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Editor's Note
The RussiaGeorgia War: Causes and Consequences
Nicolai N. Petro
Abkhazia, Georgia, and the Crisis of August 2008: Roots and Lessons
George Hewitt
East or West? Ukraines Quandary
Tor Bukkvoll
Revisionist Russia
Ian Bremmer
Courting the Bear: A New Era for RussianWestern Relations
Eric Walberg
A Reset for Relations?: Understanding Russian Grievances
Robert D. English
Blaming Moscow: The Power of the Anti-Russia Lobby
Andrei P. Tsygankov
NATO: The End of the Permanent Alliance
Stanley Kober
Western Values as Power Politics: The Struggle for Mastery in Eurasia
Alexander Cooley
Russias Demographic Crisis: The Threat to Sovereign Democracy
Graeme P. Herd and Grace Allen
Pakistan: Anatomy of a Crisis
Varun Vira
Book Review
Imperial Footprint: Americas Foreign Military Bases
Zoltan Grossman
Book Review
Holy and Contested City
John Quigley
Volume 11 ● Winter/Spring 2009After Georgia
Western Values as Power Politics: The Struggle for Mastery in Eurasia
The aftermath of the August 2008 Georgia–Russia war saw a wave of Western media speculation about the possible onset of a "new Cold War" between Russia and the West. Militarily, Russian armed forces had overwhelmed their United States–trained Georgian opponents in a textbook integrated campaign that rolled back Georgian advances in South Ossetia and swept through large parts of Georgia itself with devastating ease. Yet, the more important victory achieved by Moscow was political and psychological. In Russia, the Georgia war was widely viewed as a proxy war against the West, one that both sides had been inevitably building towards for a few years. The overwhelming level of support among the Russian public, even among the intelligentsia, for Russian military action in Georgian territory was fuelled by the popular perception that Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had operated for too long as an aggressive US puppet, fully supported by the Bush administration in Washington. Former Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan watched with alarm as Moscow directly intervened militarily in the sovereign territory of a neighbouring country under the pretext of supporting the rights of Russian citizens abroad.
'Common Values'
Although the Georgian military was routed and Russian troops severed all access from the south to South Ossetia and to Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia, Saakashvili remained publicly defiant and continued to associate himself proudly with the West. On 8 September 2008, during a visit to Tbilisi designed to show US support for Georgia in the wake of the conflict, Vice-President Dick Cheney proclaimed, "our common values are what truly unite and bind our two peoples." This "common values" theme has been emphasised by US and Georgian leaders for some time and alludes to the alleged solidarity of two democratic, Western-oriented countries. But the phrase itself has acquired a very particular meaning in Eurasia over the last few years, referring not only to Georgia's self-styled and much-touted image as a democracy, but to the country's newly acquired status as a privileged political friend and ally of the United States. Given the waning democratic credentials of the Georgian government in recent years, the "common values" meme now connotes, first and foremost, a geopolitical statement about Tbilisi's foreign-policy orientation towards Washington.
Moscow has long contended that the Western emphasis on spreading "democratic values" in Eurasia is riddled with hypocritical stances and the promotion of double standards. The Kremlin has accused the West of seeking, under the guise of promoting democracy, to undercut Russia's standing across Eurasia and project its direct influence right up to, and even within, Russia's borders. Thus, the roots of the Georgia war, and an understanding of its political aftermath, lie well beyond the disputed enclave of South Ossetia that was attacked by Georgian forces on 7 August 2008. Rather, the Georgian conflict is nested within a set of broader international and regional dynamics in which the West and Moscow have been competing for influence for quite some time, using a range of different mechanisms, actors and international organisations as proxies. Throughout the 1990s, with the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union to include a number of former communist states, the transatlantic model of continuing Western integration and political liberalisation had appeared unstoppable as the boundaries of the Euro-Atlantic community pushed further eastward. However, the August 2008 war signals that a resurgent Moscow is now willing and able aggressively to check Western influence in Eurasia along all dimensions.
From this perspective, the greatest political reverse of the war was suffered not by Georgia, through the final secession of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and Moscow's cynical recognition of their supposed political independence, for these territories had in effect been lost to Georgia since 1994; rather, the transatlantic community itself sustained the worst damage. The Georgia war revealed the short-sightedness of Washington's Eurasia policy and exposed severe cracks within the transatlantic alliance over how to deal with a resurgent Russia. Even the lead-up to the war had undermined, perhaps irreparably, the credibility of NATO's accession process as well as the organisation's self-definition as a liberal democratic security institution with well-defined membership criteria. Lastly, the war also exposed how, for political reasons, US officials had abandoned democracy-building in Georgia in favour of forging a clientelistic relationship with a Tbilisi government that, in turn, skilfully used its democratic image to shape the foreign-policy preferences of its US patron.
In the rest of this essay I explore just how the West's values agenda came to be undermined and then reframed as a geopolitical effort to compete for influence with Russia in Eurasia. Russia's resurgence and active pushback against NATO expansion and the Western-inspired coloured revolutions played an important role in this process, but many of the West's wounds were self-inflicted. In the case of Georgia, Washington could not distance itself from a regime that publicly flaunted its close ties and "shared common values" with the United States, despite observing a number of undemocratic actions by Tbilisi and its escalating nationalist ambitions prior to August 2008. And despite the relative popularity overseas of the new administration of President Barack Obama, there are few indications that the United States or the wider transatlantic community will be able to recapture the type of transformative power that they projected across Eurasia for much of the initial post–Cold War era.
Russia's Sense of Betrayal
The Georgia war has to be placed within the broader context of Russian–Western relations since the early 1990s, particularly as they are now popularly understood in Russia. The United States is viewed as having squandered a golden opportunity to pursue true partnership after the Soviet collapse, electing instead to impose its dictates and self-serving policies while Russia was politically and economically weak. Western economic advisers and institutions insisted on passing a set of neo-liberal policies that transferred great chunks of Russian state wealth to connected insiders, creating dozens of billionaires in the midst of general economic hardship. Russia borrowed heavily from Western-controlled global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to finance its transition from communism and accepted their conditions. Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs), committed to promoting their version of human rights, civil society and democratisation, established a presence throughout the country and openly criticised Russian political developments.
At the same time, the West set about absorbing many of Russia's old east European satellites into NATO and the European Union, ignoring any objections from Moscow about its security concerns. NATO even bombed Serbia, Russia's traditional ally, without United Nations sanction.
The weak regime of Boris Yeltsin was allegedly complicit in these policies and was propped up by the West. Whether the West could have more effectively aided Russia with its reform process is a matter of debate; however, the narrative that the West exploited Russia throughout the 1990s while ignoring Moscow's interests was a powerful legitimating pillar of President Vladimir Putin's foreign-policy agenda.
Just after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, there seemed to be a window of opportunity for invigorated US–Russian co-operation, especially on security matters. President Putin expressed his support for the US-led war on terrorism and agreed to allow, albeit with some reservations, the United States to establish military bases in the former Soviet Central Asian states to aid the American military effort in Afghanistan. Moscow even reached an agreement with Washington that allowed US special forces into Georgia in 2002 to train Georgian counterparts to fight Chechen militants who had massed in the country's lawless Pankisi Gorge. In return, Washington refrained from criticising Russia's renewed military campaign in Chechnya.
Soon after, however, US–Russian co-operation began to unravel and relations became increasingly acrimonious. In 2002, the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and pushed forward with plans for a missile defence system in east–central Europe. Moscow publicly sided with France and Germany in opposing the US authorisation for the use of force in Iraq in 2003, while new US national-security doctrines (including National Security Strategy 2002) that called for global force projection against terrorist and non-state threats set alarm bells ringing among Russian defence planners. As the United States became all-consumed with pursuing the global war on terror and the Iraq War, Russia was ignored or considered a minor priority.
