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Gary Stein | February 17, 2009 | Comments
How to leverage relationships and assets in Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and other social media.
The challenge of all new media is to not use them like the old media. The stories are practically legendary: The first movies were filmed stage plays. The first TV shows were people reading radio scripts. The first Web sites were digitized brochures. It's a fair assertion. A new medium appears, and it would be bizarre for us to imagine that the world would immediately understand precisely the best way to use it. It takes time, experimentation, and innovation.
With social media, we are moving to another era of use. During social media's first wave, advertisers and marketers simply placed ads on the sites, taking advantage of the number of visitors to sites like MySpace and Facebook. The next wave involved integrating a company presence into a site and a community. The companies taking such great advantage of Twitter right now are the best examples. Dell offers customer service via the site, H&R Block provides tax support, and online retailer Zappos does just about everything via Twitter these days.
The next wave, though, the one we are entering into, fundamentally shifts the way companies use social media sites' tools to communicate with their customers.
Currently, most companies use social media tools in many of the same ways they use their e-mail lists: sending out mass communications to everyone. But there are some absolutely remarkable communication tools built into sites like Facebook that allow you to reach out and interact in ways that are so new there aren't even metrics for them.
Below are five ways to communicate with your customers via social media in ways built around the nature of the networks: direct connections with real people.
But first, please agree to my terms of service for this list by saying the following out loud: "I, [state your name], being highly concerned about my own reputation and the rights of all people everywhere using computers, promise that I will absolutely not use any of these tactics to spam people."
Thank you.
Follow Your Followers
If you have an account on Twitter, and are inviting people to follow you, be sure to return the favor. That is, if someone follows you, immediately follow them. To make things even better, you should actually pay attention to what they are tweeting. If they write something you feel you (or your brand) can respond to in a relevant way, then definitely do it. Practice restraint, of course. If you sell snow tires and the person you're following says something about commuting in the snow, you can say something. If they say something about their daughter's flute lesson, best to keep quiet.
Tag Content
Tags are words added to items posted online that help organize content. Two of the most frequently tagged items are photos and videos. The reason is obvious: getting a computer to know the content of a photo or video is hard. Humans are better and more efficient at the task, and tags leverage that. When you post up a piece of content -- say a photo to Flickr -- you can add tags to it. Naturally, you should add tags that describe what it is (such as the product name), but you can also add tags you think would appeal to communities or interests. These can even be the names of communities or groups that you would like to see the content. The tag will be captured by search engines and make the content more findable.
Tag People
On Facebook, you can tag people inside of Notes, Photos, and Videos. That is, if you write a Note that mentions me, and you and I are connected, you can tag the Note "Gary Stein." If that happens, I get a notification, as does everyone who is connected to me. That's pretty powerful. If you have an asset and a relationship, as a brand you can take advantage of this. Let's say you had a big gathering of your top users at your office and took some pictures. You can post those pictures and tag the people in them. This tactic is very powerful but definitely needs to be practiced with caution. Make sure the tagged person will be happy to know she's been tagged.
Post Events
Events are at the heart of marketing and advertising. New product launches, campaigns, sales, and conferences fill up every marketing manager's calendar. Marketers should begin to post these events in public calendars on regular social networks as well as on sites like Upcoming and Evite. The cool thing about this is that when people decide to attend (either by actually showing up somewhere or just deciding to buy a product on its first day available), that support is then broadcast to their whole network.
Post Content in Their Space
Similar to tagging someone, if you have an asset and a relationship, you can do something remarkable. Let's say you have the first pictures of your new product. You can post it on your own site and get lots of traffic, of course. You could also post that photo on the wall of your biggest brand fan's page on Facebook or MySpace. That way, you not only distribute the content but also strengthen a relationship. Again, this is the sort of tactic you must be very confident about engaging in.
Social media is, at its heart, about relationships and assets. These five ways offer approaches to leverage both of those elements in social media.
Pro Rank Tracker is a cutting-edge ranking tracking tool for keeping you up-to-date with all the latest changes in the rankings of your websites and videos.
Gary Stein is SVP, strategy and planning in iCrossing's San Francisco office. He has been working in marketing for more than a decade. Gary lives in San Francisco with his family. Follow him on Twitter: @garyst3in. The opinions expressed in Gary's columns are his alone.
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Portals Aerospace
SAAF funds Umbani
Written by defenceWeb, Tuesday, 06 September 2011
Denel Dynamics CE Jan Wessels last year May said the development of the bomb kit was being funded by the SAAF as a technology project. According to the Armscor Bulletin System some R34 820 015.31 was spent on the kit between 2008 and this month. The Engineering News last month reported development had started in 2002 with some R100 million in military funding and R20 million of the company's own funds.
Initial flight tests were successfully conducted on the Denel Cheetah some years ago. "In the last year we've moved to a Aerosud-owned (Dassault) Mirage F1 test platform because of the non-availability of the Cheetah and the high cost of integration on the new Saab Gripen as test platform," Wessels told defenceWeb last year May. "The next series of tests will probably be on the Hawk, for us it is significant as it is another step towards the Hawk becoming a workhorse of the SAAF. We see a lot of opportunity to take our Umbani onto that product. … There are many potential export customers but all are looking to the SAAF to adopt it first."
Wessels says their customer's major requirement is in the PGM arena for bomb kits for the Mk 82 227kg (500lb) bombs. But Umbani can also be made to fit the 113kg (250lb) Mk 81 and 454kg (1000lb) Mk 83 bombs. "In two years' time this could be a bread and butter product," said Wessels. "Our bomb-kit design is an optimal trade-off between performance and affordability plus ease of use. We have matured the technology sufficiently to offer Umbani in its basic configuration to the market at stand-off range up to 40km and with great accuracy."
Umbani has been advertised as an all-weather, day and night system and is fitted with a GPS/INS (Global Positioning System – Inertial Navigation System) capability. According to Denel, the system was designed with ease of use in mind and has low maintenance and life-cycle costs.
A marketing brochure some years ago advertised increased accuracy could be obtained using an imaging infra-red (IIR) sensor with an automatic target recognition capability or a semi-active laser seeker. The system could reportedly also be fitted with a radio frequency proximity fuse for area targeting, using a pre-fragmented warhead. Typical imagined mission sets include offensive counter-air such as demolishing hardened aircraft shelters – and parked aircraft or cratering runways. With the appropriate fuse the bomb can also be turned into a large anti-personnel or anti-material mine. On the battlefield, the weapon could be employed against air defence units or supply columns. Buildings, bridges, refineries, industrial areas and dams would also make useful targets. Accuracy is said to be within 3m circular error probable (CEP) when using laser or IIR. The addition of a rocket motor extends the stand-off range for the mother aircraft or allows low-level launch. Denel says various seekers, fuze and warheads may be fitted. The bomb can manoeuvre during the glide phase. A booster rocket module can also be fitted at the rear of the weapon."
The Umbani reportedly has an operational range of up to 100 km if launched at 11 000m.
Umbani production manager Coenie Loock told the Engineering News an "undisclosed foreign country" has ordered the weapon in three variants in a R1.2 billion deal. "The customer has already indicated a follow-up requirement worth more than R1 billion," the publication added. "We have a project to extend the range to 200km," he added. "We have a client who wants to put in a datalink to update target information. We can also add a wing kit to extend the range."
