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This is the fourth in a series of blogs exploring the use of liquid alternatives by advisors, based on reporting conducted among advisors for the August 2014 Investment Advisor cover story, Alts Are the Answer.
As we wrote in our last blog on liquid alternatives, Aging Clients Mean Booming Market for Liquid Alts, more than 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and will continue to do so for the next two decades. For these folks, the mindset has shifted from portfolio gains to investment income. And a more stable net asset value is preferred to ensure that the income stream is not affected by dramatic market events.
These portfolios are dominated by credit, and in many cases high-yield bonds are a significant portion of the asset allocation. These securities offer investors a less volatile way to incorporate some equity-like upside, but the real draw for such bonds is income. The iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG), for example, has an SEC yield of 4.85%, which compares favorably to just about any liquid income alternative.
But there are risks to consider. Widening credit spreads and rising rates can create significant volatility in the market value of income-oriented portfolios, causing account values to drop and clients to question the worthiness of the strategy. What's the best way to hedge against such an occurrence?
I've often pondered this question, and at the suggestion of a client found a surprising answer: managed futures.
To review, "managed futures" is a strategy of investing in a portfolio of exchange-traded futures contracts. These markets includes financial futures (Treasury bonds, currencies and equity index contracts), as well as agricultural and precious metals positions. Since most trading is momentum-based, managed futures investments tend to do well when volatility is rising and equity markets are in retreat.
Readers familiar with our previous research on managed futures as a diversifier have heard this story before. But even I was surprised to see how uncorrelated the strategy is with high-yield bonds (see Table I below).
Managed futures returns (as measured by the Newedge CTA index) during the ten largest losing streaks for high yield bonds (as measured by the Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index). Source: Bloomberg LP.
At least anecdotally, it makes sense why managed futures makes such a good portfolio addition in an income-oriented portfolio. Credit instruments don't change hands as frequently as stocks, and as a result the price of high yield bonds and other fixed income investments tend to trend. During downtrends, futures strategists can hold defensive positions, and the longer high yield prices drop, the longer a managed futures manager has to generate profits.
We plan on writing a research note on our findings. If you are interested in seeing the results, please email me at [email protected].
View the entire series of blogs, Ben Warwick on Liquid Alts, based on reporting among advisors for the August 2014 Investment Advisor cover story, Alts Are the Answer.


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Carpeting: Commercial Loop PileCommercial loop pile carpet consists of yarns that are looped on the carpet surface. The pile height can vary from low, tightly constructed to a more luxurious higher level of pile. Loop carpet has the strength and inherent soil hiding capabilities. Its shadings also resist traffic patterns, while making colors appear rich. This carpet type is ideal for heavy traffic areas.
Brand Overview
Mannington Commercial Carpet
Profile | Website | Green
Mannington is the only U.S. manufacturer of commercial flooring that offers a full range of flooring solutions from a single source—LVT, commercial broadloom and modular carpet, resilient heterogeneous and homogeneous sheet, premium rubber flooring, VCT, hardwood, porcelain tile, wall base and other accessories. We've been recognized as a leader in product innovation, styling, and design, as well as in operational excellence and environmental stewardship.

subset: commoncrawl


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Not every story needs to start out with an ordinary, relatable person discovering a strange world. Sometimes, it's great to follow a character who's already steeped in the weirdness, and get caught up in the action right away. What's your favorite story that shoves you straight into its weird world, with no hand-holding?
This is partly inspired by NBC's Constantine, which has decided to ditch the "ordinary person" audience-identification character, Liv, after its pilot. Instead, we're just going to follow John Constantine and other people in his world, with no Rose Tyler-type character in the mix.
So please include a picture, book cover or clip for your favorite story that tosses audiences or readers right into the deep end. And please mention the name, and why it does a good job of immersing you in a science-fictional or magical setting right off the bat. Thanks!
Top image: The Hunger Games. People don't give this series enough credit for how ruthlessly it immerses you in the dysfunctional world of Panem, with no "sympathetic" character to cushion your fall.


