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Cobalt Software Engineer Interview Questions
Interview Experience
Interview Experience
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Getting an Interview
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8 Candidate Interview Reviews Back to all InterviewsSort: Popular Date Difficulty
Software Engineer Interview
Phone call, then on site interview
Interview Questions
- None were too difficult Answer Question
Other Interview Reviews for Cobalt
Helpful (1)
Software Engineer InterviewAccepted OfferPositive ExperienceAverage Interview
I applied through college or university. The process took 6+ weeks – interviewed at Cobalt (Seattle, WA) in November 2013.
I met some Cobalt employees at a College Career Fair, then I believe I had a brief (30mins or 1hr) interview with them on campus and was invited on-site for technical interviews. At the career fair, one would typically drop off their resume and hope to hear back, however they liked mine so much I scheduled my on campus interview right there. Between the initial interview and the technical interviews the recruiter was constantly in touch with me. I had two technical interviews on-site, each an hour long and each with two software engineers.
The interview process was typical, so if you're preparing for other technical interviews then you probably won't need to go out of your way to prepare for Cobalt's interviews. The hiring process however, was a bit frustrating. The pre-employment drug screening and background check seemed excessive compared to other software companies in the same geographic market, however now that I've started work, I'm very happy to be here.
Interview Questions
- Typical software engineering interview questions. If you paid attention in school and prepare for the interviews by practicing coding questions online, you will be fine. Answer Question
The application asked what my desired salary was, so I listed it and when I was offered the job, the base salary was exactly what I'd asked for. I was happy with the amount so did not attempt to negotiate.
Software Engineer InterviewAccepted OfferNeutral ExperienceAverage Interview
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4+ weeks – interviewed at Cobalt (Seattle, WA) in January 2013.
Was contacted by a recruiter. Two phone interviews prior to on-site. Phone interviews were about background, motivation, coding skills (coding exercise) and design. No algorithm questions. On-site was mainly on design, coding, background. Pretty positive overall. However the offer was not appealing but overall comp @Cobalt is low. Take it or leave it type of deal.
Interview Questions
- An offer that is lower than in the other companies. Answer Question
Difficult to negotiate. Felt like take it or leave it type of deal. Advice would be to be persistent in negotiating.
Helpful (1)
Software Engineer InterviewNo OfferNeutral ExperienceAverage Interview
The process took 1+ week – interviewed at Cobalt (Seattle, WA) in October 2010.
It consisted of
30 min Phone screen
1 hr assessment test after the phone screen
3 hrs of on-site interviews with 7 people in total
They took 3days to get back on the phone screen and 2 days after the onsite interview.
The onsite interview conssisted of coding on whiteboard, java/ sql questions and also UI. Also, behavioral questions. They have part of the dev team in india and want someone who will be able to work with the offshore team.
Some of coding questions
Reverse a string
Reverse a words in the string
Interview Questions
- Write an API method to reverse a string Answer Question
Software Engineer InterviewAccepted OfferPositive ExperienceDifficult Interview
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 days – interviewed at Cobalt (Seattle, WA) in September 2010.
Initial phone screen was about :30. I was invited for an on-site interview later that week. I then had 2 separate 2 hour sessions. Each session was with a set of 2 UI developers, who asked a load of questions about HTML/CSS/JS and had me work some problems out on the whiteboard. Had lunch with senior managers which focused on experience, direction, etc.
Interview Questions
- I was asked to create a simple API using OOP Javascript, and then we extended it out to add functionality and options without changing the initial API. Answer Question
Simple ... the initial offer was actually more than I'd expected, so it was an easy accept on my end.
Software Engineer InterviewNo OfferNegative ExperienceEasy Interview
I applied online. The process took 1 day – interviewed at Cobalt (Seattle, WA) in March 2010.
Its HR called me first for very basic info, then inviting me for a person2person interview. each of 2 team leaders spent less than 30 minutes asking narrow focused and trivial questions, and gave out the impression that they were hiring a lot and with a broad spectrum of various jobs. In short, almost sounds too good to be true. Then never heard back from them again.
Interview Questions
- How do you do boxing on webpage Answer Question
Software Engineer InterviewAccepted OfferPositive ExperienceEasy Interview
The process took 1 day – interviewed at Cobalt (Hilliard, OH) in December 2008.
easy interview process, no hard technical questions
Interview Questions
- how would you debug an issue with the application? Answer Question
offer was slightly negotiable
Software Engineer InterviewAccepted Offer
HTML and CSS questions. W3c box model explanation, advanced css selectors. Javascript development questions concerning jquery animations, data structures, function scope, closures. Scrum methodology questions, development tools.
Interview Questions
- The most difficult situation in your life Answer Question
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"Ramchargers" 1970 Hemi Challenger. Their only Pro-Stocker. Guaranteed authentic. Roller project that needs drivetrain and cosmetic restoration. Not rusted, wrecked or missing a bunch... More
1961 Abarth Abarth Allemano 850 S Coupe, new upholstery, 998 cc fiat engine rebuilt new all Abarth racing parts new Brakes, the car needs... More
1966 Aston Martin DB6, This Aston Martin DB 6 / REBODY as project DP214 Only two cars exist after 1963 race a Le Mans, this... More
1957 FIAT ABARTH 750 ZAGATO DOUBLE BUBBLE, ORIGINAL ENGINE, NO RUST.... More
The 1957 Ferret prototype built by Peter Dawson was his first( 001) Ferret front engine siata engine prototype. The car has an alluminum front and rear tilt... More
1969 Aston Martin DBS '69 Aston Martin DBS Coupe, right hand drive in old English white with navy blue interior and equipped with an automatic... More
1962 Jaguar XKE Flat Floor Roadster '62 Jaguar XKE Roadster, very rare flat floor shown here in red with black interior. Equipped with a 4... More
Rolls Royce 1932 Phantom II Continental Thrupp & Maberly Sports Saloon Series N2 Chassis: 132MS Engine: UQ 65 132MS was acquired by Sam Rawlins... More
For sale is a 1953 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible -Excellent original Arizona car -Clean Arizona title -Car is complete and rust-free -Restoration is approximately 75% complete -Body work is... More
1925 Packard "Bus" Eight. A local church purchased 3 Packard's and then customized them into Preaching vehicles for the church. They took church officials... More
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subset: commoncrawl


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Air Force Secretary Michael Donley will step down in June after nearly five years on the job, the Air Force announced Friday.
"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve with our Air Force's great Airmen," Donley said in a statement. "Their accomplishments have been nothing short of impressive, and I'm humbled to be a part of this team. The Air Force has been a way of life for so much of my career, I know it will be bittersweet to say farewell."
The Air Force said Donley's last day with the service will be June 21.
Before being confirmed as the service's top civilian in October 2008, Donley had served as the acting secretary since June of that year. Coupled with a seven-month stint as acting secretary in 1993, that makes Donley the longest serving secretary in the service's history, according to the Air Force.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Donley an "unwavering champion" for service members and their families.
"His leadership came during a challenging time for the Air Force, and he helped instill a culture of responsibility, initiative, and professionalism to the service," Hagel said in a statement. "The Air Force he leaves behind is more resilient and more respected because of his leadership and personal dedication."
As budget reductions have roiled the Defense Department in recent years, Donley oversaw large-scale reductions in the size of the Air Force's civilian workforce through buyouts, early retirements and reductions-in-force.
Donley has not yet announced his plans for the future.
Air Force's sequestration hit would mean less of everything
Air Force marks 4,500 more civilian jobs for elimination
Air Force to offer 3rd round of buyouts, early retirements
How the US Mint and NIST are perfecting the money-making process.


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- Created 8/25/13 by ChefMannyDLM
OK, so what is a garnish? What does that mean? Quite simply, a garnish is just something that makes food look better and gives a little pop. Most people think that garnishing food is only reserved for restaurants or the Martha Stewart types out there. I am here to let you in on a little secret. Garnishes don't have to be elaborate or hard. Even the simplest little touches can add a world of eye appeal to a dish or plate. The basics of garnishing can be broken down into a few guidelines. First of all, your biggest allies are color and contrast. Food is beautiful.... read more


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24/9 L'Hora del Jazz Festival
This September, the 24th edition of L'Hora del Jazz – Memorial Tete Montoliu festival takes place in Barcelona, organized by the Associació de Músics de Jazz i Música Moderna de Catalunya (AMJM-Jazz Musicians and Modern Catalan Music Association). Once a year, the festival showcases the best of Catalunya's jazz talent. As every year, most of the concerts take place at Pl. de la Vila de Gràcia, in Gràcia district of Barcelona, where the festival was born.
12/9 La Mercè 2014 plays music to take all sorts
Every year Barcelona closes the summer at the end of September with its local holiday, La Mercè. Those looking for a town where boredom does not exist, the big Barcelona's Festivity La Mercè offers a wide range of activities, concerts, performances and lots of festive and cultural events, most of which are in the street and completely free. Hotel Omm selects the best music plans that we think you must not miss from 19 to 24th of September.
22/8 The OBC, at La Mercè festival
The Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (Barcelona and Catalonia National Symphony Orchestra – OBC) will participate in the Festival of Barcelona, La Mercè, with a concert where the most popular classical music repertoire will be played. The show will take place on September 22nd and 23rd at Avinguda de la Catedral, one of the most emblematic places in Barcelona's Gothic Neighbourhood.
25/7 Jamboree Duet fusions jazz with other music styles
This week, and until 27 July, the Jamboree Duets music sessions take place in Jamboree club, as part of Barcelona Grec Festival 2014. Concerts mix jazz with several music genres thanks to two artists, each one with his own style. Despite that, they try to find a common musical territory.
18/7 Bobby McFerrin in Barcelona
Bobby McFerrin, one of the greats jazz artist, arrives to Barcelona to act in a concert next Monday, July 21, thanks to Grec Festival of Barcelona. The songwriter of 'Don't worry, be happy' will review the American gospel singers, accompanied by SpiritYouAll Band.
14/7 Bachcelona 2014
The second edition of the International Festival of Barcelona is back, with a cast of performers from all over Europe who come to Barcelona to share the music of this German master. From the Hotel Omm, we encourage you to approach 20 to July 27 to enjoy this luxury in places like the Cathedral and the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.


