text:
Augusta's downtown has been patrolled by a nine-man team for the past four years, and at the end of the year it will be up to the property owners to decide whether to keep them working.
Clean Augusta Downtown Initiative began in early 2008 as a way to make downtown Augusta more clean, safe and friendly. Through the Great Recession and into the slow economic recovery, property owners inside the Business Improvement District have been paying .00725 cents on every dollar of their property value to fund the $365,000-a-year program.
John Bodie, who owns a gas station and auto repair shop at the edge of the district in the 300 block of 13th Street, was originally opposed to the assessment.
Though Bodie has warmed to the idea of CADI, he still thinks there might be better ways to use the money.
"I would rather have put one or two more police officers on the downtown beat," he said.
Over the past four years, Bodie said the CADI workers have helped his employees at Bodie's Shell station take care of panhandlers by calling the police.
"They don't really have any more authority than my employees, but they try to help," he said. "I feel like their presence helps downtown."
Bodie said he will go to any meetings about the BID renewal, and as long as his concerns are heard he sees no reason not to continue CADI.
"It may need to be tweaked some, but there are good points and bad points," he said.
The district runs from the Savannah River to Greene Street and Sixth to 13th streets. There are 205 properties in the district.
The initiative was a hard sell the first time around. It took months of door-to-door canvassing and campaigning to get the 51 percent support of property owners necessary to bring it before the Augusta Commission for approval.
Because of the results of the past four years, it might be easier to renew, said Margaret Woodard, the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta, which oversees the program.
"Now we can quantitate it all, and we can say this is what we've done," she said.
In 2011, CADI removed more than 51 tons of trash, assisted more than 1,000 people, reported nearly 100 panhandlers, took down 240 fliers from public property and removed graffiti three times.
"It's a well-oiled machine now," Woodard said.
The DDA board is just beginning to plan the renewal campaign and will be sending out surveys to property owners in a few days to find out what they thought was a success and what could be improved.
The renewal is a chance to tweak goals and tactics based on property owners' feedback.
David Steele, the owner of The Window Gallery at 1129 Broad St., said CADI services are worth the money he pays in each year, but there is room for improvement.
"I seem to see the fruits of their labor kind of sporadically," he said. "More consistency would be good."
Rick Toole is president of W.R. Toole Engineers Inc. at 1005 Broad St., and he said he's also been pleased with CADI's results. If anything gets in the way of approval, he said, it will be that people don't recognize the crew's work.
"There's a risk that people aren't fully realizing what all they're doing," he said. "But no news is good news, and people complain when things aren't going well."
Toole said he would like to see more emphasis on the friendliness aspect of the CADI mission.
"I think it's a good opportunity to sell our downtown," he said.
Paul King, the owner/broker at REX Property and Land LLC on 11th Street, was a member of the DDA board when CADI was formed. He said he was positive the CADI program would improve downtown. The past four years have proven him correct, he said, and to not renew the BID would be a mistake.
"I am thrilled by it, and it's worth every penny we pay," he said.
Before the program, King said downtown was littered with trash. Now, the team patrols the area and keeps the trash to a negligible amount. Like Toole, King fears that the program's biggest enemy is property owners' short memories.
"My biggest fear is that people don't realize what they're doing," she said. "I'm very wary that people have forgotten what it was like before they were here."
The new BID can be renewed for five or 10 years. In 2008, the board thought it would be easier to get a five-year program to begin with.
BID regulation is ordained by the state but requires approval from city authorities and support from 51 percent of total property owners or approval from property owners with control of at least 51 percent of downtown property value.
CADI has an annual $365,000 contract with Service Group Inc., a company that provides services to 26 U.S. cities' BID areas.


text:
One of the unquestioned hits of the nineteenth-century lyric
theater, Roméo et Juliette has lost some of its
evergreen status in recent decades. PETER G. DAVIS wonders if the
fortunes of Gounod's opera are on the upswing once more.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Quanum telemetry unit - a useful idea: Part1
There's been a thread started by cryhavoc38running called, "Picked this up at the post office last night. The Quanum 2.4ghz lipo telemetry unit" at
There's another one here as well with some discussion.
Rather than sidetrack those threads which is where folks are sharing their experiences with this gadget I thought I would post a mini review with some test numbers and hope some people will be encouraged to buy one.
Why? Because this is potentially the most useful "gadget" for electric flight since the Emeter in my view. Not perfect yet by any means, but still uniquely useful.
If you spend any time in the battery discussions, you will know that modern LiPos have just about rendered the traditional low voltage cut-out (LVC) useless. The LVC circuit in the speed control will disconnect the battery from the motor leaving you with just about enough power to keep the Rx going for you to get back on the ground if you are lucky, but they do nothing to protect the battery from excessive drain. There's often a lot more opinion than good sense on battery forums, but if you pay attention to the guys who really know what they are talking about like NipponDave and everydayflyer the advice is unanimous. Never run modern Lipos down below 3.4V AND only take out a maximum of 80% of their capacity if you want them to live long and keep performing. Most LVC go down to 3.2V or thereabouts and because of their flat discharge curves current technology LiPo's are for all practical purposes fully discharged at that level. That's why careful battery guys time their flights and land with 20% time left. But timing relies on an average current drain. If you vary your flights a lot it's not very accurate.
I've always thought what we really need is a "Flying Fuel Gauge" (or Flying Gas Gauge if you live in the US). Something with a current sensor that transmits to the ground the actual mAh taken out of the battery in real time so you would know EXACTLY what was left in the tank. I built a crude one a few years ago using a Hall effect sensor and analog circuits but this is a natural for a microprocessor and 2.4GHz wireless. It's precisely what the new V2 of the Quanum does. There are some other airborne dataloggers that do the same thing and some newer radio sets have data link capacity built in but there is nothing at this price point that can be used in addition to your regular gear.
V1 of the Quanum was a transmitter that plugs into (and is powered by) the balance lead of your flight pack, which conveniently has nothing else to do while you are airborne. It transmitted the individual cell voltages of the pack continuously. Nice idea but in practice, unless you are tuning your power train with the help of a buddy, pretty useless. As people have pointed out elsewhere, spending your time staring at a complicated set of voltages when you are supposed to be flying a fast moving dot in the sky moves the odds dramatically in gravity's favour. Even worse, by the time you noticed the (hard to read at a glance) voltages or heard the stupid 3V buzzer it was too late for the health of the battery.
Now they have added a decent current and temperature sensor it is a whole different story for the battery - although there is still significant room to improve the human interaction bit.
It's dead simple to use. You need to attach your favourite connectors to the current sensor unit using heavy gauge wire (Deans will solder on directly because of the way the board is designed). Then put the sensor in-line between the battery and ESC, plug in the temperature sensor if you want it, hold down the BIND button if this is the first time of use, and plug in the balance lead to the pins on the end. When the LED starts flashing, let the bind button go. Just like a 2.4GHz radio binding should only need to be done once. Then hold down the bind button on the receiver, hold down the power button, and then let the bind button go when the intro screen appears. That's it. From then on just plug in the Tx and turn on the Rx. If you get a "no signal" at any time just jab the bind button on the Rx and it will search for its Tx. The bind button also toggles between the two Rx screens. The first screen shows the pretty, but useless, bar graphs of cell voltage plus cell voltage, battery voltage and current readouts. The second has all the same info but adds a more precise current reading, temperature (of the battery if that's where you stuck the sensor) and most importantly the mAh taken from the battery so far. So if you have a 3000mAh flight pack, and the reading gets to 2400mAH you have exactly 20% left.
The attached pictures from HobbyKing's web site show you what it looks like. As far as I can tell Quanum has become a HobbyKing house brand so I suspect you can only get it from them – happy to add a link to other suppliers if anybody knows of them.
The link to the product is
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10343&Product_Name=Quanu m_2.4Ghz_Telemetry_System_(Volt/Amp/Temp/mAh)_V2
UPDATE: The biggest problem most people seem to have had with the Quanum is getting it to do the initial bind. Seems that the binding routine in some units with components that may be close to their tolerances is a bit flaky.
If you follow the instructions and it just sits there saying "binding", then:
1) Try moving the Tx and Rx further apart.
2) Also sometimes if you just leave it for long enough it will finally get there. Even overnight!!! See posts 494, 498
Last edited by jj604; Oct 23, 2011 at 05:44 PM. Reason: New info
The Quanum telemetry unit - a useful idea: Part2
So how well is it made and does it work?
The Quanum web site is here but contains reference to V1 and has no more info than is on the box.
