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"Those, who follow the path of a warrior, must be ready to die, in order to stand for one's convictions, live for one's convictions, die for one's convictions. That is how I lived my life. Ryo, it is up to you to discover your path, and... follow it through..."
Iwao Hazuki
There´s no better quote to describe this game, than this one. Shenmue is perhaps one of the few games that really makes you "feel" that you are on a journey that you even don´t fully understand but you experience it like no other game out there and one of the few games that have reached my heart in a very special way, touching some nerves that are really difficult to reach.
It has been a long time since i re-played both of them, Shenmue 1 & 2. But i thought there was no better way to do honor for this games than to do a very depth review of them and also let new gamers "discover" one of the best hidden gems the gaming industry has. So without further ado i´ll give you my personal point of view towards this awesome franchise.
Well let´s remember that this game was released more that 10 years ago, and from that time period, there weren´t such a good box arts design in all games, i just can name tons of very popular franchises that aside of the fact that the games were really good, the box arts on the other hand were complete garbage and very poor in terms of design and aestethics.
Shenmue box art is perhaps one that really makes you feel like without even knowing what the game is about or which genre is, you´ll know that it will be good, real good.
The design is flawless and the presentation superb, althout i have the PAL version of the first game, i really like that "blue" color touch it has that the other versions lacks.
It´s almost like a movie poster, yeah that good it is. Score: 10
Really well done, on the same level as the Box Art and maintaining the "spirit" of the design patterns. I love the fact that the designers continued using the blue color scheme, and presented a very polished work. It´s not perpect, but it´s really well worked. Score: 9
Not one of the strongest part of the Sega Dreamcast, most of the manual games where really crap, but this one overall fulfils the purpose, but i didn´t use it cos the game itself is very explainatory and in no time you will learn to do everything and feel like you have played this game for decades.
Still i think that in America there was an edition where they received 2 posters that were included with the game itself. So that´s a plus. Sadly i have the PAL common version of the game, and i will be scoring that one. Score: 7
Well if there´s a point in my peronal reviews that was introduced as it´s own, it was partially due to this game. Yes my friends. Shenmue deliver in this apsect so well that it´s like literally you are feeling/playing/experimenting a movie. The cinematic apspect of this game, is indeed one of the 3 pillars from it. I have always said that my 3 game pillars are Music, Gameplay Mechanics and Story. But with Shenmue we have to expand that concept and indroduce to the pillars this point also.
Every cutscene, in game conversation and enviromental interaciton and phography is so well done, that´s a work of art, and not so many games in the history of gaming have done this aspect so well as Shenmue did. In fact after the release of this franchise, other developers based their games using this concept just to prove that there´s more in game that playing it itself and there´s so much to expand on therms of the player involment that became a norm in AAA titles after this game.
Shenmue established the fondations of Cinematic in this industry and told the world that they were here to stay ans they are on other art forms, i´ll bet all my games that if you ask any of today´s famous game developers which game is one of the best in therms of cinematic, most of them will say Shenmue and they are right. Score: 10
I will not put a score on this point and i will explaing why, as you have seen in the video above, there was no other game as Shenmue the time it was released and it trully espablished what i can call "The Shenmue Genre", it´s a trully unique game that introduced a mix of so many genres that you can´t really label it as something that has been done before.
After shenmue there was another franchise that used most of Shenmue concept to creat their own new IP, i´m talking about "Yakuza", although i have not played any entry of this game yet, i do have two games of this franchise in my huge backlog, that i will probably play when i feel like playing them. I´ll try to recapture this point when i do a review of this franchise.
I didn´t encounter any mayor issue in this point in the entire game, although there where some sections in the city and in some fights where the frame dropped a little bit, but nothing that can take you away from the experience this game is. Is not like any Bethesda work where you found a new issue every second.
Although is not perfect, the frame works pretty well and due to the facts that this game has so much on it´s world, you can really feel wowed with all the things you can interact and see. Score: 8
I don´t recall before Shenmue that there was an engine this huge and deep for any console game ever made on that period of time. This engine is one of the most ambicious game engine i have ever seen, cos it really has been made to do almost all the things a developer wish to do in a game, from fightings mechanics to NPC conversations, Camera Angles and World physics like weather climatics change and real hours of the day.
Let´s not forget the fact that all game is made by In-Engine footage and the work in this aspect is a perfection craftmanship that again for that period in the videogame industry it has revolutionary concepts that later were implemented by many other publishers and developers but in this aspect the pioneers where non other that Sega and we as gamers must thank them for that. Score: 10
Non existent. From the moment you get your hand in the Dreamcast controller you feel like you are entrering one of the best videogame story/journey ever told. The pace of the story is so well made that inside you, you "urge" to continue playing for long period of hours this impressive game.
There are nevertheless some tedious repetitive parts that are made just to you "feel like that" cos in fact you are working, on a real job and in the game you feel exactly like that. But that´s a mayor plau to the developers cos they knew exactly how to capture that feeling. Score: 10
Another pillar of this game is indeed the Music. Orchestrated and so well done in capturing the players feeling and the culture of that awesome world that is Japan. It´s one of the few music games that really captures the essence of what you are doing in any precise time in the game and also the essence of the wolrd around you. The developers of this game knew that with this epic ambitious game there has to be an epic ambicious music. Sometime the music blends so good with what is happen that i drop tears in my eyes knowing what in that presice moment it meant, cos there are some things that words can express, some sentiments has to enter you through the ears.
The music was made by Yuzo Koshiro and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, both did such an impressive job that still today is considered among the top 10 best videogame soundtracks of all time.
One can´t really put much meaning in this section with words, like all people say, "you have to feel the music" to trully understand what it is, so i urge you to take half and hour of your daily life and just sit and relax and listen to this work of art. Score: 10
If there´s a key factor in games that really inmerse the player into any fictional world (or based on real world like Shenmue) is the SFX. The level of detail established and incorporated to this game is astonishing. From the sound of the wind, to the rain and the feel of the NPC players and pedestrins that populate the world. Everything is so well done that you sense that you are literaly there interacting with everything around you, picking up collectibleas and also playing on the arcades !!!.
Sega AM2 again pushed the barrier a little further in this aspect and it shows, you can literaly feel that everything around you is "alive" in some sort of way. Score: 10
If you have reached this point and you are still not conviced to try this game then i will leave you what i consider to be one of my top 3 best intros made in the history of gaming. I can describe this with words, you have to see it for yourself. Score: 10
This has to be the other key pillar of this game. Two words "Deep & Complex" but in the good way, is not like anything else you have experienced before but since it was at the time when it launched a really new innovation, is something to rejoice and enjoy.
In this particular point i will make a lot of focus since i need so many things to explain. You see like i said previously in the Engine section, you can do so many things in this game that we have to divide this point in many aspects and then reaching to a propper overall score for it.
Ryo movements are in third person view but you can also enter the first person view at any time or what i like to call "the detective view". When you are searching for something or need to find a particular item you have two options, the first one is grabbing it in third person view if the command appear (the interaction command), if not it means that you need to "take a closer look" or "do another thing" before reaching to the item and grab it, that´s what the detective view is for. In both cases the mechanics are a little clumsy but not as much to take you away from the wonderfull experience this game is. Score: 8
In the exploration part which is when you travel from one location to another you do it in third person mode but you can you the directional analog from the Dreamcast to move your head and look around you. Is not particulary useful, i didn´t do it as much, but it´s a fantastic way of knowing your surrounding and how deep Shenmue world is. Score: 7
Another key aspect of this series is the QTE (Quick Time Events), they can appear not only in the main story but also on side quest or in almost anything that you are doing. This aspect makes the inmersion of this game even deeper knowing that you have to do a combination to finish a task or even exacute a final blow on an enemy. There are gamers who didn´t like this aspect of the game and i understand them but for me Shenmue would have been a different beast if QTE were not present: Score: 9
Overral Gameplay Mechanics Score: 8
This point is really fascinating !!! Cos Shenmue has all the menus, screen and configuration system withing the same inventory !!! And that my friend is indeed fucking colossal !!! It´s so well done and crafted that you really feel to check everything once in a while from you "notebook" to your collectibles and moves scrolls. It has everything and it fits perfectly to the sense of the game in general. You can check in detail all your items and collectibles in such a detail that it compelling. Not a lot of games have this type of system, but for this specific genre fits like a ball in a glove. There´s not much to say aside of this, but believe me, you will love it. Score: 10
Since this is the first game of the series, i´ll take a depth analisys of this point when i do my next review that it will be Shenmue 2. So here there will be no score. Moving on !!!
Well, this game was meant to be only one journey so here in this point it wrill be really difficult to put a score based on whatever this game has to offer the player to go again an play it. But i play Shenmue religiously once a year, and everytime i find something new, a missed conversation with an NPC or an item i skipped the first playthrough. This game is meant to be enjoyed once in a while cos it has so much to offer that indeed if you are an avid gamer, you will come back to be on the shoulders of Ryo Hazuki. Score: 9
Since from the beggining Yu Suzuki and from all the intel i have gathered through he wrote the story of shenmue in a total of 12 chapters. The first game goes from chapter 1 to 3 and the second game goes from chapter 4 to 6, so for what it means here is that Shenmue and Shenmue 2 have not being made with an ending but both have ended in their supposed chapters, i´ll review the path of Ryo through the chapters of each game to write a score.
Shenmue moves around japan and the ending is well not in japan soil, so you are leaving japan to go to china to find your fathers killer and main antagonis of the franchise Lan Di. From what i experienced since i grabbed my controller and until the moment the credits rolled i felt more than satisfied with the ending and i urge every single gamer out there to play this game, if you can´t cos you don´t have a Dreamcast you can play it on PC through an DC emulator.
With no more words, Shenmue ending is fantastic. Score: 10
The game has no unlockables, but you can use your save from Shenmue 1 to use it on Shenmue 2, yes people this was not invented by Bioware with Mass Effect, this was pionered by Sega with Shenmue, that´s why i say that you as a player have to have to utmost respect from this franchise cos it did so many things that it became a cult itself.
Every Martial Move you have learned, every item you have collected and all the money you have earned are automatically transported to Shenmue 2, with this point only and since this game was released more than 10 years ago. I´ll give the propper rational score on this point. Score: 10
Well, it takes some time to feel confortable to the way this game is meant to be played. But here i will explain a little bit better what this game is about through the mouth of the creator itself. Suzuki coined a genre title, "FREE" (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment), for the game, based on the interactivity and freedom he wanted to give to the player. Suzuki intended to achieve this by simulating aspects of real life through the game, such as the day/night/sleep system, real time variable weather effects (unheard of in a game of this kind at the time), fully voiced non-player characters with their own daily schedules, quick time events, and various other interactive elements such as vending machines, arcades, and convenience stores.
To get a full grasp in the difficulty you indeed need to master a lot of things but you´ll do it fast enough and in no time, but it has some difficutly to get the hands-on from the start. Score: 7
This is by far the best Dreamcast game ever made for the system, and i will argue anyone here (if you what to argue about what other title is on the same level a shenmue feel free in the comment section, but you know what´s coming at you ). No more debate. Score: 10
From 1859 people it got an average Score of 9.1. Yeah that good it is.
Score: 9.2
Shenmue is a journey every person who consider himself a gamer should experience, one fo the most fantastic stories made since the inception of this industry and a game that brought so many new things, that indeed it was a turning point of what this industry is capable of doing regarding AAA titles with huge amount of value.
My journey in life is far from being finished, but i know that Ryo Hazuki journey is also half way through so here is my hope for Shenmue III to be soon amoung us, cos if there´s one game this industry need right now, there´s no other thought in my head than Shenmue.
Moderator talks to his son regarding Fliadaloisio:
"Because.....he's the hero MYIGN deserves... but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not our hero......he's a silent guardian, a watchful protector... a dark knight."


