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Unearthing the Value of Midas Gold (TSX: MAX) with CEO Stephen Quin
Midas Gold (TSX: MAX) (OTC: MDRPF) (website) controls the world-class Stibnite Gold Project, located in the historic Stibnite-Yellow Pine mining district in central Idaho, consolidating ownership of this important past-producing gold district under one owner for the first time in its history. With a multi-million ounce high-grade open-pit gold resource already defined, important antimony credits, and significant room for further growth, Midas Gold's Stibnite Gold Project is one of North America's premier development stories.
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real for Resource Stock Digest. Joining us today is President and CEO of Midas Gold, Stephen Quin. For those of you not familiar with Stephen, he's been CEO and President of Midas Gold since 2011. Prior to that he was President and CEO of Sherwood Copper Corporation, where he financed and built a copper-gold mine in the Yukon. He then became President and COO of Capstone Mining, when the 2 companies merged. He was responsible for the operation and expansion of both the merged company's mine in Yukon and Capstone's mine in Mexico. He was Executive VP for over 18 years at Miramar Mining. Miramar acquired the Hope Bay project in northern Canada for 19.2 million in 1999, and Stephen took resources from 4 million ounces of gold to over 10 million ounces. He then was bought out by Newmont for $1.5 billion in 2007. Stephen, thank you for joining us.
Stephen Quin: Thank you Gerardo, and thank you for the opportunity to talk to you.
Gerardo: We're excited to have you on. Now, Stephen it's been a few months since the last time we chatted, and there's been several important developments at Midas Gold, not to mention a better gold junior market that I'd like to ask you about. Let me start however by asking you how you got involved with Midas Gold and the Stibnite gold project.
Stephen Quin: Certainly, well after 5 years as President and CEO at Sherwood Copper and then Capstone once we merged, I was President and COO for a couple years. It had been a pretty intense 5 years, so I decided to step down and really what I was looking for was, the stage of company I really enjoy starting new companies and taking them through to significant value over time. Capstone had achieved that. I was looking around for the next opportunity. When it was announced that I was leaving Capstone, I got approached with people with a variety of opportunities, trying to get me involved in them and Midas Gold is the one that really appealed to me because of its location in North America and just the scale and potential of this project, which was very much unrecognized at the time.
Gerardo: Excellent. Stephen the Stibnite gold project, in my opinion, is if not the best, one of the best undeveloped gold projects in all of North America. Can you explain when makes the project attractive enough to catch the attention of people like billionaire John Paulson, Franco Nevada, the largest royalty company in the world, Teck, and several of the very influential and long-term shareholders that have supported the company during the last few years?
Stephen Quin: Certainly, essentially what really drives all of those parties interest is the potential for a very large scale, low cost, mining operation. We put out a pre-feasibility study at the end of 2014, which laid out the kind of project that this could be, and where it really stands out is just the scale of it, relative to what's out there in North America. The U.S. Government puts out a list of what's out there in the form of mines and development projects and resources in the United States, and if you benchmark in the pre-feasibility against that information, our project has the 8th largest gold reserve in the United States. If it was in production, today it would be between 4th and 6th largest gold mine in the United States, and would be the 4th highest grade open-pit gold mine in the United States.
All of those benchmarks are, obviously, pretty exceptional on a North American basis, but also when you look at who owns the top 10 largest gold mines in the United States, they're all major companies, none of them are independently owned. When you look at the largest resources in the United States, they're nearly all owned by the major mining companies. It's very rare for investors to have the opportunity to access and participate in a project that has size, scale, grade, good margin and a potential substantial production level that isn't already owned within a major mining company. There's just very few of those investment opportunities out there.
Gerardo: Fantastic, thank you for that Stephen. We mentioned John Paulson, and we'll talk a little bit about how he got involved in the C$55.2 million dollar financing that Midas Gold had recently completed, but before that I want to ask you, can you tell us about the due diligence process and what it's like when a Franco Nevada or a John Paulson decides they may want to be involved with Midas Gold?
Stephen Quin: It's a very rigorous process when those kinds of major investment decisions are made. They take many months to many months and they start out with initial meetings and talking about public disclosure, but then it advances on from there and involves going to the site, a meeting with regulators, community leaders, doing their own independent due diligence. They often hire their own independent consultants on resources, on permitting, on many different aspects of the projects, the economics of it, the engineering of it and so on, and go through a pretty rigorous due diligence process to make sure that the investment they're making stands up to their scrutiny as well as ours. Obviously, we've put out our information to the best of our knowledge, and we've used very top notch third party consultants to do that work and provide the information that we've provided to them, but they then independently go out and verify that. It's a rigorous process of looking through every aspect of the company and the project to make sure that they're making an investment that they believe will provide them the returns they're looking for over a period of time.
Gerardo: Excellent, now Stephen, I'm working off of memory here, but if I remember correctly, when you struck the deal with Franco Nevada, I believe at the time, and this was a few years back, it was one of the few royalties that Franco Nevada had invested into at the stage that the project was at, do I remember that correctly?
Stephen Quin: Yes, that's correct, at the time Franco Nevada was very much focused on taking the gold out of other mines that were producing copper, silver, or something like that, where gold was a secondary medal to the mine. They were primarily focused on operating mines. They then started to move a little bit earlier into mines that were being built and becoming part of the package that helped finance building of a mine. With our project, we were the earliest stage project they'd gone out and done a specific transaction on. It's not to say they didn't have royalties on other early stage projects, because sometimes they acquired a package of royalties where there were early stage projects in that package, but they weren't their focus, they were focused on the larger asset or whatever it happened to be. When we negotiated with Franco Nevada, one of the unusual things about that transaction was that this was only at a preliminary economic assessment stage, we hadn't even gotten the pre-feasibility study done, so again it was reflective of the quality of the project.
Gerardo: Absolutely. Back to the project, the project has reserves of 4.6 million open pitiable gold ounces at a grade of 1.6 grams of ton gold, is that correct?
Stephen Quin: That's correct, yes.
Gerardo: Wonderful, and then there's another 885 thousand ounces in the indicated category, grading 1.77 grams per ton gold?
Stephen Quin: That's correct.
Gerardo: A little over a million in the inferred category, grading 1.32 grams per ton gold as well, is that correct?
Gerardo: Perfect. That in itself, obviously, is very impressive, it's world class, but there's also a substantial antimony resource on the property. Can you tell me a little about that and why it's important, not only economically, potentially, but also the the permitting process which Midas will be navigating?
Stephen Quin: Certainly and I think, perhaps, it's worth also mentioning, within that overall gold reserves, the Yellow Pine deposit, which makes up about half of the total reserve has a grade of 2 grams a ton, so Yellow Pine is 2.5 million ounces of 2 grams a ton, so while the overall grade is 1.6 g/t, the first number of years of mining is 2 grams a ton, which is pretty exceptional for open pit gold grades in the U.S.. The average grade in Nevada, which is the main gold mining center in the U.S. is about half a gram a ton, so this is significantly higher grade than the average open pit.
Turning to the antimony side of things, historically this was primarily an antimony mine with gold as a byproduct, and operated from 1928 to 1952. The antimony was primarily in demand for military purposes. It was relatively small scale in the 20's and 30's, once the 2nd World War, and then, subsequently, the Korean War were underway, there was a substantial amount of military demand for antimony, which is used a combination of munitions, but also as a flame retardant to stop things burning. A simple analogy was a lot of the aircraft carriers, for example, in the 2nd World War had wooden decks and if something crashed onto them, whether friendly or unfriendly, the wood could catch fire. They put antimony-rich paint on the deck so that the wood would not burn.
It's gone well beyond that in the modern era, it's widely used as a flame retardant in plastics, anything synthetic, nylon, foam in chairs, and couches, and mattresses, carpets in industrial buildings where you've got nylon carpets, children's clothing, the insulation around copper wire all have to have antimony in it so it doesn't catch fire and spread fires from say, a light bulb sparking out, down that wire and burn the building down. Very important from an industrial perspective, it still maintains its military aspects, but obviously very widely used in both the military and energy sectors and household side of things. It adds a twist to this project.
Economically, there's about 100 million pounds of antimony reserves to be mined in the deposit, there's almost certainly quite a bit more. There's more in resources, there's other high grade antimony areas that have been drilled but are not part of the resource, but it adds a twist to the project, that it's not just a simple gold project, it's a project that has a strategic metal that is very important. Part of the reason why it becomes strategic is because essentially China dominates the world supply of antimony, it produces about 90% of the world's supply of refined antimony, and antimony products used for flame retardants, if you flip back to my earlier comment and consider that one of the major uses is military, does the United States want to be dependent on China for critical minerals that have strategic importance for military purposes? There's a significant amount of interest in seeing the antimony side developed in the United States so there's a domestic supply for antimony for strategic purposes. It has a strategic overtone to it and critical minerals overtone to it that definitely catches people's attention.