The Umbani augments the Raptor 2 in the state arsenal's inventory. The Raptor was developed in the early 1980s under Project Hanto and integrated on the Dassault Mirage F1AZ and the Blackburn Buccaneer S.50. The weapon, called the H-2 by the SAAF, was first used operationally against a bridge at Cuito Cuanavale during Operations Hooper on December 12, 1987. The H-2, dropped from a 24 Squadron Buccaneer, failed to destroy its target but a second attack on January 3, 1988 proved more successful. Raptor 2 has been successfully exported but is not in SAAF service. THe H-2 is long retired.
The Raptor programme, by the then-Kentron company, was followed by the MUPSOW (MUlti-Purpose, Stand-Off Weapon) that was advertised as a multi-purpose, surgical-strike cruise missile, designed to neutralise enemy targets such as airfields, bunkers and command-and-control centres at "stand-off ranges". Pinpoint accuracy was to be achieved by using an advanced navigation and terminal guidance technology (data link, choice of TV, IIR or MMW seekers). The airframe would be made out of composites, powered by a turbojet. Work reportedly commenced in 1991 with unpowered flight tests commencing in 1997. MUPSOW led to Torgos, another concept long-range, precision-guided strike missile. Neither seemingly made it beyond mock-up.
Pic: A take from a Denel Dynamics marketing brochure showing an Umbani with a Saab Gripen. Air Force chief Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano has previously said the air service did not have the funds to integrate weapons, implicitly also the Umbani, onto the Gripen (the Denel A-Darter being an exception). It is understood the SAAF is acquiring a number of US Raytheon Paveway IV laser-guided bomb kits that are similar to the Denel weapon. Paveway is already integrated onto the Swedish platform.
Low-cost stand-off weapon systems technology - extension of EDWU/2007/585
DWU/S2011/0640 1 Sep 2011 R282 784,20 Denel (Pty) Ltd t/a Denel Dynamics
DWU/S2010/0574 23 Jun 2010 R4 659 160,94 Denel (Pty) Ltd t/a Denel Dynamics
Low-cost stand-off weapon systems technology
EDWU/2007/585 29 May 2008 R29 878 070,17 Denel (Pty) Ltd t/a Denel Aerospace
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Taking Africa's blue economy to the next level at Maritime Africa, in Cape Town, in November
by Maritime Africa, 2 October 2015
The conference and exhibition will take place at the CTICC in Cape Town from 23-24 November.
Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI): Thales added to Europe and World indices
by Thales, 30 September 2015
RobecoSAM awarded the group with the highest score in the aerospace and defence sector for sustainability performance.

subset: commoncrawl


text: We stayed here for 2 nights for a quick stopover in Rome. The hotel is near the Piazza Navona but a bit hard for the taxis to find (they may drop you off a block away). Within walking distance of many attractions. Staff is very friendly and helpful (they speak English) and will recommend excellent restaurants. Be sure to go to Ristorante la Campana which is right around the corner. Rooms are small. Very quiet. Excellent breakfast. Wifi in the lobby with a laptop available also


text: On Thursday 31 July 2003 03:30, Gustavo Napoli wrote: > Hi, first, sorry for my english, but is not soo good. > Hello, i'm a new Linux User, i begin the last > saturday. I installed the MAndrake 9.1 for to the > begin. > Well, i have a Creative Sound Card, for more specific > a SoundBlaster Audigy 2. > But, the Linux Mandrake, found it, becose in the > Mandrake Center Control 9.1 tell me it founds a Audigy > 2 EMU10K2, but i play any music, sound etc. but i > don't hear nothing. > I've a 5.1 anoalogic speaker (JAZZ Speaker J9902). > I serch for more web page but i don't find anything. > http://www.opensource.creative.com > http://www.opensound.com > http://www.alsa-project.org > or i don't know serch o in all this site, but i don't > found all this site say if a don't create a driver for > this sound card. > I ask yours, me Expert Friend, do yours know any > solution for me problem??? > Thank for all. > El Rengo I think the problem is you have to unmute and raise the volumes of the relevant soundchannels with eg alsamixer. Alsamixer is part of the alsa-utils rpm. See 'man alsamixer'. Or even more probable the ALSA version shipped with Mandrake 9.1 is too old to support your card. What's the output of 'cat /proc/asound/version'? What's the (sound related) output from 'lspci -v'? I suggest you subscribe to newbie@... ( http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/flists.php3 ). It's a very newbie friendly list with some very expert people on it. It is a high traffic list. Good luck with Linux! -Frans


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Two minors raped in Halol, Dahod, two held
Top Stories
- Sushma Swaraj rubbishes Pakistan's 4-point peace formula at UN
- US shooting: 15 dead, 20 wounded at Oregon community college; shooter detained
- Day after Dadri lynching, VP Ansari says state has to ensure right to life
- Delhi: Man shoots self at Rajiv Chowk Metro station
- BJP MP compares Modi with Gandhi, Cong says 'sycophancy at its worst'
In two separate incidents of rape reported from central Gujarat, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl was raped at Halol in the Pahchmahals district and a 15-year-old girl was raped at Garbada in Dahod district.
The two-and-half-year old girl was raped and then thrown into a thorny bush. Police arrested one Keshavbhai Joshi on Friday night for allegedly raping the girl of his relative while he was visiting their house.
A case of rape and kidnapping was lodged by the girl's father, Hariprasad Daka, with Halol police station under Sections 363, 376, 377, and 342 of the Indian Penal Code, police said. According to the FIR, Joshi visited the house of the complainant. On Friday night, after finishing dinner, Joshi went out of the house while the girl's parents were yet to finish their dinner.
When Daka tried to find out where he had gone, he found his daughter missing. Girl's parents and other neighbours went looking out for the child when they found Joshi at a secluded area near their house. Joshi first refused to confess about the girl's whereabouts. He then told the people looking out for him that he had thrown her into a thorny bush.
Joshi was handed over to the Halol police station and the girl was taken to a local doctor who then referred her to Vadodara civil hospital where she is currently undergoing treatment.
In another incident reported from Abhlod village in Dahod's Garbada taluka, a 15-year-old girl was raped and threatened to be killed by a relative. As per Garbada police, one Dinesh Mandod forcefully took the girl to a nearby school and raped her. He threatened to kill her if she tried to report the matter to anybody. An FIR was lodged in this connection and Mandod was arrested.


text: Accolades for Tim Zaugg from Capital Health published in their Summer 2015 Newsletter. Tim's CCS Senior Internship was with Capital Health Medical Center and he was well liked by his coworkers. "Tim was a pleasure to work with…Tim will be missed by all." Read the rest of Capital Health's article. Zaugg Capital Health Newsletter item 2015… Continue


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Father of Amy Winehouse to Pen Book on Singer
Mitch Winehouse, the father of late singer Amy Winehouse, has sold the rights to a book he will right about his chanteuse daughter to the publisher HarperCollins.
The book is called Amy, My Daughter.
Mitch Winehouse, the father of late singer Amy Winehouse, has sold the rights to a book he will right about his chanteuse daughter to the publisher HarperCollins.
The book is called Amy, My Daughter.
Reg Traviss, boyfriend of the late Amy Winehouse, said in a new interview that before her passing, the pair were talking seriously about getting married.
This is the first we've heard of it, but who knows. Maybe they were.
