity of money: Service on debt is deferred – when distress interest rates don't do the trick.
Loans are kept on book, though blatantly oblivious that the real estate property is not ever going to be sold without loss to the banks.
Businesses avoid banks – can't get credit anyhow – financing day-to-day operations with receiving and extending supplier credit. But such credit is expensive – i.e. the real price on money. Difficult to calculate, as they often are in the form of discounts and other ways that pass the revenue accounts – and not the company's financial accounts.
Is the IMF advocating a deeper excursion into Peter Pan's fantasy world? Apparently: YES.
The problem is that losses will have to be taken at one time or the other – all the cozy seats in Fantasy World has been occupied by Japan for more than a score of years – and they are not moving any time soon.
Stimulate the economy? And run still deeper into debt?
What should that help? As it is there is no hope of ever earning enough to pay interest – let alone service principal. What is it we call a debtor that doesn't service debt?
Oh, I've got it: It is a loss!
So governments took over the bad debt – fine: Now we end up with taking losses according to an installment plan – negative interest. Sometimes BEFORE inflation.
But is lack of good sovereign bonds the reason for the claimed financial instability? Or is it that the banks pretend they are a going concern? What would happen if banks took the losses they have so clearly suffered?
Shareholders will lose their investment! Yes, and? That is the reason for their existence – they are there to take losses. If investors aren't wary of whom they are lending money – they are not investors for very long.
Depositors lose money – again: You can't be too careful about whom you lend money.
Governments lose money – certainly: Just as they got money when the banks extended credit.
This attitude is just another example of trying to solve a financial break down – by using the real economy. That can be done to some extend; but the losses have a magnitude that no single generation can work off. And again: Why should they pay for investments that shouldn't have been made in the first place?
No the only way is a nationalization of the Finance Sector – definitely not a preferred solution; but a necessity if you think the service of the banks are vital. Already businesses get along without their credit extention.
Of course the financial stability is endangered! It is stupid to lend money and not get them back.


We are now less than two months before "A Man for the Weekend" movie premiers in cinemas across Cameroon and it looks like the promotional campaign is beginning to kick off in a big way.
ALSO READ: Is Syndy Emade Cameroon's best actress?
The official trailer for the most anticipated movie in the country is out and fans are going crazy!
This new trailer covers basically the essence of the movie we all are waiting for and the fact that it blends talents from both Cameroon and Nigeria perfectly, it's pretty cool.
"A Man For The Weekend" is a romantic comedy that bares everyday family issues, putting a comic spin to events while accentuating the overriding message that it is okay to be you, stay true, be patient and let life happen. The movie stars, Nollywood superstar star Alex Ekubo and major Cameroonian actors – Nchifor Valery, Syndy Emade, Solange Ojong and Miss Lee – and is produced by Syndy Emade and directed by the multiple award winning director, Achille Brice.
The trailer also confirms a few of the current situation in our society where young successful female entrepreneurs are been pressured by their parents, friends and society into finding a man just so they are not seen as too bossy or overbearing to stay in a relationship.
Right, that's enough filler. Here's the trailer.


text:
Feed of the latest news in the world on the site websee.org
websee
dark web
In Germany, 500 years later, the hotel will be renamed "Three Moors"
The Israeli air force for the first time in history will hold military exercises with colleagues from Germany
Not until carnivals
Covid is in the dictionary
Paris, London and Berlin are in favor of preserving the deal with Iran
A spike in coronavirus infections has been reported in Europe
BusinessScience
Another European country has decided to open its borders to Russians
The Council of Ministers of Poland decided to update the list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter its territory. The Polish press Agency reports on the upcoming project.
So, according to the source, the list of States with which the authorities plan to restore air traffic will include China, Russia, Gabon, Singapore, Serbia and Sao Tome and Principe.
Aruba, Belize, Gibraltar, Monaco, Belgium, Spain, Libya, French Polynesia, Albania, the Philippines, Gambia, India, Lebanon, Malta, Namibia, Paraguay, San Marino, Romania, Sint Maarten, GUAM, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, the US virgin Islands and the Faroe Islands will not be included in the list of countries to open borders.
Thus, passenger transport with Poland will be prohibited to 63 States.
Earlier in August, it became known that Montenegro included Russia in the" green list " of countries whose citizens can enter its territory without restrictions. The list also includes a number of other States, including members of the European Union, as well as Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine.
Russia resumed international flights on August 1. At the first stage, flights were carried out only from Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov-on-don. Later this list included Kazan, Kaliningrad, and Novosibirsk. The countries with which flights were restored in the first place were the United Kingdom (London), Turkey (from August 1, Ankara and Istanbul, from August 10 — Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman) and Tanzania (Zanzibar island).
Details have emerged of the arrest of a MU captain for assaulting police
Copyright 2020. websee.org


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John Ford (director)
John Ford was an iconic American film director, particularly known for his adaptations and American Westerns. He directed nearly 150 films in his 50 year career, and he was well-respected by his colleagues and proteges. In addition to directing films in Hollywood, Ford served as a commander in the United States Navy in World War II, and made documentaries while serving. Today he is touted as a master filmmaker from a long-gone Hollywood, an innovator and game-changer.
Ford was born in Maine...