Economically it's important, it's about 5% of the cash flow, but it's not the overriding aspect of the project; this is a gold driven project, but the antimony reduces the cash costs by about $50 an ounce because of byproduct credit. It's a nice addition, but it's much more the strategic critical minerals implications of the project that could have an influence, both on the presenting side of the equation and on the development of the project from an economic perspective.
Gerardo: Wonderful. You mentioned permitting, the one question that I always received from clients when I discussed the company, centered around the restoration that is necessary to put the project back into production. For those that are new to the Midas story, the area has been actively explored and mined for over 100 years. Prior operators didn't exactly pick up after themselves, and one of the concerns that I've heard voiced, is that the legacy impacts might impact your ability to secure the necessary permits to put the project back into production. I've always felt that the mess left behind would actually be beneficial to the Midas cause because bottom line is, if you don't clean it, who will? Can you tell us a little bit about what you've done to address the restoration issue, and the reception that's received from the local community?
Stephen Quin: It's ironic because what some people consider the negative is actually likely the biggest positive.
Gerardo: Right.
Stephen Quin: If this was a greenfield site, if it had been untouched, I think it would be very problematic to permit to mine here.
Gerardo: Correct.
Stephen Quin: The opportunity here is to restore the site in conjunction with redeveloping the mine- deal with 100 years of legacy activities and as you mentioned a lot of this disturbance. I mentioned that a lot of that disturbance took place during the 2nd World War and Korean War and it wasn't done with environmental perspective in mind, obviously because in those days that wasn't a high priority anyway, but you over layer on top of that the war effort demand, it just overrode everything. There's a substantial footprint of disturbance there with old open pits, waste dumps, tailings, metals leaching into the ground, etc, etc, that have caused a significant amount of degradation in the local environment.
What we've said from Day 1 and is very clear in our pre-feasibility study and all of our public disclosure, is that we're going to restore the site in conjunction with redeveloping the mine. The historic disturbance is one of our big assets, you might call it, in the sense that, that provides the opportunity to go in there and appeal to individuals and groups that might otherwise be very opposed to any activity in the site, saying "we aren't particularly in favor of mining, don't particularly like where this project is located, but given the problems at the site and we're willing to see the site redeveloped if they take care of all those historic problems".
The poster child or the most significant or highest profile aspect of that historic disturbance is that there is a former open pit, which was the primary one for the 2nd World War and Korean War, that cuts right across a branch of the Salmon River, and has cut off salmon migration. Since 1938, there has been no salmon migration to the head waters of this branch of the Salmon River because they just can't get through the pit and out the other side. We're going to fix that. We're going to fix it temporarily during operations to allow salmon around the pit and then during closure and reclamation to create a permanent channel which will allow salmon upstream for the first time since the 1930s. That's a very visible and obvious improvement to the site versus where it is today. That is what appeals to a much broader base in the community as compared to this being a greenfield site.
There are obviously people in the community who are interested in jobs and employment and economic benefits and so on, but there are also people who are much more focused on the environment and protection of the environment, but we can appeal across a broader spectrum because we can appeal to both of those groups. That definitely changes the perspective of the project, and definitely has resulted in a warm reception from the local community.
Gerardo: That's great. Stephen, walk me through the permitting time line and what shareholders can expect from Midas Gold in the next 12 months.
Stephen Quin: The next step is to file what's called a plan of operations, which is the document we file with the federal regulators that says this is what we want to do on site. That documents incorporates all the mine redevelopments, but it also incorporates the restoration of the legacy historical disturbance on site. What we're going to do about it, how we're going to reclaim the site afterwards, how we're going to get fish back upstream, all of those types of things. That's a pretty comprehensive document that is at a very advanced stage and we anticipate that will be filed in the relatively near term, this year.
What we're doing in the interim, or at the present time, is reviewing drafts of that document with various stakeholders so that we make sure that their concerns and points and input are addressed ahead of filing the document. That document has gone through many iterations and will probably go through several more before we actually file the document. We're trying to get as much input and participation from a pretty broad spectrum of groups before we file the documents.
The consequence of filing that document is the federal regulators then look at it and say how much disturbance is there in acres, because it then passes you in 1 of 2 directions. A very small project, tiny project would go in one direction, and a larger project gets pushed into the path where you have to do an environmental impact statement, commonly called an EIS.
Stephen Quin: In order to prepare that EIS, the regulators require a substantial amount of information on the environmental baseline. What's there today? How much disturbance has there been? Quantify it, qualify it, define it, map it out, sample it, measure it, etc. that work has been going on for over 3 years, in some cases for 5 years on the project, because the project has been significantly disturbed, so there's a lot more baseline evaluation required. The subsequent step to filing the plan of operation is the regulators will trigger an environmental impact statement, EIS. They will take all of that baseline data that we'll provide them and assess it and evaluate it and determine the best option for development of the site.
Obviously we believe we've put the best option forward, but that's the regulators decision. We provide a number of different alternatives for different aspects of the project since our preferred option is X, but they look at Y and Z as well and say okay, we agree with X or we prefer Y. That process is an ongoing process with a variety of federal and state regulators with input from the public community groups, NGOs, a whole variety of different people have a number of opportunities to participate in that process. Those are the 2 big steps that are coming up. One is filing the plan of operations and the 2nd is to commence the EIS that moves you through the review process.
Gerardo: Excellent. We mentioned John Paulson earlier, and the most recently financing, can you explain the benefits of having someone like John Paulson on board and how the financing helped Midas Gold move forward?
Stephen Quin: As we just talked about, the permitting process is about to get underway. That is a multi-year process. Our guidance says that an EIS process, if you look at typical projects in the United States, takes about 3 years, so it's not just a process where you can say, oh I've got a few million dollars in the bank and I'll start it and hopefully raise the balance of the money later to keep going through that process; the regulators don't like that, and we wouldn't like it if times got tough and you weren't able to see yourself to the finish line after spending a lot of money on a process. One of the key things that we talked about with our existing share holders is we want the certainty of funding to ensure that we can go through that regulatory process and not have to be concerned about funding during that process, and the regulators want to see that as well.
The key was to look for that strategic investor who was prepared to back stop us through that process, and to do it in conjunction with our existing shareholders who'd put money in already into the company. Essentially the financing we did was a combination of Paulson putting in substantial amounts of the money, but our existing shareholders coming alongside and putting additional money in as well. What it does is give you the certainty that you can move through the regulatory process, through the plan of operations review, and EIS process, to come out with a permitted project at the end of the day. That's really the short term key benefit, it takes the uncertainty away we're not going to be coming back to market looking for money every year to get out way through the process, etc., etc..
The other and second aspect, which I think is more nebulous, but I think equally important is one of the questions you mention, the common question is about the permitting side, I think the other question is how can you build to this scale given your market capitalization? I think bringing Paulson to the table changes the perspective of that discussion, because now you have someone that is a major investor in the company who has the financial capacity, and has demonstrated recently in Detour Gold, where they put over 400 million dollars to build a billion dollar mine. They were the lead financing party that got the package put together. We've definitely seen in discussions with shareholders, "well, I'm not going to invest because I'm not sure (even if you were successful in permitting), you can build the mine," to "now I can see the path to funding and production." That's a very different perspective for an investor, that there is somebody with the financial capacity to come alongside us and advance that project all the way to production. I think that changes investors perspective.
Gerardo: Absolutely. It certainly provides a much clearer path towards production and probably leverage in potential negotiations in the future, I imagine. Lastly, Stephen, few things get me as excited as exploration upside in a world class asset with a management team that actually knows how to advance it, and one that has monetized assets in the past the way you have. Are there any plans to do any further exploration drilling while the permitting process plays out?
Stephen Quin: That's certainly one of the things we are currently evaluating. What we've done over the last couple of years is to really work out, what are the keys to why the best grade gold is where it is in this overall project and property package that we own. We've done that, not just by ourselves, using our own very knowledgeable and experienced exploration people, but we've also teamed up with the U.S. Geologic Survey and the Idaho Geologic Survey who have been conducting a very intensive and extensive work program on the site to really understand the geology and the drivers of mineralization on this property. That's definitely revealed a lot of interesting conclusions that we're able to lever off. That then compliments the existing data we have which identifies over 20 different prospects on the property which we believed (prior to doing that work) had merit, but you then add on and layer that additional understanding and you're able to prioritize the best of those targets that have the best opportunity to add a significant additional number of ounces. Our immediate priority, when we get back into drilling, is not just on adding ounces but adding high value ounces.