It is both appropriate and sad that the video for "Body and Soul," a duet by Tony Bennett and the late Amy Winehouse, has been released on her 28th birthday.
The duet, recorded earlier this year, would be Amy's final recording. The soul singer passed away in late July, possibly due to a seizure brought on by detoxing.
Today is Amy Winehouse's 28th birthday.
Alas, the singer - like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain - never made it past 27. She tragically died in her London flat back in July.
While he wouldn't overtly put the blame on Blake Fielder-Civil (even though he basically already has), Amy Winehouse's father says he was "killing" her.
On Piers Morgan Tonight, Mitch Winehouse reflected again on the notorious druggie best known for introducing Amy Winehouse to cocaine and heroin.
Amy Winehouse's father Mitch is basically calling out Blake Fielder-Civil for killing his little girl by virtue of laying the groundwork for hard ass drug addiction.
Hey, it's not a hard sell to even the casual observer.
Amy Winehouse's final recording turned out to be a collaboration with Tony Bennett on the classic song "Body & Soul" for his upcoming album, Duets II.
"Body & Soul" drops Wednesday with the full album - also featuring Lady Gaga, Aretha Franklin and Carrie Underwood - set for release this Friday.
Amy Winehouse died trying to save her own life.
That would be the argument of her father, Mitch Winehouse, who continues to make the case that withdrawal killed Amy, not a major drug overdose that many suspected for obvious reasons. The singer passed away in July at age 27.
Amy Winehouse's toxicology results have proven she was not on any sort of illegal drugs at the time of her death, according to her family members.
She had been drinking alcohol, however.
Monday night on his Symphonica tour in Prague, George Michael gave fans a rendition of Amy Winehouse's "Love is a Losing Game," then gave them a piece of very personal information - he and longtime partner Kevin Goss broke up.
"It's time to be honest," he said. "My love life has has been more turbulent than I've let on. This man has brought me a lot of joy and a lot of pain."
Amy Winehouse's parents, Mitch and Janis, plan to convert her London home to become the headquarters of the new Amy Winehouse Foundation.
The charity organization will help children in need, say reports.
The late Amy Winehouse's final recording, a duet with the great Tony Bennett, will be released as a charity single for a foundation set up in her name.
"Body and Soul" will go on sale in September, with all proceeds going to the newly established Amy Winehouse Foundation, according to her dad, Mitch.


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IR Book Review | IR Staff
A goofy and irreverent take on Armageddon in: THE ANTICHRIST OF KOKOMO COUNTY
By David Skinner
Worried that his son might be the spawn of Satan, a dad will do anything to keep his child from realizing his dark destiny, much to the concern and annoyance of everyone else.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Pianist in a Bordello
By Mike C. Erickson
PIANIST IN A BORDELLO is a novel about a liberal Democratic politician with the rather unlikely name of Richard Milhouse Nixon Youngblood. Since he is running for congress in Northern California, he has written an autobiography to address some of the questionable activities of his past.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
The Ice Cream War
By Paul Janson
The operators of competing ice cream stores unite in a purposefully comic tag-team to
solve the murder of one of their own.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Black Wolf
By Andrés Aloi
BLACK WOLF is an effective depiction of youth from a male point of view in all its natural, yet crude, splendor.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Desperate in D.C.
By Phoebe Thompson and Crystal Walker
This humor book about "money, motherhood, and manners in the nation's capital" describes 11 months – August through June, plus an epilogue with July – in the life of two women living in an upscale Washington, D.C. community called The Village.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Saint Wally
By Courtney Taylor
After a man commits suicide, he teams up with a cast of familiar characters to save God and all of Creation.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Days of Amber
By Alex Chu
DAYS OF AMBER is a humorous, well-written account of life at a software development company.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Ralph Pincus
By Marcus Lambert
RALPH PINCUS introduces a unique lead character to the literary scene – an average Jewish thirty-something who teams up with a sorcerer and vampire to vanquish evil.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Kate's Escape from the Billable Hour
By Petula Parker
A young, well-paid lawyer spontaneously quits her job and heads to Spain in search of happiness, where she discovers contentment with life comes from being true to herself and not those around her.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
An Animal Life
By Howard Krum
AN ANIMAL LIFE is as smart as it is funny; brilliant characters, hilarious occurrences, and smart medicine make this a fun and engaging read.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Labor Pains
By C.A. Huggins
LABOR PAINS by C.A. Huggins appears to be aiming for an "Office Space"-like effect, but is ultimately goes on far too long without developing a compelling or particularly witty conceit.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Tales From Little Lump: Alien Season
By Jeff Folschinsky
This fast paced, amusing story takes place entirely in the confines of a small convenience store in Little Lump, Texas. There is a fisherman behaving very oddly, there are flying saucers, invisible alien ambassadors, and before all is said and done the US Army gets involved.
IR Book Reviews | IR Staff
By Morgan Parker
When recently separated, self-involved, and self-published online author, Morgan receives a fan letter about his top-selling ebook "Sextual Encounters," from Emma, he begins a journey of romantic discovery that will take him through marriage counseling, the grueling reality of group author events, and innumerable text messages.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
431 Superior
By DM Pratt
431 SUPERIOR is a dream come true. That is, Lucy and Nate Fair's dream come true. Two divorced parents — with six daughters, two dogs combined — fall in love, and transform their ordinary lives into a sexy fantasia.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Quit School!
By Francis Bennett
Through eight short stories about one boy's life, this collection examines the pains and pleasures of entering adolescence. From hunting deer in the woods to hunting ghosts in an old house, these original pieces have something to say, although the message isn't always as humorous as the subtitle suggests.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Obama Confidential
By Marc Berlin
Marc Berlin has "collected" an amusing selection of letters to the President in his timely work of satire. A vast array of citizens have been writing President Obama a variety of letters, and Berlin does a great job of making fun of each writer, regardless of their stated political preferences, as well as poking fun at the President himself.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Leaving Early
By d.f. waitt
As the narrator of LEAVING EARLY counts down the days to his suicide, he contemplates his life so far while offering some poignant and facetious observations of life in this richly dark and humorous narrative.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Journey to Virginland-Catena
By Armen Melkian
Armen Melkian looks to deconstruct the traditional novel, turn literary convention on its ear, and create another form. Catena is the first 'epistle' of the Journey to Virginland trilogy.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
My Year as a Clown
By Robert Steven Williams
A tale of trial and error, mostly error, for a recently divorced middle-age man, as he looks for love and eventually becomes a (slightly) better person.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Hunting with Lawn Darts
By Geoffrey McKeel
Thirtysomething Chad Jordan suffers from a terrible affliction: he's a good Catholic boy suffering from terminal sensitivity and old-fashioned values.
IR Book Review | IR Staff
Lady Justice and the Watchers
By Robert Thornhill
Lady Justice and the Watchers is a mystery/comedy novel in the series featuring retired real estate salesman, Walt Williams.


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The next time you talk to your MP and they tell you how they stand behind the Canadian Forces, call them on it as they are lying.
Category Archives: politics
Brian Bowman's political career comes to an end…
You might not be able to build Rome in one day, but you sure can destroy Camelot in a matter of hours.
At the start of this week, Mayor Brian Bowman marked his first 100 days in office by highlighting all his good deeds since he moved into Sam Katz's old digs.
A mere two days later, Winnipeg's rookie mayor was effectively called out as a liar by the most popular man in the city, True North Sports & Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman.