HomeLiterature EssaysJohn Ford (director)
John Ford (director) Essays
The Searchers and Taxi Driver: A Tale of One Anti-Hero Timothy Sexton College
When it was originally released into theaters during the cinema of paranoia that defined 1970's American film, few aside from its makers, their roving band of American New Wave gang, and a few hip movie critics ever event thought to seek a...
The Real Wild West: From The Searchers to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Anonymous College
The Searchers is a western directed by John Ford in the year 1956 and starring John Wayne as the main protagonist of Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran who embarks on a long and arduous journey to rescue his kidnapped niece from the Comanche tribe...


text:
Amblyopone agostii é uma espécie de formiga do gênero Amblyopone.

Amblyoponinae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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HomeMineral Products The Concrete Centre
CPR & CE Marking
MPA The Concrete Centre is the market development organisation for the UK concrete industry. Our vision is to make concrete the material of choice. Our aim is to enable all those involved in the design, use and performance of concrete to realise the full potential of concrete.
MPA The Concrete Centre is part of the Mineral Products Association, the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, lime, mortar and silica sand industries.
MPA The Concrete Centre provides a concrete connection between producers and manufacturers, designers and engineers, contractors and clients. This connection takes the form of an impressive range of services and initiatives that seek to take concrete forward via information, inspiration and innovation.
The programme of services and initiatives includes:
Outputs from MPA The Concrete Centre include the publication of authoritative design guidance on a wide range of topics such as visual and structural design, thermal efficiency, sustainable construction, fire design and Eurocodes. See www.concretecentre.com/publications.
Events & training for designers and constructors
A comprehensive education and training programme that provides in-depth knowledge of concrete specification, standards, best practice in the design and use of concrete and the performance benefits of concrete. See www.concretecentre.com/events.
Magazine supplements
In addition to the widely acclaimed Concrete Quarterly magazine, a number of other key magazine supplements are produced and placed within professional journals. See www.concretecentre.com/cq and www.concretecentre.com/publications.
Underpinning the technical work of MPA The Concrete Centre is applied research which enables the development of new design solutions, provision of evidence for the advancement of codes and standards and which establishes the facts for designers to justify their schemes.
The online resource available to architects and engineers, students and the public is significant.
In addition to its comprehensive website www.concretecentre.com MPA The Concrete Centre has developed two specific industry websites www.eurocode2.info and www.sustainableconcrete.org.uk.
Please note this website is maintained to provide information and guidance on UK issues, products and applications of those products.


THE SUNDAY TIMES: THE Greek government has been advised by British economists to leave the euro and default on its €300 billion (£255 billion) debt to save its economy.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: China is struggling to contain the threat of an overheating economy in the face of rising house prices, inflationary wage increases and a continuing surge in money supply, the head of the country's second-largest bank has warned.
Guo Shuqing, chairman of China Construction Bank, said that the latest figures for China's M1 money supply – a key predictor of inflation – had raised concerns that the country's vast stimulus and bank-lending was running too hot.
"I saw the figures for last month and M1 is still very high, increasing 31pc from last year, which is one per cent higher than last month," he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
China's regulators have introduced a raft of measures in recent weeks in an attempt to cool down the economy, forcing banks to raise the capital adequacy ratios and hitting second home buyers with regulation designed to drive speculators out of the property market.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MEMPHIS — For two decades, Tyrone Banks was one of many African-Americans who saw his economic prospects brightening in this Mississippi River city.
A single father, he worked for FedEx and also as a custodian, built a handsome brick home, had a retirement account and put his eldest daughter through college.
Then the Great Recession rolled in like a fog bank. He refinanced his mortgage at a rate that adjusted sharply upward, and afterward he lost one of his jobs. Now Mr. Banks faces bankruptcy and foreclosure.
LE FIGARO: Le président de la Banque centrale européenne appelle à plus de contrôle collectif des finances des Etats de la zone euro, dans une interview accordée au Monde. Il rejette «toutes les théories du complot», y compris une attaque anglo-saxonne contre l'euro.
«Nous sommes une fédération monétaire. Nous avons maintenant besoin d'avoir l'équivalent d'une fédération budgétaire», a défendu Jean-Claude Trichet, le président de la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) dans une interview au Monde daté de mardi. Il anticipe d'autre part une croissance meilleure que prévue en zone euro au deuxième trimestre.
Le banquier central tire les leçons de la crise : Il estime que la situation actuelle est due au non respect des règles budgétaires européennes. Et appelle à un renforcement sans précédent de l'intégration européenne, afin de renforcer le «contrôle et [la] surveillance de l'application des politiques en matière de finance publique». A plus court terme, il exhorte les Européens à adopter des «plans de retour progressif à la sagesse budgétaire, ce que vous appelez plans d'austérité».
The first thing Barack Obama probably should have done was to order the livestreaming Oil Spill Cam to be turned off. As the President insisted to Americans that he was "singularly focused" on staunching the flow, there was that mesmerising image on their television screens of plumes of hydrocarbons gushing relentlessly into the Gulf of Mexico.
When any political leader feels they have to declare that they are "fully engaged" in an issue, it is clear that they are in trouble. Talking about it undermines the very point you are trying to make - not to mention that pesky Oil Spill Cam showing that, 38 days into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, not a whole lot had been achieved.