If you look at our project, it's already got a 12 year life, if you look at the inferred resources we talked about, that could push you out to 15 year life. Adding something at the end of the mine life really doesn't have much impact on the value of the company because, by the time you discount it today, it's a relatively modest impact. What really could drive value though, is if you could find something better than what we currently have in the mine plan. It's better margin, better grade material that could displace some of the current production out into the future because it has better economics. That's really where our nearer term efforts will focus.
The 3 areas we would highlight is within the pits there is firstly, currently inferred resources, which you are not allowed to use in a pre-feasibility study, it's just regulatory requirement, well those are a pretty quick win if you're successful in converting them from inferred to indicated, now they've become part of the reserve. We already know where they are, we know what their grade is, they're already within the economic pit, they're currently treat as waste, flip them to reserves, that makes a profit, that is a very quick win.
Our second area is on the northeast end of the Yellow Pine pit, where, in the drilling programs we did in 2014, we intersected some very high grade material up in the northeast corner that had some grades that got up into the 4 and 5 grams a ton range, which is more double the grades that we have in our reserve. It's shallow mineralization, if that turned into any size, that would have a significant financial impact on the deposit and the economics of the project.
The third is that within the pit again, there are some historical drill-holes which are not part of the reserve calculation that had some very good grade material, but they were excluded because they're old data and therefore, are they reliable or not? It's not easy to prove that, but by going into that area and re-drilling, if we're able to confirm and repeat those very good grades that were obtained historically, they could have a significant impact on the economics because they will be mined very early in the mine life and therefore will have a significant kick to the economics of the project. Boosting the returns early in the mine life.
That's the focus, not just looking at ounces. There's no doubt there will be a lot more ounces on this project. The question is can we drive the economics and the return of the project up, early in the life. That has a much bigger impact and benefit to shareholders than just adding more ounces over a long period of time.
Gerardo: It sounds like that's something that you're looking at Stephen. I can tell you that on this side of it, it's very exciting and we'll definitely be waiting to see how that plays out. Is there anything you'd like to add Stephen?
Stephen Quin: I think that the conclusion is that what really drives the Midas story is that this is a very high quality project, with very good grades, very good margins, located in the United States, but in addition to that, it provides the opportunity to do something good for the environment by cleaning up what's been a historically disturbed site for over 100 years, get fish back upstream, and so it's a win-win, it's not just a profitable opportunity, it's something that can benefit the environment as well, which is not a very common statement you can make in the mining industry. You're going to have net positive benefit, from an environmental perspective by building a mine. We see that as a win-win that could be a significant opportunity, not just for our shareholders, but for the environment as well.
Gerardo: Excellent. Stephen, thank you very very much for joining us. I'll actually be visiting the project next month and I'm looking forward to sharing the visit with everybody. Thank you in advance Stephen for having me out and we look forward to bringing that to everybody here in the next month.
Stephen Quin: Great Gerardo, I'm looking forward to showing you what we have out there.
Gerardo: Thank you Stephen.
Midas Gold has a world-class asset with approximately 6.5 million ounces of gold across all categories, world-class exploration potential and a management team that know how to monetize assets to the benefit of its shareholders. They have a core group of long-term shareholders and the recent financing, which included billionaire John Paulson's Paulson and Co., allows Midas Gold the financial flexibility to move through the permitting process.
The Stibnite gold project provides the kind of scale and leverage to a rising gold price that major gold producers look for and in a new gold bull market, Midas Gold has to be considered a top takeout target. Whether or not the company is bought out, the risk-reward proposition is a compelling one. When the likes of Pierre Lassonde of Franco-Nevada and John Paulson invest it's worth paying attention.
I'm looking forward to bringing you an on-site update next month. For more information on Midas Gold you can go its website by clicking http://www.midasgoldcorp.com/s/home.asp
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Nine Out of 10 Americans Eat Too Much Salt
By Sora Song @sora_songJune 26, 2010
Alan Marsh/First Light/Corbis / Americans consume more than 3,400 mg of sodium per day, largely from processed foods and breads
Nine out of 10 Americans are eating way too much salt, according to a report this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The government's current dietary guidelines advise Americans to consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium — about a teaspoon's worth — per day. People who are at higher risk for heart problems, including middle-aged and older adults, blacks and those with high blood pressure, should restrict sodium to 1,500 mg a day.
But based on 2005-2006 data from an ongoing federal survey, CDC researchers found that just 5.5% of people in the high-risk group, which accounts for 70% of the U.S. population, met that goal, while 19% of all other adults stayed within their daily 2,300-mg limit.
On average, Americans take in more than 3,400 mg of sodium per day, which experts say is contributing to higher rates of heart disease and stroke.
But reducing dietary sodium is no easy proposition. Salt is everywhere, hidden in virtually every packaged food, from soup and salad dressings to breakfast cereals and chocolate chip cookies. (Click here for a revealing New York Times graphic about foods with a surprising amount of salt.) Considering that nearly 80% of the salt we consume comes not from the tabletop shaker but from processed and restaurant-prepared foods, it would take the coordinated effort by the food manufacturing and service industries to reduce Americans' sodium intake.
In January, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a nationwide siege on salt, with the goal of getting food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce the amount of salt in their products by 25% over the next five years. In April, the Food and Drug Administration announced plans for a similar effort — the Washington Post reported that the government intends to work with the food industry to reduce salt gradually over a period of years to adjust the American palate to a less salty diet. "The initiative, to be launched this year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food products," the paper reported.
In the meantime, several companies and food retailers — including Conagra, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Pepsico, Sara Lee and the supermarket A.&P. — have already pledged to bring down the salt in many of their products.
The health benefits of these efforts could be significant, according to some scientists. A study published in January in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the cardiovascular benefits of lowering salt intake would be on par with the benefits reaped from population-wide reductions in smoking, obesity and cholesterol levels.
The study found that if Americans consumed about half a teaspoon less sodium (1,200 mg) per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths. New cases of heart disease would drop by between 60,000 and 120,000 each year and cases of stroke would be reduced by between 32,000 and 66,000. The savings to the health care system would be in the tens of billions. The NEJM study suggested that all Americans would benefit from eating less salt, but that the high-risk group — people with hypertension, older adults and blacks — would be helped most.
Still, not all experts agree with the findings, contending that salt is crucial for good health and that universal reductions in salt intake may have wide-ranging effects beyond just lowering blood pressure — not all them beneficial nor uniform in all people. In a 2008 randomized trial of heart-failure patients, for instance, patients placed on a sodium-restricted diet (1,840 mg a day) were more likely to die or end up re-hospitalized than people eating normal amounts of salt (2,760 mg of sodium per day), as observed in a February commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The JAMA article, written by Dr. Michal Alderman of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, went on to note that out of 11 other observational studies of normal salt intake in adults, five found no association between salt consumption and clinical heart outcomes. A 2003 review of the literature by the Cochrane Collaboration similarly concluded there was little evidence to support a "general recommendation to reduce sodium intake." Lowering salt across the board — "for countries like the United States, this means changing the diet of all its residents by reducing the sodium content of prepared foods," Alderman wrote — would amount to an uncontrolled experiment on the health of unwitting volunteers, the JAMA paper suggested.
Stay tuned for the government's new dietary guidelines, which are expected to be made official in the fall. The proposed revisions to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans issued by a panel of scientists and nutritionists appointed by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, call for lowering the maximum daily amount of sodium to 1,500 mg per day.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: STRANGE...Not able to get cart items in magento on a custom page (only when the customer is logged in) Here is the standard code I am using for getting cart items and their attributes which works only when the customer is not logged in. As soon as I log in using my account this script stops working and does not return the items in the cart. Also the cart items count is also 0. But as soon as I close the browser(session ends..) and the script returns the cartitems correctly! Very strange, I have not been able to find out the cause. Please guide, anyone?
require_once('../app/Mage.php') ;
umask(0);
Mage::app();
Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name'=>'frontend'));