The owner of the Winnipeg Jets, who appears to enjoy publicity as much as a Siamese cat revels in an ice bath, stood up in front of reporters on Wednesday afternoon and declared he's disappointed with Bowman, regretted publicly endorsing the privacy lawyer during the 2014 mayoral race and then delivered a political gut punch to the rookie mayor.
You know that massive True North development proposal for a pair of downtown properties south of Graham Avenue? You know, the one Bowman has been demanding to hear details about since the middle of January? The one that has caused a vicious public airing of accusations and counter-accusations between the mayor and CentreVenture, the city's downtown development agency?
Well, according to Mark Chipman, Brian Bowman has known about the $400-million proposal to build three towers and a public square since November, when the new mayor attended a Jets game with provincial cabinet minister Kevin Chief.
Not only did Bowman know, but he and Chief were shown a promotional video about the project in the True North chairman's office, which offers a view of the land in question.
This creates a massive credibility problem for Winnipeg's new mayor, who told reporters in January he did not meet with Mark Chipman and did not know much about the proposal beyond "rumours and rumblings."
The proposal in question involves the construction of residential housing, office space, retail stores, a public square, a new hotel and two if not three skywalks on a Manitoba Public Insurance-owned surface-parking lot at 225 Carlton St. – optioned to True North partners since 2012 – and the former Carlton Inn site at 220 Carlton St., owned by CentreVenture. If all goes well for True North, it will also involve a new headquarters for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries.
For three weeks, Bowman has blasted CentreVenture for signing an option on the Carlton Inn site while another corporation, construction company Stuart Olson, was obligated to build a hotel on that land.
Bowman denounced this option as a secret deal. He excoriated CentreVenture staff and board members. He declared city hall would no longer tolerate backroom conversations about real estate, especially in the wake of the Winnipeg fire-paramedic station construction scandal, police headquarters scandal and other Katz-era real-estate scandals involving lands swaps, unappraised property purchases and suppressed land valuations.
After nearly three weeks of silence, the usually reserved Chipman gathered reporters into the bowels of MTS Centre – the Excalibur-like source of his power and popularity – and called out Bowman for failing to disclose what he knew about the "True North Square" proposal and when.
So no one looks that good in this and I suspect this has just ended Brian Bowman's political career.  The corpse will serve to the end of the term but few survive these kind of shots he is taking because no one believes him anymore.
Nobody comes out of this sorry mess looking good. Chipman faces a conflict allegation, even if he did recuse himself from the CentreVenture board and quit shortly afterward. Bowman appears to be a disingenuous liar, doing whatever it takes to appear to be righteous in the face of previous city malfeasance. Stuart Olson looks like a bad-faith actor in its commitment to build a hotel for RBC Convention Centre. The convention centre board looks like a bunch of amateurs for failing to sign a construction contract with Stuart Olson.
A friend of mine calls municipal politics the "minor leaguesâ€.  Another one calls it the ECHL of politics.  It feels that way at times.  There is so much bumbling and incompetence whether in Saskatoon or in Winnipeg that you just have to appreciate it for what it is.  A mess.
It's just nice to read about it somewhere else and not here.
Is Putin winning the confrontation with NATO?
It's different for dictators or authoritarian regimes. Flick a switch, pull a lever, and things happen, often instantly. Which is one reason why the Putin-versus-Europe contest in Ukraine is so one-sided; why one side acts and the other struggles to react; why one side is consistently ahead of the curve, the other behind it – in the short-term, at least.
Six months after the Kremlin stunned Europe with its land grab in Ukraine, a Nato summit in Wales unveiled its ideas for shoring up security in eastern Europe. For more than two decades, the alliance had been beset by self-doubt. Having won the cold war, what was the point any more?
Putin gave the military planners at Mons and the armies of bureaucrats in Brussels a new lease of life. Nato's core purpose – facing down and containing Russia – was newly legitimised.
The summit decided to put a spearhead force at brigade strength, more than 5,000 men, into Poland and the Baltics at short notice: small units of special forces within hours, bigger reinforcements within days, at the first hint of trouble.
That was six months ago. But since the September summit, the plan has atrophied, bogged down in endless circular discussions of who does what, when and where. Who pays for it? Where is the kit coming from? Will the Americans step up to relieve the Europeans? Who will be in command?
First of all, NATO did not win the cold war, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher did for the exact reasons mentioned.  It won't win this conflict unless the United States has a stronger foreign policy and from what we have seen from Barack Obama, it will have to come from the next President.
Conservatives are Attacking Palin. What changed?
She personalized the attacks on her and her family
In fairness, Palin was once a reform-minded governor who enjoyed an 88 percent approval rating. But something happened on the way to Des Moines. I suspect the most vicious attacks (especially the "Trig Truther†stuff) radicalized her and embittered her, but I also suspect she also took the easy way out. Instead of going back to Alaska after the 2008 defeat, boning up on the issues, continuing her work as governor, and forging a national political comeback, she cashed in with reality-TV shows and paid speaking gigs.
This isn't an original or new observation, In fact, back in July 2009, I wrote: "The tragedy of Sarah Palin's recent press conference announcing her resignation as governor of Alaska flows from the sense that so much potential has been wasted.â€
The trouble with taking the easy way out is that it doesn't last forever. The people who truly last in this business don't rely on shortcuts or good looks or gimmicks; they survive on work ethic, wit, and intellect. (That's why, no matter how grandiose he gets, Newt Gingrich will always have a gig. Newt will always be interesting, because he will always have something to say—something to contribute.)
I had dinner a couple of months ago with a politician of a different political philosophy than I. Â This was a big part of our talk. Â Governments and politicians that can engage with their critics are far more successful in the long term (think Peter Lougheed or a Bill Davis) than those that treat all criticism as a personal attack that must be defeated.
Of course more troubling are the personal attacks, even if they have a hint of accuracy. Â What do you do about them? Â Some can shrug them off while others are changed by them. Â Palin was changed by them. Â I was never a fan but I agree that instead of fixing her flaws, she has doubled down on them, something that too many politicians do.
True North?
So Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have a new ad out.  Canadian politicians since the days of John G. Diefenbaker have been loving the north.  John Turner, Jean Chretien, Stephen Harper all love the north.  It's expected that Justin Trudeau loves the north as well… and wants to make it better!  That's it. Â
As a voter, I want to hear how.  What is the big strategy.  There is some political room for him to maneveur as Harper has really accomplished nothing as part of his northern agenda.  The Department of National Defence can't even procure rifles for the Rangers (who arguably don't need replacements for their bolt action rifles that work really well in the winter).  Plans for a deepwater port?  Umm that has gone nowhere. Â
Instead of just matching Harper's unfulfilled and broken promises with real ideas, Trudeau just floated out some cliches and feel good statements.  In other words, not much has changed.
Former CIA officer found guilty of espionage for leaking classified information to NYT reporter
Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of espionage Monday on charges that he told a reporter for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran's nuclear program.
The conviction is a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has conducted an unprecedented crackdown on officials who speak to journalists about security matters without the administration's approval. Prosecutors prevailed after a yearslong fight in which the reporter, James Risen, refused to identify his sources.
The case revolved around a C.I.A. operation in which a former Russian scientist provided Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear component schematics. Mr. Risen revealed the operation in his 2006 book, "State of War,†describing it as a mismanaged, potentially reckless mission that may have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program.
