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2012 Godengo+Texterity Publisher Monetization Survey Results Encouraging, Certified by BPA Worldwide
Publishers starting to see success in digital and mobile monetization, but many tools yet untapped
Southborough, MA -- For the seventh consecutive year, BPA Worldwide has audited an annual publishing industry survey conducted by Texterity -- now Godengo+Texterity following an acquisition last March. http://www.texterity.com; http://www.godengo.com Godengo+Texterity is a leading provider of digital, mobile, and website publishing solutions.
The 2012 survey, which stayed open throughout the month of September, was conducted by e-mail and aimed at publishers, focusing on the monetization of digital editions, magazine apps, and websites. Salient findings from 139 completed surveys in B2B, Consumer, Association and Niche sectors point to promising potential but also flag the need for education and experimentation.
· 88% of publishers sell advertising across platforms
· 77% generate ad revenue but many underutilize digital rev gen tools
· Respondents agree that audience data is important yet 75% don't use it thoroughly
· 3 out of 5 digital publishers are seeing increases in circulation and advertising revenue
· 38% plan a website redesign or CMS overhaul to enhance monetization
· Largest advertisers are willing to cross channels, yet current budgets are largely in print
· Publishers no longer rely on one channel of delivery
· Publishers and advertisers agree that one size no longer fits all
· Publishing teams tend to be small but are starting to see success in monetization
· While flagship titles already publish cross-channel, dominant growth is in mobile
· Publishers grapple with free vs. paid content and the complexity of multiple platforms
· Respondents see opportunity in reader engagement and user metrics
"For us, the most outstanding finding is that survey respondents – our customers – outperform the industry average 3:1 in generating digital revenue," says Kim Keller, EVP of Sales for Godengo+Texterity. "Veronis Suhler Stevenson puts today's industry rev gen average for digital at about 5% while our Consumer publishers are seeing 14% and our BtoB publishers are seeing 16%. That's very encouraging. And yet there is tremendous room for growth, since many publishers haven't fully explored digital tools and sponsorship selling."
Some of the underutilized rev gen tools for digital and app editions include video, custom linking, blow-ins, issue/app/email sponsorships, welcome pages, launch images or splash screens, ads with rich media, and digital supplements.
For websites: sponsored content, directories, event/webinar registration, interstitials, merchandise sales, microsites, member log-in, content syndication, and local retail programs are also not maximized. Consequently, even "Successful" website publishers have opportunities to raise the bar.
Glenn Schutz, Manager of Communications for BPA Worldwide, echoes this optimism: "It's great to see media owners recognize the value that the digital platform can bring to their brand. For our members, digital circulation continues to grow and serve as an important means to reach subscribers. According to our latest analysis for those titles reporting it, digital circulation constitutes more than 21% of their total audience. That's up from 19% just six months ago."
This year's survey report – free to the public – also includes verbatim comments and 3 Monetization Spotlights featuring Entrepreneur Magazine, Food Safety Magazine, and Meetings & Conventions.
The complete survey report, digitized for easy reading, is available at no cost via http://www.texterity.com/inforequest and will be discussed in a webinar called "Turning Digital Into Gold" at 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Sign up here: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=533756&sessionid=1&key=21789060F30797137DAB064B35564E3B&partnerref=texterity&sourcepage=register
Godengo+Texterity (http://www.godengo.com; http://www.texterity.com ), a leading provider of digital publishing solutions, has offices in Southborough, MA; Berkeley, CA; and Minneapolis, MN. Serving more than 1,200 titles, Godengo+Texterity builds digital editions, monetized websites, and native magazine-branded apps, working toward a unified publishing platform that will provide efficiency and economy to publishers. Godengo+Texterity is currently developing in HTML5 technology to bring Responsive Design into their 2013 offerings. This survey can be accessed free of charge at http://www.texterity.com/inforequest by selecting "2012 Publisher Monetization Research."
BPA Worldwide (http://www.bpaww.com) was founded in 1931 as a non-profit organization governed by a tripartite board of media owners, advertising agencies and advertisers. Headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut, USA, with a media owner membership in excess of 2,000, BPA's influence spans more than 30 countries and constitutes the largest of any media-auditing organization. BPA provides audit services for more than 2,700 media properties – including B-to-B publications, consumer magazines, newspapers, web sites, events, email newsletters, databases, wireless and other advertiser-supported media.
Jill Baker
Director of Marketing
BPA Worldwide
Glenn Schutz
Manager, Communications


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by Full name January 15, 2018
A subtle cry from a small human. Can often result from bad news or disappointment
Boy: "I can't go to the mountains"
Girl: "Wah I miss you"
Girl: "Wah I miss you"
by halfblackattack March 23, 2011
The sound the Peanuts characters parents make. Substitution for talking.
Charlie Brown: I fuckin hate homework.
Teacher: WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHHH.
Teacher: WAHWAHWAHWAHWAHHH.
by Thatstupidbitch April 22, 2010
Further to earlier explanations, within the British Army, also used in response to an answer to an obvious question. This is a question that you have set the other person up to answer. Can become quite frustrating as you become paranoid answering any question in case it is a Wah!
Steve "Is that a can of beer in your hand Bill?"
Bill "Yeah!"
Steve "Wah!"
Bill "Bugger, been Wah'd again!"
Bill "Yeah!"
Steve "Wah!"
Bill "Bugger, been Wah'd again!"
by JT November 09, 2004
A verbal sulk. It's when the inner child cannot be repressed any longer
"Wah! I'm Anna and I want a Mr Frosty! I never had one as a child"
(Something which we soon remedied this christmas"
(Something which we soon remedied this christmas"
by Tashabelle December 28, 2003
A way to illustrate one's complete lask of compassion for another's misfortune
by Luke October 20, 2004

subset: commoncrawl


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America's national park system is one of the greatest points of pride for the country, and has even served as inspiration for other nations eager to preserve their own national treasures. One of the most iconic of those parks is California's Yosemite National Park. Images of its rocky cliffs, thundering waterfalls and gargantuan sequoia trees entice nature lovers of all ages, but the history of the park is just as fascinating as its geological and natural wonders. The average visit to the park might leave that background out of reach, but a Yosemite tour, crafted in partnership with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, is guaranteed to bring it all to light.
Burns' documentary feature "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" captivated viewers across the country and re-ignited interest in exploring parks like Yosemite. Tour operator Tauck teamed up with Burns to create a tour that gives participants unprecedented insight as well as opportunities to simply revel in the majestic beauty of Yosemite. While many of the experiences on this Yosemite tour are exclusive to participating travelers, it also offers cost savings of as much as 40 percent, compared to doing the same trip on your own.
Travelers can expect a lot out of their visit to Yosemite – and it's certain that they won't be disappointed. These are the top five sights and experiences to look forward to while visiting the park:
1. The view from Glacier Point. While there's no shortage of spectacular views within Yosemite, this might be the most stirring of them all. From the point, you can look out over the Yosemite Valley for a vista that takes in Half Dome and countless other glacier-formed peaks. John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt stood here in 1903 during a tour of the area that ended up convincing Roosevelt to authorize its federal protection as a national park.
2. Buffalo Soldier history. Creating a national park that balances natural preservation and the welcoming of visitors is no small task – and, in Yosemite, it would have been impossible without the help of the "Buffalo Soldiers." They were the ones who blazed trails, built roads and mapped the vast wilderness of Yosemite – thus making it possible for the park to be properly managed. Tauck's Yosemite tour includes a talk by Park Ranger Shelton Johnson on the Buffalo Soldiers; he was featured in Burns' documentary.
3. A stay at The Ahwahnee. The lodges of the national parks hold a special allure, but none more so than The Ahwahnee. This luxurious, grand resort is set against a sheer granite cliff, which makes for one of the most dramatic settings you're ever likely to see. A spirit of rustic luxury emanates throughout the lodge, which was built in 1915, from its soaring dining room to the cozy grand lounge.
4. The falls of Yosemite. Waterfalls work a particular magic on visitors to Yosemite, and there is no shortage of these natural wonders to be admired. Yosemite Falls, with its upper and lower falls, as well as cascades in between, is the highest waterfall in North America with a combined 2,425-foot drop. At Vernal Falls, visitors can get a whole different perspective, by walking across a footbridge.
5. Hike, bike and more. Getting out and into the environment of Yosemite is a must for every visitor. Choose your favorite method – on foot, two wheels or four wheels – and set out for an adventure. Hikers and bikers can follow designated paths into the wilderness, but open-top vehicles also have access to remote corners of the park.
A Yosemite tour is guaranteed to inspire enthusiasm for nature, history and America itself. For more information, visit Tauck.com.