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Weddings and Engagements
News about Weddings and Engagements, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
Chronology of Coverage
Jun. 28, 2015
The Upshot; many newly married women are choosing to keep their maiden name because of practicality in an era of social media, and not necessarily to make a feminist statement. MORE
Jun. 21, 2015
More people are turning to ghostwriters to help them prepare for speeches for social and family situations, such as weddings, anniversaries and even funerals. MORE
Jun. 21, 2015
Many couples opt to donate to charity instead of giving favors to wedding guests. MORE
Jun. 14, 2015
Accumulated expenses for friends and family of brides and grooms, including costs of bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridal showers and wedding itself, are steadily increasing as celebrations become more numerous and elaborate; some psychologists blame growing sense of entitlement and importance placed on milestone celebrations. MORE
May. 24, 2015
Many South Asian-American men are struggling to balance traditional expectations for finding a bride through family matchmaking with modern Western ideals of marrying for love. MORE
May. 17, 2015
Many people who are marrying for second time feel more at liberty to create authentic ceremony that expresses their true selves than in first ceremony dominated by expectation and tradition. MORE
May. 10, 2015
Some mothers with terminal illnesses are opting to shop for wedding dresses with their unengaged daughters in order to complete a hoped-for family ritual while they are still around to enjoy it. MORE
May. 3, 2015
Increasing number of couples are incorporating athletic activities, from running races to hikes to calisthenics, into their wedding festivities. MORE
May. 1, 2015
Author Adam Ross describes how a camping trip with his fiance one week before their wedding went awry; reflects that dangers they faced in the woods helped prepare him for challenges of marriage. MORE
Apr. 19, 2015
Afghan Parliament passes bill to cap number of wedding guests at 500 people; measure reflects wedding-crashing problem that can burden young men with years of debt after hundreds arrive at their receptions uninvited; local culture obligates men to feed all who arrive. MORE
Apr. 19, 2015
Wedding dress designers and others in fashion world are experimenting with clothing and accessories created on 3-D printers, which allows for ultimate customization. MORE
Apr. 12, 2015
Wedding planners say couples with large budgets often ask for extravagant details like elephants, Ferris wheels, fire boats and more. MORE
Apr. 3, 2015
Suggestions for four memorable weekend bachelor party getaways noted. MORE
Mar. 29, 2015
Growing number of couples are enrolling in premarital counseling in order to deal with relationship issues before marriage. MORE
Mar. 15, 2015
Couples looking for wedding venues like cultural institutions, museums, urban warehouse spaces or resorts, farms and vineyards that are easily accessible from major cities often need to book them 18 months to two years ahead. MORE
Mar. 1, 2015
Marrying someone who is a product of a multiple birth can be complicated; oftentimes it demands special sensitivity to family dynamics and tolerance for siblings' special bond. MORE
Feb. 25, 2015
Jim Dwyer About New York column recounts story of Mandy Hicks and Andy Partridge, tourists from North Yorkshire, England, who got engaged while watching bald eagles on Hudson River. MORE
Feb. 24, 2015
Growing number of luxury hotels and resorts are expanding and renovating to host more profitable supersize destination weddings; Knot reports average bride who married in 2013 and spent more than $60,000 on her wedding had 201 guests, up from 196 year earlier; typical wedding in 2013 averaged 138 guests. MORE
Feb. 22, 2015
Suggested wedding registry items for outdoorsy couples who enjoy cold weather sports like skiing. MORE
Feb. 13, 2015
Computer scientists study Twitter to try to understand how people change their use of social media as they make major life changes, like getting engaged or divorced. MORE
Jan. 11, 2015
Many budget-minded brides are choosing to rent or sell already-purchased wedding gowns. MORE
Jan. 4, 2015
Weddings can be fun for adults and children alike, as long as couples plan ahead; wedding planners can help with babysitting services, children's entertainers and child-specific food vendors to ensure children are entertained. MORE
Dec. 21, 2014
Couples reflect on their unconventional, but romantic, marriage proposals. MORE
Dec. 21, 2014
Many digit-conscious couples chose to wed on Dec 13, 2014, or, 12/13/14. MORE
Dec. 14, 2014
Article looks back at celebrity weddings of 2014 that captured the world's attention. MORE
Dec. 7, 2014
Digital technology has changed the business of wedding photography; tips to help avoid variety of issues that could arise are noted. MORE
Nov. 30, 2014
Character Study column profiles Vlad Leto, graduate student at School of Visual Arts who says photographing marriage proposals helps him pay for college. MORE
Nov. 23, 2014
Many women, influenced by depictions of romance in popular culture, fantasize about big fairy-tale weddings even if their focus is their career and they are not engaged or even in a relationship. MORE
Oct. 26, 2014
Hell's Kitchen bar Flaming Saddles hosts its first patron wedding for Robert A Beattey Jr and Thomas E Corcoran IV. MORE
Oct. 5, 2014
One family's huppah, or Jewish wedding canopy, has been crisscrossing the United States for 10 years; most recently it was used in Stow, Mass, when Aliza Becker married Ryan Scott Martin in August 2014. MORE
Sep. 28, 2014
Neighborhood Joint column on The Wedding Dresser, bridal atelier that Susan Ruddie runs out of her Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, home; Ruddie, former Broadway costume designer, has found niche in altering off-the-rack and vintage bridal gowns. MORE
Sep. 28, 2014
Many couples see potluck wedding receptions as way to not only save money, but also to bring family and friends closer together. MORE
Sep. 15, 2014
Pope Francis marries 20 couples from the Diocese of Rome, several of whom had already lived together or borne children, counter to traditional Catholic values; selection of couples for ceremony reflects increasingly secular Italian society and signals Francis' pragmatic acceptance of changed world. MORE
Sep. 14, 2014
Many brides choose to wear a family wedding gown, or even part of it, on their wedding day. MORE
Sep. 7, 2014
Anjali Vaidya Lives essay describes rediscovering India and its traditions by marrying her Bengali husband; her parents had left the country more than forty years ago. MORE
Sep. 7, 2014
Many couples are hiring top club disc jockeys to play at their weddings in hopes of creating a club-like vibe. MORE
Aug. 31, 2014
Fashion conscious NBA star Dwyane Wade happily took the lead when planning his 2013 wedding to actress Gabrielle Union. MORE
Aug. 24, 2014
More grooms are choosing to wear a white dinner jacket for their wedding, rather than a traditional black tuxedo. MORE
Aug. 4, 2014
Boom in barn weddings in rural areas across the country is pitting owners who say they need the revenue against neighbors who worry about noisy intrusions on rural life; grooms and brides say barns are part of cultural shift away from traditional weddings; some small towns with ambiguous zoning laws have been forced to examine their regulations to figure out whether renting barns for weddings is legal. MORE
Aug. 3, 2014
Wedding photographers are latest to get on board with idea of using drones, as they employ them to capture unique views of couple's special day, but legality of such practices is still to be determined. MORE
Jul. 31, 2014
Nick Bilton Disruptions column notes that some brides and grooms are embracing the digital age by creating hashtags for their events, while others prefer to keep things more simple. MORE
Jul. 27, 2014
Wedding planners in Colorado and Washington State, where recreational use of cannabis is legal, are incorporating marijuana in everything from bouquets to decorations to favors. MORE
Jul. 20, 2014
Numerous songwriters and musical groups offer to write music specifically for a couple's nuptials, making the experience even more meaningful. MORE
Jul. 14, 2014
Donetsk Journal; wedding of pro-Russian rebel leader Arsen Pavlov and Elena Kolenkina is broadcast live on Russian television from Donetsk, Ukraine; following night is declared singles night, with invitations to women to come to meet bachelor rebels; wedding is billed as first in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. MORE
Jul. 13, 2014
More couples are adding wedding insurance to their budget, and while most couples will never use it, disasters do happen. MORE
Jun. 29, 2014
Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London traces the evolution of the classic wedding gown; one eye-popping gown on display is the dramatic deep-purple gown designed by Vivienne Westwood for the 2005 wedding of burlesque artist Dita Von Teese and singer Marilyn Manson. MORE
Jun. 23, 2014
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has revived tradition that all but lapsed under Michael R Bloomberg, officiating at wedding ceremonies at City Hall; in an interview, de Blasio says he believes in the institution and is struck by how meaningful the experience of marrying others has become for him. MORE
Jun. 15, 2014
Endless array of consultants are available to the lovelorn to help them find love, plan their wedding and beyond. MORE
Jun. 13, 2014
Jason Stevens, owner of restaurant and event space reBar, pleads guilty to charges of tax fraud in Brooklyn courtroom; Stevens had failed to pay more than $1 million in sales taxes; half-dozen women who had reserved the space for their weddings jeer at Stevens as he arrives at court. MORE
Jun. 12, 2014
Alexandra Jacobs reviews Stone Fox Bride, non-traditional wedding-wear shop in Manhattan popular with millennial set. MORE
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States Weigh Gay Marriage, Rights and Cake
With same-sex marriage now legal everywhere nationally, a case involving a Colorado baker is being closely watched as a test of the boundary between personal religious objections and legal discrimination.
July 8, 2015, Wednesday
MORE ON WEDDINGS AND ENGAGEMENTS AND: Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships , Bakeries and Baked Products , Weddings and Engagements , Freedom of Religion , Colorado , Phillips, Jack (1956- )
At Federal Bridal Show, Things Old, New, Seized and Blue
An event in Atlanta was part of an effort to find buyers for a 3,000-piece wedding collection, taken from an Alaskan drug dealer.
July 8, 2015, Wednesday
MORE ON WEDDINGS AND ENGAGEMENTS AND: Auctions , Federal Bureau of Investigation , Juneau (Alaska) , Weddings and Engagements
Vanessa Williams Weds Jim Skrip, Her Third Marriage
Vanessa Williams, the actress and former Miss America contestant, was married July 4 to Jim Skrip, who became her third husband.
July 6, 2015, Monday
John Traier, Mark Peterson
The couple met in 1987. Mr. Traier is a Republican candidate for the New Jersey General Assembly; Mr. Peterson works for the Turnpike Authority.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
Amanda Lynn Hernández, Sebastián Pérez
The couple met at Yale, where she is now a medical student and he is pursuing a doctorate in American Studies.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
Rita DeCaria, Andrew Zasowski
The bride works in New York for Linklaters, an international law firm, and the groom is a deals manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
Andrea Bernstein and Lizabeth Schalet
Ms. Bernstein is a senior editor at WNYC radio; Ms. Schalet is an employment lawyer.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
Jennifer Beck and Brian Goldblatt: He Can Stand the Heat in the Kitchen
Jennifer Beck did not know the man she would eventually fall for, but she knew precisely what sort of engagement ring she wanted, and no other ring would do.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
MORE ON WEDDINGS AND ENGAGEMENTS AND: Weddings and Engagements , Hudson River Valley (NY) , Brooklyn (NYC)
Kathryn Rice, Evan Weber
The bride and groom were married at the Lacuna Artist Lofts in Chicago.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
Sonya Pal and Gunjan Sharma
The bride and groom were married Friday at Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch, N.J. They are both lawyers.
July 5, 2015, Sunday
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Give Now
Scientists have found new evidence that bottlenose dolphins may address each other by name.
A unique cat-sized mammal has been discovered by scientists in the mountains of Tanzania. It's quite the strange little critter.
Yes, kids under eleven have been known to regenerate fingertips. Learn more on this Moment of Science.
First, it reduces ice formation within the mosquito's cells, so that water hardens like glass but doesn't form ice crystals that can then damage the cells.
Find out how naked mole rats are like insects on this Moment of Science.


