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As a creditor, you may be tempted to walk away and not pursue your claims. That business judgment may be the best course of action. You should be aware, however, that there could be other avenues of redress. One of the potential remedies may be with the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA).
The Uniform Acts
In previous articles, I have discussed the nature of some "Uniform Acts." These statutes start life as a recommendation to state legislatures across the country. In many instances, each state modifies the proposed act before passage. As a result, the exact wording of one state's uniform statute may be different from that of another state. You must review the statute for your own state before proceeding.
Among the Uniform Acts are the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Arbitration Act and a host of other statutes addressing wills, joint tortfeasors, etc. These acts are all attempts to bring some consistency to the laws throughout the country and to collect related laws in each state under one banner.
What the UFTA does
There are hundreds of laws, created by case law as well as by statute, on fraud, fraudulent transfers and fraudulent busi-ness practices. The UFTA is aimed at a class of fraud between debtors and creditors involving the debtor's transfer of property.
Specifically, the UFTA addresses transfers of property with the intent to defraud a creditor. Under this act, the fraud can be a transfer of property to avoid an existing obligation or a transfer made to avoid a debt that is about to be incurred. The latter circumstance could occur, for example, if a company used its assets to show its credit worthiness, knowing that it was going to dispose of those assets.
The intent here can be actual intent or presumed to be intentional fraud. Actual intent is usually the harder of the two to prove. The act provides a list of factors for the proof that the transfer was for the purpose of hindering, delaying or cheating a creditor. These factors include the -following:
A. A transfer to an insider
B. The transfer of title only, while control of the property remained with the debtor
C. The transfer occurred after the debtor was sued or threatened with suit
D. The transfer occurred close in time (before or after) to the imposition of a substantial debt
Fraud is presumed if the debtor transferred property for an unreasonably low sum of money or equivalent property before entering into a transaction with a creditor so that the creditor could not be paid out of the remaining assets of the debtor.
What does this mean?
For the law, the moment the word "fraud" appears, bells and whistles go off, as the concept has both civil and criminal implications. For example, in a recent case, an unlicensed contractor entered into agreements with homeowners for renovation projects.
Under state law, the contracts were void, a fact the unwitting homeowners did not know. The "contractor" then proceeded to collect advances from customers and actually performed some work on his jobs before he abandoned them. He was convicted in federal court for mail fraud. State actions may also be prosecuted.
The fraud discussed in this article is not so much concerned with continuing schemes, like with the home renovation crook, but with a discrete event of a transfer (read "hiding") of assets to cheat creditors.
In many if not most instances, the disappointed creditor first learns about the fraud when he tries to collect a debt or enforce a judgment. At that point, the creditor is not only out-of-pocket on his accounts receivable, but he has also incurred collection costs, including attorney fees.
The creditor must then file separate lawsuits against the parties who received the transferred assets, with the burden to prove that fraud was involved. As an alternative, creditors may instead place the defaulting debtor in bankruptcy, thus allowing the bankruptcy trustee to collect the assets by setting aside conveyances, fraudulent or otherwise.
However, the bankruptcy approach may be less desirable because the debtor's assets become available to all creditors.
Other state laws
There are large numbers of fraud cases where insolvent companies have transferred assets to their officers, directors and related companies, but no fraud was proved. For good or bad reasons, the courts will not define a list of fraudulent transfers. There are, instead, lists of "badges of fraud" or "considerations."
Generally speaking, officers of a company are under no duty to preserve corporate assets for the benefit of creditors. And the courts are hesitant to review corporate financial decisions, no matter how foolish those decisions may be, even though creditors are injured.
A fair summary of the case law concerning this issue was made by the court in Bank of America v. Musselman, 222 F. Supp.2d 792 (E.D.Va. 2002). The court surveyed decisions from a number of jurisdictions, including Illinois, Delaware, New York and North Carolina. The holding was:
"[T]he law of other jurisdictions is that directors and officers owe a limited fiduciary duty to creditors during insolvency; this duty extends only to refraining from self-dealing acts."
The "self-dealing acts" were divided into five categories:
1. Withdrawing corporate assets from an insolvent corporation to pay debts owed to directors or officers
2. Using corporate funds to pay off debts personally guaranteed by the director or officer
3. Engaging in transactions for the benefit of a parent company
4. Appropriating proceeds from the sale of corporate assets, thereby rendering the company insolvent
5. Using corporate assets as collateral for personal stock purchases.
"Self dealing" is so central because the creditor wants the assets returned to the company. An innocent buyer of corporate assets is considered a "bona fide purchaser for value" who should not be dragged into the fray. Accordingly, you need to investigate the five categories above before deciding to pursue a fraudulent conveyance claim.
Being aware of the law of fraudulent transfers is important from two very different perspectives. On the one hand, you should consult an attorney if you are the creditor seeking funds from an insolvent debtor and, on the other hand, if you find your company in financial straits, you should obtain good counsel so that your efforts to protect your company's assets don't involve fraudulent transfers. EC
ITTIG, of Ittig & Ittig, P.C., in Washington, D.C., specializes in construction law. He can be contacted at 202.387.5508, [email protected] or www.ittig-ittig.com.
About The Author
ITTIG, of Ittig & Ittig, P.C., in Washington, D.C., specializes in construction law. He can be contacted at 202.387.5508, [email protected] and www.ittig-ittig.com.


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Giving something back to our community is really important to us. Howard Cundey is actively involved with the Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance which is a vital resource to all that live within and visit the areas in which we work. We're always looking for new ways to raise funds and past activities have included sky diving, the Double 100 bike ride, cake sales, raffles and more.
From 2012 to the end of 2014 we had raised over £20,000, and that number is continuing to grow.
As well as this, each office is heavily involved at a local level, regularly supporting schools, sports clubs and community events. These include:
– Biggin Hill Festival of Flight
– Blethchingley Fair
– Chailey School
– Dormansland Carnival
– Edenbridge Piranhas Swimming Club
– Forest Row Football Club
– Imberhorne School
– Lingfield Marathon
– Reigate Football Club
– Southdown Netball Club
– Tatsfield Rovers Football Club
Many of our team have also provided inspirational talks to school children, conducted business studies classes, participated in career events and even helped upcoming local talent to gain work experience.
The 2015 Biggin Hill Festival of Flight will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Howard Cundey are a key sponsor at this event, and are continually proud to support such important community events like this and others. Tickets are currently on sale at your local Howard Cundey branch at a cheaper rate than booking direct. You can also win tickets by registering for our community newsletter. Register here or find your local branch to purchase tickets.
At Howard Cundey we have recognised that social media is a big part of engaging with the community. In 2014 we were thrilled to win The Sunday Times and The Times Estate Agency of the Year Bronze Award.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or register for our community newsletter, to find out what we're up to in your local area.