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NCAA's Emmert still pushing for athlete stipends
- Article by: RACHEL COHEN
- Associated Press
- December 5, 2012 - 4:15 PM
NEW YORK - NCAA President Mark Emmert is still determined to provide college athletes with $2,000 for expenses not covered by scholarships.
Convincing schools to go along with that might be as much about changing perceptions as changing the proposal.
In a surprise move last January, the Division I Board of Directors delayed implementing the stipends in the face of criticism from many colleges. The plan is still on hold, with a working group creating options that address the membership's concerns, but Emmert reiterated Wednesday his commitment to putting it into effect.
The stipends would help cover the full cost of attending college, which scholarships don't meet, providing money for expenses beyond tuition, room and board, books and fees.
The Board of Directors approved the rule in October 2011, but by late December, 160 schools had signed onto override legislation. That meant the change was suspended, and the board reconsidered it at the January meeting.
On Wednesday, Emmert sounded a bit chastened by the backlash. Asked about the plan being stayed, he replied, "`Stayed' is the polite word; it kind of got crushed."
"We didn't anticipate the reaction it provoked," Emmert said at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum.
Schools worried about how the stipends would affect Title IX compliance and whether they'd be able to afford them. Emmert said one possibility was making them need-based — available to students who can't afford the various expenses that come with attending colleges, but less expensive for schools.
But the proposals can be tweaked only so much. The biggest key to implementing the stipends may be changing schools' mindsets.
"This is a branding issue," Emmert acknowledged to The Associated Press.
That can include public pressure. Emmert chided athletic programs that make major decisions guided by efforts to generate more revenue, then complain they can't afford a stipend. At the forum, which is sponsored by IMG and hosted by SportsBusiness Daily/Global/Journal, Emmert said of conference realignment: "When people say it's all about the money, that's not inaccurate."
He later took that argument to the stipends cause: "When the world believes it's all a money grab, how can you say we can stick with the same scholarship model as 40 years ago?"
Money is also pouring in from TV deals. The new college football playoff contract will be worth about $470 million a year. That money, however, goes directly to conferences, not to the NCAA. It also benefits the most the schools that were already the wealthiest to begin with.
But the current men's basketball tournament agreement — worth an average of more than $770 million per year — is with the NCAA. The governing body could use some of that money to pay for stipends itself, though that would mean providing fewer funds to conferences. So the stipends would dent schools' budgets one way or another.
© 2018 Star Tribune


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We are sorry, this product is currently not available.
Minted + domino Art Print Challenge: we partnered with design marketplace Minted to find fresh up-and-coming art to feature on domino.com! From the thousands of submissions, we've uncovered 75 brand new pieces, 25 of which are exclusive to domino.
Standard Paper & Framing
A thick, matte art paper in a brilliant white hue. Standard framed art prints are custom fitted using plexi glass, a protective backing, bumpers and hanging wire.
White Premium Wood
• Handcrafted white wood frame.
• Frame width is .75" for dimensions 16 x 20 and smaller; 1.5" for dimensions 18 x 24 and larger.
This photograph was taken in Easton, PA. It is a green and white door that was on the side of a gorgeous brick building. Easton is filled with lovely artistic accents and old world details which makes for a very eclectic and artistic community.
About the Artist Smile Peace Love:
As a photographer and designer, many describe my style as natural, organic and whimsical. I specialize in the creative use of light and find the beauty in everything around us.
Artist Location: East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
For more ideas check out domino and MINTED art challenge


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
Victory Ventures to Drill the Copau Property, Iskut District, BC
By: Marketwired .
Feb. 7, 2013 03:01 AM
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/07/13 -- Victory Ventures Inc. (the "Company) (TSX VENTURE:VVN)(FRANKFURT:VV0) is pleased to report that it has received final government permits for its planned diamond drilling program on the Copau property, located in the Iskut District of northern British Columbia. The Company is exploring for copper-gold porphyry mineralization, similar to that found at Imperial Metals Corporation - Red Chris copper-gold porphyry deposit, currently moving towards mineral production by 2014. Victory Ventures' Copau property is located approximately 11.5 kilometers northeast of the Red Chris deposit.
The drill program on the Copau property is to be carried out by mid-2013, to test a prospective IP chargeability anomaly, as discovered by survey work carried out on the property by Frontier Geosciences Inc. in 2012. A chargeability anomaly, increasing in strength with depth, was detected at 155 m to 455 m depth against a background of overall lower resistivities. Between 205 metres to 455 metres chargeabilty measurements varied from 20-40 ms (milliseconds) at 205 metres depth to 70 to 100 ms at 455 metres depth.
The newly defined deep IP chargeability anomaly forms a pattern similar to the chargeability anomalies identified at Red Chris, 11.5 kilometers to the southwest, where the bulk of the mineralization is hosted in the deeper, stronger southern chargeability anomaly.
On the Copau Property, the main zone of anomalous chargeability is of indeterminate size as it lies open to the south and west of the currently surveyed grid area. The presently known anomaly covers an area of at least 600 m long on a north-south axis and approximately 200 metres to 400 metres wide in an east-west direction. Furthermore, the increased chargeability likely results from increasing sulphide content within the interpreted southwest dipping syenite body, possibly accompanied by higher sulphide content resulting from hydrothermal activity.
Although there is little rock outcrop present on the Copau property, several occurrences of sulphide mineralization have been located on the property, including pyrite, chalcopyrite as well as magnetite hosted in a syenite host rock, which is known to underlie the central part of the property. Mineralization was first discovered on the property area in 1994 during a regional mapping program by the BC Geological Survey. The showing was designated B-31, with one sample assaying 0.34% copper.
The Copau property is located in the northern end of the prolific "Golden Triangle", an area well known for its potential to host world-class copper-gold porphyry deposits. The main driver for exploration in this region is the Red Chris development project, which lies 11.5 kilometres southwest of the Copau property.
The Red Chris Mine, with planned production of 30,000 tonnes per day, will be in production by 2014 in conjunction with the completion of the Northwest Transmission Line. Red Chris currently has proven plus probable reserves of 301.55 Mt with an average grade of 0.359% copper and 0.274 g/t gold.
Other companies carrying out active porphyry deposit exploration in the immediate area include West Cirque Resources on the Castle Property, located 25 km northwest of the Red Chris deposit. Also active in the area is Teck Resources Ltd., carrying out an extensive exploration program on their GJ (Kiniskan) property located 20 kilometers west of Red Chris.
Colorado Resources Ltd. is working on its Eldorado property, located 7 kilometers north of Red Chris, where plans are in place to drill test newly discovered deep IP chargeability anomalies.
On behalf of the Board of Directors:
Howard Milne, Director
Victory Ventures Inc. is a Canadian-based junior mining exploration company focused on the procurement, exploration and development of precious metal properties in North America. The Company's Shares are listed and posted for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "VVN" and on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol "VV0".
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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Banks urges fans to join fight against bullying
The former catwalk beauty admits she was a "mean girl" when she was just nine, but she soon learned how nasty and hurtful people's comments could be when she was subjected to the vicious taunts two years later.
Now Banks is urging her devotees to fight back and support the Stop Bullying: Speak Up campaign, which encourages troubled youths not to suffer in silence.
In a post on her Facebook.com page, she writes, "Being kind is the fiercest move you can make! Take the pledge to Stop Bullying: Speak Up."
And, in a video message to fans, Banks says, "Join me to help stop bullying by speaking up. Now take it from me, I have been on both sides of the fence. At nine years old, I was a bully. I was the mean girl: 'Oh you can't hang out with us' - I was that kinda girl who used to say that kind of stuff.
"Then, at 11 years old, I lost a lot of weight and grew a lot of inches in only three months and I became the one that was bullied - the victim. So I got to feel the type of pain that I was inflicting on other girls when I was younger.
"Bullying is not right, it's not good. It's serious business and nobody should feel the pain of bullying."
Banks isn't the only star wanting to stamp out the cruel behaviour - Lady Gaga has also taken a stand and wants U.S. lawmakers to make bullying a crime.


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Dodgers' slide continues in fiery loss to Giants
LOS ANGELES -- Two losses into a four-game test against their first-place rivals, the Dodgers are not showing they can play with the Giants, who scored another 3-1 win Friday night but lost first baseman Brandon Belt to a broken left thumb.
The only Dodgers run came on Yasiel Puig's one-out homer in the sixth off Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, and it nearly led to a brawl when an angry Bumgarner made his way within shouting distance of Puig as he approached home plate.View Full Game Coverage
LOS ANGELES -- Two losses into a four-game test against their first-place rivals, the Dodgers are not showing they can play with the Giants, who scored another 3-1 win Friday night but lost first baseman Brandon Belt to a broken left thumb.
The only Dodgers run came on Yasiel Puig's one-out homer in the sixth off Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, and it nearly led to a brawl when an angry Bumgarner made his way within shouting distance of Puig as he approached home plate.View Full Game Coverage
Manager Don Mattingly wasn't even around the watch the entire loss, getting ejected in the sixth inning three pitches after Puig's home run for arguing with plate umpire Will Little over balls and strikes.
The Puig-Bumgarner dustup was the postgame focus, although what the Dodgers really need to address is their continued losing. They've dropped three straight and five of their last six, falling a season-low 4 1/2 games out of first in the National League West. They are 2-6 against San Francisco this year, only one game above .500 at 19-18 and 6-11 at home.
Even with the worst defense in the league, the biggest culprit for the Dodgers is offense.
Already the Dodgers have failed to score more than two runs in 13 games, 12 of them losses. They've lost seven games in which their pitcher has thrown a quality start. And they haven't won any game they trailed after six innings. They got one run on four hits off Bumgarner.
The Dodgers were playing without third baseman Juan Uribe, who suffered a mild strain of his right hamstring Thursday night. Justin Turner started at third base and had a double, but also was charged with a throwing error after making a difficult barehanded pickup of Joaquin Arias' RBI infield single.
Meanwhile, the Giants are deploying exaggerated defensive shifts on most of the Dodgers' potent hitters, even the right-handers, and it's working, as hitters who don't use the whole field have become easier to defend. Of course, Bumgarner has been effective against the Dodgers even before the new-school defenses appeared this year.
"We haven't been able to do a lot with Bum here," said Mattingly. "That said, we haven't done a whole lot with anybody lately. He's got good stuff. He's a handful every time we face him. At this point, we're just not doing enough."
And the one time the Dodgers scored, a fight nearly broke out.
While Puig toured the bases, Bumgarner said something to the plate umpire, then yelled at Puig as he neared home, apparently miffed that he was being shown up by the outfielder's bat flip and admiration of the blast to center field. Puig didn't back down, stopping a few strides from the plate to shout back. Mattingly came out of the dugout as Puig completed his trot, pointing at Bumgarner and complaining to Little.
"The umpire, at that point, I can't have anybody yelling at Yasiel," said Mattingly. "The umpire's got to go out there and do something."
An insincere Bumgarner pleaded ignorance.
"I was just congratulating him," Bumgarner said. "That was a really good swing. I don't know why everybody got so mad. That was pretty impressive. I don't know what happened.
"Again, I don't know why everybody got so mad. It escalated quickly for no reason. I think he said, 'Thank you,' I'm not sure if he did. I don't speak Spanish very well."
A serious Mattingly felt Bumgarner overreacted to Puig.
"He hit it, flipped it and ran," said Mattingly. "I'm not sure what he's upset about. You see guys do stuff every day. The double standard is always annoying. Obviously, Yasiel is a little bit of a lightning rod. He plays hard. I didn't think he did anything wrong."
"It surprised me a little that he was there," Puig said of Bumgarner's presence near the third-base line. "I may have done something he didn't like. From my perspective, it's part of the game."
When asked what Bumgarner said to him, Puig claimed, "I don't know." He said catcher Buster Posey "said something like, let it go, go back to the bench."
After a called strike three pitches into the following at-bat by Ramirez, Little turned toward the Dodgers' dugout and ejected Mattingly, the manager's first tossing of the year and 12th as skipper.
Belt was injured when hit by a Paul Maholm pitch leading off the second inning.
"I tried to throw Belt a slider down and away, and it was the first pitch of the inning and I missed by about two feet," said Maholm. "You don't ever want to see a guy get hurt. Obviously, it was unintentional. Probably one of the worst spots a hitter can get hit."
Maholm (1-3) was dueling Bumgarner (4-3) on even terms into the fifth inning, having retired 10 consecutive batters when he issued a one-out walk to Brandon Hicks. Brandon Crawford, who came into the game 3-for-6 lifetime against Maholm, lined the next pitch for a two-run homer into the right-field pavilion.
"It wasn't a good pitch," said Maholm. "I tried to go away and get a double-play and ran the ball over the middle and up and he took advantage of it. It was really the only bad pitch I threw all night. It was a home run. Kind of stunk."
Brandon League pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh.
Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com.