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Herb Garden Zucchini Recipe
Crunchy and full of fresh herb flavor, this easy side dish is an appetizing sidekick to grilled chicken or steak. The flecks of fresh herbs makes it visually appealing, too.
- 3 large zucchini, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup packed fresh parsley sprigs
- 1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary
- 1/4 cup fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1. Place zucchini in a colander over a plate; sprinkle with salt and toss. Let stand for 30 minutes. Rinse and drain well; pat dry.
- 2. Place the oil, herbs, lemon juice, honey, mustard and garlic in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. Transfer zucchini to a large bowl. Drizzle 1/4 cup dressing over zucchini; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate remaining dressing for up to 2 days. Yield: 6 servings plus 1 cup leftover dressing.
Nutritional Facts
3/4 cup: 68 calories, 4g fat (1g saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 434mg sodium, 8g carbohydrate (5g sugars, 2g fiber), 2g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 1 fat.
Reviews for Herb Garden Zucchini
Average Rating
© 2017 RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC

subset: commoncrawl


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The candidacies of two people running for at-large seats on Kent City Council as independents have been challenged. If the county elections board upholds the challenge, the race for council could be over.
In a letter to the Portage County Board of Elections, Fred M. Mendiola of Carthage Avenue protested the candidacies of Scott J. Flynn and Doria Daniels who had filed petitions as unaffiliated candidates for the November general election.
Mendiola, a member of the Portage County Democratic Party Central Committee in Kent, said Flynn "is and has been affiliated with the Democratic Party." Mendiola also said Daniels is affiliated with the Republican Party, "and for that reason also fails to qualify as truly 'independent' under Ohio Law."
Elections board records confirm that Flynn voted in the Democratic primaries and special elections in both 2012 and 2013 and that Daniels voted in Republican primaries in 2012 and 2010.
Council appointed Flynn in November to fill an at-large seat left vacant when Councilman Robin Turner resigned.
"This is news to me," Flynn said of the challenge.
While he has voted in Democratic primaries, Flynn said "I have never been affiliated with the Democratic party, I have always been an independent." He said he listed himself as such when he applied to fill a vacancy on Kent council in February and again last November.
He voted in a Democratic primary just this past May. When he turned in his petitions to file as an independent, Flynn said he was asked by elections staff if he wanted to vote early. "I said 'Sure.' They asked me which ballot I wanted and I said 'I'll take the Democrat ballot,'" Flynn said. "Maybe I didn't give it any thought. If it was a problem, they didn't alert me."
Flynn said if voting the Democratic ballot in the primary was a mistake, "it was an innocent mistake. I've always been an independent." Flynn said he's probably voted in Republican primaries in the past. "I've never held myself out as being either a Democrat or a Republican."
A message seeking comment was left for Daniels.
The county elections board scheduled hearings on the protests for Monday, starting at 8 a.m. with Flynn followed by Daniels at 8:45 a.m.
With three at-large council seats at issue, the election could be over if Flynn and Daniels are kept off the ballot. No Republicans filed for the seats, and three Democrats from the May 7 primary are already headed to the ballot. Council incumbents Mike DeLeone and Roger Sidoti and city planning commission member Melissa Long were the top vote-getters out of four Democrats in the primary. Former councilman Robin Turner finished out of the running.
Contact this reporter at 330-298-1125 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Facebook: Mike Sever, Record-Courier
Twitter: @MikeSever_RC


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Seven Sisters Country Park
Explore nearly 700 acres of parkland and coast on this delightful route through the South Downs. The Country Park is named after the famous Seven Sisters chalk cliffs on the Sussex Heritage Coast. On the route you will enjoy fabulous views of the Cuckmere river before heading towards the beautiful coastline.
There are a number of footpaths and trails in the Park - further information and trail maps can be found in the Visitor Centre. Cycling is permitted on the valley floor and there is a concrete track which offers access to the beach.
If you'd like to continue your walking in the area then you could pick up the Cuckmere River footpath and head towards Alfriston and climb up to the Long Man of Wilmington.
Please click here for more information


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London (Apr. 22)
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The entire reserve fund of the Jewish War Victims was allotted for credit and aid work in Poland.
This allotment, amounting to £5,000, is a part of the efforts now undertaken by British Jewry to relieve the distress of the Jewish population in Poland. The £5,000 will be placed at the disposal of Dr. Bernard Kahn, European director of the Joint Distribution Committee. The amount of £3,000 was allotted for the same purpose by the newly formed Federation of Jewish Relief Organizations of Great Britain, which includes the Federation of Ukrainian Jews, the Lodzer Benevolent Society and the Federation of Polish Jews. The Federation was formed at a special relief conference in London on April 11. The conference was called by the three societies participating in the Federation.
Dr. J. H. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, presided. At this meeting Dr. Leon Reich, former president of the Club of Jewish Deputies in Poland, reported on the situation of Polish Jewry. A resolution was adopted to ask the War Victims' Fund to send its reserve fund to Poland.


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Group Value Offer
Host your meeting at an incredible rate and enjoy the ultimate Four Seasons experience – acclaimed individualized service, attention to detail and superior accommodation – for a meeting that is flawless, productive and unforgettable.
This package includes:
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Rates starting from USD 195.
For Reservations or More Information
|Terms and Conditions
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|Based on a minimum of 8 rooms on peak nights. Rate is subject to all applicable service charge and taxes (24.32%).
* Savings reflected based on best available rate for similar dates at time of publishing. All packages include Internet in guest rooms unless otherwise noted. Advance reservations required. Offer is not valid on any previously contracted business. Bookings and rates are subject to availability and blackout dates may apply. Room types offered may be limited over particular dates and may not include taxes. This package is not valid in conjunction with any other offer or contract, and some conditions may apply.


