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Helping Puli Rescue – Where to Start
Puli owners have read about puppy mills and Pulis being offered for auction. Some have asked, What can I do to help? The following suggestions were written by PCA member Barbe Pessina, former President of PCA and active Rescue volunteer:
- Volunteer to foster a rescue dog until a permanent placement can be found. It is important to remember that many times these rescue dogs are "special needs animals" and because of their unique situation will require attention, patience, and most importantly – love.
- Awareness is a good beginning. Encourage others to spread the word about indiscriminate breeding, auctions and puppy mills and that this stuff isn't only happening to other, more common breeds. If YOU didn't know about dog auctions, how many others don't, either? Encourage vigilance about what's happening in your own community. Scanning classified ads for Pulik for sale or stud, keeping an eye open at pet stores and heightened sensitivity to when someone we know wants to breed a Puli for all the wrong reasons;
- Cash donations to PCA Rescue Trust. If our coffers are bulging at the seams, we can afford more advertising, and, in the right situation, save more dogs.
- Donate a creative craft/design item to be used as a raffle item to help raise money for Puli Rescue. Volunteer to run a raffle or auction in conjunction with the Puli National Specialty.
- Now that we have a separate Rescue organization, we need volunteers to help.


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Portland High School's team placed fifth at the Maine Academic Decathlon State Meet on Saturday, March 2.
"We had a full team and posted our highest team score in many years," said social studies teacher Sally Reagan. "Please congratulate all of our team members, as they persevered through tests, speeches and interviews throughout the 10-hour day."
There also were three individual medal winners, she said. "Meg Baltes had our team high score and a GOLD medal for the honors division in the Interview category," Reagan said. "Ella Reagan earned a bronze medal in the honors division in the Essay category. Oliver Smith earned a silver medal in the scholastic division in the Essay category."
The following students represented PHS at the meet: Meg Baltes; Tahj Hebert; Ella Reagan; Henry Mandeville; Isabella Manecchia; Oliver Smith; Mackenzie Bryant; Alexander Hernandez; Mireille Tona; Brayden Young; and Hunter Stokes.
Reagan also extended "a special thanks to [teachers] Mike Quinn and Jayne Sawtelle for cheering us on during the Super Quiz!"

subset: commoncrawl


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Vessels and a helicopter take part in the Trident Juncture 2018 exercise at a waterfront site near Trondheim, Norway, Oct. 30, 2018. NATO on Tuesday showcased its air, sea and land forces in a high-profile demonstration as part of its biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War in Norway amid escalating tension with Russia. (Photo: Xinhua)
NATO on Tuesday showcased its air, sea and land forces in a high-profile demonstration as part of its biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War in Norway amid escalating tension with Russia.
The hour-long joint demonstration with various military scenarios, held at a waterfront site near Trondheim in central Norway, was a show of forces before NATO dignitaries, foreign observers and the international press.
"We are facing the most challenging security environment in a generation. And NATO has responded with the biggest adaptation of our collective defence in a generation," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint press conference with Norway's Minister of Defence Frank Bakke-Jensen before the demonstration.
The Trident Juncture 2018 exercise, which started on Oct. 25 and runs through Nov. 7, involves around 50,000 participants from all 29 NATO members and its partners Sweden and Finland, with about 250 aircraft, 65 vessels and up to 10,000 vehicles.
Russia has complained that the levels of military activities conducted by NATO near Russian borders have been higher than ever since the Cold War.
Stoltenberg said NATO was notified last week that Russia plans to test missiles this week in the international waters of the North Atlantic west of Norway, in the vicinity of where NATO is carrying out the massive exercise.
"I expect Russia to behave in a professional way and it will not change the plans of our exercise," Stoltenberg said.
According to Norway's local media, the country's civil airport operator Avinor has been informed by Russian aviation authorities of the missile tests that will take place on Nov. 1-3.
Julie Wilhelmsen, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, thought that the exercise "fits into a pattern of escalating tension between Russia and NATO in Europe following the crises in Ukraine in 2014."
"There has been military posturing, increasing numbers of military exercises and movement of troops and military installations closer to the border of the other party," she said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said last week that the NATO drills in Northern Europe are obviously anti-Russian and they will lead to a deterioration of the military and political situation in the region.
"Russia does not seem to believe that NATO's intentions are defensive and interprets the increasing activity in Norway as a threat to its core military assets in the North," Wilhelmsen said, citing examples of the stationing on a rotational basis of U.S. Marines in Norway and the ongoing exercise.
She believed that Russia is not likely to "step back" in the face of an increasing U.S. military presence closer to its border and the mood in Moscow is such that it will fight back to secure what it deems to be core security interests.
As relations between Russia and the West are at a new low, there is a lot of talk of a new Cold War between the two sides, comparing the current escalating tension to the geopolitical rivalry between the Soviet Union and the West from 1947 to 1991.
Wilhelmsen shared the concerns and thought the new tension is shaping relations in Northern Europe.
"Following the crises in Ukraine most people thought that the North, having been a unique and collaborative space for many years, would not be affected by the rising tension between NATO and Russia in any significant way," Wilhelmsen said.
"Today, unfortunately, I think we have to say that what some people call the New Cold War is shaping relations in Northern Europe in a fundamental way," she said.
The NATO chief, however, wanted to downplay the tension between Russia and the West.
"We are not in a Cold War situation, but we are exercising collective defence," Stoltenberg said at the press conference. "There are big differences between now and the Cold War."
"During the Cold War, you had two military blocs confronting each other, the Warsaw Pact and NATO. You had hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops on both sides, along the east/west border in Europe," he said. "And you had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons in Europe."
"So, that was a very different situation compared to what we have today. What we see today is a more unpredictable situation, where it's harder to foresee exactly what will happen and there is less agreement on what are the rules of the game," Stoltenberg said.


