text:
Playing is Believing: A TERA story
GameZone has partnered up with En Masse Entertainment to provide to you an exclusive behind the scenes look at the upcoming MMORPG TERA. Each and every month you can expect to find the latest installment that delves into the development, creation, writing, art, design and much more up until the launch in 2011.
By Brian Knox, Senior Producer, En Masse Entertainment
In November of 2009 I was lucky enough to start my first day at Bluehole Studio (we had not become En Masse Entertainment yet). Since then, many people have asked me why I joined this team, and my answer has never changed: I tried the game. And that has become our mantra here at En Masse where TERA is concerned: let them play the game.
At GDC, the first convention we attended, our booth had game kiosks on the outside, and VIP demos on a plasma inside. To be honest, the people who watched the demo looked interested, but there was some doubt there, too. There are tons of games out there, and they asked, "Why TERA?"
The people who actually took the time to play TERA had a different story. They walked away understanding "why TERA," and what made our game so special. You can talk about action combat all day long, but in the end, the word action is used to describe just about every game on the market. TERA is different. Playing is believing, and those who played TERA, got it.
As we wrapped up GDC, we went into brainstorming mode. What can we do better for E3? GDC was a fantastic event—we received a lot of great publicity—but E3 is the big leagues, and we needed to bring our "A" game.
I sat down with my production team to talk demos. We knew the outside, hands-on demo was working well, but how could we improve the inside presentation? It became clear that we had to get the people inside the booth playing the game. Seeing it on the screen just wasn't giving them that visceral feeling we all knew so well. If they were going to walk away with the answer to "why TERA," they needed to get their hands dirty.
That's when Associate Producer Stefan Ramirez and Producer Sam Kim went to work. They worked tirelessly to craft a five-man party experience that would steep players in TERA in the brief 30-minute demo window. The results were amazing! In contrast to the vague curiosity we saw at GDC, our VIP demo at E3 blew people away. They cheered, high-fived, tossed headphones into the air—it was a true TERA experience that got people excited and showed off what we were about. Giving a demo of an MMO is very challenging. Trying to get that "massive" part onto a show floor — or the "online" part, for that matter — isn't easy.
The content we had revealed up to that point had progressed from character creation at GDC to exploring a remote island and encountering a party boss monster named Marduk. We realized we hadn't shown any dungeons yet, so GamesCom was our first look at a dungeon crawl for TERA. We set up a smaller party, a group of three, and ventured into a dungeon. Once again the hands-on, "playing is believing" strategy allowed us to create a memorable experience for the GamesCom attendees. Videos, however beautiful, just don't give you the immersion that the keyboard and mouse, or controller, does.
Around this time, our fans become rabid for information. "Enough with the action gameplay — I want to know more about the RPG details!" they screamed. "More, more, more!" This is good to hear, from my perspective, so at Comic Con Stefan gave a presentation on two specific systems: achievements and glyphs. These systems are just the beginning when it comes to TERA's depth.
For PAX, we had another challenge: we wanted to show the game's depth and action at the same time. We tied this demo experience to a story of five hardened adventurers who had fought through the world and found themselves at the apex of their journey: the Cultists' Refuge. We talked about mounts, enchanting items, and the crafting system, and then embarked upon an instanced dungeon culminating with two huge boss fights. Not everyone survived these encounters; in fact, we kept score and 20 parties succeeded where eight failed!
Growing En Masse and TERA has been an adventure all in itself these past few months, and we continue to hear the chants of MORE, MORE, MORE! There will be more — lots more! We want to make sure we are presenting the facts without the fluff. We want you to know and experience TERA as it really is, and not what we dream it could be. This is very important to us; we want to make sure to deliver on our promises. We aren't trying for the one night stand to get a box sale. We want that long-term relationship where we can grow together as a community.
So stay tuned, and you'll see more and more information about TERA. We have plenty in store, from battlegrounds to the political system, from more combat depth to further exploration of the story. We're looking forward to sharing all of it with you in the very near future.


text: Hey folks. I'm looking forward to meeting my mother tomorrow who works in midtown and taking her out for lunch. We enjoy healthy (organic is best) cuisine. Not just vegetarian. We've been to Josies in the past , and loved it, but wanted to try another place but with similar foodsThoughts?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Child foundation makes a splash
Summer Splash 2013 was a big hit for a Big Island nonprofit, the Sunday's Child Foundation, and its youth participants. Children ages 7 to 16 were hosted by the support of many of Hawaii's cause-conscious businesses, said Lauren Rainier, executive director and founder of Sunday's Child Foundation.
Throughout the week of July 4, the children enjoyed the pool and thrilling water slide activities at both the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort and Spa and the Waikoloa Hilton. After a brief respite from the sun at the 4D Ride attraction at the Mauna Lani Shops, the kids were ready for more and with paddles in hand, pounded the waters with the brave kupuna of the Kawaihae Canoe Club.
"There were so many magical moments during our adventures together this past week," Rainier said. "We all shared a lot of great fun and will have life-long memories from this experience.
"Two of our special days were truly healing," she said. The first day of the summer camp's fun began with water-play in both the ocean and the pool at the Hokukano Bayhouse in Keauhou Bay. Not only was there water-play, but therapeutic healing to help the children relax.
The children visited the Kohala Youth Ranch near Pololu Valley. They enjoyed watching the horses play, and even had their hand at grooming.
To learn more about Sunday's Child Foundation's activities and support for Hawaii's at-risk youth, visit: www.sundayschildfoundation.org.
"Our mission is to provide life skills and healing, and to enliven the spirit of each child through the foundation's programs," said Rainier. To lend support, contact Sunday's Child Foundation at (877) 375-9191.
Rules for posting comments
Comments posted below are from readers. In no way do they represent the view of Oahu Publishing Inc. or this newspaper. This is a public forum.
Comments may be monitored for inappropriate content but the newspaper is under no obligation to do so. Comment posters are solely responsible under the Communications Decency Act for comments posted on this Web site. Oahu Publishing Inc. is not liable for messages from third parties.
IP and email addresses of persons who post are not treated as confidential records and will be disclosed in response to valid legal process.
Do not post:
- Potentially libelous statements or damaging innuendo.
- Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
- Copyrighted materials of any sort without the express permission of the copyright holder.
- Personal attacks, insults or threats.
- The use of another person's real name to disguise your identity.
- Comments unrelated to the story.
If you believe that a commenter has not followed these guidelines, please click the FLAG icon below the comment.


text:
La Perla Malizia Spring in New York Brazilian Panty 12412
Sorry, no other customer-recommended styles found.
This product was discontinued December, 2012 and is no longer available. Please consider one of the Customer-Recommended Replacements above, or try a new search.
This Brazilian panty features a sheer mesh front and floral lace with horizontal bands in back, and a center back seam for definition. Made of soft polyamide/elastane/spandex for comfort and easy care.
Try these keyword searches with similar features:


text:
We've seen blurry images and even a leaked ROM for the upcoming HTC Kingdom but this time around -- things just got a whole lot more real. Right now, the FCC is checking out a device that's labeled as the PH44100 but as you look through the details you can see that the PH44100 has all the callings of the HTC Kingdom. WiMax, CDMA, 4.3-inch qHD display and bound for Sprint. That's it for now -- but it's a safe bet that we'll be hearing more about this device soon and hopefully, some better images of it before it gets an official announcement.
so this is for sure a 4.3" screen and not 4.0" as some earlier rumors suggest? if it is smaller in size than evo3D i gotta go for this, even though single-core...do we really need dual-core right now???


text: Wrangling a Reverie\nA Working Ranch in Colorado Stays True to Its Roots\nThe massive entrance gate to Centennial Ranch in Ridgeway, Colorado, owned and operated by Vince and Joan Kontny since 1992. The couple restored some of the original buildings and erected others. "Having a ranch has been a dream of mine," says Vince Kontny.\nA post-and-beam-framed stair and custom hand-forged iron elements define the great room. Pawel Kontny, a relative, painted the hanging artworks.\nDashwood House, on the banks of the Uncompahgre River, was made with recycled timbers and salvaged bricks.\nThe great room. "What we have is an eclectic mix of old beams—they became almost a found sculpture," says Ted Moews, who designed the house, with architect Randall S. Walter, as well as several outbuildings. The Card Players, circa 1971, is by Hugh Sawrey. Stickley armchairs; Ralph Lauren Home wing chair.\nA portion of Joan Kontny's 19th- and early-20th century Staffordshire collection is displayed in a Welsh dresser in the dining room. The paintings are English.\nIn the attic guest room is a Victorian-style four-poster. A small door leads to a children's play loft.\nThe line cabin, where the Kontnys lived during the construction of Dashwood House, has no running water or electricity. Situated in a remote area of the 400-acre property—a working ranch since 1879—the cabin is also used by ranch hands during calving season.\nImmense standing-dead spruce logs, like those in the bunk room, were used to build the structure.\nThe kitchen area, with some of Vince Kontny's western and ranch memorabilia. "I've gotten a kick out of collecting these things," he says. "They're my heritage."\n"I wanted to restore this place to its historical significance and do what I could to protect the legacy of western ranching," notes Vince Kontny. The draft horse barn has long, sloping roofs, a timber-frame construction, clerestory windows and a board-and-batten exterior.\nWestern roping saddles fill the tack and harness room. The antique parlor stove faces seating made from stumps fitted with antique cast-iron wagon seats and horseshoe footrests.\nThe loading platform provides covered storage for early farm equipment.\nThe ranch "has turned out to be a center of gravity for our family and friends," says Joan Kontny. "It really is our life now. Our life and our world." Near the river's edge is a hand-hewn table set among the cottonwoods, next to a cedar-post-and-lodgepole-pine fence.