Even judging Obama by his words, he has fallen woefully short over what has now eclipsed the 1989 Exxon Valdez wreck as biggest oil spill catastrophe in American history. He may have described it as an "unprecedented disaster" in last Thursday's press conference but a week into the crisis he was blithely stating that "this incident is of national significance" and rest assured he was receiving "frequent briefings" about it.
George W Bush's unpopularity and perceived incompetence was encapsulated by the way he dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Candidate Obama branded it "unconscionable incompetence".
Central to Obama's appeal was his promise to be truly different. His failure to achieve that is now at the core of the deep disappointment Americans feel about him. At the press conference - the first full-scale affair he had deigned to give for 309 days - he appeared uncomfortable and petulant.
His approach to the issue was that of the law student suddenly fascinated by a science project. He displayed none of the visceral indignation Americans feel about pretty much everything these days - two-thirds now say they are "angry" about the way things are going - resorting instead to Spock-like technocratic language and legalese. "I'm not contradicting my prior point," he stated at one juncture. During those 63 minutes of soporific verbosity, about 800 barrels of oil poured into the Gulf.
Italy's Rude Awakening: Perhaps la Vita Isn't Always So Dolce After All!
THE TELEGRAPH: Italy is the latest eurozone nation to be threatened by finacial woe - after Silvio Berlusconi assured his compatriots for months that they had weathered the crisis.
They were the advance guard of an army of Italians whose anger is rising as their country joins the rest of the continent struggling with the worst economic crisis of recent times.
Waving banners, blowing whistles and chanting "Shame!", hundreds of public service workers rallied outside Italy's parliament in Rome to protest against the austerity package announced by the centre-Right government of Silvio Berlusconi.
The measures aim to shave 24 billion euros off government spending in the next two years.
They include a crackdown on tax evasion and welfare fraud, a three year salary freeze for Italy's 3.4 million civil servants and substantial cuts to regional government which will almost certainly result in less money for hospitals and schools.
In pushing through the package with an emergency parliamentary decree, Italy joined Portugal and Spain in trying to fend off contagion from the crisis which has brought deadly riots to Greece and shaken confidence in the euro. The cuts are greater in scale than the £6 billion of immediate savings recently announced by Britain's new coalition government, but are comparable with what the UK may face over the next 12 months.
The protesters, mostly women, who had gathered outside Italy's lower house of parliament in Piazza di Montecitorio, a cobbled square lined with expensive hotels and boutiques, were stung by the announcement and fearful for the future.
For months Mr Berlusconi had been assuring his countrymen that Italy has weathered the global economic crisis much better than the rest of Europe.
WELT ONLINE – Auszug: Manchmal werden innenpolitische Probleme kleiner, wenn man sie aus der Ferne betrachtet. Mit der Euro-Krise verhält es sich nicht so, erfährt die Kanzlerin in den heißen Tagen am Golf. Ob Emir, Ministerpräsident oder König – ausnahmslos jeder Gesprächspartner Merkels erkundigt sich nach der immer noch fallenden Währung.
Einer der Potentaten sorgt sich um die umfangreichen Anlagen, die sein Reich in der Gemeinschaftswährung hält. Ein anderer verdächtigt die Deutschen, den Kursverfall des Euro gezielt zu betreiben, um deutsche Exporte billiger zu machen. Ein dritter Despot fragt die Kanzlerin direkt, ob sie überhaupt noch an den Euro glaube.
WELT ONLINE: Spätere Rente, höhere Abgaben, weniger Lohn: Von Sizilien bis Stockholm zerbrechen sich Finanzexperten den Kopf über Wege aus der Schuldenkrise. Seit 2008 hat sich das Staatsdefizit in der EU verdreifacht. Jetzt bekommt eine halbe Milliarde Menschen die Ausläufer des griechischen Bebens richtig zu spüren.
Blass sitzt Elena Salgado am Freitagmittag vor den Fernsehkameras im Madrider Regierungssitz Moncloa. Bedächtig legt Spaniens Wirtschaftsministerin Folie auf Folie; es sind Statistiken des Schreckens, die Salgado den Spaniern wieder einmal vorlesen muss.
Die Arbeitslosigkeit wird bis 2013 stärker ansteigen als die Regierung prognostiziert hatte. Und das am Vortag beschlossene neue Sparpaket von 15 Milliarden Euro, es reicht noch lange nicht. "Es werden weitere Maßnahmen folgen", sagt Salgado. Wie auch immer sie es formulierte, es musste wie eine Drohung klingen.
Vom hohen Nordosten bis an die Südwestspitze Europas bekommt eine halbe Milliarde Menschen die Ausläufer des griechischen Bebens jetzt richtig zu spüren. Alle Regierungen wussten schon lange, dass ihre Finanzen nicht stimmen. Einige hatten sich bereits zu Beginn der Krise im Herbst 2008 zum Sparen durchgerungen, gezwungenermaßen, damit sie Gelder des Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF) bekommen: Ungarn zum Beispiel, oder Lettland.
TIMES ONLINE: The food bank in Vic, 40 miles north of Barcelona, occupies an old bakery in a side street. Each day hundreds of unemployed stream in to collect handouts of bread, milk, pasta and other necessities. The overwhelming majority are immigrants, predominantly Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans who flocked to Vic in the past few years to work on building sites or in the huge pig farms and meat factories that surround the town and give it its distinctive smell.
