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I hope that URL worked? If not did you hear that the NFL may fine players for wearing cleats/gloves with the American flag on them? I am sorry but 9/11 was a huge hit to our country and our military has been at a war for the last 10 years. And the only way to cope with the war has been sports. I love my country and I am proud to say that I serve my country and it makes me even prouder when I see civilians showing their pride. I am not sure about you guys but everytime I hear the national anthem I get goose bumps everytime. I am proud to be an American and apparently so aren't these football players. So please NFL do not fine the players who support my country....I mean do they not support breast cancer awareness for a whole month? What is wrong with supporting you country for one day? NOTHING.
"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~Abraham Lincoln"
Oh and GO BUFFALO!!!!!!!<!--CUL-->


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After deciding to keep the Petal Senior Center open less than a year ago, officials have now changed their minds and have decided to close it. According to Petal Mayor Hal Marx, the Petal Board of Aldermen voted 5 - 2 to relocate the Petal Senior Center programs to the Civic Center. By doing so, Mayor Marx says the city will save up to $25,000 a year. He says the senior center will be leased out to The 3-D School since they've outgrown their own facility.The recreation department is expected to begin moving Monday night and senior programs should begin at the Petal Civic Center July 15.
Mayor Marx says nothing is changing except the location. He says lunch will still be provided to seniors everyday as well as breakfast on Thursdays.
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DC 2013 Gay Softball World Series
GSWS 2013- Washington DC fundraising for NORTH AMERICAN GAY AMATEUR ATHLETIC
The 37th annual NAGAAA Gay Softball World Series being held Monday, August 26 – Saturday, August 31, 2013 in Washington, DC.
Washington, DC will host the 37th annual NAGAAA Gay Softball World Series (GSWS). The tournament, which is the largest annual LGBT sporting event in the world, will welcome 170+ teams participating in more than 600 softball games. In total, we expect more than 4,000 athletes and fans visiting Washington, DC for the weeklong tournament.
The tournament runs from Monday, August 26 – Saturday, August 31, 2013. Participants and fans can follow the tournament live on our website at www.dcseries2013.com or on facebook at DC Series 2013.
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I am Manitou and so are you
By David Cowardin on Aug 26, 2012 in Outdoors, Photos
Manitou, referring to spirit beings in Algonquian groups of Native Americans, is also the name of a river along Minnesota's north shore. The Manitou River runs through George Crosby Manitou State Park where I decided to camp alone Saturday night.
Check out the story and more pictures at Duluth Outdoors.


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Here are the grade 4 scale score result for all students and then a disaggregation by race and family income:
Come join our conversations on Kentucky education issues. We'll share fresh news, ideas, and data daily.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
NAEP Science: Jefferson County, Kentucky, and the U.S.
Here are the grade 4 scale score result for all students and then a disaggregation by race and family income:
1 comment:
Cindy Heine e-mailed me to ask why it isn't statistically significant that JCPS eighth grade black students not in the lunch program have a scale score 6 points higher than similar students nationwide. Basically, it's a bout the number of students sampled. The smaller the sample, the bigger the differences have to be to count as significant.ReplyDelete
Because more than half of Jefferson County's students are white and more than half are in the free and reduced lunch program, I'm sure that the black and not in the lunch program group is the smallest of the four groups shown.
We welcome comments short and long, sharing opinions and ideas, or simply asking questions. We won't publish your comment if you accuse others of wrongdoing, insult them, or use foul language.
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Brian Hird battled Hodgkin's lymphoma in his 20's. The radiation he needed to beat his cancer left him with major heart disease. He didn't know it until he went into cardiac arrest.
"I would never in my wildest dreams thought I was having a heart attack."
He was only 37. Research shows the chest radiation used to treat tumors for cancers like breast cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma can put patients at higher risk for aggressive heart disease. Now a new Cleveland Clinic study of about 500 people shows patients who had chest radiation are nearly twice as likely to die in the years after heart surgery.
"Patients we followed died due to lingering cardio pulmonary issues- so heart and lung problems in the long term."
Dr. Milind Desai says doctors should try to minimize radiation exposure and shield their patients when possible. He also says heart surgeons may be able to use less invasive options.
"In the higher risk patients were working on developing new technologies which would not require a full blown open heart surgery."
Dr. Desai made the connection between Brian's cancer history and his heart problems.
"Don't ignore certain pains and twinges you get if you know if you've had radiation and definitely bring it to your doctors attention," says Hird.
In the coming weeks, Brian needs surgery to replace two heart valves. He says he knows it's necessary for himself and his family.
Researchers say the patients in their study needed heart surgery on average 18 years after radiation.
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- Publisher: Tecmo Koei America Corp.
- Release Date: Feb 11, 2014
- Summary: TOUKIDEN takes Tecmo Koei's expertise in historically themed games to an expansive fantasy world influenced by historical and traditional Japanese elements. Developed by the same studio that created the famed Dynasty Warriors series, this all-new franchise casts players in the role of a demon-fighting Slayer. Starting from the Utakata Village headquarters where they will accept quests, players will venture out to battle monstrous and deadly Oni (demons) before they destroy all of humanity.… Collapse
- Developer: Omega Force
- Genre(s): General
- Cheats: On GameFAQs
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
Positive: 17 out of 44
Mixed: 27 out of 44
Negative: 0 out of 44
Mar 6, 2014Toukiden is the most beautiful and playable "Monster Hunter clone" to date.
Feb 10, 2014Though it is certainly not reinventing the wheel, Omega Force succeeds in proposing us a far better action game than the recent installments of the Dynatsty Warriors series have been. Toukiden will please all of the Monster Hunter fans who only own a PS Vita.
Feb 20, 2014While it doesn't have the depth of a Monster Hunter game, it builds a great foundation for a potential sequel and due to its accessibility, it's well worth checking out whether you're a fan of the genre or not.
Feb 10, 2014Despite being somewhat linear and having a shallow story, this is a really nice game for fans of Japanese action with a full fledged fighting system and amazing boss fights.
Feb 25, 2014Overall Toukiden is an interesting experience, a little repetitive but downright fun if played together.
Feb 13, 2014Toukiden is fast and furious, but it also knows how to play up a complex leveling system to keep things fresh. It isn't perfect, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a better Monster Hunter replacement in the interim.
Mar 14, 2014I wish I could say that this is the better Monster Hunter. But it isn't. Where Capcom gives you depth and a meaningful daily fantasy business this is merely a collection of fast paced battles against a limited number of enemy types.
Score distribution:
Positive: 35 out of 38
Mixed: 1 out of 38
Negative: 2 out of 38
Feb 11, 2014Haters will always hate. Toukiden nailed the things that the popular Monster Hunter series didn't give to Vita. The story of the Slayers is definitely one of the things that surprised me, not expecting that a monster hunting game like this would have a decent one. If you're a gamer who's into graphics then Toukiden wouldn't also disappoint you. Far surpassing the graphics of any monster hunting game in any handheld device out there, this one is the best in my opinion so far. Don't mind the people who hates this game. A large sum of the Monster Hunter community would hate this game because it's annoyingly more appealing in some terms. Giving a very low score wouldn't change how good this game is.… Expand
Feb 16, 2014Toukiden is currently the greatest monster hunting game for vita. Beautiful graphics, a good story (this is what Monster Hunter series doesn't have), many monsters to slay, weapon&armor XP, and mitama system that allows many combination of play style. Lobby system for online play is neat and quick. I have played another hunting games on vita (soul sacrifice, ragnarok odyssey, etc) but this is the one that looks very similar to (and as good as) MH series. The companion AI and revive feature is a great help for some people, but for me this makes the game too easy. Overall is a great game, i know there's not much great game for vita so now you can start cleaning the dust and then charge your vita for this 60+ hours adventure.… Expand
Feb 11, 2014Toukiden is a great game.If you like this kind of games,you have to buy it.It's son fun and interesting.Psvita is a good place to hunting games as:Soul Sacrifice,Ragnarok Odyssey,God Eater 2,Freedom Wars and Toukiden.
I recommend you this game.You will have hours and hours of fun,and Toukiden has online multiplayer too,.… Expand
Feb 15, 2014Don't automatically hate this game due to it being very similar to Monster Hunter. Out of all PS Vita games trying to replace Monster Hunter after its movement to Nintendo consoles, Toukiden should easily fill that gap. Although it doesn't have as much depth as Monster hunter but it still holds it's own by having a more refined, slower version of the hack and slash gameplay from Dynasty Warriors. Also Toukiden has an actual story that unfolds as the player progresses much like in God Eater. The graphics are also AMAZING with the Dynasty Warriors look to it.
So go ahead and check this out. Especially those who don't live in Japan or don't know japanese and want a MH game for the vita. For those who do know japanese and/or live in japan go and get Monster Hunter: Frontier G when it comes out (or just get this anyways :P)… Expand
Feb 19, 2014I've played every monster hunting game for Vita released in NA that I know of, and I was a huge fan of MHTri on the Wii, and I can finally say that MH has some worthy competition now. To be clear, Toukiden's only competition is currently on another platform. On the Vita, there isn't a better monster hunting game than Toukiden.