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Bring Back the Green! 20 Fresh Spring Salads
Now that spring is officially here, we're ready to put aside the hearty winter salads that have gotten us through the cold months and move on to something new. Something fresh, crisp and, most importantly, green! We've pulled together 20 of our favorite spring salads – recipes to make as soon as you get home from the farmers' market. Get your radishes and asparagus ready – we're putting right them to work.
1. Meyer Lemon Spring Salad with Baby Greens, Herbs, Almonds and Goat Cheese
2. Kohlrabi Slaw
3. Asparagus Bean Salad Over Arugula
4. Meyer Lemon Grain Salad with Asparagus, Almonds and Goat Cheese
5. Tortellini and Spring Vegetable Salad
6. Roasted Beet Salad with Barley, Feta and Red Onion
7. Dressing Spring Salads: How To Make a Basic Vinaigrette
8. Raw Artichoke, Mushroom and Parmesan Salad
9. Peanut Slaw
10. Mexican Sprout Slaw
11. Mary Sue and Susan's Asparagus Salad
12. Spring Salad with Radishes and Pumpkin Seeds
13. Lemony Shaved Fennel Salad with Bresaola
14. Truffled Asparagus with Parmesan and Eggs
15. Peas with Prociutto and Mint
16. Strawberry-Arugula Salad with Lemon Ricotta Topping
17. Asparagus & Pecorino
18. Spinach and Strawberry Salad
19. Mixed New Potato Salad with Sweet Basil and Shallots
20. Hello Spring Salad with Sweet Cashews and Cranberries
(Images: See linked posts for full credits)


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I've been interested in heated curlers for a while, but I have a pretty big thing against using heat on my hair so one night while searching I found a brand called sleep-in rollers. They cost about £25 for 20 curlers which look around an inch and a half each.
Being a cheap skate I obviously started a search for a cheaper alternative, plus the sleep-in rollers look quite large which unless your hair is down to your bum isn't gonna do much except make a kink.
I managed to find this person's review and decided I'd give them a go myself
I decided to get 24 of them from this ebay seller for £3.36 - they're sold in loads of places online but this is probably the cheapest you can get them (and they're exactly the same everywhere)
They took around 2 weeks to arrive but I'd rather wait a bit longer than pay triple the price!
They smell a bit plasticy when you take them out the packet so I recommend taking them out as soon as you get them and maybe waiting about a week if you're concerned about it making your hair smelly (especially as your hair is porous, although I haven't noticed any smell in my hair from the packet I opened just before putting them in)
They come with cutely translated instructions that aren't entirely clear but easy enough to follow!
The outside folds (try and) help your hair stay in place
My hair when I started was about 50% dry and my hair is naturally quite straight
When I'd put them all in I used a total of 11 (I'm still glad I have 24 because I'll definitely lose some)
I didn't go straight to bed when I had them in so some of them slipped down/nearly fell out; I'd recommend doing it right before you're about to go into bed to help them stay in place better.
These things are so nice and soft they weren't a problem to lay on at all
5 curlers fell out in my sleep, which still left a curl but you'll see in these picture's the curls are a lot looser than the ones which stayed.
As I thought, I was left with fairly tight curls which I wasn't too bothered about because you can loosen them up yourself and they'll do so naturally throughout the day.
To loosen up the curls I ran my fingers through them and pulled them apart gently. DO NOT BRUSH YOUR HAIR, I did it on one half and... just... frizz... I managed to save it by twirling about inch sized chunks of hair and applying pantene pro v split end serum to the ends (I don't know why it helped, it just did). This also helped with the kind of matted frizzy look/feel my ends had (I know, gross, but I kind of expected it)
Also as expected, the top of my hair had basically no volume so I added a bit of dry shampoo and tied bits from the front of my hair into a mini ponytail which I tucked into itself.
I think if your hair is much longer than mine you won't get away with these, they fell out of mine enough and the only curl I get is on the ends. I think the ideal length of hair for these would be just above the boob, but of course if you're curious you might as well give them a go for £1.68 for 12!
Overall I like the effect they've given my hair and I'm gonna carry on experimenting with these to figure out if there's a way of perfecting the curls. I think with any type of curl that isn't using a curling iron they'll end up a bit uneven and not perfect looking, but for a day-to-day not too much effort and 0 heat way of curling hair, this is a pretty safe bet!


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March 11, 2011 – Emmanuel College students Brandi Gibson and Mary Stewart are safe from the earthquake and tsunami that are terrorizing cities along the Japanese coast. The interns left Tokyo, Japan, two days ago and are currently stationed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"Through Facebook, we have successfully communicated to our interns, Executive Director of World Missions Ministries Doug Beacham and Director of People to People Ministries Matt Bennett. They have graciously helped to confirm the location and safety of our interns," says Dean of the School of Christian Ministries Tracy Reynolds at Emmanuel College.
Gibson and Stewart, seniors in the School of Christian Ministries, are completing their last semester with a missionary training program known as SAFARI (Semester Abroad for Radical Impact). This program is organized by the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) to train the next generation of world missionaries.
The interns completed eight weeks of training in Krugersdorp, South Africa, and are now working in the missionary field for five weeks in different locations throughout Asia. Russell Board, director of Asia/Pacific Missions for the IPHC, is sponsoring them during this portion of their SAFARI experience.
Board posted a status on Facebook this morning saying, "Thanks for the concern and prayers. We were in Singapore when the quake hit. We are now in Kuala Lumpur, finally able to get online. It took time to contact all our family, but thankfully all are fine, though shaken up. We still don't know about the condition of our home, but don't expect major damage. We won't be home until next Wednesday, but our hearts are there."
Please continue praying for our interns, missionaries and all those being affected by the natural disaster in Japan. Gibson and Stewart are scheduled to arrive back to the United States in late April.


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Weather in Bū Līfīyāt
|local time Bū Līfīyāt: 12:47:07 PM
|Sunday, October 21, 2018
|Updated: Sun, 21 Oct 2018 08:47:00 GMT
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Rising Output
Oil production outside of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will climb 2% from 2012 to 53.77 million barrels a day in 2013, led by gains in North America.
U.S. crude output will climb to an average 7.3 million barrels a day this year, up from 6.47 million in 2012, according to the report. The 2013 estimate was reduced from 7.31 million projected in March. Next year's production forecast is 7.87 million barrels a day, down from last month's estimate of 7.88 million.
OPEC members will produce 35.98 million barrels a day this year, the EIA said. Last month's forecast was 36.03 million.
The 12-member group pumped 29.83 million barrels of crude oil a day in March, down from 29.88 million produced in February, data showed. Saudi Arabia, the group's biggest producer, pumped 9 million barrels of crude a day in March, unchanged from the previous month. OPEC's non-crude oil liquids output was 5.72 million barrels a day last month.
The department cut its forecast for global oil consumption this year to 90 million barrels a day from 90.13 million estimated last month. World demand will climb to 91.33 million in 2014.
U.S. Demand
U.S. oil consumption will average 18.62 million barrels a day in 2013, up from last month's forecast of 18.58 million. Next year demand is projected to climb to 18.65 million.
Demand from the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will average 45.57 million barrels a day this year. The forecast was cut by 70,000 barrels from last month and will be down 320,000 barrels from the 45.89 million used in 2012. OECD countries will consume 45.47 million barrels next year, according to the report.
The OECD doesn't include developing countries such as China, India and Brazil. The DOE decreased its forecast of consumption by non-OECD countries to 44.46 million barrels a day from 44.49 million last month. That would be a 3% gain from 43.15 million in 2012. Demand will rise to 45.94 million in next year, the report showed.
"Continued strong economic growth in the emerging economies, particularly China, could put upward pressure on oil prices, though this would be offset somewhat by Europe's weak economy," Sieminski said.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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The Startford Festival's production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" is headed to Broadway.
Des McAnuff's production will open at the Neil Simon Theatre on March 22, the Canadian festival announced on Tuesday. Prior to New York, the show will play a fall run at the La Jolla Playhouse, beginning Nov. 18.