At least 10,000 came, swelling Vic's population by a quarter. They did the hard, dirty work and were welcomed. Not any more. Half lost their jobs when Spain's construction bubble burst in 2008 and brought the good times to an abrupt end.
A deeply unpopular €15 billion (£12.7 billion) austerity package rushed through parliament yesterday will make life even harder. On top of that, the immigrants are now the target of Platform for Catalonia, Spain's equivalent of the BNP, which is based in Vic. "Control immigration — stop the crisis," its leaflets proclaim.
"They insult us. They say maybe we're the cause of the crisis, that we take their jobs. It's not fair and it's not nice," said Mercy Omoroagbon, 30, as she collected her handout. She arrived from Nigeria in 2002, lost both her cleaning jobs last year and now lives off the charity of friends.
THE TELEGRAPH: Tired of Detroit's status as the symbol of everything wrong with urban America, its new mayor has come up with a radical solution: to bulldoze the city.
David Bing, a businessman and former all-star basketball player who entered politics late in life, says he has no choice.
The 2010 census is expected to reveal a population of about 800,000, down from a peak of 1.8 million in the Motor City heyday of the late 1950s.
The long decline of the car industry and all its spin-off business has been exacerbated by the collapse of a housing market that has left prices close to what they were 50 years ago, when lifestyle magazines featured Detroit as the most desirable city in the United States.
Decent three-bedroom homes can be bought for $10,000, but no one wants to buy.
Decades of poor and at times corrupt administration have also taken their toll, and with the city facing a deficit of between $85 and $124 million this year, the answer, says Mr Bing, is to accept reality and reduce the size of the city.
"There is just too much land and too many expenses for us to continue to manage the city as we have in the past," he said. "If we don't do it, this whole city is going to go down."
TIMES ONLINE: The euro plunged and US stockmarkets dived tonight after Spain was stripped of its top-level credit rating by a leading rating agency over concerns about its economic growth.
Standard & Poor's, another ratings agency, downgraded Spain's rating for the second time to AA last month but Moody's, the other major ratings agency, has maintained the rating at AAA.
Any downgrade in a sovereign credit rating will push up the interest that a country must pay on its debts. Brian Coulton, Fitch's head of EMEA sovereign ratings, said that the process of cutting the country's debt could slow economic growth.
TIMES ONLINE: President Obama launched a ferocious attack on BP and the oil industry yesterday as what is now officially the worst spill in US history threatened to derail his presidency.
Seizing the initiative on the first day of potentially good news from the Gulf of Mexico, Mr Obama cancelled or suspended dozens of offshore drilling projects and condemned a "scandalously close relationship" between oil companies and government regulators.
While Coast Guard officials in the Gulf said that BP's so-called top kill strategy to fill the gushing well with mud seemed to be working, the President warned that there was no guarantee of success yet.
THE TELEGRAPH: This financial crisis is worse than the sub-prime crash of 2008 because the sums are so much bigger and it is governments that are in dire straits. Edmund Conway explains the dangers.
The European financial crisis may look and smell rather different to the American banking crisis of a couple of years ago, but strip away the details – the breakdown of the euro, the crumbling of the Spanish banking system to take just two – and what you are left with is the next leg of a global financial crisis. Politicians temporarily "solved" the sub-prime crisis of 2007 and 2008 by nationalising billions of pounds' worth of bank debt. While this helped reinject a little confidence into markets, the real upshot was merely to transfer that debt on to public-sector balance sheets.
The problem is that this has to stop somewhere, and that gasping noise over the past couple of weeks is the sound of millions of investors realising, all at once, that the music might have stopped. Having leapt back into the market in 2009 and fuelled the biggest stock-market leap since the recovery from the Wall Street Crash in the early 1930s, investors have suddenly deserted. London's FTSE 100 has lost 15 per cent of its value in little more than a month. The mayhem on European bourses is even worse, while on Wall Street the Dow Jones teeters on the brink of the talismanic 10,000 level.
THE TELEGRAPH: The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the biggest fiscal blitz in history.
MAIL ONLINE: Britain's welfare system is 'bust' and faces its most radical overhaul for 60 years to undo Labour's legacy of benefit dependency, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith declared today.
The former Tory leader vowed to end the scandal that means welfare claimants are no better off – and sometimes poorer – if they come off the dole to take jobs paying up to £15,000 a year.
He also signalled that benefit payments to the middle classes were likely to be pared back in favour of income tax cuts – and the state pension age might have to rise more quickly than planned.
Giving his first newspaper interview since making an extraordinary return to the political frontline, Mr Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail the unemployed should do community work to keep benefits.
Those who refused to look for work, take jobs that were offered to them or do voluntary work would have their handouts stopped, he said.
Mr Duncan Smith said it was simply not 'sustainable' for Britain to carry on spending almost 14 per cent of its national income on welfare.
The bewilderingly complex benefits system should be radically simplified, and the perverse penalty against couples living together brought to an end, he added.
TIMES ONLINE: The Prime Minister this morning gave no immediate reassurance to hundreds of thousands of stock market speculators and second home owners who are scrambling to offload their assets to avoid the threat of higher Capital Gains Tax.