$session = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session');
$items = $session->getQuote()->getAllVisibleItems();
foreach ($items as $item) {
//$canProceed=0;
echo $productname = $item->getName();   //HERE IS THE COMPLETE CODE:<?php
ini_set('display_errors',true);
require_once('../app/Mage.php') ;
Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true);
umask(0);
Mage::app();

  //Getting buyer's country label

 $bcountry1 =  $_REQUEST['country']; //gets country code

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                                ->loadData()
                                ->toOptionArray(false);

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if ($_country['value']==$bcountry1){$bcountry = $_country['label'];}
}
//Fetching vendor for each product

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        "user" => $config->username,
        "pass" => $config->password,
        "dbname" => $config->dbname    );

$hostname = $dbinfo["host"];
$user2 = $dbinfo["user"];
$password = $dbinfo["pass"];
$dbname = $dbinfo["dbname"];

$dbhandle = mysql_connect($hostname,$user2,$password) or die("Unable to connect");
$selected = mysql_select_db("myart2",$dbhandle);

$Proceed=0;

//Getting all products in the cart
//echo $cart = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/cart')->getItemsCount();
// Secret Sauce - Initializes the Session for the FRONTEND
// Magento uses different sessions for 'frontend' and 'adminhtml'
Mage::getSingleton('core/session', array('name'=>'frontend'));

$session = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session');
$items = $session->getQuote()->getAllVisibleItems();
foreach ($items as $item) {
//$canProceed=0;
$productname = $item->getName();

$product = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->loadByAttribute('sku',     $item->getSku(), array('manufacturer'));
    $manufacturer =   $product->getResource()->getAttribute('manufacturer')->getFrontEnd()->getValue($product);

 $qry="select * from vendors WHERE company_name='$manufacturer'";
$result =  mysql_query($qry) or die("Unable to run select query");
  $row = mysql_fetch_array($result) or die("Unable to fetch data");

if( strcasecmp($row['country'],$bcountry)!=0 && $row['ships_abroad']!=1)
{$Proceed=1;$productnames[]=$productname;}
}

if($Proceed==1)
{
echo implode(',',$productnames);
}
else {echo 1; }
?>

A: I've tested the following four main permutations, and the code works in a stock CE1.7 instance in all cases:

*

*Create guest quote

*Convert guest quote to customer quote via login

*Instantiate existing customer quote via login

*Merge guest quote with customer quote via login

Adjust the server & app environment params as follows to view & rule out any errors (edit - added complete script; note the closing "}"):
<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
ini_set('display_errors',true);
require_once('../app/Mage.php') ;
Mage::setIsDeveloperMode(true);
umask(0);
Mage::app();

$session = Mage::getSingleton('checkout/session');
$items = $session->getQuote()->getAllVisibleItems();

foreach ($items as $item) {
    //$canProceed=0;
    echo $productname = $item->getName();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It's a new month, and that means new stuff on LLRX.com. New articles include Developments in Legal Outsourcing and Offshoring (http://www.llrx.com/features/legaloutsourcing.htm), FOIA Facts: Elections and the FOIA (http://www.llrx.com/columns/foia37.htm), and Terri Wilson's latest column, this one on writer's block (http://www.llrx.com/columns/creativitea7.htm.) Check it all out with more new articles at LLRX.com.


text:
'use strict';

const getService = name => {
  return strapi.service(`admin::${name}`);
};

module.exports = {
  getService,
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Writing these days
July 15, 2018 July 16, 2018 Nora PaceLeave a comment
I have been writing! I say this with some triumph because it seems hard enough to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard every single day, much less produce something that exists as a piece of writing. But yes, I have been writing, and it's become part of my life such that I don't feel quite right if I've neglected a day. And I suppose I've produced some things that I like, or at least that I will like. But…… these days….. it kind of feels like I'm not getting anywhere.
I feel that now we're settling into the doldrums of summer. If this were a naval adventure novel, we'd be becalmed. Getting agitated in the heat of the South Pacific's sun, starting to hate the faces around us just for their familiarity. Mutiny might be stirring if we toiled under a tyrannical captain who applied the cat-o-nine-tails too liberally. Yet the worse agony would be staring out at the unchanging sea, wishing we were fish to at least feel the cool water moving against our scales. Will the wind ever stir itself and blow this July into motion?
Yesterday I got gravely stuck, and it brought me right down to the darkness under my bed (where at least it is cooler). I was stuck on this: why am I here? What is the purpose of all this doing and scheduling and trying to make my intellect move into work and writing, and my body move into anything but a sweaty blob indented into the sofa? Why am I doing anything, really? I always think to myself that the great purpose of life is love. But I'm rather alone, rather often. Love is there (it's always there), but it seems a little distant at the moment. I feel purposeful when I work for my students, but my whole life can't be dedicated to teaching work (especially during the summer). I hate the feeling of killing time. I hate days with nothing to do. If the purpose of a life is to make that life a happy one, why does that feel like so much work? Am I missing something?
The pay-off of having established a daily writing mandate is that when I got into this foul, self-doubting mood, I wrote something. I thought it might get me on better footing for the rest of the day.
That didn't happen. I napped for like three hours. It was terrible.
But at least I wrote something! And I think, if I can once again perform my most famous trick of taking messy notebook writing and play with shapes and make it into something worth continuing, I might have an essay.
The idea would be this: sometimes it might be worthwhile to stop looking so clearly through the air for goals and signs and finish lines, and to instead live our lives underwater so that even if things are blurry, we are conscious of the watery world around us. We are submerged in life, and can move forward without waiting to reach something.
That's an idea that might be worth writing.
Writingamwriting, daily writing, frustration, idea, inspiration, notebook, summer, Writing, Writing, writing practice
Summer Reading Shelf
The most fun (and time-consuming) part of setting up my new apartment was unpacking about 380 books! I decided on a smaller to-be-read shelf for the new space, accompanied by a lovely photo of me and my dashing friend Sam.
Barkskins, by Annie Proulx
Treeborne, by Caleb Johnson
The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy
The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat
A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle (one I re-read every summer)
Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel (another favorite to re-read)
Five Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris
Year of Wonders, by Gwendolyn Brooks
The Steady Running of the Hour, by Justin Go
The River Wife, by Jonis Agee
Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee
Summer is a fantastic time to read, and I have found myself wanting to read multiple books at once– one stays on my bedside table, one is in my school bag or the passenger seat of my car so that I can dine al fresco or take a break from coffee shop writing to read a few pages. Is there anything better than a book and a beer in the sun?
I've just started Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, and I'm drawn in by the momentum of his prose. Here's an example:
To pitch here is to live. People pitch their kids into good schools, pitch offers on houses they can't afford, and when they're caught in the arms of the wrong eprson, pitch unlikely explanations. Hospitals pitch birthing centers, daycares pitch love, high schools pitch success . . . car dealerships pitch luxury, counselors self-esteem, masseuses happy endings, cemeteries eternal rest. . . It's endless, the pitching– endless, exhilarating, soul-sucking, and as unrelenting as death. As ordinary as morning sprinklers.
The book is, so far, about movie stars and love in the 1960s in a tiny corner of Cinque Terra, Italy, with a corollary plot in contemporary Hollywood. Anyone need a fun summer read? Shop your local indie bookstore
What are you reading? What should I add to my list this summer?
Reading#buildyourstack, Book Blog, Book Review, Friday Reading, historical fiction, home decoration, Reading, Reading, Reading List, summer reading
Foxes and Wolves
July 6, 2018 July 6, 2018 Nora PaceLeave a comment
In Solar Storms, by Linda Hogan, Wolverine is a ghostly, animal-hybrid presence, drawn to lost souls, hungry for trouble, and eager to destroy, entrap, and deceive. He is a mythic invisibility, and he trails the women of the novel through their journeys, inscrutable.
Yet a wolf is different — a wolf is a guardian of nature itself, silent and mournful. There are five generations of women concurrently living, rowing canoes, and seeking justice in the novel. They are deeply and cruelly connected to nature, and they live their commitment to water and land and each other's welfare in fierce ways. When Agnes sees her impending death, she tells her great-granddaughter Angel to leave her body where it lies, to be devoured by the birds and wolves. Angel is bothered by this image, but more tortured when Agnes dies while Angel is off seeking her cure. The other women set Agnes's body afloat on a canoe filled with blue flowers– a floating memorial oasis in deep waters– and plan to come back to take her to her burial. But when they return, Agnes's body is gone. Angel realizes that Agnes's wish has been fulfilled. Later in the novel, when she sees wolves, she calls them Grandmother, believing as her people do that spirits come back in new forms.
I happened to come upon these poems today:
"Soul Fox" by David Mason
"Sun and Rain" by Sandy Coomer
I think the idea of mythic reincarnation keeps trotting along in my mind these days, after writing an essay that incorporated reincarnation, birthmarks, generational trauma, and the idea of depth. If I were to be reborn, what would I be? Where did I come from?
I like to think I'd be a fox. Little, unassuming, not wealthy in brute strength, but wiley and fierce when I need to be. And a dweller in the snow and the woods and the quiet places.
Passagesamreading, fox, Friday Reading, mythology, nature, poetry, Reading, wolf, writing practice