text:
Fire's youngsters set the tone
Much has been made this season about the grizzled old-timers and precocious rookies who comprise the Chicago Fire's roster, and with good reason. The unexpected contributions of players like Tony Sanneh and Dasan Robinson, as well as the comeback of Chris Armas, have done much to fuel the Fire's recent resurgence. But as the Men in Red celebrated their 3-1 U.S. Open Cup triumph over the Los Angeles Galaxy Wednesday night, it was the Fire's crop of seasoned youngsters who deserved most of the accolades.
There was Nate Jaqua nodding home the opening goal just 10 minutes into the contest. Then you had players like defender Gonzalo Segares and midfielder Logan Pause, who helped bottle up the Los Angeles attack. And then there was the scintillating play of Justin Mapp, who tore apart the L.A. defense in the first half with several killer passes.
It was Mapp's havoc-creating free kick that led to Jaqua's opener, but that served as a mere prelude to his jaw-dropping display six minutes later. As Mapp carried the ball down the right wing, he looked to be well contained by Galaxy defender Ante Jazic. Then in one swift movement, he not only avoided Jazic's challenge, but turned and delivered a pinpoint cross to Andy Herron, who despite being sandwiched by two Galaxy defenders, managed to put his glancing header just inside the far post for a 2-0 Chicago lead.
It's the kind of performance that has taken some time for Mapp to develop. His early years with the Fire, as well as his first few appearances with U.S. national team, were best illustrated by the sight of him continually taking on defenders, whether it was the right play or not. And while the Mississippi native would routinely draw oohs and ahs for his solo runs, the fact that they often went nowhere left the impression that he was a one-trick pony. Now that the fifth-year veteran is beating opponents with a better mix of passing and dribbling, one gets the sense that a more mature player is beginning to emerge. And while his tendency to fade from matches is still a problem that needs to be addressed, it would seem that more appearances with the national team are in his future.
The same could also be said for players like Jaqua and Chris Rolfe, who at ages 24 and 23, respectively, appear to have their best years in front of them. And when you add in the likes of Thiago, it's clear that the Fire have a group of young players -- all age 25 or younger -- that is as deep and gifted as any in the league.
Of course, this could prove to be both a blessing and a curse. One only has to look at the impending breakup of the New England Revolution -- who seem certain to lose the services of young stars such as Clint Dempsey and Shalrie Joseph -- to realize that keeping a young, talented squad together is more difficult than it looks. But with regards to the Fire, that date would seem to be at least a few years into the future, meaning that their recent surge is more trend than fluke.
That said, Chicago got vital contributions on Wednesday from its more senior players as well. Diego Gutierrez held the midfield together while C.J. Brown was rock solid in defense. And it was Sanneh, in a ridiculous show of unselfishness, who laid on Thiago's game-clinching goal two minutes from time, when he just as easily could have scored himself.
Sanneh's heroics aside, the performances from the Fire's older veterans weren't flashy, but they were consistent, which stands in sharp contrast to those of their Los Angeles counterparts. The midfield trio of Cobi Jones, Paulo Nagamura and Pete Vagenas was practically overrun in the first half, and while all three players recovered to have a more telling impact after halftime, the damage had been done.
In many ways, this lack of consistency mirrored L.A.'s season. A poor start was followed up by some improved and at times breathtaking play, yet the team ultimately came up short.
The Galaxy also got few, if any, breaks on Wednesday. Not only did Jaqua appear to be offside on his goal, but some downright lenient refereeing by Terry Vaughn, in which some heavy challenges from Segares and Gutierrez were punished with lectures rather than yellow cards, helped the Fire blunt most of the Galaxy's first-half attacks. That Gutierrez was later sent off for two bookable offenses was immaterial. The tone and result of the match had been decided long before he got his marching orders.
In the end, each team got what it deserved. The Fire won the first trophy of the season, and now have their eye on an even bigger prize, the MLS Cup. Given its deep roster and obvious momentum, Chicago appears to be a team that is more than capable of going all the way. At the least, the Fire's presumed cage match with D.C. United in the conference finals has all the makings of a compelling game.
For L.A., its last place standing in the Western Conference means the Galaxy will likely miss out on the playoffs, despite their improvement under new head coach Frank Yallop. And the Galaxy's league and cup failures will also serve to cap off a miserable year for Landon Donovan. To be fair, Donovan did all he could on Wednesday night, setting up Alan Gordon's goal, and bravely throwing himself around the box in a futile attempt to pull his team level, yet it wasn't enough.
Combined with his disappointing performance at the World Cup, Donovan will now have the entire offseason to think about his failures at both club and international levels. Being reunited with Yallop (who coached Donovan when the two were in San Jose), should ease the pain, as you can be sure that the Canadian is already thinking of how he can further revamp his squad. But Donovan's hurt will no doubt run deep, proving that being young and talented isn't everything.
Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPNsoccernet. He can be reached at email@example.com.


text: Janet Sump holds a B.S. Degree in Music Education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and a M.M. Degree from Converse College. She is an adjunct faculty member of the UTC Music Department and the Cadek Conservatory of Music, where she has taught for over 15 years. Janet is certified in the state of Tennessee to teach music K-12 and holds both state and national certification in music education, piano, and violin from the Music Teachers National Association. In 2004 she was honored with the UTC Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award. In 2005 she was selected as the Tennessee Music Teacher of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association (TMTA).


text:
Tagged: gallery, image, missing, not working, slider
I'm new to wordpress, but I'm quite sure that when I opened the Flashlight – General Settings for the first time, I had the option of adding pictures to the image gallery slider. That option is now gone missing and two default pictures presented in the image slider gallery instead.
I'va read several posts, even tried to replace the whole WordPress library, deleted and reinstalled the theme several times, but somehow the browser seems to remember the changes I made from start. I simply cannot start over.
Where is my option for adding pictures to the gallery slider?
How come I cannot reset the theme?
Please help as my bloodpressure is rising fast..
Thank you
Yes I did solve it. Found that the option is located under the 'Welcome' page gallery option and not in General Settings. My mistake.
Thanks anyway
The topic 'gallery slider option missing!' is closed to new replies.


text:
Nintendo announced, after Time beat them to the punch, that a brand new Starfox game was in development for the Wii U. The game is being shown behind closed doors to journalists at this years E3 show in Los Angeles, as it\'s not yet ready for a proper unveiling. This has led many Nintendo fans who have been waiting for a new Starfox game since 2006\'s Starfox Command on Nintendo DS, anxiously waiting for fresh details.
Miyamoto has shared details about how the game will make use of the Wii U\'s GamePad to offer an innovative control scheme, never before seen in a video game. The GamePad\'s screen will be used to display a first-person cockpit view inside the Arwing, whilst the television will display the series-standard third-person view set jus t behind the fighter. These views can be swapped if the player wishes, but this will be the standard setting.
Before, in the N64 [game\'s] levels, when we had these valley modes, it was difficult to play those levels because the aiming was synced to the movement of the ship. So, as you were trying to aim, the movement of the ship was flying around within the valley. But now what we\'re able to do with the Wii U GamePad is, because the ship can move independently of your aiming, it makes it much more interesting and much more fun to play these valley modes where you\'re flying the ship but simultaneously aiming at a lot of different things in the level.
There are three modes currently running in the demo, the first being a simple arena combat mode as you fight alongside Slippy and Falco. Players are able to transform their Arwing into the Landmaster tank with a simple push of the joystick. The second mode is very similar as the generic and easy enemy craft are replaced with Star Wolf, the leader of a band of mercenaries hired by Andross to eliminate the Starfox team.
The third and final mode, and probably the most well received sees players flying a helicopter around a city-scape featuring Nintendo\'s Japanese headquarters. The city is under attack from a Kaiju and it\' upto two players working together to take it down. One player controls the helicopter, whilst the second controls a robot which drops from underneath the craft and fires weapons. When the robot is suspended from the craft, the GamePad view changes to that of the robot, offering true asymmetric game-play. This mode also features a series of collectible tokens, players must collect from the rooftops of buildings.
Miyamoto has confirmed that the game is on a speedy development schedule and should release within the next year, however he did state that Nintendo are looking for \"development partners\" for the game. What Miyamoto truly meant may of become lost in translation, but it\'s worth pointing out that 2005\'s Starfox Assault for the Nintendo GameCube was developed by Namco. Nintendo have recently been working very closely with Namco Bandai Games on both new Super Smash Bros games as well as Wii Sports Club for the Wii U.
Originally we weren\'t targeting E3 as the announcement time for the Star Fox game. But in developing it, we really came to like it and I also wanted to motivate ourselves to complete the game as quickly as possible. So we brought it here to E3 to announce it to give us that motivation.


text:
I'm hoping that this is the correct board to post this to, but feel assured that the crack Chow-team will move it, should it not be appropriate.
I'm not a "reality show" fan, having only watched the Golf Channel's "Big Break," since it started. However, I came across "Top Chef," when there were two contestants from the Phoenix Area in an episode, I was hooked. It was about the same for "Hell's Kitchen." Somehow, I missed the earlier seasons of both of these, and have only taped (actually my cable's version of TiVo) recent episodes. I've poked all around the Bravo and Fox sites, trying to find DVDs of the earlier season's episodes of these two shows with absolutely no luck.
Does anyone know of a legitimate source for DVDs, or VHS tapes of the previous seasons? If you have a link to either of these network's sites, please give me a specific URL, as I cannot find it though their normal search or navigation aids.