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Posts Tagged 'Foreign policy/affairs'
Something to do in Wellington.
Posted on 11:50, May 8th, 2014 by Pablo
On May 20, 2014 from 6PM-7:30PM Diplosphere is hosting a panel discussion titled "Drone Strikes: Are They in New Zealand's Interest?" The event will be hosted by Dr. Kennedy Graham MP-Green Party and will take place at the Theatrette, Parliament Buildings, Wellington. The hosts ask that people register for the event, which they can do by contacting Maty Nikkhou-O'Brien at the following email address: email@example.com
The panel Chair is Dr. Roderick Alley of Victoria University, who has just published a thorough examination of drone warfare. The panelists are Professor Richard Jackson of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, investigative journalist Nicky Hager and myself.
It should be an interesting discussion. I will try to place the emergence of drone warfare in context before debating its legality and utility.
Posted in foreign policy, Intelligence and Security, NZ foreign policy, NZ Security, Parliament, Terrorism, War | 59 Comments | Read More »
Foreign Policy after the Election.
Posted on 17:39, April 9th, 2014 by Pablo
Lost amid the distractions of royal visits, Mananet Party circus side-shows and assorted other peripheral issues has been the subject of NZ foreign policy after the September 2014 election. The topic is worth considering beyond the attention it has received so far. In this post I outline some (far from all) of the major areas of convergence and difference in the event a National-led or a Labour-Green coalition wins.
If National wins it will deepen its current two-pronged approach: it will continue with its trade obsession to the detriment of other foreign policy areas such as disarmament, non-proliferation and human rights, and it will strive to deepen its security ties with the US and its close allies, Australia in particular. The trade-for-trade's sake foreign policy approach will see National return to the bilateral negotiating tale with Russia regardless of what it does in Ukraine or other Russian buffer states, and will see it attempt to garner even a piecemeal or reduced TPP agreement in the face of what are growing obstacles to its ratification (especially US domestic political resistance that sees TPP as a drain on American jobs, but also sovereignty protection concerns in areas such as copyrights, patents and strategic industries in places like Chile, Japan and Singapore). NZ will continue to try and expand its trade relationships with Middle Eastern states in spite of their largely despotic nature, and it will continue to push commodity specialization, niche value-added manufacturing and education provision as areas of competitive advantage.
On a security dimension NZ will continue its return to front-tier, first line military ally status with the US and Australia, and will deepen its intelligence ties within the 5 Eyes signals intelligence network as well as with other pro- US partners and in the field of human intelligence. This will occur whether or not Edward Snowden reveals the full extent of NZ espionage on behalf of 5 Eyes in the months leading up to the election, but the government will find itself under scrutiny and hard pressed to defend the behaviour of the NZ intelligence community in that event. Closer military ties with the US brings with it the risk of involvement in American-led conflicts, but the National approach, as it is with the looming Snowden revelations, is to "wait and see" and deal with the issues as they arise (presumably in more than a crisis management way).
Truth is, under National NZ will become another US security minion. One has to wonder how the Chinese, Indians, Russians and assorted Middle Eastern trading partners feel about that, especially if it is revealed that NZ spies on them on behalf of 5 Eyes..
National will conduct its foreign policy unimpeded by its potential coalition partners. United Future and the Maori Party have zero interest in foreign affairs other than to reaffirm whatever status quo they are part of, and ACT, should it survive, is a National mini-me when it comes to the subject. Winston First will not rock the boat on foreign policy issues so long as a few baubles are thrown its way.
A Green-Labour government will have a slightly different approach, but not one that fundamentally rejects the basic premises of National's line. The Greens have already begun to soften their stance regarding TPP and trade relations, emphasising their interest in "fair" trade and after-entry protections and guarantees. Labour, which otherwise would have likely continued the thrust of National's trade strategy, will back away from some of the more foreign-friendly aspects of trade negotiations in order to mollify the Greens, and if Winston First is part of that coalition it may place some restrictions on foreign ownership and investment rights on NZ soil.
Along with the softening of single-minded trade zealotry, a Labour-Green government will attempt to reemphasize NZ's independent and autonomous diplomatic stance (which has now been fundamentally compromised by the nature of National's two-pronged approach). This will include attempting to rebuild its reputation and expertise in the fields hollowed out by National's razoring of the diplomatic corps, although it will be very hard to replace the lost expertise and experience in fields such as chemical and nuclear weapons control, multinational humanitarian aid provision and environmental protection. To do so will require money, training and recruitment, so the time lag and costs of getting back up to speed in those areas are considerable.
With regards to security, the Greens and Labour are in a dilemma. The Greens want to review the entire NZ intelligence community with an eye towards promoting greater oversight and transparency in its operations. That includes a possible repeal of the recently passed GCSB Act and, if some of its members are to be believed, a reconsideration of NZ participation in 5 Eyes. For all its opportunistic protestations about the Dotcom case and GCSB Act, Labour in unlikely to want to see major changes in NZ's espionage agencies or its relationship with its intelligence partners. It is therefore likely that Labour will agree (as it has said) to a review of the NZ intelligence community without committing itself to adopting any recommendations that may come out of that review. It may also agree to a compromise by which recommendations for greater intelligence agency oversight and accountability are accepted as necessary and overdue in light of recent revelations about the scope and extent of NZ domestic espionage as well as its foreign intelligence operations (all of which will become much more of a public issue if Snowden reveals heretofore denied or unexpected espionage by NZ intelligence agencies).
The same is true for NZ's burgeoning military alliance with the US. Labour will not want to entirely undo the re-established bilateral military-to-military relations, especially in the fields of humanitarian assistance, search and rescue and perhaps even de-mining, peace-keeping and peace-enforcement operations. The Greens, however, will object to continuing the bilateral military "deepening" project and will oppose NZDF participation in US-led wars (especially those of of choice rather than necessity). The Greens will push to further reduce military expenditures as percentage of GDP (which is currently around 1.1 percent) and will seek to restrict weapons purchases and upgrades as much as possible. That will put it as loggerheads with Labour, which will see the necessity of maintaining a small but effective fighting force for both regional as well as extra-regional deployments, something that in turn will require modernization of the force component as well as good working ties with military allies (which is maintained via joint exercises and cross-national training events).
What that means in practice is that the Greens will not be given ministerial portfolios connected to foreign affairs or security, although they will be assuaged by concessions granted by Labour in other policy areas, to include (however token or cosmetic) intelligence reform.
Minor parties that might be part of the coalition will have little influence on the Labour-Green foreign policy debate. Mana will bark the usual anti-imperialist line but will be ignored by Labour and the Green leadership. Winston First will extract a pound of flesh with regard to the influence of non-Western interests on the NZ economy and NZ's security commitments but otherwise will toe the Labour foreign policy line. The Maori Party will be irrelevant except where there is international diplomatic interest in indigenous affairs.
The vote on NZ's candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council will not be greatly influenced by the election (the UN vote occurs in October). NZ's chances have risen as of late in the measure that Turkey's has fallen thanks to the increasingly autocratic and erratic rule of the Erdogan government. Spain, the other rival for the "Europe and other" non-permanent UNSC seat (yes, NZ is not part of Oceania when it comes to such voting), has been tarnished by its economic woes, so NZ's relative economic and political stability have bolstered its chances by default. Even so, a Labour-Green government will likely be more appealing to the majority of the UN membership given National's obsequious genuflection to Great Powers on both trade and security.
In sum, foreign policy may be a non-issue in the run up to the elections but that does not mean that it does not matter. Party activists and the public at large would do well to contemplate which direction they would like to see NZ steer towards in its foreign relations, and what international role they envision it should properly play. Otherwise it becomes just another elite game uninformed by the wishes of the majority, which means that when it comes to engaging the world it will be exclusively elite logics that inform the way NZ does so.
NATO toasts Putin.
Posted on 12:18, March 27th, 2014 by Pablo
The end of the Cold War left NATO without its raison d'être. Its creation was predicated on the existence of an existential threat emanating from the USSR, one that would take the military shape of high intensity warfare: waves of armored columns crossing the central European plains backed by massive infantry formations covered by blanketing air cover and even tactical nuclear weapons. NATO was designed as a collective security arrangement whereby superior counter-force on the part of the US and its Northern Hemisphere allies served as a deterrent to Soviet aggression. That strategic orientation was at the heart of the Cold War.
With the Soviet Union gone, so was the need for that strategy. NATO first sought to incorporate, over Russian objections, former Warsaw Pact states into its embrace. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined first, followed by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and, most recently, Albania and Croatia. It shifted its focus towards multinational peace-keeping and peace-enforcement, irregular low-intensity conflict operations such as those in Kosovo in the late 1990s (the size, scope, pace, depth and range of weapons used in kinetic operations determine the relative intensity of combat). Later it cast its collective gaze further afield, involving itself in the International Security Assistance Force occupation of Afghanistan and the ouster of the Gaddafi regime in Libya.
The irony is that these strategic shifts did nothing to allay Russian concerns that NATO's primary focus remained on curtailing its ability to project force to its West and South, but in Western capitals the belief was that NATO needed to re-boot given the shifting geopolitical landscape and strategic priorities of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
None of the new NATO missions substituted for those designed to counter the threat posed by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, and with the exception of the US, this was reflected in diminishing defense budgets, numbers of uniformed personnel and overall military significance within policy-making circles in member states. However it tried to redefine its core mission, NATO was increasingly seen by elites and public alike as a security organization without a purpose. Many felt that it should be disbanded and replaced by more flexible military agreements that would eliminate the costs of maintaining a permanent NATO infrastructure in Brussels and annually contributing, both militarily and financially, to its operations. It was believed in some quarters that this could be done without significantly impacting on any nation's self-defense in what was seen as a largely benign European strategic environment where conflicts were more intra-rather than inter-state in nature.
It was for that reason that I penned this column as part of my late "Word from Afar" series as Scoop.
Now, thanks to the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, that has changed. In the eyes of its champions, NATO is once again confronted by hostile Russians on its Eastern flanks. Not surprisingly, US and European military-security officials, especially but not exclusively in places like Poland, have been quick to raise the specter of Russian imperialism in the former Eastern European bloc, calling for a revitalization of NATO's original primary and core concern: containing the Bear.
The justification for NATO revitalization is based on the belief that Putin will not stop in Crimea or even the Eastern Ukraine, but has intentions to at the very least "Finlandize" a number of former Soviet Republics on Russia's border that he feels have gotten too politically close to the EU and their Western neighbors. Given that the uprising in Ukraine was seen as a vote in favor of closer ties with the EU, the Russian response in Crimea is taken as indicative of its approach towards other "pro-EU" governments in its near abroad.
Just as Putin was able to capitalize on Russian nationalism as a generator of support for the invasion of Crimea, so too can conservative politicians in many European states use his actions as a catalyst for nationalistic appeals. Fear of the Bear is widespread and often visceral in many parts of Europe, especially those that suffered under Soviet occupation or at the hands of Soviet troops during the Great War. They and their descendants provide receptive audiences for anti-Russian appeals made on both politically opportunistic as well as principled grounds.
This is music to the ears of European defense bureaucrats, even if the US is not quite as capable of shouldering the burden of their collective defense in the measure that it once used to. For European security elites, the good ole days of robust defense spending, new weapons acquisitions, force expansion and significant military say in national policy making are now set to replace the politics of austerity and neglect that characterized the post Cold War period. Security decision-makers will make the argument that resurgent Russia is as much a threat today as it was back during the Cold War, even if its reach is now more regional than global in scope and its power is derived as much from its energy exports as it is from its military capabilities. Their argument will dove-tail nicely with those of anti-Russian nationalists, so the die is set for another re-casting of NATO's mould.
Of course, while NATO went through contortions of re-defining itself after the Cold War, Russian strategists continued to focus primarily on defending their land borders and promoting Russian influence in neighboring states so as to provide a buffer to would-be aggressors, particularly from the West. For the Russians the "liberation" of Crimea is just a natural and justified reaction to the steady erosion of Russian influence in regions in which it has core historical, cultural and political interests. It is this "natural" reaction that has prompted the calls for NATO's strategic re-orientation, which in turn means that the two strategic visions have once again been counterpoised.
This will be welcomed by Russian military and NATO officials because it marks the return to the common logics of collective defense that justify their positions and the arguments for counter-force deterrence that bound them together in opposition during the Cold War. However, for the citizens affected by a return to Cold War logics the prospects may not be so rosy.
Whatever the case, there are bound to be more than a few NATO officials quietly hoisting a glass in honor of Vladimir Putin, for it is is he who has given them importance once again.
Posted in foreign policy, History, Intelligence and Security, International relations, Politics, Uncategorized, USA, War | 23 Comments | Read More »
Transitional Dilemmas.
Posted on 11:20, March 16th, 2014 by Pablo
Military-bureaucratic authoritarian regimes often seek to legitimate their rule and establish a positive legacy by transferring power to elected civilian authorities. However, they do so only under certain conditions and with specific outcomes in mind. One way to ensure that their post-authoritarian vision is adhered to is to run a military-backed candidate (often a retired military leader) as the "official" candidate while actively working to use their control of the election process to promote divisions and disunity amongst the opposition. The way in which the elections are governed and the process leading up to them are used by the outgoing authoritarians to produce a voting outcome that upholds the status quo under elected civilian guise.
In spite of its dominant position in such "top-down" forms of electoral transition, military-backed candidates and/or parties are confronted with several dilemmas that complicate their ability to ensure their desired post-authoritarian outcome. In this 36th Parallel Assessments brief I point out two of them as well as some other political dynamics at play in such scenarios.
Although the analysis is framed broadly, it may be of particular interest to those interested in the elections scheduled for September in Fiji.
Posted in Authoritarianism, comparative politics, Democracy, elections, foreign policy, governance, History, Politics | 5 Comments | Read More »
Media Link: Security Concerns in the Malaysian airliner disappearance.
Posted on 12:02, March 10th, 2014 by Pablo
I did an interview on TV 3′s Firstline show regarding the security concerns raised by the presence of two passengers with stolen passports on the plane. I also discuss the fact that China Southern Airways, which signed an exclusive sweetheart visa liberalization deal for its premium frequent flyers with the National government, was the issuer of the tickets purchased by the passport fraudsters as well as two others now under investigation. The lapses in security vetting happened at several levels and raise questions about air traffic security in Malaysia as well as with regard to China Southern.
Readers may recall an earlier link to an essay I wrote about the sale and bartering of so-called tokens of sovereignty, of which passports are just one (the earlier linked essay focused on flags of convenience in the shipping industry).
Posted in Intelligence and Security, NZ Security, travel | 9 Comments | Read More »
Playing Checkers on a Chessboard.
Posted on 12:32, March 3rd, 2014 by Pablo
So John Kerry says that Russia's military intervention in Crimea demonstrates that it is acting "in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on (a) completely trumped-up pretext." He goes on to say that "It's an incredible act of aggression," and threatens Russia with expulsion from the G8 and a raft of sanctions.
My oh my. I realize that an essential element of politics and diplomacy is to be able to lie with a straight face and turn hypocrisy into an art form, but this really is up there on the chutzpah scale. Has someone pointed out to Mr. Kerry that this incredible act of aggression has resulted in zero deaths, unlike, say, some other military interventions over the last ten years? In any event, such rubbish is about all that the US has left when it comes to effectively replying to the Russian gambit.
Before I delve into why Putin is playing a larger game while the US reacts and responds simplistically, let me ask a couple of questions. Does military intervention by an autocracy feel any different from military intervention by a democracy on the part of those being occupied? And if the locals welcome the intervention even if their government does not (and in Crimea both the regional government and locals overwhelmingly welcome the Russian intervention), does that legitimate the use of force against a sovereign state?
Putin's move reiterates his resolve to protect Russian interests and ethnic Russians along its borders. Already proven in Georgia, this latest move secures Russia's strategic interests by defending its warm water naval bases in Crimea as well as the local Russian population. If extended to Eastern Ukraine where ethnic Russians are a majority, it could well provide a significant, albeit riskier bargaining chip for the Russian leader. His time window is relatively short, but if played right the strategic gains for Russia could be significant.
For example, withdrawal of Russian troops from the Crimea and/or Eastern Ukraine could be traded off for more than the continuation of a pro-Russian status quo in Kiev. The Russians can tie such a withdrawal to better terms for the Assad regime in Syria (where Russian strategic interests are also at stake), and even more- favorable-to-Russia terms for dealing with the Iranian nuclear program (which the Russians have an interest in given the larger interest in maintaining Iran as a buffer against Western influence in the Middle East). The Russians also have numerous points of contention with the West (particularly the US) in its near abroad, particularly in Central Asia amongst the various "Stans." Any of these can be used as bargaining chips in the negotiations to secure a Russian withdrawal from the Ukraine.
The ball is the Russian court, They have presented the West with a fait accompli in the guise of boots on the ground. They are going nowhere soon and will not be dislodged by force.
Why? because after nearly two decades of continuous war the US is exhausted of fighting. GOP and Fox News chickenhawks notwithstanding, the US public has no stomach for another fight and the US military is suffering from a slow burning crisis of morale than has been seen in gross ethical lapses from command to barracks across all of the armed services, to say nothing of the 20-30 military suicides per month and the epidemic of PTSD amongst young veterans. The US may still have a technological edge when it comes to weapons systems and a more experienced combat force, but its strategic interests in Ukraine are less than those of Russia and its emotive stake in a Ukrainian conflict is closer to zero when compared with that of Russian troops defending their ethnic kin living in Ukraine.
Then there is the small matter of escalation should the US and its allies get involved, which given the relative stakes and nuclear arsenals sitting at the top of each side's weapons pile, is as good a deterrent as any.
If the US will not respond with force, then no one else will. NATO troops will go on alert, but even an increased supply of weaponry or foreign military advisors to the Kiev government will risk Russian retaliation beyond what the Europeans will find acceptable. If the Ukrainians go to war, no one will come to their defense other than to provide covert logistics and intelligence. But that will not be enough to overcome the Russian military advantage, although it might raise the costs of it remaining in Ukraine for a long period of time. So counter-force is not a real option.
As for the idea that the CIA somehow orchestrated the Ukrainian uprisings as part of some master plan (a theory put forth by at least one Left commentator), well let's just say that the recriminations with the Beltway about a lack of warning, to say nothing of this outcome, would suggest not. In fact, the contrary is true: given the ethnic tensions within and Russian historical ties to and strategic interest in the Ukraine, the failures of intelligence and diplomatic reporting when it comes to assessing possible outcomes have been major (if for no other reason than this is the stuff of basic comparative foreign policy research). That means that Western intelligence services also will have limited to no effective say in the eventual resolution of the crisis–they will just report on developments as they occur.
The Budapest Memorandum of 1994 (signed by the US, UK, Russia and the Ukraine), which pledged non-interference in and respect for Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for it giving up nuclear weapons on its soil, is a dead letter. It is not a Treaty and has no enforcement mechanisms other than what each country or countries choose to impose on each other. The Russians claim that the right to self-defense supersedes the memorandum, and that the presence of military bases and citizens in Crimea give Moscow the right to militarily intervene in their defense against Ukrainian aggression, even if done preemptively. In fact, if the Russians wanted to be really cynical they could invoke the "responsibility to protect (R2P)" doctrine that was used by NATO in Libya to justify its intervention against the Gaddafi regime (and R2P does not need UN sanction to be invoked).
Kerry flaps his jaws about expelling Russia from the G8 and imposing sanctions on Russian businesses. The EU makes lapdog noises about "serious consequences." Does anyone think that Putin is cowed by those remarks? In fact, if anything the day of reckoning is upon Europe, not Russia. For instance, Germany is seriously dependent on Russian energy imports and has re-calibrated its foreign policy in recent years towards Russia. What is it going to do now, abandon all of that in order to make a point about the Ukraine?
Diplomatically, Russia has the upper hand has the upper hand here and it involves (but is not limited to) its relations with Europe and the US.
As for the issue of economic sanctions threatened by Mr. Kerry.
Russian capital has flowed out of the mother country and is now invested–seriously invested–all over the world, to include places like the UK, Singapore, Dubai and the US. Are these states seriously going to consider freezing the assets of those who have made such investments? Will there be a united response when it comes to sanctions or will it be fragmented, porous and ineffectual?
Russia is not Cuba, South Africa, Iraq under Hussein or even Iran and North Korea today. Imposing sanctions on it is a far more difficult proposition, both in terms of getting states and private entities to adhere to any sanctions regime as well as with regards to Russian retaliatory capabilities.
Russian energy supplies are a lifeblood for many countries as well as Russia itself. States that choose to genuinely hurt Russia economically do so at their peril.
The UN will condemn the intervention and resolutions will be introduced in the Security Council to that effect. Russia will veto them. Nothing concrete will be done. If it were to get kicked out the G8–which is a long shot–then Russia can turn to the G20 for diplomatic support. Among its members are nations not entirely enthused about the US, UK and other colonial powers, so it is easy to suppose that its response will be lukewarm to any proposed sanctions or collective punishment.
Bilaterally, it will be hard for all but the most powerful nations to do anything meaningful to Russia. Perhaps countries will issue statements of regret and disappointment, perhaps even suspend talks on items of mutual interest, perhaps even recall or expel an ambassador. But symbolism aside, does anyone think this is going to sway Putin one way or the other?
Putin has a domestic constituency to consider. He may rule from behind a rigged electoral facade but he does represent a specific, and fairly broad constellation of Russian interests. These interests converge when it comes to defending Russia's borders and near abroad, as well as Russians living outside the motherland. These constituents matter far more to Putin than the likes of David Cameron or John Kerry.
For all these (and several more) reasons, the Russians have the dominant hand in this situation. They will use it to extract concessions on matters of concern to them in exchange for an eventual, likely phased and partial withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. Their strategic interests will be reaffirmed and recognized by their adversaries.
Barring a miscalculation or over-reach on Putin's part that would bog his troops down in a protracted war (which would inevitably be irregular, unconventional and asymmetrical given the forces involved), Russia stands to gain most from what basically amounted to a window of opportunity created by the Ukrainian uprising.
Policy-makers in Western capitals should have thought about this before rather than after Putin made his move.