I feel that the main criticisms that one could make about the game is that most of it is too easy. I prefer the difficulty of Tri, where the game can be difficult because you choose not to grind for better gear and therefore face tougher battles, or you could choose to grind for better gear until the battles were easier, but you probably spend more time grinding that failing and retrying boss fights. I much prefer having that choice over what happens in Toukiden, where the battles are decidedly easy until the game is almost over, and on top of that it's not difficult to keep up on gear without repeating any areas at all.
All that means the overall experience in MH comes down to long periods of challenge ending in elation: "WHOO HOO I FINALLY BEAT THAT GUY!!" In contrast the Toukiden experience is more consistent and measured: "Well, that was pretty fun. Let's beat up something else." I personally appreciate both, but I think others could be turned off by either one. Sometimes that stretch of challenge in MH where you are grinding or can't beat a boss turns into frustration, and sometimes that measured gratification in Toukiden from beating up monsters turns into boredom.
I'll gladly buy a Toukiden sequel on the Vita, and I hope this puts pressure on Capcom to innovate and come back to Sony.… Expand
Feb 20, 2014Great game which you can find many features from Monster hunter and Soul Sacrifice, tough it is not an ugly copy-cat. New weapons, air fighting, soul of warriors, and great graphics make this game fantastic. Any Monster Hunter fans or haters should give this game a try.… Expand
Jun 17, 2014Just a terrible Monster Hunter ripoff on the worlds worst handheld portable gaming console nothing to see here. The people who give it good reviews are just trying to support a dead console.… Expand
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Maple Bacon
One Gallon Bag
Bacon popcorn? Oh, we went there.Taking maple syrup and thick-cut hickory-smoked bacon, we combined them into a sensational snack that turns heads and wins customer approvals every day of the week.
Have you experienced our Maple Bacon popcorn? If so please leave a review below - your feedback is essential in our quest to make the world's best gourmet popcorn flavors!
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|America's independent, non-partisan advocate for overburdened taxpayers.
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Who Should the Twenty Be?
Who Should the Twenty Be?
A New Membership System to Boost the Legitimacy of the G20 at a
By Alex M. Brill and James K. Glassman
June 14, 2012
Alex M. Brill is the CEO of Matrix Global Advisors, an economic policy consulting firm. He is also a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, he was chief economist and policy director to the House Ways and Means Committee. James K. Glassman was formerly U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He is currently executive director of the George W. Bush Institute and a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This report was sponsored by the National Taxpayers Union. The authors are solely responsible for the content. Any views expressed here represent only the views of the authors.
"We live in an increasingly global economy." This phrase—or variations upon it—has become such an overused expression on the part of our leaders that it can be meaningless to the average taxpaying citizen. Yet, the need to find such meaning and ensure it informs U.S. fiscal policy has never been more urgent. The issues facing us in this quest are numerous, among them: How can trade taxes (tariffs) and other trade barriers be lowered to facilitate commerce among nations? How can our own tax laws be reformed to create a business climate more capable of nurturing investment and job creation? How can our country compete more effectively abroad without resorting to counterproductive subsidies that contribute to our rising national debt? How can the United States serve as an example to other countries by more fully embracing market-based economic principles? How should our nation participate in multilateral institutions concerned with matters of worldwide financial importance?
It is the last question that prompted the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) to support this study. Since its founding in 1969, NTU's work on behalf of lower taxes and limited government has often touched upon international financial issues. In 1977, for example, NTU initiated a public education campaign, chaired by experts in finance, to warn that the mounting debts of the developing world and (then) Iron Curtain countries could not be readily repaid. During the 1980s, we opposed the Carter and Reagan Administrations' attempts to vastly increase International Monetary Fund (IMF) quotas, and thereby burden taxpayers with shaky liabilities.
In more recent times, NTU has advocated suspending additional U.S. contributions to the IMF and multilateral development banks until participating nations honor their debt obligations. We have also called for greater protections for whistleblower employees with timely information about waste, fraud, and abuse at these organizations. Meanwhile, as a founding member of the World Taxpayers Associations, NTU has, for the past twenty-five years, partnered with activist groups on six continents to develop positive reforms that have guided nations toward limited governments.
In the G20, however, a tremendous opportunity exists to avoid taking on what this study's authors rightly describe as the "political and operational baggage" of other entities such as the IMF and the United Nations—baggage that, not coincidentally, often encumbers taxpayers here and abroad with heavy liabilities. This can be achieved through basic decisions to establish more transparent and rational membership standards, which can provide the most valuable capital for any multilateral body: legitimacy among the taxpaying constituencies it intends to serve. In so doing, the G20 could take a first step to becoming a new model for economic policymaking that depends not on costly bailouts but more on proactive self-discipline in the common interest; such a model rewards free-market solutions from innovators instead of statist behavior from bad actors.
In 1983, NTU's then-Chairman James Dale Davidson testified before the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee on issues of international development. He warned:
Economic growth is not an accident of nature. It is a consequence of human choice. Any country can impoverish itself by maintaining overvalued exchange rates, subsidizing foodstuffs and thus destroying domestic agriculture, erecting corrupt and inefficient state enterprise to monopolize industrial development, and imposing domestic fiscal policies which push aggregate expenditure above output. . . . Rather than dealing out yet another hand to be stacked on international banking's house of cards, we should take care, and look to the long run to the real sources of economic growth and prosperity. These lie in policy adjustments by the borrowing countries, not in subsidized lending.
Although much has changed in the global economic sphere—from the advent of the Information Age to the increased complexity of financial transactions—taxpayers everywhere continue to demand accountability from international institutions operating in that sphere. That is why some thirty years later, Davidson's words still have relevance, and they should be read not as an indictment of all multilateral approaches to economic challenges. Instead, they can define a balanced vision for cooperation that respects the sovereignty of taxpayers, recognizes the responsibility of individual nations, and fosters stability—all while resisting the impulse to replace dynamic, often self-correcting market forces with the arbitrary judgments of bureaucracies.
Some would ask, can such an ambitious blueprint ever be reflected in the design of any international forum, much less the G20's? Time will tell. It is our sincere hope that this study will begin a conversation on how to build such structures in the future—a conversation in which taxpayers deserve the most prominent voice.
Pete Sepp
Executive Vice President
National Taxpayers Union
Executive Summary
A recent headline on the front page of the New York Times summed up the dire state of the efforts to remedy a weakening global economy: "In Economic Deluge, a World That's Unable to Bail Together."[1]
A key reason is that the organization established to do the job—the Group of Twenty, or G20—is facing a crisis of its own. On the eve of the June 18–19 meeting of G20 heads of state in Los Cabos, Mexico, critics say that it lacks the necessary will and authority to deal with the immense problems at hand.[2] This paper makes the case that correcting this deficiency is essential, and that the most important change must be made at the most basic level: the G20 cannot achieve adequate legitimacy until it adopts clear criteria for membership.
Remarkably, since its founding thirteen years ago, the G20 has lacked transparent rules governing its membership. As a result, there has been an erosion of trust among the nearly two hundred nations that are not part of the group but are affected by its decisions. Without legitimacy, the G20 cannot lead.
This paper identifies specific membership criteria and shows the effect they will have on the G20's composition. Setting clear criteria will be controversial—in part because it will require the replacement of several current members. Such change may be painful, but with another recession beginning in Europe, uncertainty over the future of the euro, sluggish growth in the United States, and weakness among developing economies, reform must happen soon if the G20 is to work constructively to help foster economic growth and financial-market stability.
The G20's legitimacy depends on having as members those nations most capable of improving global financial markets and preventing economic crises. Thus, the specific selection criteria must be based on the three objectives to which G20 heads of state agreed in 2008:
With these goals in mind, we conclude that appropriate potential membership criteria should be based on measures of:
Using these objective measures, we conclude that:
Our intention in this paper is not to determine the specific hard-and-fast criteria for G20 membership but to offer one rules-based formula among several possibilities and to emphasize the urgency of finding a solution to a crisis of legitimacy.
The Group of Twenty, or G20, was established in 1999 in response to the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Initially composed of finance ministers and central bank governors of twenty "systemically important advanced and emerging economies," [4] the G20 was intended to stabilize the international financial system and help coordinate responses to future global economic distress. The group rose to greater prominence in 2008, when, at the request of President George W. Bush, G20 heads of state began meeting to address the financial crisis that had begun to affect major economies the year before.
Although the G20 members are among the largest economies in the world, there are no established criteria for membership. As this paper will detail, this lack of a rules-based admissions system threatens to weaken the group's effectiveness, as criticism of the arbitrariness of the institution's makeup gives rise to challenges to its legitimacy.[5] The G20 clearly has the potential to serve as a positive force in the global financial system, but trust in its authority must be strengthened.
With the anemic economic recovery weakening, global leaders should quickly consider how to fulfill the G20's potential for building economic stability. The place to start is by establishing criteria for membership and adjusting the group's composition accordingly.