subset: commoncrawl


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There are many simple tasks we can implement to boost our health year around. During the cold and flu season it is especially important to pay attention to the choices we are making and intentionally strengthen our immune system.
Even the most basic changes in our daily habits of how we sleep, drink, eat, move, use essential oils, detox, and use superfood supplements can be life changing. If you find yourself frequently fighting infections, and feeling "under the weather", daily use of essential oils combined with these simple steps can boost your immune system.
Essential Oils To Boost Your Health:
Essential oils by doTerra can be an easy and affordable component in building a balanced immune system and keeping it working strong. As a matter of fact, essential oils can be a human's best friend in nearly every area of life 24 hours a day. They can be used in self-care, whole family care (from birth to old age), pet care, home care, education, gardening, farming, therapy, disease protocol. Even if you choose not to use them 24/7, then at least use them in your immune system tool kit.
Specific oils can be weapons of mass destruction and shields of protection against nearly everything that comes against the human immune system, and many have already been scientifically proven to be more effective than most pharmaceuticals on the market today. When your body goes into the repair shop, it could use a few specific tools. Essential oils are the tools that can assist you in boosting your immune system.
It is so easy to forget how important sleep is for protecting our immune system. Since we do it everyday, most of us just take it for granted. For example it is best to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep and to go to bed by 10:30 to get a good nights rest and reach REM sleep in which the brain puts the body into a detoxing and repair mode. Your body literally goes to your own built-in repair shop when you go into REM sleep. If we don't reach this restful state of sleep, the body gets behind in its repairing process. To help you get to sleep at this healthy hour, be sure to put away anything with a lit screen (TV, Smartphone, Computer, Bright lighted room) at least one hour before bedtime. Instead of TV or computer time, read in soft light, or listen to relaxing music, or even take a relaxing bath to get your body and mind ready to go to bed. Essential oils can assist you in relaxing and getting a good nights sleep. Some can be applied to the feet or massaged into the muscles, neck, etc. Also use a diffuser in the room and use calming oils for you and your children to help you relax and sleep well.
Another wise choice to boost your immune system, is to drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated throughout the day. All of the body systems need water to run efficiently. When we get dehydrated the body suffers and our immune system is weakened. I recently read that many folks who survived the Ebola infection were the ones who were able to stay hydrated and drink at least 100 oz or more of water. That volume of clean water in their location is hard to come by per person each day, and many are loosing their battle with Ebola because their immune system is weakened. When we are hydrated our immune system can function at its best to protect us.
To boost our immune system there are specific oils that are safe for internal use that we can add to our drinking water that help to kill infections from virus and bacteria and mobilize our defense system. It's like bringing in the Calvary to the battle.
Eating right, getting plenty of rest, moderate activity, and staying hydrated are the basic foundation of a healthy life. Eating right involves eating a variety of nutrient dense foods and avoiding "Franken foods" (man-made foods that have been seriously altered from their natural state or ingredients that were never food in the first place).
Some of the foundational foods we should include in our diet are:
1) Fresh organic fruits and vegetables that provides live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, carbohydrates, fiber, and more.
2) Bone broths that provide dissolved and easily assimilated minerals,
3) Healthy fats like cold pressed coconut oil, cold pressed olive oil, grass-fed butter, free range eggs, fresh raw milk with cream, sprouted nuts, etc.
4) Cultured foods like yogurt, sour cream, raw cheese; also fermented foods like pickles, chutney, kimchi, and kraut; and fermented beverages like coconut water kefirs, dairy kefirs, new wines, kombucha, etc. Cultured and fermented foods provide so many amazing nutrients that are ready to digest for easily assimilated vitamins, live probiotics to aid digestion of our other foods, and the healing and protective strategy they provide the digestive tract.
5) Herbs, spices, and essential oils for flavor and their protective qualities.
6) In moderation, animal proteins from Grass-fed and wild caught animals, such as wild salmon, wild deer, or grass-fed beef. It is very important that these animals eat as natural as they would in the wild. This is the best way to ensure the nutrition for them and for you is at the right level and not out of whack. If you don't have access to this kind of meat, it is better to go without than to try to use factory farmed animal proteins that result in disease for the animals and the humans that consume them.
Beyond these basic areas, not much else is needed for food for the human body's nutrient needs. A few other enjoyable foods that still contain intensive nutrients are fine in moderation too such as: raw honey, maple syrup, un-sulfered molasses, succanant or rapadura sugar, lohan fruit sugar, coconut sugar, sprouted organic or chemical free grains, sprouted organic legumes, etc. but don't over eat these as they can raise the blood sugar level, upset the digestive system, etc.
Specific essential oils that are safe for ingesting can be used as remedies but also used to flavor food, wash food, enhance digestion, enhance metabolism, used in home remedies, and to boost the immune system. Many essential oils are anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. So you get the combined benefit of making your food taste great, and boosting the immune system at the same time.
Avoid eating white sugar, and white flour, and grain alcohol. This is another simple task we can do to stay healthy. White grains and sugars are basically sugar in the blood stream and hard on the body organs. They can weaken the digestive system, neurological system, endocrine system, and the immune system. We are talking about the immune system specifically in this post so it is important for you to know that white sugar interferes with the white blood cell's ability to fight infections. White sugar is really dangerous to the immune system because it literally immobilizes and weakens the fighter cells to less than 25% of their fighting capability for several hours after consuming white sugar. It stops the conversion of vit. D to vit C and also blocks receptor sites and blocks the white blood cells from accessing the vitamin C and vitamin A rendering them useless in an attack. That is why we get sick so easily when we consume a high sugar diet. Sugar has a long half-life in the blood stream and the white blood cells do not return to their full fighting capacity for several hours, and for some people it can take a day or two to get it their immune system back up to normal, even when we have consumed as little as a few teaspoons of sugar. This is why the Standard American Diet can be so dangerous. Imagine if you consumed this small amount of sugar everyday, which most Americans consume way more. Your immune system would be vulnerable to all kinds of attacks on a constant basis and would not have the ability to efficiently protect you. Adding in anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal essential oils helps a person have more of a chance to fight infections when perhaps their diet isn't the best.
For various reasons, the human body may lack certain needed nutrients to function at its optimal capacity. It could be due to dietary choices we make, but it could also be due to illness, medications, stress, toxins, disease, etc. all of which can have long-term negative effects on the body and suppress its functioning.
One way to improve your nutritional intake and jump-start the healing process is to use superfoods and superfood supplements. Superfoods are a concentrated form of all natural nutrients. These are nutrients that naturally exist in nature, and we when eat them in a concentrated form, they can provide the tools we need to repair and renew our bodies. Supperfoods come in various ways, such as liquid, or dried and ground into powder, perhaps the liquids or powders are added to capsules, or left as a powder or liquid to stir into drinks or smoothies. Some superfoods are made into extracts and oils too. Some examples of superfood supplements are probiotics like PBAssist +, xEO Mega Essential Oil Complex, Alpha CRS +, MICROPLEX VMz, TerraGreens, Terrazyme multi enzymes, and more great superfoods like Spirulina, food Extracts like elderberry extract, Herbal Extracts, Spirulina, Fish Oils which provides Omega 3 Fatty Acids, cinnamon oil, oregano oil, and so on.
Toxins seem to be something we don't think much about, but our bodies encounter them daily. The effects of toxins on the body can build up over a short or long amount of time, and be detrimental, leading to a compromised immune system and disease.
Toxins are everywhere including in the air we breath, water, food, soil, personal care products and cleaning products in our homes, where we live and play, and in our workplaces too. It is a wise decision on our part to reduce as much exposure to toxins in our daily life as we can.
Essential oils can play a major role in helping the body detox. Helping our body detox from environmental, digestive, and immune system toxins is a great way to boost and protect our immune system. Some oils detox the air and help us breath fresher cleaner air, some oils detox our bodies through both internal and external use. Soon I will post more information on specific oils we can use to detox our bodies and boost our immune system. Be sure to check back for more posts about essential oils.
Want to know more about how essential oils can boost your immune system? Check out this Webinar to learn about more ways to use do-Terra Essential Oils to "Power Up Your Immune System".
Are you ready for a doTerra Essential Oils Giveaway?
I hope after reading this post, and viewing the webinar that you agree that essential oils belong in everyones home and can be incorporated into every area of life, play, and work.
This giveaway is an incredible opportuntiy to win 10 essential oils that boost the immune system for FREE! My mentor is an incredibly generous person. She is a wife and mother and understands the health and wellness needs of families. She and her extended family have been involved in natural health and wellness for at least 20 years or more. She is one of four sisters who are all educators and healers with essential oils. One of her sisters is also a Naturopath Doctor. She has an incredible amount of knowledge about essential oils and natural methods of health and wellness. She wrote the webinar you just watched, and she is offering my readers a free personalized sample of essentail oils to everyone who enters this giveway. Her goal is to put a healer in every home and equip families with the knowledge of how to care for their own families and boost their health through a lifestyle of using essential oils.
Every completed entry in this giveaway is a winner of a free personalized doTerra Essential Oil sample. When you leave your contact information in the entry form, I will contact you and we can discuss the specific essential oil sample that will address your needs the best, and get it shipped to you right away. Use this sample oil in your home to boost your health and wellness and be encouraged to learn more about essential oils.
ONE ENTRY WILL WIN a do-Terra Family Physicians Kit! This kit retails for $166.67 WOW! The doTerra Family Physician Kit contains 10 CPTG Certified Pure Theraputic Grade Essential Oils and Essential Oil Blends in 5ML glass bottles. The bottles can be stored in the case it comes in which includes a summary of how each oils is used. These are the Frankincense, Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint, Melaleuca, Oregano, Deep Blue (soothing blend), Breath (respiratory blend), Digestzen (digestive blend), and On Guard (protective blend). This is an AWESOME kit! I know you will love it. My life has been so blessed by learning to use essential oils for better health and I know yours will be too.
Be sure to like my Weiser Natural's Facebook Page. I will post regular updates on different essential oils and kits there so you don't want to miss it.
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Duff McKagan Risks Cerebral Edema Climbing Mt. Ranier
The life of a rock n' roller may be grueling, what with all the constant travel, long hours in the studio and non-stop partying, but, as Duff McKagan found out, it's nothing compared to mountain climbing. The former Guns N' Roses bassist recently risked his life attempting to scale Mt. Ranier, which has an elevation of 14,409 feet, and wrote about the experience in his column at Seattle Weekly.
The climb was part of the Heroes Project, which was founded by McKagan's friend, Tim Medvetz, and dedicated to supporting veterans, soldiers and military families. Joining them at Mt. Ranier was Cpl. Kionte Storey, who lost his right leg in Afghanistan and climbed with the use of a prosthetic limb.
According to McKagan, who trained heavily for the event, all was going fairly well by the time they reached Camp Muir at 10,000 feet. But after that, things changed. "My right eye suddenly blurred at about 11,000 feet," he wrote. "I kept it quiet. I didn't want to be the guy who held up the group…Blurry or not, you just carry on… At 12,000 feet, both my eyes went blurry, and nausea was overcoming me. It was a sort of step, step, heave . . . step, step, heave type of gait. " Still, McKagan believed it would pass.
At 12,800 feet, someone noticed his behavior and told him that he thought McKagan had suffered a life-threatening cerebral edema, which can happen as a result of altitude sickness. Duff's internal response was skepticism — "Hey climber-dude-alarmist-guy . . . chill the f— out" — but the climb was called off and McKagan was led back down the mountain to safety.
Despite possibly nearly losing his life, McKagan hopes to reach the summit of Mt. Ranier someday.