Posted in foreign policy, History, Intelligence and Security, International relations, Politics, War | 55 Comments | Read More »
Dismissing Skullduggery.
Posted on 11:16, March 1st, 2014 by Pablo
The latest Snowden leaks reveal that the British signals intelligence outfit GCHQ held a top secret conference in 2012 where it briefed its Five Eyes partners on an array of cyber "dirty tricks" that could be used against opponents. These included a range of hacking techniques, to include denial of service overloads, false on-line identities, "spoofing," manipulation and alteration of on-line data and even the tried and true method of luring targets into so-called "honey traps" via social media.
The operative terms in such operations are encapsulated in the Four "D's:" deny, disrupt, degrade and deceive.
Needless to say, there was the usual hue and cry when the news went public. Civil libertarians are incensed. Privacy advocates are outraged.
My reaction was "so what?" This is typical counter-intelligence, disinformation and psychological operations (pysops) taken to a new technological level (there is a positive side to psyops, something that is most commonly associated with so-called "hearts and minds" campaigns, but that is not the objective here). Instead, this program replicates what hackers already do on a regular basis and parallels similar programs run by the signals intelligence services of many countries. The conference just drew together the various aspects and strands of cyber naughtiness into a package made available to the Five Eyes members. The presentation (as provided by journalist Glenn Greenwald) is here: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/.
Needless to say, New Zealand's signals organizations, the GCSB, as well as the SIS and perhaps other security/intelligence units such as those of the police, have been granted access to this program. Government denials of such are just another smokescreen designed to hide the full extent of what NZ spy agencies can (and) do.
I was interviewed on Radio Nw Zealand about this. I pretty much said what I have mentioned above and pointed out that the real damaging news is soon to come: revelations about who NZ spies on, which, if Snowden holds true to form, will include allies as well as trading partners and perhaps even the Chinese. The interview is here: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2587171.
After my interview former GCSB director Bruce Ferguson was interviewed. What he said was remarkable. He claimed that he knew of no such programs and that as far as he knew the GCSB did not engage in illegal activities. He dismissed my views by saying that some people give too much credit to NZ spy agency capabilities. He also claimed that the Russians and Chinese engage in similar behavior.
Let's deconstruct this. The "dirty tricks" conference was held in 2012 and Ferguson left the GCSB in 2009. Perhaps he was unaware of the conference and during his time no such "dirty tricks" programs were operated by the GCSB. During his tenure cyber espionage was not the priority focus that it is today, so perhaps that is true insofar as using hacking techniques on social media and other cyber targets is concerned.
He says that as far as he knows the GCSB has done nothing illegal. That flies in the face of the illegal spying on Kim Dotcom (even the government admits the tapping of Dotcom's phones by the GCSB was in fact unlawful) and the revelations that the GCSB misled parliament in its most recent annual report as to the number of warrants and operations it was engaged in (which the government claims was a simple error rather a purposeful deception). This latest embarrassment occurs after the publication of the Kitteridge Report on GCSB failures and the appointment of a new director charged with addressing and correcting them (Kitteridge is now the director of the SIS).
So, contrary to Bruce Ferguson's claims, the GCSB has committed at least a few illegal acts, but perhaps not during his tenure as director. I leave it for readers to make judgement on that.
Whatever the truth, I believe that we can safely assume that the GCSB employs aspects of the "dirty tricks" program against foreign and perhaps domestic targets (the SIS certainly does in the latter case). I see this as par for the course given the current state of Five Eyes signals intelligence collection. I am not particularly fussed by the revelations, perhaps because it is just a technological extension of what always has been the norm in the world of intelligence and espionage.
What I do believe, as I have said many times before, is that these latest revelations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to NZ intelligence operations, and that Snowden, via his circle of investigative journalists, will publish far more damaging information about the role and extent of GCSB spying in the months to come.
It is time for the NZ government, if not the NZ public, to come to grips with that fact and prepare accordingly, because my suspicion is that the repercussions will be damaging and not necessarily confined to the diplomatic arena.
Monitoring Syrians and Supplicants.
Posted on 12:14, February 14th, 2014 by Pablo
The subject of spying is back in the news this week, but the coverage has been inadequate. Allow me to clarify some issues, first with regard to those who want to join the Syrian conflict and second with regard to politicians trying to ingratiate themselves with Kim Dotcom.
Contrary to the thrust of the coverage, not all those seeking to join the Syrian conflict are Syrian or descendants of Syrians. The Syrian War is a civil war between Shiia and Sunnis, where the minority Alawite-backed Assad regime is fighting to maintain its grip over a majority Sunni population (Alawites are a sub-sect of Shiia Islam). For a variety of affective and strategic reasons Iran (a very large Shiia dominant country) supports the Assad regime while Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia and Gulf oligarchies back the armed opposition. This opposition is divided into what can be loosely called secular moderates (such as those grouped in the Free Syrian Army) and Islamicists (such as those in the al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant).
The latter have come to dominate the military side of the opposition due to their superior combat skills and determination. Their ranks include Sunni internationalists from all over the world (including New Zealand) who see joining the struggle as a religious imperative. Egyptians, Jordanians, Pakistanis, Britons, Australians and French nationals are among those fighting in Islamicist ranks. That has led to serious clashes with the moderate secularists (who do not have as many internationalists in their ranks, although there are some), to the point that the fighting between the armed opposition factions has allowed the Assad regime to re-gain the upper hand in the overall struggle after being near collapse just six months ago.
Where the armed opposition is winning, it is the Islamicists who are doing so.
In the last nine months the Prime Minister has made repeated reference to would-be New Zealand jihadis joining the fight in Syria. Some are already there and others have been barred from going. They may or may not be Syrian in origin, but his use of the "Syrian trump card" is a naked political ploy designed to use fear-mongering as a justification for extension of domestic espionage and, perhaps, as a way of pre-emptively steeling public opinion against the negative consequences of the inevitable revelations from Edward Snowden about New Zealand's foreign espionage role within the Five Eyes/Echelon signals intelligence collection network. The trouble with the PM's ploy is that the proclaimed threat does not match the facts.
According to the government ten New Zealand passports have been revoked since 2005 and a handful of Kiwis are in Syria fighting. The PM makes it sound as if all these have associations with extremist Islam. Perhaps they do, but the Syrian conflict only heated up as of early 2012, so the Syrian card does not explain why passports were cancelled prior to that. Moreover, the PM says that passports were cancelled in order to prevent "radicalized" Kiwis from returning and making trouble at home. That begs the question as to what the frustrated wanna-be jihadis are going to do now that their plans are thwarted and they are forced to remain in the country under heavy scrutiny.
A Syrian community spokesman has said that two brothers had their passports revoked after their parents informed authorities of their plans to travel back home to join the fight. He also accused the PM and his government of "racial discrimination." The latter claim is ridiculous and shows a gross misunderstanding of how democratic governance works. John Key did not personally order the revocation of any passports nor does he have the power to rescind the cancellation order. New Zealand authorities did not cancel the brother's passports because they were Syrian but because of their purported intentions. They did not target the entire Syrian community for who they are.
In fact, under current legislation the government is well within its rights to revoke passports on the grounds that the individuals involved intend to become or are part of a criminal enterprise, of which terrorism is one. Since the Islamicists fighting in Syria are considered terrorist organizations by the New Zealand government, any intent to join them could be construed as an attempt to engage in criminal activity. One might argue that the definition of terrorism is too broad (and I believe that it is), but as things stand the government's concern about returning, combat experienced jihadis is a legitimate motive for canceling passports.
I shall leave aside the fact that the chances of survival of those joining the Syrian conflict is quite low* and they are being monitored in any event, so mitigating the potential threat posed by returning jihadis is not as formidable as Mr. Key implies. There are technical means of tracking the location of passports, and the individuals who are in Syria or want to go there have been identified already via domestic intelligence gathering. In fact, allowing suspects to travel while being secretly monitored is a standard intelligence collection method, so one can reasonably assume that the handful of Kiwi internationalists in Syria as well as their as of yet to travel brethren are the focus of both human and signals intelligence collection efforts by local espionage agencies in conjunction with foreign counterparts.
However, Mr. Key's repeated public use of the Syrian card certainly has alerted any would-be extremists in the New Zealand Muslim community that they have been infiltrated by the Police and SIS and that there are informants in their midst. In fact, the New Zealand Muslim community is a bit of a sieve since 9/11 because personal, sectarian and financial vendettas as well as legitimate concerns about ideological extremism have seen the accusation of "terrorist" thrown around quite freely within it. This has been well known inside security circles (who have to separate bogus from legitimate accusations of terrorist sympathies), but the PM's public disclosure has given potential jihadis a clear signal to exercise increased caution and diligence when planning future violence (should there be any).
The most important issue, however, is the selective application of the passport revocation authority. If would-be Islamic internationalists have not been convicted of crimes in New Zealand, and barring clear evidence that they intend to engage in crime abroad, then they should be allowed free passage to travel. If they engage in war crimes or crimes against humanity during a foreign conflict (be it in Syria or elsewhere), they can be charged upon their return, or even detained on the suspicion of complicity in said crimes. This is not a far-fetched speculation because both the Assad regime and its armed opposition have committed a raft of atrocities that fall under both definitions of illegal war-time behavior.
This applies equally to those who may choose to join non-Islamicist groups in other foreign conflicts (for example, by joining Christian militias in the Central African Republic), so specifically targeting those intending to go to Syria to fight is, in fact, selective if not discriminatory application of the relevant law. As far as following the Australian example and making it illegal to join a foreign conflict under penalty of imprisonment or revocation of citizenship, one can only hope not.
The simple fact is that would-be jihadis and other internationalists should be free to join any foreign conflict. They assume the risk of doing so and understand that they give up the diplomatic protections usually reserved for citizens traveling abroad. Should they be deemed a potential threat upon their return (in the event that they do), then it is the responsibility of local law enforcement and intelligence agencies to mitigate that threat within the rule of law. As I have alluded to above, that is not particularly hard to do in the New Zealand context.
As for politicians meeting with Dotcom, the issue is far more simple than sinister. Dotcom is a NZ permanent resident who is a fugitive from US justice still under extradition warrant (which is being argued in court). The authorities may well consider him a flight risk because he certainly has the means to do so. They may believe that he is continuing his criminal associations or practices while his court case is being heard (I shall refrain from making bad jokes about those who have flocked to his side during the GCSB Bill debates, or about the politicians who have knocked on his door). Given his penchant for partying and those he associates with when doing so, they may want to catch him in possession of illegal drugs.
Thus the Police would have legitimate reason to run ongoing surveillance operations on him, and can do so legally with or without the help of the SIS and now, thanks to the passage of the GCSB Bill, the GCSB. In doing so, they would monitor and record the comings and goings of visitors to his mansion, with that information passed up the chain of command.
That is why Mr Key's version of how he came to know about Mr. Peters' treks to the Coatesville property is odd. He claims that he got his information about Dotcom's political visitors from Cameron Slater working with or independently from a Herald gossip columnist. That is troubling.
The Right Honorable John Key is the Minister of Intelligence and Security, so presumably he is aware of the status of security operations and the Dotcom case in particular given its history. But he claims that he received domestic espionage information about Dotcoms's visitors from a right-wing, admittedly partisan "attack" blogger, rather than from the security agencies for which he is responsible and who have a legal right to monitor Mr. Dotcom. That is a sign of incompetence or willful ignorance on his part.
I have shares in a Bolivian gold mine I am willing to sell at a very affordable price to readers who believe a sociopath was the first source of the Dotcom visit data provided to the PM. Perhaps I am wrong and it is simply too much for domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies to pursue the monitoring of Dotcom for a supposed copyright infringement when so many Syrian-focused terrorists abound. But given the amount of resources expended and the reputational stakes involved, it would not be surprising and in fact legal for security agencies to do so.
I would suggest that if people like Winston Peters are concerned about being spied on when visiting Mr. Dotcom, then they should look at their own roles in allowing that to happen. Since 9/11 the legal powers and practical reach of the domestic espionage apparatus have been increased incrementally yet extensively under both Labour and National governments. Other than a relatively small number of Left activists and the Green Party (as well as ACT while Rodney Hide was still around to lead it), neither the majority public or the majority of political parties did anything to oppose this extension.
In fact, although Labour party figures and Winston Peters joined Kim Dotcom on the stage at various anti-GCSB Bill protests last year, and the bow-tied buffoon with a pompadour posing as a political party objected to having his personal communications accessed during the course of an investigation into leaks of confidential government information, Labour is responsible for the majority of the extensions and Dunne and Peters supported all of them. National has merely deepened the trend towards a surveillance society.
Hence, whatever Labour, NZ First or United Future may say now as a way of partisan point-scoring, they are full accomplices in the erosion of Kiwi privacy rights over the last decade. Any current whinging about violations of their personal and the larger collective privacy should be dismissed as cowardly rank hypocrisy.
In any event, when it comes to intrusions on basic freedoms of association, privacy and travel, not only Syrians living in New Zealand have reason to feel aggrieved.
* This is due to the immutable Buchanan rule of ground warfare: if you are firing your weapon over your head, or firing blindly around corners in the general direction of the enemy, you will not last long once s/he closes in. Should that rule be miraculously violated without consequence, the fifth Buchanan rule of asymmetrical warfare comes into effect: strapping explosives or amulets to your body in the hope of divine intervention is based on a false premise.
Some advice about travel advisories.
Posted on 09:19, January 5th, 2014 by Pablo
The murder of Westerners, including a New Zealander in Libya, in the aftermath of the so-called "Arab Spring" of regime change in North Africa and the Levant, has raised the profile of travel advisories as effective guides to personal and institutional safety of foreign travelers in such unstable regions. Libya is classified as High Risk in an around Tripoli and Misarata extending west to the Tunisian border and Extreme Risk pretty much everywhere else in the country by most Western states, including Australia, Canada, the UK and US. Syria is, understandably, considered to be an Extreme Risk environment by virtually all Western governments. The body of the Kiwi who was murdered, a female friend of a contractor to an Italian petrochemical firm, was found 100 kilometers west of Tripoli in a High Risk area. For her and her British companion, as well as several Americans recently, the risk was terminally extreme.
Both governments and private entities issue travel advisories, which are most often associated in Western minds with unstable or undeveloped states and regions in which lawlessness is rife (the same is largely true for advisories given by non-western governments such as the Japanese, Singaporeans or Chinese). The advisories may focus on political or criminal threats to foreigners in general and citizens in particular depending on the situation (for example, ethnic Chinese are more likely to be the target of socioeconomic-based ethnic violence in Melanesia and Polynesia than ethnic Europeans, and female travelers are particularly vulnerable in many places because of local cultural mores). Yet these advisories are not always as neutral as they may appear at first glance and hence need to be treated with caution and in broader perspective.
Put bluntly, it is erroneous to assume that governments, much less many private entities, issue objective and value-free travel advisories. They do not.
Government travel advisories take into account the diplomatic, security and economic relations of the issuing state with the targeted country. As a result, taking everything into account and (however short-sightedly) thinking of the bigger picture moving forward, there is a tendency to downplay security concerns where the countries in question are allies or have good foreign relations, whereas there is an inclination to paint an adversary or hostile country in a more negative light regardless of the objective situation on the ground. States are loathe to annoy their partners and allies, or those that they wish to cultivate for diplomatic or economic reasons, by issuing alerts and advisories of high or extreme risk in them. They may be pressured by corporate actors to downplay the risk of travel to those countries. Thus, even if the situation on the ground is hazardous for tourists or business travelers, the advice offered in such circumstances often does not raise above that of a caution about medium to moderate risks to personal and institutional security.
The concern with maintaining good diplomatic relations is compounded by the failure of many Western governments to fully appreciate the fluid nature of political and social events in designated countries, specifically the impact of regime change, latent social unrest and pre-modern cleavages on mass collective action. Confusing mass acquiescence with popular consent often leads countries to overestimate the degree of political support sustaining a foreign ally or partner. That in turn leads them to formulate their travel advisories in ways the underestimate the possibility of regime failure and the attendant risks associated with it.
Given resource constraints in diplomatic and intelligence agencies in many countries, limitations on diplomatic presence and in-country expertise in foreign contexts can limit the ability of advising governments to gather accurate, time sensitive and nuanced information on local conditions. Consequently, they often rely on the host government or foreign partners for situational knowledge, which itself may be more general than specific. This is then passed on by diplomatic outposts (some which may not be located in the country under scrutiny) to the home governments, often without vetting by other security agencies. That is a problem because for a number of reasons both host governments and foreign partners may not provide accurate reads of the local conditions being assessed.
Bureaucratic in-fighting amongst government agencies responsible for offering input into official travel advisories adds to the problem of objectivity. Different foreign policy-related agencies with input authority on travel advisories may have different information from their foreign counterparts with regard to the countries being assessed (say, intelligence, police and military agencies versus diplomatic, customs, health or immigration agencies).
Look at it this way: whatever the concerns of one or more agencies, would others be willing to accept harming a fruitful diplomatic, security or economic relationship because of the particular, if valid, concern about citizen travel to a particular country? And even if the foreign affairs bureaucracies agreed to defer to the concerns of one or a few agencies, would all Ministers necessarily find it politically expedient to accept the bureaucratic judgement, be it in an election year or not?
Continuity, stability, reliability and future mutual support are the most precious commodities of foreign relations, but the interest in them often blinds governments to the inherently weak or unstable nature of the regimes that appear to offer them. It also leads to acceptance of what foreign allies depict as local reality as fact when the truth may be otherwise. Thus time and time again Western governments have been caught by surprise at mass upheavals against seemingly stable friendly (most often authoritarian) regimes, with their citizens visiting and resident in countries where popular revolts occur often victimized as a result in part because they were lulled into a false sense of security by official travel advisories that downplayed the risks to the friendly regime, and by extension, foreigners who could be construed as associated with it.
This has occurred throughout North and Sub-Saharan Africa in the past five years, SE Asia and Latin America in years before, and is evident in the moderate advisories given to Middle Eastern diplomatic, military and trading partners by Western governments in spite of clear indications of simmering restive and anti-foreign sentiment in them.
Similarly, travel agencies, tour companies, airlines and other business invested in tourism, as well as those that see profit in resource extraction and commodity export, have an inherent disposition to downplay risks because their livelihoods depend upon sustaining and increasing the number of tourists and investment dollars in such ventures. Absent an obvious and compelling threat such as a civil war like those in Syria and the Central African Republic, profit driven private entities will, like official government warnings, often couch their advisories in moderate terms. Here too they are handicapped by a lack of objective risk analysis because they often rely for their local knowledge on in-country partnerships that also depend on tourist and investment dollars for their livelihoods. In such relationships no one wants to upset the foreign traveler or investor gravy train so risk is downplayed in all but the most dire situations. As two of many examples, Kenya and Thailand offer proof of that.
NGOs and IOs tend to more pragmatic in their travel advisories and risk assessments because they have less profit at stake and more lives and reputations immediately in play. Travel guides tend to be objective but superficial in their risk advice unless the local situation is obviously dire. This is not surprising given the breadth and focus of travel guides (think Lonely Planet as an example, although to its credit it does address gender and LBTG travel issues where possible), which are not oriented towards divining risks to personal and collective security but instead focus on geographic, cultural and entertainment features of any given place.
The best risk assessments and travel advisories tend to come from insurance firms (although some of their assessments have been proven to be suspect, such as those involved in the determination of national credit ratings). Likewise, reputable international political risk and open source intelligence firms are more objective and forthright about the situation in any given country because their client's welfare is often at stake, and maintaining client relationships is most important for the success of such firms. In fact, insurance firms regularly seek external assessments from political risk and open intelligence firms so as to limit the possibility of and mitigate their liability in the event a client disregards their in-house advice.
The difference here is that reputable political risk and open source intelligence agencies tend to canvass as wide an array of sources as possible before they put their names on any assessment, including travel advisories. Moreover, such firms can tailor their assessments and advisories to client needs, for example, but specifying the relationship of competing market actors with local political factions and (where present) criminal or political armed groups in specific foreign contexts (the relationship between irredentists and oil firms in the Niger Delta comes to mind, but also applies to resource extractive firms and indigenous militias in regions like the Southwestern Pacific and Central Africa).
Needless to say, reading news about a travel destination is a very good way of getting abreast of the local context. Many non-European countries have English, French, Italian, Spanish, German or Dutch language newspapers (many of these a colonial legacy), and outlets like the BBC, VOA and RT radio services also provide useful updated information on local conditions. Similarly, social media may offer better awareness of tactical or real-time situations, although one should always be aware of editorial and personal bias in any news provider, so-called mainstream or not. After all, when it comes to taking advice and reading the news, a discerning traveler is a prepared traveler.
Reliable information on local conditions is as important for those who deliberately travel to unstable or conflict zones such as reporters, diplomats, military personnel, security contractors and ideological "internationalists" who join in foreign fights as it is for the casual or unwary traveler. Regardless of circumstance, one should know what they are getting into and prepare (or avoid) accordingly.
In light of the above, travelers should not rely exclusively on the advisories of governments or private entities with a direct interest in downplaying risk assessments in foreign countries. This may seem obvious but in fact is not, as many people assume that their governments and the companies that transport, house and entertain them overseas have their personal and group safety as an overriding concern.
They do not, and are insured against episodic calamity as a result.
Posted in cultural difference, Intelligence and Security, Terrorism, travel | 15 Comments | Read More »
Media Link: Snowden, Spying and New Zealand.
Posted on 10:55, December 3rd, 2013 by Pablo
In a New Zealand Herald op ed I discuss Edward Snowden's actions and their implications for New Zealand. It is possible that he may not be what he claims to be, but whether he is or not, there will be inevitable consequences for New Zealand stemming from his leaks.