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Senators look for e-cigarette marketing limits
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Several U.S. senators on Wednesday introduced a bill that would curb electronic cigarette marketing while the fast-growing industry awaits regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
The bill is co-sponsored by California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, both Democrats, and others. It would ban marketing to children based on standards set by the Federal Trade Commission and allow the agency to work with state attorneys general to enforce the ban on advertising. The battery-powered devices heat a liquid nicotine solution and create vapor that's inhaled.
Companies vying for a stake in the electronic cigarette business are reviving the decades-old marketing tactics the tobacco industry used to hook generations of Americans on regular smokes. Those tactics, such as running TV commercials and sponsoring race cars and other events, are raising worries that e-cigarette makers could tempt young people to take up something that could prove addictive.
While the FDA plans to set marketing and product regulations for electronic cigarettes in the near future, for now, almost anything goes.
And Harkin said e-cigarette makers are attempting to create "a new generation of nicotine addicts."
"When it comes to the marketing of e-cigarettes to children and teens, it's 'Joe Camel' all over again," Harkin said in a statement.
A 2009 law gave the FDA the power to regulate a number of aspects of tobacco marketing and manufacturing, though it cannot ban nicotine or cigarettes outright.
The agency first said it planned to assert authority over e-cigarettes in 2011 but hasn't yet. The proposed FDA regulation was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review in October.
While FDA regulation of these products remains critical, Harkin said the legislation would complement the agency's oversight.
Michael Felberbaum can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/MLFelberbaum .
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Robert Downey Jr. has finished most of the heavy lifting needed for his role in "The Avengers" and last week, over lunch at his office in Venice, the two-time Oscar nominee felt ready to talk about a different heroic project: "Iron Man 3."
"My sense of it is that we need to leave it all on the field — whatever that means in the end," Downey said of the May 2013 film. "You can pick several different points of departure for that."
Speaking of departures, director Jon Favreau won't be back for the third installment of a franchise that propelled his career to new heights — even as it established upstart Marvel Studios as a serious Hollywood player and signaled the popcorn redemption of Downey after years of addiction and legal entanglements. "Iron Man 2," however, was an especially grueling shoot and by the end of it the relationship between the director and the star was pretty frosty. Downey and Favreau are pals again now and even appeared on stage together earlier this summer in Hollywood for a warm and funny reunion.
"Iron Man 2" brought in $624 million in worldwide box office but the reviews weren't as strong as they were on the first film and Downey says that, watching the sequel now, he sees a film in which a lot of things worked but plenty of other things didn't. The next movie will be written and directed by Shane Black, who became a brand name in Hollywood in the 1980s for writing action films such as "Lethal Weapon," "Lethal Weapon 2" and "The Last Boy Scout." Black made his directorial debut in 2005 with "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," the deliriously over-the-top dark comedy that starred Downey as a petty criminal who is whisked off to the West Coast for a Tinseltown adventure that promises fame but delivers a body count.
It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was praised for its sharp wit and over-the-top moments that nodded both to film noir convention and Hollywood culture, but Downey said the meta-charms of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" won't be revisited by the Marvel superhero film — unless of course they are.
"The thing about Shane is that it will be anything but one of those moments," Downey said, "unless we come up with something that is so cheeky and character-driven and perfect that it has to be in the movie."
Black began his Hollywood life as a prodigy among blockbuster screenwriters — he famously wrote "Lethal Weapon" in six weeks at age 23 — but by the mid-'90s the scene lost much of its appeal after watching his scripts for "The Last Action Hero" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" reach the screen with too many revisions and too little spirit. The budget on "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was a tiny $15 million, but to Downey that number reveals more about Black's capabilities as a director than it does his limitations.
"He's more than the sum of his parts and he's also kind of been a sleeper for a long time," Downey said. "We're not talking much about [the script] right now because Shane is off writing and we talked before that and when we are talking again the talking is going to be over pretty quick [because we're on the same page]. It's kind of like we're fighting on the same side and at the same time we're circling each other, so it's all great. It should be great."
Favreau, meanwhile, is coming off the mixed-bag performance of "Cowboys & Aliens" and moving on to "Magic Kingdom" for Disney. The filmmaker has said that he is eager to see someone else sit down to play in Tony Stark's toy box, and on stage at the Hero Complex Film Festival he made it clear that he approves of the Black choice by winkingly saying he's ready to reprise his on-screen role in the franchise as Stark's pal, Happy Hogan, if a suitable salary can be negotiated.
Downey was still chuckling about that gag last week and pleased to hear the sentiment that runs beneath it. "Bringing in Shane Black to write and direct 'Iron Man 3' to me is basically the only transition from Favreau to a 'next thing' that Favreau and the audience and Marvel and I could ever actually sign off on," Downy said. With a grin he added: "The fun thing is going to be getting Happy in the movie."
— Geoff Boucher
"Avengers": Marvel's new approach to Hulk
"Cap" writers: Today Cap would be on watch list
"Thor 2″: Hemsworth sad to see Branagh go
Ed Brubaker and the salvation of Bucky
Johnston on Winter Soldier (and Boba Fett?)
Johnston's default: What would Indy do?
Evans: It's not about the flag, it's about the hero
Joss Whedon talks "Avengers" and more
"Spider-Man": Marc Webb reinvents the hero


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Prepare Your Path
Thomas More College offers you two options for a Bachelor of Arts in English. You can complete the traditional English major with a focus on British and American literature, or an English major in Creative Writing, which features a variety of writing workshops along with literary studies. Pairing an English major with another degree makes you that much more marketable. Some of our recent English graduates also hold degrees in psychology, communications, theater, art, theology and biology.
We are proud of the emphasis we place on hands-on job experience. Internships and networking opportunities in news reporting, copy editing, literary magazine publication, grant writing, literacy programs and tutoring, among others, help your portfolio stand out when it's time to interview for your first fulltime job. No matter what path you choose, you'll develop skills to succeed in the job market or graduate school program.
Chart Your Course
Our program offers a diverse selection of workshops and seminars. Examples include:
- African American Literature
- American Popular Culture
- Creative Writing (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry)
- The Development of the Novel
- Gothic Literature
- Literature of the American South
- Meet the Beatles
- Mythology and Literature
- Native American Literature
- News and Feature Writing
- Oral Narrative Folklore
- Science Fiction
- Shakespearean Comedy
- Sub-Saharan Literature
- The Vietnam War in Literature & Film
Distinguish Yourself
At Thomas More, you'll find one-of-a kind opportunities to get involved beyond the classroom that clearly enhance your personal and professional growth. For example, our Words literarymagazine is entirely managed by students, providing experience in creative writing, art, editorial management, layout, publicity and distribution management.You can also work in our Writing Center as a tutor, join the creative activities of the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honorary or study abroadthrough the CCSA program. We encourage all English majors to take advantage of these remarkable programs.
For more information, contact:
Professor Julie Daoud
Department of English
Thomas More College
859-344-3383, Office #2208


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Nokia 515 enters budget market
Nokia has announced its latest mobile phone which it hopes will add an element of style to the feature phone market.
The Finnish firm is releasing the Nokia 515 for the strong audience who don't want to spend a fortune on a device and also don't care about how many megapixels the camera has. However, the company want to prove that it's not just a phone to throw away at festivals as it hopes to bring style and design to the market.
It brings a 2.4-inch LCD display and weighs just 102.7g but there isn't much else to comment about the device apart from the five-megapixel camera that's on board and 3G support. There is also a dual-SIM and 256MB of internal storage but a microSD card slot.
Battery life is fairly standard as Nokia says it will last more than ten hours without using 3G. Unfortunately, there's no news about when the device will be released in the UK or US but it hits Germany next week for €115 (£98).
Posted by Clare Marshall