The design is sensible enough. The 16g Tx is a narrow PC board with end pin connections and has a standard Duck antenna connected by a proper SMA connector. A lot of the weight is in the antenna. They also make a flexible version which is a bit lighter and I have seen one report it has better range. The Rx is a neat light plastic box, which comes with a clever little clamp (see picture of the Attachment Bracket) to fasten it to your normal Tx aerial. It works on both the thin metal 35/36/40/72MHz telescopic aerials and the thinner part of the base of modern 2.4GHz aerials. It weighs very little, fitted neatly on all my Tx (both kinds) and was easy to adjust the angle. However Im no RF expert but I would be very wary of attaching anything, much less another powered 2.4GHz device to my 2.4GHz Tx aerial. I think this thing is much better strapped to your wrist where you can glance at it when necessary and not be distracted otherwise.
I havent been able to find any reliable specifications and someone who has access to the right test gear might be able to post what the data rate and the packet for the link is. I have attached four diagrams which show the Quanum working with my Spektrum Tx. It looks like it uses the same DSSS approach as Spektrum with only a single frequency. Certainly I tried switching both on several times and they always came up on different and discrete frequencies. Reports on the forums from folks who have been flying with it, say it works without a hitch so Ill just concentrate on the accuracy.
Anyone with other flight experience please post their observations.
The one construction weakness is the tiny push button switches used for binding and power. On the Rx they are acceptable because they are internal and protected from excessive force by the plastic external buttons and should be OK. Dont take the Rx apart though or they just fall to bits. The Tx Bind push button is exposed to ham-fisted modelers and I suspect will be the cause of a lot of failures. The heat shrink acts to hold it together but if you take it off or push too hard there is a real risk of damaging the tiny switch. There are a number of stories of binding problems as well as an example of the switch getting detached on the forums already.
The four attached pictures show the construction of the Tx and Rx with the HS/Case removed. You can see how fragile the push button switches are. Note also both devices have the 6 pads for in circuit programming of the micros but all the important part numbers have been ground off. If you can figure out what they are and you have the smarts you could probably reprogram this thing.
Last edited by jj604; Jun 28, 2010 at 08:10 PM.
The Quanum telemetry unit - a useful idea: Part3
How accurate is it?
It doesn't matter how clever it is, if this thing isn't accurate enough it's a waste of time. There are a number of cheapo Wattmeters out of the Chinese copy factories that are so inaccurate they are dangerous. A meter that lies to you is a menace in my view and often worse than no meter at all.
Cell voltages
The easiest thing to test is the accuracy of the individual cell voltages. Using a 40,000count 0.05% accurate DVM I checked the cell voltage over the range 3.3 to 4.2V. The display resolution of the Quanum is 10mV – that is it reads to 0.01V best precision. One cell was within 0.8mV of the displayed reading over that range (i.e. much less than the resolution), the worst was 25mV different. In other words the very worst case was less than 3 display digits out. Perfectly acceptable.
I then measured pack voltage, current and mAh for two discharge rates on a 5000mAh 3S battery. The first was a short run at about 5A discharge to check accuracy at low current, the other a full discharge at 20A. I put the Quanum in series with my EmeterII which was recently calibrated and I know to be fairly accurate. This means the current through both is identical so the mAh should be as well. The voltage measured will be slightly different because of the small drop in the leads.
The x axis labelled "Time" on the graphs is just when readings were made so is not necessarily a linear time scale.
Pack Voltage
The pack voltages at both 5A and 20A were measured and compared with the Emeter over the whole discharge. They were very close.
Current error at 20A shows the Quanum current plotted on the y axis and the Emeter on the x axis. The black line is what the reading would be if the Quanum agreed with the Emeter exactly. The Quanum reads about 0.8A low at around 20A. That's 4% error.
This is the one I was really interested in. mAh at 5A and mAh at 20A shows the comparison between the mAh readings of the two meters. I plotted an error graph as before for the 20A run mAh readings. See mAh error at 20A. The actual readings were 4774mAh for the Quanum and 4576mAh for the Emeter which is 198mAh difference at the end of the discharge which took about 13.5 minutes. That translates to a current reading error of 198*60/13.5 = 0.88A. The 5A test gives a higher error but the numbers are low and the test was fairly short.
Conclusion is that the major error with this particular Quanum is in reading the current but it's less than an Amp for the 20A test which translates to about 4-5% error.
Be nice if it was better but still perfectly usable as an in-flight battery usage gauge. Interestingly, the Quanum shows about a 0.2A current when none is flowing. See picture NoCurrent. The Hall effect sensor used in the Quanum has a much better accuracy than this - it is used in the AEO-RC Wattmeter P1 which is quite accurate - so what would make this thing really nice is a user calibration feature.
Last edited by jj604; Jun 29, 2010 at 04:38 AM.
The Quanum telemetry unit - a useful idea: Part4
The Version2 of this product is usable now as the first available flying gas gauge at a reasonable price (about $80.00 with the current and temp sensor) that you can use with your existing radio gear. It's accurate enough for the purpose, particularly if you take the time to check the current range with a decent Wattmeter and know what the error is.
It has a great second use as a battery charging monitor. I know you are never supposed to leave LiPos charging unattended, but if they are in a fireproof container in a shed you can plug one of these in and monitor the charge current, actual battery temperature and the total mAh put into the battery from somewhere else in the (warm) house. You need to wire up the connectors on the sensor in reverse since the Hall effect sensor only measures current in one direction but it works just fine through four double brick walls and the inbuilt Rx battery lasts for well over an hour.
This thing could be a lot more useful with a few simple software changes.
1) At minimum, change the silly second screen to show just current and mAh and temperature in BIG letters. That's what you need to see at a glance when flying.
2) Change the default LV alarm to a more useful 3.4V.
3) Add a user calibration feature for LV alarm and both cell voltages and current. Hold both buttons down for 10 seconds to initiate (would avoid accidental changes and confusing folks who want to use it as-is out of the box). Each of LV alarm, 6x cell voltages and the current would flash in turn for say 3 secs and while flashing you use the Bind or Power button to increment or decrement the value. A final option under this would be to change to a Fahrenheit option on the temperature readout.
I know the cost of changing mouldings is a killer but if a small slide switch could be added to the case of the Rx you could have a RUN and SET position.
Then you could have something REALLY useful if the re-programming could be done.
1 In the RUN position it works as now
2 While it is on, switch to the SET position and a default mAh rating for a battery flashes. While flashing use the BIND and POWER buttons to increment or decrement to set your actual battery capacity. After 3 sec, it moves to a flashing default 20% alarm setting. Increment or decrement as desired. After 3 sec it moves to a flashing default 3.4V Cell Volt Alarm setting. Increment or decrement as desired.
3 Switching back to RUN at any time saves the settings and the second screen then displays %mAh used as a bar graph which flashes when you reach the alarm setting and the beeper goes whenever the mAh limit or cell volt limit is reached.
Be interested in what other folks think and other suggestions.
Quanum, you guys following the forums? Hyperion, Junsi and others have built a strong customer support base and improved their products significantly by talking to users on here.
UPDATE: Someone asked for a picture of how the Current/Temp sensor is connected. I've put that in post # 88
Last edited by jj604; Oct 06, 2010 at 10:37 PM.
The Quanum telemetry unit - a useful idea: Part5
Reserved for updates and links to later posts:
1) It looks like there is full USB chip attached to the USB socket on the Receiver. See pictures in Post #2. For now the socket is only used to recharge the Rx LiPo. Wonder if it will be possible to do firmware upgrades and maybe even PC logging through the USB port in future????
2) And if the USB port is fully functional, it has been pointed out that's the simplest way to set up all the alarms etc if Quanum write a simple software program to do it. See Posts 18 and 19.
3) The current sensor is an Allegro ACS755xCB-100. This is a 100Amp rated Hall effect sensor - data sheet here http://www.allegromicro.com/en/Produ...5/0755-100.pdf
4) Someone asked what range of voltage it will work over. I connected a variable supply via a resistor network to pins 1,2,3 and varied the total voltage between pins 1 and 3. The Quanum gets its power from these pins. The attached graph shows that it will work accurately for a cell voltage from 2.0 to 5.0 Volts. I actually put 6 volts across each cell and it still worked but was starting to do strange things. Do not recommend higher than 5V.
UPDATE: Version 3
Post 120 has an update about V3 which dramatically improves the alarm system, and adds a F option for temperature.
Here's the brief instructions on how to use the new configurable alarms from that post.
