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Brief Summary
Mammal Species of the World
Comprehensive Description
Range Description
Spotted seals can be found throughout the North Pacific and on the east coast of Asia. They are common in the Bering, Chukchi, Beaufort, and Okhotsk Seas where they prefer to remain over the continental shelf. They can also be found in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. Three population groups (Distinct Population Segments, or DPSs) of spotted seals are recognized based on location: the Southern DPS, the Sea of Okhotsk DPS, and the Bering Sea DPS.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native ); palearctic (Native ); arctic ocean (Native ); pacific ocean (Native )
- 2010. "Spotted Seal (Phoca largha)" (On-line). Accessed December 11, 2012 at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/pinnipeds/spottedseal.htm.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Status Review of the Spotted Seal (Phoca largha). NMFS-AFSC-200. Springfield, VA: Department of Commerce. 2009.
occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
Global Range: Po Hai Sea, coastal waters of Korea, Sea of Japan, coastal waters of Hokkaido and Honshu, Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka, Commander Islands, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, eastern Aleutian Islands. In Alaska, breeds in southeastern Bering Sea. In the Bering Sea, the greatest densities occur in winter in spring within approximatelly 25 km of the irregular and shifting southern margin (front) of the pack ice, where breeding and birthing occur (Reeves et al. 1992). Central Bering Sea stock occurs in winter and spring south of Cape Navarin to St. Matthew Island, dispersing into Anadyr Gulf. Eastern Bering Sea stock is centered in the southeastern Bering Sea from the Pribilofs to outer Bristol Bay and disperses northward through Bering Strait and along the shores of the Chukchi Sea. About 2000 occupy Kasegaluk Lagoon near Point Lay, Alaska, from July to freeze-up each year (Reeves et al. 1992).
Physical Description
Pups are born with a dense white coat called a lanugo. The lanugo is normally shed at 2 to 4 weeks of age, giving way to a smooth grey-white coat with dark spots. Juveniles sometimes have a dark dorsal stripe that gradually fades into more spotting as they age. Spotted seals are of a medium size and build. Female adults weigh from 65 to 115 kg and grow to lengths of 151 to 169 cm while male adults typically weigh from 85 to 110 kg with lengths of 161 to 176 cm. Spotted seals share several distinguishing characteristics with all seals, such as lack of an external ear, a streamlined body, and a thick layer of blubber. Their hind flippers are fixed behind them and cannot be turned forward as in members of the family Otariidae (sea lions and fur seals). Spotted seals are very similar in appearance to light-colored harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and, for a time, they were considered a subspecies of harbor seal. However, harbor seal pups lose their lanugo coat while still in the womb and there are also several skeletal and cranial characteristics that differ considerably between harbor and spotted seals. These and several behavioral differences led to the spotted seal eventually being recognized as a separate species.
Range mass: 65 to 115 kg.
Range length: 151 to 176 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger
- Berta, A. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. San Diego: Academic Press.
- Lowry, L., K. Frost, R. Davis, D. DeMaster, R. Suydam. 1998. Movements and behavior of satellite-tagged spotted seals (Phoca largha) in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Polar Biology, 19/4: 221-230.
Length: 170 cm
Weight: 136 grams
Size in North America
Range: 1.4-1.7 m
Range: 81-109 kg
Type Information
Catalog Number: USNM 83447
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Mammals
Sex/Stage: Male; Young adult
Preparation: Skull; Partial Skeleton
Collector(s): L. Stejneger
Year Collected: 1896
Locality: Avatcha Bay, Kamchatskiy, Russia, Bering Sea, Asia, North Pacific Ocean
- Type: Allen, J. A. 12 Dec 1902 . Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 16: 483.
Habitat and Ecology
In spring, spotted seals give birth to a single pup, mostly on the surface of sea ice but sometimes on land. Pups are born in a white lanugo coat that is shed at or before weaning which occurs about four weeks after birth. Mating occurs after pups are weaned. Spotted seals are annually monogamous and males defend lactating females on ice floes, and groups composed of a female with her pup and a male, called triads, are common during the breeding season (Quakenbush 1988).
In late-spring and summer many spotted seals leave the sea ice and haul-out on land to rest when they are not foraging. On some haulouts in Kamchatka the number of animals on shore may reach over 10,000 individuals (V. Burkanov pers. comm.). As sea ice reforms in October-November spotted seals again use the ice as their primary feeding and resting habitat (Burkanov 1990, Lowry et al. 1998, 2000). They are generalist feeders that take primarily a variety of fish species (walleye pollock, Arctic and saffron cod, rockfish, herring, sand lance, smelt, capelin, eelpout, salmonids and flounders), cephalopods (squid and octopus) and crustaceans (shrimp and crab) (Quakenbush 1988, Burkanov 1990).
Reported predators include Pacific sleeper sharks, killer whales, golden eagles, Stellers sea eagles, ravens, gulls, polar and brown bears, wolves, Arctic foxes, walruses and Steller sea lions (Quakenbush 1988).
- Terrestrial
- Marine
Spotted seals are a pagophilic (ice-loving) species. They reside on sea ice through late autumn and winter while breeding and whelping, moving to nearshore and onshore environments during spring through early autumn. They prefer to remain near the ice front where ice floes are smaller and the water is relatively shallow. They are rarely found far into the ice pack or out in the open ocean.
Habitat Regions: polar ; saltwater or marine
Terrestrial Biomes: icecap
Aquatic Biomes: pelagic ; coastal
- Lowry, L., V. Burkanov, K. Frost, M. Simpkins, R. Davis, D. DeMaster, R. Suydam, A. Springer. 2000. Habitat use and habitat selection by spotted seals (Phoca largha) in the Bering Sea. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 78/11: 1959-1971.
- Simpkins, M., L. Hiruki-Raring, G. Sheffield, J. Grebmeier, J. Bengston. 2003. Habitat selection by ice-associated pinnipeds near St. Lawrence Island, Alaska in March 2001. Polar Biology, 26/9: 577-586.
Habitat Type: Marine
Comments: Littoral distribution in summer when shorefast ice has melted. Occurs in estuaries and embayments in late summer and fall. Offshore along edge of ice pack in winter; rarely more than 100 km from pack ice edge. Rests ashore on tide exposed rocks and (in winter) on ice floes. During open-water season, often hauls out on sandbars and beaches. Young are born on ice, where they remain until they are weaned at three to four weeks of age (Perry, in Wilson and Ruff 1999).
Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.
Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).
Locally Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.
Migrates between summer littoral habitat and offshore winter habitat along edge of ice pack; compass direction and timing of migration varies regionally (Bigg 1981).
Trophic Strategy
Fish are the primary component of the spotted seal's diet, most commonly herring (Clupea pallasii pallasii), pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), cod (Gadus macrocephalus), and capelin (Mallotus villosus). They also feed on mollusks and crustaceans. The pelagic zone of the ocean is where they spend most of their foraging time. The spotted seal's seasonal movements between sea ice and shore is believed to be partially driven by migration of these prey species.
Animal Foods: fish; mollusks; aquatic crustaceans
Primary Diet: carnivore (Piscivore )
- Dehn, L., G. Sheffield, E. Follmann, L. Duffy, D. Thomas, T. O'Hara. 2007. Feeding ecology of phocid seals and some walrus in the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic as determined by stomach contents and stable isotope analysis. Polar Biology, 30/2: 167-181.
Comments: Young eats mainly small crustaceans, including amphipods, shrimps, and euphausiids. Older seals feed opportunistically on various fishes (e.g., walleye pollock, capelin, arctic cod, saffron cod, sand lance, herring, and rainbow smelt), and some cephalopods and crustaceans. Feeds during day; occurrence of night feeding uncertain. (Bigg 1981).
Spotted seals mainly feed in the pelagic zone of the ocean, where their primary prey is schooling fish. Depredation by seals has been shown to have an effect on populations of fish, but there has been no study done that definitively shows the role spotted seals play in the population changes of their prey species. Spotted seals are not thought to be important prey for any other species besides some humans that hunt them for subsistence.
- Chassot, E., D. Duplisea, M. Hammill, A. Caskenette, N. Bousquet, Y. Lambert, G. Stenson. 2009. Role of predation by harp seals Pagophilus groenlandicus in the collapse and non-recovery of northern Gulf of St. Lawrence cod Gadus morhua. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 379: 279-297.
Predators known to occasionally prey on spotted seals include sharks, killer whales, walruses, sea lions, polar bears, brown bears, wolves, several species of birds, and, of course, humans. Spotted seals, however, do not constitute a significant portion of any of these predator's diets. They avoid predation by gathering at haul-out areas, being cryptically colored, and being agile in the water.