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Upload your photos directly from your computer to your Critters.com Website with our easy-to-use upload feature. Upload the link to your video clip anywhere within your memorial - hosting for video files provided by video hosting websites like youtube.com. (VM does not host video files directly)
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Hello there,
I use an element attached in this zip (assets file is missing due to the file size and i don't think its necessary for what i need to ask).
Its actually a button with a pop up form, where the user fills in the name, lastname, e-mail and e-mail confirmation, telephone(optional), question/comment, send copy to my e-mail fields.
Inside this, i need to add an extra field, where the user can upload his/her cv (doc, docx, txt, rtf, pdf file types) and when click on send the user will receive the CV file also along with the other information.
I tried to add an Upload field called cv inside the code, but when i click on send, i have message:Invalid file typebut the message is sent and at the e-mail i see all the info but i see the file name of cv, not the file.
Any help with this please?A friend of mine that took a look told me that this form sends info via ajax and that i have to change the way that the information is being sent in order to be able to send the file.
Thank you in advance
Many say its not possible, others say you can by converting the file to a string and sending it, but there are loads of "plugins" which will do it for you, here was the first I came across: http://www.dropzonejs.com/
The standard way send files over http with javaScript is to use a iframe as a proxy to the server-side logic used to handle the file. If you search google using those terms something should turn up. I believe there are other more modern methods but they aren't backward compatible with older versions of IE where as the iframe method is compatible all around.
From a quick search this link explains the iframe method ok: http://www.alfajango.com/blog/ajax-file-uploads-with-the-iframe-method/


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Crock Pot Pork Roast, Potatoes, and Carrots
Recipe by jasongerhart
I decided to come up with my own Pork Roast recipe for a crock pot. I took a few ideas from the other recipes and this is what I came up with.
Top Review by Rods Wife
I made this for my family. My husband tells me every night at dinner that that night's dinner was the best dinner he has ever had. However, when he tells me that a dinner is "screamin"... I know it is a really great dinner. Not only did I get a "screamin" response to this meal.. it was also named in the top 3 they have ever had... including their mothers. (My husband's friend was also present for dinner.) My 8 year old stepson requested 2nds! I'd say it is a keeper! Thank you for posting! Please note: I used a picnic pork roast. I cut the majority of the fat off of the roast, fried it up in a pan, and used that fat (rather than oil) to sear the roast before putting it in the slow cooker. It allowed the dinner to keep the pork fat flavor that they love.
Ingredients Nutrition
- 2 lbs boneless pork loin roast
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne (red pepper)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
- 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (1 inch cubes)
- 2 cups baby carrots
- 2 cups chicken broth
Directions See How It's Made
- Rinse and dry roast.
- Combine all dry seasonings and rub onto roast.
- Use olive oil to brown the roast.
- Deglaze pan with chicken broth.
- Place potatoes, carrots, and roast into crock pot and set to low for 6 hours.


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Sometimes economics can be helpful even if it does not allow you to make point predictions with any degree of confidence. This is the case, for instance, when it can rule out certain combinations of outcomes for different economic variables as unlikely or even nigh-on impossible. An example of such an unlikely configuration of outcomes is (a) a strong and sustainable recovery of the US economy and (b) a strong (let alone a strengthening) US dollar. A very similar statement can be made about the prospects for a speedy recovery of the UK economy. To argue this point it is helpful to start with the basic output-expenditure identity from the national accounts:
Here C is aggregate consumption, I aggregate gross investment or domestic capital formation, X exports of goods and services (excluding foreign factor income receipts), M imports of goods and services (excluding foreign factor income payments) and Y is gross domestic product, or GDP. Consumption is the sum of private consumption, Cp and public consumption, Cg; investment is the sum of private investment, Ip and public investment, Ig; private investment is the sum of inventory investment or stockbuilding, Is, investment in housing (residential construction), Ih and business fixed investment, Ib. All variables are measured in units of real GDP.
I start from the assumption that today and for the next two or three years at least, output in the US economy will be demand-constrained. There is large and growing excess capacity in the form of idle labour and capital resources. I cannot relate in any way to those who view the Great Depression of the 1930s as the Long Vacation, or who argue that the increase in the US unemployment rate from 4.4 percent of the labour force in March 2007 to 9.7 percent of the labour force in August 2009 represents an increase in the demand for leisure by the US proletariat and salariat or a particularly nasty exogenous shock to labour productivity.
For those who would like to dip their mental toes into the 'Long Vacation' tradition, a good place to start is a paper written by Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago (Casey Mulligan, "What Caused the Recession of 2008? Hints from Labor Productivity", NBER Working Paper No. 14729, February 2009). It pays to have a sense of humour when attempting to wade through this paper, as can be gleaned from the Abstract which starts with the following assertion: "A labor market tautology says that any change in labor usage can be decomposed into a movement along a marginal productivity schedule and a shift of the schedule."
There is, of course, no labor market tautology saying anything like that, unless you also assume that actual employment always has to lie on the marginal productivity schedule of labour. I consider such a view to be bonkers. But nuff said.
For me, an unreconstructed Keynesian when it comes to the interpretation of the drivers of business cycle fluctuations, the key question concerning the speed of recovery from the Great Recession of the Noughties, : where will the demand come from.
Let's consider the drivers of domestic demand. Private consumption is dead in the water and likely to remain so for quite a while. US households still have a debt-to-annual disposable income ratio of around 150 percent, which, if the debt is hard (that is, not easily repudiated) is a source of vulnerability that can encourage precautionary saving as well as saving for life-cycle or other reasons. The US consumer has by now been cured of the previously well-entrenched belief that saving is for sissies because real men count on capital gains on homes and equity to see them through the night.
It is, of course, very easy to walk away from personal debt in the US. Mortgage debt is overwhelmingly non-recourse, so the rational response to negative equity is to send the key to you home back to the mortgage lender. As regards other consumer debt, personal bankruptcy is just a couple of phone calls and a quick court judgement away. Shame and feal of stigma appear to be rapidly weakening deterrrents to such a course of action.
So is US household debt not a drag on demand? If the debt can be repudiated swiftly and at little cost to the debtor, US household debt won't be much of a drag on consumer demand. The creditors will, of course, take the blow. Given the precarious condition of the US financial system, the negative effect on demand (through the credit channel and other financial linkages) of large-scale discretionary default on housing debt is likely to be non-trivial.
Government spending on goods and services (both current and capital) will remain strong for at least the first half of 2010, because most of the Obama fiscal stimulus plan is still in the pipeline. But in the second half of 2010 that stimulus will wear off and the US administration simply does not have the fiscal means to implement a further fiscal stimulus without seriously spooking the financial markets. The US has to commit itself soon to a severe future fiscal retrenchment (tax increases and/or public spending cuts) if the government is to retain (or rather regain) its reputation as a solvent entity and the Fed its reputation for taking inflation seriously.
Inventory accumulation will no doubt bring joy to the US and other overdeveloped economies for two or three more quarters. One of the nicer non-linearities is economics comes from the robust empirical observation that stocks cannot be negative. Inventory decumulation (de-stocking) therefore grinds to a halt at some point, often quite early in a recession, and restocking will take its place, making for a nice little recovery while it lasts.
Unfortunately, businesses build stocks in the hope and expectation of future sales. Unless final demand picks up, the lift given to economic activity by re-stocking will peter out again. Private consumption and public spending (consumption and capital) are not going to provide any material stimulus. That leaves private investment and net exports.
Investment in residential housing is unlikely to bring much joy even if home prices continue to stabilise and recover further, because massive excess capacity has been built up and depreciation rates on housing are low. Commercial property makes residential housing look like a growth industry. That leaves business fixed investment and next exports.
These two hang together. Business fixed investment growth requires healthy growth of net external demand. US production has to shift from non-traded goods and services to traded goods and services, both exports and import-competing goods and services, at the same time that the national saving rate rises. That will happen only if the rest of the world grows healthily and if the dollar takes a beating – by about 30 percent in effective (trade-weighted) real terms on my back-of-the envelope calculations. Because this depreciation in the US real exchange rate has to happen swiftly if the country is to experience a health recovery rather than an anaemic stroll through 10% plus unemployment territory, most of the real exchange rate depreciation will have to come through a nominal depreciation.
Which currencies would the dollar depreciate against? Not the euro, surely, which has been too strong for compfort since before the crisis. Not against sterling (the UK is pretty much in the same boat as the US, with the balance sheet position of the household sector if anything worse than in the US), and certainly not against the yen. The US dollar will mainly have to depreciate, if a long spell of over-capacity, high unemployment and low growth is to be avoided, vis-a-vis the currencies of the roughly 50 percent of the known economic universe that we call emerging markets and developing countries. China is the largest of these, but amounts to only about 6 or 7 percent of global GDP.
China, India, Brazil, Turkey and a dozen or more other EMs are providing the kind of domestic demand-driven growth stimuli that could drag the US along in its wake. But the key relative price adjustment has to occur also: there has to be a real depreciation of the US dollar and a real appreciation of the EM currencies.
Because I consider it likely that too many EMs will continue to be reluctant to let their real and nominal exchange rates appreciate sufficiently, I consider it unlikely that the external stimulus to the US recovery will be sufficient to close the US output gap swiftly. I hope to be proven wrong.
While I find myself in broad sympathy with Michael Mussa's approach to the drivers of the US (and global) economic recovery in his recent IIE paper (Michael Mussa, "Global Economic Prospects as of September 2009: Onward to Global Recovery", Peterson Institute for International Economics Paper presented at the sixteenth semiannual meeting on Global Economic Prospects, September 17, 2009), I disagree with his numerical/quantitave calibration, which I consider to be too optimistic, especially for the overdeveloped world. Mussa underestimates the domestic-demand dampening effect of the financial crisis and the bad/disastrous balance sheet configurations of the US household sector, banking sector and government sector. The V-shaped recovery and Victor Zarnovitz law, the deeper the recession – the steeper the recovery, are unlikely to be relevant for a deeply financially challenged economy like the US, where massive financial damage was done before the recession – and where this financial collapse was indeed the cause of the recession. The recession continues to feed back adversely on an already impaired financial sector, further undermining its capacity for lending and other intermediation. Mussa could turn out to be right, but if he turns out to be right, it will be because he is lucky.


