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Unless you have access to some sort of stealth or cloaking technology (in which case I want blueprints), you've undoubtedly been accosted by an Amway distributor at some point in your life. It doesn't have to be Amway; it could be any one of those other multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes too, such as Primerica, or perhaps it was Quixtar (Amway's online variant). Or perhaps you received some scam via E-mail, promising untold wealth without any work.
If you're like most people, you simply shook your head, dismissed it as a scam, and moved on. But a surprisingly large number of people get taken in by it, and the last time someone tried to sell me on the idea, I told him I would take a good look at the business model to see if it made any sense. I did, and it doesn't.
How does Amway work?
The Amway "hook" is simple enough. You become a "distributor" for a low, low entry fee. This makes you a retail franchise. You sell Amway products for a profit, or you buy them for yourself. But if you want to make real money, you sign up other "distributors". They'll be your "downline", and when they sell anything, you get paid a commission (they call it a "bonus"). Note that you can get commission on sales of both products and so-called "sales tools", ie- the motivational books, videos, and audio tapes that constantly stream out of Amway and many of its top distributors.
Small problem: you don't want to poison your relationships with friends and family members by trying to sell them products at a profit. "But that's no problem at all", say the distributors (aka IBOs, or "Independent Business Operators"), because you don't have to sell them anything. Just buy $200 worth of household supplies for yourself every month, and you'll have enough sales volumes to qualify for bonuses. Then, get everybody you know to do the same thing, and everybody wins! You'll get huge bonuses from your growing downline, and they all win too, because they get to buy things at wholesale prices! In reality, you're doing them a favour by signing them up. Right?
Wrong. For one thing, anything which sounds too good to be true usually is. For another, Amway products are not sold at true wholesale prices. In fact, when I got the chance to inspect an Amway catalogue, I made note of several key prices and later compared them to those found at discount retailers. What did I find? You don't save money by buying Amway. In fact, once you add shipping and service charges to your order, you'll find that you usually lose money by buying Amway (gee- Amway is out to make a profit at your expense? What a shock!). In fact, for big-ticket items, the prices can be grossly out of line: I saw electronic items such as stereo systems in the Amway catalogue for hundreds of dollars more than they were at local discount stores. Worse yet, I would have had to place an order and wait for it to arrive with Amway, whereas I could have simply gone to a local electronics store, seen the product up close, listened to it, and then bought it on the spot, all for less money.
But Amway cuts out the middleman, right?
Amway defenders would claim that they cut out the middleman, because Amway is "direct sales". But this is simply not true. In reality, Amway adds middlemen. Let us compare Amway to Wal-Mart:
Amway | Wal-Mart |
Buys direct from manufacturer | Buys direct from manufacturer |
Adds markup for operating overhead such as exployee salaries, building maintenance costs, etc. | Adds markup for operating overhead such as employee salaries, building maintenance costs, etc. |
Adds distributor's commission | Sells to you |
Adds distributor's "upline" commission | |
Sells to you |
Do you still think that Amway cuts out the middleman? When you consider that Wal-Mart has many times Amway's annual sales, you will see that the situation is even worse than it looks, because Wal-Mart has enough muscle to squeeze its suppliers for much lower prices than Amway could ever hope to negotiate. Amway makes some grossly exaggerated claims about the markups in traditional retail, but if you honestly believe that Wal-Mart has to go through a manufacturer's representative, a jobber, and a wholesaler in order to get to their suppliers, you need to give your head a shake.
Of course, Amway also makes some of its own products (mostly things like household cleaners and bathroom products), which it can sell "directly" (if you disregard the multiple layers of commissions paid into the multi-level marketing system). But the only way to go through $200 a month of those kinds of products is to pay enormously inflated prices for them … the way you would through Amway. When people try to sell you on the plan, they don't show those crappy little bathroom products. They show you brand-name electronics, and cars, and all the glamorous items in the catalogue … all of which would cost less if you bought them elsewhere.
Want Proof?
In the end, the proof is in the pudding. Quixtar reported year 2000 sales of $518 million, out of which they paid $143 million in commissions. You don't have to be a mathematics genius to see what this means: when you buy from Amway, 28% of the price is pure commission! Worse yet, this is strictly the distributor's markup, and it doesn't yet include Amway's own markup! "No middleman" indeed …
Compare Amway catalogue prices (including shipping and service fees) to the price tags down at Wal-Mart or Costco, and you'll see that all the marketing in the world can't change reality. Amway is not cheaper than a "traditional retailer" such as Wal-Mart (or even Sears, in most cases). You will not save money by buying home items from Amway, and neither will any of your friends and family. You will also not make money by selling these products, since people can be stupid, but not that stupid. Even if you can sucker somebody into buying your overpriced products, all it takes is for that person to wander through Wal-Mart or Costco once, and you'll never see him again.
So why do people join Amway?
Why do people buy lottery tickets? When dreams crash head-on into reality, a lot of people let the dreams win. You know the sales pitch: "it costs you nothing, and the potential is limitless!" However, both claims are fraudulent:
- "It costs you nothing"– Wrong. In fact, an Amway "business" has just as much overhead as, say, an insurance agent. You need to have sales materials. You need to burn gasoline to go prospecting. You need to pay extra car maintenance for all that added travel. You may need to pay long-distance phone bills. You'll start burning a lot of cell-phone hours, just like any insurance agent. And you'll need to consume vast amounts of time, arguably the most precious resource of all.
- "The potential is limitless"– Wrong, unless you're willing to screw a lot of people for a lot of money. You see, despite Amway's protestations that it's not a pyramid scheme, it is only through the pyramid commissions structure that anyone can ever hope to reach their "limitless" earning potential. On a typical sale, there is a pyramid of distributors (diamond, emerald, platinum) who will take commissions, and your objective is to be at the top of that pyramid. Why? Because everybody at the bottom of the pyramid is losing money, and that lost money is being funneled to the top.
Amway distributors will sell you on the idea of compounding. You buy $200 a month of Amway products for yourself, upon which you get a few dollars back. But if you can sign up 10 people, and they sign up 10 people apiece (and so on, and so on), eventually you'll have 7,000 people, which will qualify you for the "diamond" distributor category. And if each of those people buys $200 a month of Amway products, you will generate nearly $17 million in yearly sales! Now you can sit back, relax, and just rake in the profits! Easy, right?
Wrong. The model usually collapses long before that, because quite frankly, most people aren't gullible enough to go for it. They can talk about compounding all they like, but according to the FTC, some 75% of Amway distributors drop out, and according to Amway's own figures, nearly 60% of those left are "inactive". Is it truly realistic to imagine that you can build up a stable network of 7,000 active distributors?
But you can do it in your spare time, right? So what's the harm?
Hmmm, let's think about that, shall we? Let's say that 1 in 4 prospecting attempts is successful (a very optimistic figure). Now let's factor in the FTC's estimate that 75% of Amway/Quixtar distributors drop out within a year, as well as Amway's own figure that nearly 60% of distributors are "inactive". And finally, let's remember that it takes at least 2-3 hours to sit down and try to sell a prospect on the idea (based on the time someone tried to prospect me).
Let's do the math. Most of an evening (say, 2-3 hours) is required for a single prospecting session. 4 sessions to get 1 recruit. 1 of 4 recruits stays in for the long haul. 2 of 5 survivors is active. So what does it all mean? Crunch the numbers: 4 x 4 x 2.5 = 40 evenings per active, long-term distributor. But you want 10 of them, so now you're talking about four hundred evenings. Are you starting to get the picture? That's four evenings a week, every single week for two years! And that's not even including all of the silly pep talk rallies and inspirational meetings that you're supposed to attend!
So after you've done all this, what do you have? A measly 10 people under you, each of whom has to do the same thing, and so on down three levels if you plan on making serious money. And since you've been doing all of this in addition to your day job (one of the great "benefits" of the Amway business model) you haven't seen your family in two years. Feeling good yet?
But if you can do it, the payoff is huge, right?
Let's suppose you're a stubborn sunuvabitch, and you're confident that you can do it. You're willing to sacrifice most of your family life for two years or more, in order to collect 10 distributors who will be active, and who will stay on for the long haul. So are you sitting pretty?
In a word, no. The truly amazing thing about the Amway business model is the enormous sales volume required in order to make any money. A 1985 issue of Forbes magazine gave the example of Robert Crisp of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This man's network of distributors generated $120 million (yes, one hundred and twenty million dollars) in sales for Amway, from which he earned $200,000. Just think about those numbers, people! His profit is less than 0.2% of the sales volume going through his "business!" If you had an independent business and you were making less than 0.2% profit on sales volume, would you be happy?
Let's put it this way: Hollywood grosses roughly $5 billion annually. If Hollywood executives earned profits the way Amway's "Independent Business Operators" did, the entire industry would have profits of less than $10 million per year! This wouldn't be enough to produce the opening credits on a James Cameron movie, so if Hollywood's business model were as good as the business plan of a typical Amway distributor, it would have gone out of business long ago.
Worse yet, these feeble figures are from a top producer, whose bonuses are nearly ten times as high as the bonuses a new distributor would get. Small wonder then, that the vast majority of Amway/Quixtar distributors lose money.
But what about those testimonials from happy distributors?
What about them? Oh, I'm sure they're very compelling. After all, every get-rich-quick scheme in the world has pretty much the same stories: "I used to work nine hours a day, just barely getting ahead. But now, with
Testimonials are an incredibly stupid form of "proof", for the obvious reason that they only pick the good ones ("diamond distributors" or higher). If they were forced to give a random sample of their distributors' experiences, you would discover that out of more than 2 million active distributors, there are less than a thousand people who are so successful (that's roughly 0.05%). If you had to hear more than a thousand testimonials in order to get one that was really inspirational, would you be inspired? Suppose someone came to you and tried to sell you an investment scheme in which you have a lower than 10% chance of breaking even, never mind making big money. Would you buy in? I doubt it!
So why do so many Amway distributors fail? Is it that they aren't trying hard enough? Is it that they don't have enough friends? Is it that they haven't been coached well enough? No. There's a very good reason why most Amways distributors must lose money, and it stems from the design of the Amway business model itself.
So why doesn't it work?
Amway's defenders will try to confuse you with superfluous details and perhaps even business jargon, but let's look at this scientifically, shall we? Suppose you have a completely sealed black box except for an inlet and outlet. You put 10 units of mass/energy in, and you get only 5 units of mass/energy out. Logically, there must be 5 units of mass/energy still sitting in there, right?
Well, we can do the same thing with the MLM distributor group (not Amway itself, since we're only concerned with the profitability of the distributors). We have a black box (the MLM group, including all of its members), we have an influx of mass (new members joining) and energy (sales income), and an outflow of mass (disillusioned members quitting) and energy (expenses, payments to Amway for products). If income exceeds expenses, then you have a profit. If expenses exceed income, then you have a loss. So far, so good.
So how much mass/energy is entering, and how much is leaving? Is the box getting more full, or more empty? Doth thy cup runneth over, or doth it run dry? Let us examine the example of Quixtar in 2000. Remember that their reported revenue was $518 million and their reported commissions were $143 million. Also remember that it has been estimated that roughly 80% of Amway/Quixtar sales are "self sales", where the distributor buys his own merchandise, so only 20% of total sales come from an outside source and can be considered true income for the group.
Money In | Money Out | |
Sales Income from Customers (~20% of total sales) | $104 million | |
Payments to Quixtar (100% of total sales) | $518 million | |
Commissions from Quixtar | $143 million | |
Net loss: roughly $271 million |
See the problem? They sell you a business model in which you can sell your products to yourself and still make money. They assure you that it works because you pocket your own commissions. Millions of people who apparently flunked high school math seem to believe them. Is this not insane?
Perhaps the best analogy for the Amway distributor group is not a black box after all. Perhaps the best analogy is a black hole.
OK, so how did the top distributors make it?
In most cases, they were the first ones in. Pyramid schemes work if you can recruit a vast army of suckers to line your pocketbook. When the idea is new, it's much easier to recruit suckers because they've never heard of it before, and their ignorance makes them easy marks. But in any market where Amway has been operating for a while, you won't find such easy pickings. That's why Amway success stories are so rare; you need to "open up a new market" in order to be successful.
The remainder fall into the category of the "super-salesman" personality type (you know, the guys who could sell refridgerators to Eskimos). People like that might be able to make the Amway model work, but consider the aforementioned example of Robert Crisp and his $120 million sales volume from which he made only $200k. With the kind of salesmanship and hard work you'd need in order to build up that kind of business with Amway, you could probably make far more money selling cars or even insurance (don't laugh; there are life insurance agents out there making over $1 million per year; a truly great salesman can make a lot of money in our society, without having to line the pockets of Amway).
Pushing the Product
Their sales pitch is a textbook model for scam artists everywhere. Do they hard-sell you on their products? Do they spend two hours trying to convince you to buy some new power tools, or facial cleansers? No! Amway is not out to sell goods; they're out to bring more members into their sucking black hole of distributorships, because the more suckers they have selling product to themselves in the hope of somehow making money on their own commissions, the more money the people at the top make. And even within the distributorship black hole, there is a pyramidal hierarchy, where some distributors make money at the expense of others (in other words, the people at the bottom of the distributorship group are really losing money). That's why they hard-sell the business, not the products. That is a classic hallmark of an illegal pyramid scheme, and Amway escapes prosecution only because they don't officially sanction this behaviour (even though most of their distributors do it).
In short, you have a distributorship which sends 4 times more money to its parent corporation than it receives in "outside sales", and then heartily congratulates itself on getting a third of that back in commissions. Does this sound like a healthy business? Where's the difference coming from? You guessed it: the distributors' day jobs. This system doesn't augment your regular income; it drains it.
The Amway distributor system does not generate wealth for its members; it is a net-loss proposition in which the entire group is hemorrhaging red ink like there's no tomorrow. There's only two winners in the system: the people who run the parent corporation, and the people who sit at the top of the pyramid (even though the whole pyramid is losing money overall, they are taking such a large share of the commissions that they make money at the expense of the rest). In effect, 90% of the people in the pyramid must lose money so that the remaining 10% can divide the profits amongst themselves (with the lion's share going to the people at the very top).
Amway's defenders argue that the trump card is the recruitment process; you make money not by selling product, but by pimping your friends and family. When they join, new money enters the system, and you can take a piece of it. But that is only true if the new people lose money! Imagine a poker game in which a new guy joins. In theory, there's more money for you to win now, but only if he loses. Do you still want to go after your friends and family? How ruthless are you?
Now do you see why 90% of people in Amway lose money? Since the entire distributorship is losing money, most of them must lose a lot of money if the top earners are going to make any! And even after all of that, the top earners derive the lion's share of their profits from the sales of seminars, books, and other "sales training aids", because the really big winners are the people who run the parent corporation and laugh at the worker ants running around on their behalf. Small wonder that the handful of successful distributors are so enthusiastic for you to join; they need new donors. As P.T. Barnum once said, "there's a sucker born every minute".
More Info Elsewhere
For more on MLM, see the MLM FAQ. For an extremely thorough, in-depth discussion of Amway, see Amway: The Continuing Story. Also note that like Scientology, Amway has a history of legally harassing those who would speak out against it, which is another sure sign of a scam.
And finally, you may want to visit Amway's home page. Update: They've improved it over the years, and added an on-line store to make it look more like a normal retailer and less like a MLM scam headquarters. But look at the prices: as of Oct 7, 2010, a case of 24 (16 fl oz) bottles of their "Nutrilite" Lemon-Lime sports drink costs $38.88. Meanwhile, the New York area online grocer FreshDirect sells a case of 24 (20 fl oz) bottles of Lemon-Lime Gatorade for $21.79. That's 25% more sports drink, for 44% less money!
Amway's website is chock full of ridiculously priced items, like a $384.50 wok or a $1,072.95 set of pots and pans (both from their in-house "iCook" brand, which is supposed to save you money). Some of their small-ticket products are closer to normal retail prices, like their $8.99 pack of 8 Fuji AA alkaline batteries (as opposed to FreshDirect's $3.99 pack of 4 Duracell AA batteries, which is still slightly cheaper per battery), but what kind of accomplishment is that? Should we be pleased that they're only slightly more than normal retail prices on some products? Where are those huge savings Amway talks about? Oh wait, that's right: their real business is not that on-line store: it's the MLM operation, and don't let them fool you into thinking otherwise.