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Dead ringers
If only Spitting Image was still on TV, imagine the mischief it could make with Nazi-dressed royals, a trigger-happy US vice president and croquet-loving Labour MPs, says David Stubbs.
The Guide features p4
Distress princess
How does the rising teen star measure up in real life to the high-school trouble-makers she plays so adeptly on screen? Evan Rachel Wood's a nice girl after all, finds Lesley O'Toole.
The Guide features p9
Sticks flicks
If only... someone would make a gutsy country-music biopic. John Patterson awaits the greatest music stories never told.
The Guide features p15
Jamaican ambassador
Sam Delaney lightens up at the sound of Trojan Records.
The Guide features p23
LocoRoco, PSP | Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? Nintendo DS | New Super Mario Bros, Nintendo DS
The Guide features p30
PreviewSwan Inn, Swineford | Brilliant, Southall | The Pear Tree Inn, Whitley | Mooli, London
The Guide features p34
No balls allowedJeremy Wayne heads to Cumbria for fine dining, impressive settings and no football.
The Guide features p35
The week's highlights
Children's Party At The Palace | Best Ever Spitting Image Moments | Young Black Farmers | Wimbledon | How To Look Good Naked | Coup! | Tarnation | The Harlot's Handbook | The OC
The Guide features p51
Michael Holden's Screen burn
When it isn't subjecting us to another adventure in our own alleged "reality", there's nothing TV likes better than to drag us headlong through the past. And memory lane is seldom more interesting than when there's a rosy-cheeked, syphilitic, teenage prostitute on every corner offering sex and damnation for less than a shilling
The Guide features p52
The week's best films
Your daily pick of the top movies on terrestrial TV, reviewed by Paul Howlett .
The Guide features p53
Jonathan Bernstein's Aerial view of America
Dane Cook is the Led Zeppelin of stand-up comedy. That's not a compliment, just an appropriate comparison.