text:
We have posted a new solid state report!!
TITLE: VisionTek Go Drive SSD Review (240GB)
LINK: http://thessdreview....f9&e=312ec141fb
PHOTO: http://thessdreview....fb&e=312ec141fb
INFO: VisionTek is an American-based company that traditionally has been known for graphic cards, and started to get their feet wet in memory and flash storage back in 2011. This summer VisionTek released the Go Drive consumer SSD lineup, and here at Technology X we get the opportunity to test out the 240GB VisionTek Go Drive.
VisionTek Go Drive SSD Review (240GB)
Started by News, Jan 02 2014 07:42 PM
No replies to this topic
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
Calgary Wedding Photographer and Fearless Award Winning Photograph Photographed by
Geoff Wilkings Photography
Calgary wedding photographers, yes there are many of them but how good are they? In todays world where there's many photographers to select from in Calgary where do you begin? I know what to look for but does a consumer know what to look for when selecting a Calgary wedding photographer. Please contact me just for a chat if you're not sure, I'd rather you end up with knowledge and no booking from me but instead you're in the know.
The most common thing that you and many people will do is create an excel spread sheet and compare what's included. Will you look at the art work and say okay this person is really incredible and I value sensational photography coverage for my wedding day here in Calgary or in Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise or anywhere come to think about it.
My honest suggestion is to stop comparing prices. Take the time to look at the actual work of the photographer and see what that photographer is about. Look at real weddings, lots of weddings. You'll find that photographers will typically only show a few images from each wedding and not complete albums. Look deep into your photographers history and I can pretty much guarantee that most photographers here in Calgary or Canmore or Banff are crap. Sorry to say it so bluntly but 99% of them are terrible and I wouldn't pay a dime for them.
So, how can you feel rest assured that when you hire me to photograph your wedding day that I will do a stella job. Check out my albums on my website, my reviews on google, my hundreds of images that I have on my gallery, my blog, meet me in person to see my art work, my albums and so much more.
This photograph for instance that I took in Calgary close to Fish Creek with all natural available light. This means I didn't do any composite, no photoshop, nothing. It is exactly this in camera. How can I achieve this mastery of photography when I'm a Calgary wedding photographer you might ask. Well, I know my trade. I know light but the trick is not in photography but in the connection I have with my clients. We have a tremendous bond. I love my clients, they mean everything to me. I work non-stop all day for them in creating art work that they'll love for not just a few days but forever.
As a Calgary wedding Photographer I am constantly on the hunt for different photos. I wish not to get board so during every wedding I aim to raise the wedding photography bar.
During this wedding day we were in a field when this moment materialized.
The stormy clouds, gorgeous light, fabulous bride and groom, can this moment in time be any better.
As the rain loomed in the sky, we headed higher to find more dramatic shots. We arrived at the top to find the most peaceful moments with no wind, but heavy clouds surrounding us. It brought many fantastic photos for Courtney and Steven. You don't always get the opportunity to get shots like this on your wedding day so to have clients like Steven and Courtney who are willing to push the boundaries and go go go couldn't make me happier.
To many bride and groom in Calgary when looking for a Calgary wedding photographers just look a the price. Pictures will stay with you forever, the cake can sometimes cost more than photography, the flowers, the decor, dresses etc. Think big picture. When you want your day covered and remembered properly then invest into a fabulous photographer. See the end results for instance look at a complete weddings.
There is no such thing as Cheap Wedding Photographer. You might think it's cheap but the quality will be low and your day won't be remembered the way you wanted to be.
Pushing the limits, getting them to put on runners to go across ground faster to cover more territory, or climb little hills safely. Going full out for people is essential. A wedding day is more than an income its about creating and covering a day that will last forever.
Don't setting for cheap wedding photography. I know I'm worth every penny that people invest into me and I certainly know I'm very inexpensive for what you will receive. You just don't know it right now.
I am very lucky. As a professional Calgary wedding photographer I get to photograph not just in Calgary but also in Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, Kananaskis Country, Kicking Horse Mountain in Beautiful Columbia and many more gorgeous locations.
I often get the question, will I photograph or provide normal shots on bride and grooms wedding days. Absolutely I do. I always provide normal shots but I love creative photography. Quite often it's because of my creative photographs is why bride and grooms hire me. Not everyone can photograph these kind of photos even though many bride and groom hire normal or cheap wedding photographer and expect them to create these kind of shots. Pinterest is a typical use of supplying images to photographers. I say, hire that person who shot that photos than expect a normal wedding photographer to product that photo. They won't be able to.
This is art, it's truly had for people to understand when they're looking for a photographer. I know I look through the viewfinder to world that is mine, no one else can see the world like I do.
There are a ton of Calgary wedding photographers and I strongly suggest that the newly engaged couple hunt for that perfect photographer. Forget the price for now, just go and enjoy seeing gorgeous work and experience what photography is about.
I would sincerely love to hear from you to chat about your exciting wedding day plans.
Let chat, contact me today at:
email@example.com or phone me at 403 826 9927 Canada
I'm so happy that we'll be chatting soon
Location: 111 Lake Louise Dr, Lake Louise, AB T0L 1E0, Canada.Filename: Geoff Wilkings Photography Calgary wedding photographers_056.jpg.


text:
On Sept. 10, 2016, Pep Guardiola won the first derby of Manchester in the 2016-17 Premier League season. At the Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester City defeated Manchester United, the team coached by Jose Mourinho. The score was 1-2.
Kevin de Bruyne gave his team the advantage when he scored after only 15 minutes into the game. Kelechi Iheanacho scored 20 minutes later, securing the victory for Guardiola's crew.
A few minutes before halftime, Zlatan Ibrahimovic managed to reduce the score difference, by achieving his first goal for Manchester United, in the derby. However, in the second half, neither City nor United succeeded in modifying the scoreboard.
As of this report, Manchester City is the ranking leader of the Premier League. The team won all four matches, in the current season, scoring 11 goals and receiving only four. The crew, managed by Mourinho, occupies the 3rd position, after winning the first three games.
City's First Victory Since 2014
Guardiola obtained his first victory in a Manchester's derby. Therefore, breaking Manchester City's negative record. The team has not won a derby against United since 2014.
The game that took place on September 10, at the Old Trafford Stadium, was the 163rd derby between the two teams. A neutral ground hosted two matches, 79 derbies took place at the Etihad Stadium, and the Old Trafford Stadium held the other 83 games.
Derby Statistics
According to Manchester City Mad, Guardiola's crew obtained their 46th victory on September 10, while United has won 67 derbies. The other 50 games ended with a draw.
Moreover, even though they lost their first derby of the 2016-17 Premier League season, the players of Mourinho have scored 236 times overall. Their opponents succeeded to put the ball in the net 220 times.
The match was the first city derby for the managers Guardiola and Mourinho. Guardiola started in the Premier League this season, while Mourinho made his third appearance, after coaching Chelsea between 2004-2007 and 2013-2015.
2016-17 Premier League
Guardiola won the first derby of Manchester in the 2016-17 Premier League season. It is a significant victory as the British journalists consider that six teams are favored to win the competition's trophy. According to BBC, the most powerful crews of the 2016-17 Premier League season are Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham.
Premier League is the primary soccer tournament of the United Kingdom, found at the top of the English football league system. The current season is the 25th for the competition, since its formation in 1992.
As of this report, three stages are completed and the fourth is still running. The Manchester derby was the first match of the current stage. The other results registered on September 10, are:
- Arsenal 2-1 Southampton
- Bournemouth 1-0 West Brom
- Burnley 1-1 Hull
- Middlesbrough 1-2 Crystal Palace
- Stoke 0-4 Tottenham
- West Ham 2-4 Watford
- Liverpool 4-1 Leicester
Two more games will take place in the next days, to complete the stage:
- Swansea – Chelsea, on September 11, at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
- Sunderland – Everton, on September 12, at 14:00 p.m. PDT.
By Bianca-Ramona Dumitru
Edited by Jeanette Smith
BBC: Six teams can win the Premier League but I back Man City – Alan Shearer
Manchester City Mad: Manchester City v Manchester United head-to-head record
Premier League: Fixtures
The Mirror: Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City: LIVE score and goal updates from the Manchester derby at Old Trafford
Image Courtesy of Jon Candy's Flickr Page – Creative Commons License


text:
Fiat or Kamasutra?
This insidious ad was created to warn about the dangers of sexual playfulness. We see an adventurous couple get "stuck" while exploring sexual positions. Over fifty neighbors watch as the shamed couple is wheeled from their bed to an ambulance.
The ad ends with the message: "It is safer to buy stuff than to make love."
The truth is that making love is way better than shopping. Be careful. The more you give and receive erotic massage, the more your credit card debt will disappear.
"Sexual confidence is erotic embodiment." Sexological Bodyworkers and teachers Celeste and Danielle share the secrets to true happiness in and out of bed through erotic embodiment. It's a way of life, brings a sense of peace, and let's you flirt with the world. Sexological Bodywork is taught by Celeste and Danielle using the New School site.