At the same time, improving economic conditions in Russia and its growing state capacity, enabled by rising oil prices, empowered Moscow to reassert control over strategic domestic sectors and wield energy as a main lever of its foreign policy across Eurasia and Europe. Russia's steady resurgence put it at odds with Washington's self-proclaimed unilateralism. The further expansion of NATO to include the Baltic states and Black Sea countries (and the accompanying stationing of US military bases in Romania and Bulgaria), and the West's seeming reluctance to accept anything short of independence for Kosovo in spite of sustained Russian objections, all contributed to the widespread belief that Washington was content simply to ignore Moscow's opinions and interests. As former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev commented in a widely cited New York Times opinion piece just after the Georgia war,
Russia has long been told to simply accept the facts. Here's the independence of Kosovo for you. Here's the abrogation of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, and the American decision to place missile defenses in neighboring countries. Here's the unending expansion of NATO. All of these moves have been set against the backdrop of sweet talk about partnership. Why would anyone put up with such a charade?1
But the red line for Moscow was the so-called "coloured revolutions" across Eurasia under which old-guard regimes sympathetic to Russia were swept out of power after contested national elections and replaced by pro-Western political opponents. For Washington, the regime changes in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004 seemed to validate the Bush administration's commitment to the aggressive promotion of democratisation overseas. At a time when the insurgency had undermined US goals in Iraq, the coloured revolutions seemed otherwise to validate the White House's "freedom agenda". As a result, US officials, embassies and USAID missions were quick to accept credit for shaping events in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, even if their role had actually been minimal. From Moscow's perspective, these events signalled a clear Western intent to meddle in Russia's back yard and expand transatlantic influence under the pretence of supporting democracy. The promotion of "Western values" seemed to carry a clear geopolitical aim of undermining Russia's political influence in its own neighbours, and perhaps even within Russia itself.
Georgia's NATO Longing
In Georgia, the new regime of the youthful and charismatic Mikheil Saakashvili did little to quell Moscow's fears about Western designs on Eurasia. Accompanied by a circle of young, Western-educated reformers who spoke near-perfect English, Saakashvili immediately oriented his country towards the West and lauded the common values of Georgia and the United States. With impressive speed, he introduced a number of liberalising economic reforms, built up the institutional capacity of the Georgian state and waged a public campaign against corruption and criminality. At the same time, empowered by some initial successes in re-establishing state control over warlord-led regions such as Ajaria, the new Georgian president escalated the nationalist rhetoric regarding the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and called for their reunification with Georgia on Tbilisi's terms.
For Tbilisi, the way to solidify its sharp turn westward was to gain admission, as quickly as possible, into Euro-Atlantic institutions. Georgia upgraded its relationship with the European Union and in 2006 signed a "European Neighbourhood Policy" agreement, insisting that it could speed up the programme's five-year duration and implement all of the projects proposed by Brussels within three years. But it was the prize of NATO admission that Saakashvili wanted above all. In 2004, the Georgian military began to work with its counterparts in the NATO-led "International Security Assistance Force" in Afghanistan, while Tbilisi vigorously maintained its commitment to supply troops in support of the US military effort in Iraq (at a time when many other coalition partners were withdrawing). In late 2004, Georgia entered into a NATO "Individual Partnership Action Plan", and in 2006 the Georgian parliament unanimously voted to back the pursuit of NATO membership.
Georgia's bid for NATO membership was enthusiastically endorsed by Washington, but for the larger European NATO countries such as Germany, France and Italy it raised a host of thorny questions. Although NATO had expanded eastward several times before, Moscow viewed Georgia as a sphere of intense national-security interest. Georgian membership in NATO would not only antagonise Russia, but could also potentially entangle the alliance in Georgia's unresolved internal conflicts through Article 5 commitments for mutual defence. Moreover, even countries generally sympathetic to Georgia's entry bid—especially the newer NATO members such as the Baltic states, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic—observed real shortcomings in the quality of Georgia's democratic governance, the authenticity of which, under NATO membership criteria, was a prerequisite for accession negotiations.
Blunder in Bucharest
After being re-elected president in January 2008, Saakashvili launched a final all-out push to secure a NATO "Membership Action Plan" (MAP) for Georgia at the alliance's summit in Bucharest in April 2008. But the Bucharest meeting turned out to be an unmitigated disaster for both Georgia and NATO. Publicly deadlocked with Germany, France and Italy in the run-up to the meeting over extending MAP invitations to Georgia and Ukraine, US officials desperately sought some sort of additional face-saving commitment to give to Tbilisi. The result was an ill-crafted addition to the NATO declaration, inserted at the last minute at the insistence of the US delegation, which imprudently emphasised the inevitability of Georgian and Ukrainian membership:
NATO welcomes Ukraine's and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. Both nations have made valuable contributions to Alliance operations. We welcome the democratic reforms in Ukraine and Georgia and look forward to free and fair parliamentary elections in Georgia in May. MAP is the next step for Ukraine and Georgia on their direct way to membership. Today we make clear that we support these countries' applications for MAP. Therefore we will now begin a period of intensive engagement with both at a high political level to address the questions still outstanding pertaining to their MAP applications.2
In one short paragraph, the conditionality process and credibility that NATO had established over the previous fifteen years were thrown out in favour of a statement of pure political support for Tbilisi and Kiev. Although it is all too easy to dismiss NATO conditionality as insignificant, NATO officials had gone some way in earlier rounds of expansion towards establishing the credibility of the membership process. Much like the EU accession requirements, NATO conditionality was an important instrument for promoting reforms in Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania on matters such as asserting democratic civilian control over the military, downsizing bloated communist-era force structures, increasing transparency in the defence budget, and restructuring ailing national defence industries. But the Bucharest declaration turned the established NATO negotiating process on its head: Georgia and Ukraine were promised inevitable membership with no prerequisites or specification of future conditions to be met. In fact, the Bucharest declaration seemed to validate Moscow's pronouncements about the geopolitical aspirations behind NATO expansion and undermined the alliance's own self-styled image as a liberal, democratic, security community.
Immediately following Bucharest, Moscow adopted a number of provocative policies in Georgia's breakaway territories that signalled it was willing to raise the stakes and prepare for ensuing conflict. Prime Minster Putin formally repealed Russia's participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States' economic embargo on the territories, originally imposed in 1996, and officially established direct links with the de facto governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In May, Moscow sent hundreds of additional troops to repair the railway line from Ochamchire in Abkhazia to Sochi in southern Russia, while in early July the Russian energy giant Gazprom announced an agreement with the Abkhaz government to explore for hydrocarbons off the Abkhaz Black Sea coast. And as tensions escalated, reports circulated that Moscow had stepped up its campaign of granting Russian passports and social security benefits to citizens of the breakaway regions.
With Russia taking renewed steps in effect to annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the international community remaining passive about these developments, Saakashvili felt compelled to initiate a kamikaze-style attack against the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on 7 August, the eve of the summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Not even the most optimistic of Georgian officials believed that the attack could possibly succeed militarily in the long run, but some hoped that the action could provoke a Russian response that would draw international condemnation and, at least, place Georgia's conflicts on the international agenda. Sure enough, although Georgia's assault was quickly countered in the most devastating of manners by the Russian military, with Russian troops even occupying briefly the Georgian cities of Poti and Gori, the international community, led by EU and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, had no choice but to try to broker a cease-fire between Moscow and Tbilisi.
An Unhealthy Relationship
If the Georgia war marked the culmination of the tensions festering between Russia and the West, it also exposed the unhealthy clientelism that characterised US–Georgia ties and Tbilisi's effective capture of US foreign policy. For political reasons, the Bush administration, too, had come to parade publicly the "common values" it shared with the pro-US Saakashvili regime. These close ties and public pronouncements, however, masked the fact that the true state of democracy in Georgia had taken important steps backwards since the Rose Revolution of 2003. However, US officials rarely criticised such backsliding and turned from promoting democracy in Georgia to supporting outright the Saakashvili regime.
Saakashvili had come to power in the wake of the Rose Revolution, which swept from office the corrupt and stagnating regime of Eduard Shevardnadze. Contrary to popular belief, US officials were initially reluctant to back the regime change, as Washington looked favourably upon Shevardnadze, who had served as the Soviet Union's last foreign minister and enjoyed a legendary reputation as having been instrumental in ending the Cold War. But when Shevardnadze refused to run a fair election, a well-organised opposition and civil society rallied thousands of protesters who demanded his resignation and new national elections. The Georgian opposition coalesced around the leadership of Saakashvili, who was swept into power in early January 2004.