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TechRadar Verdict
- +
Nice interface
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Good effects and transitions
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Easy to use
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More demanding than some
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A bit basic for more advanced users
Why you can trust TechRadar
Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate has gone through many changes in recent years, but this latest edition feels like the most robust yet.
Pinnacle has always been an easy video editing suite to get to grips with and this latest version is no exception. We like the grey and rather neutral background and the uncluttered three-step approach of Import, Edit and Make Movie is easy to use.
Editing is the core of this suite and there are a number of changes on offer to make it even easier. The new album structure for finding your imported clips, in particular, feels a lot more intuitive to work with.
Editing is still built around the drag-and-drop timeline of previous versions, but the placement of Videos, Transitions, Montage themes and Sound Effects tools all feel easier to switch between than before.
Improved manager
One new tool that makes editing easier is the new Project Bin, which allows you to drag and drop all the individual assets you need for that project. This is more of an organisational tool, but it works very well.
We're also impressed with the range of export options on offer. For starters, you can burn DVDs in standard and HD formats, with support for AVCHD and HDV. Support for YouTube, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox, as well as the Apple iPod are also standard.
Pinnacle has worked hard on making this latest version more robust and we found it handled HD video without too much strain. You'll still need at least a dual-core processor in your laptop to help make the most of the suite, but system requirements aren't as heavy as they once were.
Three versions of this suite are on offer, with this Ultimate edition coming with a host of extra video effects and features, as well as support for burning your fi nal movies to high-defi nition (HD) Blu-ray discs.
Pinnacle Studio 14 HD Ultimate is a solid package and while more experienced users may prefer the Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum Pro suite, Pinnacle feels like the most versatile offering for the casual home user.
Follow TechRadar Reviews on Twitter: http://twitter.com/techradarreview
- Want to see the competition? Check out our guide to the best video editing software