Known Predators:
- sharks (Chondrichthyes)
- killer whales (Orcinus orca)
- walruses (Odobenus rosmarus)
- Steller's sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus)
- polar bears (Ursus maritimus)
- brown bears (Ursus arctos)
- wolves (Canis lupus)
- birds of prey (Accipitridae)
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Known predators
Orcinus orca
Ursus maritimus
Ursus arctos
Canis lupus
Alopex lagopus
Eumetopias jubatus
Odobenus rosmarus
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
- Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 16, 2011 at http://animaldiversity.org. http://www.animaldiversity.org
Known prey organisms
non-insect arthropods
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
- Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 16, 2011 at http://animaldiversity.org. http://www.animaldiversity.org
Population Biology
Global Abundance
10,000 to >1,000,000 individuals
Comments: Bering-Chukchi population probably is at least 200,000; Sea of Okhotsk population perhaps 130,000 (Reeves et al. 1992).
General Ecology
Generally solitary in water but forms small groups when ashore (nonbreeding season). All ages congregate for molt after breeding.
Greatest densities occur along the southern edge of the pack ice in the pupping and mating season of late winter and spring. Family groups consisting of an adult female, adult male, and pup are spaced about 200 meters apart (Perry, in Wilson and Ruff 1999).
Taken by various predators, but none of these is known to be a significant influence on population size.
Life History and Behavior
Olfaction is believed to be extremely important in maintaining relationships between individuals, especially between mates and between mothers and their offspring. One of the most important reasons for the gathering of many spotted seals at haul-out sites is so this olfactory (as well as tactile) contact can occur between individuals. If a mother and offspring are separated, they will call to each other and touch noses once reunited. Calling and nosing have also been observed between mating pairs. When navigating under ice, spotted seals rely mostly on vision, then on auditory and tactile cues.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
- Elsner, R., D. Wartzok, N. Sonafrank, B. Kelly. 1989. Behavioral and physiological reactions of arctic seals during under-ice pilotage. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 67/10: 2506-2513.
Life Cycle
Life Expectancy
About 45% of spotted seal pups die within their first year of life. If they survive to adulthood, they can live to a maximum of 30 to 35 years of age.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 35 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 32.0 years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 35.0 years.
Average lifespan
Sex: female
Status: wild: 32.0 years.
Average lifespan
Sex: male
Status: wild: 29.0 years.
Lifespan, longevity, and ageing
Spotted seals are unusual among seals in that they are annually monogamous rather than polygynous. Mating pairs form when the female is about to give birth to a pup from the previous year's mating. The pair remain together until that pup weans and the female goes into oestrus and will copulate once again. Mating occurs underwater and copulation is preceded by increased vocalizations and physical contact, such as nosing. Mating pairs tend to form a small group of two or three individuals depending on if there is a pup present or not.
Mating System: monogamous
Female spotted seals reach sexual maturity when they are 3 to 4 years old. Males usually take 4 to 5 years before maturing. Breeding is normally in the spring, around April or May, but can occur as early as January in Asian waters. A single pup is born the following spring. Gestation lasts 7 to 9 months, but a delay in implantation of the blastocyst after breeding can extend the length of the entire pregnancy to almost a year. Pups are weaned after 2 to 4 weeks, when their lanugo is shed and they can leave the ice to begin learning to forage for themselves in the water.
Breeding interval: Spotted seals breed once yearly.
Breeding season: Breeding occurs from January to May, depending on the location.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Range gestation period: 7 to 12 months.
Range weaning age: 2 to 4 weeks.
Range time to independence: 2 to 4 weeks.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 3 to 4 minutes.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 4 to 5 minutes.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous ; delayed implantation
Average birth mass: 7100 g.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Pups nurse for 2 to 4 weeks after birth. Both the mother and her current mate remain with the pup during this time. The male probably doesn't contribute much to the pup's care since it is not his, but mostly focuses on being near the female. Once the pup has been weaned (at about a month old), it is abandoned by the mother and left to fend for itself. Female spotted seals have been observed adopting strange pups if they are separated from their own.
Parental Investment: precocial ; female parental care ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female)
- Atkinson, S. 1997. Reproductive biology of seals. Reviews of Reproduction, 2/3: 175-194.
- Beier, J., D. Wartzok. 1979. Mating behavior of captive spotted seals (Phoca largha). Animal Behavior, 27/3: 772-781.
- Burns, J., C. Ray, F. Fay, P. Shaughnessy. 1972. Adoption of a strange new pup by the ice-inhabiting harbor seal Phoca vitulina largha. Journal of Mammalogy, 53/3: 594-598.
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Status Review of the Spotted Seal (Phoca largha). NMFS-AFSC-200. Springfield, VA: Department of Commerce. 2009.
- Rugh, D., K. Sheldon, D. Withrow. 1997. Spotted seals (Phoca largha) in Alaska. Marine Fisheries Review, 59: 1-18.
Pairs form about 10 days before pupping, stay together (and away from other pairs) until mating about 1 month later. Gestation lasts 10.5 months, including a period of 1.5-4 months of delayed implantation. In Alaska, most births occur late March to mid-May. In Japan, births occur from late January to mid-April, with a peak in the second half of March. Lactation lasts 2-6 weeks (estimated at 2-3 weeks in Japan). Females sexually mature at 3-4 years, males at 4-5 years.
Molecular Biology and Genetics
Molecular Biology
Barcode data: Phoca largha
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
There are 5 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.
Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.
See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.
-- end --
Download FASTA File
Statistics of barcoding coverage: Phoca largha
Public Records: 5
Specimens with Barcodes: 7
Species With Barcodes: 1
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Year Assessed
IUCN Evaluation of the Spotted Seal, Phoca largha
Prepared by the Pinniped Specialist Group
A. Population reduction Declines measured over the longer of 10 years or 3 generations
Al. Population reduction observed, estimated, inferred, or suspected in the past where the causes of the reduction are clearly reversible AND understood AND have ceased, based on and specifying any of the following:
(a) direct observation
(b) an index of abundance appropriate to the taxon
(c) a decline in area of occupancy (AOO), extent of occurrence (EOO) and/or habitat quality
(d) actual or potential levels of exploitation
(e) effects of introduced taxa, hybridization, pathogens, pollutants, competitors or parasites.
Age-structure data are not available for the Spotted Seal population so the generation time cannot be calculated precisely. With sexual maturity attained at 3-5 years of age and a maximum longevity of approximately 35 years, the average age of reproducing individuals should be at least 10 years. A population reduction of Sotted Seals has not been observed, estimated, inferred, or suspected in the past 30 years. However, population abundance is poorly known and has not been monitored.
A2. Population reduction observed, estimated, inferred, or suspected in the past where the causes of reduction may not have ceased OR may not be understood OR may not be reversible, based on (a) to (e) under A1.
A population reduction of spotted seals has not been observed, estimated, inferred, or suspected in the past 30 years.
A3. Population reduction projected or suspected to be met in the future (up to a maximum of 100 years) based on (b) to (e) under A1.
A population reduction of Spotted Seals is suspected in the future because of predicted reduction in sea ice habitats due to continued climate warming. The likely amount of population reduction has not been projected, but could exceed 30% within the next 30 years. This meets the criterion for Vulnerable.
A4. An observed, estimated, inferred, projected or suspected population reduction (up to a maximum of 100 years) where the time period must include both the past and the future, and where the causes of reduction may not have ceased OR may not be understood OR may not be reversible, based on (a) to (e) under A1.
A population reduction of Spotted Seals has not been observed, estimated, inferred, or suspected in the past 30 years.
B. Geographic range in the form of either B1 (extent of occurrence) AND/OR B2 (area of occupancy)
B1. Extent of occurrence (EOO): CR < 100 km; EN < 5,000 km; VU < 20,000 km
The EOO of Spotted Seals is > 20,000 km.
B2. Area of occupancy (AOO): CR < 10 km; EN < 500 km; VU < 2,000 km
The AOO of Spotted Seals is > 2,000 km.
AND at least 2 of the following:
(a) Severely fragmented, OR number of locations: CR = 1; EN < 5; VU < 10
(b) Continuing decline in any of: (i) extent of occurrence; (ii) area of occupancy; (iii) area, extent and/or quality of habitat; (iv) number of locations or subpopulations; (v) number of mature individuals.
(c) Extreme fluctuations in any of: (i) extent of occurrence; (ii) area of occupancy; (iii) number of locations or subpopulations; (iv) number of mature individuals.
C. Small population size and decline
Number of mature individuals: CR < 250; EN < 2,500; VU < 10,000
The current abundance of Spotted Seals is poorly known, but the number of mature individuals is certainly > 10,000.
AND either C1 or C2:
C1. An estimated continuing decline of at least: CR = 25% in 3 years or 1 generation; EN = 20% in 5 years or 2 generations; VU = 10% in 10 years or 3 generations (up to a max. of 100 years in future)
C2. A continuing decline AND (a) and/or (b):
(a i) Number of mature individuals in each subpopulation: CR < 50; EN < 250; VU < 1,000
(a ii) % individuals in one subpopulation: CR = 90100%; EN = 95100%; VU = 100%
(b) Extreme fluctuations in the number of mature individuals.
D. Very small or restricted population
Number of mature individuals: CR < 50; EN < 250; VU < 1,000 AND/OR restricted area of occupancy typically: AOO < 20 km or number of locations < 5
The current abundance of Spotted Seals is poorly known, but the number of mature individuals is certainly > 1,000. AOO is > 20 km and the number of locations is > 5.