The paper is structured as follows. We begin with a brief history of the G20, its current structure, and the importance of the group's role in the global financial system. Then, we provide a review of the academic literature on the relationship between group legitimacy and membership criteria, particularly in multilateral organizations. After establishing the rationale for membership criteria for the G20, the paper argues that those criteria must be guided by the G20's overarching purpose. We conclude by identifying potential criteria for global leaders to consider and assessing the effect of such criteria on the group's current membership composition.
History, Structure, and Significance of the G20
The G20 is a relatively new international institution, but its roots date back roughly forty years. The G7—the international group comprising the world's seven largest economies—has been in existence since the 1970s, when those giants dominated the global economy to a greater extent than they do today. (The original G7 countries were Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States.) By the 1990s, the rapid growth of emerging nations and greater global economic integration gave rise to calls for a larger, more inclusive international economic organization—one that would reflect the true nature of the modern global economy.
The G7's initial attempts at establishing this larger group led to the formation of the G22 in 1997. It was replaced in 1999 by the G33, which was superseded that same year by the G20. Nearly a decade later, the global financial crisis launched the G20 as the leader in global economic governance.[6]
The G20 members (listed alphabetically in the accompanying box) comprise the European Union (EU) and nineteen countries selected by the G7. Representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and Spain regularly participate in meetings, though not as formal members of the group.
There were no criteria for membership when the G20 was formed in 1999. Instead, the selection of members was based on several loose principles: that the group include economies important to the global financial system, that it be regionally representative, and that it reflect the composition of the global economy.[7] The G20 does include large, important economies—together the members comprise more than 85 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and two-thirds of the world's population.[8] The selection process, however, has been faulted for its arbitrariness, and the absence of formal criteria calls into question the legitimacy of the group as a representative body.
This surprising absence of membership criteria has a justification: the G20 was formed as a crisis committee, and long-term legitimacy was not a primary concern at the time. Now that the group is considered a global steering committee, criticisms about its composition need to be addressed.
The group is well positioned, with only minor reforms, to serve a valuable purpose: coordinating international policy to mitigate the risk of financial crises and promote global growth. As Brookings Institution scholars Colin I. Bradford and Johannes F. Linn write, "The G20 has a strong foundation in the ten-year history of the G20 ministerial meetings, developing a strong network among officials of communication, consultation and concertation. The strength of this network of senior officials is the foundation of G20 Summits and provides the means of moving the global agenda forward continuously from one [G20] presidency to the next."[9]
In a similar vein, following President George W. Bush's decision to host heads of state of the G20 nations in Washington, D.C., in 2008, Dan Price, assistant to the president for international economic affairs, noted: "The President concluded after consultations with other leaders that for this first summit, the Group of 20 offered a representative group of countries for an initial discussion, and importantly, the G20 had established channels of communication among officials to help both prepare for the summit and to continue work after the summit."[10]
Rationale for Establishing Membership Criteria as a Means for Institutional Legitimacy
The primary reason for establishing criteria for G20 membership is that appropriate, carefully chosen criteria will lend the group increased legitimacy. As organizational sociologist Mark Suchman of Brown writes, "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions."[11] Without legitimacy, the actions of a group such as the G20 could very well be ignored or dismissed for having no authority.
Sociologist Cathryn Johnson of Emory, discussing key legitimacy theories among social psychologists and organizational researchers, writes, "An authority exists and is binding when participants see that other participants act in accord with it and support it. . . . Order, then, is greatly facilitated when there is a collective belief in the legitimacy of an authority structure."[12] This collective belief is particularly important for multilateral organizations, such as the G20, because they do not have the legitimacy democratic processes naturally provide.[13] Political scientist Robert Keohane, a scholar of international affairs at Princeton and author of the highly regarded book After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy, has noted that legitimacy for multilateral organizations depends in large part on the inclusiveness of the membership, given the diverse interests a multilateral group must represent.[14]
Some G20 watchers have criticized the group's lack of inclusiveness, and thus lack of legitimacy, since the original selection process that yielded the group's current structure. In 2001, University of Toronto economist Gerry Helleiner declared that the G20's "origins in the G-7 reduce its legitimacy" and criticized the group's membership as "not fully representative."[15]
More recently, Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre argued, "The G-20 had a meaning when the financial crisis broke out, the situation was serious and joint decisions had to be swiftly made in order to calm the markets. This importance remains. But . . . the G-20 is a self-appointed group. Its composition is determined by the major countries and powers. It may be more representative than the G-7 or the G-8, in which only the richest countries are represented, but it is still arbitrary."[16]
Terra Lawson-Remer of the New School University recently wrote, "The G20 excludes more than four-fifths of the world's countries, causing some critics (and excluded countries) to denounce it as unrepresentative and therefore insufficiently legitimate. And because having enough of the right actors at the table is a prerequisite for effective global coordination, these same critics contend that this lack of representative legitimacy also undermines the G20's effectiveness."[17]
Complaints from excluded countries will be impossible to avoid, but the key to increased legitimacy is to establish clear membership criteria for the group. As Chatham House researchers Paola Subacchi and Stephen Pickford write, "Thorough reform of the G20 membership with the view not only to allowing more countries around the table, but also to establishing objective and 'measurable' criteria for membership is highly desirable in the long term."[18]
Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, agrees: "The G20 faces the immediate question of whether it should adjust its self-appointed, exclusive membership to accommodate other states and organizations. Although more representative than the G8, the G20 continues to suffer attacks on its legitimacy, particularly from excluded countries. A major source of controversy is the absence of any objective criteria for membership."[19]
Constructed properly, criteria for membership could foster the perception of legitimacy among G20 members and nonmembers alike. A G20 in which membership is based on straightforward, objective criteria could instill confidence around the globe by signaling that the group's composition is the result of neither arbitrary selection nor an attempt by one or more members to serve their own political ends.
It is important that reforms avoid turning the G20 into a rigid, cumbersome organization constrained by unnecessary rules. As global economic governance expert Ngaire Woods has explained:
The G20's effectiveness has sprung from its informal, non-institutionalized form. The G20 has operated as an informal network, signaling the intent of powerful countries to cooperate, providing a stage on which they can commit to cooperate, and crafting jointly agreed (when possible) priorities for cooperation. . . . An effective global steering committee will need to travel light, convening with rapidity (as occurred in November 2008), unencumbered by rules and structures but inclusive enough to command a minimum of legitimacy.[20]
Some countries have argued that legitimizing the G20 can be best achieved through the establishment of a permanent secretariat as opposed to the current rotating leadership without permanent staff.[21] Yet, the G20 benefits from not being viewed as yet another multilateral bureaucracy. Already, Terra Lawson-Remer summarizes public opinion of the G20 as "transnational elites hatching plans behind closed doors in insulated centers of power."[22] A permanent secretariat would only reinforce that view.
Major changes to the organization itself would probably be counterproductive. The G20 holds promise in part because it has not enveloped itself in elaborate structures to foster its self-importance. Instead, a fair set of criteria to determine which countries are included would buttress the organization's effectiveness without imposing the burdens associated with elaborate operational bureaucracies. That innovation alone would contribute greatly to the inclusiveness Ngaire Woods and others have identified as necessary for legitimacy. Once these criteria are established and implemented, the G20 can operate with as much flexibility as ever, but with the added advantage of a higher level of international trust. But care must be taken in setting the criteria. What kind of members should the organization have?
Basis for Criteria: Institutional Purpose
While the reason to establish membership criteria is to foster legitimacy, the actual criteria must be rooted in the purpose for which the G20 exists.[23] The group is intended not only to prevent future financial crises, but also to encourage the growth of transparent, appropriate, effectively functioning financial markets. The G20's legitimacy depends on having as members the countries most capable of, or suited to, improving regulation of global financial markets and preventing global financial crises.[24] A serious discussion about membership criteria presents an ideal opportunity not only to give the G20 legitimacy in the eyes of the world, but also to recommit to the group's founding principles.
At the first meeting of the G20 heads of state in November 2008, the members agreed to three primary objectives. These objectives should guide the selection of the group's membership criteria:
The G20 currently is not ideally structured to serve these stated objectives. In fact, land mass—hardly a measure of whether a country is an essential participant in global financial regulatory reform or crisis prevention—has been identified as a key predictor of current G20 membership.[26]
Potential Criteria
Based on the three above objectives, the G20 should comprise large economies with large international banking and finance sectors. The best practices of these country's banking sectors should have the potential to positively influence financial institutions around the world. In addition, members should adhere to the economic principles identified in the declaration of the inaugural summit of the G20 heads of state: "Our work will be guided by a shared belief that market principles, open trade and investment regimes, and effectively regulated financial markets foster the dynamism, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are essential for economic growth, employment, and poverty reduction."[27] With these goals in mind, appropriate potential membership criteria should be based on measures of:
Criteria must be transparent, stable, and verifiable. Therefore, we rely on economic and political governance metrics provided by the World Bank and the IMF. We chose the World Bank as the primary source because of its commitment to timely and reliable global statistics. Its database includes over 2,000 measures of socioeconomic, geographic, and economic activity, and it is committed to ensuring that countries have statistical agencies that collect data in a consistent and appropriate manner.[28]
The notion of using transparent, objective criteria for membership has been suggested by others, including Enrique Rueda-Sabater, Vijaya Ramachandran, and Robin Kraft.[29] These scholars, however, advocate that, to be included, a nation's GDP or population must exceed 2 percent of that of the world as a whole. They then add some smaller countries to ensure geographic diversity. Our approach, by contrast, selects specific criteria that are aligned with the stated objectives of the G20.