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Go Fish! Creating an Ocean-Friendly Fishing Video Game
|Areas of Science
Video & Computer Games
|Time Required
|Average (6-10 days)
|Material Availability
|Readily available
|Very Low (under $20)
|No issues
AbstractVideo games are entertainment, but like other such media (say Oscar-winning movies or award-winning books), they can also point out challenges facing people. In this science project, you will design and create a fishing video game that teaches the player about which fish are plentiful enough to catch and which fish are not because their population is declining. Maybe your game can help solve the problem of over-fishing and help sustain healthy fish populations. All while having fun of course!
To design and create a fishing video game in which the player scores points for catching sustainable, or "Best Choice," fish but scores nothing for catching "Avoid" fish.
Share your story with Science Buddies!Yes, I Did This Project! Please log in (or create a free account) to let us know how things went.
Michelle Maranowski, PhD, Science Buddies
Cite This PageGeneral citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.
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Last edit date: 2020-06-23
Do you fish? Many people see fishing as a fun hobby, whether they do it off the side of a dock, from the deck of a sport-fishing boat, or even from the comfort of their couch with a fishing video game. But for others, fishing is not just a hobby – it is a job and a way to put food on tables across the world. The problem is some fish populations are declining quickly worldwide, and reports suggest that these changes are affecting the jobs of fishermen, the health of the oceans, and even the hobby of a weekend fisher. Part of the solution may lie in changing, at least temporarily, what fish humans eat in order to give the endangered fish populations time to recover. Marine research and education organizations like aquariums are strong advocates of this approach. But the question is: How do you get the message out about which fish are environmentally responsible to eat and which are not? The answer may lie in another form of entertainment – video games!
In this video and computer game project, you will educate your players about the fragility of ocean life by making a computer fishing game. You can do so using a programming language of your choice. You can join the effort to save the oceans by teaching your friends and family about the kinds of fish that are plentiful enough to eat and others that are declining and would be better left alone.
Before you dive into creating your video game, however, you might want to know a little more about what is happening to the fish under the ocean surface. Scientists estimate that human activity has led to the removal of 90% of the world's predatory fish, including sharks, swordfish, and codfish. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, factors that affect ocean life, specifically fish species, are overfishing, illegal fishing, habitat damage, bycatch, and lack of management. Let us look at overfishing, illegal fishing, and bycatch.
Overfishing is the act of catching fish faster than they can replace themselves. Fish like orange roughy (see Figure 1, which shows a trawler net of the fish) and rockfish don't reach breeding age for several decades and are vulnerable to overfishing. Rockfish, a species that inhabits waters along the West Coast of the United States and can live to be 100 years old, has been severely depleted due to overfishing. In 1992, the codfish population in Canada collapsed due to overfishing. Approximately 40,000 people lost their jobs, and the codfish population has not recovered.
Figure 1. This trawler net is full of orange roughy and bycatch caught in international waters in the Tasman Sea. Orange roughy can live up to 150 years. (© Greenpeace/Roger Grace)
Some desperate pirate fishermen are willing to break the law to make an income. Unfortunately, this affects worldwide fish populations. Pirate fishermen take undersized fish illegally, fish in closed areas, take more fish than allocated to them, or use illegal gear. Illegal fishing puts unsustainable pressure on fish stocks and habitats because the fish needed to build the next generation are lost.
Bycatch occurs when fishermen use less selective equipment, like bottom trawls and longlines, to catch fish, and instead of just catching the fish they want, also catch fish that they don't want. The fishermen often throw the bycatch back into the water either dead or dying. Longlines are hooked and baited lines that can reach lengths of 50 miles. These devices catch anything that wanders into its path. Bottom trawls drag along the bottom of the ocean floor catching anything in its wake. Bycatch isn't just unwanted fish; it can also include sea turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks, and even seabirds.
These practices have left some fish populations severly reduced. In order to give them the chance to breed and recover, marine biologists are recommending they be fished minimally or not at all. For that to work, consumers need to get the message so they can make informed choices when buying groceries or dining out. Your video game can help spread the message in a fun and memorable way.
Terms and Concepts
- Predatory
- Overfishing
- Illegal fishing
- Habitat damage
- Bycatch
- Breeding age
- Bottom trawl
- Longline
- Flowchart
- You have learned a little about catching fish from the oceans, but what about the alternative, aquaculture? What are some pros and cons of aquaculture?
- Go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website (see bibliography for citation) and find the Seafood Watch pamphlet for your part of the country. What fish are acceptable for you to eat? Are the kinds of fish that are okay for you to eat okay for people in other parts of the country to eat?
- What are some of the attributes of a good video game? Hint: Check out Science Buddies' Kid-Friendly Programming Languages and Resources for answers.
- Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. (2011). Ocean issues. Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
Read the report "America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for Sea Change" to understand the Pew Ocean Commission's findings on the state of the world's oceans.
- Pew Charitable Trusts. (2011). Pew Oceans Commission. Retrieved December 22, 2017, from http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/topics/oceans
- The National Geographic Society. (2011). Overfishing. The Ocean. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
This page will help you get started with a beginner-friendly programming language you can use to make a video game:
- Science Buddies staff. (2017). Kid-Friendly Programming Languages and Resources. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
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Materials and Equipment
- Computer with internet connection
- Programming language of your choice. See the Kid-Friendly Programming Languages and Resources page for ideas.
Experimental Procedure
Planning Your Fishing Game
- In this video and computer games science project, you will create a fishing game that not only entertains the player but also educates him or her about the fragility of life in our oceans and the right kinds of fish to eat. The goal for the player is to catch as many "good" fish as possible and not catch the "to avoid" fish as each type swims by the player's fishing rod or hook. The player will get points for every good fish he or she catches during an allotted amount of time.
- The first thing you should do is decide which programming language you will use to make a video game. If you aren't sure where to start, review the information on the Kid-Friendly Programming Languages and Resources page.
- Before you start making your own video game, you should do some basic tutorials to learn how to use the language you chose.
- Once you have completed some tutorials, and you feel comfortable with the programming environment, it is time to start the
project. As noted at the beginning of this procedure, this project follows the
Engineering Design Process.
- Remember, if you run into trouble making your game, or feel as if you want more practice before tackling this project, the links to the home pages for the various programming langaues contain many more helpful resources and forums where you can ask questions.
- Define the problem. In this case, you will create a fun and educational fishing game. Refer to the Science Buddies Define the Problem page to help you set the boundaries for the project.
- Do background research. The purpose of this game is to teach the player about the right kinds of fish to consume. Start at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website to determine the "Best Choices," "Good Alternatives," and "To Avoid" fish for your region. You should also start thinking about the goals of building a successful video game.
- Develop the project requirements. The project requirements are the characteristics that your video game must have to be a successful and
educational video game. Refer to the Science Buddies
Design Requirements section to get tips on how
to formulate your game's design requirements. Here are some ideas to consider when formulating the requirements.
- What kind of fish sprites (i.e. images or animations) do you want to use? How many of each kind ("Best Choices," "Good Alternatives," and "To Avoid")? What kind of fishing rod/hook sprite will you use?
- What other sprites do you need-bubbles or kelp-that will help set the scene?
- How long should the game last? What event will you use to control time? Where will it occur?
- How fast should the background and fish move?
- How many points will each category of fish earn the player? Will the player get points subtracted for fish they shouldn't catch?
- What will happen when your fishing rod hooks (or collides) with a fish? How will the fish move out of the water?
- Will there be sound in the game? If yes, will the sound be used during the entire game or only when a fish is caught?
Creating Your Fishing Game
- Create and analyze solutions. Keeping your project requirements in mind, think about different ways that you could build your game. Take a look at this Science Buddies document on Creating Alternative Solutions to guide your efforts. Once you have developed a few solutions, analyze the solutions by making rough sketches and flowcharts for each one. Refer to Science Buddies Best Solution document to help you pick a working solution.
- Build and test a sample video game. Once you have created a set of requirements and a possible solution, it is time to open your programming environment and start working on building a sample video game. Make a fish and have it swim around in your ocean (exactly how you do this will depend on your programming language). Remember to review your requirements so that you keep yourself focused on the task. Review this Science Buddies Prototyping document.
- Program your video game. Keep testing the game as you work. When you have fulfilled a requirement or task, run the game and test it out.
- Break the game programming up into smaller tasks so that the project is not overwhelming.
- Test the game along the way so that you can fix small issues as they come up. This will prevent your having a long set of events at the end that don't work.
- Once you have finished your game, check to see that all of the project requirements are fulfilled.
- Test and redesign. Review the Science Buddies Test and Redesign document to help organize your work. Test your game out on your family and friends. Take notes on what your players enjoyed and didn't enjoy about the game. Use their feedback to improve your game.
The Final Product: Presenting Your Game
- When presenting your game at your science fair, try to bring in a computer. If you are not able to do so, take screenshots of your work,
print them out, and mount them to a poster board.
- If you need help taking screenshots ask a teacher or someone else familiar with the computer for help.
- You should include the following items in your presentation:
- A list of the project requirements that guided your creation of the video game.
- The rough sketches or flowchart that describes how the game works.
- An explanation of what you learned from your research and from creating the video game.
- If you would like to publish your game for a wider audience to view, many of the links on the Kid-Friendly Programming Languages and Resources page have options for uploading your game to a website.
Keep the fun going! Find local opportunities related to this project.Register on ActivityHero
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:
Computer ProgrammerComputers are essential tools in the modern world, handling everything from traffic control, car welding, movie animation, shipping, aircraft design, and social networking to book publishing, business management, music mixing, health care, agriculture, and online shopping. Computer programmers are the people who write the instructions that tell computers what to do. Read more
Multimedia Artist or AnimatorIf you've ever watched a cartoon, played a video game, or seen an animated movie, you've seen the work of multimedia artists and animators. People in these careers use computers to create the series of pictures that form the animated images or special effects seen in movies, television programs, and computer games. Read more
Marine BiologistDo you enjoy going to the ocean? Do you like examining all of the marine creatures in tide pools? Do you read up on the different kinds of ocean mammals and fish for fun? If this is the case, then you may be the right fit for a career as a marine biologist. Marine biology is the study of ocean aquatic organisms, their behaviors, and their interactions with the environment. Because this field of study is an intersection of zoology, biology, and technology, marine biologists can apply their knowledge in many different ways. Read more
Computer Software EngineerAre you interested in developing cool video game software for computers? Would you like to learn how to make software run faster and more reliably on different kinds of computers and operating systems? Do you like to apply your computer science skills to solve problems? If so, then you might be interested in the career of a computer software engineer. Read more
- Experiment with changing the speed of the fish as the game progresses.
- Indicate to the player when they have caught a good fish or a bad fish. This will help educate the player about life in the oceans.
Share your story with Science Buddies!Yes, I Did This Project! Please log in (or create a free account) to let us know how things went.
Ask an ExpertThe Ask an Expert Forum is intended to be a place where students can go to find answers to science questions that they have been unable to find using other resources. If you have specific questions about your science fair project or science fair, our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.
Ask an Expert
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Holy 7 million, Batman! The Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, has made a stunning comeback from its shambolic start. As the March 31 deadline for 2014 coverage approached, there was a surge in applications at the "exchanges" - the special insurance marketplaces the law set up. And the original target of 7 million signups, widely dismissed as unattainable, has been surpassed.
But what does it mean? That depends on whether you ask the law's opponents or its supporters. You see, the opponents think that it means a lot, while the law's supporters are being very cautious. And, in this one case, the enemies of health reform are right. This is a very big deal indeed.
Of course, you don't find many Obamacare opponents admitting outright that 7.1 million and counting signups is a huge victory for reform. But their reaction to the results - It's a fraud! They're cooking the books! - tells the tale. Conservative thinking and Republican political strategy were based entirely on the assumption that it would always be October, that Obamacare's rollout would be an unremitting tale of disaster. They have no idea what to do now that it's turning into a success story.
So why are many reform supporters being diffident, telling us not to read too much into the figures? Well, at a technical level they're right: The precise number of signups doesn't matter much for the functioning of the law, and there may still be many problems despite the March surge. But I'd argue that they're missing the forest for the trees.
The crucial thing to understand about the Affordable Care Act is that it's a Rube Goldberg device, a complicated way to do something inherently simple. The biggest risk to reform has always been that the scheme would founder on its complexity. And now we know that this won't happen.
Remember, giving everyone health insurance doesn't have to be hard; you can just do it with a government-run program. Not only do many other advanced countries have "single-payer," government-provided health insurance, but we ourselves have such a program - Medicare - for older Americans. If it had been politically possible, extending Medicare to everyone would have been technically easy.
But it wasn't politically possible, for a couple of reasons. One was the power of the insurance industry, which couldn't be cut out of the loop if you wanted health reform this decade. Another was the fact that the 170 million Americans receiving health insurance through employers are generally satisfied with their coverage, and any plan replacing that coverage with something new and unknown was a nonstarter.
So health reform had to be run largely through private insurers and be an add-on to the existing system rather than a complete replacement. And, as a result, it had to be somewhat complex.
Now, the complexity shouldn't be exaggerated: The basics of reform only take a few minutes to explain. And it has to be as complicated as it is. There's a reason Republicans keep defaulting on their promise to propose an alternative to the Affordable Care Act: All the main elements of Obamacare, including the subsidies and the much-attacked individual mandate, are essential if you want to cover the uninsured.
Nonetheless, the Obama administration created a system in which people don't simply receive a letter from the federal government saying "Congratulations, you are now covered." Instead, people must go online or make a phone call and choose from a number of options, in which the cost of insurance depends on a calculation that includes varying subsidies and so on. It's a system in which many things can go wrong; the nightmare scenario has always been that conservatives would seize on technical problems to discredit health reform as a whole. And last fall that nightmare seemed to be coming true.
But the nightmare is over. It has long been clear, to anyone willing to study the issue, that the overall structure of Obamacare made sense given the political constraints. Now we know that the technical details can be managed, too. This thing is going to work.
Clearly, there's a lot of work ahead, and we can count on the news media to play up every hitch and glitch as if it were an existential disaster. But Rube Goldberg has survived; health reform has won.
© 2014 New York Times