It's all very logical and dead simple to do. The only change to V2 is that you can hold down BOTH buttons at any time for 3 secs and it drops into setting mode. There are 8 screens which you move through with the RH (Power) button. You increment or (or decrement in some cases) the value on each screen with the LH (Bind) button. Everything else works as before. When you have set your preferences, hold both buttons for 3 secs and you are back in operation mode. The Quanum remembers all your settings.
In post 120 I have attached screens shots of the 8 screens – well actually 11 since there are 4 versions of screen 2 when you increment that screen.
If you select the default screen the Quanum uses 6000mAh, 80% capacity used, 19.8V, and Cell voltages of 3.5 and 3.3 as alarm settings.
Unbalanced cell drain issue
The CellLog takes its operating power from Cells 1 and 2 of the battery so on a 3S and above will gradually unbalance the battery if left connected permanently. This is not an issue in a normal flight since the current is only 20 mA or so but it may be if the CellLog is used in a permanent installation where it is connected all the time. If the external current sensor is used the drain is significantly higher at about 70mA. Post # 602 contains useful information about a work around for this.
Last edited by jj604; Jul 27, 2012 at 07:19 PM.
Well, since you are talking about useful ideas - meaning using the Quanum for other than that specified by the manufacturer - here's one:
Use the unit to transmit RSSI value of your receiver.
Refer here on what RSSI is:
RSSI output can range from 1.5 volt to 4 volt, so you'll need a voltage buffer and amplifier in between. I'm sure it'll work, just haven't had the time to do it myself.
Something to think about.
You know alot of people (like me) of V1 have e.g. not accurate values of cell 4 and 5 reported ( offset of +/-0.2V !!) . So using a 3 cel lipo the readings are accurate.
yes your conclusion is that the major error with this particular Quanum is in reading the current but it's less than an Amp for the 20A test which translates to about 4-5% error, 4-5% is too much and a new feature of calibration should be implemented.
So i extend your item 2:
2) While it is on, switch to the SET position and a default mAh rating for a battery flashes. While flashing use the BIND and POWER buttons to increment or decrement to set your actual battery capacity.
After 3 sec, it moves to a flashing default 20% alarm setting. Increment or decrement as desired.
After 3 sec it moves to a flashing default 3.4V Cell Volt Alarm setting. Increment or decrement as desired.
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing current reading offset compensation , Increment or decrement as desired.
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 1 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 2 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 3 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 4 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 5 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
After 3 seconds it moves to a flashing cell 6 voltage reading offset, Increment or decrement as desired
And sure the USB connector should be used to upgrade the firmware.
I have another idea what Quanum could be make available is :
Quanum creats a PC program communicating with the USB port so you can do all settings/offset changes explained above in item 2 via this program.
Last edited by jaccies; Jun 29, 2010 at 04:18 AM.
So request to all : Spektrum and JR ( no RSSi) , Futaba ( some have RSSI but inside) the next feature of all your receivers add an outside pin available for RSSI value reading 0-5Volt !!!
I connected a 6S Lipo (actually two 3S in series with balance connectors joined) and measured all the cell voltages with a precision DVM and compared with the Quanum readout. Did this for LiPos charged and discharged plus A123 to get a set of readings at 3.2, 3.6 and 4.2 volts approx. Did not see any unusual cell 4 or 5 errors as has been reported on V1.
There's another problem. It's not that easy to feed a separate 0-5V signal into the Transmitter analog voltage pins. It needs at least two cells "live" to run and if you put the variable signal on another pin you have a common ground problem. Unless the radio receiver ground and the battery ground are isolated (which I don't think is true for most BECs) you end up shorting at least one cell for any configuration I could think up. You could do it if the radio Rx has a separate battery supply of course. You can't feed the signal into the current sense input as that is 3.3V digital logic not analog.
Actually that's what I wsa suggesting in my first set of improvements number 3. "Each of LV alarm, 6x cell voltages and the current would flash in turn for say 3 secs and while flashing you use the Bind or Power button to increment or decrement the value".
The reason I put it there was it could be done without any physical change to the unit by adding another switch. Just needs a firmware change.
oops you saw it already......lol
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The Dalles The Dalles Wahtonka High School's Pops 'n' Novelty Concert, originally scheduled for tonight, Feb. 11, has been rescheduled to Monday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m.
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Surveillance video was released Thursday in the attempted robbery of a Winslow Township, N.J. pharmacy. On the video, the attempted male robber is wearing a blue dress and long brown wig.
The attempted robbery happened around 2 p.m. Wednesday at Jolin's Pharmacy on the 400 block of Sicklerville Road. Police say the man walked into the pharmacy and demanded Oxycontin from the pharmacist, later identified as Dr. John Agyemang, while reaching into his waistband.
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Genoa, the Italian Ipswich; this was my first impression of my new home as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Most holidaymakers come, see, but do not conquer, returning wearily to their lives and jobs. But with 120 hours of instruction, six to eight hours' observation of classes taught by professionals and six hours' assessed teaching practice under his or her belt, the successful EFL trainee can keep the Chianti flowing forever.
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Prices for the CELTA course vary wildly. Depending on the size and reputation of the school, and its ability to help you find a job (often within one of its own international branches), you can pay between £600 and £1,100. Studying for the certificate abroad is one attractive option, although the cost of accommodation and the glamour of the location (Barcelona and Rome are popular choices) can bump up the fee.
Most of my EFL friends would admit that their command of English at the start of the CELTA was nothing to write (ineptly) home about. But completing the course gives you the sense that (God bless the teachers' book!) you can wing it under pressure.
Happily for non-grammarians, today's EFL is based on having fun. The goal is to teach English in the same way we learned it as children: from immersion in the language, from repetition, from gentle exposure to new things until our tiny minds can fully embrace them and use them with confidence. Even without the certificate, being a native English speaker can be enough to get you a job, but employers will tend to want you to have a university degree as proof of your general intelligence.
When choosing a place to work, a rule of thumb is that the poorer the country, or the tighter or more desperate the employer, the less that will be demanded of you in formal professional terms. It is advisable to arrange employment before you leave Britain, although there are many cases of teachers being in the right place at the right time and finding work on spec. Vacancies can be found in The Guardian on Tuesdays, and on websites such as www.tefl.com and www.tefl.net teachers can hook up with schools within minutes, the time it takes to book a holiday online.
Armed with the CELTA or the equally recognised Trinity College certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Tesol), it is easy to get a job. It is not immediately easy to get a good job. The internet in particular can be a forum for schools whose staff-rooms have revolving doors, and telephone interviews with principals and directors of study (DoS) can be deceptive.
You should always check the rate of pay before you agree to travel, and ask whether they can guarantee the number of hours a week you will be working. In parts of the world where the cost of living is low, such as eastern Europe, you can live like an EFL monarch, but you will find that any money you save will not go far when you return to the UK. In a country such as Italy, you can earn up to €1,000 (£676) a month, but this is dependent on the number of contact hours with students: all preparation will be voluntary and absolutely necessary if you wish to avoid having a sweaty upper lip every day.
A guide to global earnings is at www.teflonline.net/job_prospects.htm. Typically teachers take 20-25 hours of classes a week, though some committed (or hard-up) souls flirt with insanity and undertake 30 or more. Only the most energetic and experienced manage to keep up standards at this work rate, and the repetition of classes at different levels and the re-use of teaching materials in different contexts can become an artform in itself.
Ever the cynic, I never really bought the whole learning-is-fun shtick anyway, and knew my limits where classroom performance was concerned. I loved putting my personal stamp on lessons, and felt the thrill of competence when 30 faces looked up to me for guidance and inspiration. But I was often exhausted.
By the time you have travelled from home to school, to in-house business English lesson on the edge of town, and back to school for the one-to-one evening conversation class with the argumentative and chauvinistic local chemist, you may begin to wish that you had asked more logistical questions in that first friendly chat with your prospective boss.
Directors of study will naturally be sizing you up for the worst classes when you initially enquire about work. Even then, they will probably not want to commit themselves to hiring you until they are sure they have enough students, this being a bums-on-seats industry.
Ring at the right time (usually September/October and to a lesser extent December for jobs in countries that follow a Western academic year), and the DoS will treat you like the second coming. Ring too early or too late, and they will act as sniffy as any Oxbridge col lege. Sight unseen, you will only find out where the nightmare schools and cushy numbers are when you actually live in your chosen location.
Having taught for a year, you will either be brought home in a pedagogical body bag, complete with grammar games and flash cards, or you will have found a boy/girlfriend and/or a reasonable flatshare, and will know which classes to grab and which to refuse on pain of teaching the subjunctive.
You will know the rogue schools and their weapons of class destruction, and will either start to take on lucrative private students culled from your classes, or decide you are adventurous and sufficiently well-equipped with stolen textbooks to take on a new challenge elsewhere.