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Yes, We Can
por Frederick W. Kagan y Max Boot, 25 de marzo de 2009
(Published in American Enterprise Institute, March 16, 2009)
If you believe the headlines, Afghanistan is 'the graveyard of empires,' a 'quagmire' and a 'fiasco,' the place where President Barack Obama will meet his 'Vietnam.' In the media's imagination, the Taliban are on the march, and Kabul is on the verge of falling to a resurgent insurgency that already controls much of the countryside. Increasing numbers of voices, on both the left and the right, counsel that the war is unwinnable and that we need to radically 'downsize' our objectives in order to salvage something from a failing war effort lest we go the way of the Russians or British, previous conquerors who foundered in this merciless land of violence and fanaticism.
Evidence to support the pessimists isn't hard to find. Violence has increased every year since 2001. The United Nations recently reported that there was an especially big jump last year, with civilian deaths up nearly 40 percent, from 1,523 in 2007 to 2,118 in 2008. Coalition deaths were up 27 percent, rising to 294 in 2008 from 232 in 2007. Because of the improving situation in Iraq, there have been a number of months when more U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Meanwhile the number of Afghans surveyed by ABC, the BBC, and the German network ARD who said that their country was headed in the right direction fell to 40 percent, down from 54 percent in 2007, with security rated as by far the worst problem, outpacing corruption and the economy.
The sense of doom is fed by news reports on spectacular attacks, such as the February 11 raid in which suicide bombers and gunmen attacked several government sites across Kabul, killing at least 20 people; the June 13, 2008, raid on the main prison in Kandahar, which freed 1,200 prisoners; and the April 27, 2008, attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai at a public ceremony.
Fears of impending disaster are hard to sustain, however, if you actually spend some time in Afghanistan, as we did recently at the invitation of General David Petraeus, chief of U.S. Central Command. Using helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and bone-jarring armored vehicles, we spent eight days traveling from the snow-capped peaks of Kunar province near the border with Pakistan in the east to the wind-blown deserts of Farah province in the west near the border with Iran. Along the way we talked with countless coalition soldiers, ranging from privates to a four-star general. We also attended a tribal shura or council--a fantastic affair straight out of an earlier century--to sample opinion among bearded Afghan elders. What we found is a situation that is cause for concern but far short of catastrophe-and one that is likely to improve before long.
To start with, much of the north, center, and west remains relatively secure. Attacks have increased in those areas but are still extremely low. Figures showing large increases are deceptive because the total numbers to begin with were so small and because most of the attacks produced few if any casualties. For instance, the Brookings Afghanistan Index shows a 48 percent increase in attacks last year in Regional Command-Capital, which encompasses Kabul and its environs and has a population of more than 4 million people. But the total (157 attacks in 2008) would have represented just four days of violence in Baghdad in the summer of 2006. (Overall civilian casualties in Afghanistan, while rising, are still 16 times lower than the comparable figure for Iraq in the pre-surge year of 2006.)
As these figures suggest, while the capital of Iraq was a war zone, the capital of Afghanistan is remarkably peaceful. Entire weeks go by without an insurgent attack, and the streets bustle with cars and pedestrians. Coalition officials drive around in lightly armored SUVs, something that would have been unthinkable in Baghdad. We asked officers at NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in the middle of Kabul whether they took any incoming rocket or mortar fire. Such attacks were an almost daily occurrence in the Green Zone in Baghdad for years, with numerous personnel being killed only yards away from the U.S. ambassador's office. But at ISAF they could remember only a single ineffectual attack back in September 2008.
The idea that Kabul is under siege is a figment of the news media's imagination based on hyped reporting of a few isolated attacks. ISAF officers suggested to us that the recent insurgent raids on three government buildings, which generated so much negative publicity, were actually good news, because Afghan security forces, who have assumed lead responsibility for operations in much of the capital, were able to handle the crisis on their own. Commandos from the Afghan National Police Crisis Response Team stormed into the Justice Ministry within hours and killed all the attackers, who had hoped to carry out a protracted Mumbai-style siege. Other would-be suicide bombers were rounded up before they could set off their explosives.
Equally impressive progress is being made in Jalalabad, a city of perhaps 400,000 in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. Violence is low; U.S. troops don't even patrol the city, leaving that job to the Afghan National Security Forces. The Afghan army, police, and border police coordinate their activities through a 'fusion' center which responds to an emergency phone number that residents can call in case of trouble. Economic development is booming, spurred by 'Nangarhar Inc.,' a development plan overseen by a U.S.-run Provincial Reconstruction Team in cooperation with local officials. 'Nangarhar has progressed light years in the last six or seven years,' says Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Daniel, who commands a battalion based in Jalalabad.
Not all of Regional Command-East is as peaceful or prosperous. This remains the second-most violent region in the country, behind only Regional Command-South. This is hardly surprising since RC-East is located along the long, mountainous eastern border with Pakistan, which has become a safe haven for numerous Islamist terrorist groups. With rumored assistance from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, many of these groups are carrying out cross-border attacks in Afghanistan in pursuit of a bewildering array of strategies and objectives. Officers at the Bagram headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division, who run RC-East from the site of one of Alexander the Great's base camps, have taken to speaking of an insurgent 'syndicate.' Their charts draw numerous intersecting lines between nine different groups which alternately compete and cooperate with one another.
The most famous of these is al Qaeda, but its strongholds are located in Pakistan, and it does not play a leading role in Afghanistan. The other groups are often colloquially referred to as the Taliban, but this catch-all phrase hardly does justice to--and can actually distort understanding of--a complex, multifaceted insurgency. The Taliban proper under the direction of Mullah Mohammad Omar ('One-Eye') are based in the city of Quetta in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, and their activities are largely confined to southern Afghanistan.
Other prominent insurgent groups include (bear with us) the Haqqani Network run by former mujahedeen leader Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin; the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HiG), a party led by another former mujahedeen commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; the Hezb-e Islami Khalisa, a breakaway faction of the Hezb-e Islami founded by the late Mohammad Yunus Khalis; the Tehrik-e Nefaz-e Shariat-e Mohammadi (TNSM), a group that is especially powerful in the Swat Valley and is run by Maulana Fazlullah, son-in-law of founder Sufi Muhammad; the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistan Taliban, who are headed by the notorious Baitullah Mehsud; the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Punjab-based terrorist group responsible for the Mumbai attacks as well as numerous attacks in Kashmir; and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which was founded by a former Uzbek paratrooper, the late Jumaboi Khojayev, who was radicalized while fighting with the Red Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The IMU has a pan-Central Asian focus, the TTP and TNSM are focused primarily on Pakistan, the LeT has a regional and even, increasingly, a global focus, while the Taliban and HiG are interested in taking over Afghanistan, and the Haqqani Network and HiK are thought to be primarily focused on seizing their traditional powerbases in eastern Afghanistan.
What unites these groups beyond a shared antipathy to the modern world, a propensity for violence, and a devotion to extremist forms of Islam? Some central direction is provided by three shuras or councils sitting in the western Pakistani cities of Quetta, Miram Shah, and Peshawar. (Baitullah Mehsud's TTP has its own shura in South Waziristan.) Connections with the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency also link most of these groups together. But the shuras provide only broad direction. Individual groups and subgroups act with considerable autonomy. That is a big advantage for the government of Afghanistan and its allies, since there is no Ho Chi Minh or Mao Zedong to knit together a far-flung insurgency into a cohesive movement.
Even without much central direction, however, these insurgent groups have been pursuing a loose-knit strategy whose contours are faintly discernible to ISAF. Some of the southern Taliban are pushing toward Kandahar, the central city of southern Afghanistan and a traditional Taliban stronghold. The northern groups are pushing toward Kabul. They are concentrating attacks on coalition and Afghan security forces in the countryside, hoping to drive them into the major cities and besiege them there. Eventually they hope to inflict enough pain on the coalition to force public opinion in Europe and North America to demand a withdrawal. Once the coalition is gone, they figure the government of Afghanistan will fall like rotten fruit.
In the meantime, to exert control of rural areas, they seek to intimidate anyone who dares to cooperate with the infidel 'occupiers.' The insurgents often post threatening 'night letters' warning those who work with the foreigners and sometimes follow up by beheading supposed collaborators. Through such actions they have created a feeling of insecurity even in areas of Afghanistan where the objective levels of violence are not that high.
Unlike in Iraq, the insurgents in Afghanistan are not indiscriminately slaughtering the civilian population. Some are making greater use of suicide bombers, but their targets are largely the Afghan National Security Forces, coalition forces, and government officials. Such attacks, however, can all too easily go wrong. We visited a district center, in the Mandozai District of Khost Province, that had been hit on December 28. Guards prevented a suicide bomber driving a car from entering the compound, so he blew himself up at the gate, killing 14 children and 2 adults. The rubble is still visible.
Whereas Iraqi insurgents might have reveled in such violence, their Afghan counterparts are more sensitive to the need to cultivate public opinion. They prefer for the coalition to kill civilians--something they make much more likely by hiding among civilians. The insurgents have made skillful use of collateral damage inflicted by the coalition, especially in air raids and what are known as 'night raids' when Special Operations Forces swoop down on insurgents' homes after dark. The guerrillas have done a brilliant job of trumpeting civilian casualties--usually exaggerated, sometimes invented--to accuse the coalition of brutality. Wittingly or not, President Hamid Karzai has helped the enemy by harping on coalition-caused casualties while all but ignoring in his public pronouncements mention of the far greater number of deaths inflicted by the guerrillas. Numerous coalition commanders complained to us that, as one of them put it, 'we are getting our ass whupped in the information war.'
As a first step in regaining the initiative, the coalition would be well advised to limit or adjust the tactics of the notorious 'night raids.' These operations should be more closely coordinated with village elders and Afghan security forces both before and after the 'kinetic' phase. (Elders at the Mandozai shura complained to us that such coordination is often lacking.) Otherwise, Special Operations units risk creating more enemies than they take off the battlefield.
When it comes to operations against coalition forces, the insurgents, like their Iraqi counterparts, rely primarily on improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The number set off increased from 2,569 in 2007 to 3,742 in 2008. The bombs employed in Afghanistan are, however, less sophisticated than in Iraq. So far Explosively Formed Penetrators, the armor-piercing munitions that Iran shipped to Iraqi terrorists, have not made an appearance in Afghanistan. So coalition troops have a fair degree of protection as long as they stay in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, 2,000 of which have been shipped to Afghanistan. Of course, sufficient quantities of explosives can penetrate any armor in the world, and some MRAPs have suffered terrible damage.
While not as sophisticated as Iraqi terrorists in the dark arts of the IED, Afghan insurgents are rated more proficient in light infantry tactics thanks to the training they have received in Pakistan. 'This is a capable opponent,' says Brigadier General Mark Milley, deputy commander of the 101st Airborne Division. Insurgents most often operate in groups of 5 to 15 but sometimes they can mass several hundred fighters. When they get into firefights, they sometimes draw close enough to use their weapons effectively, and they have shown the ability to fire and maneuver in squad-, platoon-, and even company-sized formations. 'We used to see sporadic RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire several years ago. This past year we have seen RPG volley fire,' Milley says. Often the insurgents will fight to the death, but they have a crude system of 'medevac,' with stretcher bearers organized to take casualties off the battlefield on foot.
In the east, the insurgents are helped immeasurably by the terrain--some of the world's tallest mountains split up the population into numerous small valleys that are cut off from one another, much less from the outside world. It has always been hard to establish any degree of central control in mountainous terrain from the Caucasus to Colombia, and Afghanistan is no exception. 'This is perfect guerrilla country,' Milley remarked as we flew with him in a Black Hawk helicopter over the snowy Hindu Kush.
In an attempt to control insurgent movements across a porous border, U.S. forces have established a number of small combat outposts in the hinterlands. Some are beyond the reach of Afghanistan's primitive road network and are dubbed 'air centric' because they can be supplied only from the air. Unfortunately some of these remote positions are so small that the troops inside have to devote most of their resources to defending themselves, and they have scant capability to project much combat power 'outside the wire.' Each has become, in military slang, a 'self-licking ice cream cone.' Some American units are in the process of pulling back some of those isolated bases and consolidating most of their troops into at least company-sized detachments (100 or more soldiers), the smallest number they believe can maneuver and safely sustain themselves in this dangerous environment. In Iraq, practicing the classic counterinsurgency tactic of positioning the troops among the population required taking them off giant Forward Operating Bases and putting them into smaller bases. In Afghanistan it may require slightly bigger bases, though still considerably smaller than mega-FOBs like Baghdad's Camp Victory, with its tens of thousands of inhabitants.
One should not exaggerate the combat prowess of the insurgents. Occasionally, it is true, they are able to catch a coalition unit off guard and inflict considerable casualties. Two such incidents occurred last year in RC-East when a newly arrived French detachment suffered nine killed in action and when a new, still-unfinished American outpost was hit so heavily that nine American soldiers were killed. But such incidents are the exception, not the rule. Most insurgent attacks inflict no casualties on coalition forces and result in devastating losses for the attackers when coalition troops call in air or artillery strikes. The Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are less well armed and trained and so suffer more heavily, but the ANA, at least, has shown itself superior to the enemy in every major firefight. By coming out to fight in the open (which they do much more often than their Iraqi counterparts), insurgents actually play to the strengths of American troops and their allies.
More effective from the enemy standpoint have been attacks on coalition lines of communication. The Pakistan Taliban have been attacking private trucks hired to lug supplies from the port of Karachi, Pakistan, into Afghanistan. Their Afghan counterparts have also been mining roads and blowing up culverts and bridges, replicating tactics that the mujahedeen once used against the Red Army. The Russians have contributed to the coalition's difficulties by pressuring Kyrgyzstan to close the U.S. air base at Manas, which is a primary hub for aerial tankers supporting coalition aircraft as well as a transit point for troops flying in and out of Afghanistan.
Given the hyperbolic reporting on these supply woes, when we arrived we half expected to find troops cowering in unheated hovels without sufficient bullets to fire, fuel to move, or food to fill their bellies. Nothing could be further from the truth. U.S. forces in Afghanistan appear to be as well supplied as their counterparts in Iraq. Certainly there is no dearth of fresh eggs, cakes, ice cream, and other chow in the dining facilities we visited. The cappuccino is still flowing at numerous Green Beans coffee houses. At the main base in Kandahar, troops can eat at Pizza Hut, Subway, or the Canadian doughnut outlet Tim Horton's while surfing the Internet via Wi-Fi.
It turns out that the materiel flowing through Pakistan, which is the most vulnerable to interdiction, is mostly not critical to the coalition mission. Much of it is lower-priority goods such as building supplies to expand bases and Humvees to equip the Afghan Army. The most important stuff--everything from weapons and bullets to communications gear and MRAPs--is airlifted in. The coalition still gets 30 percent of its fuel through Pakistan, but 70 percent now comes via an alternative route running south from Turkmenistan. Senior commanders are now figuring out how to rejigger lines of communication to cope with potential disruptions. But supply difficulties are hardly a critical impediment to the coalition's future success, except insofar as they divert troops into endless highway patrols and thus fail to secure the most critical population centers.
Contrary to the gloomy impression prevalent back home, commanders on the ground expressed confidence that they would be able to beat back the insurgency with the additional U.S. troops now flowing in. The 38,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan will be joined by 17,000 more by this summer thanks to reinforcements wisely authorized by President Obama, and more may be coming later. One Brigade Combat Team, part of an earlier reinforcement authorized by President Bush, had just arrived in RC-East when we were visiting. With the addition of Polish and French forces-which come without any of the caveats that have hindered the effectiveness of most other NATO contingents--RC-East has seen a considerable boost in troop strength. Just a few weeks ago, Wardak and Logar provinces south of Kabul were garrisoned by only 400 U.S. troops. Now they will have more than 4,000, an entire brigade, and the two existing U.S. brigades in RC-East will be able to shrink their area of operations considerably, thus concentrating more troops in less 'battlespace.'
The transformation will be even more dramatic in RC-South, which General David McKiernan, the ISAF commander, currently describes as a 'stalemate.' An officer in the south told us, 'We've said we're doing counterinsurgency in the south but we've never resourced it.' That is about to change. This region will receive almost all of the 17,000 additional U.S. troops, including a Marine Expeditionary Brigade and an Army Stryker Brigade Combat Team, to reinforce the existing force of just 3,300 Americans. (There are also 20,000 other troops in RC-South from 16 nations, the biggest contingents being 8,200 Brits, 3,500 Canadians, 2,100 Dutch, and 1,050 Australians.) Beyond this ground combat power, there will be a major increase in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets and a doubling of rotary airpower with the arrival of a whole new U.S. Army Combat Aviation Brigade to supplement the one already in Afghanistan.
This represents a significant change in the correlation of forces on the battlefield, and coalition commanders expect that it will allow them to take the fight to the enemy in ways that were impossible before. Their goal is to conduct 'shape, clear, hold, and build' operations in conjunction with Afghan allies. Their expectation is that the insurgents will violently contest their efforts, resulting in an increase in attacks and casualties during the summer fighting season. But coalition commanders are fully confident that before long, perhaps by the fall, insurgents will have taken a licking, forcing them to retreat. As one American officer put it to us, 'An awful lot of bad guys are going to get killed in the next four to six months.' They recall what happened last year in Garmsir District in Helmand Province, when the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in the spring. The 2,500 Marines faced a hard fight for a month, but gradually they drove out the enemy, allowing bazaars to reopen, shuras to be conducted, and development assistance to flow.