subset: commoncrawl


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It would be nice to report that the first starring vehicle for the immensely talented British comic actor Steve Coogan is an unqualified success, but Hamlet 2 never gets in the satiric groove. In skewering the easy prey of inspirational teacher movies and "let's put on a show" musicals, the script by Pam Brady and director Andrew Fleming projects a sense of relief at not having to try too hard. As in so many comedies today, the onus falls on the on-screen talent to punch up mediocre material.
So more power to Coogan, whose best shot at Stateside stardom comes with the change-of-pace role of Dana Marschz: an effusive American high-school acting teacher with little understanding of why people don't respond to his asinine artistic visions. At Tucson, Arizona's West Mesa High School, Marschz directs stage adaptations of pop movies (Erin Brockovich, Mississippi Burning). Of course, they're perfectly atrocious, which is evident to everyone but Marschz and his two prize drama students, Rand Posin and Epiphany Sellars (Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole, both formerly of Broadway's teen-angst musical Spring Awakening). When the principal and school board conspire to put the drama program on the chopping block, Marschz spirals into despair, even begging his nemesis (the "West Mesa Tattler"'s pint-sized drama critic) for advice. Trying to be helpful, the kid offers, "Sometimes something can be so bad it starts to turn good again."
That's a subtlety lost on Marschz, but he does listen when the critic suggests doing something original. Marschz, a born loser, drags this insight into his artistic blindspot. He hammers out a script for "Hamlet 2," a musical sequel to arguably the most famous play ever written. Then he sets to work selling the concept to his students. Rand and Epiphany leap on board, but the others, described by Epiphany as "ethnics," need more convincing. It's one of the film's best comic twists on the Dangerous Minds-style teacher movie that when parents object to Marschz's teaching, it's not because of a lack of understanding of what he's doing, but rather a hyper-understanding of his idiocy and incompetence.
Still, it's difficult to invest in a story that fosters such a strong sense of unreality (and doesn't compensate with razor-sharp absurdism). The result feels like warmed-over John Waters dementia. Fine support comes from the young players, as well as veterans Catherine Keener as Marschz's numb wife, David Arquette as their roommate, Elizabeth Shue as herself, and Amy Poehler as a sharky, hilariously profane ACLU lawyer. But it's Coogan's show, in a grotesquely overstated performance that makes sense for the character but isn't always easy to watch (he may also be hampered in the fine details by having to put on the American accent).
The perkily deluded Marschz is a character with many facets: his failed acting career (high point? an appearance on Xena: Warrior Princess); his seven-year sobriety; his infertility (which he addresses by beginning to wear loose-fitting caftans); and a crippling emotional grudge against his father, an unsupportive molester. "My life is a parody of a tragedy," he moans. In a way, it's hard not to root for such a desperate underdog and one with such obvious sincerity ("Theatre has the power to transform the audience. I believe that"), but on the other hand, Marschz has such a tin ear for drama that his victory would—in real life, anyway—be everyone else's loss. Still, who wouldn't want, perversely, to see "Hamlet 2," a guaranteed train wreck in which Marschz himself plays the key role of "Sexy Jesus"? It's the cherry on top for a teacher who has proven his total lack of boundaries with students and art alike.
The humor is definitely hit and miss here, so even the big finale shouldn't be overhyped. Despite the presence of Sexy Jesus, it's not the second coming. Brady, a South Park writer, seems to want to coast on comic outrageousness. As hilarious as that can be (Coogan bleating, "I have so much anger. I feel like I've been raped in the face!"), it's not enough to make a full-bodied, full-length narrative. Expect a pleasant diversion, the best moments of which come out of left field. Marschz's questionable lesson "It doesn't matter how much talent we lack, as long as we have enthusiasm" mirrors the film's own questionable entertainment value, with plenty of talent not quite making up for lack of effort.


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Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
He has presented his own series at Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series, and 'Decade by Decade—100 years of German song', broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe, North America and Australia, and at the Aix-en-Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg festivals. Malcolm Martineau has recorded for many labels, and his discs for Hyperion include two volumes of 'Songs my father taught me' with Sir Thomas Allen, settings of Pushkin with Joan Rodgers, Britten folk song arrangements, Spanish songs with Sylvia Schwartz, Reger with Sophie Bevan, and three earlier volumes of Debussy songs.
Malcolm was given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. He was the Artistic Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival, and was made an OBE in the 2016 New Year's Honours.


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Spanish whites for the summer
I know it may seem cliched to say that I only drink white in the summer but I do seem to gravitate towards them once the thermometer starts heading up past 75 degrees F. and the sun starts making (almost) daily appearances.
Since I'm always on the lookout for new and different wines, I ran across these two Spanish examples, Pleyades Macabeo 2007, DO Cariñena and Ermita Veracruz Verdejo 2006, DO Rueda, the other day and snapped them up. I tend to get a bit excited when I try something new, there's always that frisson of discovery and expectation. And, I have to say, these two were excellent examples of crisp, dry, unoaked, perfect-for-a-sunny-day wines.
The DO Cariñena is situated to the west of Catalunya in northeastern Spain and is probably better known for its red wines then its whites but this macabeo was a real charmer.
Macabeo is usually used as one of the three varieties blended to make Spanish cava. Here it's allowed to strike out on its own as a still white wine. The colour alone signals that this is a wine that doesn't take itself too seriously, being a shade of pale lemon. I wouldn't say this was an overly complicated wine either but it was crisp and fresh with a nice nose of lemon and pineapple, very clean with a nice bit of weightiness on the palate. I detected plenty of bright, cripsy citrus flavours and a good finish. I found this a very enjoyable wine to drink out in the garden or at the
Retail £6.99
Whereas macabeo is primarily known as a blending grape, verdejo wines are quite well known and the DO Rueda is justly famous for the verdejos it produces. The Ermita Veracruz Verdejo 2006 is an good example of whites from this region. My nose was greeted by lashings of grapefruit, orange peel and white flowers along with a streak of minerality underlying it all. After giving it a good sniff I took a sip and was delighted to find a striking
herbiness, a bit of mint and a citric finish with just a whisper of bitterness at the end. If you're tired of the same old sauvignon blanc and looking for something with a bit of zing, then this wine is for you. It'd be great with a platter of fried seafood or calamari with plenty of lemon squeezed on top. Delish…
13.5% alc
Retail £7.99


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The English word ticket (that is, a slip of paper used to grant access to something) can be translated several different ways in Spanish:
- boleto
- pasaje
- billete
- ticket
- entrada
- resguardo
What are the differences between these words? In what situations would each be used? Specifically, which are appropriate for a plane, bus, or train ticket?