Next week, dear students, we will be looking at the possibilities for making EFL more than a blip on your CV, including the opportunities to become a DoS, a school owner, or that dream of EFL dreams, a permanent (if not always well-paid) traveller.


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When the Chinese go to buy a luxury car, they tend to turn to German brands such as Audi. The carmaker sold more vehicles in China in the first three months of this year than any previous first quarter.
German carmaker Audi has solidified its foothold in China'sburgeoning luxury automobile market
with dramatically more vehicles sold there last month than one year ago.
In March, Audi sold nearly 50,000 cars to drivers in the People's Republic – an increase of 36.6 percent over the same time last year and the best first quarter in Audi's history in China, the Ingolstadt-based concern reported Friday.
China is the world's most important luxury car market and Audi's biggest customer. Since the beginning of this year, the carmaker has shifted some 125,000 vehicles to Chinese consumers, 21.1 percent more than in the first quarter of 2013.
Sales were buoyed by a mixture of locally-manufactured and imported models, the company said, adding that a new Audi dealership opened in China every week.
More Audis are driven off Chinese lots than cars made by eitherBMW or Daimler
Last year Audi sold nearly half a million models in China.
cjc/dr (dpa, Reuters)
Last year, the German luxury automaker Audi sold more cars than ever before in company history. That record did not, however, translate into a higher profit as price cuts and development costs weighed heavily. (11.03.2014)


text:
HOPE scholarships leave little room for senior slacking
Athens Tech honors academic achievement
Kids get heaping helpings at lunch
Chase Street and Oglethorpe Avenue elementaries
South shivers under Canadian blast
Dogs leave themselves work to do
More luxury carmakers jump into SUV game
Teamsters vote to strike if negotiations fail with UPS
Shaw batters Clarke Central to take victory in game one
Police investigate child molestation
Electronics stolen on Diamond Drive
Men robbed after giving a ride to women
Smokes swiped from Exxon store
Two fires damage Martin Circle home
Bond set for December 2001 murder suspect
The song never remains the same in Winder
Magill: Disease hasn't beaten former UGA QB Young
Experienced team looks to defend title
Wet weather can't dampen event's success
Improved products offer tanning alternative
One instance isn't enough to condemn time-out booths
U.S. has aided Saudi Arabia and Palestine with no thanks
Law Day Forum shows just why we need tort reform
Time-out booth isn't ideal, but it's teachers' only option
Budget decision threatens county's public safety
Bill Shipp is way off course in support of Northern Arc
Good government helped save two neighborhood residents
Reader has some questions about future of commuter rail
Charter to drop Toccoa station
GOP hopefuls visit Augusta to talk policy
Georgia Ports Authority adopts strict spending procedures
Coal ash disposal to cost millions
Police ticketing for seat-belt violations in annual campaign
U.S. soldier killed in heavy fighting
Doctor to open middle Georgia wildlife preserve
Young agency plans to set new course, but when?
Athens man charged with raping 12-year-old girl
Police on lookout for flash suspect
Cheney: Another terrorist attack all but certain
Experienced team looks to defend title
Prince Avenue earns berth in Class A semifinals
Fighting chances: Class of 2002 graduates share stories of overcoming odds, survival
South shivers under Canadian blast: Doggone weather
The song never remains the same in Winder
The color of summer: For those burning to get started, season starts in the salon
Central, Oconee battle tested: Region 8-AAAA teams entered playoffs prepared
Technical know-how paying off: Graduating straight into the real world
Kids get heaping helpings at lunch
Athens Tech honors academic achievement
Technical know-how paying off: Graduating straight into the real world
Inevitability of future terror attacks should not be a surprise
Revival of once-dead anti-sprawl proposal is a welcome sign
Juvenile Justice official responds to articles, editorials about The Bridge
Wolves' field a place of dreams
Prince Avenue earns berth in Class A semifinals
Widespread Panic to release 'Live in the Classic City'
2002 Spring Prep Athletes of the Year
Softball team takes first step toward bigger goals
Brown joins A&F Golf full-time
Club reportedly buying land adjacent to course
Bean Team thriving in mountains
Purvis hurt badly in Busch race
Nets top Celtics, take early lead
Hurricanes even series with overtime victory
New system gives artists greater control
Bulldogs ease into semifinals, UCLA next
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text: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images [ James Blunt Does Katy Perry [VIDEO] By Lori Crofford February 11, 2011 First Bruno Mars did his version of California Girls, now James Blunt takes his turn at the song. Read More Category: Amarillo News, Music, Videos Tags: bruno mars, california girls, james blunt, katy perry Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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Lower Taxes, Higher Growth
State revenue for 2005 will be NIS 5 billion higher than expected, thanks to rapid growth. Should it be used to increase expenditures, or to reduce the budget deficit? Or perhaps it should be used to lower taxes?
When the prime minister's associates talk about economics, they create a sense of confusion: It seems as if economic truth has been pushed aside and replaced by the prime minister's narrow political interests. On the eve of the holidays, they said there is no room to reduce value-added tax and no need to cut the defense budget. Two major mistakes in a single sentence.
State revenue for 2005 will be NIS 5 billion higher than expected, thanks to rapid growth. The question that arises is what should be done with this money. Should it be used to increase expenditures, or to reduce the budget deficit? Or perhaps it should be used to lower taxes?
Increased expenditure is out of the question. It is true that Ehud Olmert raised this possibility when he first assumed the role of acting finance minister, but since then, he has undergone a "reeducation," and now, even he considers this option out of bounds.
The second possibility is to end the year with a lower-than-expected deficit, and thereby reduce Israel's debt burden, which currently stands at 102 percent of gross domestic product. This is indeed a heavy burden, which entails huge outlays of NIS 30 billion a year on interest payments, as well as high interest rates and the constant danger of a financial crisis. But is a low budget deficit the only way to reduce this debt?
Not necessarily. There is also another possibility, which has proven itself over the past two years: lowering taxes. This is an efficient way of encouraging growth, and as a result, reducing the debt as a proportion of GDP. The proper move, therefore, is to reduce VAT by half a percentage point now - the prime minister's associates to the contrary. Lowering taxes also has two other important advantages: It forces the government to reduce expenditures in the long run, and it pulls the rug out from under the predictable demands for increased spending by ministers and MKs.
Reducing VAT also has a social aspect: It is a progressive move, because the poor consume their entire income (as opposed to the rich, who save part of their income), and therefore, benefit more, proportionally speaking, from a reduction in VAT.
The Finance Ministry erred two months ago when it bowed to pressure from Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and lowered VAT by only half a percentage point. That reduction was too small: It screwed up everyone's accounts, while also allowing merchants to evade lowering prices on inexpensive products. VAT should be set at 16 percent - and it should not be forgotten that even this is too high.
The prime minister's associates also said there is no room to cut the defense budget. This was said against the background of the Bachar Task Force, which is finalizing its recommendations for a war on poverty. The task force will not recommend a "war" that will cost several billion shekels; rather, it will recommend steps that will cost NIS 500 million to NIS 1 billion. This money will be directed mainly at encouraging people to find work by subsidizing day care for working women, subsidizing transportation to and from work, expanding professional training for adults, encouraging ultra-Orthodox men to join the workforce, and setting up plants in Arab towns that will provide jobs for women.
The treasury knows that in addition to this special budget for the war on poverty, it will also be compelled to pay Knesset factions and MKs their traditional pound of flesh in order to obtain a Knesset majority for the 2006 budget. Thus in total, about NIS 1.5 billion needs to be cut from other sections of the 2006 budget - irrespective of the surplus on the revenues side.
Granted, it is possible to choose the easy way out: an across-the-board cut in every ministry. But that would harm education, welfare, health and infrastructure. In other words, it is guaranteed to cause economic and social damage. The correct solution, therefore, is the more difficult one: cutting into the plump sacred cow of the defense budget.
The State Comptroller noted recently that while all the "social" budgets have been cut in recent years, the defense budget has not been touched, despite the significant strategic changes for the better in the region: the collapse of the eastern front and the American presence in the heart of the Arab world.
We must, therefore, take advantage of this strategic opportunity to transfer NIS 1 billion from physical defense to social defense - that is, to the war on poverty.
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text:
Foxtrotting off to America? Strictly's Tess Daly eyes US TV career
NOT content with hosting one of the biggest shows in Britain, Strictly Come Dancing's Tess Daly is hoping to crack the States.
The telly host, 44, admitted she would be tempted to make the move across the pond if she was offered a presenting gig.
But Tess, who is married to Vernon Kay, 40, revealed it is her two young daughters who are holding her back.