On the third day of deliberations, the jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., convicted Mr. Sterling on nine felony counts. Mr. Sterling, who worked for the C.I.A. from 1993 to 2002 and now lives in O'Fallon, Mo., faces a maximum possible sentence of decades in prison, though the actual sentence is likely to be far shorter. Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court, who presided over the weeklong trial, allowed Mr. Sterling to remain free on bond and set sentencing for April 24.
"This is a just and appropriate outcome,†Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said. "The defendant's unauthorized disclosures of classified information compromised operations undertaken in defense of America's national security. The disclosures placed lives at risk. And they constituted an egregious breach of the public trust by someone who had sworn to uphold it. As this verdict proves, it is possible to fully prosecute unauthorized disclosures that inflict harm upon our national security without interfering with journalists' ability to do their jobs.â€
Edward B. MacMahon Jr., Mr. Sterling's lawyer, said he would seek to get the verdict thrown out and, failing that, file an appeal.
"We're obviously very saddened by the jury's verdict,†Mr. MacMahon said in a telephone interview. "We continue to believe in Jeffrey's innocence, and we're going to continue to fight for him up to the highest levels.â€
Was he even guilty?
Mr. Sterling's lawyers argued that it was just as likely that Mr. Risen had learned about the operation from Capitol Hill staff members, then pieced together details from other sources at the C.I.A. and from the Russian scientist himself. Mr. Pollack acknowledged that Mr. Sterling had a relationship with Mr. Risen, but said they had talked only about Mr. Sterling's discrimination lawsuit against the C.I.A. Mr. Risen probably asked about Merlin and the Iranian operation, Mr. Pollack said, but Mr. Sterling did not provide any information.
Mr. Sterling is the latest in a string of former officials and contractors the Obama administration has charged with discussing national security matters with reporters. Under all previous presidents combined, three people had faced such prosecutions. Under President Obama, there have been eight cases, and journalists have complained that the crackdown has discouraged officials from discussing even unclassified security matters.
So there are leaks and then "approved leaksâ€
Mr. Risen's lengthy fight to avoid testifying about his sources turned the case into a rallying point for news organizations, who said the Justice Department had made it harder to cover national security beyond what it released in news statements and approved leaks, such as those that told a glowing story about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. Less favorable stories, such as those revealing warrantless wiretapping or secret prisons, led to criminal investigations.
So the Whitehouse is fine with favourable leaks but those that reflect poorly on the President and the U.S. government are prosecuted. Â Tell me again why we had such high hopes in Barack Obama?
Breaking: New York politician is accused of being on the take
Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York Assembly, exploited his position as one of the most powerful politicians in the state to obtain millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, federal authorities said on Thursday as they announced his arrest on a sweeping series of corruption charges.
For years, Mr. Silver has earned a lucrative income outside government, asserting that he was a simple personal injury lawyer who represented ordinary people. But federal prosecutors said his purported law practice was a fiction, one he created to mask about $4 million in payoffs that he carefully and stealthily engineered for over a decade.
Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was accused of steering real estate developers to a law firm that paid him kickbacks. He was also accused of funneling state grants to a doctor who referred asbestos claims to a second law firm that employed Mr. Silver and paid him fees for referring clients.
"For many years, New Yorkers have asked the question: How could Speaker Silver, one of the most powerful men in all of New York, earn millions of dollars in outside income without deeply compromising his ability to honestly serve his constituents?†Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked at a news conference with F.B.I. officials. "Today, we provide the answer: He didn't.â€
Why is there no political opposition to the Boston Olympic bid?
If politicians don't support the Olympics, the terrorists win.
In fashioning a campaign dominated by locals, the committee also hammered in another cornerstone: opposition to the Olympics is seen as a display of insufficient civic pride. Even elected officials who harbor deep misgivings about the Games — due to its expected cost, security risks, or potential for embarrassing mismanagement — say privately that they keep their fears quiet so as not to trigger any backlash.
One state lawmaker likened criticism of the Olympic plan to speaking in favor of an enemy nation during a time of war, saying it seemed "unpatriotic.â€
Just as adroitly, the Olympic organizers resisted the outcry from the disclosure and anti-secret-government crowd to release even a morsel of their formal planning before the US Olympic Committee decided on Boston. This provided a tactical edge, because there were no specific projects to oppose or price tags about which to kvetch. Potential critics had nothing at which to shoot. That ends next week when the bid documents become public, and 2024 organizers present their early thinking under a bright media glare in a public meeting.
And I guess politicians who only care about their own political self-interests. Â I thought Boston reminded me of Saskatoon.
Mike Huckabee Scolds Obamas for Letting Their Daughters Be Fans of Beyoncé
Since when is how Barack and Michelle Obama parent their teens part of political discourse?
"I don't understand how on one hand they can be such doting parents and so careful about the intake of everything—how much broccoli they eat and where they go to school, and making sure they're kind of sheltered and shielded from so many things,†Huckabee explained before going in for the jugular: "And yet they don't see anything that might not be suitable for either a preteen or a teen in some of the lyrical content and choreography of Beyoncé,†Huckabee told People magazine.
For me this crosses the line and isn't needed.  Barack Obama is not a perfect president.  I have long been critical of his foreign policy and things like Keystone XL (which is part of his foreign policy) but going after how he parents is too much.
Will Saskatchewan Fall into Recession?
Will Saskatchewan experience a recession because of falling oil prices?
The Conference Board of Canada predicts this drop will cause Alberta to slip into a recession by the end of the year. Jeff Rubin, the author of "The End of Growth" and former chief economist of CIBC World Markets believes the dip in the sector could affect Saskatchewan as well, though not as seriously.
"I don't expect Saskatchewan or Newfoundland to be as adversely affected as Alberta," Rubin said.
"But it's going to impact the economy, it's going to impact tax revenues. Governments are going to be challenged in the sense that if they don't challenge spending, they'll see their deficits go off side."
It could also affect property prices.
The Conference Board of Canada predicts that Alberta will slip into a recession before the end of the year. Rubin echoes that warning. He said Alberta could experience its worst recession since the late 1980s.
At the end of the day, Saskatchewan will be okay because we have what the world needs.  It may not be as great as it was in 2009 but we will be okay.  That being said, we are so reliant on commodity prices that these kind of dips are going to impact us forever with no way out.  In that way the new Saskatchewan under Brad Wall isn't a lot different than the old Saskatchewan under Grant Devine or Roy Romanow.  Like the rest of the world, the global economy will always have a big impact on us for good or for bad.
Cam Broten has said before that he wants more eggs in more baskets.  I think we all do in Saskatchewan but man is it hard to do.  I posted before about Alberta's struggles in diversifying their economy and the same thing has happened here.  I agree with diversification but we are a province of a million people and there are going to be times that the world economy conspires against us and makes it really hard.  This is one of those times.
What is Obama's Legacy?