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NEW YORK (AP)—American International Group Inc. on Sunday said it will sell up to 90 percent of its airplane leasing unit, International Lease Finance Corp., to a Chinese investor group for approximately $5.28 billion.
The investor group is led by Weng Xianding, chairman of New China Trust Co. Ltd., and also includes China Aviation Industrial Fund and P3 Investments Ltd. The group will acquire 80.1 percent of ILFC for approximately $4.23 billion, with an option for an additional 9.9 percent stake.
If Chinese regulatory approval is obtained and the option is exercised, the investor group is expected to expand to include New China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and an investment arm of ICBC International, a subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
U.S. regulatory approval is also needed. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
AIG will keep at least 10 percent of the Los-Angeles based company.
ILFC will continue to operate out of Los Angeles and remain incorporated in the U.S. The division leases more than 1,000 aircraft to airlines and other customers in more than 80 countries.
CEO Henri Courpron and President Frederick S. Cromer will continue to operate and manage the business. In June, Courpron was docked $1 million in pay after acknowledging he had an inappropriate relationship with an unnamed employee that was "contrary to AIG's expectations of its officers."
The company currently employs about 560 people, including more than 450 people based in the U.S., and expects to hire additional U.S.-based staff to replace AIG-supported operations.
AIG has said the jet-leasing business is a non-core asset. The company had previously planned to take the unit public.
The insurer has been selling off parts of its business to raise money to pay back the $182 billion bailout that it received from the government during the financial crisis of 2008. It was the biggest of the government's bailouts. The government, which earlier this year owned 77 percent of AIG stock, has been gradually selling its stake. As of September 30, the U.S. owned just under 16 percent of AIG's outstanding common stock, according to a regulatory filing.
AIG announced it was in talks to sell to the Chinese investment group on Friday. Investors reacted by pushing AIG stock up 2.6 percent, 87 cents, to $34.13.
See also:


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Wiimote Gun Mod for Wii.
February 3, 2007 by Static | 7 Comments
Filed Under Cool Gadgets, Gaming
We've already seen people creatively modify their Wii controllers to mod it into a steering wheel. But with Wii, creativity never seems to stop; especially with its revolutionary controller.
While a few may be modding their Wii controllers to a tennis racket or a golf club, now, even the Wiimote can be used as a gun! Specific details on how the controller was modded isn't known, but what seems to be for sure was that the B key was wired in with the trigger so that the Wiimote gun will actually be useful in a shooting game with the Wii.
It seems as if we'll have more of these new Wiimote concepts come out as people modify the already novel idea to something even better. I love it. If I ever do decide to get a Wii, I'm going to have to try this!
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7 Comments so far
Yet Another Creative Mind - Wii PC : TurboGadgets Gadget Reviews and Gadget News on
February 11, 2007 14:44
[…] It is just amazing how some things can turn into. The Nintendo Wii has been a major console where innovators have been able to run their minds at full throttle. We are turboGadgets have actually already reported on a Wiimote gun and a Wii steering wheel, but we just found out th at the Wii can be something even more. […]
malcom on
February 7, 2008 22:16
but i wonder where do you put the nunchuck
Arend on
March 11, 2010 08:39
A three-year-old girl mistakenly picked up a handgun, thinking it was a gun-like Wii controller, and was fatally wounded after shooting herself in the abdomen.
This happened Sunday March 7, 2010
hadadamick on
March 31, 2010 14:16
how will you play with the nunchuck and and buttons ir the controller is inside or is on the outside?
goom on
November 21, 2010 01:14
thats my wiimote guns
daniel on
April 2, 2011 05:21
I regards to that 3 year old. What the hell was the hand gun lying around in reach of the child to start with. That is Reckelessly carelesness of the parents fault.
sunny on
April 6, 2011 18:55
can u play golden eye 007 on wii with this controller?