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January 29, 2001
Counterpoint: Pitching and Defense
Another Look at Pitchers Preventing Hits
Voros McCracken's article here on the BP website has generated a tremendous amount of attention, including at least two columns by Rob Neyer on his ESPN.com gig. Voros's research, as presented in the article, contains the remarkable result that "major-league pitchers don't appear to have the ability to prevent hits on balls in play."
In other words, when you remove defense-independent outcomes such as strikeouts, home runs, and walks from the batters a pitcher faces, the resulting batting average on "balls in play" (those handled by the defense) is not affected by the pitcher himself -- Pedro Martinez is the same as Jose Lima.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and Voros has done an exemplary job setting forth evidence for his conclusions. In the interest of putting his results under the scrutiny of peer review, I've been doing some work inspired by Voros's article to see if it was possible to poke holes in it.
Sample Sizes and Statistical Noise
I started by considering the amount of statistical noise present in measuring the ball in play average over the course of a season.
Consider a pitcher with the following typical seasonal pitching line:
Let's estimate the balls-in-play average for this pitcher:
Total Batters Faced ~= 3*IP + H + BB = 3*200 + 78 + 200 = 878 Defense-Independent Outcomes = HR + BB + SO = 24 + 78 + 122 = 224 Non-HR Hits allowed = H - HR = 200 - 24 = 176
Let's assume that .269 represents the pitcher's (or the league's) true ability to prevent hits on balls in play. What is the expected variance around this number that we'd expect to see over the course of a typical season.
We look to a statistical concept called standard deviation to help us quantify this range. We can treat a ball-in-play as a binomial variable consisting of 2 outcomes: 1 if a hit, 0 if not. The probability of being a hit is the ball-in-play average of .269.
Though we expect to see 176 hits over the 654 balls-in-play, statistical theory allows us to calculate the variance and standard deviation associated with this expectation. In particular:
Variance = (# trials) * (probability of a hit) * (probability of an out) = 654 * .269 * (1-.269) = 654 * .269 * .731 = 128.602
We expect to see a standard deviation of about +/- 11 hits over the course of a season, simply by the statistical noise of a sample size of 654 balls-in-play. What effect does this have on the observed ball-in-play averages?
If you look at hundreds of pitchers with a .269 ball-in-play average, about two-thirds of the seasons will be within a single standard deviation, and 95% of seasons will be within two standard deviations.
(176 - 11.34) / 654 = .252 (176 + 11.34) / 654 = .286
One standard deviation yields a range of [.252, .286]
(176 - 2*11.34) / 654 = .234 (176 + 2*11.34) / 654 = .304
Two standard deviations yields a range of [.234, .304]
Simple statistical noise coming from a single season's worth of data will obscure true variations between pitchers over a pretty wide range of possible abilities. Failure to detect year-to-year consistency in ball-in-play average (as Voros has found) could be the result of there being no differences in ability (as he concluded), or that the range of abilities is smaller than the statistical noise, making detection difficult.
Characteristics of Ball-in-Play Batting Average over a Career
To see which of these possibilities is true, we can look at pitcher performance over multiple seasons to reduce the amount of statistical noise.
I looked at play by play data for all pitchers between 1979 and 1999, and computed actual batters faced, hits, home runs, strikeouts, and walks for each season. I wanted to divide a pitcher's entire career into two halves, and see if the ball-in-play hit rate from one half was correlated at all with that in the other half.
I could have simply taken the first 50% of a pitcher's career and compared it to the latter 50%. However, there is the possibility that if an ability exists, that it could improve or decline as a pitcher's career evolves. Age, maturity, learning how to pitch, velocity, etc. could all change the relationship between the pitcher's first and second halves of his career. Therefore, I chose to divide his career into even and odd halves, according to the year of that particular season. Thus a pitcher's 1990 season was in the "even" group, and 1991 was in the "odd" group, 1992 in the "even" group, and so on. By mixing seasons throughout a player's career into different groups, I could minimize the possibility that a pitcher's ability could be different at different ages, confounding the analysis.
The next thing I wanted to do was control for the overall quality of the pitcher's team defense. A pitcher who spent his entire career with a poor defensive team may show a spurious correlation between portions of his career, simply because the team was allowing more hits than the league as a whole. To control for this, I expressed a pitcher's ball-in-play average as a percentage of his team's total defensive ball-in-play average (similar to Bill James's defensive efficiency). Thus, a pitcher with a ball-in-play average of .270 on a team who's total ball-in-play average was .280 would have his ball-in-play average expressed as the ratio of .270/.280 or 0.96. This is similar to how Total Baseball expresses OPS as Adjusted Production (PRO+) where a value of 110 represents 10% above the league average, or a value of 80 is 20% below league average.
Having divided a pitcher's career into two halves (using even/odd seasons), and controlling for his team's defense, I totaled each pitcher's half-career ball-in-play ratio.
PITCHER EVEN_AVG EVEN_RATIO EVEN_BIP ODD_AVG ODD_RATIO ODD_BIP Morris,Jack .268 -0.9% 5945 .268 -0.6% 5420 Martinez,Dennis .266 -3.0% 5410 .273 -0.2% 6166 Viola,Frank .280 -1.7% 4450 .287 +1.5% 4481 Saberhagen,Bret .288 +1.6% 3670 .270 -6.3% 4296 etc.
I looked at all pitchers that had at least 3000 balls in play in both the even and odd halves of their career -- roughly 5 full seasons in each half (thus at least a 10 year career). I then looked at the correlation between the ratios of their ball-in-play averages to their team's average. A perfect correlation of +1.00 would indicate a totally predictable linear relationship between ball-in-play rates in the two halves of pitchers' careers, whereas a value of 0.00 would indicate that there's absolutely no statistical relationship. Values in between would indicate the degree to which knowing the value in one half would help you predict the value in the other half.
The correlation among the 70 pitchers who met the threshold was +0.53. Not a perfect correlation, but well above the level at which one could claim that there's no relationship. Some level of innate ability seems to be appearing in our sample.
We can further test the theory that all differences are due to chance but looking at the distribution of observed ball-in-play averages for the pitchers in the sample. Comparing the distribution of measured ball-in-play averages versus what the null hypothesis that all observed differences are due to chance, we find the following results:
40% exceed 1 standard deviation away from the mean (versus ~32% predicted by chance) 24% exceed 2 standard deviations away from the mean (versus ~5% predicted by chance)
This shows us that a significant number of pitchers are further away from the mean than we'd expect from simple randomness. With the relatively high correlation, and the number of pitchers falling outside the range attributable to chance, the evidence is starting to show that, at the very least, pitchers with long careers in the majors do have distinct abilities to prevent balls in play from becoming hits.
We can see this more clearly be looking at a chart plotting rates in even-year rates vs. odd-year rates:
There is a distinct linear trend showing a relationship between the distinct halves of a pitcher's career. Though there is clearly a lot of variance around that line, some level of ability to influence ball-in-play rate is demonstrated by the chart above.
Looking at the range of ball-in-play rates for the 70 pitchers in the sample, the span from best to worst is roughly .251 (Charlie Hough) to .303 (John Burkett). If we expand the data set to include pitchers with at least 1000 balls-in-play in both halves of their careers (a total of 338 pitchers), the range is .242 (Mike Norris) to .317 (Aaron Sele). It's reasonable to estimate that the range in ability between the best and worst pitchers is around 50-60 points of batting average on balls in play.
Consequently, though the pitcher's previous season may not be particularly useful in predicting future ball-in-play averages, using the pitcher's career ball-in-play average may be more accurate, especially for pitchers who have several major league seasons under their belt (though additional research will be needed to demonstrate or refute this theory).
Analysis & Conclusions
How, then, do we reconcile Voros's findings with the new results presented above? There are several alternatives, including:
Additional research and analysis will be needed to determine whether options 2 or 3 (or another theory) are supported by the evidence. At the moment, the simplest explanation that is consistent with the facts should be favored, and thus the idea that the statistical noise in one year's worth of data obscures a relatively small true difference among pitchers may be the most likely explanation.
None of the preceding should be taken as diminishing Voros's work at all. Indeed, it is his pioneering work and startling conclusion that led to widespread interest and further analysis on the topic. Even the conclusion is not quite as radical as saying pitchers have no influence on ball-in-play batting averages, the observation that differences among pitchers in batting average on balls-in-play is as little as 50 points (and require several years of data to discern) is a remarkable, counterintuitive result for which we gratefully acknowledge Mr. McCracken.
Keith Woolner is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
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Frasier (1993)
13 mistakes in season 9
Starring: David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, John Mahoney, Kelsey Grammer, Peri Gilpin
Continuity mistake: When Frasier and Martin are yelling at each other about the mess on the carpet, Marty is holding a red plastic oil container. In one shot there is a noticeable dribble of oil on it, but in the shots before and after, it is clean.
Continuity mistake: Frasier is in Bebe's office and as she says, "The newest member of Team Crane," her hands are clasped together in front of her and her index fingers are pointed upward, but as the shot changes, her index fingers are folded into her hands.
Continuity mistake: As Kirby is showing Roz his prom pictures, she sees the picture with his hand on her behind. In the scene her hair on her right changes position in the following shots from on her chest, to slightly behind her shoulder, to completely behind her shoulder.
Continuity mistake: Frasier and Niles are looking at the salt server Blaine returned to Frasier - in one shot the large envelope, the mailer strip, and the note are on the coffee table - in the next shot the strip has disappeared and the envelope and note have changed position.
Continuity mistake: Frasier is handed a beer with an inch or two of froth. When the shot changes the froth has all but disappeared.
The First Temptation of Daphne - S9-E3
Continuity mistake: Martin says that Eddie will find the cricket, and puts him down on the floor so he can begin to search. He places him right in front of the green chair. In the next shot, we see Eddie spinning around on the floor, but the chair isn't visible in the frame like it should be. Instead there's something that looks like a gray stool there.
Continuity mistake: When Daphne steals Niles' Segway, Cora is laughing in the background and covering her mouth with both hands. The angle changes and now her hands are on the table.
Continuity mistake: As Marty says "Claire says", he is holding his sandwich is both hands. As Daphne turns towards him and says "shut up", he is holding the sandwich in his left hand and his right hand is on the arm of his chair. There was no time for the switch.
Continuity mistake: When we first see Marty on the floor oiling his chair, his cane is lying on the floor with the handle end pointing towards the kitchen. When he picks it up a few shots later, it has turned 180 degrees and the handle is pointing towards the door. At no time did he touch it.
Continuity mistake: When Frasier comes home, just after Marty has sprayed oil on the carpet, the pattern of the spray changes considerably from one shot to the next.
Continuity mistake: During the opening credits, Niles, Roz, and Daphne are sitting on the couch. Niles has put Frasier's biography on the coffee table but when the shot changes and Frasier comes in, Niles is suddenly holding the bio in his hand.
Continuity mistake: Blaine sticks the pin in his leg and doesn't remove it, yet after a few shots it's gone.
Continuity mistake: Before Daphne's wedding in season 7, Mrs. Moon thinks Daphne's pregnant. In this episode she thinks Daphne is a virgin.