text:
Marion Barber rarely talks to the press. When he does, on rare occassion, it's probable he has something to say; today, outside his locker at Valley Ranch, was no exception.
Namely, he wanted to assert that he was not only fine, but very possibly available for Monday night's showdown with Carolina.
Asked about the MRI, Barber was characteristically soft-spoken, saying simply, "Negative."
"I'm feeling good already," Barber continued. "Feeling good [about Monday], yep. [I've been] treating it like I'm supposed to and I'm about to go get a workout in, after I talk with y'all."
Barber spent much of the short, silence-spangled time with reporters downplaying the severity of the injury, though he admitted that he has yet to test the quadriceps by running.
"[It was] just like a bad cramp," said Barber. "I've been [doing] a little light workout, but I haven't really ran. I've felt it before, that's happened to me before a while back, so it felt real similar."
Seemingly flying in the face of initial reports, Barber was adamant that, in his estimation, he would be ready to return in time for Monday night.
"No, I'm good," Barber said. "I'm good today, I'll be good tomorrow and then up until Monday. If I'm good today, I'll be good tomorrow, and up until Monday."


text:
Directory Home
Submit Link
Latest Listings
Popular Listings
Free PhpLD Templates
Contact Us
Web Directories
Business & Economy
Health & Fitness
Travel & Vacation
Arts & Humanities
Other project by Emillie:
Emillie Bid It!
Web Direct3 -
Business Directory
Copyright © 2007
Emillie Web Directory
Emillie Web Directory
/ Security & Encryption
PCI Compliance that Fits from ControlScan
Provides third party verification and PCI compliance services to identify, measure and prioritize e-commerce website security.
About PCI Compliance that Fits from ControlScan
Data Recovery
Flashback Data is an industry leader in Computer Data Recovery and Restoration. Whether your hard drive has crashed or you have accidentally deleted critical files, we are here to help.
About Data Recovery
Data Protection Solutions
CommVault, a leader in the data backup software industry, offers the best data backup software and support. Whether your company needs disk to disk backup, server backup, or data recovery, CommVault can provide the software solutions for any size enterprise.
About Data Protection Solutions


text:
The Chance to Play Clean out Your Closet Soccer Collection will be taking place on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 9-3 p.m. at Trafalgar Road Sports Field in conjunction with Georgetown Soccer Club Closing Day.

The charity will be accepting donations of gently used and new soccer jerseys, shorts, socks, cleats, shin guards and soccer balls. Visit www.chancetoplay.ca for details. Info: email@example.com


text:
Welcome | Sign In or Contact Us
Receive Weekly How-To Tips & Specials
Electric Generators Direct is an online
Tillotson Gas Generatorsuperstore, specializing exclusively in Tillotson Portable Gas Generators, Tillotson Gas Electric Generators and Tillotson Gas Power Generators. Compare Tillotson Portable Gas Generator models, specs and prices. Consult with our experienced Tillotson Gas Generator experts. Tillotson Gas Generators for sale. Tax-Free.


text:
Step away from the to-do lists. Turn off your distraction devices and just sit there for a second. What have you done this week to build your PERSONAL brand? Okay, you have a Linkedin account, Facebook and maybe even a Twitter account but what are you doing with them and are they building a genuine perception of you are online?
Time to chug the personal branding Kool-Aid, do a little research and get down to business making a long term investment into your future.
I want to focus on the first steps of auditing a personal brand. In future articles I will go into more length however I want to offer something you can easily take away and begin checking out.
If someone typed in my name: Lyndi Thompson They will get:
The yellow arrows are great! Fantastic, all content that is updated and are great ways to find out more information about me, what I like, do, who I talk to even how to contact me.
The orange arrow in front of Eli and Lyndi.com is orange because that is a VERY old website that needs to be desperately updated. This is a site that my husband and I bought to keep wedding guests informed. Now the site has little content, hasn't been updated however still ranks high for my name.
The red arrow is a MySpace account that isn't mine. Why? I don't have a MySpace account. That page is a link on the front page of search for my name and it isn't me?! Okay, if you are finding content for your name on the first page of search results find a towel and don't panic.
Basic Branding Checklist
What I need to do is audit ALL of my accounts and make sure they all meet this basic checklist:
If the option is available all of my accounts, web pages and profiles should include:
– Create Google Alerts for Lyndi Thompson, and Lyndit
– Lyndit.com as the primary website
– Have @Lyndit has my Twitter handle
– Link to my Linkedin account
– Have any other appropriate social media accounts listed
– Make sure meta keywords and description on both Lyndit.com and EliAndLyndi.com include both my full name, Twitter handle and possible misspellings of my name
– Add alt tags to all images, and titles to all links
That alone will give me plenty to go. In the process of auditing, and creating a plan to maintain my personal brand it is a good exercise for me to go through to learn how to best position my clients whether for business or personal branding needs.
Related Links:
It's Time to Manage Your Online Personal Brand
Connect on Facebook!


text:
The Voice Judges Perform Each Others Songs[VIDEO]
The brand new season of "The Voice" debuts tonight at 8 on Channel 2!
Check out this sneak peek of tonight's premiere! Blake, Adam, Shakira and Usher kick off the proceedings tonight by performing a medley of each others tunes.
- Blake Shelton takes on Shakira's "Whenever, Wherever"
- Shakira goes country with Blake's "Boys Round Here"
- Usher croons the Maroon 5 hit "Love Somebody"
- Adam Levine jams the Usher tune "Without You"


text:
London-based Monocle magazine shares news about international affairs, business, culture and design and this month published their third global soft power survey – an index of how different nations are using their cultural influence.
Drawing on US academic Joseph Nye's notion of applying power by persuasion and attraction rather than coercion or force to increase 'smart power', and with a few 'Monocle' tweaks to the metrics, the survey ranks nations across the globe.
So how do we fare? The USA is no longer number one while Korea is on the rise and Australia is slipping back. Why is this happening – how have our notions of common good, views on immigration and shifts in the global power balance affected the rankings?
In a recent ABC radio interview Brule states there are indices used to determine a nation's soft power. The matrix is important during a time of austerity and economic cut-backs and is more than just economic and military might that determines a nation's position on the scale. It is also a matter of how delicate and difficult diplomatic issues have been dealt with that can help you make it to the top of the list.
The UK this year is in first position due to the Jubilee and Olympics. Digital publisher Dezeen said:
"The UK came out on top after a year of international success for its filmmakers, musicians and athletes, while a spectacular Olympic Games played out in venues created by a roll call of renowned architects, with the Olympic cauldron by British designer Thomas Heatherwick and the Olympic torch by Barber Osgerby both grabbing attention for their innovation and style."
This of course is of interest to us as design professionals. It indicates to us where the movers and the shakers are, who is of influence and where to turn our attention, what trends and developments are significant and which of the elements in the matrix have been most influential in determining our position as a nation in the rankings. It also identifies who we are as a collective.
The K-pop genre factor and 'Gangnam Style' are all a part of this. With its exceptionally catchy beat, Psy is instrumental in putting Korean pop-culture 'out-there'. It points to a highly effective persuasive and focused cultural entity.
Australia is still in a good position. With the small magazine publishing scene producing niche publications like Collect, Dumbo Feather, Frankie, Smith Journal. Brule identifies these magazines as an interesting movement in publishing as a whole. Their edgy feel help change perceptions in the industry about publishing and Australia.


text:
My Content
Membership has its privileges! Sign up or sign in to gain full access to both All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. Learn more.
Track Listing: Chief Wiggum; By Polar; Opus 1; Preface; Useless; Hard Rain.
Personnel: Matt King: saxophone; Jim Disner: guitar; Nathan Walter: bass; Antwon Owens: percussion.
Title: Object | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Self Produced
Develop a column, write album reviews, cover live shows, or conduct interviews.


text:
That's what several newspapers and internet sites are saying this morning although the President hasn't denied or confirmed the story.
A new confidential investigation says it has learned that Obama first became involved with the 36-year-old Vera Barker in 2004 when she worked to get him elected to the United States Senate from Illinois, raising campaign funds as well as other things.
Now, the news reporter are all searching for a hotel surveillance videotape.
While Barker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them, reports reveal that top anti-Barack Obama news reporters are offering more than $1.5 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hushed-up affair.
So this is the last report from me, Croc Coats, as I am taking leave to make myself some money. Anybody out there got an clues, let me know.
For that matter, anyone out there who looks exactly like Obama or Vera, please get in touch with me and my cameraman, Snappy.