E. Quantitative analysis
Indicating the probability of extinction in the wild to be: CR > 50% in 10 years or 3 generations (100 years max.); EN > 20% in 20 years or 5 generations (100 years max.); VU > 10% in 100 years
There has been no quantitative analysis of the probability of extinction for Spotted Seals.
Listing recommendation Past, poorly documented, estimates of Spotted Seal abundance suggest a total population size of perhaps 400,000. Based on reports from coastal Alaskan hunters, Spotted Seals are still numerous and no major changes in abundance have been reported. However, climate warming and reduction in sea ice coverage are occurring, and because most Spotted Seals depend on sea ice for reproduction that will likely result in a population decline. Current abundance and population trend are unknown, and thus the Spotted Seal must be classified as Data Deficient at this time.
- 1996Lower Risk/least concern (LR/lc)
With climate change resulting in a reduction in the area of sea ice, there is concern for populations of spotted seals as well as other polar marine species as they face possible changes in habitat and prey distribution. Spotted seals are also victims of fishing bycatch and poaching. At this time the species is considered to be data deficient by the IUCN. Only the Southern DPS of spotted seals was listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2010 by the National Marine Fisheries Service. This was due to reports of decreasing populations on Asian coasts.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: data deficient
- Bluhm, B., R. Gradinger. 2008. Regional variability in food availability for arctic marine mammals. Ecological Applications, 18/2: S77-S96.
- Won, C., B. Yoo. 2004. Abundance, seasonal haul-out pattern and conservation of spotted seals (Phoca largha) along the coast of Bak-ryoung Island, South Korea. Oryx, 38/1: 109-112.
National NatureServe Conservation Status
Rounded National Status Rank: N2 - Imperiled
United States
Rounded National Status Rank: N4 - Apparently Secure
NatureServe Conservation Status
Rounded Global Status Rank: G4 - Apparently Secure
Female spotted seals become sexually mature at 3-4 years old and males at 4-5 years. Maximum longevity is at least 35 years (Quakenbush 1988).
Population Trend
Global Short Term Trend: Relatively stable (=10% change)
Comments: World population is regarded as essentially stable (Reeves et al. 1992). Total population probably near historical level (Bigg 1981).
Intensive harvesting of fish in the Okhotsk and Bering seas poses a risk to spotted seals as several of their main prey species are targets of commercial fisheries (Lowry and Frost 1985). Entanglement in commercial fisheries occurs occasionally in Japan and in the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea and small organized control kills to limit damage to fisheries regularly occur in Japan (Mizuno et al. 2001, Angliss and Outlaw 2007). In Kamchatka, spotted seals sometimes eat fish out of fishing gear and fishermen shoot small numbers in local areas to defend their landings and protect their equipment (V. Burkanov pers. comm.).
Oil and gas development may cause disturbance to and adversely affect the habitat used by the spotted seals (Reijnders et al. 1993). Oil contamination poses poorly known risks to spotted seal populations. The greatest impacts would likely result if spills occurred during the pupping season, if food resources were negatively effected or if the spill was an event that affected a large area (St Aubin 1990). There is little information on contaminant burdens in this species, but concern would be greatest for animals living in the western part of the range where they occur near large population and industrial areas in China, Korea and Japan and in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Reduction in late winter and spring sea ice cover in the Sea of Okhotsk and the central and southern Bering Sea as a result of global climate change could be problematic for spotted seals as the majority of the population uses pack ice at the southern limit of the ice extent for pupping (Tynan and DeMaster 1997). Changes to ice characteristics that effect its location, timing, stability, etc. could result in lower survival of spotted seal pups. Disruption or alteration of the patterns of primary productivity and abundance of key prey species could also have detrimental effects on ice dependent seals like the spotted seal (Tynan and DeMaster 1997; Laidre et al., in press).
Comments: Intensive commercial fisheries for pandalid shrimps, pollock, and herring in the southern Bering Sea may threaten seals' food supply. Oil and gas exploration, extraction, and transport activities under way or scheduled in portions of winter range may impact seals or their food resources (Reeves et al. 1992).
Conservation Actions
Commercial harvesting of spotted seals from vessels of the Russian Federation ended in 1994. Small scale commercial and subsistence harvest from small boats and land occurs along the Russian Far East coast, but the size of the harvest is relatively small (V. Burkanov pers. comm.).
Management Requirements: Separate western, central, and eastern stocks have been proposed for management in the Bering Sea (Reeves et al. 1992).
Relevance to Humans and Ecosystems
Spotted seals sometimes take fish from nets.
- Northridge, S. 1991. An updated world review of interactions between marine mammals and fisheries. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
Alaska Natives and some Russian hunters rely on spotted seals as part of their subsistence lifestyle. In addition to using them as food, skins are used for clothing. The annual take of spotted seals isn't well documented, but the yearly average in Alaska between 1966 and 1976 was estimated at 2,400. Seal oil has gained some popularity as a health supplement for lowering blood pressure.
Positive Impacts: food ; body parts are source of valuable material
- Meyer, B., A. Lane, N. Mann. 2009. Comparison of seal oil to tuna oil on plasma lipid levels and blood pressure in hypertriglyceridaemic subjects. Lipids, 44/9: 827-835.
- Nelson, M. 2008. "Spotted Seal" (On-line). Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Accessed December 11, 2012 at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/education/wns/spotted_seal.pdf.
Economic Uses
Comments: A few thousand to several thousand are harvested annually by "Soviet" hunters, to feed animals in fur farms; lately, nearly all of the harvest was made from ships in the Bering Sea. Japanese harvest formerly was more extensive, now occurs only when pack ice approaches coast of Hokkaido. A small subsistence harvest occurs in Alaska.
Spotted seal
The spotted seal (Phoca largha, Phoca vitulina largha),[2] also known as the larga or largha seal, is a member of the family Phocidae, and is considered a "true seal". It inhabits ice floes and waters of the north Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. It is primarily found along the continental shelf of the Beaufort, Chukchi, Bering and Okhotsk Seas[3] and south to the northern Yellow Sea and it migrates south as far as northern Huanghai and the western Sea of Japan. It is also found in Alaska from the southeastern Bristol Bay to Demarcation Point during the ice-free seasons of summer and autumn when spotted seals mate and have pups. Smaller numbers are found in the Beaufort Sea.[4] It is sometimes mistaken for the harbor seal to which it is closely related and spotted seals and harbor seals often mingle together in areas where their habitats overlap.[5]
The reduction in arctic ice floes due to global warming led to concerns that the spotted seal was threatened with extinction. Studies were conducted on its population numbers, with the conclusion, as of October 15, 2009, that the spotted seal population in Alaskan waters is not currently to be listed as endangered by NOAA.[6]
The scientific name originated in the Greek word for seal, phoce, and larga, the term used by the Siberian Tungus people for this seal. The English common name is comes from this seal's characteristic dark, irregularly shaped spots. Alaskan Eskimo names include issuriq (Central Alaskan Yup'ik language), gazigyaq in St. Lawrence Island Yupik, and qasigiaq in Inupiaq.[4]
Spotted seals are inhabitants of arctic or sub-arctic waters, often in the outer areas of ice floes during the breeding season. They tend not to live within dense drift ice. In the summer months they live in the open ocean or on nearby shores.[7]
Spotted seals are separated into three populations. The Bering Sea population includes approximately 100,000 in the western Bering Sea near Kamchatka, in the Gulf of Anadyr in Russia, and in the eastern Bering Sea in Alaskan waters (the only population in the US). A second population of about 100,000 seals breeds in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. A third population of about 3,300 seals is to the south in Liaodong Bay, China and Peter the Great Bay, Russia.[7] There is also a smaller population of 300 grey spotted seals living in waters off Baekryeong Island located far north of the west coast of South Korea.