New York Magazine asked 53 historians what Barack Obama's legacy will be
Almost every respondent wrote that the fact of his being the first black president will loom large in the historical narrative — though they disagreed in interesting ways. Many predict that what will last is the symbolism of a nonwhite First Family; others, the antagonism Obama's blackness provoked; still others, the way his racial self-consciousness constrained him. A few suggested that we will care a great deal less about his race generations from now — just as John F. Kennedy's Catholicism hardly matters to current students of history. Across the board, Obamacare was recognized as a historic triumph (though one historian predicted that, with its market exchanges, it may in retrospect be seen as illiberal and mark the beginning of the privatization of public health care). A surprising number of respondents argued that his rescue of the economy will be judged more significant than is presently acknowledged, however lackluster the recovery has felt. There was more attention paid to China than isis (Obama's foreign policy received the most divergent assessments), and considerable credit was given to the absence of a major war or terrorist attack, along with a more negative assessment of its price — the expansion of the security state, drones and all.Â
Alberta has already tried to diversify it's economy. It failed
As for policy, the Alberta government tried to diversify the Alberta economy in a deliberate fashion back in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Starting under then Premier Peter Lougheed and also under his successor, Don Getty, the provincial government provided loans, loan guarantees and equity stakes to companies in the non-energy sector.
In one example, the provincial government backed "made in Alberta†banks, trust companies and investment firms. After the early 1980s recession and then a mid-decade collapse in oil prices (to $10.25 a barrel in April 1986, down from $26 in December 1985), Alberta's real estate values also plummeted. That took down many of those same provincially guaranteed financial institutions, themselves heavily invested in real estate.
The price tag to the provincial government for that diversification effort was $1.8 billion, for everything from failed loan guarantees to partially covered consumer and investor deposits.
In another diversification attempt, the province also loaned, guaranteed and took equity partnerships in everything from a forestry company to a meat packing plant, a provincial bitumen upgrader, a waste treatment plant and a high-tech company. By the early 1990s, defaults and foregone capital investments from all of the above cost the province $2.2 billion — in addition to the $1.8-billion financial sector collapse.
These efforts didn't help Albertans adjust to a new reality or diversify the economy. It was simply activist industrial policy, where governments pick winners and losers. The latter cropped up more regularly than the former.
Past best before date?
Has Harper been on the job for too long?
One of the costs of long-tenured prime ministers is that over time there accumulates a sense of hubris and a complacency that serves the pride and ego of the leader and his cadre, but few others. This mentality is captured well by Louis St. Laurent's 1949 campaign slogan: "You've never had it so good.†While, at the time, St. Laurent had only been in power for a short time, his party had been in power for 13 years in a row.
Another example is Mulroney's two kicks at the constitutional can. While the 1987 Meech Lake Accord showed fresh, albeit elitist, thinking on the constitution, the 1992 Charlottetown Accord seemed more like an act of great hubris and (and, incidentally, political suicide).
Perhaps my favourite instance of hubris and entitlement, though, is Chrétien's decision to stay through the 2000 election cycle. It was rumoured that he made this decision, in part, to spite Paul Martin, heir apparent and rival in the style of an epic melodrama reminiscent of Isaac and Ishmael. The long-suffering country returned a Liberal majority, steeped in corruption and in-fighting, and was rewarded with front-row seats to see Chrétien and Martin run the Grits into the ground.
On top of hubris, entrenched prime ministerial tenures also erode the capacity of opposition parties to do their job. As Franks argued, weakened oppositions, who cannot rely on patronage, who do not enjoy the extensive resources enjoyed by the governing parties, and who must constantly deal with rookie MPs are less able to effectively hold the government to account.
Harper, prime minister since 2006, is deeply into the stage of leadership at which his elapsed time in office has become a problem. The extent of his hubris is well-known. Indeed, it has gone so far as to rouse former House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken, who told author Michael Harris, "Parliament can hardly be weakened any more than it already is. Harper can't go much further without making the institution dysfunctional. He is trying to control every aspect of House business. In fact, it will have to be returned to its former state by someone if we are to have a democracy.â€
John McGettigan: Candidate for the Saskatchewan Party Nomination in Saskatoon Stonebridge Dakota Constituency
So I heard that John McGettigan was running for the Saskatchewan Party nomination in Saskatoon Stonebridge Dakota.  I then found this speech from a couple of years ago he gave at a Teacher's Rally where he questioned the Brad Wall lead Saskatchewan Party governments intelligence, passion for education, and commitment to our children.
Now he wants to be a part of the same government he bashed from the front of the legislature.  It's been a long time since I have been involved in partisan politics but I don't think it works like that.
Of course it actually gets weirder with this odd campaign announcement on Facebook where he seems to think he is running to be a cabinet minister.
So if he isn't named to cabinet (and given the perks to the position) is he going to quit?  Who makes those kinds of declarations (or doesn't at least take away his campaign managers computer) as they announce their nomination?
Okay, so the reason the Sask Party has "messed up†education is that they don't have the information needed to fix it?  The bureaucrats, the meetings with the unions, the work with the Saskatchewan Teacher's Federation, meetings with John McGettigan himself … that isn't getting them the information they need?  So only McGettigan himself once elected and presumably named as Minister of Education will then share this information on how to fix education in this province.
It's so weird.  It is like he is running to be education minister and that is it which even if you have no idea how the world works, you have to know our system doesn't work like that.
In case you are wondering if that is all. Â No. Â There was this statement by his campaign manager.
Again, this man needs to have his computer taken away from him. Â This may be the most disastrous start to any nomination campaign that I have ever seen.
Is the Lorje Leak 'Inside baseball'?
I tend to agree with Prof. David McGrane on this.
Charles Smith, an assistant political science professor at the University of Saskatchewan's St. Thomas More College, said if Lorje is found to have broken the law she will have a "professional obligation" to resign. "I think she'd have to step down," Smith said. "I don't see how she could stay on."
Regardless of the outcome of the police investigation, the "whiff of scandal" now surrounding Lorje will "dog her over the next two years," make a re-election bid challenging and "make it very difficult for her to act and do the work she was elected to do," Smith added.
After her colleagues sanctioned her Monday, Lorje told reporters she had "no intention of resigning."
She apologized for the breach, but maintained she did not know she was breaking council's code of conduct when she sent a document to "a trusted adviser" for "private, independent, confidential advice" in early June. Cline, who received the document, was an NDP MLA alongside Lorje from 1995 to 2003 and served in cabinet with her from 2001 to 2002. He owns a home on 11th Street East in Nutana, where riverbank slumping has been a problem since 2012.
City solicitor Patricia Warwick said the leaked document contains legal advice, is subject to solicitorclient privilege and contains information that could be "injurious" to the city if it's made public.
Councillors Darren Hill and Tiffany Paulsen told reporters after Monday's meeting they have heard from numerous constituents calling for Lorje's resignation and they would step down from their posts were they in her position.
David McGrane, a political science professor at the U of S, said he doesn't see "any reason" for Lorje to resign. He said he suspects voters with short memories will have forgotten about the leak – which he described as "inside baseball" – by the time the next municipal election rolls around in October 2016.
"As long as this doesn't reproduce itself, it should really wash away within a short amount of time," he said.
I'll add in some disclosure to this. Wendy and I are both friends with Pat Lorje, something that came up many times in the previous leak investigation that didn't find anything.
I agree with Charles Smith. I think that anyone that is convicted of a crime who is in public office should resign. There is more than adequate precedent for that and I think it is part of a functioning democracy. If she is not charged or convicted, I also agree with David McGrane that this will not affect her electability. People just don't tune in enough to care that much at the two year point of a mandate.
Also kudos to McGrane for using the phrase "inside baseball†in his interview with Andrea Hill.