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100 Magnificent Sites for Chefs by CulinaryPrograms.net, a site devoted to leveraging the Internet to chefs-in-training. This is what they have to say about All Things Bread:
Best-selling author William Alexander shares his passion for the baked
loaf at this blog. His cookbook, 52 Loaves, is all about baking the
perfect loaf of bread, and his blog takes that perfection even further.
In other words, they liked the pretzel dog recipe. Thanks to the kind folks at Culinary Programs for their recognition and check out the other sites, but not if it means you're going to read those blogs instead of mine.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
All Things Bread named to top food blogs
Posted by William Alexander at 2:21 PM
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Wonder Woman: With Her Star Presence, Gal Gadot Makes a Superhero Film Something More
If it's possible to describe a superhero film as likable, Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot is it
The face of Wonder Woman is just like the face of Gal Gadot, the Israeli actor who plays the superhero in director Patty Jenkins' new film. The question isn't whether Gadot plays the role well. The role of Amazonian Princess Diana of Themyscira, who becomes Diana Prince and then Wonder Woman, requires little more than expressing several degrees of emotion – from determination to fury and from softness to melancholy.
- First Reviews of Wonder Woman Are In
- Gal Gadot Charms Jimmy Fallon With Her Small-town Israeli Magic
- Wonder Woman Gal Gadot Makes Conan Sweat to Become a Superhero
It demands presence, which Gadot has in spades, and it's a presence that is unique. The creatives who chose her to play Wonder Woman – in her first Hollywood starring role – were right, because Gadot, beyond her beauty, has that elusive and even mysterious quality that doesn't always accompany male or female beauty: a photogenic face.
When Gadot appears on the screen – and she appears in every scene of the film – the viewers' gaze is drawn to her. And that has always been a condition for the creation of a star.
In this film, at least, Gadot has star presence. That presence conveys a measure of pleasantness, even sweetness (if I may use that somewhat problematic word). These also trickle into the film, which in many ways is the most moderate and least belligerent superhero film we have seen in recent years.
When Diana Prince wears "ordinary" clothes, mostly black, they suit her and are appropriate for the moment in history when the film takes place – toward the end of World War I. They are much more attractive than the trashy and ridiculous superhero costume that artist Harry G. Peter designed in the early 1940s, when the fighting Amazonian princess first entered comic-book culture. (The actual Wonder Woman character was created by U.S. psychologist-writer William Moulton Marston.)
That's a shame, because it's a safe bet that in future films Gadot will be wearing a Wonder Woman costume most of the time. That costume needs psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and experts on female fashion to research and interpret its bizarre symbolism (and let's not forget the drawn sword, with its multiple layers of significance, that she holds in one hand when she wears the costume, and the round shield she uses to protect herself, with its own significance).
Another problem is that maybe I missed something while watching, but I didn't understand how the physical transformation of Diana Prince into a fully costumed Wonder Woman takes place. Superman used to change his clothes in a phone booth; Batman put on his rubber suit by himself or with the help of his loyal servant. But Diana simply changes suddenly. It doesn't really make any difference, and one can enjoy "Wonder Woman" even without – in my case – being familiar with the source of the heroine's transformation. She has supernatural powers, the transformation is a part of them, and that's that.
Jenkins rose to fame in 2003 when she directed "Monster," the true story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos – played by Charlize Theron, who won an best actress Academy Award.
I can't recall any other superhero film being directed by a woman. And maybe because a woman directed "Wonder Woman," it is more moderate and less aggressive than most superhero movies.
Less ostentation and arrogance
Even the action scenes, some of which are effective, are presented with less ostentation and arrogance than most films in the genre. Maybe that's because there's a woman at the center of the action and because the film takes place during World War I, so it doesn't have a futuristic dimension that includes exploding skyscrapers and entire urban districts being wiped out – which we're by now really tired of seeing.
The film is one long exposition, describing the process of Diana's transformation from a girl living with her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), on the Amazonian island that is cut off from the world and controlled by General Antiope (Robin Wright). Why is Diana the only girl on the island, and what were the circumstances of her birth? OK, that doesn't make much difference either to Diana Prince and Wonder Woman, the female war machine.
The change takes place when a plane with an American pilot named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes near the island. Diana, already a young woman, who has never seen a man, rescues him from drowning. And that's how she discovers not only that there are men in the world, but also that in a distant world a terrible war is taking place. Diana believes the "God of War" is responsible for the carnage, and that if only she can find him and destroy him with a special sword, the war – which includes the use of chemicals being developed by the Germans – will end immediately. That's why she joins Steve on his way back to the war and begins to look for the God of War in his human guise, convinced he is on the German side and helping them.
The film lacks the inspiration of several superhero films. Jenkins is not "Batman" director Tim Burton, at his best, nor is she "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan. The film is directed respectably, but no more than that. But that's enough – for one thing, because it doesn't want to thrill us by every possible means. It has a considerable amount of humor, which may not cause you to laugh out loud but sometimes triggers a smile.
If it's possible to describe a superhero film as likeable, this is that film. You can tell its creators designed it mainly for teenagers, in this case boys and girls. That's why it doesn't generally touch on the ideological issues that fans of superhero films enjoy recognizing within the genre. Nor does it have a dark side, which fans of the genre also usually enjoy in such films. It's a simple adventure, and that may be the secret of its anticipated success.
The depiction of the developing relationship between Diana and Steve also helps. Chris Pine is aware of his secondary role due to the very fact that he is a man, and he plays his part with a pleasant degree of humor.
It's not a great film but, given its unique circumstances, it's more than good. Gadot is also good – and that's likely to contribute to the pleasure for those who want to envelop the viewing experience in national Israeli pride.
"Wonder Woman." Director: Patty Jenkins; Screenplay: Allan Heinberg ; Cinematography: Matthew Jensen; Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams; Actors: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner.