"I'd love to live in the States for a couple of months a year, just because it feels like you're on holiday the whole time," she told Woman.
"I love that sunshiney, everything-is-possible vibe.
"But it's not really practical to take the kids out of school here and schlep over there to do the rounds.
"If I was offered a show on a plate, that would be very tempting," she added.
Beauty Tess is currently gearing up to front the 12th series of Strictly Come Dancing with new co-host Claudia Winkleman, who replaced retired Bruce Forsyth.
Strictly returns to our screens in September.


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Hi Janine ~ Humor is what gets us through the day!!! Always keep smiling!! :)))))
I enjoy the humor.....many thanks, Joyce.See you next time, Janine
Hi kitten, Ada & buckeye ~ I'm happy you all enjoyed the picture/puzzle!!! :))))
This is hilarious Joyce!
way way too cute.
Unbelievable......what next......ha ha !


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Mar 18, 2013 Adam Westlake Features, National 54
For the first time since the accusations were made in early February, officials with the Chinese military have admitted that they did direct weapons-targeting radar at Japan's Self-Defense Force (SDF) ships in waters near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in January. However, the officials say that the act of directing the radar, made by a Chinese frigate, was not planned, and was an "emergency decision" made by the ship's commander.
The ongoing tensions between the two countries were escalated last month as Japan claimed the radar was used on more than one occasion, and while claiming to have evidence, decided to not to release it out of concern that doing so would reveal their intelligence gathering methods. China, on the other hand, was quick to deny to accusations, adding that the Tokyo government was "hyping" the situation in order to "tarnish" Beijing's image. Officials with the Japanese Defense Ministry see this admission either as a sign of a softening stance toward Japan, or that China is trying to play "mind games."
In response to China's violation of Japanese airspace over the disputed territory in December with government aircraft, the Chinese officials say the action was planned, but it was not the intent to aggravate the situation. They added that they had no intentions to do so in the future as well. These military officials, who it seems are speaking without the official support of the Chinese government, requested that Japan not "fixate" on the radar and airspace violation incidents, and not release their evidence of the radar-lock. Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, of Japan's Maritime SDF, has said, "If this is true, one has to question a military system that leaves (such) authority in commanders' hands even when they are not in a dire situation."
The radar incident is said to have taken place on the morning of January 30th, when the Chinese and Japanese ships were 3 kilometers apart while north of the Senkakus. The Chinese ship's commander claims he directed the radar based on the rules of engagement, but did not seek permission from navy headquarters. The unnamed Chinese officials explained this by saying that the Chinese navy does not have a communication system as advanced as Japan or the U.S., and that guidance from superiors is not always sought. It remains unknown if the Chinese ship commander was reprimanded for his actions.
[via Kyodo]
Dear Mr Westlake,
What sources do you have regarding this article?
If this is the case i expect the Chinese to make an offical apology.
yea right. China won't apologize since they still want a more sincere apology from japan for WW2, (even though they got one, they want a better one)
it's a matter of "if you don't apologize for this, why should we apologize for that?" Japan has admitted it's doings in WW2, but their apology was not enough to persuade China to let bygones be bygones. If china did apologize, they would be shooting themselves in the foot for lying earlier about their remarks of Japan making stuff up.
It's a very touchy subject
No one got an apology from Japan if Abe decides to rescind it. He's well on his way; he's already declared the war criminals in Japan as innocent because they were judged by 'the enemy' (Americans.) He's looking to rewrite the Emperor as the official head of state and his foreign minister has called for the ability to do preemptive strikes. Way to apologize.
I think you are confused. He said that the victors decided who were criminals, and we have to agree that, no matter what country, this is true, ie the victors make history.
Making the Emperor like the Queen of England does not seem bad to me. Emperor Akihito is someone highly respected in the international community.
But anyway, all this has nothing to do with their repeated apologies over the past 68 years….
Funny you should mention that – Abe is wanting to withdraw all apologies – which obviously have not gone far enough for Choina and South Korea and Asia.
This australian who investigated the Jpanese war crimes thinks that Abe – is a "stench to the nose of decent humanity". ie – he is the worst of the worst!! Take a read: http://www.pacificwar.org.au/WarCrimeIntro.html
Perhaps Abe should learn from Hirohito not to worship war criminals and visit their shrines :
"Yasukuni Shrine"
"Emperor Hirohito maintained an official boycott of the Yasukuni Shrine after it was revealed to him that Class-A war criminals had secretly been enshrined after its post-war rededication. This boycott lasted from 1978 until the time of his death. This boycott has been maintained by his son Akihito, who has also refused to attend Yasukuni."
This is all very nice, but until you symmetrically admit to the horrors China has done and continue to do such as crimes against humanity or human rights violation, your word don't carry much weight.
"Crimes against humanity". Oh sorry, I didn't realise the Chinese Army was in a foreign country committing genocide. "Human rights violations". Oh right, because the actions of China MUST be judged by Western standards, regardless of cultural, historical, social and mentality differences between the Chinese civilisation and Western society.
Let me correct you: "genocide" is the "the deliberate and systematic destruction of, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", so I really don't think the Chinese can apply it here, at least not for the actions of the former Japanese Imperial Army. Maybe they can apply it to the millions of Chinese massacred during the so-called Great Leap Forward of Mao, but that would be a different, albeit horrific story.
We are not looking at all those horrors committed by China from a "western" eye, but from a human eye, notwithstanding the culture of the observer.
I find Jeffrey Wu's position illuminating.
He appears to be arguing that Chinese citizens should not be protected by human rights, and China should not be held to the standards of International Law because they are "Western"; and that it is acceptance to commit genocide against one's own citizens to a far larger scale but unacceptable to commit genocide against another nation's citizens.
In short, "You had no right kill our citizens, because that is our prerogative alone, and none of your business".
Indeed, I see "mentality differences" and I think that accurately summarizes the attitude of the CPC in China.
But Japan is not Western and has signed up to the idea of universal human rights and the standards of International Law, so why can't China?
Why can't China even today?
Is China is its Second Great Leap Forward where the health, rights and welfare of its own people (never mind its neighbors), can be sacrificed as it chases after 'Western' currency?
"We'll take your Dollars but leave your human rights and values at home!"
The First Great Leap Forward was not such a great leap for the 18 to 45 million people who died from the coercion, terror, and systematic violence which were its very foundation, nor the 10s of millions more who were maimed, abused, traumatized and displaced. One of the most deadly mass killings of human history … when Chinese citizens were buried alive, clubbed to death or otherwise killed by party members and their militia.
There were no einsatzgruppen in operation in China throughout history. The deaths caused during the Great Leap Forward were caused by economic mismanagement when Chinese starved to death because Mao ordered farmers to work in factories instead of harvesting crops. I suggest you read up on your history before you accuse the Communist Party of "massacring" fellow Chinese. The consequences were indeed similar, in the form of millions of deaths, but the means was very much different.
The concept of "human rights" as interpreted by you is a Western concept with Western origins with Western values and connotations applied to it. The Chinese concept, if one exists, should include all aspects of Chinese society, including respect, discipline and collectivism as set up by Confucius 2000 years ago. I know that Westerners don't take kindly to submitting to superiors, but that does not warrant a immediate hostile reaction to cultures where submitting is seen as a privilege and/or responsibility.
You stated that China committed horrors. I don't deny that, no country is perfect. But that's not the main focus/cause of this article or the underlying hostilities between China and Japan, and to an extent, Korea. Japan committed atrocities during their invasion, even you can't deny that. Germany committed similar atrocities. But here's the difference, the Germans expressed remorse and took initiative to reconcile with the Jewish population; as a result, the relationship between Israel and Germany today is much more friendly than that of the relationship between China/Korea and Japan.
Japan has never expressed remorse other than a vague acknowledgement of their "crimes", which they did not care to elaborate on. When confronted with accounts of their atrocities as well as proof of those atrocities, Japan pours salt onto the wounds of the victims by branding them as liars and denying all allegations. This is an immediate contrast between the people of Germany and the people of Japan. Of course I'm generalising here, there are isolated instances where Japanese are truly remorseful for their crimes; an ex-prime minister of Japan recently visited the Nanjing massacre memorial to express remorse. However, Japan as a whole is generally unremorseful and in many cases, ignorant of their history as a nation. If only Japan could be like Germany, remorseful and willing to acknowledge their crimes, then all is forgiven. But do not expect China or Korea to even consider FORGETTING Japan's crimes without Japan first expressing remorse as a nation.