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Indonesian School Accused Of Ties To Banned Group
A student's call to prayer echoes through an empty mosque at dusk. The scene is Al-Zaytun, Indonesia's largest "pesantren," or Islamic boarding school. More than 6,000 students in 12 grades study at its sprawling campus in Indramayu, West Java. They memorize the Koran, and they study computers, human rights and journalism.
But outside, there is concern about the school. This year, the head of a parliamentary religious affairs committee and the head of the country's main Islamic umbrella group have called for an investigation into the school and its reported ties to the outlawed Islamic State of Indonesia, or NII. The group seeks an Islamic state under "sharia," or Islamic law. Reports of students at several schools being kidnapped and brainwashed, plus a spate of bomb attacks, have heightened fears of radicalism.
Earlier in the day, students were moving into their dorms as a new term starts. Many have seen news reports alleging their school's links to the NII. But Azri, a Singaporean student who goes by one name, says the school's critics are misinformed.
"As time goes on, I understand about this place. So what I understand is, all the rumors, it's not true," he says emphatically. "What they say, maybe they don't understand about this place and they just talk."
Malaysian student Husmaru Zaini Syaza says one example of the school's tolerance is that female students participate fully in all religious activities.
"Here, unlike at home, I'm allowed to attend Friday prayers, listen to the sermon and attend the service from beginning to end," she says, smiling out from under her headscarf. "Also, in Malaysia, women are not allowed to read or even touch the Koran or enter a mosque when menstruating. But here we can do that."
Assertions Of Humanism
Al-Zaytun's founder is Panji Gumilang, a heavy-set man in a batik shirt and traditional black felt cap who speaks with an air of confidence and authority. He says his students are being nurtured to be moderates and humanists, not militants.
"The best way to prevent Indonesia's children from becoming radicals is through education," he asserts, sitting in Al-Zaytun's dining hall. "At Al-Zaytun, we teach children to be patriots, not radicals. The Al-Zaytun movement is a form of de-radicalization."
But, Panji Gumilang's critics say he leads a double life. They claim his alter ego is Abu Toto, Jakarta regional commander and imam of the NII. Panji dismisses such charges as fabrications of NII's opponents, adding that NII ceased to exist long ago.
"As for reports that we support an underground organization, these allegations can not be proved," he says with a steady gaze, "and therefore the organization does not exist."
The NII was founded in 1949 by Kartosuwirjo, a charismatic imam who rebelled first against Dutch colonialists and later against the Indonesian government. He prophesied that Indonesia would be come a utopian Islamic state, a "Medina" for the 21st century.
He and his forces controlled much of West Java until 1962, when the government caught and executed him. But to this day, Kartosuwirjo's legacy inspires other militants, including radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, whom an Indonesian court recently sentenced to jail, and Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group behind the 2002 Bali bombings.
When President Sukarno declared Indonesia's independence from the Dutch in 1945, Indonesia had to choose a political system, much like other postcolonial Asian nations.
"Three alternatives emerged during the late colonial period," explains Professor Ali Munhanif, of the State Islamic University in Jakarta, "between an Islamic movement that proposed that Indonesia should adopt an Islamic state or Islamic constitution, and then nationalists that proposed that Indonesia should be secular and liberal, and then the others are the communists."
Indonesia chose secular nationalism. Its government suppressed the communists militarily and forced those advocating an Islamic state underground. Today, Indonesia's mainstream Islamic establishment rejects radicalism and would like to see NII stamped out, even though that is highly unlikely.
Fears Of 'False Teachings'
Aminudin Yacub, vice chairman of the Fatwa (religious edict) Committee of the Indonesian Ulama Council, the main umbrella group for Islamic organizations, has researched the NII. He says this research shows clear linkages between the NII and the Al-Zaytun school.
"We want the government to take action because the NII promotes false Islamic teachings," he urges. But he suggests that his council's objections to the NII are more political than religious.
"The NII's teachings are subversive and may damage patriotism," he says. "We believe the government should take over the Al-Zaytun School and put NII leaders on trial according to law."
Aminudin says the NII recruits members outside Al-Zaytun's campus, and it's more interested in money than radicalism. But, he warns, NII's members are potential recruits for more violent groups.
Several ex-NII members have also confirmed the links with the Al-Zaytun school. Panji Gumilang's former secretary, Sofyan Ardyanto, was a communications officer for the NII. He says he joined the group because NII clerics had answers to his questions, which other clerics couldn't answer, about religion and society.
Now, Sofyan runs a support group for ex-NII members. He says the NII robbed him of his money and his identity.
"When I was initiated into the NII, I renounced my Indonesian nationality, and became a citizen of the NII," he recalls. "I pledged an oath to live to uphold the NII, and to be ready sacrifice my body, my soul and my money."
Sofyan describes an organization that's part mafia, part cult and part pyramid scheme. The NII, he says, has essentially established a shadow government with 15 "ministries" and nine regional commands. Each new recruit is indoctrinated by the commander of his or her local cell. Aminudin estimates the NII may have as many as 150,000 members, and he says Panji Gumilang's K9 faction is the largest and most active branch.
Sofyan says NII members are given monthly fundraising targets to meet by exploiting new recruits: Those who meet the targets are promoted; those who don't are demoted. He adds that many NII officers have quit in disgust at what they consider Panji Gumilang's corrupt and authoritarian style, and his desire to create a family dynasty.
"NII assets total trillions of rupiah," he says, displaying copies of NII financial documents he says he obtained, "all built upon the sufferings of the people at the grass roots."
Expanding Al-Zaytun
Despite the controversy outside its walls, Al-Zaytun is apparently growing and thriving. The school is already largely self-sufficient with its own factories and farms. Now it is building a huge mosque and expanding from its current 12 grades to include college.
The school also has powerful backers, and has received visits from former presidents Suharto and Habibie. Local media have reported that Indonesian intelligence services have co-opted and shielded Panji Gumilang. The minister of religious affairs recently gave Al-Zaytun a ringing endorsement and denied the school had ties to the NII.
The Islamic Ulama Council's Aminudin says politicians protect the school because it can deliver the votes of its students, teachers and staff, and because the NII is a handy threat that politicians can trot out whenever they need to distract the public from other political crises.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
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Tribble, G.D., Mao, S., James, C.E., and Lamont, R.J.
Notes: This study investigated the role of the P. gingivalis haloacid dehalogenase (HAD) family phosphoserine phosphatase SerB563 during invasion of gingival epithelial cells. The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to assess the activity of wildtype and mutant SerB563. (3488)
Expand Full Notes »
Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System
Gil-Bernabé, A.M., Romero, F., Limón-Mortés, M.C., and Tortolero, M.
Notes: This study investigated the regulation of human Securin activity and expression. The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to determine whether PP2A associated with Securin was active. Human Securin was immunoprecipitated from HCT116 cells and PP2A activity measured. This activity was compared to mock preimmune serum from HCT116 cells. The study found increased PP2A activity in the anti-human Securin cell lysates. (3487)
Peters, M.A., Jackson, D.A., Crabb, B.S. and Browning, G.F.
Notes: This study investigated the role of the dual-specificity protein phosphatase, Viral Protein 2 (VP2) from chicken anemia virus in virus-induced immunosuppression. Mutations were introduced into the VP2 sequence by overlap-expression PCR. Serine/Threonine phosphatase activity of VP2 mutants was investigated using the Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System. (3525)
Zatelli, M.C., Piccin, D., Tagliati, F., Bottoni, A., Luchin, A., and degli Uberti, E.C.
Notes: This paper reported on a study to determine whether protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are involved in the regulation of parafollicular C cell proliferation. The TT cell line, a thyroid medullary carcinoma cell line that contains a mutation in the RET kinase protooncogene, was used for these studies. Cell proliferation in response to treatment with somatostatin in these cells was assessed using the CellTiter® AQueous Non-Radioactive Cell Proliferation Assay. Activity of the PTP SHP-1 in response to somatostatin was measured using the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System. (3486)
Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System
Liu, T., Castro, S., Brasier, A.R., Jamaluddin, M., Garofalo, R.P. and Casola, A.
Notes: The Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System was used to assess the level of tyrosine phosphatase activity in human alveolar type II-like epithelial cells (the A549 cell line). Cell lysates were prepared with RIPA buffer and passed over the Sephadex G25 Column provided in the kit to remove free phosphates. Three micrograms of the purified lysate were used in the assay. Viral infection of A549 cells resulted in decreased tyrosine phosphatase activity but exposure of the cells to the antioxidant butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) rescued tyrosine phosphatase activity. (3238)
Okubo, K. and Aida, K.
Notes: COS-7 cells were transiently transfected with vectors that express Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase α (PTPα) and Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase ε (PTPε) using the TransFast™ Transfection Reagent. Transfections were performed in 100mm dishes. The authors also used the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System to assay Tyrosine Phosphatase activity in the transfectants. For these assays, both Tyrosine Phosphopeptides were demonstrated to be substrates for PTPα and PTPε. Data were expressed as percent of untransfected control. (2856)
TransFast™ Transfection Reagent
Tootle, T.L., Silver, S.J., Davies, E.L., Newman, V., Latek, R.R., Mills, I.A., Selengut, J.D., Parlikar, B.E.W. and Rebay, I.
Notes: The authors used the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System to demonstrate that the Eyes absent (Eya) transcription factor is a tyrosine phosphatase. The researchers created Eya Domain (ED) GST-ED fusion proteins, which were then used in the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay with various tyrosine phosphorylated substrates to determine if Eya transcription factor has tyrosine phosphatase activity. (2777)
Morona, J.K., Morona, R., Miller, D.C. and Paton, J.C.
Notes: After identification of the genes expressed from the Streptococcus pneumoniae Capsule locus (cps), the authors used the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System to further characterize the novel CpsB protein as a tyrosine phosphatase. Pneumococcal cell lysates were produced by French pressing cells in a Tris buffer. The lysates were passed over the Sephadex G25 Column supplied with the system and used directly in tyrosine phosphatase assays. The addition of manganese was essential for active CpsB protein tyrosine phosphatase activity. Data are expressed as pmol of free phosphate released. (3239)
Bandyopadhyay, J., Lee, J., Lee, J., Lee, J.I., Yu, J.R., Jee, C., Cho, J.H., Jung, S., Lee, M.H., Zannoni, S., Singson, A., Kim, D.H., Koo, H.S. and Ahnn, J.
Notes: Purified GST-CNA-1 and GST-CNB-1 fusion proteins created from C. Elegans cna-1 and cnb-1 cDNA, two genes whose products resemble insect and mammalian calcineurin, were tested in the Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System. Sixteen picomoles of each purified fusion protein were used per reaction. Data were expressed as pmol phosphate release/min/μg protein. The reactions were also incubated with 0.2mM EGTA or 1μM each of cyclosporin A and bovine cyclophilin to show specific inhibition of gene product activity. (2754)
Sohn, H.Y., Raff, U., Hoffmann, A., Gloe, T., Heermeier, K., Galle, J. and Pohl, U.
Notes: Human umbilical veins endothelial cells (HUVEC) were treated with 100nM angiotensin II in the presence or absence of candesartan or the AT2 receptor inhibitor, PD123319. Cells were lysed with a well-described lysis buffer that included 1% Triton X-100. Five microliters of lysate was added to storage buffer containing 5µl of Tyr Phosphopeptide-2 (DADE(pY)LIPQQG) from the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System to assay for tyrosine phosphatase activity in the cells. Data were normalized by protein assay and expressed as percent of a control (no treatment). (3244)
Lucet, I., Feucht, A., Yudkin, M.D., Errington, J.
Notes: The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to determine whether the oligomerization of SpoIIE affects its phosphatase activity. The substrate used was SpoIIAA-P. (2211)
Berry, M. and Gehring, W.
Notes: The Serine-Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to monitor dephosphorylation of two phosphopeptides derived from the SCR homeodomain. Dephosphorylation was performed using the catalytic subunit of the PP2A protein. Authors also used pSI for cloning, protein kinase A enzyme, PKA and PKC assays using biotinylated peptides (SignaTECT® Protein Kinase assay systems), anti-β-galactosidase for Drosophila embryo staining, and TNT® Quick Coupled Transcription/Translation systems to produce mutant and wild type protein for gel shifts. (2150)
TnT® T7 Quick Coupled Transcription/Translation System
TnT® SP6 Coupled Reticulocyte Lysate System
cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase, Catalytic Subunit
SignaTECT® Protein Kinase C (PKC) Assay System
Anti-β-Galactosidase, Purified Monoclonal Antibody
Expand Products »
Solis-Herruzo, J.A., Rippe, R.A., Schrum, L.W., de la Torre, P., Garcia, I., Jeffrey, J.J., Munoz-Yague, T., Brenner, D.A.
Notes: Extracts were made from Rat-1 fibroblasts with or without IL-6 treatment. Lysates were prepared with Dignam C buffer minus the phosphatase inhibitors. The extracts were run over a G-25 spin column to remove free phosphate and were then assayed using the Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System. Western Blue® Stabilized Substrate for Alkaline Phosphatase was used for developing Western blots. (0350)
Western Blue® Stabilized Substrate for Alkaline Phosphatase
Aguiar, R. C.T., Yakushijin, Y., Kharbanda, S., Tiwari, S., Freeman, G.J. and Shipp, M.A.
Notes: The Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System was used to analyze E. coli expressed GST-PTPROt fusion protein. PTPROt is a putative receptor-type protein tyrosine phosphatase expressed in epithelial cells. Twenty five nanograms of glutathione column purified GST-PTPROt protein were used in the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay. GST tag was used as a control protein. Data are expressed as absorbance units per nanogram of protein. (3240)
Cieslik, K., Lee, C.M., Tang, J.L., Wu, K.K.
Notes: The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to quantify protein phosphatase 2A levels in nuclear extracts of ECV-304 cells, a spontaneously transformed HUVEC cell line. Ten micrograms of extract were incubated with the peptide for 30min at 30°C in the recommended buffer. (1304)
Seimiya, H., Tsuruo, T.
Notes: U937 human monoblastoid leukemia cell extracts were incubated with an anti-Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase U2 antibody and protein A sepharose. The immunocomplex was washed extensively with a tyrosine phosphatase assay buffer (25mM HEPES (pH 6.0), 5mM EDTA, 10mM 2,3-dihydroxybutane-1,4-dithiol). The phosphatase activity in the immune complex was assayed using the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System. The PTP-U2 was more active toward PS1 than PS2 from the assay system but showed activity to both. (0421)
Tian, L., Knaus, H.-G., Shipston, M.J.
Notes: The Serine/Threoine Phosphatase Assay System was used to determine phosphatase activity in cytoplasmic and membrane fractions of control and dexamethasone-treated AtT20 D16:16 mouse anterior pituitary cells. The paper contains good details of how the extracts were prepared and treated prior to the assay. Greater than 80% of the phosphatase activity was inhibited by 10nM Okadaic Acid indicating a high amount of Protein Phosphatase 2A. (0266)
Bell, S.D., Denu, J.M., Dixon, J.E. and Ellington, A.D.
Notes: The Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System was used to monitor inhibition of the tyrosine phosphatase Yop51 by RNA aptamers. Various concentrations of the RNA aptamers were tested with purified Yop51. The activity of the phosphatase was monitored for 6 minutes. IC50 values were obtained from the data for each aptamer. (1435)
Kashio, N., Matsumoto, W., Parker, S., Rothstein, D.M.
Notes: The authors used the Tyrosine Phosphatase Assay System to assay for the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) activity of CD45 in immunoprecipitates from CD45-Jurkat cells expressing either wildtype or mutant PTPase CD45 proteins. (0918)
Cieslik, K., Zembowicz, A., Tang, J.-L., Wu, K.K.
Notes: The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to assess protein phosphatase 2A, 2B and 2C activity in nuclear extracts of Human umbilical vein cells (HUVEC) with or without lysophosphatidylcholine treatment. Gel shifts were also performed with nuclear extracts prepared from the HUVEC cells using the SP1 Consensus Oligonucleotide. Luciferase reporter studies were also performed in HUVEC cells using pGL3 Basic-derived vectors and the Luciferase Assay System. (1305)
Luciferase Assay System
Luciferase Assay System with Reporter Lysis Buffer
pGL3-Basic Vector
SP1 Consensus Oligonucleotide
Wizard® PCR Preps DNA Purification System
Sidhu, J. S., Omiecinski, C. J.
Notes: The Serine/Threonine Phosphatase Assay System was used to assay total cell extracts prepared from primary rat hepatocytes. A lot of detail on extract preparation is provided. (0405)