text:
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Gronkowski practices again Monday; Belichick calls him day to day
A day after Rob Gronkowski returned to New England's practice, Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked to update the status of his star tight end and whether he'd be ready to go in time for the season-opener.
Not surprisingly, Belichick didn't have much interesting to say.
"There is no straight-line formula for that. We take it day to day," Belichick said, via ESPN Boston. "I don't know any other way to do it. We don't know how he's going to be feeling in two days. Or any other player. It's not about him, it's about any player that's coming back from injury. That's how we do it. Nobody has a crystal ball."
Gronkowski didn't practice during the preseason after undergoing multiple surgeries on his forearm and another one on his back. Although Gronkowski didn't participate fully in Sunday's practice, he practiced more than some would have anticipated and was one of two tight ends, the other being Zach Sudfeld, who worked with the starting unit in full pads.
"Gronk is obviously a big part of our team," tight end Michael Hoomanawanui said Sunday. "He is a great football player. He's a great guy to be around. There are no real highs and lows with Rob; all the stuff he's gone through you would kind of think it would be human nature to see that. He's taken his punches and he always seems to stay up high. To see that, and be around, I think it lifts everyone else's spirits, too. It's something I admire about him, not only as a football player but as a person.
"He looked good. He looked almost Gronk-esque."
On Monday, the team was in helmets and shells, and Gronkowski again was out there. And Belichick couldn't help but be a little bit optimistic.
"This is his first opportunity to be in pads," Belichick said. "So, yeah, he's definitely moving forward."
But as far as predicting whether Gronkowski would be ready to play the Bills on Sunday, Belichick said that Gronkowski was day to day. For the record, there were reports in the middle of last month that Gronkowski could be ready to play by Week 3.
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To assess whether a banking system crisis increases short-term population cardiovascular mortality rates.
International, longitudinal multivariate regression analysis of cardiovascular disease mortality data from 1960 to 2002
A system-wide banking crisis increases population heart disease mortality rates by 6.4% (95% CI: 2.5% to 10.2%, p < 0.01) in high income countries, after controlling for economic change, macroeconomic instability, and population age and social distribution. The estimated effect is nearly four times as large in low income countries.
Banking crises are a significant determinant of short-term increases in heart disease mortality rates, and may have more severe consequences for developing countries.
Fear of financial loss drives people to do irrational things. As the runs on Northern Rock banks in England took place, one could not help but wonder how people's trust in the financial system could have eroded so rapidly.1 Much worse, the spread of panic, in part propelled by media, appears to have turned what could have otherwise been a momentary blip on the financial scene into an economic policy debacle – ultimately leading to a reluctant intervention by the Bank of England and an historic guarantee by the chancellor of the exchequer of all Northern Rock deposits in the UK banking system. But the financial storm has not yet passed.2
What might be the health implications if the Northern Rock episode develops further into a full-fledged banking crisis in England? To our knowledge, no study has evaluated the relationship between a banking crisis and mortality, even though such crises have occurred more than once every two years in developed countries in the past 30 years. As the current experiences suggest, banking crises impose considerable panic and stress on people and, in particular, on vulnerable older populations. Such acute mental distress has been shown to i) significantly raise heart rate and blood pressure, which may increase myocardial oxygen demand and disrupt vulnerable plaques, and ii) in atherosclerotic patients lead to primary reductions in myocardial oxygen supply via impaired dilatation and vasoconstriction [1-4]. Clinical and experimental studies have documented that extremely stressful events, such as earthquakes [5], wars [6] or terrorist attacks [7,8] are associated with increased risk of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death.
In the context of a bank system crisis, elderly persons are much more likely to feel threatened by risks to their accumulated savings, and, not surprisingly, the majority of persons who stood in the queue outside Northern Rock appeared to be disproportionately older. Older populations are also the most sensitive to acute financial stress and more likely to have predisposing cardiovascular risk factors such hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. As a result, an acute stressor such as a banking crisis might be expected to raise their short-term risk of fatal cardiac events [5-8].
In this article, we empirically test whether banking crises are linked to increases in cardiovascular mortality rates, using longitudinal data from 1960 to 2002 for high- and low-income countries.
Data are drawn primarily from two sources: male cardiovascular mortality rates per 100,000 population from the World Health Organization Global Mortality Database, and years of bank system crises from the World Bank. A bank crisis is defined as an episode in which a significant proportion of banks fail or their assets are exhausted [9]. Since bank crises often last for multiple years, indicators are used for the first year of a country's banking system crisis in order to isolate the short-term effect on mortality.
A set of controls adjusts for potential confounders and surveillance variations. First, as seen in the case of Northern Rock, there is frequently an economic boom prior to a bank system crisis, which may lead to artificially higher or lower mortality rates [10]; hence, models correct for the previous year's change in real gross domestic product per capita. Second, periods of heightened economic uncertainty may increase mortality rates irrespective of whether a banking crisis occurred. Period effects such as these are controlled for by including dummy variables for each year. Third, countries may differ with regard to their surveillance or monitoring of heart disease mortality. A set of dummies for each country are used so that the models evaluate the mortality changes within individual countries while holding constant time-invariant differences between countries including higher predispositions to heart conditions as well as political, cultural and structural differences. In effect, this conservative modeling approach makes the data more comparable. Lastly, controls are used for the population age- and social-distribution (population dependency ratio and urbanization) as well as other measures of macroeconomic flux (log inflation rates) and social development (population average years of education).
Thus we model heart disease mortality rates as follows:
Here i is country and t is year. Heart disease rates are logged to adjust for positive skew. BANK is the measure of whether a country experienced a banking crisis in the current year; GDP is the previous year's percentage change in real gross domestic product per capita; INFL is the log of inflation in consumer price index; URBAN is the percentage of the population living in urban settings; DEP is the ratio of the youth and elderly to the overall population; EDUC is the average population years of education received; μ and η are sets of dummy variables which control for country- and period-specific effects. In order to better extend results to the current United Kingdom crisis, separate models are used for high- and low-income countries, defined as per capita GDP above $25,000 US and less than $2,000 US.
Table 1 presents the results of longitudinal multivariate regression models of the associated between banking crises and male heart disease mortality in high-income countries from 1960 to 2002. A banking crisis on average is connected with a 6.4% short-term increase in cardiovascular disease mortality (95% CI: 2.5% to 10.1%, p < 0.01) in high income countries, after correcting for prior economic change, inflation levels, population education levels, urbanization, and dependency ratios as well as period- and country-effects. For low-income countries, the estimated effect is roughly four times as large, with a banking crisis corresponding to a 26.0% increase in mortality (95% CI: 2.3% to 49.7%, p < 0.05). However, the sample size diminishes considerably due to the lack of available comparative heart disease data and as a result the confidence intervals are broad enough to where the effect size cannot be distinguished from that in high income countries.
Table 1. Effect of a Banking Crisis on Log Heart Disease Mortality Rates by Income Level, 1960–2002
How many deaths does the estimated effect correspond to in the United Kingdom? In 2004/2005, there were 50,544 male deaths due to heart disease in the United Kingdom – among the highest rates in OECD countries [11]. If a severe banking crisis were to hit, our results suggest that it would cause anywhere from 1280 to 5130 additional heart disease deaths [3]. To put this effect in perspective, this is more than ten-times the number of British troops who have died in Iraq.