That Washington strongly supported the new regime in Georgia, especially given its commitment to US foreign-policy aims such as the war in Iraq, is well known. Less appreciated, but even more important, is that the new regime in Tbilisi proved highly skilled in crafting an image of Georgia as an embattled democracy and in using it for maximum political advantage. The Georgian government, many of whose members had been educated or otherwise spent time in the United States, understood how Washington, D.C., operated and effectively navigated the city's thicket of influential think-tanks and policy institutes. Georgian officials frequently travelled to Washington and briefed congressional staffers and US government officials in flawless English, touting their appreciation of US political values and employing colourful analogies tailor-made for American audiences. Tbilisi seemingly even had a direct voice in the 2008 US presidential campaign as Randy Scheunemann, foreign‑affairs adviser to Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, also remained a paid lobbyist with the government of Georgia until he formally relinquished the portfolio on 15 May 2008. Tbilisi's numerous points of contact with the US government thus ensured that Georgia exerted an influence in Washington that was probably beyond what its small size and geopolitical position actually warranted; that influence certainly curtailed any official US criticism of Georgia's own democratic shortcomings, which were being documented with increasing alarm by international democracy watchdogs and NGOs.
These shortcomings were becoming increasingly acute. In 2005 and 2006, Saakashvili was criticised by international observers for reasserting executive control over the judiciary and unduly interfering in the operations of opposition media outlets. On 7 November 2007, internal political tensions peaked when hundreds of government security personnel violently cracked down on thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the centre of Tbilisi, beating them with truncheons and spraying rubber bullets at them as they fled. Government officials referred to these crowds as political provocateurs and criminals, funded by Moscow, but international observers such as Human Rights Watch estimated that over five hundred Georgians were injured in actions that were widely condemned as excessive. But even as the events of November 2007 were noted with alarm in Brussels and other Western capitals, US officials played down the heavy-handed dispersal of the protests.
Part of the deal reached between Saakashvili and opposition leaders following the November events was the holding of early presidential elections in January 2008. The vote had some flaws, including falsification of the count, as Saakashvili cleared 50 per cent to triumph in the first round of balloting, but he most likely would have won a run-off comfortably against any of his main opponents. Much more problematic was the conduct of the May 2008 parliamentary elections, in which Saakashvili's political party, the United National Movement (UNM), gained 119 of 150 seats with a certified 59 per cent of the vote. The final monitoring report of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) identified "a number of problems" with the election, noting irregularities in the vote-count, the intimidation of opposition candidates, the UNM's improper control of the Central Election Commission and other state administrative agencies and resources, and a general lack of balance in media coverage.3 Yet Washington, again, remained notably silent about the quality of this critically flawed election.
Washington's tolerance of Tbilisi's democratic backsliding was a symptom of another problem that plagued the US–Georgia relationship, namely, the near capture of US policy on the south Caucasus by Georgia. Not only did Washington push for the disastrous commitment to Georgia at NATO's Bucharest summit, but for years it unequivocally backed Georgia's official policy of restoring its territorial sovereignty over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while refusing to consider any alternative to the federal solutions proposed by Tbilisi. As a result, Washington had no independent policy towards the two secessionist areas and was not viewed as a credible broker in conflict resolution by their leaders, who became increasingly dependent on Moscow. Although the US position satisfied Tbilisi, it prevented Washington from being able to assess soberly the deteriorating situation on the ground and the escalating tensions in the run-up to the August 2008 war. And although we cannot assess with certainty whether any parts of the US government promised support to Georgia if it launched a military campaign over the summer of 2008, the closeness of the US‑Georgian relationship appears to have prevented the United States from restraining Tbilisi.
On balance, the aftermath of the conflict has been largely favourable to Tbilisi. Georgia secured a commitment of $1 billion in US bilateral aid and a further $3.5 billion in pledges from international donors for budgetary support and reconstruction (a massive sum for a relatively small economy). In addition, the United States seems committed to rebuilding Georgia's military, possibly even beyond the status quo ante in areas such as modernising its air defences. Before the end of the Bush administration, US officials also concluded a bilateral strategic partnership agreement with Georgia, although its exact details and commitments remained underspecified and subject to further consultations.
Despite these bilateral commitments, officials in Tbilisi remain apprehensive over whether Georgia will enjoy the same kind of privileged status with the Obama foreign-policy team that it had with Bush administration officials. Above all, Georgian advisers worry that the public "reset of US–Russian relations" between US secretary of state Hilary Clinton and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov may involve some sort of US compromise on Georgian issues in exchange for Russian co-operation in areas such as strategic arms control or Iran policy. Saakashvili himself melodramatically lamented in an interview with Newsweek in April 2009 that the Obama administration, unlike the Bush administration, had put pragmatic politics ahead of ideals in dealing with Georgia.4
The Limits of Western Influence
The Georgia–Russia war of August 2008 revealed much about the state of competition between Russia and the West for influence in Eurasia. On balance, the West's soft power and influence are now in retreat, while the so-called values agenda has been enmeshed inextricably in the region's power politics. By way of conclusion, three points are particularly worth noting.
First, the Georgia war and its aftermath indicate that NATO and the European Union have reached their outer limit of influence within the post-communist sphere. Through successful expansions into eastern and central Europe, the Baltic states and parts of the Balkans, these organisations helped to bring former communist countries into the Western fold, lock in important institutional reforms, and redefine entire regions as being associated with the transatlantic community (e.g., the Black Sea, Bulgaria and Romania). However, as is now clear, the capacity of both the European Union and NATO to promote institutional change is much reduced when dealing with countries that are not on the membership path. With no prospect of accession, partner countries have fewer incentives to reform themselves politically or economically along Western lines.
With the adoption of its most recent "Eastern Partnership" plan in 2009, the European Union is continuing to search for an effective vehicle to promote association with, and encourage European-style values and reforms in, the former Soviet countries of eastern Europe and the Caucasus. But because Brussels is offering these countries little hope of full EU membership, its leverage over them will remain well short of that which it enjoyed with EU candidate states. The same argument can be made of NATO's assortment of individual country partnerships and co-operative initiatives with non-member countries. The challenge for both organisations is to develop a strategy, not just a list of priorities, for effectively engaging with areas of Eurasia that are unlikely ever to become members.
Second, Moscow's relatively successful effort to conflate Western democracy-promotion with power politics has allowed it to take the lead in opposing Western-backed democracy projects and election monitoring throughout the region. Soon after the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Kremlin cracked down on the activities of Western human-rights and civil-society organisations in Russia and created its own state-sponsored youth movement, Nashi, as a counter to the pro-Western student groups that had emerged in Serbia (Otpor), Georgia (Kmara), and Ukraine (Pora) with Western support. President Putin's phrase, "sovereign democracy", now quite popular among Eurasian regimes, captures a growing reluctance among regional governments to subject themselves to public scrutiny and Western efforts to meddle in their domestic political affairs. Russia's strict 2006 NGO registration law, which limited the political activities of such organisations, has been mirrored by similar tough new laws that have been adopted or proposed by the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Moreover, since 2006, Russia has spearheaded a campaign in the OSCE to weaken severely the activities of its election-monitoring division, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). It was the ODIHR's preliminary assessment that the Georgian, Ukrainian and Kyrgyz elections had not been "free and fair" that gave impetus to the counter-government demonstrations which developed into the coloured revolutions. While threatening to withhold funding to the OSCE, Moscow has insisted, and is now supported by Armenia, Belarus and the Central Asian states in its initiative, that the ODIHR act in greater consultation with host governments, limit to fifty the number of its observers during elections, and refrain from publicly criticising election procedures in monitored countries. If these measures are implemented, vigorous election monitoring, as we have known it, will be dead. In fact, under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, Russia now sends abroad alternative teams of "election monitors", whose conclusions about the quality of elections across Eurasia have differed dramatically from the assessments of the ODIHR.
Finally, perhaps the greatest indicator of the retrenchment of the West's influence in Eurasia is the near-total cessation of US appeals under the Obama administration for democratisation to be improved in eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. In some ways, Obama's stance on the "democratic values" issue has been forced. Any aggressive talk of democratisation or human rights automatically evokes the more aggressive direct interference associated with the Bush era, and draws attention to the United States' own recent shortcomings on human-rights questions. Instead, Obama officials hope at least to salvage some of the traditional US values agenda by leading through example and regaining credibility on the world stage.