"The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths.[3] Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million to 45 million, with estimates by demographic specialists ranging from 18 million to 32.5 million. Historian Frank Dikötter asserts that "coercion, terror, and systematic violence were the very foundation of the Great Leap Forward" and it "motivated one of the most deadly mass killings of human history."
Doesn't your basic human idea of human rights excludes horrors such as forced organs harvesting (
) or the Tien An Men massacre? ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBN11-F8kh8 )
This has nothing to do with western view of human rights, but everything to do with what any normal being, no matter what culture, would view as a basic human right. And I am not even starting on lack of freedom of speech of lack of freedom of religion….
China Communism has butchered millions of its people, and it keeps brining the past misdeed of Japan done 68 years back in the lame attempt that people would not take notice of the horors it is presently doing…..
Oops… But then again no real surprise here. China is suffering from a trigger-happy military and an over-excited nationalistic and revisionist education program to galvanize its population nationalist sentiment and divert their attention from the true domestic issues, which are a rampant corruption, a wide wealth gap (over 0.6 GINI index), a stalling economy, barely hovering above a PMI of 50, a high inflation with common goods seeing a price increase of 30% or more, with serious human rights violation issues such as imprisoning people without due trials, harvesting organs from religious and political prisoners while they are alive, and a large number of Chinese lawmakers making more money than Mitt Romney himself!
I think China needs to come clean, get a real grip over its military and apologize to Japan, and more importantly stop bullying ASian nations just to grab their underground resources!
Lets see if japan gets an apology. But first lets see if this claim is valiadted.
If i had to say, i think the tensions will wear down a bit from hear on out (i THINK)
Since the replacing of power was underway in china, the new leaders would have to make the people think that they where in good hands. what better way than making the people more patriotic by uniting their hatred towards someone who was not a part of the government?
In democracy politics during their political campaigns to get voters, they point out all the flaws in another candidate with mock campaigns and pointing out the flaws in their policies in order to unite the would be voters into not voting for the other candidate. at the same time, the politicians validate their own policies and keep talking about how they will improve life if they were elected.
China is a one party country, the politicians are all members of one party and have no other candidate to go up against. Without that, how would they unite the people into being reassured their future was in good hands? Who were they going to belittle and insult in order to make themselves the better option?
the best way to unite people, unfortunately, is to get them to have common ground, and the easiest common ground for humanity is hatred. people will always focus on the negativity than the positives in life, it's just human nature. Who else could china rally the people against? who else could they unite the people with a common bond against?
the answer is simple. the one who has wronged them the most. the one who they still have seeds of distrust and hatred against. that would be japan.
It's also a good political move to distract other people from the shifting of power. distract them from the politicians and their flaws by giving them something else to get angry at. but then, they needed something to get the people to blindly accept. That would be the islands.
bring up you claim to the islands, along with japans war aggressions, their lack of a sincere apology and the people won't give a damn how japan gain administration of the islands and why china never made claims to it earlier. hell they won't even care that China did not make any claims to the islands for 80 years, or even that china only made the claims after minerals and resources where found. their anger blinds them from thinking from two perspectives.
they won't even question why japan thinks the islands is theirs, they'll only focus on japan in a negative light and just say they stole it. they won't even try to go through the last 100 years to see if japan did something that could of caused them to mistakenly think the islands are theirs, they just think japan stole it, plain and simple.
This whole island incident is, from the looks of things now, going to cool down a bit now that the power has shifted. there is no need to rally the people anymore or unite them against a common enemy. just like in politics, when the results are in, you don't go on beating the loser for losing. you just take your new found responsibilities that come with you victory and move on. (mind you, sometimes that does include making fun of the opposition.)
make no mistake, China will still claim the islands for whatever reasons, but hopefully they won't be so aggressive as they have been in recent months. but that will also depend on how japan and china will deal with the issue in the future.
Thank you for this. Yes, I agree with your analysis, and let's hope that they will let their head prevail rather than resorting to muscular power.
I think no one should be fooled that whatever will happen in the foreseeable future, China is in for a tough ride. You see, with the improvement of their economy and the living conditions of millions of Chinese, people will inevitably demand more freedom, which in turn will push the CCP further to the end of collapse. They are trapped between a very nationalistic front represented by the military power and the need to change a la Gorbatchev to survive.
In this regard, the extensive analysis of Harvard Professor Edward N. Luttwak in his recent book 'The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy' is really to the point.
So, I believe that Sino-Japanese relations might improve, but the political situation in China is doomed to deteriorate as things need to worsen before they can get better. And by that I mean to have the CCP toppled and have a true democracy in China representative of tis sovereign people, who like everybody, just want to live in peace and prosper.
Apologise for wanting to have land back that was taken from them in 1895? Yeah, dream on, victims never have to apologise. Japan was ORDERED to relinquish all territory she claimed through "violence and greed" as agreed in the Cairo Declaration 1943. Japan claimed Diaoyu Islands through both greed and violence when they invaded and annexed Taiwan in 1895, as such, they are required to return it to China.
As for fire control radar being used, I would use it on the Japanese ship if he dared to approach to 3km of my ship. Both ships are armed with weapon systems that are designed to engage enemies up to a distance of at least 200km, why the hell would the Japanese ship approach to 3km if it hadn't been attempting to make a scene? And it DID make a scene, it provided the perfect excuse for the Japanese government to b*tch and whine to the world and accuse China of instigating hostilities etc. This tactic was used as a pretext to invade China in 1937, it seems Japan is back to using the same old tricks. But I'm not worried, there won't be a war, the US would pull back on their Japan-leash long before any shot is fired. Sometimes, you just can't help but feel sorry for the Japanese; being US dogs and all, unable to make decisions for themselves without the say-so from the US.
And tell me, do you really believe all the gibberish you are blabbering in your very own autistic and psychotic way? 😉
@facebook-1791005571:disqus The Senkakus were not claimed through "violence and greed", they were acquired through perfectly legal, boring and professional surveying and bureaucracy over a period of 10 years after a gentleman from Kyushu put in a polite and formal business request.
During the surveying, it was found that the islands had not be inhabited and, hence, were legally terra nullius. Protocols were followed, findings published and sovereignty established according to international law.
this is from Kyodo news, unnamed official and undated. if you have the evidence, show it. why create phantoms to admit things?
Thanks for the info
Abe is what I term a "perpetual liar". Some sick people are Kleptomaniacs – Abe's sickness – apart from hois deep love of war criminals – is his deep love of lying. After Obama rightly dressed Abe down in his recent US visit and refused to discuss the Daioyou Islands with him – you had Japanese newspaper saying 2 weeks later that sources close to Obama said he understood Abe's position on teh Diaoyou's – patently Abe was lying.
You have the same situation here with teh "cry wolf" Chinese radar lock on Japanese boats. The Jpanese bigged it up and you had Abe bleating about it to the world – but when push came to shove – and Abe had to put up or shut up and show the world the radar locking proof – guess what – he had none.
Now Abe is back to peddling lies about sources close to the Chinese military have revelaed!!
There must be some pretty feebled brained people in Jpan – if they believe this hogwash – and weak minded muppets who love it and feed on hogwash!! This is a simple case of "show us the proof or shut up". Abe has failed to provide proof !!
sources my son sources. I can write an article saying that Abe fabricated this whole situation because he wants to send his son to college and needs the money, and my source came from "an unnamed high ranking japanese official who if he disclosed his name would be annihilated from the face of this planet". So if your article and or your claim has nothing to back it up, you should continue researching, and stop the propaganda. thanks 🙂
That would depend who you were. Obviously, this is not a "high ranking" media outlet, it's just a blog selling advertizing by recycling others press releases and doing no journalism at all … but if you were in a high, official position, and had a history of making accurate statements, if your job was to make accurate public statements, then they could be accepted.
In this case, the SDF is so cautious and follows procedure so closely that it would not have made a statement without having hard evidence and going through numerous channels first.
time in memorial.. STUPIDITY Caused the last two World wars…
You are a revisionist and in a denial.
It is common knowledge and proven by many historian that Chinese regime has massacred millions during the Great Leap Forward to purge China from all 'enemy'. Check Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
As for the Organs harvesting, Canadian and U.S. Government are investing it with many testimony proving it is currently happening.
And for Tien An Men ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBN11-F8kh8 ), you are brainwashed ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naCWOAVSwUE ) into thinking what your CCP has told you. Try to get a critical mind.
You are atrocious at history. First of all, the Great Leap Forward was an industrialisation plan enacted by Mao, which ended disastrously resulting in millions of deaths. It was not a mass killing scheme dreamt up by the Communist Party to use the military to execute millions.