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55 S.Ct. 663
79 L.Ed. 1446
REALTY ASSOCIATES SECURITIES CORPORATION et al.
O'CONNOR et al.
No. 625.
Argued April 8, 9, 1935.
Decided April 29, 1935.
Mr. Alfred T. Davison, of New York City, for petitioner Realty Associates Securities Corporation.
Mr. James N. Rosenberg, of New York City, for petitioner Realty Associates, Inc.
Mr. Archibald Palmer, of New York City, for respondents Eliza B. Carman et al.
Mr. George C. Levin, of New York City, for respondent Eugene F. O'Connor, Jr.
Mr. Justice CARDOZO delivered the opinion of the Court.
The controversy is one as to the compensation of a referee in bankruptcy upon a composition with the creditors.
Realty Associates Securities Corporation was adjudged a bankrupt, July 10, 1933, upon the filing of a voluntary petition. At the same time the proceeding was sent to a referee in bankruptcy. The chief claims ($12,631,949.67) were on bonds issued under indentures between the bankrupt and a trust company as trustee. The other claims were only $208,133.90, of which amount one for $207,583.95 is contested and undetermined. On February 16, 1934, the bankrupt made an offer to the creditors of terms of composition pursuant to the statute (Bankruptcy Act, 30 Stat. 549, c. 541, § 12, as amended, 11 U.S.C. § 30 (11 USCA § 30)), which offer was accepted by the requisite majority. The District Judge found the composition to be for the best interests of the creditors (Bankruptcy Act, § 12d, 11 USCA § 30(d) and confirmed it. By its terms, all creditors were to receive cash for 15 per cent. of the amount of their claims as filed and allowed. Holders of bonds (after crediting the cash) were to extend and otherwise modify the obligation for the remaining 82 per cent. Creditors not bond-holders, an almost negligible number, were to receive bonds in the treasury of the company reduced and modified in the same way. The time for the payment of the principal was postponed until October 1, 1943; the rate of interest was lowered from 6 per cent. to 5; the interest accruing semiannually before October, 1943, was to be payable only out of earnings, but the liability was to be cumulative, and upon maturity of the principal was to be discharged in full; the creditors were to be represented on the board of directors; and there were to be restrictions on investments and on the creation of new debts. The composition did not call for the cancellation or surrender of bonds then outstanding. There was, however, to be attached to each of them a rider, described as a 'notation of reduction and modification,' which was to be evidence of the foregoing changes. Cash in the requisite amount was deposited with the clerk of the court, and other instruments, so far as necessary, were signed and filed.
In the meantime a question had arisen as to the compensation payable to the referee. 'Referees shall receive as full compensation for their services * * * one-half of 1 per centum on the amount to be paid to creditors upon the confirmation of a composition.' Bankruptcy Act, § 40a, as amended, 11 U.S.C. § 68 (11 USCA § 68(a).1 The creditors took the position that the percentage was to be computed upon the cash, and nothing else. The cash payments being $2,091,129.04, the compensation on that basis would be $10,455.65. The referee maintained that he was entitled to a percentage not only on the cash, but also on the face amount of the principal payable upon the bonds nearly ten years thereafter. Figuring the total cash and bonds at $13,008,038.31, he arrived at a fee of $65,040.19. The District Judge followed an intermediate course. 6 F.Supp. 549. Testimony was received that the bonds were then selling in the market, after public notice of the composition, at 37 per cent. of par, and that their market value would be 22 per cent. when the principal had been reduced by a credit of 15 per cent. in cash. The District Judge estimated the bonds as equivalent to cash to the extent of 22 per cent. of the par value of the principal. The total fees thus figured were $24,064.87. An order was made accordingly.
The creditors took no appeal, acquiescing in the award, though some believed it to be too large. The referee, however, did appeal. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sustained the position of the referee, one judge dissenting. 74 F.(2d) 61. The decision was that in figuring the commissions the bonds were to be reckoned as a payment of the full amount of the principal payable thereunder. On the petition of the bankrupt and a creditor a writ of certiorari issued from this court. 294 U.S. 701, 55 S.Ct. 508, 79 L.Ed. —-.
We think it an unreasonable view of the meaning of the statute (Bankruptcy Act, § 40, as amended, 11 U.S.C. § 68 (11 USCA § 68)) that would treat the bonds of the bankrupt in the situation here developed as equivalent to cash.
In determining the effect of any particular composition, a 'payment' or an 'amount paid' must have a sensible construction, which may vary in one case and another according to the facts. Here, at the date of the bankruptcy, creditors were the owners of the bonds of the bankrupt, its promises, nonnegotiable in form, for the payment of money, to the extent of nearly $13,000,000. At the date of the composition and afterwards, they held the same bonds, scaled down in amount as to principal and interest, and with some of the terms varied, but still the same bonds with the promises to pay not fulfilled, nor even accelerated, but on the contrary deferred. Common sense revolts at the suggestion that creditors have been paid for this purpose or for any other when all that has happened is that they have been left in possession of the old promises of the debtor, reduced in amount and extended as to time.
Referees in bankruptcy are public officers (11 U.S.C. §§ 61, 64 (11 USCA §§ 61, 64)), and officers of a court. Like public officers generally, they must show clear warrant of law before compensation will be owing to them for the performance of their public duties. United States v. Garlinger, 169 U.S. 316, 321, 18 S.Ct. 364, 42 L.Ed. 762; People ex rel. Rand v. Craig, 231 N.Y. 216, 221, 131 N.E. 894. Extravagant costs of administration in the winding up of estates in bankruptcy have been denounced as crying evils. Strengthening Procedure in the Bankruptcy System, Sen. Doc. No. 65, 72d Congress, 1st Sess. (1932), p. 53; also H.R. Rep. 65, 55th Congress, 2d Sess. (1898), p. 44. In response to those complaints, Congress has attempted in the enactment of the present statute to fix a limit for expenses growing out of the services of referees and receivers. Bankruptcy Act §§ 40, 48(d, e), as amended, 11 U.S.C. §§ 68, 76, 11 USCA §§ 68, 76(d, e). The pay for referees is no longer involved in uncertainty as to the applicable percentage. By mischance there is still uncertainty at times as to the principal amount to which the rate of to be applied. In cases of composition the principal is 'the amount to be paid to creditors upon the confirmation,' and before we can compute what is due we must know what payment is. The ascertainment of that fact, like the ascertainment of facts generally in the discharge of the judicial function, is a process that must be flexible and broad enough to keep all the circumstances in view. In weighing their significance a court will not forget that Congress meant to hit the evil of extravagance, and that the meaning of its words, if doubtful, must be adapted to its aim. If this is kept in mind, certain inferences will follow. One of them will be that a promise is not payment unless it would naturally be so regarded in the common speech of men, and that the extent of the payment, whether partial or complete, must be subject to a kindred test.
Viewing this case from that angle of vision, we hold that the referee had fulll compensation in the award of commissions that was made by the District Judge. Whether he was entitled to as much, we do not now determine, the creditors and the bankrupt, who were at liberty to oppose, having preferred to acquiesce. For present purposes, it is enough that he was not entitled to more. The bonds had a value in the market that would have made it possible for a creditor to convert them into money at 22 per cent. of par. If present values were to be estimated, this was the present value of the promise of the debtor as of the date of composition. To find anything in addition would be to capitalize a hope.
The facts of the case before us define the scope of our decision. We are not required to adjudge the effect to be given to the acceptance of bonds or notes when made in different circumstances or with other possibilities of benefit. For like reasons, there can be no profit in stating or analyzing the holdings in other federal courts. In re H. Batterman Co. (C.C.A.) 231 F. 699; In re Mills Tea & Butter Co. (D.C.) 235 F. 815; American Surety Co. v. Freed (C.C.A.) 224 F. 333; In re J. B. White & Co. (D.C.) 225 F. 796; Kinkead v. J. Bacon & Sons (C.C.A.) 230 F. 362; In re Columbia Cotton Oil & Provision Corporation (C.C.A.) 210 F. 824. They grew out of situations very different from this one, and are not consistent with one another. No principle of general application can be extracted from them.
The respondent referee invokes the analogy of General Order 48(4), adopted April 24, 1933 (288 U.S. 636, 637 (11 USCA following section 53)), which fixes the commissions of referees in proceedings under section 74 of the Bankruptcy Act. Section 74 (11 U.S.C. § 202 (see 11 USCA 202)) and the rules applicable thereto have relation to proceedings for the relief of a debtor not a bankrupt who seeks a composition or an extension of his debts. The present proceeding under section 12 of the act, as amended (11 U.S.C. § 30 (11 USCA § 30)) is for a composition by a bankrupt. The general order was passed in the exercise of the rule making power, and was directed to proceedings of a particular class. The jurisdiction that we now exercise is part of the judicial function, and is directed to proceedings of a different class. The one does not control the other. Meek v. Centre County Banking Co., 268 U.S. 426, 434, 45 S.Ct. 560, 69 L.Ed. 1028; George M. West Co. v. Lea, 174 U.S. 590, 599, 19 S.Ct. 836, 43 L.Ed. 1098.
We find no merit in the objection that there has been an omission of parties whose presence is essential to the exercise of our supervisory jurisdiction.
The decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals should be reversed, and that of the District Court affirmed.
It is so ordered.
(a) Referees shall receive as full compensation for their services, payable after they are rendered, a fee of $15 deposited with the clerk at the time the petition is filed in each case, except when a fee is not required from a voluntary bankrupt, and 25 cents for every proof of claim filed for allowance, to be paid from the estate, if any, as a part of the cost of administration, and from estates which have been administered before them 1 per centum commissions on all moneys disbursed to creditors by the trustee, or one-half of 1 per centum on the amount to be paid to creditors upon the confirmation of a composition.