He showed no signs of backing down in the face of the campaign mounted by the former Cabinet minister John Redwood and the former shadow home secretary David Davis to protect the investments of retired people and the better off - many of them grassroots Tory supporters in the shires.
The coalition is proposing to raise CGT, currently set at 18 per cent on all gains over £10,100 a year, to a level closer to that of income tax - potentially up to 40 or even 50 per cent.
DAILY FINANCE: There was a time -- seems like ancient history, doesn't it? -- when Apple (AAPL) played David to Microsoft's (MSFT) Goliath.
No more. At the close of Wednesday's stock trading session, Apple's market capitalization stood at $222 billion, surpassing Microsoft, which had a value of $219 billion. Tech watchers hailed Apple's feat as the end of an era, changing of the guard, pick your metaphor.
AM Report: Is Gold the Next Bubble?
THE TELEGRAPH: Europe's "man in the street" was misled for years over the vast political and economic implications of the creation of "Euroland", Herman Van Rompuy has admitted.
"Nobody ever told the proverbial man in the street that sharing a single currency was not just about making peoples' lives easier when doing business or travelling abroad, but also about being directly affected by economic developments in the neighbouring countries," he said on Tuesday evening. "Being in the 'Euro zone' means, monetarily speaking, being part of one 'Euroland'."
Public anger over the cost of supporting other euro zone governments, so far totalling £470 billion in taxpayer funded loans or guarantees, has created new political instability, especially in Germany.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and her coalition government, lost its parliamentary majority two weeks ago following a furious reaction to a Greek bail-out that cost Germany's taxpayers £19 billion.
TIMES ONLINE: The Bank of England must raise interest rates by the end of this year to keep inflation in check, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned today.
The Bank of England is struggling to curb inflation which is currently 3.7 per cent — far above the Government's inflation target of 2 per cent.
The interest rate has been at a historic low of 0.5 per cent since March last year. The OECD said that interest rates should start rising this year, and be at 3.5 per cent by the end of next year to keep inflation in check. This would cause misery for hundreds of thousands of mortgage borrowers who would see their monthly payments soar.
"The authorities face the challenge of preserving credibility, with headline inflation and some measures of inflation expectations exceeding the targeted rate," the Paris-based group of 30 developed economies said in its twice-yearly report today.
THE TELEGRAPH: Banks must face new taxes to avoid repeating the 'unacceptable' bail-outs of failed banks that cost taxpayers billions, the European Union's chief financial regulator warned.
European banks may face taxes on the size of their balance sheets, on how much they owe other institutions or on how much profit they make, Michael Barnier, the EU's Financial Services Commissioner said on Wednesday.
The cash raised would be used to pay for future bail-outs.
"It is not acceptable that taxpayers should continue to bear the heavy cost of rescuing the banking sector," Mr Barnier said. "They should not be in the front line. I believe in the polluter pays principle.
"We need to build a system which ensures that the financial sector will pay the cost of banking crises in the future."
The plans by Mr Barnier come as the eurozone faces the biggest crisis in its short history, as investors fear that the debt crisis that engulfed Greece will spread.
However, there are divisions among European countries on how to implement the tax and what it should be used for.
What's With All This Green?
The head of the European commission today launched a strong attack on the German chancellor Angela Merkel's handling of the euro's crisis of confidence.
José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, who is believed to be supported by a majority of the 27 member states, described Merkel's campaign to reopen the Lisbon treaty as "naïve". He said that the bill of almost €900bn for rescuing Greece and shoring up the euro would have been much cheaper had Berlin acted more swiftly, and accused the German government of failing to lead public opinion in defence of thebeleaguered single currency.
Barroso's surprisingly public criticism, in an interview with Germany's conservative newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, signalled the high-level political friction in the EU over how to restore faith in the single currency.
TIMES ONLINE: It is a gloriously sunny Pentecôte bank holiday, and hundreds of people have descended on Morschwiller-le-Bas, a suburb of the French city of Mulhouse, for its annual marché aux puces — flea market.
The eurozone crisis is hardly uppermost in their minds as they pick through the mounds of second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac, but they respond when asked, and their views could scarcely be more different from those we found in Germany, a mere 15km (9 miles) to the east.
The hard-working Germans were furious at the €148 billion euros (£126.1 billion) in loan guarantees that their Government has offered the Greeks and other states of the southern eurozone. Here in France, nobody even knows how much their Government has put up (the answer is €111 billion) and there has been scarcely a murmur of dissent.
"If we consider Europe a serious matter we have to help the Greeks," said Jacqueline Wertz, a retired hotel worker eating pizza in the shade. "They have to have more discipline, but we have a duty of solidarity and have to help," agreed Martial Fixalis, 39, a businessman manning his own stall.
"We're European, and it's our role to help others," said Josiane Mehlen, who was queueing at a beer stand and turned out to be Morschwiller's mayor.
There are many explanations for this Gallic insouciance. The French believe in state intervention. Like the Greeks, they have their own sizeable black economy. Unlike the Germans, they are no fiscal saints themselves. Their national debt is 84 per cent of GDP — 6 per cent higher than Britain's.