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Happy Thanksgiving!
Here are a few things I'm grateful for:
Recovery – 23 years ago I was 4 weeks abstinent (not in recovery) and 1 week away from being coerced into a psych unit because my therapist was convinced I was going to kill myself in the coming weeks. He was right. The patients (not the doctors) in the psych unit told me that my main problem was my alcoholism and that I should go to the meetings in the cafeteria. They were right. After I was released (4 weeks later), I was fortunate that my therapist was humble enough to recognize that his ability to help me was limited and that the long term solution to my problem was outside his office. He encouraged me to keep going to meetings, though he frequently expressed disgust at the smoking at meetings.
Community – I was welcomed into the recovering community in a way I had not been welcomed anywhere for some time. My first time at my first home group, Dan F. insisted that I take his seat (The meeting was too big for the small meeting space and did not have enough seats. This meant that he would have to stand or sit on the floor. He was in his 60s and needed a knee replacement.) Ron S. made sure that I never had to leave my seat for coffee, refilling my cup frequently. John M. told me that he was an atheist and that there was room for him in this program and that there was room for me. Dave H. told me that he had faith that things would get better for me and said, "if you can't believe that things will get better, just believe that I believe things will get better for you." Bill C. who had sponsees stop by my place to invite me to go to meetings with them. Today, my home group is a wonderful group of people who are patient, kind and generous with newcomers and people who struggle to find stable recovery. We support each other through blessings and trials.
Family – My parents were supportive and patient through the ups and downs of early recovery. (I still cringe when I think of how self-absorbed and thoughtless I could be.) Today, I have very good relationships with them and I'm very grateful for their continued support. I'm grateful for a wife who supported me in pursuing this vocation when I was on the fence about a MSW or law school. I'm grateful for two wonderful kids who expose me to new things every day and whose creativity, joy, kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness and energy challenge me to cultivate more of those traits in myself. When I got sober, I didn't want a family and, now, I can't imagine life without them.
Work – I'm grateful to work in a place that understands and respects recovery. We accept addicts for who they are and who they can become. In return, we get to play a small part in miraculous transformations of people who were once hopeless into healed, whole people who are fully engaged in their families and their communities–often helping others stumble through the same transformation.
Bill White did a good job summing up this experience in the context of the history of addiction treatment: "So what does this history tell us about how to conduct one's life in this most unusual of professions? I think the lessons from those who have gone before us are very simple ones. Respect the struggles of those who have delivered the field into your hands. Respect yourself and your limits. Respect the addicts and family members who seek your help. Respect (with hopeful but healthy skepticism) the emerging addiction science. And respect the power of forces you cannot fully understand to be present in the treatment process. Above all, recognize that what addiction professionals have done for more than a century and a half is to create a setting and an opening in which the addicted can transform their identity and redefine every relationship in their lives, including their relationship with alcohol and other drugs. What we are professionally responsible for is creating a milieu of opportunity, choice and hope. What happens with that opportunity is up to the addict and his or her god. We can own neither the addiction nor the recovery, only the clarity of the presented choice, the best clinical technology we can muster, and our faith in the potential for human rebirth."
Beyond the work we do together, I'm also very grateful to work with such a great group of fun, supportive, nice and passionate people. I enjoy time off work, but I miss seeing the people I work with when I'm away.
I recently read the following and thought how glad I am to work with so many people share my gratitude for being part of something bigger than ourselves that really makes a difference in the lives of addicts, their families and the larger community.
Even though many of us have numerous occasions to feel grateful in both our personal and professional lives, we often miss out on opportunities to express gratitude, especially at work. A recent survey of 2,000 Americans released earlier this year by the John Templeton Foundation found that people are less likely to feel or express gratitude at work than anyplace else. We are not even thankful for our jobs, which tend to rank dead last when asked to list the things we're grateful for in our lives.
Gratitude itself – On last thing. I'm grateful that Rob M. instructed me to practice gratitude on a daily basis. It was so unnatural and difficult for me. It also challenged my worldview that was colored with self-pity and pessimism about human nature and the human condition. The gratitude he taught me has kept me humble (most of the time) and free from (extreme) bouts of self-pity.
Related articles
- Six Habits of Highly Grateful People (blogs.berkeley.edu)