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I am convinced, but cannot prove, that time does not exist. I mean that I am convinced that there is a consistent way of thinking about nature, that makes no use of the notions of space and time at the fundamental level. And that this way of thinking will turn out to be the useful and convincing one.
I think that the notions of space and time will turn out to be useful only within some approximation. They are similar to a notion like "the surface of the water" which looses meaning when we describe the dynamics of the individual atoms forming water and air: if we look at very small scale, there isn't really any actual surface down there. I am convinced space and time are like the surface of the water: convenient macroscopic approximations, flimsy but illusory and insufficient screens that our mind uses to organize reality.
In particular, I am convinced that time is an artifact of the approximation in which we disregard the large majority of the degrees of freedom of reality. Thus "time" is just the reflection of our ignorance.
I am also convinced, but cannot prove, that there are no objects, but only relations. By this I mean that I am convinced that there is a consistent way of thinking about nature, that refers only to interactions between systems and not to states or changes of individual systems. I am convinced that this way of thinking nature will end up to be the useful and natural one in physics.
Beliefs that one cannot prove are often wrong, as proven by the fact that this Edge list contains contradictory beliefs. But they are essential in science and often healthy. Here is a good example from 25 centuries ago: Socrates, in Plato's Phaedon says:
"... seems to me very hard to prove, and I think I wouldn't be able to prove it ... but I am convinced ... that the Earth is spherical."
Finally, I am also convinced, but cannot prove, that we humans have an instinct to collaborate, and that we have rational reasons for collaborating. I am convinced that ultimately this rationality and this instinct of collaboration will prevail over the shortsighted egoistic and aggressive instinct that produces exploitation and war. Rationality and instinct of collaboration have already given us large regions and long periods of peace and prosperity. Ultimately, they will lead us to a planet without countries, without wars, without patriotism, without religions, without poverty, where we will be able to share the world. Actually, maybe I am not sure I truly believe that I believe this; but I do want to believe that I believe this.


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Dirs/scrs: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. US. 2012. 105mins
A very funny and moving look at a folk artist whose sizable talent always lags behind his personal failings and bad luck, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis is a companion piece of sorts to A Serious Man, their 2009 comedy-drama in which a decent, ordinary man seemed to have the entire world conspiring against him. The filmmaking duo's new movie features a protagonist far more flawed and self-defeating, but thanks to a sterling lead performance from Oscar Isaac, the Coen brothers have once again delivered an impressively nuanced character study — one that has much to say about art, compromise and all the aspiring hopefuls who never got their moment in the sun.
The pleasure of the Coens' screenplay is in how it teases out character information about Llewyn, only slowly revealing a full portrait of this driven but also occasionally shortsighted individual.
Premiering in the Official Competition at Cannes, Inside Llewyn Davis will be released in the US on December 6, hoping for Oscar attention. The Coens are coming off their biggest hit with their remake of True Grit, and Inside's setting (the burgeoning New York folk scene of the 1960s) will no doubt draw comparisons to the filmmakers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which like this new offering was highlighted by a lively soundtrack supervised by musician T-Bone Burnett.
The film takes place in the winter of 1961 as folk singer Llewyn Davis (Isaac) is trying to scrape together a solo career now that his moderately successful duo has ended for reasons that aren't initially made clear. There's no question that Davis can write soulful songs, but he can't shake an impression among his peers that his best work was with his former partner. In the midst of his struggles, he's also desperately low on money, forced to crash on friends' couches. If all that wasn't enough, one of his fellow folk artists, Jean Berkey (Carey Mulligan), tells him that she's pregnant and that she thinks he's the father, which is incredibly problematic since she's married to another man.
Inside Llewyn Davis fits in the Coens' canon alongside such films as Barton Fink, A Serious Man and The Man Who Wasn't There, which all revolved around richly conceived central characters who are at a crossroads. The brothers' new film may feel at times like a musical, spotlighting full performances of rearranged traditional folk songs that are performed by Isaac and others, but Inside Llewyn Davis is also something of a road movie and a redemption story, following along as Llewyn attempts to catch a break as a performer.
The pleasure of the Coens' screenplay is in how it teases out character information about Llewyn, only slowly revealing a full portrait of this driven but also occasionally shortsighted individual. As played with charm and subdued anger by Isaac, perhaps best known for roles in Drive or Robin Hood, Llewyn is not the typical terrible-person/astounding-performer artist cliché.
Throughout the film, we get a sense of a honourable, disillusioned guy who can't seem to pull himself together. It's important to note that the filmmakers don't mock his aspirations — as with A Serious Man, the Coens find the humour in Llewyn's turmoil but they also sympathise with his plight. Inside Llewyn Davis never quite pins down why he hasn't been "discovered" in the rising folk scene, and that mystery is important in explaining Llewyn's perpetual purgatory: He can't figure out why he hasn't broken through, either.
In lieu of a traditional narrative — there's no big musical competition that's driving the film's engine — Inside Llewyn Davis simply spends a week with Llewyn as he comes to grips with this pregnancy news, lands a gig as a session player, tries to get his record out to managers, and discovers a few secrets about his past. The film can sometimes meander a bit, bringing on supporting characters that are colourful without being especially memorable, but taken as a whole the movie's seemingly lackadaisical storyline compassionately but also humorously reveals how he became the artist that he is, successful or not.
Considering this really is Llewyn's show, the supporting cast stays in the background, essentially providing harmony vocals for his tune. Despite limited screen time, Mulligan leaves a forceful impression as a pragmatic singer utterly mortified that a stupid one-night-stand with Llewyn could have resulted in a pregnancy. Others, such as Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman, really do feel like mere signposts along the way of Llewyn's personal journey.
But whereas in the past the Coen brothers would sometimes settle for broad comedy in their bit players, the folks around Llewyn serve as opposing viewpoints to his desire to pursue pure folk music without settling for commercial accessibility. (Even here, though, the Coens don't make him a caricature of the pretentious artiste. Audiences will recall that the brothers did something like that already with their biting satire Barton Fink, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes 22 years ago.)
From a technical standpoint, Inside Llewyn Davis is glorious, starting with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel's de-saturated period look and production designer Jess Gonchor's loving re-creation of 1960s New York. This isn't a nostalgic New York, though: The Coens' sharp dialogue and clear-eyed observations about Llewyn's creative struggles keep the proceedings from being too cozy. As for the musical performances, they're quite strong, with Isaac convincingly delivering his own vocals. Llewyn may never become a star, but this breakthrough role may make Isaac one.
Production company: Anton Capital Entertainment
International sales: StudioCanal, www.studiocanal.com
Producers: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Executive producers: Robert Graf, Olivier Courson, Ron Halpern
Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel
Production designer: Jess Gonchor
Editor: Roderick Jaynes
Main cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, Justin Timberlake