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'Iron Man 3' gave life to southeastern NC business
A nearly year-long battle to attract and successfully create Wilmington's largest movie production ever has come to an end, a victory that state and local film officials say will make North Carolina more competitive with other film-producing states.
Posted — UpdatedMuch like industrialist-turned-superhero Tony Stark in his next big-screen adventure, when the state's "Iron Man 3" prospects seemed their darkest, a team with Gov. Beverly Perdue at its helm sprang into action, meeting with the film's producers.
"North Carolina had it all; the stages, the crews and the incentives," said N.C. Film Office director Aaron Syrett.
That trifecta convinced Marvel, part of the Walt Disney Co., that the Port City and its movie studio, EUE/Screen Gems, could take on "Iron Man 3."
The result has been a movie with a budget of more than $200 million - by far the biggest film ever made in the state - and a shoot that showed Wilmington can manage such blockbuster-sized productions, Syrett said.
Film officials and local lawmakers hope Disney, which recently purchased Lucasfilm, will spread the word about what Wilmington's crews and businesses can do.
"They've been extremely impressed, and from my perspective, a lot of production companies are looking here because of 'Iron Man,' " Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said. "I know a significant amount of film production has taken place here, but Marvel is a brand that's known all over the world. To be able to produce that here is kudos to our local film office, our crews and our facilities. It demonstrates that Wilmington can do this on the biggest scale you can do."
The actors and an entourage of drivers, vans and storage trailers have departed southeastern North Carolina, and the production's warehouses, scattered about town and packed with millions of dollars worth of cameras, set decor, computer equipment and costumes, have been packed up and shipped back to California or sold.
But when the movie is released May 3, and Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) battles tech-savvy terrorist The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), residents will know that the fight between good and evil took place in their own backyard.
And the skies above them.
Filming took place in June in Cary, and in July, actors and stunt crews hung from cables above the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington, while others with parachutes glided to the Earth from aboard helicopters on Oak Island.
"They contacted us six months before they came," said Brian Strong, owner of Southport's Skydive Coastal Carolinas. "They wanted to see what our rates were and what the facilities were like." Strong said crews brought in their own stunt performers, planes and helicopters but needed to use his company's building and equipment.
"We're the only skydiving place around that had riggers and sewing machines that allowed them to make modifications to the suits, so that when they jumped out of the plane, the rigs are hidden, creating the illusion that they've fallen out of the plane."
The sky-dive company was just one of dozens of local businesses to benefit from the production, which some state film officials estimate infused $89 million into the local economy.
"I consider that, personally, to be a conservative estimate," said Wilmington mayor Saffo. "I believe it will far exceed that. They haven't shared specifics about all the people they've hired locally, but I know it's paying dividends to the entire community and the state."
On the state level, the production had hired 2,573 people as of Sept. 1, according to Syrett.
About 500 of those jobs are expected to be full-time crew positions, while others are likely to be employees such as set builders and drivers. The figure also includes part-time background extras, who are typically paid around minimum wage.
State officials won't know specific details about "Iron Man 3's" economic impact until production wraps and an audit by the N.C. Department of Revenue determines what the filmmakers spent and which wages are tax-deductible, Syrett said. The production will then file a North Carolina tax return.
Under the state's film tax incentive program, among other perks, productions receive a 25 percent refundable tax credit based on their direct in-state spending on goods, services, labor and other costs.
An audit typically takes about two weeks, though it could be longer, Syrett said.
Although state officials have access to the film's taxes, productions aren't required by state law to disclose detailed employee information.
One local film official says early job estimates could raise more questions than answers.
"Over the years, it's been very hard for us to come up with specific job numbers because construction expands and contracts and other employees work overtime, " said Wilmington Regional Film Commission Director Johnny Griffin. "I think gross payroll figures are something that's concrete, and those won't be available until the audit. Aside from that, I hear anecdotally from businesses in town that they've been hired by the production."
Master Craftsmen Services, a furniture restoration company at 97 Heathcliff Road in Wilmington, has created nearly 10 different set pieces for the film. Designers there upholstered furniture for billionaire playboy Stark's mansion, including a bed, sofas, chaise lounges, ottomans and chairs, owner Ed Mayorga said.
The company, which has been restoring furniture for 15 years, also upholstered about 22 theater seats that will be digitally replicated to create an entire theater on-screen. The theater will then appear to have been bombed during a terrorist attack in Afghanistan, Mayorga said,
"Most of the time, we make three pieces for each scene - one's a spare and two will get blown up," he said, chuckling.
"Iron Man 3," Master Craftsmen's largest movie contract to-date, was responsible for 10 to 15 percent of the company's business this year, Mayorga said.
"We spent a number of weeks doing movie studio work," he said. It's been a great experience. The employees are excited to see things in the film."
Although audiences won't notice the influence of Wilmington's Tidewater Storage Trailers, the containers were a staple during the film's shoots, said General Manager Burt Sampson.
The trailers were used as storage containers and stacked like LEGOs to create a backdrop for a variety of scenes, he said.
"They call it a green screen - it's a backdrop for filming," he said. "They used them for the true nature of the business, which is secure, portable, weather-tight storage, but they also had other jobs for them."
Containers were rented by five of the production's divisions, including construction crews, transportation and set design. Effects specialists also tapped the containers for a scene in Rose Hill in which hundreds of gallons of water were sent spilling onto the set, Sampson said.
The contract, one of many film jobs in the company's 32-year history, was about 10 percent of its business in the past six months, Sampson said.
"It was a gradual build up," he said. "They started with five or 10 containers, but at the height of it - in the middle of the summer - they probably had about 120 units at one time. There were close to 80 units just at the Gypsum plant set. It was a big jump."
Before director Shane Black and his team of graphic designers, set decorators and editors could start work at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, the studio had to make some changes, including updating its Internet broadband capabilities.
"Having never done a film on this scale, it's led us to learn an awful lot of ways to be more efficient," said Bill Vassar, the studios' Executive Vice President. "We kept seeing production companies increase the amount of bandwidth they needed on each production. It gets faster and faster. We have clients, such as this one, who need to move artwork all over the world. We had to be on our toes."
Starting about a year ago, studio executives began to install new cable on the lot - so that the movie's crews were always within 100 feet of an Internet connection - and made sure it was possible for any production at the studio to have its own network and encryption, Vassar said.
"We couldn't build for what we would need today. We needed to build it for 10, 15 years out," he said. "Plus, we have wireless service that's a similar speed blanketing the lot. Connecting at these speeds has been a necessity on every production."
In the past, if someone in the art department wanted a builder to make a design change, they would have to take the drawing to the set.
During "Iron Man 3," artists could send the image digitally in seconds, Vassar said.
"It's much more efficient," he said. "We're like a hotel, we take care of you."
Work on the movie will continue for a few more months as it's scored and edited. Crews also are expected to gather footage in China, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Meanwhile, no new productions have signed contracts to film at Screen Gems in the coming months, but that could change quickly, Vassar said.
"Right now, I have what I call a lot of 'tire kickers,'" he said. "There are people who say they'll be here in January to film, but I don't have a contract."
In the meantime, the hundreds of locals who worked on the film must bide their time till May - and fend off questions from family and friends.
Extra Lindsey Yow, 24, of Wilmington, is one of the film's employees who signed a nondisclosure agreement when she was hired, a process she'd never experienced during her other film work.
The University of North Carolina Wilmington graduate and her husband, Roderick, worked on a two-day shoot in Rose Hill in July. They were paid $8 per hour with time and a half after 12 hours, she said.
"They took all of our cell phones," Yow said. "They didn't want people to take pictures or text during filming. I have kept the secrets. It's hard, though. My mom keeps asking what I did. I said, 'Ask me in May.'"
Copyright 2024 by WRAL.com and the Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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- Home
- Our History
- A Brief History of Mount Pleasant
- Colonial Era
Colonial Era
Christ Church Parish
The South Carolina Commons House of Assembly passed the Act of 1704 and the Church Act of 1706 that created 10 administrative parishes in Colonial Carolina. For insight into the political atmosphere in that moment read "A Narrative...of An Assembly...January The 2d, 1705/6. Christ Church Parish was one of the 10 parishes created by the legislature.Spanish and French Attacks
In the month of August, 1706, the Province of Carolina withstood several attacks by the Spanish and French. At a place called "Abcaw," the Carolinians defeated French invaders. Abcaw, located between Shem Creek and the Wando River, became Hobcaw Plantation and later, Shipyard Plantation. It took that name because a prosperous shipbuilding business arose from the plantation's abundance of good timber and deepwater access. Lands adjacent to Hobcaw Point were owned by various families through time. Many of these families operated ferryboat businesses. View 1704 Crisp Map.Christ Church Parish Center
In 1708, a small wooden structure that served as the Parish administrative center and place of worship was built at today's intersection of Long Point Road and U.S. Highway 17 North. This structure was accidentally destroyed by a fire in 1725 and replaced within two years. In 1782, retreating British troops burned the church, however, residents rebuilt it six years later. Near the end of the Civil War, the church interior was burned but the walls remained structurally sound. The brick Vestry House was built in 1751, burned, restored in 1939 and then, refurbished after Hurricane Hugo. It has served as an office, guardhouse, classroom, and meeting place. The 26-acre church property also has a cemetery with graves dating back to the mid-1700s, and an 1862 Confederate earthwork built by neighboring plantation slaves that zigzags across the property.
Hibben's Ferry
By 1721, there were 400 colonists (107 families) and 637 enslaved people living in Christ Church Parish. Plantation owners were focused on farming and stock husbandry. Most large plantations and settlements were situated along the Wando and Cooper rivers. These riverine locations made transportation of people, resources, and products more expedient. Plantations were largely self-sufficient, connected by a small network of roads, and planters viewed Charleston as their metropolitan base. In 1770, Andrew Hibben bought land on the south side of Shem Creek from Jacob Motte. Hibben obtained a ferry charter and opened Hibben's Ferry - the first ferryboat service to connect Haddrell's Point, the area between Shem Creek and the cove at the end of Pitt Street, to Charleston. Later, Haddrell's Point was called the village of Mount Pleasant, but people often used the old name. Georgetown Road, the area's major roadway, ran to the Ferry House and functioned as part of the main travel-mail route to the North.
(1). S. Max Edelson, Plantation Enterprise in Colonial Carolina, see Bibliographic Summary.