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Official VIP PJ20 Auction Package Available
June 15, 2011 in Fundraisers, News by Wishlist
Bid on a sweet PJ20 package to benefit CCFA Team Challenge!
#PJPreparty | #PJFundraiser
June 15, 2011 in Fundraisers, News by Wishlist
Bid on a sweet PJ20 package to benefit CCFA Team Challenge!
Tags: Alpine Valley, CCFA, PJ20, poster, Team Challenge, vinyl, VIP
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January 15, 2010 in Pearl Jam, Street Team by Wishlist
Street Team: Earn a White or Orange Backspacer Vinyl!
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The Wishlist Foundation is a Pearl Jam fan nonprofit, grassroots 501(c)(3) fan organization dedicated to supporting Pearl Jam's charitable and philanthropic efforts. We are 100% fan run, independent from the band, its management and fan club.
Conceived in 2004 and officially organized in 2006, the Wishlist Foundation and Pearl Jam fans across the globe have raised over a half million dollars through a variety of fundraising methods, such as pre-concert parties, auctions, raffles and donation gifting.
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Pasta With Broccoli In Hot Sauce
|Chili peppers
|2 (Dried / Fresh)
|4 Clove (20 gm), minced
|3⁄4 Pound (Shapes)
|To Taste
1 In a large saucepan, bring enough of salted water to a boil.
2 Prepare the broccoli, discarding the thicker part of the stalks.
3 Divide into small florets.
4 Rinse well and drain.
5 Remove the seeds from the chili pepper if using fresh.
6 Cut into thin rings.
7 If using dried chilies, crumble them.
8 In a large non-stick skillet, heat oil.
9 Add in the garlic and cook briefly.
10 Add the chilies and broccoli.
11 Sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
12 Stir fry over high heat for 1-2 minutes.
13 Lower the heat, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes, adding a little water at intervals to prevent the contents from sticking.
14 The vegetables should be tender but still crisp.
15 Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until just tender.
16 Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water and drain off the rest.
17 Combine the pasta with the broccoli, along with some or all of the reserved water.
18 Cook, uncovered, for 1 minute.
19 Gently mix the broccoli into the pasta.
20 Serve at once.