"Money is a means to an end. If you can live well with a deficit it's not a big problem," chuckled Denis Fauroux, a Mulhouse lawyer, as we ate lunch in his garden and admired the distant mountains of Les Vosges.
The French, with their 35-hour working week and propensity to retire early, do not share the German work ethic evident this week in Ludwigshafen, a four-hour train ride north up the Rhine valley. "Here it's a Latin culture. The French have more sympathy with the Greeks than the Germans," observed Marc Sarwatka, 44, the head of a large recruitment agency, over an early evening beer in the elegant Place de la Bourse.
Nor are they such sticklers for rules, as our translator observed when a French driver sped over a pedestrian crossing. "The Germans always stop," she remarked.
Tony Blair's lucrative list of business activities lengthened yesterday with a job as an adviser to a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, that specialises in promoting environmentally friendly technology.
The former prime minister is to lend his expertise and his "global relationships" to the California-based company, which is led by Indian-born billionaire Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of the computer firm Sun Microsystems.
THE TELEGRAPH: It's a new nation under the coaltion government – but be warned: the newly poor will need a voice, says Mary Riddell.
Tomorrow, with all due pomp and pageantry, the Queen will tell Parliament that her Government will exercise "freedom, fairness and responsibility". Her speech, rooted in 500 years of tradition, will herald the birth of a modern nation.
The legislative programme outlined by Her Majesty is the gateway to a Britain in which children play in streets uncluttered by CCTV cameras and superfluous immigrants. These pupils, heading to sumptuous schools set up by (non-working?) parents, may walk past JobCentre Plus branches packed with benefit scroungers being shoehorned into gainful employment. Any anti-social elements disturbing the civic calm will be swiftly dealt with by our newly-politicised police. What happy days.
I do not mean to parody the Con-Lib agenda. Scrapping ID cards, curbing the excesses of the surveillance state and electoral reform are welcome and overdue. Even so, the upbeat pitch of today's proceedings stands in stark contrast to yesterday's.
The £6.25 billion cuts outlined by George Osborne sounded modest and, in some cases, positive. We can all sign up to a bit of quangocide and an end to first-class travel by civil servants. But these are the surface grazes before tax cuts kick in and the axe falls on the 300,000 public sector jobs threatened by efforts to cut the £157 billion budget deficit.
BBC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised fresh concerns about Spain's economy, saying "far-reaching" reforms are needed to ensure its recovery.
It said the country faced "severe" challenges, including the need to urgently reform a "dysfunctional" labour market, and its banking sector.
The IMF's comments came after Spanish authorities had to rescue regional lender Cajasur at the weekend.
Last week, Spain's government passed austerity measures to cut its deficit.
This deficit - the money the administration has to borrow to pay for public services due to insufficient tax returns and other revenues - currently equates to 11% of Spain's economic output.
This is substantially higher than the eurozone ceiling of 3% and another concern that the IMF has highlighted.
THE TELEGRAPH: A £6 billion package of cuts in public spending is "only the first step" towards repairing Britain's public finances and even tougher cuts will follow, ministers have warned.
David Laws, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that today's cuts – which will fall on Whitehall departments and local councils – are just a foretaste of a much larger and more painful austerity programme to be unveiled later this [year].
Mr Laws and George Osborne, the Chancellor today unveiled cuts worth a total of £6.2 billion, which will mean cuts in civil service job numbers, quango budgets and Whitehall spending on advertising and consultants.
Local councils will bear a large share of the cuts, which could raise questions about the services they deliver. There will be a cut of £311 million in the money handed to local authorities for education services like school transport.
TIMES ONLINE: President Barack Obama today said he "fully supports" the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 South Korean sailors as the cross-border animosity between the two countries continues to rise.
South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak earlier today demanded that North Korea "immediately apologise and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behaviour" and announced it will take the case of the torpedoed Cheonan warship to the United Nations Security Council.
In a move which analysts described as "cautiously hard-line", Mr Lee also said he would be suspending all exchanges between the two Koreas and imposing a total ban on North Korean ships passing through South Korean waters.
His government banned all trade, investment and visits with North Korea. South Korea also plans to reduce the number of workers in a joint factory park just inside the North which has long been an important source of income for the North Korean leadership.
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Public spending cuts have been made imperative by the crisis in the eurozone, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said today as the new coalition Government prepared to start chipping away at Britain's record £156 billion deficit.
Years of Labour "throwing money around like there was no tomorrow" had left a "black hole" in the country's finances, he said.
Mr Clegg's scathing assessment of the outgoing regime came as George Osborne, the Chancellor, prepared to announce tomorrow where the axe will fall for his first £6bn of cuts — most of which will be ploughed straight into paying off the deficit.
Having backed Labour's assertion during the election campaign that cuts this year would jeopardise the fragile economic recovery, Mr Clegg told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show that turbulence in the eurozone had lent a greater urgency to balancing Britain's books.
"I don't think anybody could have anticipated then quite how sharply the economic conditions in the eurozone would have deteriorated and that the need to show that we are trying to get to grips with this suddenly became much greater," the Liberal Democrat leader said.
"That is why we need to show at a more accelerated timetable than I had initially thought that we are going to get to grips with this great black hole in our public finances.