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Littoral Combat Ship, USS Fort Worth Completes Acceptance Trials (USA)
The nation's third Littoral Combat Ship, USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), successfully completed its U.S. Navy acceptance trials and will be delivered to the Navy this summer.
Fort Worth is the second surface combatant designed and built by a Lockheed Martin -led industry team. The trials, conducted in Lake Michigan from April 30 to May 4, included a four-hour full-power run and both surface and air detect-to-engage demonstrations of the ship's combat management system. Major systems and features were demonstrated, including aviation support, small boat launch handling and recovery, and ride control.
"Fort Worth performed extremely well during its trials," said LCS Program Manager Capt. John Neagley. "The ship's level of completion coupled with Marinette Marine's excellent craftsmanship resulted in relatively few material deficiencies."
"Lessons learned from our lead ship, USS Freedom, have directly contributed to the successful Acceptance Trials of our second ship," said Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ship Systems at Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems & Sensors business. "As we continue serial production, we're reducing costs and building these high-quality ships faster."
Other Freedom-variant LCSs include USS Freedom (LCS 1), which is being prepared for her second deployment; Milwaukee (LCS 5), and Detroit (LCS 7), which are under construction. The team also is currently in the early stages of planning and material procurement for Little Rock (LCS 9) and Sioux City (LCS 11), which were funded in March 2012.
The Lockheed Martin-led LCS team includes ship builder Marinette Marine Corporation, a Fincantieri company, naval architect Gibbs & Cox, as well as domestic and international teammates.
Source: Lockheed Martin, May 8, 2012


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Vibration A Fundamental Characteristic Of Energy
Vibration is one of the most fundamental characteristics of the entire Universe from the very highest vibration of The Source, The First Cause, of God, down to the physical world of matter. Vibration is an integral component of the great continuum of the Universe, manifesting an infinite number of characteristics. Energy is vibration; human beings consist entirely of pure Energy in the form of a physical body, even though the human body and physical surroundings might appear to be solid in accordance with the five physical senses.
You may be asking how can this be? Matter comprises smaller units known as molecules, and still smaller units known as atoms. Yet smaller still we find sub-atomic particles which in turn are made up of still finer particles and so on, until the ultimate constitution of anything is of pure Energy vibrating at specific rates according to individual characteristics.
From The Source, The Prime Creator, God, down to the densest of matter there are an infinite number of modes of vibration. This is also now one of the basic accepted principles of quantum physics with the discovery that sub-atomic particles are ultimately not particles at all, but are rather progressively more subtle forms, until ultimately consisting of vibration, pure Energy and units of probability.
This Energy is also known as "Light". This is not the light commonly known in the physical Universe as for example emanating from The Sun, but rather the Primordial Light from which everything in the Universe was created, lives and has its Being, the Primordial Light of God. As observed by quantum physicist David Bohm, the physical Universe of matter can be considered to be "frozen Light".
So how do we reconcile this with multi-dimensional reality? We need to look at vibration much more closely in order to understand this. Most people know sound for example is vibration, and can be a very powerful vibration at that. Loud noises cause windows and other structures to vibrate, and indeed a sound of a high enough pitch or amplitude can cause fragile objects to shatter completely.
The frequency range of perception of the ear of the average human is from around twenty vibrations per second, up to around twenty thousand vibrations per second. Moving up the vibrational scale we reach electricity at around one billion vibrations per second. Moving up the vibrational scale further still we encounter heat at two hundred billion vibrations per second. Further up the scale the spectrum of visible colours vibrate in a range of around five hundred billion vibrations per second, and yet higher still is the invisible spectrum of colour including infra-red and ultra-violet. And so we can move further progressively up through the levels of vibration, still manifesting as Energy known to science, until we reach the higher levels where we encounter x-rays which vibrate at around two trillion vibrations per second.
As we progress up still higher in the scale of vibration we reach levels which do not manifest any characteristics known yet to modern science, and are therefore largely still ignored, overlooked or deemed not to exist at all; in other words vibration is often deemed by science to be finite as it pertains to the physical world and can be measured by scientific instrumentation.
However the reality is very, and fundamentally different. It is erroneous to conclude that progressively higher levels of vibration do not exist, simply because they cannot be observed or measured by science. Vibrating at speeds completely beyond the comprehension and observation of science are the inner dimensions of the planes of correspondence, The Great Astral, Mental and Spiritual planes.
Ultimately, if something were to raise its vibrations to a high enough level it would rejoin The Source, God, The First Cause, and this indeed is the same ultimate destiny of every human being, each constantly raising vibrations of the Soul and Spirit by virtue of the process of perfection, ultimately realising the potential to achieve vibrational harmony with God, at which point the vibration of the Spiritual body of the individual would be approaching that of God/Source.
In addition, all life manifesting at any level of the continuum of the Universe vibrates at a level being exactly equivalent to the plane or sub-plane they occupy, but each at the same time exhibiting characteristics providing all forms of life in the Universe with unique individuality.
It is due to the fact that a Soul or Spirit body of a human being vibrates in harmony, at the same rate or frequency as the plane, sphere, dimension being occupied, that everything seems, and indeed is totally solid and real. This of course also applies to the physical world, which is also a rate of vibration, as is every human being and all forms of life and everything else existing in the physical Universe.
Everything (including matter) is Energy and therefore vibration. Everyone and everything therefore "tunes" into the plane, world, sphere, dimension, corresponding to their own unique vibration. This is comparable to television or radio signals ... although there are thousands of programs all being broadcast into the Ether at the same time, it is only usually possible to tune into one such program being broadcast at its own particular frequency at any one time.
Beyond the confines of the physical world of matter, frequency of vibration, Energy is therefore the means by which all life manifests and exists within its own unique, individual, corresponding level, or plane and state of reality.
This also fully explains why humans, and indeed all forms of life upon passing on to the Astral worlds after the "death" of the physical body find a world which is every bit as "solid" and "real" as the physical world; in fact the Astral worlds are much more "solid", and more "real" and vibrant than the physical world, and this becomes progressively more the case with the ascent to the ever inner spheres.
The higher the level of Energy, the finer are the corresponding vibrations, and accordingly everyone and everything within that level of Energy or vibration will be much more "finely tuned" with it. Physical matter by comparison, being at the lowest level of Energy and vibration is extremely coarse.
So everything in the Universe, The All, God/Source is in a perpetual state of vibration, up to and including The Source Energy Who exhibits a level of vibration of such an infinitely high degree and of such intensity that He/She can almost be considered to be at rest.
Such levels of vibration are far, far beyond any current human comprehension. This can be conceptualised on the physical plane by observing a spoked wheel (like on a bicycle) from a sideways perspective, spinning ever faster. The wheel soon achieves such a rate of rotation as to appear stationary and not spinning at all, its spokes appearing to be invisible to the physical senses of the human eye. Also, a spinning fan will offer the same effect.
As discussed earlier, science now recognises the fact that the "phenomena" with which everyone is so familiar such as heat, light, temperature and magnetism are all but differing degrees of vibration, each exhibiting unique characteristics, and each of which everyone can readily recognise and experience by means of the five biological senses.
Modern science however is nevertheless still struggling to fully explain such important characteristics as cohesion, molecular attraction and affinity, and in particular the very force keeping everything rooted firmly on the ground, thereby preventing things from floating off into space; the force of gravity.
Vibration plays an extremely important part in the everyday lives of everyone by way of normal thinking processes and states of being. Thought's, emotions, desires, temperament indeed any mental state of Mind or being are all ultimately degrees and aspects of Energy as vibration, as of course is thought itself.
This is just one reason why in the collective plane of the human Mind thoughts can, often unwittingly or even intentionally be projected, and can affect other people by the process of induction. These are major factors in so called "paranormal phenomena" which people recognise as "telepathy" and other forms of Mind power. It is also the reason why a persons "mood" can affect those around that person, a "mood" simply being an energetic state of vibration.
It is a most important fact that every single thought, every single state of Mind and every single emotion is each characterized by its own unique vibration. In the physical world of matter these vibrations and "thought forms" are not readily apparent to the physical senses, however, in the infinitely finer degrees of the Astral worlds and beyond, thoughts and thought forms can actually be seen to be instantly created and projected, and which thought forms will persist in accordance with the level of Energy with which they were originally projected.
Those who understand these laws of vibration and mentalism can exercise a high degree of control over their own individual thought processes, thus gaining a high level of control over their own states of Mind, moods and emotions.
In the same way, a person who is well practiced in these disciplines can also affect the Minds of others by applying the same laws; very often people do this without even realising it. On the Mental plane therefore, and in particular on the plane of the human Mind, people produce thought Energy, vibrations which can effect themselves and the people around them either unintentionally or at will.
It should also be pointed out that conscious and effective use of these abilities can usually only be acquired by the means of dedication and practice over some period of time, although there are a very few people in existence who can command these powers as a natural ability, often from birth.
The principles we have discussed so far will explain many of the so called "phenomena" that have been demonstrated over the ages by the great Masters, Adepts, Guru's and others, often considered to be "miracles".
All these people are really doing is to consciously control completely natural Universal laws, and in particular, in the case of physical manifestations, the law of vibration, in order to alter or transmute one form of Energy, vibration, into another form of Energy, thereby altering the form of physical objects.
This would appear as miraculous to those who have yet to fully comprehend the law of vibration, and indeed comprehend all Universal laws, but yet is an ability that everyone has the potential to realize.
Just a thought ...
Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
My thanks to Adrian Cooper.