text:
Below are poems written by poet
Selam Mussie. Click the Next or Previous links below the poem to navigate between poems. Remember, Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth. Thank you.
List of ALL
mussie poems
Selam Mussie
The poem(s) are below...
Same puzzle, same math
Same circle, same path
One bore, another go
one rise, another fall
Life's full of unexpected coincidence and surprises
Won't know what's gonna happen the next seconds
Same dream, same vision
Same goal, same ambition
One earn another loose
One hurray another buzz
Life's full of diversal events
Though face whatever it holds
Same world, same revolution
Same word, same question
One come throne another overthrown
One blossomy grown another weaken drawn
Life's full of unpredictable mystery
Can't be unraveled even if it dug way deeply
Copyright © selam mussie | Year Posted 2010


text:
| The subject of this article is non-canonical.
While created as part of licensed material, it has not been confirmed as part of the "real" Buffyverse.
|Buffy's new enemy is close to her heart.
| Christopher Golden
Nancy Holder
|Publication date
|August 1, 1998
|276 pages
|Published by
|Pocket Books
Blooded was a novel written by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Chirayoju, an ancient Chinese vampire, and Sanno, a Japanese Mountain King, have been fighting for years. Their spirits were imprisoned in a sword by a curse. The sword arrives in Sunnydale and while viewing the Japanese exhibit at the museum Willow becomes possessed by the spirit of Chirayoju and Xander, later on, becomes possessed by the spirit of Sanno. Buffy must figure out a way to stop the two spirits without killing her own friends. During the final battle, when the fight takes an ugly turn, Buffy must also keep her own spirit alive.
- Buffy Summers
- Rupert Giles
- Xander Harris
- Cordelia Chase
- Willow Rosenberg
- Angel
- Oz
- Snyder
- Sheila Rosenberg
- King Lear (vampire)
- Lord Chirayoju (Chinese Demon Sorcerer)
- Sanno (Japanese Mountain King)
- Kobo (Watcher)
- Emperor Kammu
- Kobe Sensui
Behind the Scenes
- Cordelia says that Xander "does not usually snore" suggesting they have slept together. However, Xander remains a virgin until The Zeppo.
- In Dutch the novel is called Het Bloedspoor (The Blood Trail).