For our analysis, we use a set of variables—summarized as economic size, adherence to market-based principles, and financial interconnectedness—to construct a country ranking to assess the current composition of the G20.
The scores are constructed by indexing the maximum point value for each statistic to 100. The country with the highest GDP, for example, was given 100 points for its GDP. Each other country was given a number of points fewer than 100 that corresponded to the ratio of its GDP to the GDP of the top country. For example, a GDP index value of 35 would indicate that the country's economy is 35 percent of the size of the largest economy. To turn these points into a score, each variable is multiplied by an assigned weight between 0 and 1, and the weighted values are totaled. GDP, imports, and exports are each given a weight of 10 percent (for a subtotal of 30 percent); control of corruption, regulatory quality, and rule of law are also each given a weight of 10 percent (for a subtotal of 30 percent); and the financial interconnectedness and financial-market-size metric is given a weight of 40 percent. Before detailing the results of the analysis, two unique matters need to be addressed.
What to Do about the EU. The EU is currently a member of the G20, along with four EU countries. This arrangement would appear to afford Europe's largest economies additional influence over the G20 (since France and Germany exert significant influence over the EU itself). On the other hand, the EU's participation permits the inclusion (by proxy) of a number of smaller, yet globally important, EU countries without the complexity involved with enlarging the G20. Although it is a difficult and multi-faceted issue, we decided to keep the EU as a member of the G20. Because the EU situation is so complex, we decided to maintain the current configuration, retaining the EU itself plus the four EU nations currently in the G20: France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. These four were among the original members of the G7. (Spain has been a non-voting observer to G20 meetings.) However, it should be noted that granting a non-nation membership does raise the risk that other regional organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the African Union (both of which are invited observers at the Los Cabos G20 meeting in June 2012) will cry foul.
How to Recognize the G20's Stated Objective of Geographic Diversity. At first blush, giving preference to geographic diversity may appear to be of little value within an institution responsible for international finance matters that are not constrained by geography. However, there are indeed valid reasons to consider geography. For example, small countries in a given region may be more likely to follow the lead of their "local superpower" than to heed the advice of a group composed almost exclusively of, say, Asian and Anglo-Saxon countries. Given these considerations, the largest countries from each of five regions were automatically included in our final list: United States (North America), Brazil (South America), Germany (Europe), South Africa (Africa), and China (Asia).
Results of Applying Criteria
The results of this analysis are presented below. Table 1 shows which current G20 countries would not qualify for membership and which current nonmembers should replace them. Table 2 provides further detail regarding the weighted index value for each of the seven criteria that are used in this analysis. While data on the forty-three largest countries were analyzed, only the twenty-four countries currently in or proposed to be added to the G20 are detailed below.[32]
Table 1. Changes in G20 Composition from Applying Criteria
* Mexico and Russia fail to qualify by only a slim margin. See details in Table 2.
** Malaysia qualifies by only a slim margin. See details in Table 2.
Table 2. Country Scores for Membership Criteria Metrics
By these criteria, two current G20 countries—Argentina and Indonesia—are shown clearly to be ill-suited for membership in the G20. In fact, based on these criteria, seven countries that did not qualify for membership would be better suited for inclusion than either Indonesia or Argentina.[33]
Given Argentina's record over the last decade, it is unsurprising that the country would fail to qualify for the G20 based on the proposed criteria. In the largest sovereign default in history, Argentina renounced its debt in 2001, just two years after acceding to the G20.[34] Displeasure over Argentina's actions has increased notably in recent months. In March, President Obama denied Argentina trade preferences because the Argentine government refused to pay a settlement to two U.S. investors awarded by the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.[35] The U.S. government's action is an indication of how global finance affects Americans and why it is important for U.S. taxpayers to concern themselves with the G20's legitimacy and composition.
There has also been a spate of recent editorials criticizing Argentine President Cristina Kirchner for the government takeover in April of the largest oil company in the country.[36] In early May, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced a resolution to suspend Argentina's membership in the G20 because the country has been a bad economic actor.[37] In fact, questions have been raised regarding why Argentina earned a spot in the G20 originally. It has even been suggested that the decision was influenced by a friendship between then–U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Argentina's Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo, who were roommates at Harvard.[38] On top of these criticisms, Argentina ranked last in compliance with the priority commitments that G20 members made at the 2010 Seoul Summit, complying with only 46 percent of the commitments compared to a member average of 76 percent.[39]
While Indonesia's economy is larger and its financial sector more globally important than Argentina's, its scores are still low relative to more-developed nations. Indonesia's growth in the last decade has been considerable, and the country weathered the Great Recession without much difficulty,[40] but Indonesia's government has been faulted recently for not welcoming foreign investment and for taking actions detrimental to the country's banking sector.[41] Indonesia also has been criticized for not following up on promised reforms that would have given the country a better chance of remaining in the G20 under our proposed membership criteria. As University of Indonesia scholar Maria Monica Wihardja put it, "Indonesia's geopolitical position has been raised to the international level by its G20 membership. However, many still see it as the 'elephant in the room' with its huge population and large entourage but little contribution."[42]
The results regarding Mexico and Russia, two current members of the G20, are more complicated. The scores for Mexico and Russia are too low to qualify them for the G20, but several other countries are only slightly ahead of them, including Saudi Arabia. Small changes in the criteria or updates to the data could shift the results. (Note that both Mexico and Russia have higher aggregate scores than South Africa, which, nonetheless, qualifies for the G20 as the only African nation.) The closeness of the scores is actually a good argument for a rules-based admissions system. There is no obvious group of twenty nations that should be included in the G20, so fair and transparent metrics are essential, as they justify the difficult decisions that will be required in order to differentiate among similarly situated countries.
To take the place of the countries that fall out, Switzerland and Singapore are standouts. While their economies are relatively small, their rule of law scores and IMF systemic importance scores are high. These two countries are, therefore, excellent examples of the value of employing mission-based criteria rather than relying only on GDP or perceived geopolitical importance. Norway, too, makes it onto the list by a safe margin because of its exemplary rule of law scores. Malaysia is the fourth country to join the G20 under our criteria, but by only a thin margin over several other contenders.
Ultimately, the analysis presented above leads to three questions about the fundamental soundness, structure, and future of the G20:
First, regardless of the outcome of applying objective criteria, the very process of using an objective mechanism is consistent with strengthening the institution by addressing doubts about a structure that seems to many to be arbitrary. Even if applying criteria resulted in no change in membership, the establishment of a transparent system is a powerful statement of the G20's legitimacy.
Second, while the results clearly suggest that some countries are not appropriate members for the G20, it should be considered a positive sign that using objective criteria has only a small impact on the existing composition and thus would not be disruptive to the G20's activities. Such an approach could have the secondary benefit of constraining the G20's "mission creep." For example, issues related to global health concerns would not be appropriate for the G20 since members were selected without any regard to their populations' health status. The proposed membership criteria should help the G20 stick to its core mission by staying focused, in contrast with the observable expansion of activities that other multilateral institutions have experienced.
Finally, because today's G20 membership may not be appropriate tomorrow, it is clearly necessary to reevaluate membership periodically. Change happens. (The original G7, for example, did not include China, which today is the world's second-largest economy.) Reevaluating too frequently, however, could distract the G20 from its core function, disrupt the group's cohesion, and allow an insufficient amount of time for member countries to implement a new policy consensus. Reevaluating too infrequently could also weaken the effectiveness of the group if unqualified countries remain members for extended periods of time and obviously qualified countries are on the outside.
We believe reevaluating membership every five years at minimum and ten at maximum would strike a proper balance between the risks. Given the normal lags associated with gathering and publishing statistical data, the criteria would be applied to the most recently available data, likely two years old. Of the two poles, we favor reevaluation at close to five years. Such a duration would create both a constant reassurance that the current members are deserving of G20 status and an incentive for countries on the cusp of gaining membership to implement reforms or strengthen their economies' growth prospects so they might make the grade.
With rumblings of economic distress growing louder, the global economy is in need of an effective forum for policy discussion and action. The United Nations, the IMF, and other multilateral institutions are all encumbered with their own political and operational baggage, but the G20 is poised to fill that role effectively if it adopts just modest reforms in the form of straightforward, objective membership criteria. Establishing such criteria would go a long way toward lending the group legitimacy and ensuring that its members are the most capable of forestalling or dealing with a financial crisis.