Discussion in 'Networking' started by NikitaPower, Feb 1, 2005.
I have set up a wireless network using a Linksys wireless G model WRT54GS v1.1 router and am unable to connect to the VPN using the sonicwall VPN client. If I don't go through the router, but connect directly to the cable modem, I make the connection with no problem. In another location, we set up a wireless network using a Linksys wireless-B model BEFW1154 and the connection to the VPN works fine. Based on this, I'm assuming that the problem is with the built in NAT firewall in the wireless-G router, but am stumped as to how to fix the problem. Any ideas? Thanks!
I believe there is an option in the setup of the linksys routers to allow passthrough of ptpp or something along those lines for VPN's. Have you looked at the setup of your linksys for anything like that?
The Linksys has 3 different passthroughs and all 3 are enabled, but the vpn connection still won't go through.
This is the output I'm getting upon attempting to connect. If I plug right into the cable modem it works fine, but that leaves all the other computers in the house disconnected.
2005-02-28 17:38:23: ERROR: isakmp_inf.c:820:isakmp_info_recv_n(): unknown notify message: NO-PROPOSAL-CHOSEN, no phase2 handle found.
2005-02-28 17:38:43: ERROR: isakmp_inf.c:820:isakmp_info_recv_n(): unknown notify message: NO-PROPOSAL-CHOSEN, no phase2 handle found.
2005-02-28 17:39:03: ERROR: isakmp_inf.c:820:isakmp_info_recv_n(): unknown notify message: NO-PROPOSAL-CHOSEN, no phase2 handle found.
2005-02-28 17:39:23: ERROR: pfkey.c:792 fkey_timeover(): 64.9.107.190 give up to get IPsec-SA due to time up to wait.


text:
The Difference Between Good CFOs and Great CFOs
A CFO's ability to build strong teams and develop successors is more important than ever.
Sandy Cockrell III and Charles Holley
When CFOs of large North American companies were asked by Deloitte about the legacy they wanted to leave, they said, in overwhelming numbers, that they wanted to have had a strong influence on their company's ability to perform well in the future and to have left things better than they found them.
One of the keys to achieving those goals is a well-thought-out CFO succession plan that ensures there is a bench of highly skilled finance leaders ready and able to take the baton — ready not only from the CFO's vantage point, but also from the perspective of management, the board of directors, and Wall Street.
Although CFOs face significant demands, making time for succession planning can pay dividends. With a deep bench of talent prepared to step into leadership roles, CFOs free up their time to focus on their expanding roles as strategic leaders and drivers of change initiatives. That's particularly important in this era of digitalization, industry convergence, and disruption. A strong succession plan can also help protect the finance organization from unexpected leadership departures and avoid sudden gaps in talent.
Moreover, CEOs and boards expect their CFO to have a roster of "ready-now" and "ready-soon" successors in the pipeline. Executive recruiters tell us that a candidate's ability to build strong teams and develop successors have become top criteria for CEOs and directors in today's CFO searches. That is especially true as CFO tenures continue to shrink and the gap between the demand for experienced finance leaders and the supply of them expands.
Sandy Cockrell III
What does it take to develop and sustain a strong succession plan? First and foremost, it requires that a CFO makes a commitment to invest his or her time and the organization's money to talent recruitment, assessment, and development. The more a CFO understands their team's capabilities, the better equipped they will be to develop their succession plan and to avoid leadership holes.
A CFO succession plan should include readiness assessments of internal talent at least two levels beneath the CFO, finance-specific leadership development programs, and recruitment of external hires for certain skills, like investor relations (IR) or mergers and acquisitions. CFOs should understand and be able to communicate to the CEO, board, and other key stakeholders potential successors' strengths and what they need to do to get to the next level. They should also be able to identify external talent who could help fill leadership gaps.
The following seven practices can help CFOs build and sustain a succession plan, which in turn, can position them to leave a legacy of leadership and high performance:
1. Involve the CEO in planning and keep the board informed. Make sure the CEO and directors, especially the audit committee, are regularly kept up-to-date on CFO succession planning and talent decisions, and provide them opportunities to see high performers in action. These interactions can assure a CFO's most important stakeholders that finance's future leadership is in good hands and provide high performers important development exposure.
Charles Holley
2. Understand direct reports' ambitions and qualifications for their promotability. A CFO's senior finance leaders are a natural source of potential successors. In reality, some will not make the grade. Nevertheless, ensure they understand what is expected of them to carry out your agenda and provide them with robust development opportunities. Also, have them develop their own succession plans. The plans should be realistic and not list all the same people. If some direct reports are not interested in becoming a CFO or do not feel prepared for the role, they can be helpful in identifying other candidates.
3. Identify, assess, and develop successors early. Take succession planning into consideration when recruiting, even at the entry level, and provide developmental programs appropriate to experience level. Focus efforts on identifying and developing high-potentials, starting at the manager level. Assessment and development programs should intensify as finance professionals advance on their career paths.
4. Rotate people into new roles to expand their knowledge and skills. Rotation programs should provide diverse assignments both within finance and in other functions and the business, given CFOs' expanding strategy development and execution roles. In fact, corporate strategy, industry experience, and IR were named by more than 60% of CFOs participating in Deloitte's Q2 2018 CFO Signals™ survey as the top three qualifications for their successors, besides technical financial experience. Another consideration is the impact of technologies on the finance function and what new skills may be needed.
5. Emphasize "soft" skills in succession readiness assessment and development. The ability to build and lead teams, and to influence, collaborate, and communicate effectively with stakeholders are key to determining whether finance leaders are capable of making the leap to the CFO role. These skills are seldom part of performance assessment or development until executives advance further in their careers. Start leadership, teamwork, and communication training and performance evaluation at the manager level, if not sooner.
6. Consider external hiring part of the succession plan. Even the most successful development program is unlikely to fill all finance leadership needs. Stay in touch with executive recruiters on top talent who might be available, and understand what the market and your competitors are seeking in a new CFO. If you cannot identify two successors for a critical role from within the organization, be prepared to search outside and manage the expectations of internal talent, particularly high performers you would like to retain.
7. Re-assess the succession plan throughout the year. The fast-changing business environment and new expectations for finance could reveal soft spots in a potential successor's skillsets and experience. That means updating both the talent agenda and readiness evaluations of potential successors periodically to ensure that their experience and business acumen align with the evolving needs of the organization.
Few things can assure a CFO's success more than investing in building and retaining great talent. Time and again CFOs tell that us that talent is the critical differentiator between being a good finance leader and a great one. Purposeful and sustained succession planning is the lever that CFOs' have at their fingertips day in and day out to shape their legacy, their company's future success, and their contribution to long-term shareholder value.
Sandy Cockrell III is national managing partner of the U.S. CFO program at Deloitte LLP. Charles Holley, retired CFO of Walmart, serves as an independent senior advisor to Deloitte as CFO-in-Residence. He also is the audit committee chair of Amgen.
This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
Copyright © 2018 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.
contributor, Deloitte, great CFOs, hiring, Recruiting, succession planning
CFO Magazine's Most-Read Stories of 2019
Our most-popular articles reflected finance chiefs' top concerns during the decade's final year.
The Expanding Role of the Modern CFO
Traditionally conservative, the finance chief has stayed out of the limelight — until now.
Chasing the C-Suite
Women still face an uphill battle as they progress into senior positions.


Welcome to Huaca Viringo, Peruvian for "the Sanctuary of the Hairless Dog". Our passion is the hairless dog in all its varieties and sizes, especially the Peruvian breed.
The Peruvian hairless dog is a unique breed. It's a dog that makes people on the street turn their heads. Be it for the good or the bad, everybody is eager to voice their opinion on it.
The Perro sin Pelo del Peru is a multi-talented and active breed. Vivid, highly intelligent and very alert. Peruvians are affectionate and have a natural hunting drive. By nature they are watchful of and quite reserved to strangers.
To us, the love for our dogs comes first.
Showing and breeding is enjoyable but not a must. In the first place we are dog lovers, only after that are we also breeders. Our dogs live in our house and are kept in top condition, both physically and mentally, just because we think that's important - and fun!
With our breeding plans we hope to make a valuable contribution to the preservation and improvement of the breed we love so much - The Perro sin Pelo del Peru.
Take a look at the pictures on our site and see for yourself. Enjoy! If you have any questions about my dogs or the breed in general, contact us by e-mail.


The text 40 Fun Fables: Tales That Trick, Tickle and Teach does not yet have any Literary Text Complexity Qualitative Measures Rubrics filled out. Perhaps you can help.
No educators have yet completed this "grades used" section of the Literary Text Complexity Qualitative Measures Rubric for 40 Fun Fables: Tales That Trick, Tickle and Teach, where they share what grades this text is assigned. Perhaps you can help.