"The outgoing Labour Government was just throwing around money like there was no tomorrow, probably knowing that they were going to lose the election, making extraordinary commitments left, right and centre, many of which they knew they couldn't honour.
"So not only are we going to have to deal with cuts, we are also going to have to actually deal with some of the pledges that the Government made in the past which they didn't even provide budgets for.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS — Across Western Europe, the "lifestyle superpower," the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.
Reporting was contributed by Maïa de la Baume and Scott Sayre from Paris, Niki Kitsantonis from Athens, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.
The European Disunion - Will The Euro Survive?
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: As the currency crashes and the Continent is swept by protests, even key members such as Germany and France are starting to think the unthinkable about the euro.
Like many of Spain's 4.5 million unemployed, Cinthia Carvajal is on the verge of despair. The 41-year-old marketing executive has jobhunted non-stop for the last six months, but with the country in the grip of its worst recession in 50 years, there are precious few firms needing anything to be marketed.
She will now take whatever job she can find, but with unemployment running at 20 per cent nationally, the few offers come her way are generally less than tempting.
"I spend my whole time going for interviews," said Ms Carvajal, who receives €475 (£388) per month in unemployment benefits. "But often they want you to work on the black market to avoid paying taxes, and I'm not prepared to do that."
Spain's jobless rate is currently double the the average for the euro zone, rising to nearly 32 per cent in places like Cadiz, a windswept port that has never recovered since its shipbuilding yards went the same way as those on the Clyde.
The economy shrank nationwide by nearly four per cent last year, and in the bars of Cadiz's winding, cobbled streets, the sense is that things can only get worse - which, last week, they effectively did.
On Thursday, in a bid to avoid a Greek-style deficit crisis, the socialist administration of Prime Minister Jose-Luis Zapatero approved highly unpopular moves to slash public spending by €15 billion, which will include sacking 13,000 civil servants, trimming public sector wages by 5 per cent, and freezing state pensions.
Out, too will go to the €2,500 birth grant for all new-born children - just one of the generous social benefits that Madrid can no longer afford.
What was the original idea behind the euro and its zone?
In the back of the Berliner Republik bar on the banks of the river Spree, Matt, Otto and Christian's eyes are fixed on a screen in front of them. The names and prices of 18 German draught beers flash up, bright green on a black background, and change every few seconds, according to who has ordered what.
It's a pub game for the modern age, based on supply and demand. The trick is to buy the beer cheaply and then give yourself a pat on the back when demand pushes the price up.
"It gives a bit of a risqué edge to ordering," says Otto, a graphic designer. "But it also makes you feel strangely vulnerable."
The screen is more fruit machine than stock market, but it reflects the sense of playing a lottery common in Angela Merkel's Germany as it has pumped billions of euros into bailing out profligate Greece and propping up the single currency, without knowing whether the injection will do any good.
As the prices of the beers rise, news comes through from Frankfurt that in the real world Germany's DAX index has fallen 106.86 points, despite the €750m rescue package that the Bundestag has just narrowly approved. On Wall Street and elsewhere the markets wobbled, a sure sign that no one believed the crisis was anywhere near over.
On the pavement outside the bar, drawing on a cigarette, Pamela Schreiber pauses in contemplation. "Do I consider myself European? Well, of course, but first and foremost I'm a German," says the 33-year-old set designer with conviction.
The answer is not one that you would have expected a few years ago from a young person in Germany. This is the country where European enthusiasm has been easiest to find and where, since the war, European interests have taken precedence over nationalist ones. But, according to Schreiber, Germans feel increasingly torn over Europe.
"We always knew in our heart of hearts that the euro would never be as solid as our deutschmark, but we gave up our beloved currency, which was actually central to our identity, because we believed in the European project so fervently," she says.
LE MONDE: Joseph Stiglitz, 67 ans, Prix Nobel d'économie en 2001, ex-conseiller économique du président Bill Clinton (1995-1997) et ex-chef économiste de la Banque mondiale (1997-2000), est connu pour ses positions critiques sur les grandes institutions financières internationales, la pensée unique sur la mondialisation et le monétarisme. Il livre au Monde son analyse de la crise de l'euro.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: LONDON—Britain's biggest supermarket said it supports the U.K. government's plan to ban the sale of alcohol at prices below cost, in response to proposals designed to curb binge drinking and rowdy behavior.
Tesco PLC, the country's biggest retailer by market share, also said it would support any government move to set minimum prices on beer, wine, alcoholic cider and spirits—a measure that has been much-debated in the U.K., but not explicitly proposed by the country's new coalition government.
NEUE OSNABRÜCKER ZEITUNG: Die Bereitschaft der Griechen, mit der alltäglichen Korruption in ihrem krisengeschüttelten Land zu brechen, ist größer als bisher angenommen. Die überwältigende Mehrheit der Bürger verurteilt die gängige Praxis der Schmiergeldzahlung. Das geht aus einer Untersuchung von Transparency International hervor, aus der unsere Zeitung (Samstagausgabe) zitiert.
THE TELEGRAPH: No one – not Britain, the US nor Japan – is immune to a Greek-style debt crisis, one of Europe's chief policymakers has warned, as investors reeled from a week of market drama.
The sovereign debt crisis could claim new victims, including those outside the euro area, according to Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a member of the European Central Bank's executive board. He was speaking as finance ministers met in Brussels to discuss their response to the crisis.