Physical description[edit]
The spotted seal is of the family, Phocidae, or "true seals". Compared to other true seals, they are intermediate in size, with mature adults of both sexes generally weighing between 180 to 240 pounds (81 to 109 kg) and measuring 4.59 to 6.89 ft (1.5 to 2.1 meters), roughly the same size as a harbor seal or ribbon seal. The head of a spotted seal is round, with a narrow snout resembling that of a dog.[4]
The spotted seal has a relatively small body and short flippers extending behind the body that provide thrust, while the small flippers in front act as rudders. The dense fur varies in color from silver to gray and white and is characterized by dark, irregular spots against the lighter background and covering the entire body. Males and females differ little in size or shape. In places where their habitat overlaps with that of the harbor seal, they can be confused with them, as in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Like harbor seals, spotted seals have 34 teeth.[4][7]
Behavior and reproduction[edit]
Spotted seals are relatively shy and are difficult for humans to approach. They can be solitary in general but are gregarious and form large groups during pupping and molting seasons when they haul out on ice floes or, lacking ice, on land. The numerically largest groups in Alaska are at Kasegaluk Lagoon in the Chukchi Sea, near Cape Espenburg in Kotzebue Sound, and in Kuskokwim Bay on sandbars and shoals, where several thousand may collect.[4]
Sexual maturity is attained around the age of four. January to mid-April is the breeding season. Pup births peak in mid-March. Spotted seals are believed annually monogamous, and during breeding season, they form "families" made up of a male, female, and their pup, born after a 10 month gestation period. Average birth size is 3 ft (1 m) and 26 lbs.[8] Pups are weaned six weeks later. The maximum lifespan of the spotted seal is 35 years with few living beyond 25.[7][8]
Spotted seals dive to depths up to 1,000 ft (300 m) while feeding on a variety of ocean prey. Juveniles eat primarily krill and small crustaceans while adults eat a variety of fish including herring, arctic cod, pollock, and capelin.[4] They do not seem to vocalize a lot, although not much is known about their vocalizations. They appear to vocalize more while in molting groups. When approached in these groups, they make various sounds such as growls, barks, moans, and roars.[4]
Conservation status[edit]
On March 28, 2008, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initiated a status review[9] under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to determine if listing this ice seal species under the ESA was warranted. After an 18-month review of the status of the spotted seal, NOAA announced on October 15, 2009 that two of the three spotted seal populations, together numbering 200,000 seals in or adjacent to Alaska, are not in danger of becoming extinct, nor are they likely to become so in the "foreseeable future",[6] even though global warming has caused a loss in arctic ice mass. The announcement stated: "We do not predict the expected fluctuations in sea ice will affect them enough to warrant listing at this time."[10]
In South Korea, spotted seals have been designated Natural Monument No. 331 and second-class endangered species. This is because the seals from South Korea travel to Dalian, China to breed every year where several thousands are harvested for their genitals and sealskin to be sold on the black market for Chinese medicine.[citation needed] An environmental activist group Green Korea United is currently working closely with local Chinese government to stop the seals from being poached by Chinese fishermen.[11]
The three seal siblings have been named mascots for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.[12]
- ^ Lowry, L. & Burkanov, V. (2008). Phoca largha. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
- ^ Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ^ Peter Saundry. 2010. Spotted seal. Encyclopedia of Earth. topic ed. C.Michael Hogan. ed in chief C. Cleveland, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington DC
- ^ a b c d e f g h Burns, John J. "Spotted Seal: Wildlife Notebook Series – Alaska Department of Fish and Game". www.adfg.state.ak.us. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- ^ "National Marine Mammal Laboratory". www.afsc.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ a b "NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA Will Not List Bering Spotted Seal as Endangered or Threatened". www.noaanews.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- ^ a b c d "Spotted Seal (Phoca largha) – Office of Protected Resources – NOAA Fisheries". www.nmfs.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- ^ a b Wynne, Kate. "Spotted (Largha) Seal – Alaska Sea Grant". seagrant.uaf.edu. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ "Marine Mammals; Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking". Federal Register /Vol. 73, No. 61 / Friday, March 28, 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ Joling, Dan. "Feds deny protection for spotted seals near Alaska – Yahoo! News". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ Green Korea United :: Poaching for 1000 Spotted Seals, Wailing of Spotted Seals. Green-korea.tistory.com. Retrieved on 2011-09-15.
- ^ Kbs News. News.kbs.co.kr (2011-05-24). Retrieved on 2011-09-15.
Names and Taxonomy
Comments: Phoca largha has been treated as conspecific with P. vitulina by some authors; recent accounts generally have regarded vitulina and largha as separate species (e.g., Reeves et al. 1992; Wozencraft, in Wilson and Reeder 1993, 2005; Rice 1998, Baker et al. 2003). This is supported by limited mtDNA data (Mouchaty et al. 1995). See Bigg (1981) for a brief discussion of taxonomy.
A cladistic analysis of mtDNA data yielded three clades among northern seals: Phoca-Pusa-Halichoerus, Cystophora-Pagophilus, and Erignathus (Perry et al. 1995). Each clade may be regarded as a tribe of the subfamily Phocinae. The magnitude of the differences among Phoca, Pusa, and Halichoerus was on the same order as that between species and subspecies within the genus Odocoileus. Because Cystophora is the closest relative of Pagophilus, the latter cannot be regarded as congeneric with Phoca; the differences between the two are great enough to justify placing them in separate genera (Perry et al. 1995).


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Funds of Hedge Funds Mergers & Acquisitions / Joint Ventures
Bank of China scoops Bedrock team
BOC (Suisse) Fund Management, the institutional asset management arm of the Bank of China (Suisse), has hired Daniel Penseyres, Grégoire Haenni and Nicolas Salomon to set up and run the fund selection and alternative investments division at the bank.
The Geneva-based team previously founded and ran Bedrock Alternative Asset Management, the alternative asset management subsidiary of the Bedrock Group. Penseyres was managing partner and co-portfolio manager of two funds of hedge funds and a large book of Advisory Mandates for ultra high net worth investors at Bedrock.
Prior to founding Bedrock, Penseyres joined Darier Hentsch in 2001, and

subset: commoncrawl


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Enjoy the beautiful Rochester skyline from your room at the Rochester Marriott hotel.


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Anybody doing any thing special with all the daylight we'll have today? I know the sunrise was beautiful here this morning. I listened to this twice when I got to work:
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Do inflation targeting central banks behave asymmetrically? Evidence from Australia and New Zealand
This paper tests the standard quadratic approximation to central bank preferences on data from Australia and New Zealand, two of the earliest explicit inflation targeting countries. The standard linear-quadratic monetary policy model assumes central bank preferences over key macroeconomic variables, such as inflation and output, can be usefully approximated by a quadratic function. This approximation implies that a deviation from a target is considered to be equally costly irrespective of whether the deviation is positive or negative. Combined with a linear model of the economy, quadratic preferences are useful because they yield a first order condition that implies a linear interest rate reaction function. This paper relaxes the assumption of quadratic preferences by allowing central banks to regard the costs associated with positive and negative output gaps differently. Our models also test for the possibility that positive and negative deviations of inflation from target to be treated differently. During the inflation targeting period in both countries, evidence suggests that we cannot reject quadratic preferences over inflation deviations (from target). We cannot reject that New Zealand's preferences regarding deviations of output from trend are quadratic, but Australia's behaviour does not appear to be consistent with quadratic preferences. Instead, the preferences of the Reserve Bank of Australia appear to be more accurately modelled with an asymmetric loss such that the Reserve Bank of Australia views negative output gaps as more costly than positive output gaps.
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|Date of creation:
|Apr 2004
|Contact details of provider:
| Postal: P.O. Box 2498, Wellington
Phone: 64 4 471-3767
Fax: 64 4 471-2270
Web page: http://www.rbnz.govt.nz
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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- David Card & Dean Hyslop, 1997.
"Does Inflation "Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market"?,"
NBER Chapters,
in: Reducing Inflation: Motivation and Strategy, pages 71-122
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- David Card & Dean Hyslop, 1996. "Does Inflation "Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market"?," NBER Working Papers 5538, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Clarida, R. & Gali, J. & Gertler, M., 1999.
"The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective,"
Working Papers
99-13, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
- Mark Gertler & Jordi Gali & Richard Clarida, 1999. "The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1661-1707, December.
- Clarida, Richard & Galí, Jordi & Gertler, Mark, 1999. "The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective," CEPR Discussion Papers 2139, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Richard Clarida & Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler, 1997. "The science of monetary policy: A new Keynesian perspective," Economics Working Papers 356, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 1999.
- Richard Clarida & Jordi Gali & Mark Gertler, 1999. "The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective," NBER Working Papers 7147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Orphanides, Athanasios & Wieland, Volker, 1999.
"Inflation zone targeting,"
Working Paper Series
0008, European Central Bank.
- Orphanides, Athanasios & Wieland, Volker, 2000. "Inflation zone targeting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 1351-1387, June.
- Philip Lowe & Luci Ellis, 1997. "The Smoothing of Official Interest Rates," RBA Annual Conference Volume, in: Philip Lowe (ed.), Monetary Policy and Inflation Targeting Reserve Bank of Australia.
- Francisco J. Ruge-Murcia, 2001.
"Inflation Targeting Under Asymmetric Preferences,"
Working Papers
0106, Banco de España;Working Papers Homepage.
- Ruge-Murcia, Francisco J, 2003. " Inflation Targeting under Asymmetric Preferences," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(5), pages 763-85, October.
- Francisco Javier Ruge-Murcia, 2001. "Inflation Targeting Under Asymmetric Preferences," IMF Working Papers 01/161, International Monetary Fund.
- Ruge-Murcia, F.J., 2001. "Inflation Targeting Under Asymmetric Preferences," Cahiers de recherche 2001-04, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
- RUGE-MURCIA, Francisco .J., 2001. "Inflation Targeting Under Asymmetric Preferences," Cahiers de recherche 2001-04, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
- repec:cup:etheor:v:9:y:1993:i:2:p:222-40 is not listed on IDEAS
- Alex Cukierman & Stefan Gerlach, 2003.
"The inflation bias revisited: theory and some international evidence,"
Manchester School,
University of Manchester, vol. 71(5), pages 541-565, 09.
- Cukierman, Alex & Gerlach, Stefan, 2003. "The Inflation Bias Revisited: Theory and Some International Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 3761, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- CHADHA, Jagjit & SCHELLEKENS, Philip, .