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With 435 spots at stake every two years, it can be hard to keep track of all the important House races. After a round of redistricting, experts are still trying to figure out the new political maps and how they might favor one party or the other.
One race to keep a close eye on is Iowa's Fourth Congressional District, which swallowed up the Fifth District (it was contracted out of existence because of a decrease in the state's population). Republican Representative Steve King, a favorite among the Tea Party and former best buddies with Michele Bachmann, is the incumbent in the race. He'll face off against the well-known and respected Christie Vilsack, wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Tom Vilsack is a former governor of Iowa.
King's old district covered the staunch conservative western edge of the state, and he typically faced off against lukewarm Democratic opponents. That won't be the case this year. His district has been expanded to cover a swath of more independent-minded voters, including the college town of Ames. Vilsack is a tough opponent. She's already raised $1.2 million-around $400,000 more than King-though a Public Policy Polling survey from earlier this year had King up by a slight 49-43 percent. A Vilsack win would mark an important milestone for the state. Iowa is one of only two states that has never elected a woman to the House, Senate, or governorship (Mississippi, bastion of progressivism, is the other).
Vilsack's early strength has already put King in a position he's never faced before: debating an opponent. He's denied requests from past challengers to face off in any debates, but after the filing period for the primary closed last Friday and Vilsack was the only Democrat in the race, King challenged her to a series of six debates over the course of the year. King's wilder proposals and accusations-he's introduced legislation to designate English as the country's official language and once said that increased access to birth control would make America "a dying civilization"-have largely gone unchallenged in his home territory. He won't get that same easy pass this year.


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Frank Ocean
Name at birth: Christopher Breaux
Frank Ocean is the smooth tenor whose 2012 R&B album channel ORANGE put him in the spotlight as a star hip-hop collaborator, with critics comparing him to Marvin Gaye and Prince.
Frank Ocean broke into the business as a songwriter for other performers, including Brandy, Justin Bieber and John Legend. He moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 2005 and began recording his own mixes as Lonny Breaux, eventually joining the music collective called Odd Future (co-founded by rapper Tyler the Creator). He was signed by Def Jam records in 2009 and recorded the album nostalgia ULTRA, but it wasn't released until 2011.
By that time Breaux had changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean and was recording as Frank Ocean. Critics loved nostalgia ULTRA and heaped praise on Ocean's soulful storytelling, and fans loved songs like "Novacane." Ocean also got noticed by big-name artists, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Andre 3000 and Pharrell Williams.
His second album, channel ORANGE, was released in July of 2012 and shot to the top of the charts on the strength of songs such as "Bad Religion" and "Thinkin Bout You." At the same time, Ocean revealed that some songs of unrequited love were directed to a man he had once been in love with. Ocean also released the album Blonde in 2016.
Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.


text:
Part of the series on |
The Middle Ages |
Historical Periods |
Early Middle Ages (6th-10th century) |
Medieval History |
Holy Roman Empire |
Medieval Society |
for detailed history see:
- Early Middle Ages, 400 AD to 1000 AD
- High Middle Ages, 1000 AD to 1300 AD
- Late Middle Ages, 1300 AD to 1500 AD
- Reformation and Renaissance
General Notes
The Middle Ages, also known as the Medieval period, is the period of European history from the fall of the Roman Empire until the beginnings of the Renaissance or the Protestant Reformation. Historians have suggested different dates for its beginning and end. The beginning is most commonly set at the abdication of the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, but the Visigothic sack of Rome in 410 AD has also been suggested. The ending point is variously given as the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517. Other historians prefer a more vague periodization from 500 AD to 1500 AD, arguing that the change between epochs require a transitional period over many years, making it pointless to try to fix the change at an exact date.
Middle Ages in Brief
- Aftermath of the Roman Empire
- Carolingian Empire
- Vikings
- Crusades
- Renaissance of the 12th century
- Italian city states and Hanseatic League
- Hundred Years' War
- Crisis of the later Middle Ages
One of the major events of the late Middle Ages is the Black Death, a plague pandemic that swept across most of Europe between 1347 and 1351 and which is believed to have wiped out one-third of the European population. The plague had momentous consequences for the late medieval European society and mentality.
A conception of a modern nation state did not exist in the Middle Ages. The two dominant political entities were kingdoms, in which the king ruled with the consent of the nobility, and the city state, which was often ruled by an oligarchy drawn from either the local nobility or the merchant class. However, it was also during the Middle Ages that the groundwork for the later nation states were laid.
Warfare was endemic to the period, often on a very small scale. When at war, medieval rulers typically depended on troops paid from their own resources, supported by soldiers provided by their vassals. This meant that only limited number of troops could be raised, and difficulties in logistics and communications further limited this number. For this reason, warfare was often conducted by raids through enemy territories and sieges of important towns or castles. Open field battles between armies were quite rare.
Notable conflicts of the era were between the English and the French in the Hundred Years' War, the conquests of Charlemagne, and several peasant revolts.
Small economies of scale developed throughout the Middle Ages, in the form of vassalage between a lord and his clients.
Overall, Europe during the Middle Ages was predominantly Catholic. At the beginning of the period, however, the Christian Western Roman Empire had broken up and been replaced by Germanic kingdoms that were predominantly non-Christian.
A long period of missionary activities, as well as the support of the Carolingian Empire, meant that by the year 1000 AD, Christianity was again the dominant religion in Europe. A division occurred in 1054 AD, however, when the Church broke up into a Catholic western part and an Orthodox eastern part.
The Church had many roles that now are usually filled by the state. For instance: until the end of the Middle Ages, the Church was the only organization that had any say in the institution of marriage. The Church decided who could marry whom, how the marriage had to take place, and how a marriage could be ended. No city, no state, and no king had the final say concerning the institution of marriage.
Later Perceptions of the Middle Ages
- Renaissance: the medium aevum
- Enlightenment: dark superstition
- Romanticism: the glorious past
- Modern times: academic study and prejudices
- Now: renewed interest?
Further reading
- Bishop, Morris. The Middle Ages (2001) excerpt and text search
- Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages (1994) excerpt and text search
- Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages (1991) excerpt and text search
- Hanawalt, Barbara. The Middle Ages: An Illustrated History (1999) excerpt and text search
- Holme, George, ed. The Oxford History of Medieval Europe (1992) online edition
- Jordan, William Chester, ed. The Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students (4 vol 1996)
- Southern, Richard W. The Making of the Middle Ages (1961) excerpt and text search
- Jordan, William Chester. Europe in the High Middle Ages (2004) excerpt and text search
- Strayer, Joseph R. Western Europe in the Middle Ages: A Short History (1955) online edition
See also
External links


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By Will Graham, Cove Executive Director (and grandson of Billy Graham)
Often as we think about the sacrifice of Jesus, we tend to focus on the unbearable physical pain He endured. We're told that He was hit, flogged nearly to the point of death, and had a crown of thorns driven into His scalp. He was made to carry His own cross. Nails were punched through His hands and feet before He was hoisted into the air to suffocate in one of the most inhumane and cruel forms of capital punishment ever devised.
My friends, it's hard to not focus on the pain He endured for us. But, as we look at this Easter, I want you to consider another way Jesus was made to suffer in the moments before His crucifixion. Consider the emotional pain Christ endured as those who were closest to Him turned their backs.
Jesus personally chose 12 disciples whom He poured himself into. These men were almost His earthly family, surrounding Him, learning from Him, and serving in His ministry. They were what we may refer to as Jesus' "inner circle."
Jesus loved them, and yet He knew – long before they did, in fact – that a couple of these men would publicly betray Him.
Judas, of course, is the one that comes instantly to mind. After all, it was his betrayal of Jesus that ultimately led to the crucifixion. We're told in Luke 22 that "Satan entered into Judas…" (ESV). John 13:2 says "the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him" (ESV). Judas went to the chief priests and officers, accepted a payment from them and then actively plotted how to betray Jesus into their hands when there wouldn't be a crowd around Him.
Judas' treachery was the ultimate betrayal, directly resulting in a sham trial and the agony of the cross. But I wonder if the second betrayal might not have hurt just as much as the first.
Along with James and John, Peter was one of Jesus' closest friends whom He chose to be a witness to key moments in Jesus' earthly ministry. For instance, Peter was there for Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain and at Gethsemane on the eve of Christ's sacrifice.
Peter's denial of Jesus – which, according to Mark, Jesus foretold prior to leaving for Gethsemane – must have stung deeply. As Jesus was being beaten and ridiculed (Mark 14:65), Peter was busy distancing himself from Christ (Mark 14:66-72). Three times people approached Peter to ask him if he was associated with Jesus, and three times Peter denied Him, even going so far as to "…invoke a curse on himself and to swear, 'I do not know this man of whom you speak.'" (Mark 14:71, ESV).
At a time when Jesus was being accused and beaten, His friends turned their backs on Him. What emotional pain this must have caused, even as Jesus knew it was coming and understood that it had to be!
Maybe you're reading this, and it sounds a little too familiar. Maybe you have friends or family members who have turned their backs on you, or perhaps – like Judas – they were instrumental in causing the suffering you are now enduring. Maybe you're struggling through pain and despair, and the people you thought you could depend on have disappeared. Maybe you've been hurt by others in the church. Bodily pain hurts physically, but emotional pain slices directly to your soul.
My friends, I'm here to tell you that people will let you down. People will turn their backs on you and cause you pain. But here's the key – Jesus was forsaken, betrayed and crucified, but He conquered all of that! People are imperfect, but Christ is risen and will not let you down!
The Bible tells us not to put our faith into men or princes. Instead, this Easter place your eternity in the One Who endured scorn, pain, and – yes – betrayal from His friends, so that you may have a hope that extends far beyond the pitfalls and pains of this world.
Click here to share the Gospel this Easter season using Billy Graham's program, The Cross.