text:
METRO VANCOUVER -- Two-year-old Elim Connors is a bundle of ferocious energy, bounding into his mother's lap as she reads The Little Engine That Could.
Melanie Connors asks the toddler to identify a train, a clown, an elephant on the pages of the classic children's book about overcoming adversity through optimism and hard work.
Elim, Connors says, is her whole world. He is the only one of her five children who has not been seized by child protection workers.
The odds were against Connors keeping this baby, too. When she found out she was pregnant, she was a homeless woman with bipolar disorder and an addiction to heroin and crack.
Today Connors, 36, is taking medication for her mental illness, and is living drug-free in a two-bedroom townhouse in Burnaby where, with support, she is raising her son.
The radical shift in her life she attributes to one thing: being accepted as a participant into the cutting-edge, $110-million At Home/Chez Soi study.
The project challenges traditional views that a person should be sober and mentally stable before moving into an independent home. The At Home researchers are examining whether chronically homeless people with serious mental illnesses will stabilize if they are given a house first, and then support services such as drug counselling, health care and access to psychiatrists.
"When I got that apartment it changed everything. I got out of the (Downtown Eastside), so I was in a nice area. I had furniture. I had a home for the first time in, well, years," Connors said during an emotional interview.
"Because of that I managed to stay clean my whole pregnancy and I got to keep my child. And I really don't think that would have ever happened, you know? I wouldn't have him now if it wasn't for the At Home project."
Early results promising
Between October 2009 and the spring of 2011, the $30-million Vancouver arm of the national At Home study scooped up 300 people from the streets and gave them a home with support from outreach workers.
The first round of academic data indicates the majority of participants committed fewer crimes, visited St. Paul's emergency room less often, became stable neighbours, and reported an improved quality of life.
Early results from the national study argue this housing-first solution for complex, hard-to-house, mentally ill people can even save taxpayers money in the long run.
But at the moment this research project is only that: a research project. And while most of the participants have shown signs of significant improvement, they remain guinea pigs because the federal money for their rent and support services ends in March 2013.
"There's huge anxiety," said Dawn Slykhuis, one of the study's case managers who oversees services provided to the participants.
"Their anxiety is not just around losing their apartments, but around losing their case managers .... It is something that is upsetting people every day."
Since the study began, workers have moved 40 of the 300 Vancouver participants into sustainable subsidized housing, which typically means 30 per cent of their welfare cheque will be deducted to pay for their rent and they can stay indefinitely in those units. But the apartments of the other 260 people are heavily subsidized by the study, as their welfare cheques only allow $375 per month for rent.
The Sun was unable to get a direct answer from the federal government about future funding.
However, the two federal agencies that paid for the study, Health Canada and HRSDC (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada), recognize the participants require "an appropriate transition" out of the project, said spokeswoman Blossom Leung.
"(They) are working with the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the provincial governments involved to provide support for suitable transition plans," Leung added.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) leads the project and has been in extended negotiations with the federal government. It is "cautiously optimistic" money will be found to allow those 260 people to remain in their homes "for a period of time" beyond next March, said At Home director and Vancouver site coordinator Catharine Hume.
B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman pledged in the past that he would not allow these people to lose their homes, and said recent talks with Ottawa have left him optimistic the federal government will continue to write rent cheques, possibly for two more years.
That would allow time to work out a long-term transition plan for the participants, said Coleman, who insisted the province should not be left to pay all the future bills on its own.
The federal government has also paid for the health and outreach work provided to the participants since 2009, but Hume said she understands Ottawa will no longer ante up that money after March 2013.
Although she is not sure exactly how it will work, Hume remains "very confident" the participants will retain some of the support services.
The MHCC is part of a transition team discussing how existing provincial health services could be used to support these participants if the federal funding dries up. The team also includes Vancouver Coastal Health, the City of Vancouver, and the B.C. ministries of health, housing and social development.
Under this scenario, however, the type of services offered to the participants would likely not be exactly the same as the in-depth, personalized care they are receiving now.
"I'm not sure that it could look identical," said Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid. "Vancouver Coastal is looking specifically at what the program does, and what is there now (in the community) or what could be built to meet those needs."
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the city doesn't have the tax base to pay for such a program, but added there are promising signs some federal and provincial funding will materialize.
"We can't be sure until it's official, so everyone involved is very anxious because there are lives at stake here," he said.
"(The study) has been an incredible success and it would be absolutely devastating to lose ground because of funding not coming."
Program brings stability
So far, researchers in Vancouver have crunched the numbers on how the participants have fared in the first year of the study — both the 300 who were housed and another 200 people in a control group, who were monitored but not given any housing or support.
(Participants entered the study between October 2009 and spring 2011, so each person's first year ended at different times; all the first-year data was collected by spring 2012. Researchers only recently completed tabulating it.)
The results, provided exclusively to The Vancouver Sun, show that after 12 months, the 300 participants were living safely in their homes 70 per cent of the time. Compare that to the findings for the 200 people in the control group, who were stably housed only 20 per cent of the time.
The 200 folks without homes or support services were also in emergency rooms, shelters, crisis housing and detox facilities three times as often as the participants in apartments, said Simon Fraser University health sciences associate professor Julian Somers, the study's lead investigator.
The fact the participants with apartments were stably housed only 70 per cent of the time reflects the reality that many were at first hesitant to live in their new places after years on the streets.
But, researchers argue, it is still a number to celebrate because nearly all of these people had been written off as being unable to keep a home and integrate into mainstream society.
"A lot of people questioned the ability of people with a long history of mental illness and homelessness to really become part of a community," said Michelle Patterson, the study's co-investigator and adjunct professor with SFU's faculty of health sciences.
Researchers believe the 70-per-cent figure will improve in the study's second-year results, although it is not likely to ever reach 100 per cent, as not all people with these challenges will adjust well to living on their own.
Stuck in a cycle
When Connors entered the study in 2009, her nights were often spent in the First United Church shelter, working in the sex trade to support her drug habit, or in jail.
"I was a Downtown Eastside heroin addict, crack addict," she says. "I wasn't happy, but you're stuck. You don't know how to get out, and even if you try it takes so long. They just put you on waiting lists."
When she found out she was pregnant, she said she quit the drugs and went on methadone. In the process, she learned about the study.
"Housing is the first thing," said Connors, who struggles at times to express herself but speaks earnestly about her time in the At Home project.
"If you have housing then you buy groceries, you cook. Without housing, you don't have anywhere to begin."
Program delivers savings
For Connors, like most of the study participants, having a roof over her head was only the first step in her transition. Equally as crucial were the support services provided to her by the study's outreach workers, who come to see her at least once a week to give advice and support as she learns to live independently with Elim.
In the beginning, they helped her choose an apartment, provided her with start-up money for furniture, and assisted her with her bipolar disorder.
They also took her to prenatal medical appointments, helped her find baby gear and taught her parenting skills.
"They would have taken Elim from me in the hospital without (my support worker)," said Connors. "I didn't know how to do anything. I would have been lost without her."
Connors is not without challenges today, but at least she is no longer revolving through emergency shelters and jail cells.
And that, say researchers, is one of At Home's key findings.
Nationally, the study has provided stable housing to 932 people in five Canadian cities, and found the majority stabilized after a year in their homes and used fewer expensive services, such as crisis housing, hospitals, courtrooms and police services.
In some cases, the investment in this study saved taxpayers thousands of dollars.
It cost $16,825 to house and support the 10 per cent of the participants with the highest needs for one year, but they used $26,215 fewer emergency services than their counterparts in the control group during that time.
That is a saving of $9,390 per person.
"For every dollar that is spent on Housing First for these participants, $1.54 is saved through the reduction in other shelter, health and justice services," states MHCC's At Home/Chez Soi Interim Report, published in September.
The majority of the participants given homes cost taxpayers more money in the first year, however, but researchers argue it was more wisely spent and that the price tag will decrease as participants get more stable over time.
It cost, on average, $17,160 to house and support each of the 300 participants during the first year of the study, but they used $9,250 fewer services than the control group. Therefore, the average net cost was $7,910 per person.
While cost breakdowns for the Vancouver arm of the study are not yet available, SFU's Somers said he is frustrated by the focus on cost savings. This housing-first model has been shown in the United States to save lives, and if it were a cure for cancer would we argue about its expense?
"In health care it is always cheaper to let people die," he said, noting life expectancy for homeless people is shortened by 22 years for men and 17 years for women compared with the general population.
In fact, 27 of the 500 Vancouver people enrolled in this study have died since it began in late 2009.
The deaths, Somers said, are mainly a result of the complex medical and mental health that many participants had coming into the study, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer and long-term drug addiction. Some were suicides.
A last chance
Connors fully understands some of the mental and physical trauma faced by people struggling with mental illness and homelessness.
One of seven children born into her Vancouver Island family, she said she had an abusive stepfather, was bullied in school and dropped out at an early age.
She had three children in her teenage years, whom she raised for a time before suffering a mental breakdown. The children were eventually put into foster care.
Another baby was born in a Calgary hospital, and was seized right after the birth.
Connors has little contact with those children. Elim, on the other hand, is her constant companion.
"I feel like I've been given not a second chance but a last chance," she said.
Elim is a healthy-looking, inquisitive little boy who loves his cat and likes to pretend he is a dog. He attends StrongStart, a provincial early learning program, because he is not speaking as much as he should be at 28 months old.
At first, Elim and his mom were in an apartment in Marpole provided to them by the study.
Connors' outreach worker, however, helped her apply for and move into a Metro Vancouver affordable housing building in Burnaby, where she can stay indefinitely and only needs to use 30 per cent of her social services cheque for rent.
Support system at risk
She must pay all her bills — hydro, cable, food, phone — with the leftovers from her welfare and disability payments, about $500 a month. Budgeting her money remains a challenge.
If the study is not renewed after March 2013, Connors is one of the few participants who will not see a change in her rental situation, but she will sorely miss the support she receives from her outreach worker.
Her eyes well with tears when she speaks of the people she knew on the street who could also benefit from a program like this.
"There might be someone else out there that might need that opportunity and they are not going to get it because this program might end," she said.
"I know it has changed many, many people's lives. And I know they wouldn't be where they are and I wouldn't be where I am today if it was not for this program."
Like the small train in Watty Piper's iconic book, this At Home project appears to have filled many of the participants with the chant, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."