As coalition troops make progress this summer in RC-South, focusing in particular in Helmand, Kandahar, and Zabul provinces, there is a danger that they may wind up pushing some of the insurgents farther west into Nimroz, Farah, and Herat provinces, where there are currently very few coalition troops. We traveled across Farah province and discovered a vast, ungoverned desert that just happens to be on the border with Iran. Published reports suggest that Iran's Quds Force is providing training and supplies to some of the insurgents inside Afghanistan. To avoid the risk that upcoming operations will destabilize western Afghanistan, it is imperative to put more U.S. troops into those areas as well, something that probably cannot be done before 2010. Even if 2 or 3 American brigades are dispatched to RC-West to go with the 7 likely to be in Afghanistan by the end of the year (2 of them on a training mission), that will still result in only 9 or 10 brigade combat teams (45,000 to 55,00 troops, plus enablers) in the country, fewer than half the 22 in Iraq at the height of the surge.
It is not, of course, anyone's intention that foreign forces carry the bulk of the fight in Afghanistan indefinitely. And they won't have to. The Afghan National Army has already established itself as the most trusted indigenous institution in the entire country. This ethnically balanced force has performed capably and bravely in battles too numerous to count. It has taken heavy losses, but it has not suffered heavy desertions. 'The enemy cannot fight us face to face,' Brigadier General Sher Mohammad Zazai, commander of the ANA's 205th Corps based in Kandahar, told us proudly.
The problem is that the ANA is still far too small, numbering only 80,000 soldiers. The Afghan National Police, which is less effective and more corrupt, has another 70,000 personnel. That's 150,000 security personnel for a country of 30 million. By way of comparison, Iraq, which has a smaller population, has more than 500,000 men in its army and police forces. The current plan to expand the ANA--it is supposed to reach 134,000 men by the end of 2011--is completely inadequate to the size of the challenge. Since the government of Afghanistan lacks the money and resources to do the job itself, the United States and its allies will have to fund and support a much larger (and, if possible, much faster) expansion of the Afghan National Security Forces. We should immediately commit to the goal of a 250,000-strong ANA. Afghan troops also need better equipment--everything from armored vehicles and helicopters to night-vision devices--and they need it as soon as possible.
U.S. commanders plan to meet the needs of the growing Afghan forces by sending an entire brigade of the 82nd Airborne to Afghanistan to focus on the training mission. The tentative plan is to break up this force into embedded training teams. Trainers we spoke with, although desperate for reinforcements, expressed grave reservations about this scheme. The problem is that there are not enough senior officers and noncommissioned officers in a regular brigade to provide seasoned mentors for Afghan military leaders who have been fighting for decades. A veteran Afghan colonel is not likely to pay much heed to the pronouncements of a fresh-faced American captain who has never commanded a unit in battle. This is a society that values gray hair, and the U.S. armed forces will have to dig deep to provide the senior mentors necessary. This will be a painful process, but it will pay major dividends: It is much cheaper (in both dollars and lives) to stand up Afghan forces than to send more American combat troops into harm's way.
Since it will take years to create larger, more effective security forces, coalition officials are understandably looking for short cuts. Much hope is invested in a new program to create an Afghan Public Protection Force. Starting with a trial program in Wardak Province, the idea is to ask local leaders to select young men who will receive a few weeks of training and then will be sent back to their communities to act as a police auxiliary, protecting villages against insurgents. American officials stress that this is not meant to be a new tribal militia of the kind that has plagued Afghanistan in the past. The new force, they say, will be fully accountable to the interior ministry and to local police chiefs. If successful, the Afghan Public Protection Force could fill an important need--but that's a big if, since similar programs have foundered in the past.
No one claims that force alone can defeat the insurgents (General Petraeus recently told Time magazine that 'you cannot kill your way out of an insurgency'), but clearly a greater level of security in the east and south is essential for progress on political, social, or economic development. In that regard one of the biggest problems cited by Afghans is the corruption of their own government. The symbol of this problem is Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, who is the head of the Kandahar Provincial Council and the most powerful man in this crucial southern province. Numerous reports link him to the drug trade, although no definitive evidence has ever been made public and he has denied the charges. Nevertheless there is a widespread impression that the president's brother is involved in narco-trafficking and that the president is running protection for him. Numerous other, lower-profile government officials (including a number of governors) are said to be connected with the illicit narcotics trade, which is Afghanistan's leading industry.
The drug business, centered in the southern provinces (Helmand is the biggest producer, but Farah is catching up), produces 90 percent of the world's opium, worth an estimated $4 billion a year. Of that total, the United Nations estimates $500 million goes into the hands of the insurgents, who provide protection for the narco-traffickers and collect taxes from poppy farmers. That makes the drug trade a major concern for the coalition. Yet NATO's mandate does not allow coalition troops to target the drug lords directly. That is a job reserved for Afghanistan's counternarcotics forces, which are advised by DynCorp contractors paid by the U.S. State Department, and which work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other law-enforcement agencies. But ISAF forces are starting to get into the anti-drug fight because the poppy-eradication forces are protected by Afghan Army troops who have with them embedded American advisers. When these forces are attacked on anti-drug missions, they can call in coalition support including quick-reaction forces, medevac, and airstrikes.
It makes sense for ISAF troops to take on the corrosive drug trade, which funds the insurgency and undermines governmental legitimacy, but doing it through this backdoor route carries a heavy cost in inefficiency. As things now stand, counter-drug efforts are poorly integrated with a larger counterinsurgency strategy in the south.
Developing such a strategy has been, to put it mildly, challenging given the competing demands of 41 countries that are represented in ISAF. Few of them will even admit that they are fighting a 'war,' a word that is not used in NATO's plans. Some of the foreign contingents--notably the British, Australians, Canadians, and French--are willing to fight, take risks, and suffer losses, but many others refuse to leave their bases. Even those troops who are willing to engage in combat are not well integrated with the overall effort. The British and Canadians, for example, operate in national task forces in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, respectively, and like other coalition units they have to check with their home governments before they can undertake certain missions.
Trying to bring some coherence to this unwieldy coalition is General McKiernan, an American four-star who is commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan as well as ISAF. (Almost all American forces are now under ISAF authority, the notable exceptions being a small number of Special Operations Forces and a larger number of trainers embedded with Afghan Army and police forces.)
McKiernan's task is made considerably more difficult by the polyglot nature of ISAF's headquarters in Kabul and Kandahar, which are designed to maximize coalition representation rather than military effectiveness. In the U.S. military, headquarters staff will train together for a year before deploying into a combat zone. In ISAF, headquarters staffs from many different nations assemble only a few weeks before heading to Afghanistan. Making the problem worse, while most Americans stay in Afghanistan for at least a year, most other NATO soldiers are on four- to six-month rotations, making it almost impossible to achieve any coherence or continuity. Even NATO officers privately admit that the resulting arrangement is, as one of them put it, 'partially dysfunctional.' Their American counterparts are more scathing. 'You couldn't pay someone to come up with a more screwed-up structure than we have here,' one colonel in Kabul told us. Yet as long as the top concern is to keep the coalition together, making significant changes involves a diplomatic nightmare.
The essential problem is that in Afghanistan there is nothing resembling the smooth-functioning arrangements that were in place in Iraq by 2007, with Multi-national Forces-Iraq under Petraeus overseeing the strategic framework, Multi-National Corps-Iraq under Lieutenant General Ray Odierno running day to day operations, and both in turn cooperating closely with the U.S. embassy led by Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who had control of most civilian development efforts. There is no Odierno equivalent in Afghanistan since there is no corps headquarters. McKiernan has to act as both Petraeus and Odierno, while also dealing with tasks neither man faced in herding 41 coalition countries and a multitude of international organizations.
Some possible improvements in these schizophrenic command and control arrangements have been discussed, including creating a new corps headquarters in Kabul and an American division headquarters in RC-South. (There is already an American division headquarters in RC-East.) The problem is that it would be diplomatically difficult to make a corps headquarters or a division headquarters a purely American affair, and if it were another ISAF affair, it would likely prove more hindrance than help. As a result General McKiernan is implementing some clever work-arounds. To boost the effectiveness of ISAF, he has increased the number of American officers on its staff and created an entirely new command, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, whose job is, in part, to bolster the ISAF staff. As for the south, he has asked the British military, which is due to take command of the region in the fall, to send an existing division headquarters that has trained together for a full year rather than the usual coalition pick-up team.
Only time will tell whether these patches can fix the deep difficulties in ISAF's command structure. But at some point the United States will have to decide what price it is willing to pay for keeping all of the ISAF contributors happy, most of whom send contingents so small or so heavily limited by caveats that they contribute little or nothing to the success of the mission. A smaller coalition could actually be more effective. Thus the United States should not be afraid to make decisions that might lead some of the more faint-hearted contributors to pull out.
One of the top areas that needs to be addressed is the inability of ISAF forces under their NATO mandate to hold prisoners for more than 96 hours. This is driven by distaste among the Europeans and Canadians for getting involved in detention operations with their whiff of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. But the result is that it is self-defeatingly difficult to take enemy fighters off the battlefield. Detainees turned over to Afghan forces are liable to be released because the Afghan legal system has scant ability to process or hold insurgents. Those released include 37 of 41 detainees returned to Afghanistan from Guantánamo. Many of them are believed to have returned to fighting coalition forces. This 'catch and release' pattern not only undermines the morale of coalition and Afghan forces but also jeopardizes the willingness of villagers to cooperate with the coalition, because they know that terrorists they turn in could be back to wreak vengeance within weeks. 'We catch IED facilitators and release them,' one American officer in RC-South told us. 'We hope and pray they don't come back to hit our guys.'
The small number of U.S. forces still outside the NATO mandate do have the right to take prisoners, but they are holding only 620 detainees at the Theater Internment Facility located at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. Another 350 suspected insurgents are housed at the Afghan National Detention Facility, a wing at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison that has been built and supervised by American personnel but is operated by Afghans. By way of comparison, at the height of the surge in Iraq, U.S. forces were detaining 24,000 people. And no one suggests that Afghanistan's insurgents are 24 times fewer than Iraq's. Although counting the enemy is an inexact science in any counterinsurgency, the estimates we heard suggest that there are at least as many enemy fighters in Afghanistan as in Iraq. Some will be killed and others may be co-opted, but it will be hard to pacify the country until more of these terrorists are locked up.
For the long term, that will require putting more efforts into bolstering the rule of law in Afghanistan-building prisons and courts and training judges, lawyers, and prison guards. That is something that has not received nearly the priority it deserved, and it has created an opening for the Taliban who operate sharia courts to settle disputes that ought to be settled by tribal elders or government courts. But even with more resources being poured into this area, it will take years to build sufficient judicial capacity. In the meantime, defeating the insurgency will require the United States to expand its own detention facilities. (The Bagram facility is already being renovated to handle 1,200 prisoners by the fall, but there is room there to build cells for as many as 3,000 more.) Just as important, it will require the United States to push its allies to allow ISAF forces to detain terrorism suspects. Even if our allies balk at this (as most surely will), U.S. commanders should give U.S. troops wider detention authority than they currently enjoy under their NATO mandate.
Even under the best of circumstances, the coalition will face a long, difficult fight in Afghanistan. But it is hardly a mission impossible. It is not even as difficult as the war in Iraq, where the insurgents were better organized and more deadly. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that bringing a measure of stability to Afghanistan will require considerable expenditure of blood and treasure over a number of years. Is it worth it?
Those who answer in the negative point out that Afghanistan no longer hosts substantial concentrations of al Qaeda. They argue that it is these international terrorists who should be of concern to the United States and that we shouldn't waste our resources fighting the Taliban and assorted other local malefactors. It is true that today there are more al Qaeda fighters, to say nothing of leaders, in Pakistan than in Afghanistan. But the most effective steps we can take to target them, using Predators and other assets, are made possible by the coalition troop presence in Afghanistan. If coalition forces pull out of Afghanistan or substantially reduce their presence, the already limited willingness of the government of Pakistan to cooperate with the United States will evaporate. Pakistan will see that the Taliban are heading toward victory and will cut deals with them-something that is already happening but will accelerate if U.S. forces are seen as being on the way out.
A victory for the insurgents in Afghanistan would have baleful consequences on many levels. It would, first of all, be a major morale-boost to the terrorists and a devastating blow to American prestige and credibility. The mujahedeen victory over the Red Army led to the rise of al Qaeda and hastened the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that al Qaeda would trumpet an insurgent victory in Afghanistan today as the defeat of another superpower by the jihadists. An insurgent victory would also surely lead to the establishment of major terrorist base camps in Afghanistan of the kind that existed prior to September 11, 2001. Finally, an insurgent victory in Afghanistan would significantly undermine the government in Pakistan. Many of the groups fighting in the Pashtun belt of Afghanistan and Pakistan are as eager to topple the government in Islamabad as the one in Kabul, and victory on one side of the border would accelerate their efforts on the other side. Conversely, if the coalition could stabilize Afghanistan, that would provide a major boost to the government of Pakistan in its efforts to police its frontier districts.
Those who say that we cannot succeed in Afghanistan without fixing Pakistan have it backwards. We cannot begin to improve the situation in Pakistan without improving Afghanistan, and it is possible to do that no matter what happens in Pakistan because, for all the cross-border support it receives, the Afghan insurgency remains largely home-grown.
While the United States is in Afghanistan to battle terrorism, it cannot define its mission in narrow 'counter-terrorism' terms. That is a term of art within the military for commando strikes carried out by Special Operations and CIA forces backed by precision airpower. Such strikes have to be an integral part of the American war effort, but they cannot be its sum total. We have been pursuing such actions for years in Afghanistan without significantly weakening the insurgency. As one senior American officer told us, 'I thought we could decapitate the insurgency. I was wrong. We've gone through 22 HVTs [high value targets] in this province, but they nominate someone new to take over leadership very fast. The duration of our success is no more than three to four weeks before the insurgents have a new leader, and often that person is younger and more brutal. Even if someone killed Baitullah Mehsud [head of the Pakistan Taliban], someone else will simply take over.'
Experience in Iraq showed that the only effective way to deny terrorists sanctuary is to pursue a full-spectrum counterinsurgency strategy that establishes governmental control of contested areas. That means putting coalition and local security forces into villages where they can gain the trust of the locals and thereby secure the intelligence needed to root out terrorists. Otherwise, if coalition forces are only a fleeting presence, locals will never rat out the terrorists for fear of retribution. The security 'line of operations' has to be coupled with efforts to promote better governance and economic and social development.
Those who claim that this is a fool's errand because Afghanistan has never had any effective governance only reveal their own ignorance of that country's long and proud history. For all its tribalism and internecine warfare, Afghanistan has been an independent country since the 18th century, with such strong monarchs as Dost Mohammad, who drove out a British incursion in 1842 and ruled for 33 years. Under King Mohammad Zahir Shah, who ruled from 1933 to 1973, Afghanistan made considerable economic and political progress, including the adoption of a fairly democratic written constitution. It was relatively peaceful and stable before a Marxist coup in 1978 set off a long period of war and turmoil whose most consequential events were the Soviet invasion in 1979, the Soviets' departure in 1989, and the rise of the Taliban starting in 1994.
In seeking to repair Afghanistan's tattered social fabric, the coalition will have to foster the growth of representative government, which is hardly an alien import but rather comports neatly with Afghanistan's long tradition of tribal councils that rely on the consent of the community. That doesn't mean that the coalition should foster a rigidly centralized regime. In fact, a bit more decentralization could be a spur to progress. In particular, it is important to change the constitution to allow governors to be elected rather than appointed by the president in order to make them more accountable to those they are supposed to serve.
But the West would be making a big mistake if it were to give up on supporting the governmental system that it helped to midwife in 2002. That doesn't necessarily mean supporting Hamid Karzai--but neither does it mean pushing him out. Officials in the Obama administration, from Vice President Biden on down, have been publicly trashing the president of Afghanistan without grooming a viable alternative. This will only make our task more difficult if Karzai is reelected in the presidential election scheduled to be held in August. It is important to respect the wishes of the Afghan people, as expressed at the ballot box, while working to bolster the effectiveness of their anemic governmental institutions.
The greatest asset that the United States and its allies have in the battle for Afghanistan's future is the people of Afghanistan. In a recent poll conducted by ABC, the BBC, and ARD, only 4 percent of Afghans expressed a desire to be ruled by the Taliban. Sunni and Shiite insurgents in Iraq enjoyed far higher levels of popular support in their respective communities at the height of the violence. For all their ferocity and cunning, the insurgents in Afghanistan do not offer a viable alternative that can win widespread acceptance. They can only take power if coalition forces give up the fight. To do so would hand Islamist terrorists their most significant-indeed, almost their only-victory since 9/11. It is fully in the power of coalition forces to prevent that dire outcome, but only if they have the popular support back home to finish what we started in 2001.
Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805 (forthcoming). He is grateful to Daniel Barnard for assistance with this article. Max Boot is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Kimberly Kagan is the president of the Institute for the Study of War and the author of The Surge: A Military History.