The new Chancellor, George Osborne, urged them to cut deficits faster and with more urgency, pointing towards the £6bn of in-year spending cuts he is set to unveil on Monday.
The warning came on another tense day for capital markets worldwide.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 dipped briefly beneath the 5,000 mark, recovering later in the day but nevertheless closing down 10.2 points at 5062.93. The FTSE has fallen by 3.8pc this week alone, and is 13pc down on its peak in April.
THE INDEPENDENT: When David Cameron planned his first foray into Europe as British Prime Minister he cannot have imagined that he would be entering a maelstrom.
THE INDEPENDENT: The global recession has changed everything, exposing grave structural problems within the European economy.
Fears about the future of the euro have helped plunge global markets into chaos, with share prices around the world reacting to the possibility that the eurozone will break up and that several of its member countries may default on their debts.
Will the euro survive? It is a question that, two years ago, would have seemed outrageous. Anyone who suggested that the eurozone was fatally flawed was branded as a Europhobe, someone who hated the European Union, not just its single currency. For the euro appeared a success. After a few wobbles, it had established itself as a major currency, while across the Continent, euros were making it easy for people to travel and trade. More important, adopting the euro seemed to have given a greater stability to countries that had previously had weaker currencies, such as Italy and Spain, cutting their interest rates and encouraging growth.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Gold ist wegen der Euro-Krise beliebt wie nie. Der Bedarf ist sogar noch höher als zur Finanzkrise im Jahr 2008 - das treibt den Preis. Doch die Goldanlage hat auch Tücken.
Wenn Christof Wilms über die Wahl seiner Kundschaft berichtet, dann ist die Sache eindeutig: "Die meisten Kunden kennen den Krügerrand und deshalb investieren sie in ihn", sagt Wilms, der den Goldhandel der Reisebank leitet. Das Unternehmen gehört zu den großen Händlern im Edelmetallgeschäft und versorgt in Deutschland 1200 Banken mit Edelmetallen, verfügt aber auch über 100 eigene Filialen.
Der Krügerrand aus Südafrika ist die Goldmünze, die auf der Welt am weitesten verbreitet ist. Kein Wunder, dass nicht nur die geübten Münzsammler derzeit daran großes Interesse haben, sondern auch diejenigen Käufer, die in Zeiten der Euro-Krise zum ersten Mal ihr Geld in Gold anlegen. Es gibt aber nicht nur den Krügerrand, sondern auch Nuggets, also australische Goldmünzen oder die kanadische Maple-Leaf-Münze. "Sie haben alle den selben Goldanteil, sind aber deutlich günstiger als der Krügerrand", sagt Wilms. Derzeit koste der Krügerrand abhängig der Stückelung zwischen 1003 Euro bis 1010 Euro, berichtet er. "Andere Goldmünzen sind allerdings um 10 bis 20 Euro je Unze günstiger, weil sie ein geringeres Aufgeld haben." Das Aufgeld fällt etwa für die Prägekosten an.


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Black Liquor & Biofuels
What Are Biofuels?
What Is Black Liquor?
Black Liquor to fuel
A new, clean fuel for aviation and shipping
Black Liquor to Fuel (BL2F) is a Horizon 2020 project that will use "Black Liquor" to create a clean, high-quality biofuel. Black liquor is a side-stream of the chemical pulping industry that can be transformed into fuel, reducing waste and providing an alternative to fossil fuels.
Launched in April 2020, BL2F will develop a first-of-its-kind Integrated "Hydrothermal Liquefaction" (HTL) process at pulp mills, decreasing carbon emissions during the creation of the fuel intermediate. This will then be further upgraded at oil refineries to bring it closer to the final products and provide a feedstock for marine and aviation fuels. The future of using black liquor as fuel is promising and, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it is seen as the fifth most important fuel on earth!
BL2F aims to contribute to a reduction of 83 % CO2 emitted compared to fossil fuels, an important step in fighting climate change. A large deployment of the processes developed by BL2F, using a variety of biomass, could yield more than 50 billion liters of advanced biofuels by 2050, more than satisfying the EU demand for advanced biofuels for aviation and shipping.
The goals and strong consortium can strengthen European leadership in renewable biofuels and climate protection!
The BL2F Innovative Process
The process will be integrated at the pulp-mill so the costs are reduced along the whole production chain.
Combined salt-separation and HTL-reactor,enabling direct upgrading of the oil from the first step..
Reforming the aqueous phase to hydrogen, decreasing the need for external fossil fuels.
BL2F in numbers
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Want to know more about the goals of BL2F, who the project partners are and how will they transform black liquor into biofuel?
Are you wondering about what biofuels are, how they are made and why we should use them instead of fossil fuels?
Black Liquor
Let's find out more about black liquor, where it comes from and why we are choosing it to make biofuel!
23 Sep: Scientific paper by the BL2F partners
18 Jun: BL2F Kicks Off!
On 21 April 2020 the BL2F project was officially launched. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the kick-off meeting was held…
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This project has received funding from the European Union Grant Number 884111. The content of this website reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
The BL2F project is coordinated by Tampere University, Finland
Coordinator: Industrial Prof. Tero Joronen
Email: hello@bl2f.eu
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