text:
1. Re: Rewrite and Arquillian - Multiple containers?lincolnthree Apr 24, 2012 12:22 AM (in response to lincolnthree)
Dan Allen says:
The simplest possible solution is just to have a Jenkins job for each container. Time is a commodity in CI, so there's no real benefit to having a complex build just to optimize execution time. Besides, the results make a heck of a lot more sense when you deal with one container at a time.
...the complex approach is to use Aslak's surefire patch that allows you to reexecute the test goal for each profile. I don't think we're at the point yet where we are advocating for other projects to take that approach as we are still feeling it out. Aslak, you can correct me if I'm wrong, of course
2. Re: Rewrite and Arquillian - Multiple containers?lincolnthree Apr 24, 2012 12:24 AM (in response to lincolnthree)
Well, the problem with multiple Jenkins jobs, is yes, while you can activate a different profile in each build, how do you handle the configuration of each container? Right now we set up several files (including web.xml and some container specific configuration to boot weld on Jetty,) and that needs to be updated for each profile run. I guess that's the main pain point right now. What is the best solution for this?
3. Re: Rewrite and Arquillian - Multiple containers?kpiwko Apr 24, 2012 3:51 AM (in response to lincolnthree)
Following approach works successfully for QE:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>org.jboss.wfk.examples</groupId> <artifactId>abc</artifactId> <packaging>war</packaging> <name>abc</name> <build> <finalName>abc-xyz</finalName> <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <attachClasses>true</attachClasses> <webResources> <resource> <directory>src/main/webapp</directory> <filtering>true</filtering> </resource> <resource> <directory>src/main/webapp-${target.environment}</directory> <filtering>true</filtering> </resource> </webResources> </configuration> </plugin> </plugins> </build> ... <profiles> <profile> <id>eap6</id> <activation> <property> <name>CONTAINER</name> <value>eap6</value> </property> </activation> <properties> <eap.dependency.scope>provided</eap.dependency.scope> <target.environment>jboss</target.environment> </properties> </profile> <profile> <id>ews1-t5</id> <activation> <property> <name>CONTAINER</name> <value>ews1-t5</value> </property> </activation> <properties> <eap.dependency.scope>compile</eap.dependency.scope> <target.environment>tomcat</target.environment> </properties> </profile> <profile> <id>ews1-t6</id> <activation> <property> <name>CONTAINER</name> <value>ews1-t6</value> </property> </activation> <properties> <eap.dependency.scope>compile</eap.dependency.scope> <target.environment>tomcat</target.environment> </properties> </profile> </profiles> </project>
CONTAINER is simply an user defined axis in Jenkins CI.
4. Re: Rewrite and Arquillian - Multiple containers?dan.j.allen Apr 27, 2012 2:35 AM (in response to kpiwko)
Oh yeah, I totally missed part of your question when I originally answered it. The trick that Karel is suggesting is used and explained in the Testing Java Persistence guide. Basically, you just need to do some classpath resource swapping with profiles, just as you do with dependencies. Fortunately, the JBoss Tools Maven Profile selector makes this not so bad in development.


text:
Cereal Eats: Grape Nuts, Neither A Grape Nor a Nut—Discuss
Breakfastime musings about cereal.
Grape Nuts, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Is it your mysterious name? Shhh wait—don't tell me. I don't want to know what it means. Is it your unique warm and nutty flavor? Is it the way I can't hear anything when I'm eating you because the crunching is just too loud? Is it your versatility; How I love you just as much whether you're crunchy or soggy?
Shall I go on?
I'll spare you.
I may be in a minority here, but I'm going to say it proudly—I love Grape Nuts with an intensity that frightens me. Look, I get it. It's hard and crunchy and kind of weird-tasting and not that sweet. I've heard it compared to dog food, cardboard, and pebbles. But as for me, I love Grape Nuts and I want to shout it from the rooftops.
Growing up, Grape Nuts were welcome in our home. I mean, it only has four ingredients: whole grain wheat flour, malted barely flour, salt, and dried yeast. So while many people equate Frosted Flakes or Cocoa Krispies as a nostalgic cereal, my childhood tasted of Grape Nuts. I usually enjoy most cereals exclusively with icy cold skim, but Grape Nuts is one of the few that I like with a heartier milk, like 2%. I am also not opposed to a yogurt parfait, or if left entirely unsupervised, a splash of half and half.
So onto the burning question—why are they called Grape Nuts?
Alright, well I know I said I didn't want to know, but as a good cereal journalist, it's my duty to bring you the truth.
So I did some hard research (scanning Wikipedia) only to find that there is no definite answer to this mystery. Wikipedia says that C.W. Post believed that sucrose, which he called "grape sugar," formed during the baking process. (yeah I don't get it either). So this, plus the nutty flavor, may have created the name. Another story is that perhaps it was inspired by the cereal's similarity to grape seeds in appearance. I'm secretly happy there is no true answer to this question.
Created in 1897, Grape Nuts were once among the more heavily marketed cereals, even rising to the ranks of the seventh most popular cereal at one point. This was all before my time. Since then, sales have woefully declined. These days, Post has revamped their image of the cereal and it is being marketed as a great fuel for all sorts of athletic activities, as well as an all round healthy cereal.
The truth is, none of that business matters to me. Sure, it's great that Grape Nuts has all this nutritional value—fiber, whole grains, good for your heart, etc. I also don't mind that it has a whopping 200 calories per ½ cup, a little fact I didn't know about while pounding half boxes of it in high school.
But when it gets down to it there's just something about that malty flavor, and the way those crazy little kernels feel when I'm crunching them in my teeth to the point where I am in pain, or that awesome moment when they start to get a little soft. I'd trade all the sugary cereals in the grocery aisle for one box of these guys. You can hold me to that.
Oh and a word on the magical creation that is Grape Nuts Ice Cream. So apparently it's common in Eastern Canada and New England, and also in Jamaica. I'm almost embarrassed to say I only had it for the first time very recently, at the Jamaica restaurant Miss Lily's. Life changing.
Crazy as it may seem, Grape Nuts is truly one of those cereals that I can't keep in the house, because I will sit down and consume the box in one sitting. I think it is one of those polarizing cereals, you either love it or you hate it.
So, where do you stand? Am I alone?
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Abstract and Keywords
Air power refers to the use of aviation by nations and other political actors in the pursuit of power and security interests, along with the use of long-range missiles. Since armies and navies first began to experiment with the use of airplanes as implements of war, air power has emerged as an integral component of modern warfare. Air power was born in the crucible of World War I, but came of age in the conflagration of World War II. The developmental history of air power is significant to security studies in general and to the study of air power in particular. Owing to the rapid series of state changes in air power, trying to understand the nature of air power and its effects on modern warfare and international security has become more complicated. Two questions that are central to the study of international security are whether air power facilitates offense as a whole and whether it encourages aggression as a result. There has also been a debate over the issue of how air power can most effectively be used to coerce an enemy through strategic bombing. Another source of disagreement is the question of whether air and space power constitute one subject or two. In general, there are compelling merits in treating space power as a domain of national security theory and policy separate from those of land, sea, and air power.
Keywords: air power, warfare, international security, offense, aggression, coercion, strategic bombing, space power
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Market News
|August 22, 2013
MERS virus match seen in Saudi Arabian bat
|Scientists have found the mysterious MERS virus in a bat in Saudi Arabia.
An international research team said the bat virus is an exact match to the first known human case of Middle East respiratory syndrome. The sample was collected from within a few miles of that patient's home.
The discovery reported Wednesday is considered an important development in the search for the origin of MERS, a deadly respiratory illness that is worrying health officials around the world.
But it's likely that something else --- perhaps another animal --- is spreading the virus directly to humans, said Dr. Ziad Memish, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of Health and lead author of the report.
Since it was identified last September, the respiratory illness has sickened nearly 100 people, most of them in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. About half of them died.
No cases have been reported in the United States.
Bats have been a suspected carrier of the virus for some time because they are known to carry viruses similar to MERS. They also harbor other deadly viruses, including rabies and SARS.
Still, discovery of a genetic match doesn't mean bats are the direct culprit.
"There is no evidence of direct exposure to bats in the majority of human cases of MERS," Memish said in a statement.
Signs of MERS-like viruses have been reported in other animals, including camels. The researchers are investigating other species, said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, another study author.
"This is but the first chapter" in the global team's investigation, Lipkin said in a statement.
The researchers collected more than 1,000 samples from seven bat species in Saudi Arabia. The exact match was seen in a fecal sample from an Egyptian Tomb Bat.