The fact that you are calling me a revisionist is hilarious, the very source you use is from a pseudo-historian called Frank Dikötter who is ACTUALLY considered a revisionist by the West.
I would have thought my mastery of the English language would have awakened you to the fact that I do NOT live in mainland China and as such, am not flooded with CCP propaganda.
As for "purging of enemies", that didn't happen during the Great Leap Forward, it happened during the Cultural Revolution when Mao REALLY went out of hand and ordered an upheaval of China's society which again, ended disastrously. But alas, the killings were not organised by the Communist Party itself, it was organised by thousands of "Red Guard" factions composed of students. The Cultural Revolution developed from a hot-blooded attempt at revitalisation into a lawless period of random killings enacted by restless students. The Chinese military itself did not become involved although their weapons and equipment were looted away by rivaling factions of "Red Guards".
Here are some anecdotes: my grandfather led a troupe of 3000 students to empty out an Army storehouse over 5 days. The looted equipment composed of grenades, rifles, ammunition and various other small arms. He withdrew from further participation of the "revolution" after 1966, mere months after its conception due to the increasing madness of the participants. My grandmother stopped participation after she saw a close friend executed by being forcefully decapitated by a passing train whilst being held down by members of a rival "Red Guard" faction.
Time ha snot changed, the same barbarian principles remain. TIan An Men, then forced organs harvesting, imprisoning people without due trial for their belief or for what they say. You may not be in mainland China. You may well be a ABC living on the west coast having your parents fled and you being sentimental about your roots while not actually living there, but you should respect and admit the horrors the current communist government revert to to stay in power. If you like China so much, then why don't you go and live there?
I see double standards there. The same "barbarian principles" remain for China but not Japan? So you're saying China committed the Great Leap Forward, therefore, they are still just as evil today, but Japan, having killed in excess of 30 million people somehow magically changed into a peace-loving and friendly country? You can't apply a logic to one country but not to another, this just goes to show your bias against others.
As for my family history, that's none of your business, but no, my family did not "flee" from China. My mum and I still retain our Chinese citizenship just in case I am needed to join the Chinese military in the event of a war. As for why I don't live in China, it is due to language barriers. My mastery of Chinese is not nearly sophisticated enough to be able to comprehend complex concepts that I will approach in higher learning such as single crystal manufacturing, string theory, network covalent lattices et cetera.
I don't know where you went fishing your 30 million, but obviously you got confused with the figures of the Great Leap Forward.
You also seem to be confused on Japan and China. Let me educate you a bit.
Japan is a democracy, where people live freely, whereas China is a dictatorship where people are not free to believe, to speak nor to travel. You are aware I hope that only a few have a visa….
So ok, you're just a 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese living abroad, whose family has fled or just merely 'went' living in the States, whatever you want to call it, and you have the hypocrisy of praising a dictatorship while enjoying the comfort of a true democracy. Just go an live there. Walk the talk if you dare…. You're just so full of yourself.
20 million Chinese were killed in the Japanese occupation, of which, 17 million were civilians. From 1895 to 1945, Korea was under Japanese occupation which also resulted in numerous civilian deaths as well as deaths of conscripted Koreans in the Japanese military. Add those deaths to the casaulties suffered by South East Asia, the British commonwealth and USA and you'll get ~30 million, give or take a few million.
I can see you failed political science. A dictatorship is where one ruler is in power indefinitely. China changes leadership every 10 years, in fact, it JUST DID. A dictatorship would be something like North Korea or Zimbabwe where Kim and Mugabe rule as long as they wish.
If you haven't figured out yet, I'm not endorsing the CCP. In fact, all of my posts admit the wrongdoings and the devastating consequences of CCP policy mistakes. While I study in the West (not the USA, you should be able to figure that out from my usage of British English), I visit my relatives regularly and stay for extended periods of time. I have to say though, this permanent resident visa along with a Chinese passport is quite convenient, I'm allowed to enter the West, Hong Kong as well as the mainland without a great deal of bureaucracy.
I'm beginning to wonder whether you proof-read your comments, they seem to contain excessive amounts of grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes. Why don't you tell everyone a bit about yourself as well heh? So that we can get a better understanding of you and any potential bias you might have towards, say, my race.
I really don't know where you get those figures, but for sure they are as phony as you are.
You keep blabbering nonsense about historical facts of which you are blatantly ignorant. And you certainly do not know about the Japanese rule of the Korean peninsula, but then again maybe you are going to tell me that Korea should be returned to China since Japan freed Korea and Taiwan from the Qing Emperor with the Treaty of Shimonoseki? 😉
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government. It is just sad that you do not even grasp the understanding of what this is. The fact this is a bunch of fascist (ie authoritarian nationalist) making their decision in a tight-knit forum and later have this theatric to maintain the resemblance of an election is just a joke to the world. There is no democracy in China, no liberty, just one party and a strong repression like the Tian An Men for anyone challenging this authority. And this authority is not even based on the law, even if there are legislations passed. Labor camps are a good example of discretionary measures used to scare people off.
I am glad you can proof read me, because obviously you have the time on your hand, while I do this as a mere distraction while working.
Search in the library, databases and internet, the figures from authoritative sources all describe similar numbers.
You keep dismissing my arguments, but all you're coming up with are accusations and not counter-arguments. Korea was a vassal/tributary state to the Qing court before their annexation. I don't believe they should be incorporated into a Chinese nation state as they were never part of China per se, they were only part of the security alliance that spanned across much of East Asia in the form of the tributary system.
A dictator is a person who rules indefinitely. China does not have one single person who rules indefinitely. The Chinese government operates on something more akin to Totalitarianism. As for no democracy, there is democracy within the Communist Party itself, if you want to vote, join the CCP and vote for your preferred candidate for party secretary, I just can't be bothered. Just saying, I can't vote both in China or in the West and I don't see the significance of it, I'm not nearly qualified enough to decide a country's fate.
Despite your numerous attempts to disseminate groundless information, you have not provided reputable reference. Have not you been in College where they teach you on how to properly reference sources? I guess not.
Blabbering all those gibberish is not the pretense of knowledge, it is just gibberish you know.
I have no bias against Chinese and have had many Chinese friends over the decades and for decades. In fact, I've even got a friend in Beijing who is a party member and spent time in Tibet actually studying Tibetan culture (rather than repressing it) and so I know and have seen many facets of the Chinese diaspora.
Unfortunately, we've just suffered from a torrent of idiots on this website with no real interest in discussion, mutual exchange or learning.
It is something Japan's suffers in general. Too many of them are from America, both white and Asian-American (we have one trolls Japanese sites threaten to slit throats, eviscerate and pump 50 calibre bullets into people) so I am glad to here you have spent time in Great Britain.
In a way, this site, like others, is a microcosm of the world at large.
It's very true. This site do reflect the world at large and the tendency people have to exaggerate and twist facts to support their biased point of view. Like this guy supporting China, but not living there, and rather 'visiting' some folks there but not actually residing there, being oblivious to the horrors of CCP past and present and at the same time condemning Japan past misdeeds. There is no discussion with people who are not open-minded enough to be willing to compromise or accept to be corrected. I have yet to find one Chinese on those fora, even a 2nd or 3rd generation one with this attitude. I know I have found many Japanese with this attitude toward their own country, even if I feel not enough were critical, but still, one can tell the difference in education and how it reflects on the citizens in each country.
He was replying to ME, not you. Thank you for barging into a conversation that had nothing to do with you, much appreciated.
But who cares? And more to the point who said anyone could not comment on someone else post in a 'forum'?? Maybe you think you're somewhere you're not…
I see there's no cure for rudeness.
I'll tell you what. I'll start having more consideration for you, when you start showing capability to have a real adult discussion, and not some autistic psychopath view of the world.
The only discussion you'll accept is a one where I have to submit to your dictations. Dream on mate, you're the one who can't string a sentence together, and you're accusing me of being an autistic psychopath.
When you will be capable of properly arguing with reference from reputable source, I promise you I will be very attentive, and possibly reconsider my position on certain topics if it need be. But, like you said, dream on.
I think we have to accept the limitations of this particular software and "forum" as being slightly obstructive to discussions. I don't like it. It does not thread very well and either it makes one look like one is responding to one person or it butts in a comment above someone else who has already answered.
Perhaps the owners will develop a proper forum one day? If not, sooner rather than later, I will lose interest because it is too messy and too easy to overload with noise.
I am also concerned that all they are interested in in publishing copy and paste contentious articles in order to drive up page views and make advertizing revenue.
Mine was an open statement to everyone, everyone is welcome to respond.