"Monetary policy loss functions: two cheers for the quadratic,"
Working Papers
1999002, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Applied Economics.
- Jagjit Chadha & Philip Schellekens, 1999. "Monetary policy loss functions: two cheers for the quadratic," Bank of England working papers 101, Bank of England.
- Schellekens, P. & Chadha, J.S., 1999. "Monetary Policy Loss Functions: Two Cheers for the Quadratic," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9920, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
- Aaron Drew & L Christopher Plantier, 0/12. "Interest rate smoothing in New Zealand and other dollar bloc countries," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2000/10, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
- Barro, Robert J & Gordon, David B, 1983.
"A Positive Theory of Monetary Policy in a Natural Rate Model,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(4), pages 589-610, August.
- Robert J. Barro & David B. Gordon, 1981. "A Positive Theory of Monetary Policy in a Natural-Rate Model," NBER Working Papers 0807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Cragg, John G. & Donald, Stephen G., 1993. "Testing Identifiability and Specification in Instrumental Variable Models," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(02), pages 222-240, April.
- Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-29, October.
- Seamus Hogan, 1997.
"What Does Downward Nominal-Wage Rigidity Imply for Monetary Policy?,"
Staff Working Papers
97-13, Bank of Canada.
- Seamus Hogan, 1998. "What Does Downward Nominal-Wage Rigidity Imply for Monetary Policy?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 24(4), pages 513-525, December.
- George A. Akerlof & William R. Dickens & George L. Perry, 1996. "The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1), pages 1-76.
- James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002. "Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression," NBER Technical Working Papers 0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1994.
"Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments,"
NBER Technical Working Papers
0151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
- Hansen, Lars Peter & Heaton, John & Yaron, Amir, 1996. "Finite-Sample Properties of Some Alternative GMM Estimators," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(3), pages 262-80, July.
- Alex Cukierman & Anton Muscatelli, 2001. "Do Central Banks have Precautionary Demands for Expansions and for Price Stability?," Working Papers 2002_4, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow, revised Mar 2002.
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The 4-H Livestock show runs for four days, from Thursday, Aug. 25 through Sunday, Aug. 28 (except for 4-H Lamas, which show during the Open Class Llamas). 4-H Livestock departments include:
The 4-H program offers programming throughout the 12 days of the Minnesota State Fair, serving more than 5,700 exhibitors and showcasing building exhibits, demonstrations, Share the Fun programs, County Arts In programs and other opportunities for youth participation.
Other 4-H contests include Herdsmanship, Showmanship, Judging Teams, Public Presentations, Non-Livestock Exhibits and County Club exhibits.
The Minnesota State Fair Rural Youth Scholarship (formerly the Ben C. Hallberg Rural Youth Scholarship) was established in 1994 to help further the educational endeavors of young adults from greater Minnesota. Up to 20 scholarships of $1,000 each will be made available to rural youth or those enrolled in an agriculture program in 2016, with participation in the current year's Minnesota State Fair.GENERAL INFORMATION AND RULES FOR ENTRY: The 4-H premium book is available annually to view and print in early June. For more information, please contact your local 4-H leader, Extension agent or the state's Center for 4-H Youth Development for further details: http://www1.extension.umn.edu/youth/mn4-H/state-fair/resources.html.
MINNESOTA 4-H DAIRY SHOWCASE: The 8th annual Minnesota 4-H Dairy Showcase awarded more than $37,000 to 25 deserving youth.
MINNESOTA 4-H PURPLE RIBBON AUCTION: in 2015, the 36th annual Minnesota 4-H Purple Ribbon Auction raised more than $575,000 benefiting 4-H youth in the form of premiums and scholarships.
For more information on the 4-H Purple Ribbon Auction, please visit:
For further information, please contact email@example.com or (651) 288-4417.
For the latest State Fair competition updates, join our email list!


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Average Rating
User Reviews
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful:Problem Children Awesome anime!The whole anime was super awesome and wish it had been more long; i will hope for more in the future. Every character was cool and i like Sakamaki Izayoi the most and how he display both his strength and how well smart he is. Black Rabbit was my 2rd favortie character but wish she had awesome pertty name then Black Rabbit; anyway i called her BR for short. Recommended everyone who hasn't watch yet ...Read more
2 out of 7 people found this review helpful:AWSOME!!!!! highly recommended by ALL viewers!!JUST THE PERFECT ANIME OUT THERE.!!!!!...U WILL LOVE IT!!.......................................................................... ..........................................................................................
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful:Spot on amazing, very unique!This series is absolutely amazing, It has a combination of comedy and action which is a great mix up! from episode one to the last episode I was absolutely hooked on this anime! It is a fantastic anime and I am willing to pass along the word to others. In my opinion this anime deserves a nice 5 out 5 for being spot on amazing! I hope to see more episodes in the future!
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful:Outstanding, one of the best this season...This series seriously amazed me. Huge kudos to the people that made this...Read more
There weren't any characters that were obnoxious or annoying. To a degree you could argue that they were somewhat stereotypical but they interact so flawlessly that i found i didn't even care... Though i did notice that the antagonist, while they were clearly evil, didn't make me hate them with a burning ...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful:Absolutely loved it!It had a great beginning and a fast paced plot. I was always on the edge waiting for the next episode on Fridays. One thing I would've loved is to extend the anime a little longer. Sure, romance would of been nice too, but the anime might have starting dragging on after a while so I actually like it the way it is. I really hope they have a season two!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful:This show best be coming back for a second season.I love this show, and am willing to sit through advertisements if I have to. (Which I don't because I'm a paying subscriber.) After a while one tends to stop feeling emotion when watching anime. This show is the first in a long while to actually make me excited.
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful:Just Ended - Doing a review!PLOT:
-Fast paced
-Easy to understand
-No Drama
-Light Hearted
-A lot of action
Conclusion: One of the best Anime I've liked so far. It could have been better if they dragged a few more episode out of this. Seems like there isn't really any back story to any characters. Hope Blue-Ray sells well so we can have a second season!
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful:Amazing! Need More!This anime is amazing. I love the characters and the artwork. The plot line is great and I love how it's layered rather then giving you everything at once. Can't wait to see more! Need to find and read the novels!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful:Really surprised, I like it!I was flipping through anime and came across this one. I watched it just on a whim. Glad I did!! I'm so surprised. From the cover I thought it would be another stupid harem anime but it's not like that at all. I love the attitude of each character.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful:Where's star 6 when you really need it?This show is, honest to goodness, the most amusing anime I have ever watched. And at the same time, it manages high levels of butt-kickery, has incredible supernatural powers that aren't complicated to understand, and simultaneously makes the story a game, life-or-death battle, and quest of overall conquest.
And I don't think I'm alone when I say I wish this anime wasn't so short.


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Viral Video: Mardi Gras Funk
Mardi Gras is a time for dancing and sometimes that choreography makes the leap to viral video. For evidence, one need not look any farther than 2013's wobble craze. Now, the Lafayette group that bought us Sneaux Day is back at it with a Carnival track.
'Mixologist' Parodies Craft Cocktail Scene (VIDEO)
Just in time for next week's Tales of the Cocktail, the white guy rappers from the other LA that brought you that Whole Foods parody of Mr. Ghetto's Wal-Mart chime in with a send-up of the fancy drinking scene. With references to cocktails from "pre-Civil War New Orleans," the Ramos Gin Fizz, and huge ice cubes that seem like they would do the trick on an afternoon when the Heat Index is hovering around 110, New Orleanians can find plenty to relate to in "Mixologist." On the other hand, the coasts can have their laughs during the part about $20 cocktails. Certain things are too frightening to be funny. Click through to view:
2 Cent Drops Annual Christmas Parody
Literacy advocates cum hip-hop virtuosos cum filmmakers, 2 Cent are at it again. At the stroke of midnight, the civic minded artists released their third annual Christmas video. As always, the group spread awareness, holiday joy, and laughs while taking aim at some of music's biggest stars. This year, they skewer the likes of Lady Gaga, Rick Ross... and Weezy. Video after the jump.
Dead Huey Long, Emma Boyce, Elizabeth Davas, Ian Hoch, Lindsay Mack, Anna Gaca, Jason Raymond, Lee Matalone, Phil Yiannopoulos, Joe Shriner, Chris Staudinger, Chef Anthony Scanio, Tierney Monaghan, Stacy Coco, Rob Ingraham,
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Ripoff Report | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported
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2595 Barnet Highway, Coquitlam, BC V3C 1K9
+ taxes & licensing
If youre in the market for a commuter vehicle with excellent fuel economy, the Nissan Sentra is worth considering. Although it is a compact sedan, it still has features such as a backup camera, push button start and keyless entry, air conditioning, AM/FM radio, CD player, AUX input, power mirrors, power windows, power locks, cruise control, and steering wheel mounted audio controls. With a fuel economy rating of 7.8L/100km in a city and 6.0L/100km on a highway, youll be driving past many fuel stations. Eagle Ridge GM is Proud to be your New and Used Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC Dealer in Coquitlam, with a Certified Service and Parts Department. Find your next New or Used Vehicle at 2595 Barnet Hwy in Coquitlam. Price Subject to $495 Documentation Fee. Financing Available for all types of Credit. Eagle Ridge GM Saves You Money.