But recapturing the era of the 1990s, when the United States and the West enjoyed almost undisputed normative influence across Eurasia and other parts of the world, will be nearly impossible. The conflation of the Western values agenda with power politics has discredited that agenda. And the rise of alternative models of political and economic organisation—including Russia's "sovereign democracy" and Beijing's explicit doctrine of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs—now offers Eurasian countries real alternatives to the Euro-Atlantic ideal of Westward orientation and political liberalisation. It remains to be seen whether policymakers in Washington and Brussels can successfully craft a new political strategy that effectively comes to terms with these changing regional dynamics.
1. Mikhail Gorbachev, "Russia Never Wanted a War", New York Times, 19 August 2008.
2. NATO, "Bucharest Summit Declaration", 3 April 2008 [http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2008/p08-049e.html].
3. See OSCE/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, "Georgia, Parliamentary Elections 21 May 2008: OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report", Warsaw, 9 September 2008 [http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2008/09/32898_en.pdf].
4. Anna Nemtsova, "Mikheil Saakashvili: Where Are My Western Friends?", Newsweek, 11 April 2009.


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To the casual visitor or inexperienced wine lover, Napa may just be a name on a bottle, or a vision of vineyards stretched between Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail. But like many wine regions, Napa is only a word on a map and an official designation for a group of winegrowing regions that, at times, seem to have little in common. The extreme variations of climate, soils, and topography among the various sections of Napa County make the subdivision of the region into separate AVA's (American Viticultural Areas) an inevitability. The variety of terroirs represented by these 14 (going on 15) sub-regions is quite remarkable, and they reward a deeper exploration by any wine lover looking to better understand why their favorite Napa wine tastes the way it does.
The Howell Mountain AVA is about as different as you can get from the flatlands of the Napa Valley. Situated to the Northeast of the valley, Howell Mountain reaches up thousands of feet above the valley floor. A drive up Deer Park Road out of downtown St. Helena will take you into an entirely different world. Towering pines, ocean driven fog banks, and cooler temperatures mark a growing region that increasingly produces some of Napa's most interesting wines.
In the uppermost reaches of Howell Mountain, Terry and Juli Pringle purchased 42 acres of vineyards from Bob Lamborn in 1998 to found a winery that they aptly named Outpost, staking a claim on some of Napa's most extreme viticulture. Perched on a ridge in the forest, and cascading down towards the valley below, the old vines that make up Outpost's estate vineyards are exposed to weather unheard of on the valley floor. Whipping winds, pelting rain, hail, snow, dense fogs, you name it. These climactic challenges roll off the pacific, straight over the Mayacamas mountains and into the vineyards atop Howell Mountain. At the same time, in between these extremes of weather, Outpost benefits from the same climate that makes Howell mountain such a great place to grow grapes, namely that abundant sunlight and cooler temperatures through the summer and fall mean that grapes can mature slowly while maintaining vital acidity.
Outpost harvested its inaugural vintage in 1998, and the wines were made by Ehren Jordan, but Jordan quickly handed the operation over to Thomas Rivers Brown, who has been making the wine for the past decade. During that time, the Pringles sold the winery to Frank and Kathy Dotzler, its current owners.
In many ways the story of Outpost is the story of its winemaker Thomas Brown, under whose vision and guiding hand the wines have become some of the benchmarks for what is possible on Howell Mountain, and in the case of the winery's Grenache, what is truly possible to do with that particular variety in Northern California.
Thomas Rivers Brown fell in love with wine like many do. Right out of college he worked as a wine buyer in a restaurant, and after discovering he had an interest in wine, he traveled around Europe as a twenty-something where he really caught the bug. But unlike many of us, he decided to do something about it, and with the impetuousness of the young, he found his way to a friend's house in the Oakland ghetto in 1996, where he had a standing offer to sleep in a very small walk-in closet. From there it was a reasonable hitchhike to the Napa Valley, and he eventually pestered his way into an entry level job at the All Seasons wine store in Calistoga. Thomas' first experiences in the vineyard came working the 1997 harvest at Kent Rassmussen's vineyard.
In addition to finding ways to get his hands dirty, so to speak, Thomas spent his time out of the fields tasting as much wine as he could, as often as he could, with people who knew a lot more than him about it. One of those people ended up being Ehren Jordan (then -- and still currently -- the winemaker at Turley Wine Cellars) who happened to mention in late 1997 that he was thinking about looking for an assistant for the following year.
Thomas thinks his resume was the first of nearly 200 that Jordan received for the position, and he ended up with the job, partially because he was a bit of a blank slate, he suspects. "It was after the harvest, so Ehren had a bit of time, and he didn't mind teaching someone, as long as they didn't come with any preconceived notions about the right way to do things."
And as the saying goes, that was the first day, of the rest of his life. After more than four years of working with Jordan, Thomas went out on his own as a consulting winemaker, at a high point in demand for such services, and quickly picked up a number of high profile customers, including Outpost.
Brown continues to work with the owners and the Outpost team to push the quality envelope. I have had the pleasure of tasting the estate's wines pretty consistently for about 6 years, and while the wines have always been excellent, they continue to reach new heights. This may be due in part to the fact that the estate is now farmed 100% organically. Brown continues to dial the wines in towards his ultimate vision, while adhering to the practices he believes make for the best wines, including bottling the wines without any fining or filtration of any kind.
In particular, I have come to regard Outpost's Grenache as the single finest example of the variety in the state of California, and that was even before I tasted the 2007 vintage which was likely one of, if not the best, Grenache I have ever tasted. The 2008 vintage had a hard act to follow, and while I don't think I can rate it quite as highly as the 2007, it is a fantastic wine and continues to be a benchmark for the variety for me.
This is a California Grenache, which means that it is powerful, and ripe, but not to the point of being overwhelming. The wine bears no trace of its alcohol levels which can get up above 15%, though I didn't remember to check the specific number for this vintage when I tasted this wine a couple of weeks ago at the Family Winemakers event in San Francisco.
Tasting Notes:
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine has a wonderfully perfumed nose of tobacco, strawberry, and a mysterious blend of exotic spices that might have billowed out of a window in Morocco. In the mouth the wine explosively juicy with flavors of strawberry, spices, exotic woods and cedar twisting and vibrating through a long finish where they add cocoa powder and faint floral notes as a denouement. Great acidity, nice balance, and a very faint tannic structure round out the package. Powerful as it is compelling. Outstanding.
Food Pairing:
It just occurred to me that I might like to try this wine with some sort of meat in a traditional Mexican mole sauce. I think it might be an interesting combo.
Overall Score: around 9.5
How Much?: $40
This wine has yet to be released, but will likely hit the market soon. If you're interested in buying past vintages (including the 2007, which I rated between 9.5 and 10) here's a link to buy online.
A wine book like no other. Photographs, essays, and wine recommendations. 2015 Roederer Award Winner.Learn more.
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Vinography Images: Unglamorous Work A Lesson in the Loss of Denis Malbec I'll Drink to That: Kimberly Prokoshyn of Rebelle Restaurant Wine News: What I'm Reading the Week of 6/19/16 Vinography Unboxed: Week of June 12, 2016 Warm Up: Richebourg I'll Drink to That: Jean-Nicolas Méo of Méo-Camuzet Vinography Images: It's Nice to be King It's Time for American Wineries to Grow Up I'll Drink to That: Joy Kull of La Villana Winery
Wine Will Never Smell the Same Again: Luca Turin and the Science of Scent Forlorn Hope: The Remarkable Wines of Matthew Rorick Debating Robert Parker At His Invitation Passopisciaro Winery, Etna, Sicily: Current Releases Should We Care What Winemakers Say? The Sweet Taste of Freedom: Austria's Ruster Ausbruch Wines 2009 Burgundy Vintage According to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Charles Banks: The New Man Behind Mayacamas Wine from the Caldera: The Incredible Viticulture of Santorini Why Community Tasting Notes Sites Will Fail Chateau Rayas and the 2012 Vintage of Chateauneuf-du-Pape A Life Indomitable: The Wines of Casal Santa Maria, Portugal Bay Area Bordeaux: Tasting Santa Cruz Mountain Cabernets Forgotten Jewels: Reviving Chile's Old Vine Carignane The First-Timer's Guide to Les Trois Glorieuses of Hospices de Beaune


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Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
ISBN13:by O'Brien, Robert C.; Bernstein, Zena
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Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service.