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High end and pro-worthy indeed, the Invader from the ElectraStim line of electro-stimulation tools is thick, smooth and definitely fulfilling. Resting right in the middle of the Extreme size scale, this sexily polished aluminum plug boasts a size and a shape that certainly won\'t disappoint anal play connoisseurs.
Shaped for an intense stretch immediately following insertion, the amazingly conductive Invader features a softly pointed head that quickly widens to the plug\'s largest point, and a fantastically thin neck placed just above insulating grip rings. Like any great anal penetrator, the Invader\'s base is extra wide, providing a barrier against too-deep penetration, in combination with the sleek neck, this plug will stay perfectly in place through playtime. Two 2mm inputs underneath hook to your choice of ElectraStim controller (sold separately).
Constructed from super-slick, highly polished marine-grade aluminum and transparent acrylic, the Invader will quickly and naturally warm to match body temperature, a feature that only adds to the indescribably pleasurable effects of perfectly placed electro-stimulation. Compatible with all types of lubricant. Hypoallergenic.
Function: Electric Shock Anal Plug
Color: Silver + Clear/Red/Blue
Material: Metal
Package: OPP Bag
Size: 6.9 * 3.0 cm/2.7\" * 1.2\"
Insert Length: 5.6 cm/2.2\"
Net Weight: 65 g/0.14 lb/2.3 oz
Size: 8.3 * 4.0 cm/3.3\" * 1.6\"
Insert Length: 7 cm/5.3\"
Net Weight: 135 g/0.3 lb/4.8 oz
Size: 10 * 5 cm/3.9\" * 2.0\"
Insert Length: 8.5 cm/3.3\"
Net Weight: 250 g/0.55 lb/8.8 oz


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New voices, new flash-length fantasy.
By Lord Dunsany
It had been prophesied of old and foreseen from the ancient days that its enemy would come upon Thlunrana. And the date of its doom was known and the gate by which it would enter, yet none had prophesied of the enemy who he was save that he was of the gods though he dwelt with men. Meanwhile Thlunrana, that secret lamaserai, that chief cathedral of wizardry, was the terror of the valley in which it stood and of all lands round about it. So narrow and high were the windows and so strange when lighted at night that they seemed to regard men with the demoniac leer of something that had a secret in the dark. Who were the magicians and the deputy-magicians and the great arch-wizard of that furtive place nobody knew, for they went veiled and hooded and cloaked completely in black.
Though her doom was close upon her and the enemy of prophecy should come that very night through the open, southward door that was named the Gate of the Doom, yet that rocky edifice Thlunrana remained mysterious still, venerable, terrible, dark, and dreadfully crowned with her doom. It was not often that anyone dared wander near to Thlunrana by night when the moan of the magicians invoking we know not Whom rose faintly from inner chambers, scaring the drifting bats: but on the last night of all the man from the black-thatched cottage by the five pine-trees came, because he would see Thlunrana once again before the enemy that was divine, but that dwelt with men, should come against it and it should be no more. Up the dark valley he went like a bold man, but his fears were thick upon him; his bravery bore their weight but stooped a little beneath them. He went in at the southward gate that is named the Gate of the Doom. He came into a dark hall, and up a marble stairway passed to see the last of Thlunrana. At the top a curtain of black velvet hung and he passed into a chamber heavily hung with curtains, with a gloom in it that was blacker than anything they could account for. In a sombre chamber beyond, seen through a vacant archway, magicians with lighted tapers plied their wizardry and whispered incantations. All the rats in the place were passing away, going whimpering down the stairway. The man from the black-thatched cottage passed through that second chamber: the magicians did not look at him and did not cease to whisper. He passed from them through heavy curtains still of black velvet and came into a chamber of black marble where nothing stirred. Only one taper burned in the third chamber; there were no windows. On the smooth floor and under the smooth wall a silk pavilion stood with its curtains drawn close together: this was the holy of holies of that ominous place, its inner mystery. One on each side of it dark figures crouched, either of men or women or cloaked stone, or of beasts trained to be silent. When the awful stillness of the mystery was more than he could bear the man from the black-thatched cottage by the five pine-trees went up to the silk pavilion, and with a bold and nervous clutch of the hand drew one of the curtains aside, and saw the inner mystery, and laughed. And the prophecy was fulfilled, and Thlunrana was never more a terror to the valley, but the magicians passed away from their terrific halls and fled through the open fields wailing and beating their breasts, for laughter was the enemy that was doomed to come against Thlunrana through her southward gate (that was named the Gate of the Doom), and it is of the gods but dwells with man.
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Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work, mostly in fantasy, published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes many hundreds of published short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays.
Labels: Lord Dunsany


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Joe Biden on Budget & EconomyVice President; previously Democratic Senator (DE) | |
We're determined to continue in a balanced way to cut our debt in the coming years and have made significant strides towards that goal. Last year, with the help of my colleagues in the US Congress, we reached a difficult agreement on reducing our spending over the next 10 years by close to $1 trillion. Just the end of this year, we agreed on a very difficult decision about our tax code, raising another $600 billion, making significant compromises.
Erskine Bowles cut right to the chase. "Leave your friends at home," he said. "They just create problems when you get to Washington."
BIDEN: It�s evidence that the policies of the last 8 years have been the worst policies we�ve had. Obama laid out criteria for a rescue plan. He, first of all, said there has to be oversight. Second, he said you have to focus on folks on Main Street. Third, he said that you have to treat the taxpayers like investors. And, last, you have to make sure CEOs don�t benefit from this. We�re going to focus on the middle class, because when the middl class is growing, the economy grows and everybody does well.
PALIN: A good barometer is go to a kid�s soccer game and turn to a parent and ask, �How are you feeling about the economy?� You�re going to hear fear. Two years ago, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie & Freddie reform measures. There will be greater oversight, thanks to John McCain�s bipartisan efforts that he was so instrumental in bringing folks together, even suspending his own campaign to put politics aside.
BIDEN: Barack warned about the sub prime mortgage crisis. We let Wall Street run wild. John McCain thought the answer is that tried and true Republican response, deregulate, deregulate. And guess what? The middle class needs tax relief. They need it now.
PALIN: It was predator lenders who tried to talk Americans into thinking that it was smart to buy a $300,000 house if we could only afford a $100,000 house. There was deception, and there was greed and there is corruption. Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, we need to band together and say never again. We need to demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings. Let�s do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don�t live outside of our means.
A: You don�t have to make a choice of balancing the budget and/or leading with the priorities that most of us feel strongly about, from health care, to education, to the environment. And I�ll just put it in real stark terms: It�s about priorities. Just by eliminating the war, & eliminating the $200 billion in tax cuts that goes to the top 1%, if you add it all up, [with $350B in cuts to military special programs], that would allow me to do everything I want to do -- my priorities on education, health care and the environment -- and still bring down the deficit by $150 billion. So, the Republicans are trying to sucker us into this, �You either have to balance the budget and do nothing to make people�s lives better, or you�re going to balloon the deficit.� They have ballooned the deficit with their bad priorities.
A: The answer is yes. But we need more transparency, particularly with regard to hedge funds and private equity funds. They are the ones that are causing this thing to go under. And there�s no transparency, no accountability. We don�t know how deep this problem is. I think it�s almost as deep in terms of dollars, not liability, as the savings and loan crisis.
Q: But, senator, we have a deficit. We have Social Security and Medicare looming.
A: The answer is you have to put it all on the table. We put Social Security on the right path for 60 years. Social Security�s not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you�ve got to put all of it on the table.
BIDEN: Go on our website: [Ryan] sent me two letters saying, "Can you send me some stimulus money for companies here in the state of Wisconsin?" We sent millions of dollars.
Q: You did ask for stimulus money, correct?
RYAN: On two occasions, we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants. That's what we do for all constituents.
BIDEN: I love that. This is such a bad program, and he writes me a letter saying it will create growth and jobs. His words. That program was investigated and Congress said it was a model: less than 4/10 of 1% waste or fraud in the program. And all this talk about cronyism--they investigated & did not find one single piece of evidence. It was a good idea. This stopped us from going off the cliff. It set the conditions to be able to grow again. 40% of those green jobs didn't go under. It's a better batting average than investment bankers have.
[Ryan] says that 30% of the American people are takers. Romney points out, 47% of the people won't take responsibility. He's talking about my mother and father. And he's talking about the places I grew up in, my neighbors in Scranton and Claymont. He's talking about the people that have built this country. All they're looking for is an even shot. When they've been given the shot, they've done it. Whenever you level the playing field, they've been able to move.
And they want a little bit of peace of mind. And the president and I are not going to rest until that playing field is leveled, they in fact have a clear shot and they have peace of mind, until they can turn to their kid and say with a degree of confidence, "Honey, it's going to be OK." That's what this is all about.
The Facts:On Sept. 15, at 9 AM, McCain said: �There�s been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets. I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times.� About 3 hours later, McCain said: �We�re going to put an end to the abuses on Wall Street that have resulted in the crisis that we are seeing unfold today.� At the same event, McCain said, �The American workers, those are the fundamentals of America & I think they�re strong. But those fundamentals are being threatened today because of greed & corruption on Wall Street.�
The Verdict: Misleading. Biden takes some of McCain�s remarks out of context.
A: Well, no, it's not fair, but I don't think that's what's going to happen. There's three principles that have to play here for this to work, in my view.
Q: All investors suffer equally?
A: They should. We'll see what the plan is.