Please contact the seller to confirm pricing, features, odometer, and availability of this vehicle.
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from the Canadian Press:
VANCOUVER - Experts from police to forensic pathologists are at a loss to explain, or even identify, who belongs to six different feet that have washed ashore in British Columbia since last August.
Another foot was discovered Wednesday near Campbell River, on Vancouver Island, bringing to six the number of feet found, disembodied and still encased in a running shoe. So far, DNA testing hasn't helped identify the remains and the absence of explanation has fed wild rumours.
In addition predictable puns and endless parade of off-colour jokes, followers of the case online have offered up imaginative theories and genuine sympathy for the victims and their unknown families.
"Please people, quit the tasteless jokes about the feet," said a comment posted by "Anonymous Anthropologist" on one media website.
"These are real people with real families and loved ones. People are really hurting over their lost loved ones, so have some modicum of human decency."
Still another urged readers to ditch the puns and show some concern.
"Foot puns aside (and who could resist), it sounds as if we got another damned serial killer loose in the Lower Mainland. Watch out for creeps in speedboats hanging around local islands in the middle of the night."
630 CHED - Oddities


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The Canon EF 25mm Extension Tube II is used to allow a lens to focus closer than it would normally. This is accomplished by moving the lens 25mm farther away from the camera body's film plane or digital sensor by fitting between the camera body and the lens. Extension tubes are thus commonly used for macro photography and sometimes for closeup portraits and when using the camera's TTL metering system, no exposure compensation will be required. This updated version II is now also fully compatible with Canon Digital EF-S mount, as well as standard photo EF and TS-E fittings. Extension Tube EF 25 II is recommended for focal lengths of 50mm and up (EF-S 18-55mm can be used at middle and tele zoom settings). More
Canon produces tubes in two different lengths - 12mm and 25mm. The EF12 and EF25 tubes come with electrical contacts which allow data transfer between the lens and camera to be maintained. It is possible to attach the EF12 tube to the EF25 tube to give a 37mm extension. Canon does not recommend this, as the data transfer may be affected, but acceptable results are possible if you are willing to experiment.
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Comments about Canon EF25 II Extension Tube:
This product does two things excellently - it can be used with a macro lens to obtain magnifications greater than 1x and it can be used with an IS zoom lens to obtain hand-held close-up shots with a magnification of about 0.5x - both of these are very useful indeed. However, the same could be said of compatible non-Canon products costing a fraction of the price. I guess there must be some premium on the Canon build quality but this product seems over-priced to me - so four stars only
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Very impressive
By Blackbird Singing
from Carlisle, UK
About Me Photo Enthusiast
I bought this Canon extension tube to use with my EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS lens on an EOS 5D mark II camera. The results have been far more satisfying than I expected. The flexibility of that particular lens with this extension tube allows hand-held close-up shots of a quality I had formerly only dreamed of. On a tripod with mirror locked-up and the camera on remote shutter release results in a resolution quality which matches dedicated macro lenses. I know that with this combination the magnification of the image on the sensor is somewhat less than half life size (as opposed to a macro lens' actual life size) but I guess the quality of the lens and the camera is what makes the difference here - the resulting images are simply excellent - good enough to crop and enlarge substantially.I've had cheap extension tubes in the past which were less than satisfactory. The quality and construction of this Canon tube is in a different world - it is a pleasure to use and handle. Yes, it's pricey, but it was my decision to pay the premium so I shall not deduct the 5th star on the grounds of price.I've also had three dedicated macro lenses in the past - all in the 100mm focal length range. None of them has had the versatility of this combination, so I guess my current one has become redundant now - it's simply going to be easier and more convenient to carry this small and light extension tube around to use with my zoom lens.
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EarTech Music Dual Driver Custom Molded In Ear Musician Monitors Headphones
"EarTech Music -- Have you ever heard of them or Ear Technology Corporation? Well, me neither. This review is for EarTech Music Dual driver custom in-ear monitor. I ran upon this company one day while I was actually doing a search for "Ear Werks," and I must have typed something wrong with my fat little fingers. Somehow or fate, EarTech Music came up. So, being into music and audio, I clicked..." --acain
EarTech Music Triple Driver Custom Molded In Ear Musician Monitors Headphones
"Introduction: Eartech is an American company located in Johnson City, Tennessee. They primarily produce hearing aids and help people to hear well. They are the parent company of Eartech Music, which makes custom in ear monitors for audiophiles and stage musicians. Eartech is in hearing aid industry for almost 40 years and Eartech Music aims to carry this huge experience into making..." --MikePortnoy
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Radically reduces external noise that interferes with your music. Ends dangerously loud music struggling to compete with mowers, chain saws, hammers and other loud sounds. Hearing Protector Type: Noise Isolating Earbuds, Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) (dB): 24, Pairs (qty.): 3, Case Included: Yes


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Shelley Rees – Owen – BYT co-ordinator/Lead tutor


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9 posts tagged with productivity and goals.
Displaying 1 through 9 of 9. Subscribe:
Ideas for personal goals / habits that aren't self-centered
For as long as I can remember, my personal goals & habits have had a common theme: self-improvement. Then one day I wondered, What would life be like if I defaulted to thinking about others or observing my surroundings instead of thinking about ways to improve myself? [more inside]
I miss 43Things. What other ways can I keep track of my goals?
I kind of miss 43Things. What site/app/community etc. can I use to keep track of my goals? Wrinkles: I don't care about gamification, a lot of my goals are not health-related, the social/community aspect is what I miss most. [more inside]
Seeking productivity tool that enforces realistic time management
Here's what I'm looking for: a dead simple goals/tasks tracking app that allows me to set and log hours spent on activities per week, after the fact. Can do web-based, Android, or iPad. [more inside]
How to write down life and business goals
It's the goal writing season, and I recently came across an article that explained a specific technique for writing down one's goals. [more inside]
How can I automate my new year's resolutions?
I have a number of goals, not quite new year's resolutions exactly, but the new year is getting me going on implementing them. They include reading more, running more, staying on top of current events, continuing to study French, listening to more new-to-me music, things like that. None of these are measurable or "SMART" goals, and that's the way I want it--I want this stuff to become a habit, not a chore. How can I automate these goals so that they are more likely to just happen? [more inside]
2013 will be our year! How?
2013 will be our year! ...But how? Have you had a storybook year or season at work or school or in a club? Something that felt like a Lifetime movie, making it to regionals for the first time for choir, or smashing your sales goal for the quarter, or collecting a ton of stuff for your canned food drive? I am trying to figure out what factors influence extraordinary success in a team setting. [more inside]
I'm stuck in beta
I have spent years reading self-help books, productivity blogs, self-help productivity blogs. I've found some treasured information and they have probably helped me in more ways than I'm conscious of, but… [more inside]
How do you stick to your long-term goals?
How do you maintain sight of your long-term goals? I chronically sacrifice long-term success for short-term gains and it's not working out for me. [more inside]
What can you suggest for long term life planning? I would like to set up something like a time line for my life and goals. I want to manage what I will do in 5 years, 10 years, 50 years, etc. Does anyone know of any useful software or other things I could do manually? I want to be able to adjust things as needed and see where I've been. I appreciate your help.
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So Familiar182 views
Campus Finalist
Description: A car crash on the way to a bank robbery leaves Matthew finishing the job in his coma dream. His girlfriend and his best friend are transformed into unknown criminals for hire as they subtly give him hints of reality.
Campus Finalist
Cast & Crew


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Number of Required Coins
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Notes: This set has bonuses. Please see the Set Composition for a listing. This set is a work in progress. As new varieties are recognized, they may be added to the set. Likewise, delisted varieties will no longer be required.


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For much of the twentieth century, Americans co-existed with the country's armed forces in a way we don't anymore. In the 1940s and '50s, millions of Americans served in the fight against imperial Japan and Hitler's Germany, as well as Kim Il Sung's North Korea and its Chinese allies; in the sixties, millions of boomers wore the uniform in the jungles of Vietnam or on large bases in Europe, Asia, and in the States. Service, or the possibility of service, was a way of life.
After the draft was abolished in the 1970s, the military increasingly became an institution apart from society at large, a process that was hastened by the "peace dividend" that followed the end of the cold war, which allowed for a significant downsizing of the armed forces. While those who served continued to pass along the tradition to subsequent generations, those who didn't hardly gave the armed services a second thought. It was an arrangement that seemed to work well for both groups as long as peace prevailed.