Our intention in this paper, however, is not to declare the absolute and only set of specific hard-and-fast criteria for G20 membership, but instead to illustrate that a transparent, rules-based formula, guided by the express mission of the G20, can lend credibility to the group without affecting the manner in which it conducts its policymaking. While two of the current members of the G20—Argentina and Indonesia—clearly do not belong, it should be recognized that the vast majority of the members do belong. Therefore, removing the appearance of arbitrariness from the makeup of the current organization could be achieved with little disruption. We hope that the leaders of the world will take the opportunity to put aside the political incentives to handpick winners and losers and do what is best to help reignite the global economy.
[1] Floyd Norris, "In Economic Deluge, a World That's Unable to Bail Together," New York Times, June 3, 2012.
[2] In addition to the numerous critical pieces cited later in this paper, see Andrew F. Cooper, "The G20 and Its Regional Critics: The Search for Inclusion," Global Policy 2, no. 2 (May 2011): 203–209.
[3] G20, "The Origins and Evolution of the G20," available at www.g20mexico.org/en/the-origins-and-evolution-of-the-g20.
[4] G20, "The Group of Twenty: A History," November 2008, available through www.g20.utoronto.ca/docs/index.html.
[5] See, for example, Jakob Vestergaard, "The G20 and Beyond: Towards Effective Global Economic Governance," Danish Institute for International Studies Report 2011:04, available at www.diis.dk/graphics/publications/reports2011/rp2011-04-g20-and-beyond_web.pdf.
[6] Larry Elliott, "G7 Elite Group Makes Way for G20 and Emerging Nations," The Guardian, October 4, 2009.
[7] G20, "The Group of Twenty: A History."
[8] Il SaKong, "Foreword," in Global Leadership in Transition: Making the G20 More Effective and Responsive, ed. Colin I. Bradford and Wonhyuk Lim (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), ix.
[9] Colin I. Bradford and Johannes F. Linn, "A History of G20 Summits: The Evolving Dynamic of Global Leadership," Journal of Globalization and Development 2, no. 2 (December 2011).
[10] "Press Briefing by Daniel Price and David McCormick on the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy," news release, November 12, 2008, available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=84789.
[11] Mark C. Suchman, "Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches," The Academy of Management Review 20, no. 3 (July 1995): 574, available at www.sabin.org/files/Suchman_legitimacy_95.pdf.
[12] Cathryn Johnson, ed., Legitimacy Processes in Organizations, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 22 (San Diego: Elsevier, 2004), 3.
[13] Robert O. Keohane, "The Contingent Legitimacy of Multilateralism," in Multilateralism Under Challenge? Power, International Order, and Structural Change, ed. Edward Newman, Ramesh Thakur, and John Tirman (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2006), 63.
[14] Ibid., 59.
[15] Gerry Helleiner, "Developing Countries, Global Financial Governance and the Group of Twenty: A Note," prepared for the Governance Working Group of the Global Financial Governance Initiative, March 2001, available at www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/Helleiner%20on%20G20.PDF.
[16] Jonas Gahr Støre, quoted in "Norway Takes Aim at G-20: 'One of the Greatest Setbacks Since World War II,'" Der Spiegel, June 22, 2010.
[17] Terra Lawson-Remer, "Does the G20 Matter?" Reuters blog "The Great Debate," February 24, 2012, available at http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/02/24/does-the-g20-matter. See also Robert Wade and Jakob Vestergaard, "Overhaul the G20 for the Sake of the G172," Financial Times, October 21, 2010.
[18] Paola Subacchi and Stephen Pickford, "Legitimacy vs Effectiveness for the G20: A Dynamic Approach to Global
Economic Governance," Chatham House International Economics Briefing Paper (October 2011), available at www.iadb.org/intal/intalcdi/PE/2011/09299.pdf.
[19] Stewart Patrick, The G20 and the United States: Opportunities for More Effective Multilateralism (New York: Century Foundation, 2010), available through www.tcf.org/publications/2010/10/the-g20-and-the-united-states-opportunities-for-more-effective-multilateralism.
[20] Ngaire Woods, "The Impact of the G20 on Global Governance: A History and Prospective," in Global Leadership in Transition, 46–47.
[21] See Hugh Schofield, "Global Role Offers Sarkozy Fresh Ammunition," BBC News, December 31, 2010.
[22] Terra Lawson-Remer, "Does the G20 Matter?"
[23] Establishing purpose-driven criteria is not a new concept, but is modeled, in part, after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) framework for establishing accession criteria in 2004. As the chair of the OECD Heads of Delegation Working Group on the Enlargement Strategy and Outreach wrote regarding the selection of OECD membership criteria: "With a view to establishing a strategy on future membership and a new accession process, the Working Group took as a starting point a sequential, deductive approach involving the following tasks: first, to identify the Organisation's role and responsibilities as well as the functional processes which support them; then, to consider what sort of membership requirements are desirable for the OECD to fulfil such a role in the new world context; and finally, to determine what criteria and yardsticks can best approximate these requirements and thus guide the selection of eligible countries." (OECD, A Strategy for Enlargement and Outreach, May 13, 2004, available at www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/15/37434513.pdf.)
[24] In addition, establishing membership criteria would bring focus to the G20's overarching purpose and could have the secondary benefit of checking the group's agenda before it interferes with other international institutions.
[25] G20, "The Origins and Evolution of the G20."
[26] Patrick Eagan-Van Meter, "Strategic Significance: A Model of G-20 Membership," CMC Senior Theses, Paper 104 (Spring 2011), available at http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/104.
[27] G20, "Declaration of the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy," G20 Information Center, November 15, 2008, available at www.g20.utoronto.ca/2008/2008declaration1115.html.
[28] World Bank data are available through http://data.worldbank.org. Other data sources such as the OECD were considered, but OECD databases are limited to far fewer countries. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development database covers a broad number of countries but contains a more limited set of variables.
[29] Enrique Rueda-Sabater, Vijaya Ramachandran, and Robin Kraft, "A Fresh Look at Global Governance: Exploring Objective Criteria for Representation" (Center for Global Development Working Paper 160, Washington, DC, February 6, 2009), available at www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1421065.
[30] Governance Indicators and methodology are available at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.asp.
[31] IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department, "Integrating Stability Assessment under the Financial Sector Assessment Program into Article IV Surveillance: Background Material," August 27, 2010, available at www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2010/082710a.pdf.
[32] Data for all forty-three countries are available from the authors upon request.
[33] Those seven countries are (in order) Russia, Mexico, Chile, UAE, Israel, Thailand, and Egypt.
[34] The Economist, "Foreign Creditors Join the Pyre," January 3, 2002, available at www.economist.com/node/922606.
[35] Doug Palmer, "Obama Says to Suspend Trade Benefits for Argentina," Reuters, March 26, 2012.
[36] See, for example, "The Argentine Model," Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2012; and "Argentina's President Rejects Stepping into the Future," Washington Post, April 19, 2012.
[37] A Resolution Expressing the Sense of Congress That the Republic of Argentina's Membership in the G20 Should Be Conditioned on Its Adherence to International Norms of Economic Relations and Commitment to the Rule of Law, Senate Resolution 457, 112th Congress, 2d Session, May 10, 2012.
[38] See Stewart Patrick, The G20 and the United States: Opportunities for More Effective Multilateralism, 49. According to Patrick, "Argentina's inclusion seems particularly arbitrary, since it was included in the initial G20 finance group less on the basis of its global weight than on personal relations" (p. 20).
[39] Krystel Montpetit, Hermonie Xie, Robert Schuster, Sarah Ellis, Ava-Dayna Sefa, Andrey Shelepov, Mark Rakhmangulov, and Vitaly Nagornov, 2010 Seoul G20 Summit Final Compliance Report: 13 November 2010 to 19 October 2011, November 6, 2011, available at www.g20.utoronto.ca/compliance/2010seoul-final/index.html.
[40] OECD and International Labour Organization, "Leveraging Employment-Intensive Techniques in Infrastructure Investment," G20 Country Policy Briefs: Indonesia (September 2011), available at www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/27/48724123.pdf.
[41] Eric Bellman, "Indonesia Could Be the Next India . . . Unfortunately," Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2012.
[42] Maria Monica Wihardja, "Strengthening Indonesia's Links, Position, Contribution at the G20," Jakarta Post (Indonesia), April 25, 2012.


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MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - A new Louisiana-based reality show will premiere next month starring Former Governor Edwin Edwards and his wife, Trina.
The Bayou State has taken over reality television with hit shows like Duck Dynasty and Swamp People, and another series is being added to that list.
"The Governor's Wife" is scheduled to premiere on A&E on February 27, at 10 PM. The series will follow the couple through the daily life and focus on their interesting family dynamic.
Trina, 34, will show viewers the difficulties she faces as she transitions from prison pen-pal to wife of the 85 year old ex-governor.
Author of Edwards' Biography, Leo Honeycutt, is excited for the opportunity for the couple, but skeptical about their private lives airing for the world to see.