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A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed five American service members, officials said Tuesday.
Monday night's crash brought the total number of U.S. troops killed that day to seven, making it the deadliest day for U.S. forces so far this year. Two U.S. special operations forces were gunned down hours earlier in an insider attack by an Afghan policeman in eastern Afghanistan.
The NATO military coalition said in a statement that "initial reports" showed no enemy activity in the area at the time. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the statement said.
A U.S. official said all five of the dead were American. The official said the helicopter went down outside Kandahar city, the capital of Kandahar province. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been formally released.
The five dead included everyone aboard the UH-60 Black Hawk, said Maj. Adam Wojack, a spokesman for the international military coalition in Afghanistan.
Their deaths make 12 U.S. troops killed so far this year in Afghanistan. There were 297 U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan in 2012, according to an Associated Press tally.


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Crowds getting wild at Karma nightclub in Athlone |
Irish parents are reportedly enraged after an Athlone nightclub decided to promote a sex themed party to coincide with Leaving Cert (SAT) results' night.
Raunchy rodeo games, a wet t-shirt contest, and all-out drinking contests were among the attractions promised on flyers advertising the 'F**k Results' night at the Karma Nightclub, in Athlone.
The story made the front page of yesterday's Irish Sun, a popular national tabloid publication.
A spokesman for the National Parents' Council, the group representing Irish school children's parents, said that the promotion was 'appalling.'
Another told the Sun that teenagers "should not be subject to this kind of promotion"; a local politician described the night as marketing companies trying to "take advantage" of young students.
The night was the work of the now-notorious Midnight Promotions, a marketing company that is no stranger to controversy and which previously caused media outrage after running a Dublin club night where female patrons could exchange their underwear for free drinks.
Remarkably, despite national media coverage of that promotion, Midnight ran a similar night offering free entry to women that sent in cleavage snaps just a number of days' ago.
The company, which has been regularly accused of misogynism, sexism, and 'crossing the line' with its edgy promotions, also suffered a massive publicity fallout from a night it ran at another Dublin nightclub, Alchemy, whose poster was sub-titled "if you're not up for it, don't cum."
A "significant number of complaints" were lodged to the country's advertising regulator in the wake of that event, but it said it did not have authority to regulate the contents of advertising via social media at the present time.
A Facebook group with 600 concerned members was even founded to "end Monday at Alchemy's sexist and dangerous advertising," still believed to be managed by Midnight.
The company is also largely behind a new tabloid-esque college news website, according to the University Times. which largely features content about sex, drinking, and celebrity news.
It's men's guides on one night stands recently, similarly, provoked a number of complaints.


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Open gallery
by Lisa LeSage
I have lived through so many of them here. First the deep rumbling sound, then the slow roll, then the shake-rattle of dishes. But then the temblor is over, as fast as it came.
But this time is different. Frighteningly different.
The rumbling picks up speed, motion, and sound. I sit up in bed, frozen. Sole, my friend and housemate, yells from her bedroom, "Terremoto!"
We run-stagger through the hall door, setting off the house alarm, trying to get to the main beam of the house just as the rolling picks up so much speed we lose our footing. Walls groan ominously, and bottles, pictures, and shelves crash all around us. Shrieking house and car alarms add to the quake's deafening noise.
Something strikes me, hard, on the forehead—I don't feel any pain. Everything goes dark. It is as if the world is ending. Sole and I cling to one another and the wall, half kneeling, half standing, in our shared nightmare that won't stop. My mind focuses on a single crystal-clear thought: "So this is how it's going to be, this is how I am going to die."
But I don't. Bruised and shaken, but alive, Sole and I rouse ourselves amid the screeching alarms, the shattered glass and broken shelves. All Internet access, cell phone reception, and electricity are lost. But we can hear neighbors' voices. And now our concern is to make sure everyone else is okay.
Thankfully, everyone in our circle of friends has come through relatively unscathed; unfortunately, for so many others in Chile this is not so. As a result of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake on February 27, more than 30,000 homes in Santiago alone are damaged, bridges and overpasses are down, buildings have collapsed, and seaside villages are inundated and obliterated. Nearly a thousand people are dead or missing, and tens of thousands, mostly the poor, are now homeless. In less than three minutes, a country is changed forever.
Two weeks postquake, nerves are raw from continuing aftershocks and a countrywide electricity blackout. Sole's grandmother's house in Curico is in ruins, as is much of the formerly picturesque town. The nearby 400-year-old historic village of Vichuquen and our beloved little fishing village of Llico are completely gone. We see yellow tape around crumbled building cornices, giant cracks in the walls of the law school where I teach, and earthquake notices everywhere warning us what to do in case of another temblor. My colleagues and I on the fifth floor are learning which aftershocks mean we should seek shelter, and which we can ride out. My students are distracted and jittery. It is hard to begin the school year and my Fulbright project, hard to get traction when a giant hole has been blown through the center of everyone's equilibrium.
This is the second time I've lived and worked in Chile, the most temblor-prone country on earth. The first time I came here, I was fresh from undergraduate college and a stint as a language student in war-torn Guatemala. I had no concept of what life was like under a dictatorship until I landed in Guatemala, but was soon to learn even more in Chile: the secret police, the fear, the curfews.
However, within that dark reality (so well documented by the movie Missing that we thought it was about us), I discovered a vibrant circle of friends. Friends who, over two decades and many miles, have continued to nurture one another through catastrophes, indescribable heartbreak, career and life changes, and times of great joy.
An earthquake is not the recommended way to begin a Fulbright. In so many ways it is a potent reminder of our individual and collective fragility—and the tremendous capriciousness of our physical environment. The 9/11s, the earthquakes, the hurricanes, and the dictatorships don't always happen to someone else. The celestial buses can come careening around the corners of any of our lives.
Yet it is also an opportunity, a chance for reengagement. Are our interactions with one another—and our work—giving true meaning to our lives? Are we on the right path?
The next six months may be fraught with struggles, but I am privileged to share—and engage in—still more experiences with the people of Chile, who have demonstrated such great resilience, courage, and hope.
Lisa LeSage JD '85, associate dean and director of business law programs at Lewis & Clark Law School, was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago during the 2009–10 academic year. She teaches in the university's global business law program and is creating the framework for a law faculty support and enrichment program.
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There's lots of buzz out there to celebrate Star Wars: The Clone Wars hitting the 100 episode milestone! Variety magazine has got a buffet of light articles on the show:
- AJ Marechal talks with Dave Filoni on balancing different generations of audience who grew up with different Star Wars – and what the Disney/Lucasfilm deal might mean for Clone Wars characters.
- Iain Blair chats with CG supervisor Joel Aron on the look and feel of the series, and what classic films have inspired the style of the show.
- Brain Lowry focuses on how the animated series brings more fun into Star Wars.
- And if you can't read short articles, they have a slideshow of twelve celebrities who have provided voices for the show over the past five seasons.
Also, Channel Guide Magazine has a good interview with Dave Filoni on reaching the big one hundred mark, whether he would go back to special edition the original Clone Wars movie, and the change from Friday night to Saturday morning. StarWars.com has a big pile of quotes from the cast and crew on the occasion.
And, if you missed it, you really should check out the five minute trailer summing up the past 4.5 seasons with some peeks at what is to come (and who is noticeably missing)!