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Are you on LinkedIn? Did you setup an account there years ago but rarely leverage your contacts? Perhaps you're a LinkedIn regular, but you want to take your your efforts to the next level?
This article will reveal five ways you can build meaningful relationships on LinkedIn that will lead to business opportunities.
Is LinkedIn Not Working For You?
Up to this point, you've probably focused on building up your connections to grow your online influence and visibility. However, the greater challenge lies in actually going deeper with those connections that you've made online. If you're simply connected to someone but have no further dialogue, what have you really accomplished?


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Lorenzo storms to win at San Marino Grand Prix as rival Pedrosa crashes out
17:00 GMT, 16 September 2012
Jorge Lorenzo's world championship hopes enjoyed a huge boost as he claimed victory at Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix at Misano while nearest challenger Dani Pedrosa crashed out.
Yamaha rider Lorenzo enjoyed an unflustered run to the flag after the Repsol Honda of Pedrosa was involved in a collision with Hector Barbera in the opening lap.
Lorenzo now leads the way in the championship by 38 points from Pedrosa with five races remaining.
Winner: Yamaha rider jorge Lorenzo gave his world championship bid a boost with a win in San Marino
Pedrosa qualified fastest on Saturday but was unable to line up on pole after he suffered a locked wheel on the grid before the start, which had already been delayed by five minutes after Karel Abraham stalled his Ducati.
As the rest of the field streamed away for the formation lap Pedrosa was left behind, and although his problem was eventually fixed, he was forced to start from the back.
And Pedrosa's afternoon was over just a few corners later, the Pramac Ducati of Barbera clipping his rear wheel on entry to a left-hander and ending the race of both.
Barbera took full responsibility for the crash and apologised to his fellow Spaniard.
'I tried to slow the bike down, but I lost grip on the front,' said Barbera.
'I'm very disappointed, even more so because I took out Dani in the process and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen.
'It was my fault that he crashed out and I apologise profusely to him for that.'
Not today: Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the race
Congratulations: Pedrosa (right) congratulates the winner Lorenzo after the race
Pedrosa's catalogue of woe cleared the way for Lorenzo to cruise to a commanding victory by five seconds from Ducati's Valentino Rossi, enjoying his best ever result for the Italian team at his home race.
Lorenzo admitted he would have had a much harder afternoon but for Pedrosa's misfortune.
'To be honest we have been really lucky today, because without the problem with the lights at the start Dani wouldn't crash,' Lorenzo said.
'It was bad luck for him but an important win for us in championship.'
Third place went to Gresini Honda's Alvaro Bautista by just 0.003 seconds from Tech 3 Yamaha's Andrea Dovizioso after the Spaniard got better drive out of the final turn.
Bautista's first ever podium came on the weekend that MotoGP remembered Marco Simoncelli at a circuit renamed in the Italian's honour following his death in an accident at Sepang at the end of last season.
Emotional: Honda rider Alvaro Bautista earned his first podium place in San Marino
Simoncelli had been due to ride Bautista's bike in the 2012 season.
'I am emotional for sure,' said Bautista. 'My first ever podium finish is very special. I am so happy. This is in memory of Marco.
'This is a very special weekend for me and the team because our memories of Marco are so strong coming here to the circuit named in his honour.'
Ben Spies was fifth for Yamaha, ahead of Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati).
MotoGP debutant Jonathan Rea came home eighth in his first race as replacement for the injured Casey Stoner at Honda, while fellow Briton Cal Crutchlow crashed out of fifth place on lap three.