text:
Chapter Twenty
By the time we moved to Florida in 1977, it seemed that I had spent my entire life being moved at someone else's behest and what I really wanted was to stay put. However, since it seemed unlikely that my husband's academic career would play itself out at the University of Florida, I was resigned to accept a commitment that we wouldn't move for at least ten years. I assumed, based on my own experience, that some people prefer to roam or relocate and others prefer to remain in the same place. Now I am more inclined to believe that humans prefer to move around, which is, after all, characteristic of mobile organisms and, if they seem to prefer the opposite, it is probably because there is a big difference between moving and being moved, in the sense that the latter is characterized by constraint. For, if human mobility is essentially autonomous, then being moved would seem to cancel or negate the very essence of individual freedom. In other words, people resist being moved, not because they don't want to go anywhere, but because they don't want to be relocated.
One of the things I had always found puzzling about my mother's attitude towards the Jews of Germany before World War two was her contempt for their failure to leave when they were told. She seemed incapable of recognizing that such forced removal or expulsion of people, even if they characteristically relocated themselves instead of committing themselves to any one particular nation, was fundamentally unjust. As far as she was concerned, it was inconsistent of the Jews of Germany to object to being told to leave because they never had demonstrated any loyalty to the German nation. Now I realize that this position reflected the official Nazi rationalization for Germany's expulsion of its Jewish population. However, since my mother did not characteristically accept official pronouncements and seemed to hold no personal animosity towards Jews in general, although she developed particular animosities towards individual Jews as she did towards most people with whom she had close relations, it finally occurred to me that what motivated her animosity in this instance was jealousy. That is, my mother had wanted to leave Germany and was planning to do so in the company of her brother. Then he was killed in some sort of border skirmish and non-Jewish Germans were denied exit visas. She was stuck and so she did the next best thing; she went into hiding in the Austrian Alps because, as she always explained, she "didn't want to get killed for Hitler." She resented that some Jews didn't want to go where she couldn't.
There's no way of knowing, of course, how much resentment and cultural antagonism arises from the perception that some people have and don't even appreciate what others would like. However, there seems to be a widespread consensus that most people would prefer to remain where they are, in spite of the fact that, given the opportunity, most people move, even if they don't go too far. Which raises the question, why? Why do we tend to assume a preference in others that we ourselves don't share?
I think it's a matter of wishful thinking. I think the reason humans assume that other people and other species, and, for that matter, plants are territorial and permanently associated with one place, is because this assumption is consistent with how they want things to be. If other things, including other people, remain where they are, then they can easily be found again by mobile creatures who don't just roam at random, but can remember where they've been. Indeed, one might even hypothesize that the brain's capacity to store such information, including the sequence of behaviors that led up to the discovery, for example, of a particularly plentiful food source, would provide a distinct evolutionary advantage to those individuals with the best memories. And, conversely, because mobility increases the individual's exposure to novel experience, moving about may in itself enhance the capacity to perceive and recollect, beyond what develops in an organism which, in effect, waits for experiences to come to it. On the other hand, while environmental upsets may reduce the advantage of remembering where good things are by taking them away, such environmental upsets are still less catastrophic for organisms that roam about than for those that stay in one place. But, if animals have an advantage over plants in periods of drastic environmental change, close attention to the habits of plants actually reveals that they aren't destined to remain in one place for ever either. Instead of relocating on an individual basis as mobile organisms do, plants move on a generational basis. That is, the parent generation stays in place until it expires and the off-spring move on to somewhere else where the necessary nutrients are less likely to have been used up.
Of course, if humans want to move and others want them to stay put, then there's a fundamental conflict. Efforts to resolve that conflict probably account for the multitude of excuses humans have discovered to justify their determination that some people, customarily women and children, workers and slaves, should remain in place while they themselves, typically men, are compelled to leave in pursuit of food, to defend the home front, to escape domination, or to claim some superior good or treasure. Thus, the difference between the husband's or father's exhortation to "be a good (stay at home) girl while I'm gone, and I'll bring you a present" differs from Hitler's excursions in pursuit of "Lebensraum" largely in its magnitude. Of course, the modern day bearer of presents is presumably bringing back something he either bought or traded, rather than acquired by stealth or force, but the underlying impulse is much the same. Excusing and justifying the inclination to roam serves to reinforce the ostensible and actual preference for permanence. Though my examples have focused on males, I don't mean to imply that the impulse to relocate and the perceived need to justify it are uniquely male. Just as my mother predicated her emigration on the need to protect her child from the negative influences of a husband, whose only failing I could ever detect was that he spent her money as his own, there were just as many single women seeking religious freedom and economic opportunity in America as men. Indeed, history now tells us that many more single women than men moved west on their own, without the inducement of a job to build the railroads, level the forests, or subdue the native American peoples.
One of the first things I learned from my repeated relocations was that everywhere people wanted to know where I and come from and why. As long as I identified myself as having been born in Germany, there was a general assumption that my family must have come here seeking a better life and my explanation that, on the contrary, my mother was merely interested in getting away from a husband she didn't like (I did not perceive any particular benefit in residing with an indifferent uncle and then being sent to boarding school, compared to staying with my grandparents in the Bavarian Alps), was not well received. Eventually, when the litany of all the places I had come from got too long to hold people's interest and I named whichever one might seem to account for my obvious difference, I discovered that most people didn't really care one way or the other. They just wanted some identifying characteristic and, since the majority of Americans are from somewhere else, one's origins seemed convenient. This interpretation was further confirmed by the fact that the explanation for my perpetual tan as being a consequence of having an (Asian) Indian grandfather occasioned no particular interest either; certainly less than the truth–that I had no explanation. Claiming ignorance tended to arouse the suspicion that perhaps I was hiding something.
I also developed a certain skepticism early on regarding economic opportunity and money. Whether or not there was enough money was obviously a relative concept, determined almost entirely by the likes and dislikes of the person who had it. It wasn't hard to determine, for example, that while there was usually no money in my mother's household for books, toys, movies, fancy shoes, or store-bought clothing, there was always enough money for moving and furnishing new apartments and for travel. On the other hand, there was also a constant need to save because her savings had either just been spent or needed to be accumulated for another trip. From which I learned to save my money so that eventually I would be able to go and do what I wanted. Which was probably the main attraction of taking the subway to Manhattan and riding horses in Central Park. Going somewhere on my own was what was important, not being somewhere else.
In addition to being the natural condition of a mobile creature, motion is particularly attractive to humans because our perception of our environment, especially our ability to see, depends on it. That is, either we or the thing we see has to be in motion in order for our senses to register its characteristics. So, for example, if we stare at an immobile object without either moving or blinking, after a while the object is no longer consciously seen. On the other hand, the brain registers information to quickly that a static environment in which nothing is changing may well induce a sense of deprivation. In other words, humans may well be propelled to keep moving not just because that's what their tendons and muscles are made for, but to keep from being bored. Which may well explain the attraction of vehicular transport–it allows people to keep moving at a rate more approximate to the brain's ability to perceive change,
without exhausting their physical capabilities. It may also explain the attraction of television–a mechanism that permits the brain to perceive movement without the individual actually going anywhere, except to satisfy the physical impulse towards motion in answering the "calls of nature" for nutrition and excretion.
In any case, when I was first married I didn't give much thought to economic opportunity or economic principles. Since I had taken charge of the family's finances and decided how virtually every dollar was spent, I didn't perceive myself as dependent. However, it was increasingly difficult to ignore that as a so-called "homemaker," I was rapidly becoming a member of a shrinking minority. More and more, I found myself being identified not by my origins, but on the basis of my not working. Though I had no desire to excuse my behavior, feeling quite certain that managing a household, raising three children, supervising our various construction projects, taking part in community activities, and indulging my interest in reading up on a few esoteric subjects such as anthropology, housing law, history, and even philosophy was occupation enough, I was forced to consider the alternative–why so many women were choosing to work outside the home. Since, in many cases, I knew their spouses were earning more money than mine, the explanation that they were being forced to work in order to meet their needs rang hollow. Moreover, not one woman I encountered ever asserted that she would rather be keeping house. At most, some allowed that I was lucky not to have to put up with an unreasonable, demanding and frequently incompetent boss.
Then, when I arrived in Gainesville, I became aware of the term "economic" being bandied about, along with "cost effective" and "cost/benefit analysis." The latter, I discovered, being primarily a strategy which justified assigning the benefits of a particular enterprise to one person or group and the costs to someone else. Although I first became aware of the concept in discussions concerning the pollution of the aquifer, the area where the impact of this principle of separating costs and benefits was most evident was, oddly enough in the assessment of the property tax, the primary way local government operations are paid for in Florida.
Cost, of course, was always the first consideration, whenever increased government services were suggested, because of a general perception that property taxes were already too high. The level of taxation was an issue in every political campaign, as was the explanation that the problem could not be corrected because over fifty percent of the property in the County was tax exempt. The primary reason for this situation was, of course, the ownership of the University lands, including various agricultural research areas and preservation reserves, by the State. In addition, it was argued that substantial transient (a negative concept) populations were living in mobile homes which paid no tax, not to mention the tenants of apartment complexes and other residential units. So, because I was concerned about the City apparent inability to provide adequate services, such as code enforcement, police and fire protection, and garbage collection in the inner city, I accepted the challenge to find more money. First, of course, I had to determine how much was being collected and from whom. That the University was exempt from paying taxes was a principle with which I was already familiar from New Hampshire. However, there the University contributed to the maintenance of the fire department, the public library and the sewer system in lieu of taxes. The University of Florida, on the other hand, having constructed a number of high rise buildings, made it necessary for the community to purchase and maintain a number of ladder trucks and specialized fire suppression equipment (not needed for any other structures in the community because of height restrictions), without making any financial contribution at all. The rationale for this situation was that the presence of the University was a benefit to the community, so the community would just have to bear the cost of the fire suppression equipment. More than that, the University refused to install sprinkler systems in new construction because it would cost too much. It should be obvious that since the University was used to paying nothing for fire suppression, any additional cost would be too much. So, that was a lost cause.
What I hadn't realized before I started looking into how property taxes were assessed was that not just properties owned by religious entities, but all non-profit organizations were exempt from paying taxes, although, of course, they expected and were entitled to receive the services these taxes paid for. It almost seemed as if the levying of taxes was perceived as a punitive exercise from which those who did good works, or at least claimed to do so, were to be exempt. Or, perhaps, the levying of taxes was informed by a belief that not making a profit, a principle to which these charitable institutions subscribed, was somehow better and worth rewarding, than making a profit. That it might be the latter was additionally suggested by the provision that the owners of commercial property could choose whether to be taxed on the basis of the property's value or its income stream. If they chose the latter and the enterprise lost money, then their taxes would be reduced.
The net effect of this pattern was that the tax bills of some single family homes were about the same or more than those of supposedly income producing rental properties and apartment complexes. Not only were single family households subsidizing the delivery of governmental services to not-for-profit charitable institutions, they were subsidizing unprofitable private enterprise, usually made unprofitable by poor management and the failure to maintain the value of the property by making capital improvements as required. This hardly seemed fair. While it could be argued that charitable enterprise provided more service to the community than it consumed, unprofitable private enterprise, especially substandard and deteriorating residential property characteristically consumed more services than the norm. While deteriorating residential complexes tended to burn more frequently, harbor disease carrying rodents and insects, and promote personal injury and infection because of unsanitary conditions, deteriorating or abandoned commercial property tended to provide a haven for people bent on illicit and criminal behavior–i.e. to become nests of thieves.