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Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos, also known as the Lovecraft Mythos, is a shared fictional universe created in the 1920s by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. During the latter part of Lovecraft's life, there was much borrowing of story elements among the authors of the "Lovecraft Circle", and many others, a clique of writers with whom Lovecraft corresponded. This group included Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, and Henry Kuttner. The term was coined by Lovecraft's associate August Derleth, and named after Cthulhu, a powerful fictional entity in Lovecraft's stories. It refers to a loose framework formed by common elements (such as places, names, or entities) that appear in more than one tale, adding continuity and depth to the works.
Authors writing in the Lovecraftian milieu have continued to use elements of the mythos in an ongoing expansion of the fictional universe, sometimes in ways far removed from Lovecraft's original conception. The mythos is not necessarily consistent from story to story, as many writers, including Lovecraft himself, would frequently alter dates, names, and locations to suit the framework of one particular work.
Robert E. Howard[edit]
- And the thought recurs to me--if such a monstrous entity as the Master of the Monolith somehow survived its own unspeakably distant epoch so long--what nameless shapes may even now lurk in the dark places of the world?
- In those grisly eyes were mirrored all the unholy things and vile secrets that sleep in the cities under the sea, and that skulk from the light of day in the blackness of primordial caverns. And so that ghastly thing that the unhallowed ritual of cruelty and sadism and blood had evoked from the silence of the hills, leered and blinked down on its bestial worshippers, who groveled in abhorrent abasement before it.
- The Black Stone
Frank Belknap Long[edit]
The Hounds of Tindalos[edit]
- "God in heaven!" he cried. "I see!"
he shrieked. "I see everything. All of the billions of lives that preceded me on this planet are before me at this moment. I see men of all ages, all races, all colors..."
- "All about me there are angels--strange angels that have no counterparts on the earth. I am desperately afraid."
"There is an abyss of being which man has never fathomed."
"I am passing through unearthly angles; I am approaching--oh, the burning horror of it."
- "No words in our language can describe them!" He spoke in a hoarse whisper. "They are symbolized vaguely in the myth of the Fall, and in an obscene form which is occasionally found engraved on ancient tablets. The Greeks had a name for them, which veiled their essential foulness. The tree, the snake, and the apple--these are the vague symbobls of a most awful mystery."
His voice had risen to a scream. "Frank, Frank, a terrible and unspeakable deed was done in the beginning. Before time, the deed, and from the deed--"
He had risen and was hysterically pacing the room. "The deeds of the dead move through angles in dim recesses of time. They are hungry and athirst!".
- All the evil in the universe was concentrated in their lean, hungry bodies. Or had they bodies? I saw them only for a moment; I cannot be certain. But I heard them breathe. Indescribably for a moment I felt their breath upon my face. They turned toward me and I fled screaming. In a single moment I fled screaming through time. I fled down quintillions of years.
H. P. Lovecraft[edit]
- What do we know … of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have.
- "From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1.
- Life is a hideous thing, and from the background behind what we know of it peer daemoniacal hints of truth which make it sometimes a thousandfold more hideous. Science, already oppressive with its shocking revelations, will perhaps be the ultimate exterminator of our human species — if separate species we be — for its reserve of unguessed horrors could never be borne by mortal brains if loosed upon the world.
- "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" - written 1920; first published in The Wolverine, No. 9 (March 1921).
- Madness rides the star-wind... claws and teeth sharpened on centuries of corpses... dripping death astride a bacchanale of bats from nigh-black ruins of buried temples of Belial...
- "The Hound" Written September 1922, published February 1924 in Weird Tales, 3, No. 2, 50–52, 78.
- Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than realities.
- "Herbert West : Re-Animator" in "Home Brew" Vol. 1, No. 1 (February 1922).
- The only saving grace of the present is that it's too damned stupid to question the past very closely.
- "Pickman's Model" - written 1926; first published in Weird Tales, Vol. 10, No. 4 (October 1927).
- Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.
- "The Dunwich Horror " - Written Summer 1928; first published in Weird Tales, 13, No. 4, (April 1929).
- It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self — not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep — the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vaporous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign...
- "Through the Gates of the Silver Key " - written with E. Hoffman Price, October 1932 - Apr 1933; first published in Weird Tales, Vol. 24, No. 1 (July 1934).
- The other gods! The other gods! The gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth!... Look away... Go back... Do not see! Do not see! The vengeance of the infinite abysses... That cursed, that damnable pit... Merciful gods of earth, I am falling into the sky!
- The Other Gods Written on August 14, 1921, first published in The Fantasy Fan (November 1933).
- May the merciful gods, if indeed there be such, guard those hours when no power of the will, or drug that the cunning of man devises, can keep me from the chasm of sleep. Death is merciful, for there is no return therefrom, but with him who has come back out of the nethermost chambers of night, haggard and knowing, peace rests nevermore. Fool that I was to plunge with such unsanctioned frensy into mysteries no man was meant to penetrate; fool or god that he was — my only friend, who led me and went before me, and who in the end passed into terrors which may yet be mine!
- Hypnos Written March 1922; First published in The National Amateur Vol. 45, No. 5 (May 1923).
The Call of Cthulhu (1926)[edit]
- The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
- Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism. But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things — in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor....
- What, in substance, both the Esquimaux wizards and the Louisiana swamp-priests had chanted to their kindred idols was something very like this: the word-divisions being guessed at from traditional breaks in the phrase as chanted aloud:
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." ... "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."
- They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.
- There had been aeons when other Things ruled on the earth, and They had had great cities. Remains of Them, he said the deathless Chinamen had told him, were still be found as Cyclopean stones on islands in the Pacific. They all died vast epochs of time before men came, but there were arts which could revive Them when the stars had come round again to the right positions in the cycle of eternity. They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought Their images with Them.
These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape — for did not this star-fashioned image prove it? — but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die...
- That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate rites, must keep alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow forth the prophecy of their return.
- No book had ever really hinted of it, though the deathless Chinamen said that there were double meanings in the Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred which the initiated might read as they chose, especially the much-discussed couplet:
- That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
- That is not dead which can eternal lie,
- I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me. But I do not think my life will be long. As my uncle went, as poor Johansen went, so I shall go. I know too much, and the cult still lives.
- Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.
H. P. Lovecraft[edit]
- It is good to be a cynic — it is better to be a contented cat — and it is best not to exist at all. Universal suicide is the most logical thing in the world — we reject it only because of our primitive cowardice and childish fear of the dark. If we were sensible we would seek death — the same blissful blank which we enjoyed before we existed.
- "Nietzscheism and Realism" from The Rainbow, Vol. I, No. 1 (October 1921); reprinted in "To Quebec and the Stars".
- The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
- "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927).
- Children will always be afraid of the dark, and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own globe in unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse.
- "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1927).


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