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Entrants Sought for 'Mango Mania' Display Contest
$10,000 prize purse to be awarded to 27 produce managers
The National Mango Board (NMB) is calling on mango shippers for their help to encourage small retailers to participate in their third annual Mango Mania Display Contest throughout the month of July.
Designed specifically for individual stores or small chains with up to 50 stores to help boost their mango sales while showcasing their creativity and educating shoppers about mangos, the program will award more than $10,000 in cash prizes to 27 winning produce department managers.
Deadline for entries must be received at the NMB office by Aug. 19, 2013; all displays must be in place for at least seven days between July 1 and July 31, 2013 in order to qualify for prizes.
To make it easier for retailers to get involved, the NMB has made the point of sale (POS) kit order form and the entry form available online.
"Participating in the contest can help [grocers] increase their sales and educate consumers about this delicious tropical fruit," said Megan McKenna, marketing director for the Orlando, Fla.-based NMB. "We've seen great participation from retailers in the past, and we wanted to streamline the process to encourage even more retailers to get involved."
Prizes will be awarded by the NMB in three store categories: one to five registers; six to nine registers; and 10 registers or more. In each category, nine prizes will be available, including $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place, $500 for third place, and $200 each for six honorable mention winners.
Retailers wishing to participate should visit www.mango.org/contest to get more information about the contest and order POS kits, which include the contest flyer with the official rules along with several POS materials, such as educational header cards for selecting and cutting, nutrition information and mango recipes.


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Multi-platinum music star and entrepreneur Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson believes that with better energy and focus you gain the power to do greater things. That's why he created Street King, an energy shot that provides six hours of energy with 100% natural flavors. Available in Orange Mango and Grape flavors, the 2.5-ounce shot contains zero
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Chances are that in your study of the Humanities, and in your experience in Australia and abroad, you will find references to Italy and Italian culture. With more than 70% of the world artistic heritage, with examples of literature and culture ranging from Dante to neorealist cinema, design and architecture, Italy plays a central role in the world. Many do not know that Italy is also at the cutting edge of technological development, astrophysics and medical research. Indeed its history of scientific achievements is as rich as its culture accomplishments.
Italian Studies at Monash University allows you to get a real sense of the complexities of this fascinating country. We are a vibrant program that prepares students from beginners to the most advanced levels, right through to honours, masters and PhD study.
We offer a broad and diverse language and culture curriculum and a wide range of opportunities to study in Italy. Our undergraduate program offers three diversified access points (beginners, intermediate, proficient) that both develop linguistic competence and expand the knowledge of Italian culture. The Major sequence opens the possibility to undertake Honours at fourth year level and postgraduate studies.
Our study abroad offer is unique. In fact Monash is the only Australian University to have an established Centre in Italy, the Monash Prato Centre. We offer therefore a flexible degree with intensive units in Italy, combined with the possibilities of exchange study at Italian Universities.
Italian Studies at Monash is also keen to share knowledge within the community and with other Universities.
What Level of Italian Should I Enrol In?
Please note: the entry level test page is undergoing maintenance and will be restored shortly.
- Prof John Foot (University of Bristol, UK) on Milan since the Miracle. Space, Politics and History in Milan from the boom to the Expo July 23, 6.30pm Italian Cultural Institute, 233 ... Read more
- This paper will focus on Ennio Flaiano's novel Tempo di uccidere (A Time to Kill), which was published in 1947. The novel is set in ... Read more
- Egypt, Jerusalem, Libya: Journeys through Italian Women's Writings, 1890s-1930s 14 May, 6.30, Italian Institute of Culture (233 Domain Rd, South Yarra) This seminar will take into consideration ... Read more
- Dr Mirna Cicioni (Monash University) will talk on Purists, Neo-Purists and Anti-Purists: Foreign Words in Italian, from the Fascist Campaigns to 2015 Thursday 9 April, 6.30pm Italian Institute ... Read more
- Dr Alessandro Carrieri will talk on Memory and resistance of Jewish musicians in Fascist Italy 19 March, 5.30pm, Caulfield campus, Building H, room HB36 There are voices of resistance ... Read more
- Prof Zyg Baranzki (Notre Dame University US and University of Cambridge, UK) is Visiting Scholar at the Italian Studies program at MonashProf Zyg Baranski (Professor of Dante and Italian Studies Notre Dame University US, and Emeritus Serena Professor of Italian, University of Cambridge, UK), a world's ... Read more
- Research in Italian Studies in Melbourne (RISM) is pleased to invite you to a seminar by Paolo Bartoloni (National University of Ireland, Galway) on Fictional Objects in Svevo's Zeno's ... Read more
- Monash Warwick Alliance Joint PhD student, Goffredo Polizzi Read more
- Italian Consul General in Melbourne Marco Maria Cerbo visits the Italian Studies program at Monash. Consul General Marco Maria Cerbo, who has recently taken his ... Read more
- Luca Vullo met students of Italian Studies to talk about his documentary La voce del corpo and to work with them in a series of role-plays ... Read more
- Research in Italian Studies in Melbourne (RISM) is pleased to invite you to a seminar by Dr Mirna Cicioni on 'Dirty Secrets'? Primo Levi and the ... Read more
- 'Calvino, Eco and the transforming power of world literature', Prof Martin McLaughlin (University of Oxford), Tuesday October 1, 5.30pm, Monash Caulfield Campus S/S230. (See campus map: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/maps/2-Caulfieldcolour.pdf) Italo ... Read more
- RISM and the Italian Cultural Institute have great pleasure in inviting you to a talk in English on Charting Cultural Transformation through Renaissance Preaching by A/Prof Peter Howard ... Read more
- RISM and the Italian Cultural Institute have great pleasure in inviting you to a talk in English on Authority and Translation in Early Renaissance Italy by Andrea ... Read more
- RISM (Research in Italian Studies at Melbourne) and the Italian Cultural Institute have great pleasure in inviting you to a talk in English ... Read more


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Fri 20th Jun at 8:30pm
Henning Wehn
@ Bush Hall, London
Also appearing: Tony Law, Andrew Maxwell
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Show & Tell Comedy: Henning Wehn, Tony Law, Andrew Maxwell
Image © Oliviee Hess Photography
Please note that the artists appearing may be subject to change.
Henning Wehn
The self-styled 'German Comedy Ambassador in London', Henning Wehn is a regular guest on the British comedy television programme 'FAQ U' and has appeared on the BBC Radio 5 Live radio show 'Fighting Talk ', where he is 'in it, to win it', as well as two appearances on Radio 4's 'The Unbelievable Truth'.
Wehn's act plays upon the prevailing post-war stereotype of Germans; a large part of his routine is based around comprehensively analyzing and explaining his punchlines and jokes in the smallest detail.
'A diplomatic master class' (The Scotsman)
'Brought the audience to its knees' (The Daily Telegraph)
'Marvellous' (The Guardian).
Henning Wehn tour dates
Tony Law
Tony is a triple Chortle award winner and was a Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award 2012 nominee. As seen on Have I Got News For You, Buzzcocks, 8 Out Of 10 Cats and more.
'One of the finest and funniest comics on the circuit... destined for comedy stardom' (Time Out)
'Form-busting and hugely enjoyable' (The Times)
'Clever and blithely zany' (The Daily Telegraph)
'To see Tony Law is to inhale deep breaths of comedy oxygen' (The Herald)
'An ever-changing, hard-to-contain, force of nature' (The Guardian)
'A fine celebration of the absurd, full of laughs like no other... a top-notch comic who marries a powerful delivery with some deceptively ingenious material' (Chortle).
Tony Law was named in Ents24's top 20 hardest-working comedians of 2016.
Tony Law tour dates
Andrew Maxwell
Andrew is a very fine Irish comedian and BAFTA Award winner who can keep an audience focused with accessible and unpretentious topical comedy which has a pinch of his unique laddishness.
'I've seen the future of Irish Comedy and its name is Andrew Maxwell' (Irish Times)
'... infuriatingly excellent... he delivers a superb set' (The Sunday Times)
'Stand up is rarely this politically well informed or thought-provoking' (The Scotsman)
'All you can do is revel in the mischief this comically attuned Dubliner makes... utter magic' (The List)
'A social sage for the fast changing world... a wealth of first-rate material' (Fest)
'One of the most significant comedians working in the country today' (The Independent)
'Expect pin-point accents, biting observations and suave stories... One of the
best comics around. Blissfully funny' (Time Out).
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Venue Facts
Venue: Bush Hall
Website: bushhallmusic.co.uk
Enquiries: 0208 222 6955
Disabled Bookings: 0208 222 6955
→ Shepherds Bush 5 min walk