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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the youthful House member picked by Mitt Romney as his running mate, brings a lot to the Republican ticket, say supporters of the choice.
The front man on the GOP's House budget plan, his youth and roots in a politically important swing state are important factors, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.
A native of Janesville, Wis., Ryan was elected to Congress at age 28. Now 42, he's chairman of the House Budget Committee. He's also a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Ryan came to the job with extensive political experience gained from some of the party's most senior members. He was an aide to then-U.S. Sen. Robert Kasten of Wisconsin in the early 1990s, and later in the decade served as legislative director for then-U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, now the governor of Kansas. In 1996, he was a speechwriter for Jack Kemp's vice presidential campaign.
Once in Congress, Ryan helped organize "Young Guns," a program that recruited candidates to run in districts where Republicans had lost, CNN said.
The conservative Ryan is seen as one of the Republican Party's lightning rods. His youth could appeal to a demographic considered to lean toward President Obama, and Wisconsin is considered a battleground state.
Ryan does have political baggage. Critics note he's never run a statewide race. He has no foreign policy experience. The heaviest suitcase, however, may be that the budget plan he formulated would, as Democrats claim, "end Medicare as we know it."


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Stay Plauful. Be Smart. Choose Neckwearshop
We provide Europe's largest range of shirts and accessories online. We have a huge variety of ties, bow ties, handkerchiefs, cufflinks, belts, wallets and more. Our vision is to ensure that all men have the opportunity to be well-dressed and we try to make fashion easy and fun. With our wide range of shirts and accessories, all men can find their own personal style. Our store offers a selection of world famous brands such as Eton, Hugo Boss, J. Lindeberg, Oscar Jacobson, Boomerang and Scottsberry. We also design our own brand: Neckwear, where our long experience and many years of product development have enabled us to offer ties, bow ties, handkerchiefs and cufflinks of the highest quality. We manufacture our own products with some of the top suppliers in the world. Some factories are even located in Italy. Quality and design mean everything to us. We are a leading seller in Europe and the largest in our niche, with eight stores in 6 languages. In addition to our commitment to providing excellent products, we also aim to offer our customers a whole new level of service. With our lightning-fast delivery, free shipping, 30 days cooling-off period and great service, we hope to gain satisfied and loyal customers. Buy your new shirt or tie from us online, we will do our utmost to satisfy your wishes. We look forward to your visit!


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Guide to Installing and Booting Windows 8 Developer Preview off a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
I've posted before about my intense love for Booting off a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk). It's lovely. Of course, once Hyper-V on the client happens, it will matter less, but for now, here I am, a guy with a perfectly good, working Windows 7 machine who wants to also run the Windows 8 Developer Preview.
I could do a few things to play with Windows 8. I could:
- Try a virtualization solution, but it might not work, I may not have the drivers I need and it won't be as shiny as running "on the metal."
- Sacrifice a machine I have lying around. I'll probably do that at some point, but I'd like to try it out on my actual hardware that I use all day long.
- Swap out my C: drive and use my main machine. I don't have a tool-less case, and I'm also very lazy, so, um, ya.
- Dual boot. Dual booting may feel ninja but it ALWAYS ends on tears. And sometimes blood.
- Boot on real hardware from a Virtual Hard Disk.
Booting off a VHD is my current preferred solution for trying crazy stuff because the only speed hit I'll take is on the virtualized hard drive. Everything else is real hardware. I do this all the time with presentation VHDs and one-off daily builds of stuff.
Of course, this is just some dude's blog. I puzzled this out and while booting to VHD is supported, messing with your boot manager - especially with Preview (that means, NOT RELEASE QUALITY) Software is a recipe for losing your job and a messy divorce. There's no warranty, express or implied. If you quake in fear from the following instructions, you need to STOP. It may be the case that you are actually a Non-Technical Friend and you don't realize it. Well, someone just told you. Please don't destroy your hard drive. I don't know you and I don't how how you got here. Stop calling. Jimmy no live here, you no call back!
Booting a Windows 8 VHD off a Windows 7 Primary System
Whew, now that's out of the way, let's void a few warranties, shall we?
Please note that there are a half dozen ways to do this. You can do it all from the command line using tools like ImageX, DISM, etc, or you can do a lot of it graphically with tools like BellaVista. This is just the way I did it. It's not gospel. I'm sure the folks in the comments will have much nicer ways. Take them all with a nice grain of sea salt. You can also SYSPREP the VHD directly from the ISO's WIM with IMAGEX if you know what that stuff means. It's a little subtle and requires you go get some tools. While my process is a little baroque, it just needs the one ISO->USB tool.
Step 0 - Have a lot of Disk Space
I like to have a roomy VHD. You can make one that expands or you can make a fixed size. 40 gigs is usually enough, but I like 60 gigs as a nice round number, plus this is the Windows 8 Developer Preview with Developer Tools. If you don't have enough space when an expandable disk "bloats" itself to the fixed size on boot, it'll blue screen, so expandable or not, have the slack space.
Step 1 - Make a USB stick or DVD from the ISO
Go get the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and get yourself a USB stick that will hold at LEAST 10 gigs. I used a 16 gig one. Go through the process by pointing at the ISO you downloaded and then preparing your USB key. You can also use the resulting USB key to boot and install Windows 8 from your sacrificial hardware if you like.
Step 2 - Make a Virtual Hard Drive
You can do this later in the process by pressing Shift-F10 while in the Setup Tool, but I like to prep things up front. You can do it from the Disk Management GUI or from DISKPART at the Administrator command line.
Be aware that your VHD needs to be on an internal drive or SATA drive. USB won't work as the drivers are initialized too late in the boot process.
Also, if your machine is BitLockered, your VHD needs to be on a non-BitLockered partition and you need to suspend BitLocker during this process. Also, know your recovery key because I don't know it.
2a. Start up an Administrator Console and run DISKPART. Execute the lines after DISKPART> below, changing them for your own system.
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: HEXPOWER7
DISKPART> create vdisk file=d:\VMs\Win8.vhd type=expandable maximum=60000
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully created the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> select vdisk file=d:\VMs\Win8.vhd
DiskPart successfully selected the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> attach vdisk
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully attached the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
2b. OR do it from the Disk Management GUI:
At this point, you've got a VHD that's empty, but ready to have Windows installed to it. The VHD and your system are NOT ready to be booted from. That will come in a minute.
Step 3 - Boot off the Windows 8 USB Key
Now, restart your computer with your new USB key plugged in and startup your BOOT MENU. The hotkey is usually F12 to bring it up. You want to boot off the Windows 8 USB key.
Side Note: Folks with Gigabyte Motherboards. These motherboards are notoriously hard to figure out a USB boot. You need to make sure that you USB key is only plugged into the board directly in the back. Then, don't use the Boot Menu, it never works. Instead, enter the BIOS with the DEL key and manually put your USB Key (it'll be detected by brand, so be prepared to recognize the string) at the top of the Hard Drive boot order.
Step 4 - Attach the VHD while still inside SETUP
Pay attention here. Actually, hell, pay attention to the whole thing, it's subtle.
Start the SETUP process, click Install Not but DO NOT PICK A HARD DRIVE. As shown in this screenshot, instead hit SHIFT-F10 to get to a console. We want to attach our VHD and install to THAT instead.
In the screenshot above I haven't touched anything, yet.
Below, I've run DISKPART and selected and attached the VHD with these now familiar commands:
DISKPART> select vdisk file=d:\VMs\Win8.vhd
DISKPART> attach vdisk
That will look like this screenshot.
Next, ALT-TAB back over to the list of disks and hit REFRESH. You'll see your VHD show up. Mine is the 60 gig one. That's the blank we are going to install to.
Note that installation will warn you that this VHD can't be booted to. Yet. That's cool, go ahead and install to that empty VHD.
At some point it'll ask you to restart the computer. The setup process isn't done yet, but go ahead and reboot and remove the USB key.
Your system should reboot and setup will continue, this time off the VHD.
NOTE: I had expected at this point to go and manually create a BCD entry using BCDEDIT.EXE from an Administrator command line as I did in my first post on booting to VHD but it seems that is all done for us now!
The Windows 8 Developer Preview build automatically noticed that I was trying to boot off a VHD and added a Windows Bootloader option and put the description in as "Windows Developer Preview," saving me a half dozen tedious steps. I was very pleasantly surprised! I'd like to hear if you had the same experiences, Dear Reader.
I could tell it was working because my C: drive is a totally silent SSD and my D: drive is spinning rust. When the setup continued I could totally hear the hard drive that holds the VHD spinning. The installation completed happily at this point with me having to manually create an entry with BCDEDIT.
I confirmed it with bcdedit.exe /v while running Windows 8 Developer Preview.
Setup completed, and I rebooted again to make sure I could get back into Windows 7.
In fact, I was shocked to find a completely new bootloader had come into play. I was literally open-mouthed staring at it. It's not text, it's graphical and friendly! It actually and literally "did the right thing." Awesome.
This seems to be the Windows 8 boot manager that you'll see if Windows 8 Developer Preview is the default. Otherwise you'll see the Windows 7 text-mode one first. Very cool. I hope it stays past the Developer Preview.
Here's what you get if you click Other Options.
That's it. To recap:
- Make an empty VHD
- Attach to the VHD just before installing Windows 8 Developer Preview
- Install to the VHD
- Rejoice
Hope this works for you, Dear Reader. I'm happily booting Windows 8 Developer Preview to VHD today.
One final disclaimer to be CRYSTAL CLEAR. I puzzled this process out with the same bits given out at http://dev.windows.com. I don't work for the Windows team and I don't know anyone over there. I have no idea if this will work in the future. I only know it worked on my home machine, tonight, once.
Related Links
- Step-By-Step: Turning a Windows 7 DVD or ISO into a Bootable VHD Virtual Machine
- Less Virtual, More Machine - Windows 7 and the magic of Boot to VHD
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
About Newsletter
The installation completed happily at this point with me having to manually create an entry with BCDEDITI think you intended "without me having".
VHD_BOOT_HOST_VOLUME_NOT_ENOUGH_SPACEThen the PC reboots automatically. After a few reboots it tells me the PC needs to be repaired and offers me the option to 'use another operating system' which gets me back to my previous Windows 7. Any ideas??
Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks. Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.The last message was mentioned in the article above, but the first message was not. Unfortunately I am unable to find a solution at this time.
Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.You need to delete all volumes from that VHD, and then convert it to GPT. Once this is done, recreate the volume on the drive, and proceed to attempt your install again. This worked for me.
Comments are closed.