This Jeffrey Wu is just a young (check his FB page) 3rd gen Chinese in search of his roots happy to believe anything. It is just really sad they lack basic critical thinking and judgement.
My guess your family maintain actually dual citizenship for financial reasons not in case you are to be called up. It's called covering one's bets and planning for the future … to fight whom, by the way? You'd be a fool to fight over some old men's belly aching.
I ask the same as far East below … 30 million? Where and when.
If you study Japan's history and culture, especially those related to warfare and succession, you will find it really is quite different from China's and Japan really had a more refined and peaceful, more equal and ordered culture.
Had it not been attacked by the Americans for no reason, and forced to mobilize against the white imperialists, it would have had no interest in Asia and I think you have to accommodate in your world view that it did actually do some good for Asia.
China doesn't tolerate dual citizenship. Our citizenship is Chinese in full, we simply have a permanent resident visa which allows us to live in the West, albeit without voting.
Your claim that Japan was more "refined and peaceful" than China, is just plain racist. Tell THAT to the Koreans, who suffered immensely under Japanese occupation. They also suffered a devastating invasion from Japan in 1492, which the Chinese assisted in repelling. So you see, Japan really isn't all that more refined or peaceful than the rest of Asia historically. Alright, they're more peaceful than the Mongols, I'll give you that. But comparing them to Imperial China and Korea is basically comparing the exact same culture with subtle differences. A white guy can't tell the difference between any of the mongoloid races, I guarantee you that, never mind the cultural differences.
If memory serves me well, then it was Japan who attacked everyone first. Annexation of Korea, occupation of Manchuria, bombing of Pearl Harbour and invasion of Singapore. Sir, are you delusional? Are you so deluded that you think the US/Korea/China/Brits took up arms against Japan first?
I, personally, would not call it a "barbarian principle". I would equate it to the evolution from feudalism to modernism and the industrial era, and then beyond.
In China, like India, you still have an entire spectrum of existence. In Korea, you had a far more rapid period of modernization from an extreme form of feudalism. But in Japan there was also the Edo period which is quite unique in world history.
As I say to all intelligent questions, if it is something people are interested in discussing, then I am happy to do so and point to real books and papers if you can accept my linguistic level and typing skills.
On the other hand, if someone is just interested n throwing grenades, then I will bat them back to them and add a few more for good measure!
So you are a guy who enjoys the freedom and a comfortable life in a Western society but will not hesitate to turn around to fight, to destroy the country that providing the shelter to your family?
Let's be honest with each others, you maintained the Chinese citizenship to ensure once CN overtook the US, your family would be easily moving back to CN to start another new comfortable life there and if something went wrong in CN you would move back to US or elsewhere. You don't really have a country in your heart. You and your family are just traitors.
In the WWII, many Japanese who lived in the US were fighting back to back with the American to against the Japanese. That is what we should do: get and give.
I take it you are talking about casualties, and your reference mentions 20 millions which is the official Chinese number. There are various estimates going from a few millions to the max 20. See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
The official Chinese government number is 30 million. I'm somewhat doubtful of that number though, historians generally agree on 15-20 million Chinese deaths. The fact that you're using Wikipedia as a source already validates your incompetence in discussions. For your information, there are no such things as "colleges" where I live, institutions of higher learning are called "universities".
Tell me, isn't your mumy expecting you or shouldn't you be doing your high school homework?
Just grow up a bit will you?
Oh don't worry, my high school homework is infinitely more complex than what your simple mind is able to comprehend. You are incapable of an intellectual discussion, that's for sure. All you can muster up in response to other posters and me are petty insults and pathetic accusations. You should keep silent to avoid further embarrassment to you and your type. As one of your famous presidents said; better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. I suggest you take heed of his advice, for his advice was directed at fools like yourself.
There are quite a lot of good colleges in Oxford or Cambridge if you aim higher.
I agree that the written content on the Wikipedia is not reliable, especially in these areas. There are very clearly biases and a number of notable nationalistic wars going on at any time. I think all the world's wars are still being fought on it.
Japan comes off very badly having very few English speaking contributors while facing all the Allied forces, and the Chinese and Korean diasporas, at once.
However, the collections of reference on the articles are often very useful if one has the time and is dedicated to go off and actually read them.
The Cairo Declaration means nothing, as it was made in 1943 under Roosevelt, and peace negotiations were made after Roosevelt's death, my General MacArthur.
Jeffrey Wu Actually, the first date we have is Koga Tatsushiro from Fukuoka requesting permission to occupy the islands in 1884. It was neither an invasion nor an annexing. Just someone in the fishing industry seeking to start a business on the idea. Presumably they were therefore known by the fishermen for some time before. As others have mentioned, they were known by Ryukyuan mariners as marker points when they sailed to China.
If the door of my mind is close to Chinese claims it is because of the manner in which the CPC have gone about staking their claim, and the timing of it. It is safe to presume that had oil reserves not been speculated, they would still not interest in the matter today and so, therefore, it's just a bargain ploy to get more of something rather than nothing.
The problem China has is that the rest of the world has evolved since the C19th and the 'rule of law' rather than the 'rule of China' has become the international standard.
Not being aware of how the 'rule of China' operates, the question I have is how by the rule of China it asserts its "ownership". There is a difference between naming something and owning something. Yes, fair enough, the rocks might have been named on a map but never occupied, administrated, or utilized.
The Western explorers and imperialists from Magellan onwards (C 16th) named many rocks or territories. They do not claim them all as their property and the law would not support such a claim.
Why should the law apply differently to China?
Comments Off on JDP Startup Corner: Pros & Cons of Working with a Partner in Japan


text:
Chris Matthews Compares Obama to Jesus? 'He Came Amongst Us,' Says MSNBC Host
Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," appeared to compare President Barack Obama to Jesus Thursday in a discussion about his interview with the president.
Matthews was gushing over the fact that the president was willing to speak to the MSNBC host.
David Corn, editor of Mother Jones, complained that Obama is "frustrated with the political and media culture he has to work within ... ."
Matthews interrupted to remind Corn that Obama was willing to spend time that day with lowly reporters.
"But, David Corn you skeptic," Matthews responded, "he came to us today. He came amongst us."
This would not be the first time Matthews expressed his affection for the president.
During the 2008 election, Matthews remarked that after hearing an Obama speech, "I felt this thrill going up my leg."
A clip was posted to the Washington Free Beacon YouTube channel. You can watch it below.


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Mime Game Album Release Show
Mime Game
Rev Gusto, Rosedale
Czar Bar
1531 Grand Blvd.
Kansas City, MO, 64108
This event is 18 and over
We want to change how people feel about music today by genre bending and moving past and through ethereal space into a realm of ultimate existence.
Jerry Frederick and a revolving band including Quinn Hernandez, Sam Frederick, Shaun Crowley, Peter Beatty, Sam Hernandez, Kyle Chadwick and numerous others.
Growing up in Brampton, Ontario has its ups and downs, like any city in the GTA. Six foot nine frontman, Mike Liorti, could explain all of that in a nutshell using only one word; ROSEDALE. Named after downtown Brampton's Rosedale Ave, Mike and his friends invested many walks (over many different shoe sizes) on this mysteriously vintage street that links directly from the train tracks to the local music store; Long & McQuade Musical Instruments. Yes, ROSEDALE were those kids who had nothing better to do than to try out all the amazing gear of their dreams for hours and write tunes that sound not far off of bands like Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, and Blink 182. While this seemed like a phase that would pass to most, for Mike, it was actually what created a positive foundation of musicianship and a whole new world of entrepreneurial business skills… not to mention his intricate set up and eye popping light show.
Over time this dream of making music for a living escalated to a surprising degree of reality; independent tours with American acts, North American Tours following the Vans Warped Tour, a music video with Bent Penny Records, interviews and blogs on muchmusic.com, some spins on XM and MTV2, and sponsorships from ONE Global Protection, Kodak, Audix Microphones, Boomphones, and Travis Barker's Famous Stars & Straps.
These are just a few minor accomplishments in comparison to what is to come from this driven, self-established artist. With Mike's ambitious North American summer tour, his debut session vocals in Disney's Radio Rebel, and the launch of his professional recording studio; there's no telling where ROSEDALE will be by the end of 2012.
For fans of: Boxcar Racer, Taking Back Sunday, Boys Like Girls
Upcoming Events
Czar Bar
- Sorry, there are currently no upcoming events.


text:
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text:
I decided to take a few of my kids old books that were already falling apart and turn them into day planners. I can never seem to find the right one for me. Here is the first one:
I threw in a few random pages from the kids' book throughout the planner.
I like it a lot and I can't wait to make the next one. I will share it too.