"Reality series don't always go well, especially when it comes to the reputation of the players," says Honeycutt, "so that's my only real concern about it. I'm concerned for him, I'm concerned for Trina, and I'm concerned for the state."


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July 1, 2006
Terrell County - - Remember the deadly accident Wednesday night that killed 3 people and sent a 6 year old boy to the hospital with serious injuries? Well, another car crash survivor and her neighbors are doing something to help the family.
Chrissy Katz was severly injured when a dump-truck hit her car last year. Today, her family and neighbors spent time creating care baskets for the survivors of Wednesday night's fatal crash and their families. They say it's the least they can do.
"Chrissy and I spent 6 months in Atlanta, 3 months in the hospital and we know what this family is going through and this is a sister, neice, and nephew of a good friend of ours and we just feel compelled to do something," says her mother Sara katz.
The neighborhood plans to make this a continuous project. So if you would like to donate items or money to the family, you can do so at Katz Floorcovering in Leesburg.
Feedback: firstname.lastname@example.com?subject=victimhelpsanother
P.O. Box 3130
Albany, GA 31706
(229) 446-1010
FCC Public File
(229) 446-4005
EEO Report
Closed Captioning


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BANANA PLUG ADAPTORS RING TERMINAL BANANA JACK Desco Charleswater Banana Plug Adaptors, Ring Terminal Banana Jack
Login Here to rate and review this product.
21-6960 - Reztore Topical Anti-static Surface and Mat Cleaner
Ideal for cleaning static dissipative mats, conductive mats, computer monitors, and keyboards.
MCM Cat 57, Page 1108
MCM Cat 56, Page 1006


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Prepare for EXtreme Battle! The EX Battle Stadium is a 2-Player boxed game with everything you need for endless fun with the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
Each player starts with a 60-card deck (Blaziken or Gardevoir), containing all the ingredients tochallenge and outwit the other at every turn! To shake things up a bit, players can expand their decks using one of four 10-card "sideboard" packs. Sideboards bring strategic deck-building and gameplay to a higher level. EX Battle Stadium is a perfect gift box - cool cards, fun gameplay, strategic deck-building, and more!


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28-01-2011 21:40
Hi, i am using Windows 7 x64 and newest Ovi Suite 126.96.36.1994.
I've been searching to find a thread with a similar problem and find none. So the problem is that i can't refresh my music library in Ovi Suite. There is just no such option. I am not gonna complain about his program showing pieces of music that i have deleted months ago, because that is something i can live with. This is just ridicolous.
I have an album that i have moved from a disk to disk and i can't copy it to a device because there is a yellow triangle with a (!) near songs and ovi claiming those files dont exist. They exist but this program just cannot update the directiories. How of an advanced option is that? Who are the people this program is designed for? This software is a joke. How can i refresh the library without changing my system files, formating the discs, buying a new phone and a new PC?
02-03-2011 14:08
I have the same problem. ovi suite freezes & crashes when trying to play any song and the librariy cannot be refreshed.
needless to say that transferring stuff to the n97 mini does not work either.
worthless software
03-03-2011 15:21
Same, totaly agree. But we have no choice!
12-03-2011 17:00
Ovi Suite is really an horrible software. I was unable to exclude files from the music library, and they was already deleted from the file system. I kept trying to delete but nothing happened!!!
I found where the Ovi Suite keeps the its music library database...
With the Ovi Suite closed, go to the folder (in Windows 7):
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Nokia\Nokia Data Store\DataBase
And rename the file MDataStore.db3 to MDataStore.old.
Open the Ovi Suite and now just adds yor music to the library. It will take some time but will be an updated library. (if you have any music you don't wanna in the library, move it to another folder before this procedure).
22-03-2011 10:31
Sweet This worked like a charm!
29-03-2012 23:16
Thanks mate, changed the extension of the .db3 file and problem sorted. Nokia suite is now building a whole new library. Great.
11-04-2012 14:15
So cool ..
It works perfectly but, does anyone know which is the real problem?
thanks a lot.


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The pachyderm visitation turned out to be good for business, after all.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2005 at 10:08 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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HOT TOPICS: Alcoholism Addiction AA Cocaine Heroin
MRI imaging
Video: Why "Just Say No" Just Won't Work
The head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse uses MRI scans to show how addiction changes our brains. MORE
The Fix's Week in Science: January 24, 2012
Brain imaging revealed two big firsts about addiction. But how "big" and "first" were they really? MORE


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Don't miss the exclusive Nine News special as we go behind the scenes and meet the vets saving species from extinction at Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo this Friday 20 December at 7.30pm for Victorian viewers.
Discover the amazing work of Zoo vets in action and get a rare insight into what goes on when the animals are sick or require special treatment from these highly-skilled animal doctors.
Around the rest of the country, tune in to Channel 9 at 1.00pm this Saturday 21 December.
Together we can improve animal care, reduce threatening processes and save endangered species.
The word 'hippopotamus' is Greek for 'river horse' and their closest relatives are whales and dolphins. You can help us fight extinction by adopting the hippopotamus.


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Sandra Moyer
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Voters' Picks: One Important Reason My Vote Goes to President ObamaThere are a myriad of reasons that, without a doubt, I will vote for President Obama's second term...but I am only going to discuss one reason. . My daughter.
Scrubbing Away the Dirt, Washing Around the FearsMediocrity became her arch enemy, and well done and half-assed became synonymous. Somehow she felt that if their household was organized and her desired level of perfection attained, the feelings of peace and accomplishment would overshadow her emotions.
The Afterburner AfternoonShe listened to the sound of the aircraft as they played amongst the clouds like seals in the waves. She wondered when the green tin can of Americana would come for her husband.
Organizing Your Military HomeWinter is in full swing! Rather than save your cleaning for spring, why not get some of it done now? Make some room for those holiday gifts, and decluttering will make the house much more bearable during those dark winter months. I promise!


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Everybody, treat yourself today and go over to Crimson and Cream Machine. The fanbase over there the most pessimistic I have ever seen, and that is after being here in 2010. The most positive comment I have seen so far is "It wasn't completely Landry's fault. Seriously, they hate the HC, the OC, the QB, the OL, the DL, the LBs. Here's a little sneak preview
"The offense is a rudderless ship and Landry is flat out incompetent. This all falls on Bob"
"I hate landry jones, I hate landry jones, I hate landry jones "clicks heels" is he out of the game…nope threw another interception"
"Landry Jones: I hoped you would go pro last year..not that I know why anybody would take him"
"God-awful playcalling…. jus pathetic"
I'm beginning to think this is OU's 2010. We should enjoy it and hope their recovery is not as quick as ours (Random but we really did make great hires and it couldn't have gone faster)


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We all seem to find it hard to comprehend why people somehow feel they don't know who they married. Weird, right? It depends on how you look at it. Sometimes we give more than we get and get a rude awakening halfway done the line, but obviously that's not what causes such problems. I get the feeling that somewhere, somehow we just seem to lose ourselves during the journey and get comfortable on the road that lost us in the first place. Maybe just to clarify what I am going on about lets deal with the basics.
In times of disagreement what do you do? Do you wait until you have calm down and then talk it over? Or maybe you brace the argument until you are all too frustrated to listen to the other shouting? Or better yet you just agree to disagree and leave it at that? In my case we talk about it sometimes while tempers are still flaring and when we realize its going nowhere we leave it until we have calmed down, but recently I have realized I am the only one who wants to talk about issues. It's as though I am the only one who wants to resolve things, and honestly its upsetting me, I mean shouldn't we both want to resolve the issues? Must I be the one to probe and push 'us' to resolutions? And at the end of the day, it seems as though I am the only one having to compromise which by the way annoys the life out of me. I have always believed this marriage thing is about giving and taking on both parties not just one, was I wrong? I guess I sometimes over believe, if there is such a thing.
Let's look at another aspect, teamwork. When you are tired dear I will happily do anything for you, then why is it so hard for you to do the same for me? Am I incapable of being tired? Obviously you don't know how my day has been because like you said it's just out of courtesy that you ask anyone about their day, it is not a survey to know about everything that happened to you on that day, so whether I am exhausted you won't know because you are not listening when I tell you about my day, right? My idea is; I know I ought to cook for you dear, I know that but is it impossible for you to cook for me? Must I always ask it of you? Not that it makes much of a difference because you say no! So if you won't cook for me why on earth should I cook for you? Why not come up with a policy: he who is hungry should find and make food? Because honestly it works fine for me. To be honest how do you get tired of doing nothing? Really, how is that even possible?
When you came up with the philosophy that no one should do what they don't want, you didn't take into consideration issues like compromise and circumstance. For example, I may not feel like making supper but I will make it because you spent the day at work, or using your theory, just because I don't feel like cooking, I shouldn't even if you are ill? That ideology basically works when you live alone as it only works in the instance where you have no one else whom you hold dear and thus you would have to be a hermit!
My conclusion, well you will never change until you read this or until something drastic happens like your thoughts happen to have a date with mine, which very well maybe catastrophic!