text: MIDLAND, Texas, Sept. 6, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Legacy Reserves LP ("Legacy") (Nasdaq:LGCY) today announced the appointment of James "Dan" Westcott as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Legacy Reserves GP, LLC, the general partner of Legacy, effective on or about September 24, 2012. James R. Lawrence, who has been serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer, Vice President - Finance and Treasurer of Legacy Reserves GP, LLC since February 2012, will continue in that capacity until such date and continue thereafter as Vice President - Finance and Treasurer. Prior to joining Legacy, Mr. Westcott served as a Principal at GSO Capital Partners LP, a division of The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), where he was involved in the sourcing, structuring, evaluation and management of debt and equity investments for public and private companies in the energy and power industries. Mr. Westcott is currently a Director of each of Bear Tracker Energy LLC, a private midstream company, Compass Well Services LLC, a private pressure pumping company, Energy Alloys LLC, a private global provider of oilfield metals solutions to the energy industry, and Peace Gospel International, a non-profit organization with charitable programs in Asia and Africa. Prior to his time at GSO Capital Partners LP, Mr. Westcott worked as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan's Global Energy Group. Mr. Westcott received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Science Technology & Society and a Master of Science degree in Management Science, both from Stanford University. Cary D. Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Legacy Reserves GP, LLC, stated, "We are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Dan Westcott to Legacy's senior management team. Dan's leadership skills and experience in energy private equity, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions make him ideally suited to lead our finance and accounting groups and to assist Legacy as we expand the scope of our business in the years ahead. I would also like to thank Jim Lawrence for his outstanding performance as interim CFO during this transition period. Jim is a valuable member of the team and we appreciate his dedication to Legacy."


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- Sword fighting. A friend sent me this, debunks the movie view we have of sword fighting. I can't say I knew all of this, but if you've ever held a sword it's not hard to realize that it's going to be an ugly business, not quite the bloodless head lopping seen on the Highlander. Still, I do own a katana just in case I'm attacked by mutant turtles.
- Free security tools from Microsoft. I haven't tried them yet.
- Send to Kindle for Chrome. Captures the page and sends to your Kindle. Not dumb, but I haven't fully adopted it yet either. Do I want to use my Kindle for a reading queue? Or am I just saving things that I found valuable? Both?
- Profiler event classes 65527,65528,65533,65534. Found this while helping a friend map some profiler events for alerting. Essentially trace admin events. Kudos to Simon Sabin for making it easy to find the answer.
- Another game as science, Fold.It is about protein folding.
I'm Andy Warren, currently a SQL Server trainer with End to End Training. Over the past few years I've been a developer, DBA, and IT Director. I was one of the original founders of SQLServerCentral.com and helped grow that community from zero to about 300k members before deciding to move on to other ventures.
Misc Links for Aug 29,2012
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AccelDSP Synthesis 8.1 incorporates AccelChip technology
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SAN JOSE, Calif. Programmable logic supplier Xilinx Inc. Tuesday (April 4) announced the availability of AccelDSP Synthesis version 8.1 and the AccelWare DSP libraries of algorithmic intellectual property (IP), the first Xilinx offerings to incorporate technology from AccelChip, the synthesis tool startup that it acquired in January.
Xilinx said features of the kit that were formerly available as options are now standard. With a starting price of $30,000 for a one year, floating, subscription-based license, Xilinx said it has reduced the cost of the kit by approximately 60 percent.
Xilinx (San Jose) said AccelDSP Synthesis tool encapsulates multiple design tools, including the AccelChip DSP algorithmic synthesis tool, the M2C Accelerator (which automatically converts fixed-point MATLAB to C++) and IP-Explorer technology used for automatic selection of algorithmic IP based on system parameters. The tool's export to System Generator option, which provides a direct link into the System Generator for DSP tool, and the AccelWare building blocks IP toolkit, are also incorporated, Xilinx said.
"Today's announcement represents our continued investment, support and expansion of the AccelChip customer base," said Tom Feist, marketing director of Xilinx DSP tools, in a statement. "AccelDSP's tight integration into The MathWorks' Model-Based Design flow helps engineers and designers overcome the limitation of a document-based development process by replacing documents with comprehensive, system-level mathematical models."
According to Xilinx, when combined with the Xilinx System Generator for DSP tool, AccelDSP Synthesis 8.1 tool provides DSP algorithm and system designers that use The Mathworks Inc.'s Matlab and Simulink design tools with the industry's most capable design flow for high-performance DSP system design.
"Xilinx is making a significant investment in applying model-based design to simplify FPGA-based DSP system development," said Ken Karnofsky, marketing director for signal processing and communications at The MathWorks, in a statement. "Our tools continue to evolve synergistically, giving customers the power and flexibility to design signal processing algorithms and systems in MATLAB and Simulink with a smooth path to optimized hardware implementation on Xilinx FPGAs."
Xilinx said the announcement of AccelDSP Synthesis 8.1 represents a milestone in the company's DSP roadmap, outlined in October 2005. Xilinx is now offering the AccelDSP Synthesis tool and DSP libraries of algorithmic IP as an integrated part of Xilinx XtremeDSP solutions, the company said, claiming that these solutions save months over traditional RTL approaches and are application-optimized for digital communications, multimedia, video and image processing and defense systems.
AccelDSP Synthesis 8.1 is immediately available for the Windows XP operating system as an option to the Xilinx Integrated Software Environment tool, the company said. Current AccelChip DSP Synthesis maintenance customers will receive AccelDSP at no additional fee. The optional AccelWare signal processing, communication and advanced math IP toolkits are available for $5,000 each, the company said. A composite license for AccelDSP and all AccelWare libraries is available for $40,000, the company said. More information about AccelDSP is available on the Xilinx Web site.
Xilinx acquired AccelChip for a reported $21.5 million on Jan. 13.


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Who Owns Ideas?
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Originally Posted by
Steve Jordan
You and Acid are wrong. I am not calling it magic... I am saying the design and function of the brain is fundamentally different from the design and function of a computer processor, and that centuries of scientists have as yet not managed to figure out the exact workings of the brain (and since scientists who have been working on these concepts for quite some time haven't figured it out yet, I challenge whether either of you know the workings of the brain better than they do).
If you want to call a lack of knowledge "magic," in accordance to Clarke's Theorem, that's up to you. I call it "as-yet-undiscovered knowledge."
I'm with acidzebra on this. Okay I accept human brains are working fundamentally different than computers we konw. I accept that we don't know in detail how the brain works. However I donot accept that in the its also a "biochemicelectrical device" that gets input from our senses, and makes output through our muscles, altough having a strong history and through its chaotic nature a quite undeterminable behaviour. But anything going out is in some way a result of the input given throughout the lifetime into this "device".
The only other option IMHO you can go is to say, okay the output does not come from the input, but from another ethernal plane. From souls, from specific spiritual type that is special to the human as human, and cannot be duplicated by any other electronic. This is an opinion I don't share, but I accept as religious freedom. But it doesn't seem this is the option you went for either.
Just because we don't understand exactly how the brain works, I don't know where you say output should come from if not from input, and not from an ethernal out-of-this-world being like the soul.
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IN RESPONSE to concerns raised with regards to the safety fence at Barratt's Bath Court development in E.M Forsythe's letter to the editor on November 29.
Barratt Bristol is committed to the safety of Thornbury residents surrounding its Bath Court development. We have worked in conjunction with the Highways Agency to ensure all requirements regarding the security fence on this site have been met and the fence, as it stands, has full permission.
Security fences are erected to protect the public from the construction site and to deter intruders. Building sites are potentially unsafe places for children, which is also why fences are strictly in use. The plastic shuttering is used, not prevent anyone looking in, but to ensure that any potential dust or small debris is contained within the site. The fence will remain erected, in line with health and safety regulations, whilst construction is in progress and we apologise for any convenience caused to residents during this time.
Barry Wood, Managing Director of Barratt Bristol Bex Stonebridge PR Account Executive


text: People that read that line "Mike Tyson a WWE Superstar" is probably saying to themselves this Jimmy Seals kid is crazy. I know it is a crazy idea of having Tyson as a wrestler, but I wonder what would happen. If Vince would sign Tyson to a WWE Contract, Mike never stepped foot inside a WWE ring. As a wrestler just as a celebrity during the Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels match at WrestleMania. The rumor was that Tyson worked well in the WWE he did a lot of stuff to help out with the promoting of WrestleMania. It seemed clear to fans that he had a small passion for professional wrestling. Mike Tyson as almost everybody knows is bankrupt he lost 300 billion dollars. He signed a multi million dollar contract to the K-1 kick boxing promotion to face Bob Sapp. That fight should be interesting to let fans see how bad Mike really is, when he steps out of his element.