Author Biography
Robert C. O'Brien In real life, Robert C. O'Brien was Robert Leslie Conly. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, attended Williams College and graduated from the Universtiy of Rochester. While there he studied piano at Eastman School of Music, and at one time considered being a musician. Instead, he became an editor and writer for Newsweek magazine from 1941 to 1944, and for Pathfinder from 1946 to 1951. From 1951 until the time of his death in 1973 he was employed as a writer and editor by the National Geographic Magazine. He made his home in New York City before 1944 and in Washington, D.C. after that. He also had a home in Morgan County, West Virginia, after 1965, a place he loved and visited as often as he could. He was married and the father of one son and three daughters. His books include The Silver Crown, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which won the Newbery Award, and A Report From Group 17. His last book, Z is for Zachariah was nearly completed at the time of his death; the last few chapters were written from notes by this wife and one of his daughters.
Table of Contents
|The Sickness of Timothy Frisby
|p. 3
|Mr. Ages
|p. 12
|The Crow and the Cat
|p. 20
|Mr. Fitzgibbon's Plow
|p. 27
|Five Days
|p. 33
|A Favor from Jeremy
|p. 39
|The Owl
|p. 45
|"Go to the Rats"
|p. 53
|In the Rosebush
|p. 61
|p. 68
|In the Library
|p. 75
|p. 83
|A Powder for Dragon
|p. 89
|The Marketplace
|p. 96
|In the Cage
|p. 103
|The Maze
|p. 112
|A Lesson in Reading
|p. 120
|The Air Ducts
|p. 129
|The Boniface Estate
|p. 142
|The Main Hall
|p. 149
|The Toy Tinker
|p. 158
|Thorn Valley
|p. 165
|p. 178
|Seven Dead Rats
|p. 187
|p. 195
|At the Meeting
|p. 206
|The Doctor
|p. 216
|p. 227
|Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.


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Nutrition News: Taco Bell and Pizza Hut Get Real, Kids' Summer Fitness Tips, Skim vs. Whole Milkby Amy Reiter in Food News, May 29, 2015
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut Aim to Get Real
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, both owned by Yum Brands, have announced plans to eliminate artificial colors and flavors from their menu items. This means that Taco Bell's seasoned beef will soon feature black pepper rather than "black pepper flavor," and artificial dyes including Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and carmine will be removed from the chain's nacho cheese, avocado ranch dressing and red tortilla strips, respectively. High-fructose corn syrup, unsustainable palm oil and some (though not all) artificial preservatives will also be phased out, although fountain beverages and co-branded products will not be affected. Pizza Hut, meanwhile, aims to eliminate artificial colors and flavors by late July and will then begin listing ingredients online. Read more


text: Jun 18, 2014 15:25 Rare stamp could set record at NYC auction Rare stamp could set record at NYC auction In this undated file photo provided by Sothebys Auction House, the 1-cent 1856 British Guiana stamp is shown. Already having set three price records for the sale of a single stamp, the stamp is poised to set a fourth when it is offered at auction by Sothebys on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Sothebys Auction House) ULA ILNYTZKY| Associated Press June 17, 2014; 10:13 a.m. Comments NEW YORK (AP) — A 1-cent postage stamp from a 19th century British colony in South America is poised to become the world's most valuable stamp — again. The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta could bring $10 million to $20 million when it goes on the auction block at Sotheby's on Tuesday. Three times in its long history, the little stamp has broken the auction record for a single stamp. Measuring 1 inch-by-1¼ inches, it hasn't been on public view since 1986 and is the only major stamp absent from the British Royal Family's private Royal Philatelic Collection. "You're not going to find anything rarer than this," according to Allen Kane, director of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. "It's a stamp the world of collectors has been dying to see for a long time." An 1855 Swedish stamp, which sold for $2.3 million in 1996, currently holds the auction record for a single stamp. David Beech, longtime curator of stamps at the British Library who retired last year, has compared it to buying the "Mona Lisa" of the world's most prized stamps. The last owner was John E. du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune who was convicted of fatally shooting a 1984 Olympic champion wrestler. It's being sold by his estate, which will designate part of the proceeds to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation that du Pont championed. Printed in black on magenta paper, it bears the image of a three-masted ship and the colony's motto, in Latin, "we give and expect in return." It went into circulation after a shipment of stamps was delayed from London and the postmaster asked printers for the Royal Gazette newspaper in Georgetown in British Guiana to produce three stamps until the shipment arrived: a 1-cent magenta, a 4-cent magenta and a 4-cent blue. While multiple examples of the 4-cent stamps have survived, only the tiny 1-cent issue is known to exist today. Its first owner was a 12-year-old Scottish boy living in South America who added it to his collection after finding it among family papers in 1873. He soon sold it for a few shillings to a local collector, Neil McKinnon. McKinnon kept it for five years before selling it to a Liverpool dealer who recognized the unassuming stamp as highly uncommon. He paid 120 pounds for it and quickly resold it for 150 pounds to Count Philippe la Renotiere von Ferrary, one of the world's greatest stamp collectors. Upon his death in 1917, the count bequeathed his stamp collection to the Postmuseum in Berlin. The collection was later seized by France as war reparations and sold off in a series of 14 auctions with the One-Cent Magenta bringing $35,000 in 1922 — an auction record for a single stamp. Arthur Hind, a textile magnate from Utica, New York, was the buyer. King George V was an under-bidder. It is the one major piece absent from the Royal Family's heirloom collection, Beech said. After Hind's death in 1933, the stamp was to be auctioned with the rest of his collection until his wife brought a lawsuit, claiming it was left to her. The next owner was Frederick Small, an Australian engineer living in Florida who purchased it privately from Hind's widow for $45,000 in 1940. Thirty years later, he consigned the stamp to a New York auction where it was purchased by an investment consortium for $280,000 — another record. The stamp set its third record in 1980 when it sold for $935,000 to du Pont. Get The Advocate in your inbox Subscribe


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Home / Research / Power, History, and Social Change / --Faculty /
Social Movements and the Transformation of American Health Care
Author(s): Sandra Levisky (ed.)
Editor(s): Jane Banaszak-Holl, and Mayer Zald
Description from Publisher:
Few contemporary social problems in the U.S. affect more people daily than those within the American health care system. Social Movements and the Transformation of American Health Care is the first collection of essays to examine dynamics of change in health care institutions through the lens of contemporary theory and research on collective action. Gathering scholars from medicine, health policy, history, sociology, and political science, the book considers health-related social movements from four distinct levels, concentrating on movements seeking changes in the regulation, financing, and distribution of health resources; changes in institutions in public health, bio-ethics, and other fields; interactions between social movements and professions; and the cultural dominance of the medical model, and the difficulties for framing and legitimizing new issues in health care it poses. At a time when American health care is long overdue for major changes, this book takes an essential look at movements, policies, and institutions to identify the common constraints and opportunities for reform within the health care system.
Publication Information:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Month of Publication: June
Year of Publication: 2010
Location: New York, NY
# of Pages: 400
Additional Information:


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Jennifer Dien
SIU ends the season with 19 wins, a school record for most wins in a season.
SIU will face top-seed Wichita State in MVC Finals
The Salukis finish the regular season 17-4, 6-1 MVC.
The Salukis improve to 17-3, 6-0 MVC
The Salukis are looking to win their first MVC Regular Season Championship since the 1985 season.
Updated May 28, 2013
2012-13: Went 19-14 overall in singles play...Recorded a 13-9 record in the spring...Earned a 3-4 MVC singles record...Went 23-9 in doubles play with partner Natasha Tomishima...Finished 4-3 in the MVC...Ranks fourth in program history with 68 career doubles wins.
2011-12: Played in 32 singles matches, finishing 15-17 on the year...2-5 in the MVC...19-14 in doubles play, primarily with partner Natasha Tomishima.
2010-11: Earned an 11-13 singles record in her second year...Played 20 matches at the No. 3 slot, while playing four matches at the No. 2 slot...Finished 3-4 in the MVC...Won all but two matches in straight sets...Finished 12-11 in doubles matches, playing all but one match at the No. 1 slot with Melanie Delsart.
2009-10: Earned a 12-9 singles record, good for second-best on the team...Only player to play at least one match in five different singles positions...Notched a 6-2 mark in No. 4 singles...Began season with an 11-3 record, with all but two wins coming in straight sets...First collegiate singles win came on Feb. 14 against SIU-Edwardsville's Ali Wulfers, 8-0, in a time-shortened match...Finished with a 14-8 doubles record with Jessica Flannery...Won five straight doubles matches from March 24 through April 7.