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For months now, much of the media attention on the crypto space has been directed at ebbs and flows in the price of bitcoin on one side, and whiz-bang ICOs on the other.
Follow Crunchbase News on Twitter & Facebook
The price of the most valuable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (specifically the BTC chain), has backpedaled significantly from highs set in December 2017. The chart below shows pricing data from the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) over the last 365 days.
Those dramatic price swings write headlines. And the media, Crunchbase News included, has not been shy in covering bitcoin's ups and downs.
The hype around ICOs is understandable as well, given that market's velocity, eye-popping market capitalizations, and titillating if unfortunate stories of theft and subterfuge.
But the comparatively quiet and glacially-paced world of traditional venture capital deserves no short shrift from reporters, market analysts, and enthusiasts alike. At time of writing, 2018's venture fundraising totals alone are over 40 percent of the way to 2017's high water mark, according to Crunchbase data.
And it's been only around two months since the start of the year.
But like all emerging technologies, and most nascent companies working on them, there's no telling whether these bets will generate significant returns. Like with the very cryptocurrency mining computers hashing away at these blockchains, venture investment in this ecosystem may prove to be a waste of energy and a lot of hot air. But venture investors seem alright with buying equity during the dip.
Here we'll see how much venture money is being invested, by whom, and where these venture-backed crypto companies call home.
(Data) Mining For Insights Into Blockchain And Blockchain-Adjacent Companies
To avoid any complaints from so-called maximalist supporters of any one cryptocurrency or blockchain ecosystem, we're going to base the following analysis on a fairly wide basket of companies.
To learn more about the dataset of companies we used for this article, skip to the bottom for notes on methodology.
What follows is an analysis of the data that shakes out of our bundle of crypto companies.
Venture Dollar Volume May Eclipse 2017's Highs This Year Despite ICO Hype
Despite all the market hype around ICOs, some of which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, venture investment in blockchain and related companies has kept pace as well.
What's captured here are just good ol' fashioned venture rounds—convertible notes, seed and angel rounds, Series As and on through the alphabet—not the wild west world of ICOs. The chart above excludes rounds labeled as ICOs, even if they had participation from VCs.
The chart makes an important point: despite price volatility in crypto-land's most valued blockchain asset, bitcoin (specifically the BTC chain), venture investment—in terms of sheer dollar volume—is on pace to eclipse even the banner year of 2017.
Who Is Investing In All These Rounds?
2017's funding totals were boosted by a number of sizable venture rounds, including: Coinbase's $108.1 million Series D, $43.45 million invested in Chinese ASIC chip manufacturer Canaan Creative, and a $42.5 million Series B raised by multisignature bitcoin wallet provider BitGo.
2018 is off to a strong start with a $75 million Series B closed by secure hardware wallet-maker Ledger, $18 million invested in the seed round of Russian blockchain-for-cargo-tracking platform QUASA, and $10 million invested in SF-based Harbor Platform, among other large rounds.
But which funds are investing in these more recently-raised rounds? The chart below shows the most active venture investors from the past fourteen months, according to what's captured by Crunchbase data.
What's interesting about the mix above is its diversity. There are plenty of mainstream investors among them, as well as many generalist accelerator programs, like TechStars and Plug and Play. But for every Andreessen Horowitz on the list, there are several more vertical-specific venture firms that have seemingly gone all-in on blockchain technology. These include the likes of Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital, Node Capital, Medici Ventures, Digital Finance Group, and Polychain Capital, which, again, simply rank at the top of a list of hundreds of other investors.
So if we've seen how much is being invested, but which countries are leading the way?
Listed Headquarters Of Recently-Funded Companies Reveals Legal Trends
In the chart below, we chart the location of the blockchain companies that raised venture funding in 2017 and 2018 so far.
Two main features stand out from the chart above: venture fundraising activity in blockchain and blockchain-adjacent companies is highly concentrated in just a handful of countries, with the U.S. leading the way, and a small but growing percentage of companies are choosing to locate themselves in countries with friendly attitudes toward blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation.
The two that stand out here are Singapore and Switzerland, each of which are home to (at least) four percent of the startups that raised venture funding over the last fourteen months. Over the course of reporting on other stories, Crunchbase News has learned from investors and entrepreneurs that many Asia-focused blockchain companies and investors that Singapore and Hong Kong are increasingly attractive domiciles for Chinese firms leaving that country in the wake of regulatory crackdown. Japan and Malaysia are also popular locales in Asia for blockchain companies and funds, in part thanks to permissive regulatory environments.
In Europe, Switzerland has been particularly progressive when it comes to clarifying policies around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. At CryptoCon in Chicago earlier this month, Brent Traidman, Chief Revenue Officer for Zurich-based mobile wallet-maker Bread, referred to the country as "crypto valley." Switzerland's financial authority issued specific guidance to companies looking to raise capital in ICOs last week.
As long as the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies and other blockchain assets remains somewhat cryptic in the U.S., American crypto-entrepreneurs may opt to leave the country for clearer legal frameworks abroad.
Notes on Methodology
Here's how we found the data we worked with.
We first created a list of companies in Crunchbase's bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and virtual currency categories. Then we took the list of companies in Crunchbase's data that have raised capital via an initial coin offering (a funding method better known by its initialism ICO). Finally, we created another list of companies that use those keywords, in addition to "digital currency" and "utility token" in their company descriptions.
We then combined and de-duplicated the list to produce a dataset of just over 2,900 blockchain and blockchain-adjacent organizations that we'll use in the proceeding analysis. And, at least for the purposes of this article, we're going to refer to these companies using some variation of that inelegant if quite inclusive phrasing: "blockchain and blockchain-adjacent."
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.


text:
PostgreSQL 8.4.22 Documentation | ||||
Prev | Fast Backward | Appendix F. Additional Supplied Modules | Fast Forward | Next |
The pg_stat_statements module provides a means for tracking execution statistics of all SQL statements executed by a server.
The module must be loaded by adding pg_stat_statements to shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf, because it requires additional shared memory. This means that a server restart is needed to add or remove the module.
The statistics gathered by the module are made available via a system view named pg_stat_statements. This view contains one row for each distinct query text, database ID, and user ID (up to the maximum number of distinct statements that the module can track). The columns of the view are shown in Table F-24.
Table F-24. pg_stat_statements columns
Name | Type | References | Description |
userid | oid | pg_authid.oid | OID of user who executed the statement |
dbid | oid | pg_database.oid | OID of database in which the statement was executed |
query | text | Text of the statement (up to track_activity_query_size bytes) | |
calls | bigint | Number of times executed | |
total_time | double precision | Total time spent in the statement, in seconds | |
rows | bigint | Total number of rows retrieved or affected by the statement |
This view, and the function pg_stat_statements_reset
, are available only
in databases they have been specifically installed into by
running the pg_stat_statements.sql
install script. However, statistics are tracked across all
databases of the server whenever the pg_stat_statements module is loaded into the
server, regardless of presence of the view.
For security reasons, non-superusers are not allowed to see the text of queries executed by other users. They can see the statistics, however, if the view has been installed in their database.
Note that statements are considered the same if they have the same text, regardless of the values of any out-of-line parameters used in the statement. Using out-of-line parameters will help to group statements together and may make the statistics more useful.
returns void
discards all statistics gathered so far by pg_stat_statements. By default, this
function can only be executed by superusers.
pg_stat_statements.max is the maximum number of statements tracked by the module (i.e., the maximum number of rows in the pg_stat_statements view). If more distinct statements than that are observed, information about the least-executed statements is discarded. The default value is 1000. This parameter can only be set at server start.
pg_stat_statements.track controls which statements are counted by the module. Specify top to track top-level statements (those issued directly by clients), all to also track nested statements (such as statements invoked within functions), or none to disable. The default value is top. Only superusers can change this setting.
pg_stat_statements.save specifies whether to save statement statistics across server shutdowns. If it is off then statistics are not saved at shutdown nor reloaded at server start. The default value is on. This parameter can only be set in the postgresql.conf file or on the server command line.
The module requires additional shared memory amounting to about pg_stat_statements.max * track_activity_query_size bytes. Note that this memory is consumed whenever the module is loaded, even if pg_stat_statements.track is set to none.
In order to set any of these parameters in your postgresql.conf file, you will need to add pg_stat_statements to custom_variable_classes. Typical usage might be:
# postgresql.conf shared_preload_libraries = 'pg_stat_statements' custom_variable_classes = 'pg_stat_statements' pg_stat_statements.max = 10000 pg_stat_statements.track = all
$ pgbench -i bench postgres=# SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset(); $ pgbench -c10 -t300 -M prepared bench postgres=# \x postgres=# SELECT * FROM pg_stat_statements ORDER BY total_time DESC LIMIT 3; -[ RECORD 1 ]------------------------------------------------------------ userid | 10 dbid | 63781 query | UPDATE branches SET bbalance = bbalance + $1 WHERE bid = $2; calls | 3000 total_time | 20.716706 rows | 3000 -[ RECORD 2 ]------------------------------------------------------------ userid | 10 dbid | 63781 query | UPDATE tellers SET tbalance = tbalance + $1 WHERE tid = $2; calls | 3000 total_time | 17.1107649999999 rows | 3000 -[ RECORD 3 ]------------------------------------------------------------ userid | 10 dbid | 63781 query | UPDATE accounts SET abalance = abalance + $1 WHERE aid = $2; calls | 3000 total_time | 0.645601 rows | 3000
Takahiro Itagaki <email@example.com>