When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, among the seven-hundred-odd journalists who embedded with combat units were few who were familiar with the military in any intimate way. To many critics, especially those with military experience, this revealed itself in the press's coverage of the war, which they felt often missed the mark when it came to explaining the hows and the whys of the fight, as well as the mundane realities of military life and culture. It wasn't long before a rash of blogs—dubbed "milblogs" and written by soldiers in the field and civilians back home, many of whom were veterans—emerged to describe life in a military at war and complain about the press's failings, real or imagined. Anyone familiar with the way milbloggers set upon and picked apart a series of controversial dispatches by Private Scott Beauchamp, an active-duty soldier serving in Iraq, published last summer in The New Republic, has a good sense of the kind of in-the-weeds analysis this community is capable of.
As with any other niche in the blogosphere, some heavy hitters soon began to separate themselves from the milblog pack. Sites like Blackfive, The Mudville Gazette, MichaelYon.com, and BillRoggio.com became favorites for war geeks and anyone else looking for insiderish news and critiques from a decidedly pro-military perspective. Each fills a certain role—Blackfive is the irreverent, often partisan, group blog; Yon is the roving, embedded reporter; and Mudville is more an aggregation of other milblogs. Bill Roggio, though, a former Army signalman and infantryman who runs The Long War Journal (which replaced BillRoggio.com) and writes most of its posts, has his sights on something grander. In September 2007, Roggio, along with his business partner, Paul Hanusz, created a nonprofit company—Public Multimedia Inc. (PMI). Their goal is to develop a first-of-its-kind media entity made up of independent reporters, at home and abroad, dedicated solely to reporting on terrorism, so-called small wars, and counterterrorism efforts around the world, to do it in the kind of fine-grained detail that the mainstream press never will, and, as much as possible, without an overt partisan bent. If they succeed, PMI could join a small but promising group of Web-based reporting and analysis operations that focus on a single beat—Talking Points Memo and The Politico on U.S. politics, ProPublica on investigations, and now, maybe, The Long War Journal on conflict reporting.
There is certainly plenty for Roggio's operation to cover. Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, small, armed groups have succeeded in recent years in disrupting civilian life and giving governments fits in places as diverse as Algeria, Nigeria, Thailand, Peru, and the Philippines. The temptation, particularly in the U.S., has been to lump any such group with Islamist leanings in with Al Qaeda, but many are fueled by country-specific mixes of economic issues, tribal histories, and local politics. There are many reasons why the mainstream press has paid little attention to these groups, the primary one being that most don't pose an immediate—or at least immediately obvious—threat to core U.S. interests: the government isn't talking publicly about them, so neither is the press. But digital technology makes it possible for anyone, including terrorist groups, to speak to a global audience. As-Sahab, Al Qaeda's media wing, for instance, releases videos all over the Web, and sites such as the Kavkaz Center, based in Chechnya, report on and encourage global jihad. With a little money and know-how, a disenfranchised group can broadcast—and raise funds—worldwide. Coupled with the demonstrated ability of Al Qaeda to franchise, and the current dissatisfaction around the world with many of the U.S.'s post-9/11 policies, it becomes clear that these seemingly disparate groups are a critical part of a larger military- and foreign-policy tableau confronting the U.S. in the twenty-first century.
For the past several years, Roggio, working largely as a one-man bureau, has been at the forefront of reporting on these groups and how they're being confronted militarily. His process, as he explains it, is to scour English-language media that he has learned to trust in these countries, and vet, amplify, and contextualize what he finds there with his own sources in the U.S. intelligence community, Israel, Iraq, and elsewhere. To this he adds his own expertise. "Bill has what a lot of journalists reporting on the conflict lack: a background in military science and history," says B. A. Patty, a reporter whom PMI helped send to the Philippines last year. "It's not just that 'x happened'—a bomb went off, a sniper rifle was found, etc. It's what that means at a strategic or operational level; and in the local situation, to understand what it means tactically."
It is in Iraq and Afghanistan, not surprisingly, that Roggio has done his most ambitious work. How many Americans—even those paying close attention to the wars—can tell you what Operation Anaconda is? Or Operation Arrowhead Ripper? Both were major offensive operations by the U.S. military against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, respectively, involving thousands of American troops and significant casualties. The mainstream press did cover these operations as they happened, but there was little follow-up and, more important, few attempts to situate each in a broader strategic and tactical context. Roggio, meanwhile, provided daily updates on Arrowhead Ripper last summer, including the kind of historical and tactical context that doesn't typically appear in mainstream coverage:
Back in May, we noted that Diyala has become the main hub of al Qaeda's operations. Al Qaeda in Iraq made Baqubah the capital of its rump Islamic State of Iraq last year. Since the inception of the Baghdad Security Plan in mid-February, the security situation, which was deteriorating after U.S. forces pulled back last fall, has markedly worsened. Al Qaeda has prepared fighting positions, supply bases, IED traps, bomb-rigged buildings, and training camps in the province An American intelligence official and a U.S. military officer informed us that al Qaeda is operating along the lines of Hezbollah's military structure in Lebanon. Al Qaeda attacks in the region proved this, as a series of assaults along the Iranian border and elsewhere in the province bore the hallmark of a well-led, well-trained fighting unit.
It's unrealistic, of course, to expect a general-interest news operation to go into that kind of detail about every military operation—and the better ones have military specialists who add such context on occasion. Roggio's greatest service, then, may be the way he picks up where the mainstream press leaves off, giving readers a simultaneously more specific and holistic understanding of the battlefield.
Last September, Roggio wrote about Operation Lightning Hammer II in Iraq, in which the U.S. military flushed out pockets of Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq's northern provinces. Putting the fight in context, he wrote:
Baqubah itself was cleared of al Qaeda during Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which was launched in June. The Baghdad Security Plan and Phantom Thunder and Phantom Strike operations—which focused on al Qaeda and the Shia extremist cells in the Baghdad Belts—have pushed al Qaeda operations into regions in Ninewa, Kirkuk, Salahadin, and Diyala provinces. This rolling series of operations is designed to keep al Qaeda off balance, prevent the terrorists from reorganizing safe havens in new regions, and expanding the security perimeter beyond Baghdad.
It's fair to ask whether the average American needs, let alone wants, this kind of detail about military strategy. Probably not—The Long War Journal averages about six thousand visits a day, according to its Site Meter numbers. But the war in Iraq is changing, as General David Petraeus's counterinsurgency effort matures in the countryside. Earlier this year, I spent a few weeks embedded with the Army's Second Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the Agur Quf region northwest of Baghdad. In many ways, what the combat team is doing there is a microcosm of the larger fight for Iraq—classic counterinsurgency, a slow, methodical fight waged within a complex web of relationships and power centers. The American forces spend much of their time trying to build trust among the Sunni and Shia sheiks, the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi police, and the Sons of Iraq (groups of Iraqi civilians organized by local sheiks and "reformed" insurgent leaders to assist in keeping the peace), any of whom might be—and often are—working at cross-purposes.
Such low-level political maneuvering is not the stuff of a splashy, front-page feature, but it is the nature of the war America is now fighting, and it is going almost completely uncovered by the mainstream media. This is Roggio's beat.
Changed Lives
In 2004, Roggio started blogging about the war in Iraq, using his military knowledge to put things in context for family and friends. He spent hours in the evening and during his lunch breaks scouring open-source material buried in government and military Web sites, clattering away at the keyboard after his wife Jennie (a nurse) and three kids went to bed. It was during the second battle for Fallujah in November 2004, however, that he began to focus his effort. He had been posting detailed battle maps of Iraq's Anbar province on his site, showing where Marine and Army units were meeting the stiffest resistance from insurgent groups who harassed them with roadside bombs and the occasional ambush.
In the spring of 2005, a new group of readers began logging on to Roggio's site. The Marines in Anbar province were embroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, and looking for any tactical advantage they could find. Officers with the Regimental Combat Team 2 discovered Roggio's site and began using it as an information source, calling his site the "Command Chronology of Western Iraq." It seems that logging on to his site was faster and easier than going through their own intelligence channels, and Roggio managed to provide much of the same information that Marine analysts were reporting—without the red tape. The Marines eventually invited Roggio to come spend some time with them on the front line in Iraq. Recalling those early days, Roggio says, "I was just working from home, putting things in context, explaining it, and they invited me to come and embed." After talking it over with his wife, he started raising money for his trip through his Web site, took an unpaid leave of absence from his job as a software engineer, and in November 2005 left for a one-month embed.
Since that original trip, Roggio's life has changed dramatically. He has traveled to Iraq three more times and Afghanistan once, left his job, and writes about "small wars" full time, funded entirely by reader contributions. He also serves as an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank dedicated to "fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism," among other things.
Roggio, who is thirty-eight, met thirty-seven-year-old Paul Hanusz in the spring of 2006, after Hanusz responded to one of his fundraising drives for an upcoming embed. The two live a couple of towns apart in the undifferentiated suburban sprawl of southern New Jersey, and Hanusz, who was working in IT at a bank at the time, was a devoted reader of milblogs, even though he had never served in the military. He told me that when he learned of what Roggio was doing, he decided that, rather than simply stew about what he considers the inadequate coverage of the wars by the mainstream press, he would be part of a solution. The two met for lunch, "and I knew it was something I wanted to continue with," Hanusz says. "The question was where to go with it."