Jayant Bhandari is an entrepreneur. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
This was 1996. He had imported goods worth $150,000 into India. The goods landed at the New Delhi International Airport and had to be taken to Noida, a city virtually a part of Delhi, but in a different province. India, as anyone who has been there knows, does not operate as a country. There are roadblocks to cross, in and out of the cities, and in most cases even villages – controlled by the police, the tax department, the City, and the forest department; all separate from each other and competing on outdoing each other in corruption.
At the border, he was told that his documents were not in order, and since that day was a Thursday, and the next four days were holidays, he would need to wait with the truck at the border until the tax office in the city opened for clarification. Or he could pay an additional tax of $6,000, which had already been paid once. He would need to pay for engaging the truck for those four days, take the risk in case his goods got stolen, and organize security. He was no longer allowed to return. He was virtually arrested without a place to sleep in, and without access to toilet facilities.
The alternative was to pay a bribe of $50. The alibi of the government is that it is the businessmen who create corruption by paying bribes. And that if they only refused to pay, corruption would go away.
His other struggle was to get a telephone connection. The government owned company in Delhi would take about three years to provide a connection. In this case bribe was hefty, bureaucracy horrendous. He managed to choose a "legal" option in which anyone who paid five times the connection charges and showed foreign currency earnings would get a telephone within three months. He was pleased that his soul was in peace. When the time for installation came, the technician wrote in his service book that my friend was not at his office when the technician visited. The bribe asked for was $15.
The postmen asked for $3 twice a year to keep the mail coming. The state-owned electricity company would not provide electricity until a bribe was paid.
After almost a decade of liaisoning with the government staff in India, I wonder why my fingertips are more than enough to count all the honest government officers I have ever met. And their asking for money is not the biggest problem.
"The alibi of the government is that it is the businessmen who create corruption by paying bribes. And that if they only refused to pay, corruption would go away."
The biggest problem is the fact that it is almost impossible to approach the bureaucrat. He does not talk on the telephone, and he is usually not available in his office. When I do manage to see him in the office, it is impossible to get his ears. Almost invariably while I talk to him – hurriedly to make use of the precious moments – he keep his eyes off on something else in an attempt to show how busy he is. And then I am not the only one he talks to. There are usually a handful of people sitting in his office, and several telephones ringing in front of him. The bureaucrat moves to the next person or the telephone the moment time comes to say something substantial. By the time he is back with me, ages later, he seems to have forgotten everything I ever told him – if he does not fail to recognise me by then, that is.
Non-financial corruption is worse because it dehumanizes and demeans people.
A friend of mine had a serious accident a few years back outside the huge RR Hospital of the armed forces in New Delhi. Her scooter had been hit by a military vehicle. She was refused even the first aid. She ended up going to a private hospital, and without a question they provided her first aid. Later, I went to the RR Hospital to collect her scooter and talked to the too pleasant staff ("servile," to use another expression!) at the emergency reception. They told me, most kindly and sympathetically, that they are prepared to die for the country, and for its rules. But they said that their rules prohibit them to treat civilians.
The law insists that the first aid has to be provided. And the private hospital did exactly that.
Another case is of a person from the armed services I once met. He said, quite proudly, how he was involved in some human rights violations. I firmly protested to him. He changed his stance and said that he was just doing a good job of what he was asked to do – his job, being in the armed forces, was to follow the orders, unquestioned. If he had respect for his profession, he would have refused to accept orders that were unethical.
While all this was going on, several NGO workers sitting in their ivory towers and university students in the West were campaigning single-mindedly against "exploitation of the poor by the businesses and multinational corporations." They were, quite hilariously, campaigning for more government control over business; businesses with vested interests contributed to those NGOs, disguising such help as corporate social responsability. And the bureaucracy was more than happy to accept these arguments, for obvious reasons.
Those fighting for the poor have lost track of rationality, and using dishonest and lazy means are giving their support to what is the very fountainhead of exploitation, the State.


In 2004, James and Janet Senior and their four young children left the United Kingdom for South Africa after deciding to make huge life changes and work amongst the disadvantaged children in South Africa. Having met Bill Wilson many years ago and been inspired by the work Metro World Child does, the Seniors began similar programmes in Cape Town, founding Metro Kids Africa in 2004. In 2008 Metro World Child invited Metro Kids Africa to become a partner organisation.
Metro Kids seeks to form relationships with local churches and people, provide training and support and help the local community reach their own children. In this way, children have good role models within their own areas and have someone they can access easily, which helps develop healthy relationships that will produce lasting change.
At present Metro Kids has programmes in the following townships: Lower Crossroads, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Delft, Dunoon, Phoenix, Parklands, Athlone, Tambo and Joe Slovo.


text:
Faith »
Vatican »
Pope Francis calls on Catholics to dialogue with China, other Asian societies
Pope Francis leads the Lord's Prayer as he celebrates the closing Mass of the sixth Asian Youth Day at Haemi Castle in Haemi, South Korea, Aug. 17. CNS photo/Paul Haring
By Francis X. Rocca, Catholic News Service
SEOUL, South Korea - Speaking at the execution site of anonymous Korean martyrs, Pope Francis told Catholic bishops and young laypeople from across Asia to evangelize their continent through dialogue and openness, even with others suspicious or intolerant of the church. But he also urged them to challenge aspects of their cultures incompatible with Christian values.
The pope spoke Aug. 17 at Haemi Castle, about 60 miles south of Seoul, where thousands of Catholics were imprisoned and tortured during the 19th century, and at a nearby shrine commemorating those killed. It was the last full day of his visit to Korea, the first of his pontificate to Asia.
"On this vast continent which is home to a great variety of cultures, the church is called to be versatile and creative in her witness to the Gospel through dialogue and openness to all," Pope Francis told several hundred Asian bishops, leaders of the church in a region that is only 3 percent Catholic.
The pope then offered an example of his desired approach.
"In this spirit of openness to others, I earnestly hope that those countries of your continent with whom the Holy See does not yet enjoy a full relationship may not hesitate to further a dialogue for the benefit of all," the pope said.
His statement was most obviously an overture to China, which has not had formal relations with the Vatican since shortly after the country's 1949 communist revolution.
It was the latest of Pope Francis' several diplomatic gestures to Beijing since the start of his trip to Korea. During the papal flight from Rome Aug. 14, he sent a telegram of prayers and greetings to China's President Xi Jinping. Two days later, in a question-and-answer session with young people, the pope notably declined to answer a man from Hong Kong who asked how to help Catholics in China, where he said "control and oppression" were increasing as the church on the mainland grew.
China requires Catholic communities to register with the government-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, which has ordained bishops without the approval of the pope, and Chinese authorities have frequently arrested Catholics who reject government control.
Speaking with reporters after the pope's speech, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, noted that the Vatican does not have diplomatic relations with several Asian countries, including North Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Brunei and Bhutan.
"This offer of the pope of dialogue is related to all these lands, and not just China, even if China is the biggest, as we know," Father Lombardi said.
In an off-the-cuff addition to his original text, Pope Francis evoked the attitude he hoped such countries would adopt to the church: "These Christians don't come as conquerors, they don't come to take away our identity. They bring us theirs, but want to travel with us."
"Some will ask for baptism, others will not, but we will always travel together," the pope said.
Fittingly, Pope Francis started the day by baptizing a Korean man, Lee Hojin, in a brief ceremony at the nunciature in Seoul where the pope has been staying.
Lee, whose son was among more than 300 people killed in the April sinking of the Sewol ferry, met the pope Aug. 15 along with other family members and survivors of the disaster. He told the pope he had been preparing for two years to become a Catholic and now wanted the pope to baptize him. Lee took the baptismal name of Francis.
The pope has shown special concern for the Sewol case; for three days in a row, in a remarkable departure from papal custom, he has worn a yellow-ribbon pin commemorating the victims.
Pope Francis told the Asian bishops that dialogue required "empathy and sincere receptivity," but also, as a "fundamental point of reference," a clear sense of "our identity as Christians."
"If we are to speak freely, openly and fruitfully with others, we must be clear about who we are, what God has done for us, and what it is that he asks of us," he said.
The pope said Christian identity is constantly tempted by the "spirit of the world" in a number of ways, including relativism, which leads people to "forget that in a world of rapid and disorienting change, there is much that is unchanging, much that has its ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever."
The pope returned to the theme of Christian identity, though without using the term, when he addressed more than 40,000 Asian Youth Day participants at the event's closing Mass later in the day.
"The Asian continent, imbued with rich philosophical and religious traditions, remains a great frontier for your testimony to Christ, the way, the truth and the life," he said. "You have a right and a duty to take full part in the life of your societies. Do not be afraid to bring the wisdom of faith to every aspect of social life.
"You see and love, from within, all that is beautiful, noble and true in your cultures and traditions. Yet as Christians, you also know that the Gospel has the power to purify, elevate and perfect this heritage," he told the young people. "You can appreciate the many positive values of the diverse Asian cultures. You are also able to discern what is incompatible with your Catholic faith, what is contrary to the life of grace bestowed in baptism, and what aspects of contemporary culture are sinful, corrupt and lead to death."
Seeking God together will bring Christians closer to each other, Pope Francis says
Editorial: Get the facts straight
Pope Francis appeals for peace in Kazakhstan
Preserve Christian identity received at baptism, Pope Francis says
Progress must never trump care, says Pope Francis
More in this category: « In South Korea, Pope Francis calls for peace, democracy and social justice	Pope Francis hints he might one day retire »