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Movie Description(Click Here To Hide)
Twilight is the vampire film that cashed in big on the science fiction trend in Hollywood. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz all became household names as a result of this 2008 fantasy film. Stephenie Meyers is the author of the popular novels from which the movies are based. In this installment, a young girl named Bella (Stewart) is sent to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzling Edward Cullen (Pattinson), whose unlike any boy she's ever met. The two are swept up in a passionate romance, though it's quickly threatened when the Cullens' mortal vampire enemies come to Forks looking for Bella.
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Leonardo DiCaprio & Carey Mulligan: 'Great Gatsby' Posters & New Trailer!
Check out these just released character posters of Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan for their new film The Great Gatsby!
Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, and Isla Fisher are all featured on their own posters as well.
Here's the film's synopsis: Nick Carraway (Maguire), a Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby (DiCaprio). He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
The Great Gatsby hits theaters on May 10, 2013. Make sure to check out the new trailer for the film below!
New "Great Gatsby" Trailer


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Jaime Hernandez: The 1874 Indian Cent is somewhat of a scarcer issue if compared to most of the other dates in the series. But, yet not a key date. In circulated grades it is easily available and carries a small premium over the type coins in the series. In Uncirculated grades it becomes scarcer with about 2,000 in existence, in all Uncirculated grades combined.
© 1999-2018 Collectors Universe NASDAQ: CLCT


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Gorgeous GIFs of Red Hot Gingers
We've got pale skin, lots of freckles, massive cans and red hot curves in this collection of GIFs featuring gorgeous gingers.
These redheaded ladies may need to shield themselves from the sun this summer, but we're glad they're still showing off as much skin as they can. They might have to grab suntan lotion every time they head outside, but their curves will leave you reaching for a different kind. There's just something about a freckled, busty redhead that gets to us every single time.
Whether it's the gorgeous Alexandra Breckenridge or the red hot Christina Hendricks, the temperature is rising in this set of GIFs starring sexy gingers.