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One of the key factors contributing to the success of big multinational companies and local industry leaders is trustworthy and experienced business consulting firms. These help stay ahead of the competition. It also levels the playing field for entrepreneurs who are starting a small business.
These companies provide the guidance every establishment needs. Part of their duties includes planning the company structure, establishing brand identity and developing sales strategies. If you are starting your own company, you might want to look into business consulting companies. There are many who are more than happy to give you great services at affordable rates. If you want to know more on what these companies can do for you, read on.
What are business consulting firms?
A consulting company offers specialized expertise and knowledge to its clients. There are many types of consulting firms, the popular ones being information technology (IT) consulting firms and management consulting firms. There are also other types such as human resource and environmental consulting firms.
All business consulting companies employ different approaches and methods. They offer the services of professional consultants who can focus on a single project or train and implement changes to the staff. There are even project oriented consulting companies that focus in specific business functions. An example of this is a supply chain or customer relationship management (CRM). These firms study their clients' needs and manage training, implementation and development.
There are also many consulting firms focusing on staff augmentation. These firms start after the client's business has been studied carefully. By this time, the projects should have an existing outline and a clear budget. Staff augmentation firms offer training, methodologies and specific resources. Their job is complete upon implementation.
Why should you get business consulting companies?
Hiring a great consultant company can do great wonders for your business. These industry specialists can improve and modify your business practices. You can trust them to make positive changes because of their years of experience in marketing.
Here are some of the services a good consulting company can provide:
- They will assist you with all the paperwork needed for your venture
These companies know the registration procedure and can process your papers. They can assess your business and know the kind of equipment and manpower you will need.
-They offer retainer services
After helping you start your business, these firms can streamline processes to make them more effective. They will work with you in creating methods that can improve your practices. They can also help develop marketing plans to attract consumers and generate more income.
-They provide an honest assessment of your business
Consultants are armed with years of experience that allow them to point out which of your practices are effective and which ones do not work. They also know your competition well. They can then give you better recommendations on improving your performance as an up-and-coming enterprise.
Remember, starting your own business can be simple and easy with the proper guidance. Get help from business consulting firms today. Doing this allows you to compete with industry leaders and eventually be one of them.


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In-house printing departments can optimise their workflow with efficient tools and features designed for all production environments. SAi provides you with the tools to streamline your print process whether you're just printing or doing print and cut production.
The one solution for all your print, cut and design needs. Flexi is the most complete in-house printing design software, RIP, vinyl cut and print & cut package in the industry. Includes free phone and e-mail support, and ongoing, automatic updates.


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Passage by
from Luminous Sea
The diving of British Columbia and Alaska walks the line between temperate and true cold-water exploration. As the owner and Captain of four different British Columbia liveaboards, the underwater life in these waters has always fascinated me. Few are aware of how amazing the diving really is in British Columbia and Alaska.
It is hard to describe the strange sensation of drifting down sheer vertical walls, every square inch covered in invertebrate life. White anemones, which at first appear to be waving in the current, are in fact using harpoon-tipped tentacles to protect themselves and their cloned siblings from adjacent anemones. Voracious sunflower stars up to three feet across sweep over the landscape. All the mobile animals in their path scramble ahead, desperate to escape.
My boat, the Nautilus Swell, was the last liveaboard in British Columbia, and we will retire her on December 1, 2014. The Swell was built in 1912 as a coal fired steam tug. She was the last coal burner and was never converted to oil burning. Instead, a slow turning diesel engine was installed in the 1950's. I often meet mariners who sailed on the Swell. You can feel her history in every creak of her timbers. It's the end of an era, and very sad days.
Dive to 30 feet and go face to face with the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island.
Swim with the friendliest giant mantas, humpbacks and dolphins at Socorro Island.
Visit: www.SocorroGiantMantas.com
Custom built for divers. The Nautilus Explorer is stabilized, modern, and built to SOLAS standards.
Visit: www.NautilusExplorer.com
As the newest addition to the Nautilus family, she is 135 ft of brand new luxury.
Visit: www.NautilusBelleAmie.com*
© Copyright 2020 Nautilus. All Rights Reserved


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Quote of the Day:
" Too many American Jews cannot fathom that
at this point in history
and all too likely from this point forward,
the political left is a weapon
aimed at the destruction of Israel
and the genocide of the Jewish People."
BtB readers are The Best! I don't want you to miss the full commentary by 'Meshulam' on the previous post so I am reproducing it here, with my thanks to the author.
Note: Because -for some unknown reason- TypePad doesn't allow paragraph cuts in the comments section, I've taken the liberty of inserting them as best I can.
There is no question that AIPAC and ADL let down the Jewish People relative to the Hagel confirmation battle. The real question to ask about this is: why? Is it that that their leadership is so coopted by left-wing ideology that they actually believe the nomination of a flagrantly anti-semitic nitwit is not important because Buraq and the actual power-brokers in the administration will ultimately act in the best interests of Israel and the Jewish People?
Or is it something that may be worse still: their political calculation is that they cannot challenge Obama on even such a fundamental point as to object to having a Jew-hater in such a (potentially) powerful position? It is this second possibility that worries me far more. As for Schumer, Feinstein, Levin, et. al., I expected nothing more than their duplicity. They care not one iota about the people whom were first on their list of donor and voter candidates when they began their political careers. They are beyond contempt and deserve the Kapo label they have earned. Tragically, stupid American Jews will continue to finance and form the foundation of careers of similarly-inclined politicians of this ilk, to wit, the Wasserman-Schultzes and Weiners.
Too many American Jews cannot fathom that, at this point in history and all too likely from this point forward, the political left is a weapon aimed at the destruction of Israel and the genoicide of the Jewish People. They pretend this is not so, much like the Democrats pretended that the pro-Israel plank was not voted down by voice-vote at their convention last summer.
A generation ago, delusional Europeans elected leftist putative Jews like Wily Brandts, who enthusiastically supported the opening of the floodgates on that Continent to the troglodyte Islamic hordes in front of whom the Europeans now cower. Look closely at where this has led in regard to the safety of Jews in Europe: daily attacks, boycotts. vandalizing of synagogues and Holocaust memorials, and murder. Like it or not, such is coming our way here, in the last place on Earth outside of Israel where Jews live as anything close to equals (and, here in the US, this is restricted to only some places). Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it, and thus those who see that sacrificing our people is not a price worth paying, even to the great Obama.
Yael, sorry for my rant. I'm in the first generation of Jews born after the Holocaust, and I believe I have a sacred duty to their memory to fight this age-old murderous hatred that put us in the spot we are in as a people. If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
My dear brother, for surely I should consider you such, I accept no apology for your revelation of the stark truth. Rather, I thank you for taking the time to tell it.