text:
Fox Claims That Feeding Seniors In Need Is An Effort To Buy Their Vote
Written by Remington Shepard
Published 07/30/13 12:50 PM EDT
Fox News continued its campaign to demonize programs that provide necessary food assistance to millions of Americans by attacking the AARP's effort to enroll eligible seniors in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, baselessly claiming the program was an effort to buy their vote and change "what America really is" and dismissing the fact that many eligible seniors find it difficult to enroll in the food assistance program they need.
A July 27 Tribune-Democrat article reported that the Pennsylvania chapter of the AARP "has launched an effort to use the organization's volunteers to encourage seniors to apply for food stamps." According to the AARP, nearly 350,000 Pennsylvania seniors "do not always have enough money to buy food."
On Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy asked why the AARP would want to enroll eligible seniors in the program and "encourage a welfare state." Fox Business host Stuart Varney responded by dismissing the need to feed seniors -- even those in extreme poverty -- and claiming that the effort in Pennsylvania was about buying votes. He expanded:
VARNEY: Now the AARP, huge supporters of President Obama politically and financially. Big supporters of Obamacare. And now they're out there signing people up for food stamps. This is part of the buy the vote campaign. They're really shifting America, changing what America really is.
Outside of the 350,000 Pennsylvania seniors who lack food security, millions of seniors nationwide are food insecure and do not know how to access programs to assuage their food security concerns. According to Feeding America, a domestic hunger relief charity, "In 2011, 4.8 million Americans over the age of 60 were food insecure. This constitutes 8.4% of all seniors." Additionally, only 35 percent of eligible seniors are enrolled in SNAP. The Food Research and Action Center noted that the low enrollment rate can be attributed to things like a lack of mobility and technology allowing for seniors to enroll in the program.
Fox has previously demonized government SNAP outreach efforts and the program itself. On the March 15 edition Fox & Friends, Stuart Varney attacked SNAP, calling it a "feel good" program that creates "an entitlement nation," and added that SNAP outreach was an effort to secure votes for Obama during the 2012 presidential election. Varney has not limited his attacks to food security for the elderly. On July 9, Varney attacked the government for feeding children through initiatives like the free school lunch program, suggesting that food assistance programs that keep millions out of poverty were a sign of economic failure.
Fox & Friends
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Article 01/06/23 10:31 AM EST