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is the nonmodal dialog version of EquationTrekker.
- To use , you first need to load the Equation Trekker Package using Needs["EquationTrekker`"].
- creates a graphical interface and then returns a GUIObject object. Both the notebook and the graphical interface can interact with the kernel.
- Unlike EquationTrekker, an EquationTrekkerState object is not returned when the window is closed, and the treks created by the graphical interface cannot be saved.
- Although does not return an EquationTrekkerState object, it can accept one as input.


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Super Sodas
4 Sep 2009
|3 Ounce (1 Package, Jell-O Concord Grape, Cherry, Strawberry, Or Raspberry)
|Boiling water
|1 Cup (16 tbs)
|Club soda
|1 Cup (16 tbs)
|Cold water
|1⁄4 Cup (4 tbs)
|Vanilla ice cream
|1⁄2 Pint
|Whipped topping
|1 Cup (16 tbs) (Prepared, Dream Whip)
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water in a large bowl.
Stir until all gelatin is dissolved.
Add club soda and cold water.
Chill in refrigerator until slightly thickened.
Measure one cup of the thickened gelatin into a small bowl and set aside.
Place a scoop of ice cream in each of 3 tall iced tea or soda glasses.
Fill the glasses two thirds full with slightly thickened gelatin from large bowl.
Then use rotary beater or electric mixer to whip the gelatin in small bowl until light and fluffy.
Fill the remainder of each glass with whipped gelatin.
Chill sodas until firm about 2 hours.
Before serving, decorate with a dollop or swirl of prepared whipped topping.or pass the topping in a small bowl and let everyone add their own fancy touch.
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Super Sodas Recipe