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We Support Tickets For Tots |
To millions of country music fans, David
Akeman AKA as Stringbean, was one of the comedy powerhouses of the Grand
Ole Opry and television's Hee Haw, of which he was one of the original
cast members. As a banjo player, however, his work goes back to the
1940s and a three year stint with Bill Monroe. David Akeman was born to a farm family in Annville, in Jackson County, Kentucky, and he became interested in music at an early age. no surprise there, since not only did his father play the banjo at local dances, but he was surrounded by players of considerable skill in his community, from all of whom he learned the banjo. He built his first homemade instrument at age 7 out of a shoe box and thread borrowed from his mother, and by the time he was 12 he traded a pair of prize bantams he had raised for a real banjo. He was already making the rounds of dances and developing a reputation on the instrument, but not earning a living. Akeman spent time working for the Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting trees. Then he entered a talent contest that was being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin, and won. He joined Martin's band, and during one performance the band leader stumbled over Akeman's name and, unable to remember it, he introduced him to the crowd as "String Beans." With his tall, lanky frame, the name was a natural and it stuck. At first, Akeman only played banjo in the group, but when another performer failed to turn up for a show, he was pressed into service as a singer and comic, and the act caught on. From that day forward, Akeman jumped between comedy and music, along with some success as a semi-pro baseball player. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington, Kentucky, and played with various groups during the late '30s. At the time, the banjo had virtually disappeared from country music, and it was old-time players like Akeman who helped keep it alive. Curiously enough, it was in as a sandlot ballplayer -- and not a banjo player -- that Akeman first came to the attention of Bill Monroe, who fielded a private semi-pro team. It wasn't too long before Monroe learned of Akeman's other talents, and in the early '40s he became a full-fledged member of Monroe's group, where he remained from 1943 until 1945, playing on such recordings as "Goodbye Old Pal." Akeman also spent some of his time during this period teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo, who often worked on the same bills with Monroe's outfit. Akeman left Monroe in 1945 -- his replacement was Earl Scruggs, a banjo player with a radically different technique. That same year, he married Estelle Stanfill. During 1946, he first began working with Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), a fellow old-time banjo player with a penchant for comedy. During the late '40s, Akeman also formed a team with Lew Childre and became a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry. By this time, he'd adopted the costume by which he became best known to the public, a night-shirt and pants that made him look like a very tall man with very short legs. This kind of costume had many antecedents, including Slim Miller, a one-time stage comedian, who was said to be Akeman's direct inspiration. After the war, Akeman also became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, one of the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry. Macon, who died in 1952, was a banjo-player/comic, and one of the Opry's most beloved performers. He took Akeman under his wing, telling him stories and jokes and playing him songs, and toward the end of his life he gave Akeman one of his own banjos. Akeman was known by this time as Stringbean, and he was one of the Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. Oddly enough, he didn't begin recording on his own until the early '60s, when he signed to the Starday label. By that time, Earl Scruggs had emerged as the dominant figure in banjo playing, especially among younger listeners, but Akeman still had an audience for his older style of playing and his mixture of cornball comedy and song. He had hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where Wanda Went," and recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972. The first of those albums, Old Time Pickin' and Grinnin' with Stringbean (1961), was one of the best of these, representing his repertory of the era -- folk songs (especially humorous animal songs), tall stories, jokes -- although several of his subsequent albums are also worth hearing, most notably Salute to Uncle Dave Macon (1963) and Old Time Banjo Picking and Singing (1964). Akeman and Grandpa Jones became the two biggest exponents of old-time banjo playing during this era. Akeman remained a star of the Opry for the rest of his life, and in 1969 he and Grandpa Jones became founding members of the cast of the television series Hee Haw. He became an instant hit, his lanky figure and bewildered expression, coupled with self-deprecating one-liners making Akeman one of the most popular members of the cast. All of this ended tragically for Akeman and his wife Estelle on November 10, 1973. They returned home from a performance at the Opry and surprised a pair of burglars who shot the banjoman dead on the spot and pursued and killed his wife. It was Grandpa Jones who found the bodies the next day, and the murders sent shockwaves through the Nashville community. The subsequent capture and life-sentences imposed on the killers -- two brothers -- did little to assuage the anger that Akeman's colleagues and friends felt. His memory lives on in the Bill Monroe songs on which he played, and the relative handful of his own recordings that have surfaced. David "Stringbean" Akeman is featured on the following: Salute to Uncle Dave Macon - HOLLYWOOD label The Essential Bill Monroe (1945-1949) - Columbia recordings The Music of Bill Monroe - MCA - A four-disc set covering his entire career from 1936 to 1994, this is a meticulously re-mastered and researched four hours and 20 minutes of music and features important recordings from seven decades of recordings for RCA, Columbia, Decca and MCA |


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During a Summer School session in August 2012, we made a new kind of production landscape 1:1, with the themes compost, water and energy. Three groups of students from the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture set up utility associations for Clean Water & Energy Path & Compost. These are based on existing industrial utilities such as water, electricity and waste companies.
This idea stems from Utility Associations Erasmusveld, an earlier project that was realized in cooperation with Stroom The Hague. With these utility associations we wanted to propose a shared responsibility for the development of the area and reverse the process of how a district is usually designed. Students were invited to work as pioneers and react on the typical Dutch polder environment of the Noordoostpolder. The students could stay in very unusual mobile accommodations in Kraggenburg such as a kingcab, a caravan, alpenkreuzer and woodsheds that were especially designed to accommodate Noordoostpolder explorers.
The results of the summer school were part of the exhibition Mapping Flevoland on 15 and 16 September 2012.


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By Anne Summers
IN THE early 1980s, when I headed the Office of the Status of Women in the Hawke government, I would travel the country giving speeches about how women were faring. One of the positive trends I liked to identify was the significant increase in women's earnings in relation to men's.
Sure, women still earned only 80.1¢ for every dollar men got, but, I argued, given the trend in recent years we were speeding towards parity. No question about it.
Just 14 years earlier, in 1970, women earned only 59.1¢, but that had risen to 70.4¢ by 1973 and to 77.4¢ in 1975. In 1979 the figure was 80.6¢. OK, in 1984 it was down a bit but, I used to confidently assert, this is just a temporary blip. The gender pay gap was definitely going to be banished from the Australian economy.
Back then I was certainly not pessimistic enough to envisage a scenario in which, almost 30 years later, in 2013, I would be trying to explain why women today earn only 83.5¢. Nor could I have foreseen that this gap is not merely persistent but that it is actually widening. Nine years ago, in August 2004, women almost hit the 85¢ mark, equalling a previous all-time high.
But it did not last, and the gender pay gap now seems to be permanently stuck at around 17.5 per cent. (This is according to Australian Bureau of Statistics average weekly ordinary full-time earnings. On some other measures the gap is considerably wider.)
And these are just the averages. If you probe a bit, into occupation or location, you will find disparities in pay that are positively Dickensian. Women in Western Australia, for instance, earn fully 25 per cent less than their male colleagues, considerably less again in the mining regions. Women in the finance sector suffer the worst pay discrimination, with a gender pay gap of 32.7 per cent in May 2012. And that was a bigger gap than a year earlier. These statistics, released in August 2012 by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, make for grim reading. There is barely an occupation, a job, a sector or an age group in which women do not earn less, often hugely less, than men. Young women (aged 15-19) and women working part time in clerical, services, sales or labouring jobs earned more than men. But it is difficult to find a statistical example of women and men being paid the same.
So much for equality. And despite these few examples of a few categories of women earning more than men, the overall earnings outlook for Australian women is outrageously unequal.
In 2009 a report by financial services giant AMP and the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, based at the University of Canberra, made the shocking finding that Australian men with a bachelor's degree or higher, and with children, could expect to earn $3.3 million over their working lives: "Nearly double the amount for women in the same category at $1.8 million," the report stated.
A 25-year-old woman starting her working life was likely to earn $1.5 million over the next 40 years, but a man the same age would haul in $2.4 million.
That's almost a million-dollar difference, a finding that led me at the time to assert that there was a million-dollar penalty to being a woman in Australia today.
Now, we find that women's earnings prospects have deteriorated further.
Last October AMP.NATSEM released a new report that showed a 25-year-old woman with postgraduate qualifications would, over her lifetime, earn $2.49 million. The 25-year-old man who had sat beside her in class would, by contrast, accumulate $3.78 million.
This is bad enough, but what enraged me about these new findings is the fact that the 25-year-old woman with a postgraduate degree, earning her $2.49 million for her years of study, would take home less than a man with just a year 12 credential, who will earn $2.55 million.
What kind of incentive is that for women to study and gain qualifications?
Those who do not want to face up to the brutal facts of sex discrimination against women in Australia in 2013 usually argue that these discrepancies can be accounted for in women's interrupted workforce patterns (due to taking time out to have children) and their greater propensity to work part time.
That proposition has been knocked on the head by this week's release of figures showing a large increase in the past year of the gender pay gap in graduate starting salaries.
This has been a huge wake-up call for a lot of people.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has done us a great service in compiling and publishing these figures.
In the past, we knew of these discrepancies only when individual professions publicised them. For instance, a few years ago the Law Council of Australia revealed that in New South Wales, male law graduates were paid $70,300 in 2007, and women only $63,500.
Now we know that law is one of the better professions when it comes to pay equity. As reported this week, female law graduates suffer only a 7.8 per cent gender penalty. Women architects face a 17.3 per cent discrepancy, while dentists' pay lags behind men's by 15.7 per cent.
You would never know that under Australian law women and men are meant to receive equal pay.
As Justice Mary Gaudron, the first woman to be appointed to the High Court, famously said in 1979: "Equal pay was 'won' in 1969 and again in 1972 and yet again in 1974.'' And, she added, we still don't have it.
In 2009 Julia Gillard, then minister for employment and workplace relations, included provisions for gender pay equity in her Fair Work legislation. But this law does not mandate equal pay, it merely provides that Fair Work Australia can make an order for equal remuneration after an application by an individual, a union or by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner.
There has been one spectacularly successful application to date, that by the Australian Services Union on behalf of low-paid workers, mostly women, in the community and services sector. The resulting order from FWA means these workers will receive pay rises of up to 40 per cent, phased in over several years, starting December 2012.
Such cases are valuable and there needs to be more of them, but they cannot cover women in the professions or other non-award occupations. Something needs to be done that addresses this inequity in a systemic fashion.
As the figures make clear, the gender pay gap is a national scandal. It amounts to a gender tax, with women making a disproportionate contribution to the national economy. (And that's on top of having the kids and doing most of the housework!)
It is often pointed out that if Australian women's workforce participation was at the same level as men's (79.7 per in cent instead of the current 65.3 per cent) it would add around 13 per cent to GDP.
Much government policy, including the cruel pushing single mothers off the parenting payment onto Newstart, is designed to increase women's workforce participation rate.
But women are entitled to question why they should bother working harder, or at all, when the lifetime penalty for doing so is well over $1 million.
The Prime Minister might want to add this one to her list of examples of sexism and misogyny at work in Australia today.