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Improving the quality of
healthcare in sports
Our Mission
The mission of the IATA is to improve the quality of healthcare in the State of Illinois through the advancement, promotion, and improvement of the athletic training profession at all levels, and to promote a better working relationship among those interested in athletic training by providing a means for a free exchange of ideas.
With the debut of the new website, all email addresses for board and committee members have changed!
More information about the Practice Act, PAC Fundraisers, and Governmental Affairs Committee meetings
Concerned by the rising number of ankle injuries in athletes of all ages, the Illinois Athletic Trainers Association (IATA) and physicians at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush (MOR) have created a prevention program to help stop ankle injuries from occurring. While most common ankle injuries for athletes are usually sprains or fractures, there have been a rising number of patients with Achilles injuries, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Upcoming EventsView All Events
The 2017 State Meeting and Symposium will be held in Springfield, IL, on November 4th and 5th. Please check back for registration


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God in Three Persons: A Contemporary Interpretation of the Trinity
The trinity is the least understood and most important concept in the church. Yet many would just as soon jettison it in the interest of ecumenical unity. God in Three Persons defends the significance of a trinitarian definition and explains it in understandable terms.
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Patriots Park (hereafter referred to as Gumball park)
This is my home park and where I played my first ever round of DG. The posted par is 58 which increases to a 59 for tournaments when the dinky par 3 hole 5 is moved back to make a 460ft right turning par 4 with an OB road and ball field surrounding it. It's got a good mix of open and wooded holes with a bias towards the woods. Most of the back nine plays along side a creek that does come into play. I'll describe a few of my favorite holes ranked in order of preference.
Hole 14
Par 4 with a posted distance of 340ft.
The first ~ 260 feet is a relatively straight tunnel shot with a fairway around 12 ft wide and a ceiling of around 15 ft. At the 250 ft. mark the hole cuts left at a 60 degree angle across the aforementioned creek. The gap to hit if one wants to clear the creek is around 8ft. wide. There is about a 6 foot drop down to the stream at this spot and the ditch is ~20 ft. wide. After clearing the creek the hole runs slightly up hill for the next 55 ft. The fairway widens back to 10 ft before narrowing down to around 8ft. near the basket. With 5ft. to go there is a little hill the top of which is around 3 ft. above the previous gently sloping fairway which levels onto a little plateau where the basket sits maybe 3ft. behind a sweetgum tree which bisects the fairway just at the top of the little plateau. There is about 10 ft. of clear area behind the basket and about 4ft. to the left and right of it. There's also a fat vine growing up the left side of the sweetgum tree that sticks out a bit which serves to widen the effective width of this tree. That tree catches lots of runs at an eagle 2 for those that can clear the creek. There is thick vegetation and foliage along the entire length of the hole. I've never gotten a 2 but there is an outside chance of it with a perfect drive and a long, difficult putt. Threes aren't tough if a player has the accuracy to clear the creek. I've seen plenty of fives, and sixes too.
Has anyone read this far that can picture this hole in their mind's eye? I'll try to get a picture of this one.
Hole 18
Par 3 with a posted distance of 350ft.
The player tees off from a box elevated around 8 ft. above the main playing surface about 5 ft from the woods on the left. The first ~320 are wide open (fairway around 30ft. wide) but with thick woods on either side. There is a nice overgrown, swampy snake pit (lots of snakes on this course(go Hawks!)) type area that starts about 50ft. out and ends about 200 ft. out. At the 320ft. mark the hole cuts right into the woods at a roughly 50 degree angle. The gap into the clearing in the woods is around 8 ft. wide and about 20ft. high. If a player goes long past the gap a tomahawk or spike hyzer through a very tight gap is possible to save 3. A three isn't hard for a player with any distance but the attempt for a 2 is sooooo tempting I've not seen anyone besides myself take a 2 on this hole. A turnover that hits the gap into the woods is a thing of beauty.
Hole 9
par 3 with a posted distance of 250 ft.
The first ~ 75 ft. are open but the ideal line runs just a few feet from the thick woods to the left. At the 75 ft. mark the hole dives about 80 degrees to the left. There is a fat branch that marks the upper limit of the hole about 7 ft. above the playing surface with thicker foliage above that no shot would sneak through, even during winter. The gap between the small trees and plants on the left and the fat pine that mark the right side of the gap is only about 6ft. wide. but widens out to around 8 ft. after that. The hole goes down a 30 degree grade for the next 150 feet before flattening out. There is a big tree of some sort at the bottom of this hill on the left side of the fairway (such that it is) and some smaller trees on the right side. About 5 feet behind the basket is a drop off that runs towards a creek about 15 ft. behind the basket.
My favorite thing about this course is the overall challenge and variety of shots (ex. there is a 755ft. very slightly downhill hole for you long bombers). This course will test every shot that you've got. It's also fairly out of the way and although it's in a park, it's not running through the main park area so pedestrians aren't much of a problem. Even though the course plays mostly through woods the undergrowth isn't too bad so lost discs aren't a huge problem. My least favorite thing are the motherfrickin gumballs!
I'll profile the other courses in my area in the coming week(s). Can anyone imagine the holes that I've attempted to describe or should I just drop those for my upcoming profiles. I'll try to add some pictures as well.


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Arnold Schwarzenegger Political Mask
I first got scared by Ahnold back in "Hercules in New York." I find him even scarier now.
If you think Barack Obama is a socialist then tell everyone to pony over their candy. Most especially those with the most candy and then give some candy back to the little guys who didn't get as much candy to start.
Can't think of what to go as for Halloween? Don this shirt but don't scare the kiddies!Tags: t-shirts, politics, costumes, tees, Halloween, election, VOTE!, election '08, rock the voteAdded 9 Years Ago from Cafepress
$1. Which is all you might have to spend in today's economy.Added 9 Years Ago from Amazon.com
If you're looking to be in the Miss Alaska pageant, you'll need a swimwear ensemble. What better way to show your patriotism!Tags: costumes, bikini, Halloween, election, election '08, american flag, stars and stripes, Sarah Palin, halloween '08Added 9 Years Ago from 3wishes
Like I'm so glad there's a Pres person running for the White House, who is all about us Teen Moms... We get a bad rap, but Palin understands us.
If you're going to be the Democratic Nominee for Halloween this year, you're going to need a mask. Otherwise people might just think you're campaigning for him.Tags: politics, costumes, masks, Halloween, political, candidates, election, barack obama, obamaAdded 9 Years Ago from Oriental Trading Co
Complete with that old leathery skin look... I kid, I kid. Make a big impression and a great decoy for when the man himself walks onto the convention floor.Tags: politics, america, Republican, masks, costumes, Halloween, political, united states, electionAdded 9 Years Ago from Anytime Costumes
If you've ever encountered a crazed pig you know that this is not so far off the mark. Of course, you could wear this with suit and power tie and it would work just as well. I love Novica products because they give you a littl... If you've ever encountered a crazed pig you know that this is not so far off the mark. Of course, you could wear this with suit and power tie and it would work just as well. I love Novica products because they give you a little blurb about the artist. This awesome mask is made by Bruno C'copa of Peru out of sawdust, glue and plaster.


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Classification: CORPORATE GROUPS In Qatar, Doha -
Classification Description: A corporate group (or a group of companies) is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. The concept of a group is frequently used in tax law, accounting and (less frequently) company law to attribute the rights and duties of one member of the group to another or the whole. If the corporations are engaged in entirely different businesses, the group is called a conglomerate. Find below the list of corporate groups and companies in Doha, Qatar.
Companies Retrieved: 76
P O Box: 27100 Doha, Qatar Tel: 40131300
P O Box: 5390 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44277080
P O Box: 32441 Doha Tel: 44311170
Al Zaeem Group of Companies WLL
P O Box: 41111 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44500001
P O Box: 22138 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44683040
P O Box: 75 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44469777
P O Box: 1120 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44372551
P O Box: 295 Doha Tel: 44445501
P O Box: 24451 Doha, Qatar Tel: 44502111


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Teachers to advise Haley on funding
COLUMBIA — Gov. Nikki Haley said Friday that several dozen teachers will serve as advisers as she develops a plan for overhauling how South Carolina's public schools are funded.
The solutions need to come from parents and teachers, she said.
"These are the people who are on the ground. These are the people who are showing us the way," she said.
Her comments followed a closed-door meeting with about 40 members of parent-teacher associations across the state. She said the group complained about a lack of computers in some districts, along with too much emphasis being put on grading schools rather than letting teachers do what they need to educate students.
Haley will next meet with the state Chamber of Commerce's Excellence in Education Council. She hopes to reveal a plan by the end of the year.
Gang leader sent to prison for life
SUMTER, S.C. — A gang leader who prosecutors say ordered killings in Sumter in 2011 will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Mickey Johnson, 29, was found guilty Thursday of accessory before the fact to a murder. Johnson had a list of rival gang members he was angry with and ordered three members of his gang to go to the rivals' homes, knock on doors and shoot the first man who answered, prosecutors said.
The first rival gang member wasn't home. At the second apartment, Adrian Davis' girlfriend answered and the men shot and killed Davis, authorities said.
Flooding in Jasper causes evacuations
HARDEEVILLE, S.C. — Flooding along the Savannah River has forced more than a dozen Jasper County residents from their homes.
While the evacuation wasn't mandatory, residents left because it was harder to get to their homes and because of concerns power would be shut off.
The river measured 18.3 feet Thursday, and the riverfront homes flood when the water reaches 14 feet.
In other news
FORT JACKSON is increasing penalties for cellphone use while driving. Maj. Brad Fisher said visitors are being warned they will be fined $75 for phone use while driving. A second offense means driving privileges are suspended for three months. Penalties increase for further offenses.