Since the principle that only profitable enterprise should be taxed is also fundamental to the federal system, there wasn't much hope that it could be changed to reward and promote more responsible individual and corporate behavior. The best strategy on the local level to increase the fairness of the system seemed to be to support the homestead exemption by making the case that homeowners still bore the major burden of paying for local government and, by maintaining their property and the environment in a healthy condition, contributed to the well-being of the community that didn't have to be paid for. In addition, considering that the electricity produced by the City's utility company was purchased and used by everyone, except the University of Florida campus, it seemed entirely reasonable that a portion of its profits (rates having to be competitive with other producers in order to maintain access to capital in the financial markets) should be returned to the general fund, in lieu of paying taxes. Moreover, to the extent that the utility's profits were derived from selling the excess it produced to other parts of the state, it seemed only proper that these profits should compensate for the fact that holding down University expenses made it possible to educate students from all over the State of Florida for less. Finally, close scrutiny of governmental operations made it obvious that better service could be provided by making it more efficient, by paying closer attention to the relationship between promise and actual output. It turned out that, year after year, most of the departments that were supposed to do things, spent most of their energy and time making plans which were rarely, if ever, carried out. Part of that failure was a consequence of the fact that the policy makers made suggestions for projects and didn't follow up to see if they were carried out. Part of it was intentional. By not spending the money as intended, the bureaucracy was able to accumulate funds in "emergency" or "rainy day" accounts from which they could spend them as they thought best, without any input from the general public but with the complicity of those policy makers who counted on being able to reward their supporters with projects consistent with their special interests. Which was why even "professional management" whose aim is to provide service on the basis of well-established criteria of public health and safety, could not guarantee that actually happened. In a sense, the bureaucrat's interest in professional independence, expressed by being able to spend money according to his assessment of the community's best interest, was compromised by the desire of his elected superior's inclination to serve special interests. The public's interest was expressed in plans; special interests were served by carrying the plans out piecemeal, or not at all.
I suspect that Republicans were able to capture the presidency because the proposition that government could be made more effective was widely accepted. In addition, the concept of making government smaller seemed suddenly attractive, especially in the South, because the expansion of the franchise–the prospect that many more people would be involved in selecting the leaders of government–jeopardized the traditional function of government as an extension of the powerful elite. If government was to be responsive to a larger number of people, then the power of government needed to be limited. If, to cite one particular example, the effect of government regulations was no longer to guarantee profits and monopoly markets to the aviation industry, then government "interference" ought to be removed.
Democrats and Republicans were complicit in the reduction of government, but for different reasons. From the Republican perspective, if their constituents could not derive special benefits from government, then it might as well refocus on its role as a moral force dedicated to restricting individual–i.e. anti-social–behavior. Moreover, talk being cheap, it was easy to promise that such government would cost less money. Of course, since most people tend to resist behaving contrary to their own self interest, for that moral force to be effective, it has to be backed up by physical force. If people are to be made better, then the threat to punish their failure has to be credible. That meant more prisons and more weapons.
And Democrats went along primarily for two reasons. Having long been accustomed to remaining in power by providing services to their constituents, they were not keen to have this tactic exploited by Republicans (as they did in releasing sewer construction funds to prime the '88 election). In addition, Democratic leaders were no more eager than Republicans to carry out the will of the people.
As a student of government in the '50s and '60s, I was well aware of the widespread opinion that there was not much difference between Republicans and Democrats and, indeed, the Reagan Revolution made a point of demonstrating what the difference was. However, I don't think it really registered with the general public that where Democrats had been committed to doing for people, Republicans were convinced that the proper function of government is to tell the majority of the people what to do. Probably because the underlying assumption–that most people are too stupid or venal to act responsibly for themselves–is insulting.
In any case, while I am philosophically opposed to the definition of government as a moral force whose primary function is to punish if individuals and nations don't do as they are told or, as the Germans put it most succinctly, "if you're not willing, then I'll have to use force," the Republican promise to promote local government was attractive to me as a proponent of democratic action. Also, although I resented its ultimate aim, to increase federal revenues by promoting the churning of assets to increase the volume of economic transactions, the concept of "supply side economics" at least had the merit of sounding a positive note, compared to the authoritarian sounding concept of "demand." That promoting increased production didn't have the desired effect of increasing government revenues to match the increase in expenditures on military hardware was less important than that the supply siders, by injecting a different perspective, called attention to a subject that ought to have a lot more public discussion.
Having sold a number of houses and paid tax on capital gains, both at the fifty percent rate and the same rate as other income, I was particularly interested in the proposal that the rate should be lowered. However, since capital gains taxes could already be avoided, at least, in the short run, by investing the proceeds of a sale in another residence of the same or greater value, the expectation that a revision of the rate would substantially increase revenues to the federal government struck me as suspicious. On the one hand, I was made uncomfortable by the assumption that many individuals would make decisions about whether to keep or sell their assets on the basis of how much of any gain they would lose to taxes. On the other hand, I found the discussion which focused almost entirely on the supposed "savings" to the seller as a result of having to pay less tax, while the expectation of increased revenues to the government received little mention, to be fundamentally dishonest. The same sort of speculative behavior which had artificially inflated real estate values until the whole savings and loan industry collapsed was being suggested as appropriate to generate more money flowing into the government's coffers.
Of course, if governmental revenues were not so dependent on the private sector making a profit, it wouldn't be so significant whether or not the government was able to stimulate economic behavior. Which, I suppose is an argument in favor of the value added tax or some other tax on transactions, if one presumes that, regardless of whether prices are increasing or declining, transactions will occur in any specialized society. But, what I actually suspect is that, other than being severely crippled by some natural or manmade disaster, modern economies are relatively immune to government control, now that individuals are able to access capital–i.e. borrow money–when and where they need it, with no more security than their good name and reputation, just as the so-called "upper classes" used to do. The "democratization of credit" is generating all kinds of predictions of economic deterioration. But then, so did the granting of home mortgages to wage earners, whose default rate on their loans never came anywhere near the rate for commercial enterprise.
* * * *
Although I had been aware for some time that my own contributions had no statistical relevance whenever the economy was being discussed because as a homemaker I was neither employed, unemployed, or self-employed, it wasn't until I noticed how frequently politicians and columnists disparaged the opinions of economists, and how often their predictions turned out to be wrong, that I was motivated to learn something about this sciences, just as I had previously studied a number of text books to understand the principles of accounting and organizational management. The first thing I discovered was that economics, like political science which was also concerned with human behavior which often tends towards the irrational, was primarily focused on tabulating and analyzing numbers because they were easier to categorize and track over time. Considering numbers to be off-putting, I was tempted to lose interest, just as I had lost interest in political science when the focus shifted from how governments function to manipulating poll numbers and predictions. However, having managed a household for almost thirty years by that time, I thought I should be able to understand a theoretical analysis of the subject.
To begin with there didn't seem to be any agreement on what the terms used to describe the behavior that was being considered actually meant. Part of the confusion was no doubt a result of the fact that since economic activity had come to be measured in terms of money, only that activity which involves the use of money is now considered economic. Which not only effectively excludes household enterprise in which no money changes hands from being considered, but provides a rather simple reason for classifying societies that don't use much money as underdeveloped. Whether this is good or bad would seem to depend on whether the people in such societies thrive, but from the economist's perspective it's clearly bad, because what they are doing can't be counted. By the same logic, an individual or household that is entirely self-sustaining, if such were possible in a modern state that insists on collecting taxes, would also be a negative from an economic perspective, even though the ostensible goal of participating in the market (that theoretical place where transactions take place and prices are set) is to make the individual self-sufficient.
Now, it has been explained to me that the words employed by economists have special meanings; that "savings" aren't what one sets aside for future use or keeps from going to waste, nor even money that is put in an insurance pool to protect against a potential catastrophe. Rather, "savings" is money that one makes available for someone else to use, based on the expectation that it will be paid back with interest. Which, at least, would seem to explain the constant complaints about the low savings rate in the United States. The money insurance companies invest for us don't count as savings; probably because the chances of getting any of that money back are relatively slim. And knowing that is probably what makes the Social Security system suspect. If it runs true to private insurance schemes, it can't be expected to pay out even as much as it takes in.
One of the interesting things about the terminology of economics is how laden with moral values it is. "Saving" is obviously good, as is being saved in the religious sense, but, even though economics considers the solitary individual as the economic unit, saving one's surplus by keeping it under one's mattress, is not good from the social perspective because savings, like the light under a bushel basket, are only good if they are shared. Similarly, this supposedly "hard" science (hard because it is concerned with material things rather than variable human behavior) assumes that individuals prefer leisure and must be bribed to work. This not only implies that human are lazy, for which there is not logical basis, but suggests that working for nothing is morally superior (bribery being a base behavior) and in a more perfect world that would be the situation.
Of course, if "leisure" were defined not at idleness, but as doing what one wants and "work" as labor expended at someone else's direction–i.e. doing what someone else wants–then one would have no quarrel with the accuracy of this description of the relationship between man and work. However, the term "bribe" would be even more inappropriate, unless one assumes that one person has a right to direct the behavior of another. If one assumes that individuals are properly autonomous, then one must also assume that they are entitled to be compensated for any effort they exert on another's behalf. Moreover, if one assumes that men are naturally active and creative, rather than lazy, then their exertions on another's behalf do not necessarily conflict with their own interests. In which case, being compensated for one's efforts represents a win/win situation–to do what one wants and be paid for it besides, seems like an ideal to me. But if that's the case, it raises a question concerning the purpose of the pejorative assumption. It would seem that the only rationale for assuming men to be unwilling to work is to justify using coercive measures against them. Or, to formulate it as the Germans might, "because you are unwilling, I must use force" (or a bribe).
About the time I began giving a lot of thought to these matters, the Soviet Union had just collapsed so it was natural to consider what the demise of communism and the expected triumph of capitalism actually meant. Since capitalism was defined as the accumulation of assets, wealth, or things of value for future use, its supposed opposition to communism seemed inappropriate. Of course, it could be argued that both "communist" and "capitalist" are shorthand for different economic and political systems, much as "The White House" is shorthand for the executive branch of the federal government. However, since "capital" is a term in economics that refers to materials being designated for a particular function at a particular time (in the future) and "commune" refers to the manner in which material assets are acquired and owned (in common by a group, rather than on an individual basis), the habit of considering communism and capitalism as opposites obscures the fact that there is nothing to prevent communal groups, or corporate entities, for that matter, from accumulating capital and setting aside some of the surplus they produce for future use, to produce more wealth.
In fact, considered objectively, it is difficult to specify wherein the difference between state authorized or chartered corporations and state sponsored corporate entities lies. At least not on a functional basis. While it may be argued that communist industrial enterprise collapsed because of a failure to maintain its facilities and generate a sufficient surplus to reinvest as capital, as evidenced by the crumbling infrastructure and despoiled environment, the same behaviors with similar consequences were just as common among Western so-called "private" corporations. Though there is clearly a difference between participation that is based on purchase and participation by appointment, as well as individual ownership and ownership by a group, there is no clear evidence, the allegory of "the common" to the contrary, that the individual ownership of property guarantees that it will be maintained more responsibly.
Certainly, from a societal point of view, individual ownership makes it easier to determine whom to hold accountable for socially disruptive uses. Also, by guaranteeing the right to the exclusive use of property by certain individuals and groups, society can preclude its use by others. Indeed, one might even argue that in assuming the authority to grant property rights, society implicitly denies to those individuals who fail to comply with its rules and regulations the right to sustain themselves by merely taking what they need from the earth's bounty. Thus, for example, a homeless person is precluded from erecting a lean-to in my yard, or even under a public overpass, unless he gets permission.
I don't mean to suggest that I am opposed to the individual ownership of property, or even the concept of ownership at all. Quite the contrary. I think that the recognition of property as an extension of oneself is indispensable to the fullest expression of individual creativity and inventiveness. I just don't think that private property is the signal guarantor of individual liberty. If anything, property serves to tie the individual to one place and inhibits his natural inclination to roam about, though not necessarily permanently. Perhaps one explanation for the assumption that humans prefer not to do things is because staying in one place, in addition to making the individual easy to keep track of, is actually beneficial to the individual, especially if that place is a house. Though the house has long been disparaged, as a necessary adjunct to securing protection from a threatening natural environment, and the traditional functions of the household as an economic entity have been specialized and dispersed in modern societies to its functional equivalents, I think the house may well hold the key to man's intellectual development.