Prior to SIU: At Shawnee Mission West, Dien was a combined 43-8 in singles play between her sophomore and junior years...Dien was named second team all-state and second team all-conference for doubles.
Personal:Majoring in Psychology...Minoring in Marketing...Daughter of Sam Dien and Nuong Duong, who are both business managers...Both parents are of Vietnamese heritage...Also participated in ice skating and soccer, in addition to volunteering her time with the Youth Volunteer Corps.


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It makes a mat approx 20x50". Foam is removeable so you can wash it.
Supplies List:
Wide ribbon for handle (Jenny Garland used a longer elastic strap in her tutorial if you prefer that)
Two buttons (about 1" in diameter).
8 ounces of fiberfill to stuff pillow
All purpose thread
A piece of 1" thick foam cut to 20" width by 40" length. (I bought 2 - 22"x22"x1" pieces (Hobby Lobby) because it was cheaper than buying one large piece and there was less waste)
40" sew-on velcro
Fabric for Applique Letters
Silhouette Sd or other cutting machine is helpful but not necessary
Heat and Bond
Fabric Adhesive
Making the Mat:
Lay out one of your 22"x52" rectangles right side up. Pin the open side of the button tabs on the bottom of rectangle, make sure they are laying on top of the mat rectangle pointing toward the top. Sew to the mat 1/4" seam allowance.
Attaching the Blanket:
Lay out the 22"x52" rectangle that you haven't sewn anything on yet. Lay the blanket ontop (right sides together) line up edges leaving 4" gap on the bottom of the mat rectangle (this will position the blanket properly between the pillow and bottom of mat). Pin and stitch with 1/2" seam allowance. Fold the rest of blanket toward center of mat to keep it out of the way.
Putting it all together:
Leave the rectangle/blanket you just worked on right side up. Place the other rectangle right side down ontop of it. Pin the pieces together (make sure blanket and button tabs are tucked inside). Stitch top, bottom and the blanket edge ONLY. Leave the other side open for velcro and foam.
Making the Pillow:
Turn mat right side out. 10" down from the top of mat stitch a line across. This will make the pillow section. Stuff and stitch opening closed.
Attaching the Velcro:
You need to attach velro to each 22"x52" rectangle along the entire length below pillow, this will hold the foam in. Fold and Iron 1/2" of the unfinished edge before adding the velcro to it, this will keep frayed edges from showing.
Adding the outside stuff:
I suggest placing the foam in and rolling it up. Then mark where your buttons & handle need to go. Unfold and remove foam. Sew on the buttons and ribbon for handle (make sure to burn the ribbon edges with a lighter to keep them from fraying).
Ok you can choose to stop here or attempt adding a name. The easy way would have been just embroidering the mat fabric ahead of time....however I didn't have an embroidery machine and am too cheap to go pay for someone else too :)
Making the Letters:
Iron your fabric choice to Heat and Bond (this will make them stiff and easier to sew on). I also did this in order to use my silhouette cutter to cut the letters out.
I designed the name in Adobe Illusrator (but you could use whatever software you have). Placed my fabric in machine with it attached to my silhouette sticky mat. Set my speed to 1 and my pressure to 33.
This made it cut through my fabric but it didn't go through the heat and bond. I'm guessing the heat and bond I used was too thick, so you may want to use the thinnest they offer. I simply went back and hand cut it with scissors, no problem.
Now the letters are cut. I used some fabric adhesive and glued them onto the mat where I wanted them. Removed foam (again) and zig zag stitched the letter edges. Yes, this took time but since I didn't have an embroidery machine (Hope my husband is reading this) it was my only option ;)
Replace foam and you're done. Use "Fray Check" if you notice any fraying on the Applique letters.


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Decided to get a secret checking account? My fiiance and I have a joint checking account (he's on mine) and it's not a huge deal since all of our money goes to bills, it's not like we have a ton left over (pretty much living pay check to pay check) but my dad decided to start buying my love again (he left my mom when I was 6 and has lived out of states ever since) and I think he is also getting mad because his wife is always giving her lazy ass son money (paying for his dorm, college, beer, money for his girlfriend since he doesnt have a job).....anywho my dad sent me a text a couple of weeks ago when he deposited 100 dollars in my account saying that he is going to try it more often and that he loves us (I'm guessing he loves dan, layla, and I since he didn't give my ;lazy brother money) well anyways he told me today that he is just going to set up an automatic withdrawl from his account to deposit 100 in my account every monday.
Now I was thinking of getting a secret one because we also seem to spend (he overspends with fast food for his lunches) and I would like to pay some of his bills (doctors mostly and he owes 5000 to a friend who got us out of a bind) but he seems to just ignore them what do you guys think?


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EDIT: For clarification the math on this email is a little off... the average amount of gold you get for vendoring the results of prospecting saronite ore should average out to about 7-9 gold unless you get very lucky. That being said, prospecting saronite ore will always yield more gold than it cost to buy it for around vendor price if you cut the gems or even sell them raw.
"Hey Markco,
EDIT: For clarification the math on this email is a little off... the average amount of gold you get for vendoring the results of prospecting saronite ore should average out to about 7-9 gold unless you get very lucky. That being said, prospecting saronite ore will always yield more gold than it cost to buy it for around vendor price if you cut the gems or even sell them raw.
9 comments: on "Selling Gems at a Loss are We?"
Stokpile said... May 4, 2010 at 8:06 AM
When I first started out my best profit came from prospecting saronite, and selling both cut and raw gems. Now the markets have switch and I smelt the saronite for other purposes and buy the raw gems as prospecting NR ore is a huge loss.
Course this all depends on the server entirely. Yellow gems of any kind and blue stamina gems have always been my best sellers from months ago to this very day. I'd spend my tokens on them before any others.
Kowaku said... May 4, 2010 at 8:16 AM
Hi Marko
I recently came across your blog around 2 weeks ago and have since made 70k gold,i really enjoy reading it each day and trying to follow some of the tips that i have picked up and to apply them to the server i am on, im fairly new to the whole auction house game and really love finding ways of making gold by buying reselling crafting etc and the whole process of making gold. SO i thought if just pop on and say thanks and keep up the goodjob.
on a side note since im new to the auction house, i find that i can buy stacks of eternal shadow at the weekend on alliance side for around 40g and then resell midweek(normally tuesday) for around 150-170g i guess people are eager to buy them for arrows or other mats but its a nice little way to make some cash and takes minimal of effort.
rachaels_dad said... May 4, 2010 at 10:10 AM
There are so many different ways to make gold in the game...if your margins are razor thin in gems..check cross faction...you will be amazed in the differences in gem prices between factions.
Wayne said... May 4, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Any chance of showing the maths behind this as according to my spreadsheet using those prices you need to buy ore at just over 4.5g/stack and even usinging basic vendor value of cut gems.i.e. 50s for a green and 5g for a blue it still just under 7g/stack
Anonymous said... May 4, 2010 at 11:48 AM
The math on this doesn't look right at all.
Given a 100% chance rate on getting a uncommon gem per prospect, plus an 8% chance of receiving two, and a 24% chance of receiving a rare gem per prospect, plus an 8% chance of receiving two (8% of 24%), my numbers are...
For each prospect, you will receive:
100% chance of receiving 1.08 uncommon gems (1.00 * .08)
100% chance of receiving .2582 rare gems (.25 * .08)
and let's equate market price of saronite with vendor price (12.50 / stack, or 3.125 per prospect)
and let's also put the value of one rare gem at (cut) vendor price of 4.50g per gem, so setting x equal to the gold cost per uncommon gem, you get:
1.08x + (.2592)*(4.5) = 3.125
x = 1.813
so with a cost for a rare gem of 4.5g, the cost of the uncommon gem is 1.813g each.
His numbers are way too low for the price of saronite.
Simbaria said... May 4, 2010 at 2:20 PM
That doesnt seem right to me.
Is it not the case that each prospect stack gives about 4.8 uncommon gems and about .96 of a rare gem.
That would sugest that those prices dont add up.
Possibly not being mentioned are some higher values for, say, the rubies?