A Wife's Thoughts
We all seem to find it hard to comprehend why people somehow feel they don't know who they married. Weird, right? It depends on how you look at it. Sometimes we give more than we get and get a rude awakening halfway done the line, but obviously that's not what causes such problems. I get the feeling that somewhere, somehow we just seem to lose ourselves during the journey and get comfortable on the road that lost us in the first place. Maybe just to clarify what I am going on about lets deal with the basics.
Letter to my daddy
Dear Daddy
I woke up last night and saw you in the kitchen drinking juice with Mommy, but Mommy said I should go back to bed right now because you were tired and you couldn't talk. But you looked so different daddy with that huge beard, but I guess I was still sleepy. Why didn't you come to hug me daddy and tuck me in as always?
Mommy slept late and when I came to wake her up the door was locked. I cried and cried because you always said I could come in when I am scared. Mommy spoke through the door. I should stop crying because I would wake you up. She said I should go back to bed and she would send you in when I was quiet. I am sorry I fell asleep and didn't see you come in. When I woke again you were gone. Mommy said you only had one day and had to catch the flight back to fight the war.
I love it when you send me letters as you know I love to read, but Mommy said you were too busy to write. She said she gets very lonely at times and she misses you. I miss you too daddy. Mommy got a new hair cut yesterday. I asked her if you were coming and she looked sad. She said she just wanted to look pretty. She wanted to feel good, just for herself.
Mommy said I could sleep over at Nala's house. She said she would pick me up but I got tired of waiting and decided to walk home. I know where Mommy hides the key so I let myself in. Daddy, I could see that you had come back because I saw your boots in the lounge. I put them on and stomped around. I wanted to kick all those bad men who want to fight you. Don't let them hurt you daddy, you know Mommy and I would miss you so much.
Mommy got angry when she saw me in your boots. She shouted at me when I told her I missed you so much, I just wanted to feel close to you. She said I had strange ideas. Do you think so Daddy?
Mommy threw the boots out and said men were all the same, they walked in and made a mess. I know you don't do that daddy because you always but your boots on the shoes rack.
Daddy I have to stop now. Mommy read my later and said you are going to be too sad when you read my letter. She said I should write and tell you all about school. I am going to throw this away and write a new one, or perhaps I will save this until you come. I miss you Daddy so if you come back when I am sleeping, could you wake me? Please?
I love you Daddy.
PS. Daddy, could you cut your beard? I prefer you without it, but, I will still love you if you don't. I don't want the enemy to recognise you.
Eight Minutes From Park Station
Trust hummed the tune to "My Redeemer Lives" as he turned the corner into Rissik Street. The unwieldy weight of his spruce-top acoustic guitar danced across his back with each step. Trust always played back each song on the playlist in his head and reminded himself of what chords he needed to play and the changes in the strumming pattern at each section of the song. By the time he got to the last song, which was usually after about twenty minutes, he would be at Commissioner Street, in the safer part of Johannesburg. It was a nerve-wrecking experience, every Saturday, having to walk down Rissik Street whilst trying not to show just how terrified he was. He was eight minutes away from Park Station and halfway through song number three, "Take it all" when five, maybe six, unkempt boys who looked older than they should, surrounded him.
A short one stood in front of him placing his face uncomfortably close to his."We don't want to talk shit with you, just give us the phone, Baba," he said.
Trust stuttered, "I, I don't have a… " He felt a sharp object press into his lower abdomen and complied. As the thugs fled in different directions, Trust took panicked breaths and, for the first time, smelled the stale alcohol from the short thug's breath, and something else. White spots appeared in his eyes, blocking more and more of what he should have been seeing. Then black ones, yellow ones and red ones. He felt faint, and felt himself fall to the ground as a capacious pain shot out from where the knife had poked him. "At least they didn't take my guitar," he thought, as he fell to the pavement in slow motion. He heard the hollow thump of his guitar hitting the pavement, and then he heard nothing.
My Dad, My Light
My father told me that when he was my age he wanted to be a painter, actually, not just a painter but an artist. However, after a short stint in Paris with more girlfriends than galleries he decided that he wasn't good enough to be an artist. There were other who were gifted, he was merely persistent and even on that count, not persistent enough since he abandoned paint and Paris and decided to light up the sky instead. Now I don't know exactly what he did, the word electrician was often thrown around, words like switch gear too. All I do know is that while my dad lived, he lit up the room, quite literally.
Una laps the pond water like a dog. Her eyes stare into the sharded reflection of her animal self. None to see her in the moonlight. It's her and the pondweed-and-frog smell of the night. She wonders how it is that all she ever feels, really feels, deep down, is utter confusion – a constant state of not being in touch, missing out on vital truths, seeing them in outline perhaps but never grasping them in her spacious moon-brain. The pitted moon – how far from the earth and closer to the sun, yet always one part in utter darkness.
She envies the clear conviction and certainty of people who live in her world. Why aren't they aware of the bendable, stretchable universe and the chaos. The limitations of her mind perplex her. Why can't she reach out and touch those shadows that circle around her like dancers.
The lights in the house glow orange and comforting. She watches, like an outsider, through the curtains into her home. Her children move in the lounge and the man stands clutching an oven-glove watching a fascinating moment on the little television across the room. She hears the hum of TV talk and human conversation. It's a very pretty sight – moving and comforting – yes.
To be a part of that and not – an interesting position.
She pushes her hands into the grass and slowly gets up. Brushes the pond-side bits and pieces off her cotton dress and slips sandals onto her feet, spits the hair out of her mouth, straightens her cardigan.
He steps onto the veranda and frowns into the darkness. "Una," he calls, "did you get the teddy bear?"
She'd forgotten about the child's bedtime comfort. She'd come out to look for it among the trees where the children had been playing. They both knew the drama that would ensue.
"No," she said.
"Well come in anyway. It's late and sooner or later he'll have to learn to do without the thing."
The limp thing smelt of her little son's adenoids and perspiration. It was almost hairless where he had rubbed it and held it night after night. There were patches covering the holes where stuffing had leaked out. It had a green waistcoat and its eyes were dulled with scratches. An object of love and security.
In that warm house there is never time to reflect, to talk to the quiet. Out here in the autumn darkness she feels less like the squeezed teddy bear.
"Una!" there is a note of impatience now.
"I'm coming…"
I'm coming into the warm world again, to be filled with business and cooking and you. I'm leaving behind my animal self, leaving it crouching in the long grass, gazing at the moon.
A thin string of smoke rises to the air on the mountain. Then another and another and another. People are settling in for the long night ahead as the sun says its red goodbyes over the peak. They're stupid. Letting them know exactly where they are. Making it easy for them. Like killing an ant. Around me, smarter people hide under the trees and next to the rocks as the long grass of the field keep guard. A small river breaks the field into two. It runs with a steady stream of water only interrupted by the occasional floating, rotting island. A year ago people would have cared. They would have tried to get them out, but know it just seems like a task that would waste energy and make too much noise. Rubble and remnants of structures that were once houses line both sides of the street that was once a home. Up closer to the mountain, I know, stand another, collapsed and empty. A creative mailbox would have proudly displayed its number as 831. 831 26th Avenue, Rietfontein, Pretoria. I can still remember my address. Useless, I guess, but it is like a memento of yesterday. Just a piece of it that can't be stolen or 'forced-extracted'.
"Why are you standing in the middle of the street," I hear a voice from behind me say, "Aren't we going in there?"
I look around to find her standing behind me, a frown settled on her brow and a look pointing past me to a bare, concrete structure. "Maybe it would be better to sleep in the field," I say, "Safer."
She doesn't even take time to think about it. Her brow frowns and her lips pull tight.
"Boetie!"she says, the word still as innocent in her mouth as ever, "You promised we wouldn't be sleeping in a field again. You know I hate the…"
"The rats and the spiders and the snakes," I finish for her, "And the crickets and the grass sticking to everything." I look to her with a grin.
"Well I do," she says and walk closer to me, "Please can we just sleep in there?"
I know we shouldn't. The field will hide us from troublemakers and FFE troupes. The structure won't. I listen for a familiar crackling sound, but none meets with my ears and I let a sigh escape from my lungs. She still stares at me with those big, blue eyes. The same ones my mother used against me to do the dishes.
"Fine," I finally give in, "but just because it's your birthday, Anne. Tomorrow we're sleeping in the field and you're cuddling the rats, Okay?" She laughs and pushes past me.
"Race you there!"
The structure is cold. A breeze runs around its corners and whistles at the next. No one else occupies the destroyed space and we walk towards a section that still has some of its roof intact. I set our bag down and point Anne towards the floor under the roof. A few tiles still managed to survive their cracked siblings. She does as I instruct and I decide to take a look around before settling in myself. Here and there something different peaks through the normal piles of rubble. A television, its screen broken, lies next to a shopping cart with only two of its wheels left. The television once would have shown his face declaring war against anyone that opposed him or he simply didn't like. It would have shown those first few months drenched in red and it would have shown the week that the bombs started destroying everything. I walk back to Anne where she sits rummaging through the bag. She looks up as I come closer.