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Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg: Je T'aime… Moi, Non Plus
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg
Je T'aime… Moi, Non Plus
(Light In the Attic Records)
Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus, from Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg opens with the title track which is quite possibly, the dirtiest, but most popular European tune of the late '60s, and a song that composer/singer/filmmaker/agent provocateur Serge Gainsbourg first wrote for and recorded with Brigitte Bardot.
Featuring Gainsbourg's weird talk-singing vocals, and his then-girlfriend, Jane Birkin's, aspirated chirps and breathing, we are led from the title track into "L'Anamour," a funky, electric guitar tune. "Orang-Outang" is a complete throwaway, despite a great wah-wah'd guitar, but "18-39" fares better where Birkin's vocals actually sound okay fronting plunky piano and wood block percussion. "69 Année Erotique" is the best mix of the lovers, and "Elisa" is an old-fashioned orchestral chanson, that sees Gainsbourg at his sexiest. "Le Canari est sur le Balcon" makes the best use of Birkin's weak falsetto and "Manon" features Gainsbourg singing tragically over horns and strings.
Gainsbourg's new version of "Les Sucettes" is featured on the album as well. This song was originally recorded by 18-year-old France Gall, who claimed she had no idea of the true "oral" subject matter of this song about a girl who likes aniseed-flavored lollipops. Although this originally is quite good, Gainsbourg's versions fairs just as well.
Arthur Greenslade should be noted for the arrangements on Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg. This re-release from Light In The Attic Records includes brand new linear notes, French/English lyrics and an interview with Jane Birkin.


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In my vision of the night, I saw a flourishing tree, fat and fresh, rounded and green with no visible scar. It has many fruits hanging in it, ripe and fresh, looking good and inviting. Under this tree, many people have made themselves a befitting spot for their enterprise. . .most of which have to do with looks and appearances.
Then I sought to have some of its fruits, I reached for them with a sickle…but it just was not enough. So, since the fruits were mostly ripe, I resolved to shaking the tree to release the fruits…Alas, the branch came off the stem like a clean cut. The entire foliage of the tree suddenly starts to wither and all the enterprise under it scattered with everyone running helter skelter; to later find themselves new spots, albeit under the sun, with no shade.
Then I woke up!
Indeed there are many already cut 'trees' still showing visible fruitfulness. Events of the coming days would shake many of them out of feigned flourishing. The increased tempo in demand for useful fruits would shake then our of their place and they will irreversibly wither.
The days ahead are going to be eventful. Let those who think they stand take heed, lest they fall. Appearance has never been more deceptive than in this season, do not be caught merchandising under the shade of cut trees…their fall may be your end.
Let those who have ears pay attention and hear,
Let those who have eyes peeled their eyes and see,
Let those whose hearts are still tuned to God stand in the place of prayers,
A desertification is on the horizon…
The fall of these trees are not going to be victories altogether…
The lands would be exposed to dryness and famine by it.
Pray earnestly!
Before praying, watch carefully!
The times are changing and seasons are rolling into new ones.
Search for the LORD, now that He may be found.