In researching how to set up and fund a nonprofit media operation, Hanusz came across the work of Charles Lewis—the founder of the Center for Public Integrity—on nonprofit journalism, and saw a model he thought PMI could emulate. "CPI isn't a monstrous organization," Hanusz says, "but it's a solid organization, and it's got enough of a staff to put out good pieces, and substantial pieces." Hanusz left his job in June 2007, and has been working full time on the business end of PMI. For now, PMI still relies on donations from readers, which Roggio and Hanusz liken to PBS membership drives, and they want to borrow further from the model of PBS and NPR, which includes corporate sponsorships and foundation grants, as well as content-distribution deals.
Neither Roggio nor Hanusz would give details about PMI's present financial situation, but beyond the fact that both have managed to make a go of this full time, they have also hired seven staff members, on the tech and editorial sides, and helped send sixteen reporters so far to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines to cover the "Long War."
For B.A. Patty, the reporter who went to the Philippines, PMI covered his plane ticket, two nights in a Manila hotel, combat life insurance—which can run over a hundred dollars a day—and furnished him with media credentials, something that is difficult for unaffiliated bloggers and other "citizen journalists" to get. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, another independent reporter who traveled to Iraq in May 2007 with PMI's help, got insurance and credentials, and Roggio lent him body armor and a helmet. Beyond that, Gartenstein-Ross says Roggio drew on his considerable network of sources, contacts, and expertise to serve as a mentor, something he apparently does with all the bloggers he gets involved with. "He was always there to talk things through, to be a fact-checker, and give me his perspective," Gartenstein-Ross told me.
As the U.S. press continues to scale back coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, Hanusz and Roggio see an opportunity to grow. They say that they have been contacted by a number of journalists, including some from established organizations, about assistance getting to Iraq or Afghanistan. "So there are folks that are interested, that have credentials, that don't have any way to get in at the moment," says Hanusz. "What we'd like to do, eventually, is offer a turnkey solution where we've got body armor and Toughbooks and communication equipment."
Straight Man
The Long War Journal doesn't have the field entirely to itself. The Internet has its share of sites and blogs writing about the issues confronting the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sites like the Small Wars Journal and the Counterterrorism Blog, for example, are group efforts that deal more in snap analysis. What sets LWJ apart, Roggio insists, is his focus on reporting. "Not a lot of people really do that," he says. He has been ahead of the coverage curve on the occasional significant story—he predicted, for instance, the truce between the Pakistani government and the Taliban in North Waziristan nine months before it happened, and he identified Al Qaeda camps in North and South Waziristan long before the mainstream press started paying much attention to the fighting between the Pakistani government and the Taliban.
His story from December 2007 on the "ratlines" many American military officials say Iran was using to move supplies and weapons into Iraq is an interesting illustration of both the kind of journalistic work The Long War Journal can produce and its limited ability to influence the broader news agenda. As a work of investigative reporting, it had all the elements an editor at a mainstream publication would want: an important, undercovered story, a confident point of view, and sources the reporter trusts. It was accompanied by a multimedia presentation detailing the routes from Iran to Iraq, including purported "distribution hubs" inside Iraq. I can't help but think that if the story had appeared under, say, Seymour Hersh's byline, it would have received major play. It had U.S. military officials providing intelligence—albeit anonymously—that pointed to what they said was a major smuggling ring from Iran to Iraq. As it was, the piece got virtually zero pick-up in the mainstream press.
A story like this has real political implications, and Roggio says that he's confident in his sources, and that he worked hard to check their assertions (the story was never challenged, either). "Military people obviously came to me," he told me, "because they wanted the story to be out there. People who deal with this stuff on a day-in-and-day-out basis—captains, majors. That's my job as a reporter."
Roggio takes that job seriously. What you won't find on The Long War Journal, at least not overtly, is politics. That's by design. "I'm trying to create an environment where readers can get away from the political pointing that I think we see in a lot of news reporting," Roggio says. "I just want to explain what is happening in the theater, without the politics." Toward that end, he deletes any reader comments posted to The Long War Journal that he sees as venturing into politics, and, while he says he doesn't consider ideology when selecting the bloggers he supports, he does carefully vet the information in the stories they produce, only publishing on the LWJ those few that meet his standards for accuracy and impartiality. "The entire war has been over-politicized by both sides," he says. "Obviously, there is a political angle, and I'm not saying I ignore it, but we want to be able to tell you where the new Al Qaeda safe haven is, or why the Pakistani military is losing battles to the Taliban in the Northwest Frontier province—that's what I'm interested in telling people."
Having read The Long War Journal for several years, I can comfortably say that while Roggio is pro-soldier—he wants the U.S. military to succeed at its job in Iraq and Afghanistan—he does, in fact, work hard at playing it straight politically; he tries to describe and explain the tactics of the mission, whether they are working or not. Yet there have been times when Roggio has done himself a disservice by aligning with bloggers who are more about pushing a conservative agenda. In early 2005, for instance, he took part in the campaign that toppled CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan after Jordan suggested, during an off-the-record discussion in Davos, Switzerland, that the U.S. military had targeted journalists in war zones. Roggio created a site called "Easongate" with Matthew Currier Burden from Blackfive, whose goal was to pressure CNN to take some kind of disciplinary action against Jordan. Once the site was live, Roggio and Currier Burden were joined by a group of partisan conservatives: Brian Scott from The Blue State Conservatives blog, Josh Manchester of The Adventures of Chester, Mike Krempasky of RedState.org, and the writer LaShawn Barber. No matter Roggio's original motivation, it effectively became a partisan operation.
Still, Andrew Cochran, the founder of the nonpartisan Counterterrorism Blog, says simply that "Bill wants to win. I don't know if he's necessarily pro-Bush. He wrote often last year about the failures in the Iraq strategy."
Niche Found
In Agur Quf, Captain Glen Helberg and his troops in Charlie Company, part of the Second Stryker Brigade Combat Team, are preparing for an upcoming push by the Iraqi Army's Muthana brigade into the region from its base near the Baghdad airport. By all measures, the brigade is one of the most professional in the fledgling Iraqi Army. A Sunni, General Nasser, heads the unit, but it's comprised mostly of Shia foot soldiers, and the Sunnis in the area claim to be terrified of them. Earlier in the war, Muthana had operated in the area, and reportedly treated the local population brutally, so much so that in several meetings with American commanders, local Sunni sheiks said that they would move if the unit comes back. How successful Helberg and his soldiers are at not just keeping the peace between this Iraqi brigade and the locals, but building trust on both sides, is just one example of the kind of thing that will help determine whether there is hope for fixing what's broken in Iraq—or at least for the U.S. to play a constructive role there.
Iraq and Afghanistan are being squeezed off the front page, so to speak, of our mainstream media. Bill Roggio and PMI—indeed, all milbloggers together—will never replace the mainstream press as a full-service source of conflict coverage. But they don't have to. Because they will cover the story of Captain Helberg and Charlie Company when the mainstream won't; and they will cover it in a way—with the kind of empathy born of shared experience—that the mainstream press can't. As long as U.S. troops are engaged around the world—and to the extent that a struggle against terrorism remains central to our foreign policy in the years to come, this will be the case—there will be people who want reliable information about what they are up to, how they're fighting, how they're being led. Bill Roggio has found his niche.


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Coupon values can be subject to excise tax - Kokua Line
There are 6 comments on the Honolulu Star-Bulletin story from Mar 30, 2009, titled Coupon values can be subject to excise tax - Kokua Line. In it, Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports that:Question: I recently went to Walgreens to purchase Colgate toothpaste, which was on sale.
Join the discussion below, or Read more at Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
#1 Mar 30, 2009
Is it possible to learn when the Windward Dog Park will open to the public? I have accessed the website of the The Windward Dog Park Organization and found it hasn't been updated for six months and e-mail messages left go unanswered. This is such a wonderful project that is eagerly being anticipated by the entire community of dog lovers.
#2 Mar 30, 2009
Hey, No Name. Get a life and move on. Everybody breaks traffic laws. Just honk your horn and forget about it. You jobless or something?
#3 Mar 30, 2009
General Excise tax is one of the most unfair tax to impose. Hawaii is the only State to impose it.
E.G. You have to pay GET on any rent you pay to landlord. You don't have to pay GET on any mortgage payment. Sticking it to the working man big time.
United States
#4 Mar 30, 2009
Finally someone else besides me got burned by the Walgreen(WAG) scam. Whenever they price an item that says two cans of mixed nuts for six dollars, you have better buy two. Because if you buy just one can, it is not half of six bucks. It is one can for $3.49. Nothing wrong with this. It's just that we are not use to experiencing this in any other store except WAG. So bring your reading glasses and read the price twice.
#5 Dec 13, 2009
I saved big when I printed a Prescription Discount Card and used it. It's reusable and I can use for my dog too. Most pharamcies take it. My savings range from 10-80% off regular prices. Many counties throughout the US are using it in some form or another. www.nationalprescriptiondiscounts.com . I wonder why healthcare refom folks haven't caught on to this? It's free to have and free to use.
United States
#6 Dec 13, 2009
well said..rail tax sank this economy..things have gone downhill since mufi anf lingle rammed the tax down the throats of tax payers
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