"Where's the juice box I found?" she asks.
"I gave it to that kid remember," I say knowing she wouldn't. I didn't tell her.
"Not again," she moans, "You always give our stuff away."
"We have enough. Bread and water. Those kids don't even have brothers or sisters like we have. Right?" Her lips tighten again, but I don't let the frown climb back up her forehead. I tickle her and she falls on her back laughing.
"Shhh," I say lowering my voice, "We're making too much noise." I laugh at her and then help her upright. Then I reach into the bag and pull out two slices of bread and a bottle of water. We sit there, eating in silence as the moon takes over the shift from the sun.
"Boetie," she says after a few bites, "Do you think Mom and Dad would have been here if I didn't cry?"
I sigh. She always asks this and I always give her the same answer.
"Mom and Dad died protecting us. They wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
"I still remember her smell, you know?"
"I know. Me too," I breathe in the night air and she mimics me, "It's getting late. You better sleep. We're going over the mountain tomorrow."
She takes the last bit of bread into her mouth and lies her head down on the bag as she chews the last bits.
"Happy birthday, Anne."
That night as the moon kept rising and the air became colder my eyes shot open at the sound of a familiar crackling.
Docile Davey Delaney
"Davey, where did you get that?"
The man rubbed the wine stain profusely. His favourite shirt, completely ruined by overindulgence and assorted silliness. Muttering, he gave up. The stain would have to remain…
"My dad never locks his cabinet. Look at it, Martha…It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"David…your shirt's a mess." His wife was a neat freak. She had seven arms, no breasts and a monolith in her stomach. That's how he saw her. "Ja…Ja…It was a silly accident, Jennifer…Nothing to get pissed about," he hollered towards the kitchen. She never knew when to let something go. "Then you mess it up worse by trying to clean it. Why didn't you just leave it for me?" He bit down hard on his teeth. "One of these days…" She came into the room. "David, I'm talking to you…"
"Davey, be careful…Please…"
He loaded the red stained, rolled-up carpet in the back of his dirty bakkie. "Have to stop by the carwash first, then go to the supermarket, then I have to get rid of the carpet…Lastly, I have to pick up the girls, can't forget the girls…"
"Don't be such a baby…Nothing's gonna happen!"
He bought himself a tall strawberry-flavoured crushed ice and invoked brain freezes, whilst loading the cart with boxes of custard and yogurt cookies. He waltzed in the isles, attracting stares and sniggers masking secret admiration. Then he found what he was really looking for…He was a gap-tooth kid again, doing whatever he felt like with no fear of the consequences.
"Davey, you always get us into trouble…DAVEY, WATCH OUT!"
His favourite song, "Break my stride", served as the soundtrack for his journey. CD on loop… The clean bakkie stopped by the side of a road overlooking a steep embankment. He wrestled the heavy carpet from the vehicle with great difficulty. He ensured that the coast was clear, before rolling it over the edge. He stood there, staring entranced as the carpet rolled to the bottom where it joined an army of other lonely junk. He felt free at last, severed from useless responsibilities…
"Martha! Martha! Please, wake up now…Open your eyes, Martha!"
The two girls sprinted towards the bakkie, competitive to the last. "Ja, good one, my girls… Linda took it!!" He laughed uproariously. "But don't worry, Sandra…my little angel…you'll get another chance tomorrow…" The girls giggled in stereo. "Is mommy home yet?" He stared off into the distance, suddenly distracted. "No, Sandra…Mommy's not home yet…"
"Please Martha…Please don't leave me…" The blood dripped from the walls and pooled on the shaggy carpet, more blood than he had ever seen before…
They arrived home at last. The girls ran into the house. Davey stayed in the bakkie. He turned up the volume on his favourite song, "The king of wishful thinking"… CD on loop…The girls screamed…
"David…Dinner's ready… I made your favourite… Thanks for buying them those dolls; they've been nagging for weeks… " Jennifer kissed him tenderly. "Ja, I found those dollies on special this morning. There were just two left, how lucky was that, babe?" She smiled. "Very lucky, Davey…" "Ja, I bought the dollies home and put them on their beds. You know, to surprise them…" She ran her hand through his gruff hair. "I'll be there just now, babe." His wife was his loving inspiration. She had auburn locks, flawless skin, timeless curves and a new future in her stomach. That's how he saw her. He had fallen asleep in the dirty bakkie. He gathered himself, shaking cobwebs loose. "Count your daily blessings, Davey…" This refrain looped in his head, as he went inside…
Criminal manifesto (0.05g)
My swollen tongue mangled the explanation. His flashlight was brighter than the sun.
"Don't you think I should drive?", she pleaded. He blocked innocent logic from entering his mind. The party ran rampant through his system, poisoning the blood all over again. "No Sherry, I'm fine…"
I was on my way to a late night braai. Due to religious and personal reasons, I never drink, except on Saturdays. By the time I was ready to leave, that spark had already clicked in my body. It was urging me on. It's like I was floating on millions of beer bubbles.
"I don't think we should come to these parties anymore, Adrian." She was stone-cold sober. The five months without a drink had flown by. "We need to get away from that crowd." His jumbled understanding rearranged her meaning into a meaning of his own. "So, my friends aren't good enough anymore?"
The long drive to Ian's house gets me every time. I'm usually alone, with only the radio DJ's for company. Just 33km to go. Lucky for my mate that he's so masterful at braaing a tjop.
"I'm not in the mood for another argument." Her head rested wistfully against the window. Street lights were flitting overhead in fast-forward. "I'm young. I want to have fun. I want to enjoy myself before…" She became fierce in an instant. "Before what, Adrian?"
"Good evening, Sir. I have stopped you because you were driving in an erratic and potentially dangerous manner. Can I see your license?" He seemed bored. "You smell like you've been having a good time, nè?" A fleeting memory flashed through the dronkenskap, reminding me that the licence was still on my kitchen counter. "Eish officer… I forgot my licence at home. I'm so sorry." He looked at me, perplexed. "Come again. I didn't understand you. What's wrong?" Ja, how could I forget? I accidently bit my tongue a few kilometres back. Pothole or something… Somehow, the thing was now swollen enough to hamper speech. I took my Blackberry and typed a note of apology instead. Also, I added an offer for financial aid at the bottom of the message. "Is R200 ok?" The officer scanned the phone, his flashlight still searing my brain. He nodded. Maybe I was offering too much, but I'm new to this kind of thing. There's no information pamphlet on how to conduct bribery. Everyone else does it, so I figured I'd give it a try. I fumbled in my purse and took out the loot. I didn't wait around for a receipt.
The silence engulfed them. His blood was boiling. He turned up the audio to try and defeat the silence. Sherry didn't retreat from his taunting. She turned the volume down again, as their hands started tussling childishly for control. All eyes averted, while his brain floated in a pungent, ethanol soup. She looked up. Her pupils constricted.
My eyes were trying to readjust, to focus on the blurry street light. I felt beer draining from my mouth, nose and ears. What a waste… My tarmac bed was uncomfortable. I tried to move, but couldn't. I can sleep here, but I'd rather crash on Ian's couch. My mouth was watering for that lamb tjop.
The medics lifted him gently onto the stretcher. His neck secured, his body was now possessed of a brand-new immobility. His bloodshot eyes remained open. As they loaded him onto the ambulance, fire fighters were still battling to put out the inferno.
The flames danced with reckless abandon, embracing the charred remains of three people and two unrecognisable vehicles. The ambulance started up and drove away from the catastrophe, taking him further away from his old life. The hypnotic sirens signalled a new beginning. "You got thrown clear of the accident, Mr Lazarus. You are very lucky."
I saw his lips moving. Then I fell asleep.
Sons of the invisible
"He is safe with us…" She stood there, anchored to earth by two concrete pillars of skin and blood. This hollow assurance meant nothing.
"Please, do like all the others have and just leave." It took her decision mere seconds to become fully fledged, stripped of all doubt. "Give my boy back to me, right now! I'm not going anywhere!"
The haze of her tears obscured his response. The barrel arose, pointing up at her face. His mind fixated on one thought. "MY mother couldn't get ME back…" This magnificent boy with his toy gun; and then his gun spoke…
The Whisperer
She had an affinity for the pronunciation of names. No matter the language or dialect, her tongue snapped around its intricacies and held fast, until names blossomed from her lips like butterflies escaping their cocoons. There was the croak of a sleepy frog in her susurrant "Mbembe", the crack of a breaking bough in "Cormac".
It was only her own name that flapped from her lips and fell, flaccid, to the floor. She did not speak it often in the village. She spoke her name so seldom that it was forgotten after some years.
She fashioned a new one through hints and nudges, never uttering it until its being was roughly fashioned through the tongues of others. They struggled, lips clawing over syllables, chipping them jaggedly until at once the name took off, exploded into the air like a spout of water. She caught it, and in her mouth the malleable sounds were softly smoothed into a gentle stream, a rush of water over cobbled stones.
She was The Whisperer.