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No breaking seal of confession for abusers, church insists
U.S. bishops hear pope on pro-life, transgender issues
Pope tells cardinals they are servants, not courtiers
Cardinals attend Pope Francis' Mass for new cardinals in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 23. Among those pictured are U.S. Cardinals Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Justin Rigali, retired archbishop of Philadelphia, both at right. The previous day, the pope created 19 new cardinals from 15 countries at a consistory attended by his predecessor, retired Pope Benedict XVI. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
By Francis X. Rocca • Catholic News Service • Posted February 24, 2014
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Celebrating Mass with the newest members of the College of the Cardinals one day after their elevation, Pope Francis urged them to regard their new role not as one of worldly honor but of humble service and sacrifice.
"A cardinal enters the church of Rome, not a royal court," the pope said in his homily Feb. 23, during morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. "May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favoritism and preferences."
"May our language be that of the Gospel: 'yes when we mean yes; no when we mean no,'" he said. "May our attitudes be those of the beatitudes and our way be that of holiness."
Pope Francis celebrated the Mass with 18 of the 19 men he had raised to the rank of cardinal the previous day in the same basilica. Cardinal Loris Capovilla, who at age 98 is now the oldest member of the college, was absent on both occasions for reasons of health.
The 18 new cardinals, clad in the green vestments of the liturgical season of ordinary time, sat in a near semicircle around the main altar. More than a hundred of their fellow cardinals, also serving as concelebrants, sat in rows at the front of the congregation.
A young girl looks up at Pope Francis as he accepts offertory gifts during a Mass with new cardinals in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 23. The previous day, Pope Francis created 19 new cardinals from 15 countries at a consistory attended by his predecessor, retired Pope Benedict XVI. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Retired Pope Benedict, whose appearance at the previous day's consistory had surprised practically all the participants, did not return to the basilica for the Mass.
Pope Francis' call for humility echoed a letter he had sent the new cardinals shortly after the announcement of their elevation in January, telling them that a red hat "does not signify a promotion, an honor or a decoration; it is simply a form of service that requires expanding your vision and enlarging your heart," and that they should celebrate their new distinction only in an "evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty."
In his homily, the pope said that "Jesus did not come to teach us good manners, how to behave well at the table. To do that, he would not have had to come down from heaven and die on the cross. Christ came to save us, to show us the way, the only way out of the quicksand of sin, and this is mercy."
"To be saint is not a luxury," he said. "It is necessary for the salvation of the world."
Quoting from the day's reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, in which Jesus enjoins his disciples to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors, the pope said cardinals are called to live out that injunction with even "greater zeal and ardor" than other Christians.
"We love, therefore, those who are hostile to us; we bless those who speak ill of us; we greet with a smile those who may not deserve it," he said. "We do not aim to assert ourselves; we oppose arrogance with meekness; we forget the humiliations that we have endured."
The pope's words recalled his previous day's talk to the cardinals — whose traditional scarlet garb is said to symbolize the blood of martyrs — when he called on them to pray for "all Christians suffering from discrimination and persecution" and "every man and woman suffering injustice on account of his or her religious convictions."
Following the Mass, the pope appeared at the window of his office in the Apostolic Palace and addressed a crowd in St. Peter's Square before praying the noon Angelus.
He said the weekend's gathering of the world's cardinals was a "precious occasion for experiencing the catholicity of the church, well represented by the varied origins of the members of the College of Cardinals, gathered in close communion around the successor of Peter. And may the Lord gives us the grace to work for the unity of the church."
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The final night of the European leg, Present , Micks mum, Jesse Nicks,band members wives,kids,friends and Christine Mcvie and a nearly full house. You could sense that it was a special night in prospect, the moment Micks bass drum kicked off the chain. I was with my youngest brother some 16 years and a generation younger than me. He has seen The Dance and loved Big love and Gypsy, but little of the other songs. He had to admit, "hey I know that song" and, "didn't so and so sing that". It was a real eye opener to him the diverse and endearing legacy "my band" has given to the world. It has been a long road, saw them in Philadelphia in May,NEC recently, Earls court a week last Saturday(front row, shook Lindsey hand!!!), Manchester(including fighting side show,pillocks included) and finally,last night. They were tight last night, with different arrangements on both come and the ever wonderful,never disappointing so afraid!! Lindsey has to be of his genre unparalleled as a guitarist. For me the acoustic numbers really stood out:Never Going Back, Landslide,Big Love(simply fabulous!). The SYW songs, Peacekeeper, SYW,Come, bye bye baby and my favourite What's The world Coming To, are now amongst my favourite(and I have a lot of back catalogue!!) songs. It was great that alot of the audience didn't share my enthusiasm as I got a great view as they all sat down! The standards such as Go your own Way. Rhiannon etc have lost non of their appeal and the bands new interpretation(ie mock joust/make up during TUSK), including a rockier,rawer feel have given a new "freshness" to these songs. Micks' drum vest had my brother waxing lyrically as well as Taku and Steve's back-up drumming,fantastic. This leads me onto the other band members and support cast. Wonderful backing singers, Great support from Brett,Carlos and the boys. John imperious, as always.Lindsey,well you know my views already but Stevie never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps because she didn't need to "save" her voice for the next gig but goodness me sang her little heart out trying for and hitting those difficult notes she may not have attempted earlier in the tour. Gold Dust Woman: WOW, beauty and grace personified. At the end of the night, with a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat, I wondered where it had all gone, just like love , we had it there for such a brief time(their performance) and before we realised it was gone in a fleeting moment. I sincerely hope Micks last phrase"The Mac is back" rings true, please do another album, please tour again, because already I feel a part of me is gone!!
I wouldn't say I was the biggest Fleetwood Mac fan on earth, but have grown up listening to there albums through the 70's and 80's and when I found out that they would be playing in London, I thought why not go along. My preconceived ideas of the concert was that they would just stand around and sing tracks from their new album. Boy was I surprised they played loads of there classic hits and were really animated on stage. They really looked like they were enjoying singing the old songs. They also spoke to crowd a lot which is nice. Lindsey, was very energetic on stage and interacted with the crowd well, thrashing at his guitar even letting fans at the front play his guitar. Stevie looked like she was enjoying the night, doing a sort of line dance to one of the songs, but what impressed me most about Stevie was the quality and power of her voice, that girl can belt out a song. It especially came across well on the quieter numbers like Beautiful Child. Her voice seems to have become smoother over the years. Stevie and Lindsey were extremely attentative to each other which gave the show a good vibe. It would seem that all the differences are in the past. John McVie was John McVie, looked like he wanted to get home. Nuff said. Mick Fleetwood, that man scares me, when he talks to the crowd he is a well spoken gentleman but put him behind the drums he's mad, a real Jekyll and Hyde character. He was on form, plenty of effort in his drumming and facial expressions. He's man of great stature and dominated the stage and the crowd during World Turning. Christine McVie was in the crowd watching the concert as were family members of the band. All in all a great night. They only thing I would say is that I would like to see them in much smaller venue, Earls Court doesn't have the best acoustics!
I was at the Earls Court show on 10 December and having spent 30 years seeing every performer imaginable I have to say that this was the most incredible performance I have ever seen from a group. I hadn't seen Fleetwood Mac live before I've only seen their concerts on video - Red Rocks Colorado which was outstanding and a couple of shows from US television but to see them live was an unforgettable experience. From the time they appeared on stage at 8.15 until they finished at 10.45 I was totally awestruck. I have never seen such energy as these performers gave on stage. I was exhausted at the end of the show just watching them I hate to think how they felt been the last show of a 7 month tour. I know Stevie has a powerful voice but for the first couple of songs she seemed a bit quiet and subdued and I thought perhaps she was tired after all the touring but when she got into her stride after the 3rd or 4th song, boy did she let rip. The hall vibrated all night, and when Lindsey did his guitar solos I thought the roof was coming off. But no, they hadn't finished, the icing on the cake was the finale when Mick did his walk about drum solos - that was a finale I'll never ever forget. I was sitting up in the gods in the "cheap" seats as my friend was watching her pennies being near Christmas but if I ever have the chance to see Fleetwood Mac again (and I really hope I do) I would pay £100 or more for a seat "up close and personal", they're worth every damn penny!!
After years of being besotted with Stevie's music I finally got to go and see her (and the rest of the band of course!). My daughter whose 22 has been raised on Stevie's music and she started crying at the end ..she couldn't quite believe we were there although I haven't forgiven her for sneaking out for a few minutes and commiting the sin of missing Gold Dust Woman!! Her boyfriend came with us and is now a Stevie convert. At the end they described her as being the real live fairy. Well it's that spell I suppose. How many people can sing live with that soul-wrenching voice and make you feel so emotional (as I was too if I am completely honest). Not to take anything away from the band. Lindsey was awsome. Mick brilliant. John of course, the quiet one. What a combination. Daughter's boyfriend blown away by it all. Another Fleetwood Mac convert too. Re-iterating Natalie Pugh's review (26/11 at Birmingham). She said she remembers when she first became aware of Stevie's music. This is the same for me...not necessarily always remembering when you first hear artists... but for me also I remember when I first 'heard' Stevie. It was one night on the TV ..flicking round the channels (all 4 of course!) ...1980-something... they were showing her "White Wing Dove" concert. That was when I was enchanted...oh I recognise some songs from Fleetwood Mac here..oh yes she sounds like the singer. Ah! Penny Drops. Thank goodness it was on video so I bought it and played it to death. From then on her lyrics and voice seemed to hit a spot inside me that no other artist can. As for Lindsey and Stevie together. Speechless. But then this is why I sink into her music...somewhere.. in those songs... will always be those words I find so hard to express. But I still can't believe we've been. After all these years we finally got to see Stevie live. Can someone wave a magic wand and take me back to that night. Please.. Come back soon.
My ears are still ringing from last nights performance. This my second visit to Earls Court and decided that this had to be special hence front of stage, admittedly next to a speaker but in front of Mr Showman himself, Lindsey, wow what a performance so much energy and immense enjoyment from them came ousing off the stage, to say this was there last night didnt show it could have been their first. All Lindseys songs rocked!! most special moment was this time Silver Springs, the interaction between Stevie and Lindsey whilst this was sung I will never forget, (and did you say that she loved you) I looked at him nodding and he smiled back!! awsome. This time we got Goodbye Baby for the very special reason being that Christine was in the audience! would have loved to have seen her on the stage with them at the end but not to be, although they paid her a very loving and warm tribute, that bought tears to Stevies eyes and to Lindseys, very moving. What I saw last night were Legends, this night will live with me forever, thank you Fleetwood Mac.
What a show! Being only 15 I don't have too much experience of rock concerts, but from what I have seen, including Bob Dylan and etc, this show really was fantastic! I have now been to two of the three London shows, and as this was the last of their European tour dates, they certainly let us have it!! The crowd was twice as loud as the 29th November, they added Goodbye Baby which they left out last time, and CHRISTINE MCVIE was watching! Stevie dedicated Landslide to London, and ''our very own Christine McVie who is out there tonight!'' Thunderous applause followed as expected! Stevie seemed to put SO much effort in tonight, as well as the entire crew, but especially Stevie, that I was worried she was gona fall over from twirling so much! I have never EVER seen her twirl so much during Stand Back, and Go Your Own Way, and Don't Stop ... oh she wouldn't stop! Her voice really hit all the high notes .. except the realllly high noted obviously, but Landslide, Gypsy, Rhiannon, Beautiful Child and Stand Back particluarly she REALLY went for ALL those notes and got them perfectly, which she didn't do on the 29th! She also had a long flowing cape for Rhiannon this time which looked great! Another amazing feature was Gold Dust Woman with that sparkly backdrop with the flames which made it look so spectacular.... They all had so much energy, I still can't believe it, even after seeing them once on this tour I was surprised!! I wish Christine McVie had come on stage, but she was there alright! Lindsey's guitar playing was outstanding as usual, but I have to say, Stevie really went for it last night, and no one can deny that ... Mick was absolutely high while doing his percussion thing on World Turning ... They really just were so energetic, and clearly love London!!! Who doesn't lol! Lindsey's songs were excellent, as always, especially Eyes Of The World which is now one of my favourite of his songs... Erm ... Stand Back was simply unbelievable .. It really was ... she twirled and twirled and twirled til she could twirl no more, and the guitars were especially loud which made it even better than last time ... it definitely rocks harder than I have ever heard it ... it is no longer a pop song!! They must get such a kick out of knowing they're putting on such a great show! As I've said the crowd were excellent, although the first non sell out in London ever! Stevie's dad was there as usual, and she had a little joke about him before Beautiful Child, which was more heartfelt than ever... even more so than on the record. Mick was going completely mad as usual, with his crazy red plimsoles loool! John McVie hiding in the shadows as usual, although forced to the front for the final bow after Goodbye Baby, which everyone loved! Don't Stop was amazing, really really loud, and the band were fantastic, making the dreary December night light up! Stevie received a massive Winnie the pooh bear which was cute, and then they were gone! Gone gone gone! I wish they were doing another one, but hey .. I reckon I've seen their best show on the tour from what I can gather, and being in London with Christine McVie and all gave them so much more to say than the usual lines! Thank you Fleetwood Mac, I can only hope you return as soon as possible so I can get to the front row next time! Don't forget us, and rock Australia as hard as you rocked Earls Court last night! And this is from a 15 year old viewpoint, and seriously ... you are all so much better than the metal bands and all that out there! Thank you all and come back to me soon!


It is sad. But she is better than my father at 90. I think it is so sad to live alone at that age. I would think being in a facility with others may be fun for her. If you don't feel like a "people" day then you can stay in your room. But she sounds like she likes to be around people. It is so nice of your to pick her up and drive her to book club. I bet even if she doesn't remember she enjoys the hell out of it.


Robert C. Greenheck co-founded a small local sheet metal factory that has become The Greenheck Group, the world's largest manufacturer of air movement and control equipment for commercial, institutional and industrial buildings. After graduating from Marquette University's College of Engineering in 1950, Bob Greenheck returned to the Wausau area and provided more than six decades of engineering expertise, manufacturing knowledge and business leadership to his company. Greenheck now employs more than 2,800 individuals at eight manufacturing plants around the world, and is Central Wisconsin's largest manufacturer with 1,900 local employees. Thanks to Bob's vision and commitment to product innovation and quality, Greenheck products are circulating fresh, comfortable air throughout some of the world's most prestigious buildings including the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Black and Veatch World Headquarters in Kansas and the Bangkok International Airport. A longtime community supporter, Bob Greenheck provided major funding for the Greenheck Field House in Schofield and received the prestigious Tocqueville Award in honor of his ongoing financial commitment to United Way of Marathon County.