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live up to
This page is about the phrasal verb live up to
Meaning: to be as good as expectedSynonym: match
For example:
- live up to sth The movie was excellent. It lived up to all our expectations.
- live up to sth She was a great golfer when she was a teenager, but she never lived up to the promise she had shown.
Quick Quiz:
The band has a lot to live up to because their first album was
1000 Phrasal Verbs in Context ebook
This entry is in the following categories:
Contributor: Matt Errey


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Milla Jovovich
Model turned actress Milla Jovovich boldly mixed styles on July 15th, 2004. She combined a sexy sequined dress with a gladiator wrap and a bundle of innocent flowers in her hair.
Are you feeling playful and wonder how to copy this look? Have your hair cut to a chin length bob with band at the eyebrow level. Part the hair on the side and use a curling iron to create a full round of bouncy curls. Heated rollers produce a longer lasting result, but also require more patience. In the end plug curls apart with your fingers and fixate all with some flexible spray before you attach a small bundle of your favorite flowers with bobby pins.
Related Posts:
More Milla Jovovich Hairstyles
Celebrities with Short Hair
How to wear flowers in your hair


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How does nature enhance the prosperity of poor people? It's a hot question among conservationists right now — but in reality, it's irrelevant both to helping the poor and to conserving nature. That's because poor people undoubtedly depend on nature and its services.
So here's a better question: How will any specific conservation action aimed at changing how humans use nature affect the prosperity of poor people?
Conservationists, it turns out, have very little evidence with which to answer this question. In large part, we lack that evidence because we have failed to adopt modern methods the rest of science has developed to measure causal relationships.
This is tragic, because conservation has no shortage of good ideas for increasing the quality of ecosystems and the services they provide people — ideas ranging from protected areas to performance incentives, decentralization to zoning restrictions to information dissemination about sustainable practices. Yet each of these interventions likely translates into different effects on the poor, even if each of these interventions' effects on nature are the same (which they likely are not).
Protected areas, for example, not only change land-use patterns near the poor, but they also can create tourism opportunities and lead to changes in infrastructure like roads and electrification. In contrast, voluntary performance payments for environmental services are more spatially diffuse and rarely affect tourism opportunities or infrastructure development. They do, however, transfer large amounts of cash to rural residents — who may or may not be the poorest households. Unfortunately, we have an acute shortage of evidence about the heterogeneous effects of different conservation interventions.
And by evidence, I mean credible inferences about causal relationships between actions and effects from many sites across the globe. What are the differences between the welfare of the poor with nature conservation interventions and what their counterfactual welfare would have been in the absence of the interventions?
Let me be clear: We need more than simulations of these causal relationships. We need conclusions drawn from observable data from real conservation programs. Only with such evidence can we begin to design policies and programs that deliver both environmental benefits and enhanced prosperity for the world's poor.
But such evidence is nearly absent in the conservation community. In 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported (p. 122) as one of its main findings in its Policy Responses volume that "[f]ew well-designed empirical analyses assess even the most common… conservation measures." Eight years later, Miteva and colleagues (2012) report that their review of the conservation evidence base "confirms previous claims that causal evidence of the effectiveness of conservation interventions…is rare."
Gathering that evidence is not just possible, however — it is within reach, if we learn the lessons of other fields.
In the last 20 or 30 years, a revolution has taken place in the ways in which scientists draw causal inferences from observational (non-experimental) data. Fields from medicine to education, criminal justice to job training have identified creative ways to ascertain whether their interventions are having an impact. By focusing on the process by which some people or areas are exposed to an intervention and others are not, these study designs can isolate the effects of the intervention separate from other factors that also affect the measured outcomes. A hallmark of this revolution is transparency in terms of what effect is being estimated and how it is being estimated.
Conservation science and practice has largely remained unaffected by this revolution, although that situation is gradually changing. But if conservation practitioners and donors do not encourage this change, the field will be forced to continue to rely on intuition and anecdote — a reliance that will damage the credibility of conservation's claims to be relevant to people.
For example, we should have better knowledge about whether and how protected areas — a ubiquitous tool for protecting ecosystems and their services — impact the poor.
The popular wisdom is that protected areas are subject to the following pattern of tradeoffs: the stricter the protection, the more positive (desirable) are the environmental effects, and the more negative are the social effects.
The purported mechanism for this tradeoff is simple: protected areas stop damaging human uses, but in the process impose losses on their poor human neighbors who would have benefited from these uses.
Recent impact evaluations of national protected-area systems suggest, however, that this pattern may not exist or may even be reversed in many countries (Canavire-Bacarreza & Hanauer 2013; Ferraro et al. 2011). Desirable environmental outcomes can be smaller when there are stricter rules, and poverty reduction can be larger. How can that be?
What are the differences between the welfare of the poor with nature conservation interventions and what their counterfactual welfare would have been in the absence of the interventions? Such evidence is nearly absent in the conservation community. — Paul Ferraro
For political reasons, strictly protected areas are often shunted to less productive (and thus less threatened) areas. Thus, the amount of avoided environmental loss these areas can generate is often smaller than a less strictly protected area, which can be sited on more productive lands (Ferraro et al. 2013). So while the less strictly regulated protected area may permit more damaging uses, it has a greater potential for stopping environmental losses and adding gains because it can be established on lands that could have been completely converted to oil palm or soy plantations, for instance, in the absence of protection.
But the full possibilities are even more complicated. For poverty reduction, strictly protected areas offer a mechanism that less strictly protected areas do not: tourism. While less strictly protected areas permit more uses, these uses may be low value (or co-opted by elites). These uses may also fail to compensate the poor for the more-damaging (but perhaps more lucrative) productive activities that protection stops.
For example, a recent study (under review) estimated that much of the poverty-reducing power of Costa Rica's protected area system over the last 30 or 40 years arises from tourism opportunities. Changes in ecosystem services, if they have affected the poor at all, have only served to offset the losses from protection's restrictions on agriculture and forestry.¹
We don't know which patterns hold for other countries — we simply have few evaluations that can guide us. Even within a country, there can be important variation in the impacts of policies and programs. A 2013 study found that strictly protected areas in Sumatra generated more avoided deforestation than less strictly protected areas (Ferraro et al. 2013) — but a recent presentation by some of the same authors suggested that the opposite was true for the rest of Indonesia (D. Miteva, 2013 ICCB). Given that we can expect heterogeneous interactions between nature protection and poverty across the globe, conservation has a critical need for more impact evaluations of interventions on environmental outcomes and poverty.
If impact evaluation and evidence-based policy were fully developed for conservation interventions, the Holy Grail might look like a figure that shows the relative cost effectiveness, based on observable characteristics of the site, of different conservation interventions across multiple effects in which practitioners, scientists and citizens might be interested (e.g., the cost-per-unit increase in habitat connectivity and unit decrease in poverty for African savannah sites where transportation infrastructure is undeveloped and tourism potential and institutional capacity are weak).
Like the Holy Grail, such figures may be unattainable for many sites in which we work. But they represent what we should be striving for in order to advance our understanding of how protecting nature can help enhance the prosperity of people.
Fundamentally, we need to know what works and under what conditions. And to develop this knowledge, we need to ask the right questions about impacts, collect the right (not more) data², and analyze the data using modern empirical designs for causal inference. The evidence base conservation needs will not magically arise with a single global-level study. It has to be carefully built up from numerous national, regional and local studies if we are to truly understand how our actions to protect nature affect the prosperity of poor people.
¹Another study on the same system (citation) found that the poorer a community adjacent to a protected area was before protection was established, the greater the poverty reduction, on average, compared to equally poor communities that did not eventually have a protected area put near them.
²From the perspective of modern approaches to impact evaluation, the conservation community invests too many resources measuring the status and trends of environmental outcome indicators and not enough measuring factors that affect both the outcomes and exposure to the environmental programs (i.e., confounders, or rival explanations for changes in status and trends). Moreover, the community typically fails to measure social outcomes, although more recently conservation scientists have found creative ways to use existing administrative data in order to evaluate past program impacts on poverty (citations), or to collect data at the start of new conservation programs in ways that permit one to estimate the social impacts of these programs (WWF MPA Indonesia; UNEP PES Uganda).
Canavire-Bacarreza, G. & M.M. Hanauer. 2013. Estimating the impacts of Bolivia's protected areas on poverty. World Development 41:265-285.
Ferraro, P.J., M.M. Hanauer and K.E. Sims. 2011. Conditions associated with protected area success in conservation and poverty reduction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(34):13913-13918.
Ferraro, P.J., M.M. Hanauer, D. Miteva, G. Canavire-Bacareza, S. Pattanayak, & K. Sims. 2013. More strictly protected areas are not necessarily more protective. Environmental Research Letters 8:02511.
Miteva, D., S.K. Pattanayak, & P.J. Ferraro. 2012. Evaluation of biodiversity policy instruments: What works and what doesn't? Oxford Review of Economic Policy 28(6):69-92.
Miteva, D. 2013. Forests & Context: Factors shaping the effectiveness of Indonesia's protected areas. Presentation at the 26th International Congress for Conservation Biology. Baltimore, MD. 23 July.
October 9, 2013. The views expressed above are the author's and should not be taken as those of SNAP or its member organizations.


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Egyptian actor Noor Al Sherif has accepted an offer to perform the role of Saif Al Dawlah Al Hamadani in a historical television series.
The Syrian series, scripted by Mamdouh Odwan, explores the life history of the Arab poet Abu Al Tayyeb Al Mutanabbi, who will be played by the Syrian actor Salloum Haddad.
Sherif is currently busy reading everything available about Saif Al Dawlah Al Hamadani, including his biography and character profile, in order to begin shooting the series this summer.
The Egyptian star is well known for fancying such historical characters. Among his television roles has been Islamic Caliph Omar Bin Abdel Aziz - Albawaba.com
[1] http://www.albawaba.com