Markco said... May 4, 2010 at 3:06 PM
Once you cut those gems you obviously make far more than the cost of the ore. Or you can sell the uncommons if they are the ones used in daily quests for jewelcrafting. Those can go for like 5-10 gold each. A rare gem cut can go for upwards of 60 gold for the blue stamina one as well. Uncommon go for around 1-3 gold cut depending on type.
The math does seem a little fishy on his end, but the premise that you can prospect saronite ore and make excess gold from the results still stands true.
Wayne said... May 4, 2010 at 6:26 PM
If you utilize the resources you aquire through prospecting fully then yes it is reasonable to make a good profit from saronite still. I'm still making more than 100% profit from saronite. But the point of the post seems to say that if you buy for 13.5g or less you have no chance of making a loss as you can sell the gems to a vendor for a profit.
Unless there's been a big missunderstanding in the point of the post i think it should be removed as it is quite missleading. really.
Anonymous said... May 5, 2010 at 11:29 AM
It's so important to understand your realm's economy. The Shuffle is completely dead on mine, on the Alliance side. We've completely reached a saturation point because of several factors...one of them being that MANY people are competing in the shuffle. I'm a JC with many many cuts of every gem type and I can tell you with confidence there are no less than four or five people doing the shuffle, as they are consistantly undercutting each other on almost every blue cut imaginable, on a daily basis. The blue cuts have dropped to single digits and are dangerously close to vendor prices, which is sad. Couple this with the every day people who simply dump their cuts and we have a massive influx of supply that outpaces the demand. Even the long time staples of scarlet ruby cuts (bold, precise, runed, etc) have fallen dramatically.
Even with listing my gems at 12 hour auctions to avoid fees, I am practically taking a loss on every blue gem (raw or uncut), so I stopped the shuffle entirely. I can't keep guild bank tabs stocked with this stuff because of future plans for Cataclysm and stacking up other items for future sale. I have decided to casually dump my entire stock of blue gems that I have now, and not acquire any additional ones in hopes of moving to better markets on my realm.
More power to the people who's shuffle is still working for them.
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September 26, 2014 World Piece
This fall we're finding design houses and clothiers across the globe have sprinkled their collections with more than a little dusting of wanderlust. From glossy Vogue spreads of Blake Lively engulfed in Native American-inspired oversized ponchos and leathery fringe, to … Continue reading
September 19, 2014 Wardrobe Essentials: The Tunic
by PC designer, Karen The garment that today we call a tunic has an ancient origin. The garment originally called a tunic was derived from the Greek chiton, a simple square or rectangular piece of fabric pinned or sewn at … Continue reading
August 28, 2014 PC's Fall statement accessories
Often in nature, the bigger, the brighter and the bolder you are, the more you get noticed. This season we are going all out with BIG, BRIGHT and BOLD accessories that are sure to get you noticed! BIG floppy hats and … Continue reading
August 20, 2014 Going BROgue
by style contributor, Julie Fashion is a massive merry-go-round of borrowing. It's a field where original ideas are a farce, but repurposing is paramount. You've surely heard someone say, "If you hold on to that long enough it'll be back … Continue reading
August 12, 2014 Seeking Shade
by style contributor, Julie Everybody has a favorite color, one that they seem to gravitate to no matter what other options are offered. At Peruvian Connection, our colors come together to tell a well-woven story of culture, artisan crafts and … Continue reading


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Alderwoman Linda Nikcevich says turnout at some city events and interest in Wauwatosa's vaccination clinics and other services has dipped now that community members aren't getting a city newsletter delivered to their doors.
In a letter sent to city officials today, she suggested City Hall pump up its marketing and public relations to better promote Wauwatosa activities and to keep the media well informed.
Other communities have branded messaging and marketing literature to promote living and recreational opportunities, and Nikcevich said she feels Wauwatosa is lagging behind.
The Common Council already has a Legislation, Licensing and Communications Committee, which reviews the city's quarterly newsletter before publication. It is available for electronic delivery.
The city stopped issuing paper copies of its quarterly newsletter - with the exception of a few copies posted in places like the library and Hart Park Senior Center as well as by special request - this year. While the printed newsletter went out to about 15,000 homes, only 270 people have subscribed to the electronic newsletter.
"The city needs a consistent plan to promote a calendar of events communitywide and maintain a positive image of community life to help attract people and businesses to our community to work, live and shop," Nikcevich said.
She mentioned that publicizing the city should be the mayor's responsibility, but she also suggested three other options: creating an official Marketing and Public Relations Committee that would be made up of business and communications professionals with ties to Wauwatosa, establishing a communications and PR department within the city or bringing on an intern to conduct marketing for local groups, maintain the city website and be a communications liaison.
"Taking a step back further there is not a cohesive plan to promote the city of Wauwatosa or consistent branding of the city, through its different outlets including website, newsletter, brochures and press releases," Nikcevich said. "Wauwatosa can work to maintain a positive image so when negative publicity happens there is a counterbalance to the perception of the area."
Another alternative she broached was expanding the scope of the Civic Celebration Commission, which primarily organizes the city's Memorial Day and Fourth of July festivities. She suggested creating a forum for representatives for all groups - everything from the Friends of Hoyt Park and Pool to the historical society and Scouting groups - to work together on communications.
"Often groups are so removed from each other, and with more working knowledge of each other there maybe some elimination of redundancy, more sponsorship dollars and a greater visibility for everyone," she said.
More from News and Features
- Video: Tosa Top 5: Five things you need to know about in Wauwatosa this week
- Wauwatosa endorses bus rapid transit route, more approvals needed (3)
- Wauwatosa officer fatally shoots man at Madison Park
- Wauwatosa Public Library announces list of summer events
- Blood drives scheduled for Milwaukee County during month of July
- Two lanes on Wauwatosa's Harmonee Bridge to close Thursday
- Milwaukee Co. Zoo welcomes baby harbor seal, bonobo
- East Tosa Gran Prix returns to Wauwatosa June 26
- Hidden Tosa: Inside the Wauwatosa Police Department
- What's going on with the abandoned building at Menomonee River Parkway and Harmonee Avenue?


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I picked up this volume of short stories in a sale. I didn't have high expectations because I am not a huge fan of the short form, but there were sev..Show More »
I own all three audio books of this series and find them very enjoyable. There is a nice balance of action and character development and it's refreshi..Show More »
I am totally hooked on these books. They were a long shot for me at first, just looking for something in this genre not about sex and with magic invol..Show More »
If you love Urban Fantasy, then don't hesitate in choosing Ilona Andrews! For best enjoyment, read/listen to Magic Bites and Magic Burns, then savor M..Show More »
The first two stories were really good. Based on this book, I will read the series by Nalini Singh. I found it very interesting. It was nicde havin..Show More »
Wow! What a great book! This series gets better and better.
One of the many things, I like about the Ilona Andrews writing team, is that even t..Show More »
Love Ilona but could not stomach any other. I have every Ilona Andrews book. Will not buy any of the others.
This book is another solid addition to the series. Kate finds out more about her mother's side of the family and some painful truth. At the same time ..Show More »
All the stories are available in other anthologies. If this is your first collection of short stories, then have at thee...good listens.
There are many reasons why a book might be unavailable.
Sometimes a book goes temporarily out of print - and sometimes no audio version has ever been recorded. Audible wants to give you the most complete selection we can and we'll keep adding series and filling in gaps as quickly as possible.
Where to begin? Okay the humor was great. It's dry and witty. Which I LOVE!
I'm still sort of in shock. First, thank you Recorded Books and audible for getting this up same day as the national release.
Now, OMG! The ..Show More »
This is a great addition to the collection. I was scared for a moment about half way through the book because I thought that this was the end. But tak..Show More »
I can think of only one other series which develops the overall story without once tripping over earlier plot lines, and this series is flawless. Whil..Show More »
Ugh.. I'm so used to Renee Raudman! I know that this story is told from the POV of Derek, so I'm sure they thought they needed a male voice. Jeffrey..Show More »


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Will I have to pay sales or use tax on my order?
Local sales or use tax may apply to your order depending on the order's "ship to" address. For important information on sales and use tax, please see our sales and use tax page located at http://www.inkcartridges.com/terms#tax.
Can I pay with a check or money order?
Yes! You can pay with a check or money order instead of a credit card. Just select the Prepay By Check button on the order page when you're all set to check out. Once you click through the checkout, you will see an invoice number and your order will be entered. You can print out your order and mail in your payment. Once we receive it, we will ship your order.