Just as the protective function of a bird's nest is minimal in respect to predators (what it does is assure that the eggs of birds who spend most of their time in trees do not crash to the ground when they are laid, thereby improving the chance of reproductive success), a house, or more probably for the earliest hominids a cave, provides little protection from other predators, or even other men. What it does do is separate man's immediate environment from virtually limitless space and in so doing it enables man's sensory perceptions to become more focused, to distinguish between inside and out on the basis of differences in sound, and, by bringing fire inside, to effectively extend the amount of time he can see enough to engage in productive activity. Moreover, man's physical isolation in a cave or house, free from the bombardment of the senses that characterizes the great outdoors (sounds, smells, biting insects, blowing sand, etc.), may well have generated an awareness of his own thought processes as he made the effort to correlate the sounds he heard outside with what he had previously seen. Or, when he found himself in a cave, perhaps he became aware of imagining creatures he could hear but not actually see. Perhaps that is the experience man recorded when he later went back and drew all those animals on the walls of the caves in France–a representation of what he had imagined in the dark.
In any case, if one assumes that instead of being driven by need (demand) to become subservient and labor for another to secure his sustenance, man is by nature active, accumulative, imitative and creative (characteristics which many other creatures exhibit to a greater or lesser degree), then the advantages of a house to hold or contain the products of his endeavors seem obvious. A man may not be safer in a structure with only one opening to the outside, but the things he accumulates, processes, and stores for future use certainly are. Not to mention that by introducing artificial light, he can maximize his daytime endeavors by preserving what he caught or gathered and didn't need to consume on the spot, over night.
It also seems reasonable to speculate that the opportunity to reflect, which in itself relies on or engenders an awareness of time and sequential behavior, would augment the individual's expertise, over and above what habitual behavior would provide. And this expertise, which tends to be satisfying in itself (being able to realize what one anticipated doing gives pleasure), would naturally lead to an increasing surplus of that particular foodstuff or material. For example, as a fisherman becomes more and more expert, he is increasingly likely to catch more fish than he can or wants to eat. Then he can take one of five choices: he can stop fishing; he can throw his catch back; he can let the fish be consumed by some other creatures (cat, maggots, or bacteria); he can preserve it for later (cook it, smoke it, dry it); or he can trade it to someone else for something he doesn't have. The last option is obviously most advantageous because the fisherman benefits from his enterprise and expertise without having to expend any more effort. Of course, what he receives from the trade may not satisfy his expectations. But then, the recipient of the fish may be disappointed as well. It is in the nature of experience that we cannot be certain we like what we get until after we have tried it.
Classical economic theory would have us believe that economic behavior is "driven by want." What that means is that people presumably find themselves in need (either because their survival is actually threatened, or because they have been convinced of a need that has to be satisfied through advertisements) and, being limited in the ability to be self-sufficient, choose something to satisfy that need, ideally in a free market. The advantage of this hypothesis is that it relieves those who bring products to the market of the obligation to certify or verify the quality or inherent usefulness of their product which, as producers, logic would argue that they could and should. The reason they don't and prefer to adhere to the notion that it is the buyer's responsibility to be careful, it probably because the reason they are selling their wares is because they don't want them for themselves. But, admitting that would raise the question why, if they don't want it, they don't just give it away for nothing? Moreover, the admission by the seller that the product wasn't wanted might lead to the conclusion that it was of no value and then the prospective buyer very likely might not want it either. In fact, of course, the product can be presumed to have value in the sense of being useful, in spite of the seller not wanting to have it. And, in an ideal transaction, the trustworthiness of the seller compensates for the inherent uncertainty of the buyer and probably represents a substantial part of the product's value. Indeed, in making a trade with a trustworthy individual, the buyer may be more certain of receiving a benefit than he would be by just taking something that looks appealing. For example, buying a mushroom from an expert is preferable, even if the taste is not particularly appealing, to collecting one in the wild since the inexperienced collector may well choose one that kills him. Thus, to the extent that trade and exchange are supported by specialization, the participants are obviously in a win/win situation. Economic behavior makes everyone better off.
So why is economics called the dismal science? I suspect it's largely because of the negative assumptions from which it started and the obvious record of failed predictions. After all, the goal of any science is to understand a process or sequence of events in order to predict with a degree of reliability what will happen next. Economics hasn't been able to do that, in spite of the fact that, unlike other social sciences which are solely concerned with human behavior, it deals with what happens at the intersection of man with the materials he requires to sustain him–the same materials other hard sciences are concerned with.
One reason for this failure, as I have already suggested above, is the practice of reducing the components of a dynamic process to a uniform measure–i.e. money–and then trying to determine the characteristics of the process by analyzing the behavior of the measure. It's sort of like designating various liquids and grains in terms of ounces and then expecting a given number of ounces of ingredients to turn into a cake. Pure chance might actually produces the desired result (there are some recipes that call for all the ingredients to be combined at once), but a scientific approach calls for a precise specification of the ingredients, the sequence of their combination and the addition of energy. Obviously, if the ingredients are subjected to heat and baked before they are combined, the result won't be a cake. Similarly, adding eggs and shortening to milk and flour after the latter have been cooked to mush won't make a proper cake.
Although comparing the complex behaviors involved in producing and distributing the goods and services characteristic of a modern economy to a mundane activity such as baking a cake may seems simplistic, both involve processes whose successful completion depends on the employment of the proper ingredients in the proper sequence. And in each case, if the right things aren't done in the right order, the consequence is waste, in the sense that the human effort or energy expended does not result in the anticipated benefit.
"Waste" is another of those terms whose meaning seems ambivalent. In a political context, when other people's behavior is the issue, waste is generally perceived in someone's failure to either appreciate, deserve, or fully utilize what the observer values. So, for example, giving money to poor people tends to be perceived as a waste by the rich because the condition of the poor doesn't seem to change. That's not what I mean by waste. From my perspective, waste occurs when something of value to humans is lost by being transformed and/or consumed by the action of some other natural process or species, regardless of whether or not this loss is perceived. Since it is in the nature of the organic universe that all matter is almost continually transformed and whatever one organism doesn't use is sure to be used by an other, nothing is wasted in the grand scheme of things. However, when the effort and energy expended by man is primarily beneficial to other organisms, especially potentially injurious creatures such botulin producing bacteria, roaches, or rats, then it is obviously wasted.
When all of the components of the process leading to the exchange of goods and services by humans are considered, the ultimate goal would seem to be the avoidance of waste. But, for some reason, the concept of waste has largely been left out of economic analysis. Perhaps that's because there is no waste, if the process is successful, and the absence of something is difficult, though not impossible to quantify. Or, economic analysis having been confined to monetarily mediated transactions, waste, like free labor, was just naturally excluded from consideration. In any case, if avoidance of waste is the natural consequence of economic behavior, then the accumulation of waste products should be a clear indicator of economic failure. Which suggests that the relatively recent practice of assigning a monetary value to the proper disposition of wastes, both those generated as "useless" bi-products of industrial enterprise and those whose usefulness has expired, is actually a positive development.
The notion that people should pay to dispose of what they don't want seems radical, probably because just leaving what isn't wanted behind seems natural behavior for most mobile organisms. Why expend energy carrying around what one doesn't want, if one can help it? The answer, of course, is that one might want it or be able to use it later. But that implies an awareness of time, the capacity to anticipate, which most creatures, other than man, don't seem to have. Which probably accounts for the behavior of other species which most distresses man–the "destructive" habit of insects and other small creatures which share his nutritional preferences to consume just a part, thereby spoiling the rest and depriving him of the full enjoyment of his food. If it goes unnoticed that partial consumption is characteristic of predators, small and large, it's probably because in a healthy environment the number and variety of creatures is so large that, once commenced, the process of consumption is complete in almost no time at all.
Speaking of predators, it seems customary to define them in terms of their effect on other creatures–i.e. that they kill and eat them–when, in fact, what distinguishes predatory behavior is the strategy of catch-as-catch-can, as opposed to the strategy of sitting and waiting, employed by plants, for whatever they need to survive to arrive. Which means that the persistence of the latter as a species in a particular place is especially problematic. For, when the nutrients necessary to a particular plant's survival are used up, their replacement in the natural course of events is likely to require a relatively long time, making some kind of dispersal mechanism imperative so the next generation at least has a chance to survive somewhere else.
The catch-as-catch-can and the sit and wait are probably the predominant strategies employed by organisms to sustain themselves; some, including man, employ a third, in conjunction or as an alternative, which involves the accumulation and/or concentration of the sources of nutrition, not for direct consumption, but for the purpose of promoting the generation of a constant supply of nutrients. In a sense, this strategy, which we generally subsume under the heading of agriculture, involves an exchange of effort to produce a mutual benefit. For, while a sheep may not appreciate being protected by humans from hungry wolves and mountain lions in exchange for giving up its fleece and milk, both man and sheep do benefit from this relationship. It may not be the intent, but mutual benefit is the result of exchange and, indeed, a prerequisite for its continuance. And, in the long run, the exchange and trade of benefits is more advantageous than predation because the super-successful predator risks the elimination of his food source and thus the survival of his own species. While such symbiotic relationships are not uncommon in nature, man seems to be unusual in having adopted a strategy of interdependence consciously, as an adjunct to his predatory ancestry, by imitating the behavior he observed in other species. Imitative behavior is, of course, not unique either, being characteristic of what we call learning in other animal species. But, in most cases, imitative behavior occurs within the same or similar species. Whereas humans seem to be able to imitate the behavior of species very different from their own, as well as to mimic the processes they observe in inorganic nature. All of which is only possible because of the human brain's ability to remember, recollect, compare, and replicate man's observations and experience in sequence. Then, having compared the remembered past with the present, the brain, ideally, exterpolates from that comparison to the future, whose relationship to the present is much the same as that which exists between the present and the past. Considered in retrospect, the present was the future of the past.
Until I met Susan I would have assumed, if I had given it much thought, that all human brains have the capacity to make these distinctions and recognize the linear process of cause and effect. Now, however, I know that it isn't necessarily so and that, in fact, human survival doesn't even depend on it. Though they may live better by engaging in an interdependent relationship with their environment, it is possible for men to exist by simply taking what they need. Such an existence may be short and brutish, but it is obviously long enough to reproduce itself.
Not much is known yet about how the brain works, in part because of the inherent difficulty of a subject making an objective assessment of itself. Which is probably why in identifying capital as wealth set aside for future use, the importance of making that intellectual designation was overlooked. And why, in the subsequent critique of capitalism, the accumulation of surplus assets was perceived as a predatory taking which deprived others of what they might have used themselves. When, in fact, the concept of capital is an intellectual function and the idea of transforming a present good into usefulness in the future is the source of its value. Moreover, considered in terms of behavior, rather than effect, predatory accumulation is an oxymoron. Predation destroys to consume, while accumulation tends to preserve. Even when accumulation is accidental it has a preservative effect, because any massed quantity is less likely than a solitary item to be dispersed.
The critique of capitalism also ignored that accumulation is a dead end. Accumulation is not dynamic; putting more eggs in a basket will not insure that more will hatch into chickens. For that to happen, the eggs not only have to be protected from the fox, they have to be maintained at the proper temperture, neither too cold nor too hot. It is that knowledge and understanding, together with the ability to manipulate the temperature in the environment around the eggs, which maximizes the value of the eggs and avoids the waste that would result if it were left up to chance. Though the ignorant observer, having witnessed the accumulation and nothing more, might conclude that the increasing nember of hens is the result of someone having stolen a lot of eggs, he would be missing the point. A predator or thieving human would eat the eggs or perhaps throw them at someone's car, a pastime seeming favored by modern juveniles; a capitalist does not have to steal because he can borrow the eggs and then, when his hens begin to lay, give them back. Of course, he won't be giving back the same eggs, nor may those who lent them want them when he does.
Which is why money is such a useful invention. It enables the lender (or seller) of an asset to get something of comparable or better value (something he likes more) at once, or much later. Of course, if all assets and resources are owned and no-one is inclined to lend or sell (lending being temporary and selling permanent), then the capitalist doesn't have a chance. There's no choice but predation if he wants to survive.
This is the end of the manuscript rescued from the floppy discs produced on our original PC.