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Martin Klimas drops porcelain statues and photographs them at the moment they shatter, creating scenes with incredible senses of movement. You can almost imagine that the figures in these pictures are actually alive, and that their bodies blow apart each time they make contact.
I would love to see an animation inspired by these shattering effects, although I imagine the bodies might have reassemble their bits in pieces. Otherwise, no one will ever get anything done.
[Martin Klimas via Geekologie]
G/O Media may get a commission


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Mustang MonthlyHow To Wheels Tires
Classic Mustang Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation - How To: Install Four-Wheel Disc Brakes
Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation makes it easy to keep the Force 10 with you
When we photographed Chris Radcliffe's Raven Black '65 Mustang hardtop two years ago in San Diego, we were awed with his craftsmanship. Chris is a young man with limited auto-motive experience, yet he built a classic Mustang restomod in his spare time by asking questions, learning as he went, and using his natural talent.
We couldn't help but notice Chris' brake situation when we photographed his car. Through the American Torq-Thrust II spokes were four humble-looking drum brakes. We asked Chris if he'd like to try a set of Stainless Steel Brake Corporation's Force 10 disc brakes from Mustangs Plus. Considering Chris' car-building talent, we knew he could do the job himself.
The Stainless Steel Disc Brakes Force 10 system yields the performance you expect from one of the best names in the aftermarket disc-brake business. Force 10s can be installed on any of the classic Mustang spindles and axle flanges, except for '65-'66 six-cylinders. For Chris' hardtop, we opted for four-piston fronts and single-piston rears for the kind of driving he expects to do. His is the quintessential occasional driver and show car. The red calipers of the Force 10s tie in nicely with the car's black and red theme. Natural, black, and yellow are also available.
We went for slotted rotors, optional from Stainless Steel Brakes, to vent off gasses and heat during hard braking. Not only do they look sharp, they also provide fade-free braking.
Why Bench Bleeding
Many of us are guilty of installing a new master cylinder right out of the box. Did you know doing that runs the risk of having unwanted trapped air in the braking system? Air must be removed from the master cylinder prior to installation. All you have to do is locate the master cylinder in a bench vice, fill it with fluid, and slowly press the piston, as shown here. Watch the bubbles pass from the cylinder back into the reservoir. Once all air traffic is gone, the cylinder is bled and ready for installation, but install and secure the cap first.


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USVI gives peace officer status to federal agents
U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh has signed a legislation that awards peace officer status to federal authorities.
The long-awaited bill comes a few months after de Jongh requested that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives return to the Caribbean island to help fight a rise in crime.
The agency pulled its agents out of the U.S. territory in 2008 after local police charged an ATF agent in a fatal shooting following his intervention in a domestic dispute. A judge later threw out the case on a technicality.
The Virgin Islands government said in a statement Saturday that the new law will allow the three-island territory's police department to seek help from federal agencies in curbing crime and illegal weapons smuggling.


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With the tip of his tiny dentist's drill, Tokerau Jim begins to carve a narrow belt around the glistening waist of a tiny black pearl.
The pattern is so fine I can't see the shape. But when I photograph him working and blow up the picture to check its sharpness it seems like a row of hearts.
"No," says Jim. "They look like hearts. But actually they're a traditional design using spearheads."
When I expand my image even further I can see the design does match the spearhead pattern you often see around the edge of tapa cloth in the Cook Islands. In the meantime, Jim is busy using his drill to fill in the centres of those tiny spearhead shapes.
As you'd imagine, since the black pearls are not only very small - around 1cm in diameter - but also rather valuable, carving them is exacting work.
But to Jim, who comes originally from the black pearl island of Manihiki, slicing through the precious layers of carbonate holds no fears. Working with incredible precision, he starts cutting a second line either side of the central band to complete his design.
"I don't carve to any set design," he says. "I just study the pearl and think about what will make the best use of its shape, colour and texture. I work completely freehand depending upon what the pearl looks like and how I feel on the day."
Jim's involvement with black pearls goes back to when he was a small boy on Manihiki, in whose lagoon most of the Cook Islands black pearl farms are found, but his carving is rather more recent.
"It started about 13 years ago when I had some rellies coming from New Zealand and I wanted to give them presents. I didn't have much cash so I got some pearl shell and used woodworking tools to cut it into necklaces and pendants and things," he says.
"People seemed to like them so I made a few more and started taking them to hotel giftshops to sell and it grew from there."
Jim says that when he first started carving black pearls, as opposed to pearl shell, "I only used flawed pearls and the carvings were mainly to cover up the flaws. Now the carved pearls are so popular we use good pearls."
But if Tokerau Jim's pearl carving business is going well the same can't be said for the Cook Islands' black pearl industry as a whole.
Back in 2000, black pearls were one of the country's major earners, bringing in $18 million a year, but since then a combination of a disease outbreak in the pearl oysters, the global economic downturn and over-production in Tahiti - the other major player in the black pearl industry - has seen sales slump to as low as $6 million a year.
That's a particular concern to Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna, not only because of the effect on the economy, but also because, as I discovered during a chat at his office, before going into politics he ran a pearl farm in Manihiki for 15 years.
The pearl industry is having a tough time, he agrees, but there are hopes that a recent agreement with New Zealand to spend $3 million over the next three years to boost the industry will put it on a sustainable footing.
That will involve a major effort to "monitor and manage the fragile ecosystem that produces the Cook Islands black pearl" and "an improve marketing performance to sell our black pearls to the world".
If all goes to plan, then, there should be beautiful black pearls for Jim to carve as long as his eyes stay sharp enough.
"When I was young," he says wistfully, "I could carve a pearl in an hour. Now I'm 40-plus my eyes are not so good and it takes three or four hours. But if my eyes get worse I guess I could always get glasses."
Air New Zealand flies from Auckland to the Cook Islands six times a week, with airfares starting from $265 each, one way. For airfares and holiday options visit airnewzealand.co.nz.
* Jim Eagles visited Rarotonga with help from Cook Islands Tourism, Air Rarotonga and Air New Zealand.


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