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What in the world would we do without Helvetica? Thank God that question's rhetorical. Conceived by Orange & Park, this screenprint brings a touch of modern graphic design to a map of the world with a silhouetted graphic that delineates each continent with its own name—in Helvetica, of course.
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It's Unanimous! Some MLB HOF Voters Are Stupid
Seriously. 8.9% of voters didn't think Pedro Martinez was deserving of a HOF vote this year?
Video: Pedro Martinez Wants Team In Montreal
Pedro Martinez has joined the cause that many throughout the game have made to have Major League Baseball action in Montreal again.
An Early Look At The 2015 MLB Hall Of Fame Candidates
What interesting names will be on the ballot for 2015?


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Seafood Market & Restaurant
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Seafood Market & Restaurant
Po-Boys, Seafood Platters,Catfish, Shrimp, Oysters, Hot Sausage, Gumbo, Boiled Crawfish, Blue Crabs, Snow Crabs, Dungerness Crabs. We offer Daiquiris & Beer Domestic & Import!
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My wife and i go there at lease 3 times a week. Great food, great prices and great service. I suggest to try the oyster loaf. Excellent!
I love their seafood plate, reasonable price and good food.
Their fried oyster are very big and very yummy!


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The Classic Hewn-Log House: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building and Restoring
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|Format: Paperback
Vendor: Workman Publishing
Availability: Usually ships in 24-48 hours.
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Author Charles McRaven knows log houses from the inside out, and from the outside in. He restored his first log house in 1946, at the age of eleven. Since then he has built and restored hewn-log houses all over the United States, and he is considered the nations foremost authority on the topic. In The Classic Log-Hewn House, McRaven covers everything you need to know to build your own log house, from selecting a site and hewing the first log to laying the last chimney stone and putting in electricity. Clear illustrations accompany the text throughout, and a full-color gallery of finished structures will inspire you to get started.
Author Bio
Editorial Reviews
a comprehensive look at the process of building and restoring with this staple of early American architecture Kitchen & Bath Design News


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Asparagus Parmesan
28 Oct 2009
This Asparagus Parmesan tastes incredible ! Try this utterly creamy cheese and vegetable bake for your next meal and let me know if you like it ! Your suggestions for this Asparagus Parmesan are welcome !
|1 1⁄2 Pound
|1⁄2 Cup (8 tbs), melted
|Grated parmesan/Romano cheese
|1⁄2 Cup (8 tbs)
|1 Teaspoon
|1⁄2 Teaspoon
1. Wash asparagus. Put into a small amount of boiling salted water in a skillet. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, and cook 5 minutes, uncovered; cover and cook 10 minutes, or until just tender.
2. Pour melted butter into a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Put cooked asparagus into casserole and sprinkle with mixture of grated cheese, salt, and pepper.
3. Bake at 450°F 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
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Asparagus Parmesan Recipe


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Home / Store / Journals / Electronic Articles / Nuclear Science and Engineering / Volume 8 / Number 6
Gordon E. Hansen, Clifford Maier
Nuclear Science and Engineering
Volume 8 / Number 6 / December 1960 / Pages 532-542
Format:electronic copy (download)
The first-order perturbation theory, or equivalently the interpretation of reactivity coefficients, is illustrated for fast neutron critical systems. A second-order perturbation theory for small size sample replacements is given and illustrated especially as it pertains to measurements of reactivity coefficients.
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I am in a bind. Well, not really, but to myself I am.
I work for a stable sponsored by St Judes. We have all Paso Finos and Tennessee Walkers, because they're much smoother for the children to ride, not as bouncy as other breeds.
However, I've never ridden these before. My whole life I've ridden/trained/& shown Hunters/Jumpers/Dressage/Eventing.
I've ridden quite a bit, and I really love the breeds. They're pretty exceptional horses, and I'm very glad I'm getting the opportunity to work w/ them.
But I have no clue what their gaits are called.
I obviously, when riding, can tell the difference between gaits when they change, but I have no idea what they are or what they're called.
Could somebody help me? I'd like to actually know what I'm doing instead of just riding


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Dimples, rosy cheeks and other pleasantries (Zhenya's photos thread)
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Age: 29
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Re: Dimples, rosy cheeks and other pleasantries (Zhenya's photos thread)
I haven't been on here for ages, but had to sign in to tell you guys this!
I was at the rotterdam tennis tournament today. I was all excited and walked around a corner a bit too fast. I bumped into a guy and got knocked off my feet. I look up at these amazing blue eyes as this gorgeous man helps me up. He asked me if I was ok and I just stared at him. Yeah I know I probably looked like the biggest fool in the world. So he helped me up and then said he had to go because he was late for his match. So I followed him, because I had no idea who he was. As you may have guessed by now, it was the lovely Korolev! What a sweetheart? How is it possible that I don't know him?
He said sorry again after his match and then ran off to his coach to celebrate his win. He won the first set pretty convincingly, and then lost the second because he had one bad service game. It felt like he was going to lose the third set. Stakhovsky was serving really well, so he was never in any trouble. The tiebreak could have gone either way really, but in the end it was Evgeny who kept his cool. He hit a few amazing forehands at the end of the tiebreak and was so happy to have won.
I didn't take any pictures because my camera died on me, but I will go again on tuesday. If he plays then I'll take a ton of pics.
Oh and not to make anybody jealous, but he changed his shirt right in front of me! He had to do an interview so he quickly changed his shirt, and OMG it looked good!
Anyway, what a great player! Especially the forehand was amazing! Hopefully I'll see him again tuesday!
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