Do You Accept School and Government Purchase Orders?
We accept all school and government purchase orders. Please include a contact person, name, phone number, and email so we can send a confirmation of the order. Fax your PO to 562-425-4868 or mail it to our physical address: 3700 Cover St. Long Beach, CA, 90808. Purchase orders are generally processed and shipped out in 24 hours.
I am trying to add a second item to my cart. When I do, the first one disappears.
Please enable cookies on your browser so you will be able to finish ordering online. If this does not work, please call us at (800) 551-9954 and we would be happy to take your order over the phone.
Does free shipping apply to Canadian orders?
Unfortunately, we cannot offer free shipping on Canadian orders. Here's why: Your order will ship Priority Mail so that it arrives in the quickest time. But it will need to be examined at customs and is subject to certain regulations. This will cause your order to take between six and twelve business days to arrive. We cannot provide a tracking number, unfortunately. And the customer is responsible for any duties and/or taxes imposed by Canadian authorities.
I don't see any Epson refill kits. Why not?
Sorry, but we do not sell Epson refill kits because their printers use a special print head that is highly sensitive.
I bought a new print cartridge and it's not printing right. Why?
Most commonly, the print head is not receiving ink flow. The ink may have settled during storage or shipping. Try this: stand the ink cartridge upright for a few minutes before you install it. Then, turn the cartridge upside down and wipe the print head gently over a damp paper towel. This should help get the ink ready to print. You can go ahead and install the cartridge and print a test page. You should find the problem corrected.
My ink cartridge yielded fewer pages than indicated on your web site. Why?
Many customers have questions about page yield. The page yield that is indicated on the web site would be for printing pages with approximately 5% ink coverage. This means that if you printed short memos and nothing else, you would get the full yield listed.
However, most people will print a variety of different documents so the yield will vary. If you're printing loads of graphics, highly dense amounts of type, full pages or intricate photos, of course, your yield will go down. You can use the page counter on your printer or copier to see how many pages you have printed with one cartridge, or you can see how many reams of paper you go through before the cartridge empties. Those are two good ways to test the yield.
So everyone is on the same page, we would like to direct you to the industry standard for testing page yield that was put into place in June of 2004. Click over to ISO/IEC 19752 standard method for testing page yield and check it out. This should help clarify this matter.
My print head has dry, crusted ink on it. How do I clean it?
Submerge your print head in about a quarter of an inch of warm tap water for a few moments. When you see ink coming out, dry the print head with a cotton swab. Then, place it back in place and run your print head cleaning program for your machine. You may have to do this a few times before the ink is flowing correctly.
I want to order a bulk set of colored inks. Can I choose my own colors?
The easy answer is NO, not for online orders. This is because our bulk sets are pre-made and designed to provide great value by offering multiple sets of cartridges at one low price. If you find yourself needing additional or particular colors we also offer great price breaks on individual cartridges. Or if you really need something we can't provide online please give us a call and we can go over the options with you. 1-800-551-9954
I've never used an inkjet refill kit. Will it save me money? How many times can I refill it?
Refilling your ink cartridges is the green and frugal way to go. You can refill each cartridge twice when using InkTec and save yourself lots of cash. It's very easy to do, too. Depending on the care taken in refilling and your print head, you may be able to keep using the same cartridge 4-8 times. InkTec inks are tested under strict laboratory conditions to ensure the highest output quality at all times.
Can I trust a remanufactured inkjet cartridge?
The remanufactured cartridges we sell are all from the Original Equipment Manufacturer and have been through one filling and use cycle. We refurbish them, clean them and check them for any possible leaks or damage. We then check the electric circuitry and run it through print testing. So, yes, you sure can trust that we've done everything to ensure a faultless print experience.
Will my printer's warranty be voided if I refill my cartridges?
Absolutely not! As a consumer, you have a right to use any compatible refill in your printer. You have the US government's word on that. Your warranty is valid no matter which compatible product you use, unless the manufacturer can show proof that the product damaged your printer.
Want it in writing? The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act protects your rights and your warranty. Here's an excerpt from it.
United States Code Annotated
Title 15 Commerce and Trade
Chapter 50 Consumer Product Warranties
15 Section 2032
... (c) No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name; except that the prohibition of this subsection be waived by the commission if:
1) The warrantor satisfies the Commission that the warranted product will function properly only if the article or service so identified is used in connection with the warranted product, and
2) the Commission finds that such a waiver is in the public interest.
How should I handle my ink cartridge?
The print head is the delicate part of the cartridge. Take reasonable care to ensure that it doesn't touch anything but the printer where it will make contact. And, of course, don't use any abrasive materials on it.
I need an HP inkjet cartridge. Does the letter at the end of the part number matter? Is a C6657AN the same as a C6657A?
The letter at the end of HP ink cartridge numbers indicates the volume of ink in the cartridge. The quick answer is simply, yes. Letters at the end of an HP cartridge part number indicate the amount of ink. For instance, the G is the free starter cartridge that comes with the printer and the A is the regular high volume cartridge that is sold in stores. Since we always fill the cartridges we sell completely, you never have to worry. Regardless of the letter at the end of part number, you are getting a high-quality, fully filled cartridge.
Can I send you my empty cartridges for recycling?
We do not have a formal recycling policy. In other words, you get low prices without having to return your empty cartridges like some competitors require.
However, we do accept some cartridges that can be sent along to our recycling partners.
Send us an email at email@example.com along with your surface mailing address. Tell us what kind of cartridges you have and how many and we will send you out a recycling label if we are able to recycle your particular type.
Indicate in your email:
1) Your surface address
2) The cartridge number
3) Is it an original OEM cartridge or remanufactured?
4) The number of empty cartridges you have
For remanufactured cartridges please collect 8-10 before sending.


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First Glimpse
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Sarah Jessica Parker's Twins Turn 7Read More » »
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Celebrity Blogger
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Archives: Aviana Le Gallo
Amy Adams & Family: LAX Landing
Amy Adams & Her Smiley Sweetie
Amy Adams & Family Get Groceries
Amy Adams & Family Hit The Mall
Amy Adams & Family Hit The Zoo
Amy Adams & Family: Hand-In-Hand
Drop Dead Gorgeous star Amy Adams walked hand-in-hand with fiancé Darren Le Gallo and their 4-year-old daughter Aviana in Los Angeles, Calif. on Thursday (September 11). The American Hustle actress, 40, rocked a double denim outfit accessorized by brown boots, while her pretty preschooler … Read the article
Amy Adams & Family: Sunday Stroll
Happy 4th Birthday Aviana Le Gallo
Amy Adams & Family Enjoy Farmer's Market
Amy Adams & Darren Le Gallo's Lil' Ballerina
Amy Adams & Aviana Hustle To The Park
Amy Adams & Family: Fountain Fun
Amy Adams & Her Playdate Pal
Amy Adams' Swinging Sweetie
Amy Adams & Aviana: Grocery Gals
Amy Adams & Darren Le Gallo: Preschool Drop Off
Amy Adams & Family: Coffee Run
Enchanted star Amy Adams and fiancé Darren Le Gallo stepped out for Starbucks with their adorable daughter Aviana, 3, in Studio City, Calif. last week. The family-of-three were seen leaving the coffee shop with their beverages to go. Sporting a white sleeveless hoodie and flip flops, … Read the article
Amy Adams' Breakfast Buddies
Man of Steel actress Amy Adams was photographed with fiancé Darren Le Gallo and their 3-year-old daughter Aviana in Sherman Oaks, Calif. on Saturday (October 5). Joined by grandpa, the group enjoyed breakfast before doing some shopping at Big 5 Sporting Goods. View Slideshow »» View All Photos … Read the article
Amy Adams: Family Life In L.A.
Amy Adams Does The School Run
Amy Adams & Family: Back In Hollywood
Amy Adams' On-Set Visitor
Amy Adams & Family: City Walkers
Amy Adams & Family: Saturday Stroll
Such a sweet trio! Man of Steel actress Amy Adams and fiancé Darren Le Gallo were photographed with their 3-year-old daughter Aviana in Vancouver, B.C. on Saturday (July 13). The family-of-three were seen strolling through Kits Street Market and enjoying a local park in Kitsilano. View Slideshow »» View … Read the article