Our results show that bank system crises are associated with short-term increases in heart disease mortality rates, and suggest that this effect may be significantly more pronounced in low-income countries where they occur more frequently. These empirical findings also provide a textbook illustration of how financial globalization matters for health: as a result of US mortgage defaults, Britain's banking sector – and the health of its population – face risks.
Despite the robustness of our findings, there are several important limitations to our analysis. First, as with all cross-national analyses, the potential exists for ecological fallacies. However, the observed associations are biologically plausible, given the established mechanisms by which acute psychological stress increases myocardial ischemia [1-5]. Second, although we control for differences in surveillance between countries, there is potential for bias arising from time-varying surveillance changes within countries. It is, however, unlikely that the temporal variation in surveillance can account for the relationship between banking crises and heart disease net of our control variables, and further the direction of the potential bias is unclear. Third, without more refined data, the epidemiology behind our findings cannot be fully resolved. Even so, the results are almost certainly driven by acute cardiac events which are more likely to have been incident in older population groups. Such non-differential measurement error in our data would have the effect of diluting the regression results, and thus renders our estimates conservative.
Containing the spread of financial hysteria is desirable not only for preventing a systemic bank crisis from occurring but also for avoiding excess cardiac mortality. This study also further supports the availability of cardiac care during stressful episodes such as bank runs when large groups of at-risk individuals experience acute mental distress.
Northern Rock reminds us that macroeconomic stability is not just about financial health. Whatever one might think of the Bank of England's U-turn, it probably has spared the United Kingdom from a full-scale bank crisis that would have been borne out not only in economic terms but quite possibly in human lives. The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, despite losing some of his tough love reputation, may have helped contribute to a healthier population. The concern remains, however, that by effectively bailing out financial miscreants, the Bank of England may encourage more risky financial behavior in the future (so-called "moral hazard"), and as result increase the risk of a future bank crisis and its associated threats to cardiovascular health.
Competing interests
The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
DS conducted the empirical analysis and drafted the manuscript; CM provided details on the banking crisis, conducted qualitative research during the Northern Rock bank run, and participated in the empirical analysis; LK offered helpful comments and criticisms of various drafts and reviewed the empirical analysis.
Appendix 1. Endnotes
1. In mid-August 2007, the United Kingdom became embroiled in the global financial turmoil that had already hit the US, Germany and France in the early summer of 2007. One of the UK's banks, Northern Rock, had invested in a business plan to borrow heavily in the UK and international money markets, to extend mortgages based on this funding, and then to resell these mortgages on international capital markets. When the global demand dropped in August 2007, Northern Rock became vulnerable to a shutdown in funds. Panic on the financial markets led to further panic among individual depositors that their savings might not be available should Northern Rock go into receivership. This led to a classic bank run – the UK's first in 150 years – where depositors line up outside the bank to withdraw all of their savings as quickly as possible, particularly since everyone else was doing the same. While action by depositors in such a moment was not obviously collectively rational, it was most certainly individually rational.
2. See for example "UK still vulnerable to credit squeeze." Financial Times, or "Bank of England fears re-run of credit crisis." The Guardian, on October 25th 2007.
The authors wish to thank Andrea Bertola and Marc Suhrcke at the World Health Organization Venice Office for providing the global heart disease mortality rate data.
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|By Marketwired .
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|November 12, 2012 09:00 AM EST
SAN MATEO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/12/12 -- For retailers, this final quarter of the calendar year is when sales targets are made or missed. Marketers try every method in the book to entice shoppers into stores, from BOGO (buy-one-get-one) and couponing to Santa's visits and puppies in the windows -- and for good reason. But to what return?
Not a particularly measurable one, often -- and certainly not one that's easy to predict or scale when successful. Until the FreeMonee Network: the world's first and only provider of consumer gift incentives. FreeMonee today released findings from an in-depth look at 'customer loyalty,' and found that even retailers' most loyal customers are cheating on them.
Using its patented Gift Underwriting Engine, FreeMonee analyzed the spending patterns of more than one million U.S. cardholders over two years, totaling more than 200 million transactions and $8 billion. The analysis included clothing stores ranging from big box retailers like Target and Sears to malls' anchors like Macy's and Kohl's, all the way up to the high-end department stores like Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales, and uncovered:
- Even the most loyal shoppers cheat: A retailer's most loyal customers (those visiting at least nine times a year), spend $1.44 with competitors for every $1.00 spent with them.
- The most loyal aren't necessarily the most valuable: Low frequency visitors (those coming 2-3 times per year) make up on average 26 percent of revenue, higher than the contribution from the most loyal (24 percent). Just one more visit from these less frequent shoppers would fundamentally change revenue numbers.
- Retailers fight for same slice of the wallet: On average, customers spend the same amount per visit at each retailer, regardless of how frequently they shop there. Across a nationally-representative competitive set of department store retailers, the average spend per visit was the same -- whether they shopped at a particular store once or more than nine times each year.
"The retailer with most foot traffic wins; this holiday season, and in general," said Jim Taschetta, chief marketing officer at FreeMonee. "Since there seems to be no fidelity in fashion, retail marketers need new ways to entice their existing customer base -- whether frequent or occasional shoppers -- to reach revenue goals at this vital time of the year. People like to shop in store; we help retail partners make sure they're the ones earning the valuable visit, by delivering a hard to resist incentive, the FreeMonee Gift."
With Black Friday just around the corner, there is not time to develop programs to reach consumers through the traditional marketing efforts retailers rely on to seduce shoppers into their stores. With no set-up required by the merchant, there's still plenty of time to launch a FreeMonee campaign that will impact sales in Q4.
The FreeMonee Gift arrives as an email or text from the consumer's card issuer, enticing them to shop. The consumer uses their credit or debit card to make a purchase at the retailer and the gift amount is automatically credited to their account.
Made possible through proprietary underwriting science, FreeMonee gives businesses the ability to do something very powerful: to directly connect with millions of customers through no-strings attached gifts that work just like cash. FreeMonee's Gift Underwriting Engine engages in complex predictive science to determine what gift amount to give to which potential customer, making certain that gifts result in increased foot traffic and profitable sales for the merchant.
About FreeMonee
FreeMonee is changing the economics of advertising by enabling stores and restaurants to attract Customers On-Demand using FreeMonee Gifts. With its unique new consumer incentive, FreeMonee delivers gifts of money directly to cardholders of the largest financial institutions. Customized to precisely match consumer interest, gifts allow consumers to purchase anything they want at designated stores or restaurants -- no strings attached. The gifts are made possible by FreeMonee's proprietary Gift Underwriting Engine, which accurately determines the right gift to ensure the highest level of consumer interest and the best return on ad spend for a merchant. Unlike traditional coupons or offers, FreeMonee Gifts feel like a gift card from a friend -- money to spend at places consumers like. For retail marketers, FreeMonee Gifts enable brands to attract large volumes of profitable, incremental customer visits -- without discounting. For banks and credit card companies, FreeMonee provides the opportunity to positively engage customers and strengthen loyalty.
Founded in 2009 and located in San Mateo, California, FreeMonee is led by former executives of Google, Visa, Oracle, Cisco, Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola. To date, FreeMonee has raised $45 million in funding with investments from Charles E. Ryan, Opus Capital Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, among others. Through continued partnerships with the top U.S. financial institutions, the company expects 50 million households to have access to FreeMonee Gifts in 2012. For more information, please visit www.freemonee.com.
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