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Advanced Life Support
The Advanced Life Support catalog from Anatomy Warehouse features the biggest selection of medical manikins and simulators, including advanced airway, advanced IV arm, IV hand, arterial stick arm, basic infant crisis manikins, and many more high quality anatomical trainers. The manikins are realistically sized and have great detail. These manikins are ideal for providing real life learning experience for students and anyone in the medical industry. Anatomy Warehouse offers the best service and prices to its customers.


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Looking For Us Rayna? Here's Where We'll Be.
Whether you're in it for Rayna's flawless hair, Juliette's no cares attitude, or just to look at Deacon, I think we can agree we're glad Nashville is back for another season. Oh, there's some pretty good music too. If you tune in week after week and are charmed by the eccentricities of their little city, here are a few places where Nashville meets New York.
Carla Hall's Southern Kitchen (115 Columbus St., Brooklyn)
The star dish here: Nashville Hot Chicken. With heat levels ranging from a mild sweet heat to "BOOMSHAKALAKA", there's something for everybody. (Interview with Chef Carla Hall Here)
Printers Alley (215 W. 40th St.)Named for the famous alley in Nashville that runs between Third to Fourth Avenues between Union St. and Commerce St., this Midtown honky tonk knows how to get down southern style. Happy Hour specials gets the party started early with $20 and $8 drinks. Our favorite is the FIRE IN BREEDEN'S ORCHARD, a mix of Jack Daniel's Fire Whiskey and Angry Orchard Cider.
BUILD Studio (692 Broadway)
Considering Juliette Barnes and Deacon made an appearance, we think it's a pretty cool place to be.
Space Cowboy (234 Mulberry St.)
With one of the best collections of cowboy boots in NYC, this is the place to come if you're looking to channel the Rayna Jaymes casual look.


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Building upon lessons learned from the 1:1 device and digital learning pilot, Future Ready Hawaii has expanded to more than three dozen schools statewide in 2015-16. Checking in with students and teachers at Waiahole Elementary in Windward Oahu, one of the schools that hopes to qualify for the program's "fast track."
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All second- to sixth-graders at Waiahole Elementary recently began using their own school-issued Chromebooks throughout the day as part of a program that develops leaders for the digital age.
The Kaneohe school rolled out the electronic devices and digital learning environment as part of the Future Ready Hawaii program this school year. Unlike common computer labs, where students share the same device, Waiahole pupils keep their own laptops all day.
Waiahole is one of three Windward District schools (Castle High and Sunset Beach Elementary are the others) with 39 other schools Hawaii-wide accepted into digital education and collaboration effort, supported by 1:1 devices. It builds off of lessons learned in the Access Learning pilot launched in School Year 2013-14.
Waiahole invested $15,000 from community fundraising into its long-term plan to prepare students for college, career and community. Learning with laptops, using virtual learning opportunities and techniques gained by teachers in the program's professional trainings, is blended with traditional classroom learning.
"Every day I use Chromebook my brain stretches more and more," said Grace Cronkright, grade 5. "I have never in my life learned this much in a month."
Waiahole students can access online reading and math lessons, and practice exercises through IXL and KidBiz programs. "You get to learn on so many websites, and it gives our brains time to play games," said fifth-grader Taylor Chung.
Principal Alexandra Obra and the teachers can exchange emails with their grade-schoolers, and the kids can also email the student council.
"Each student has a Google account with email and in most classes, they can access their daily schedules through their individual accounts," Obra said. "Their schedules list the materials that they need to gather for the day, assignments they must submit and homework they must do."
"I have never in my life learned this much in a month."
— Grace Cronkright, grade 5
Audits of the Access Learning program showed increased collaboration, engagement and equity among the eight pilot schools, with all teachers, administrators and students having equal access to technology. (Learn more from the presentation to the Joint Education Committees of the state Legislature last February). Feedback sources included student and parent surveys, and teacher-perception data. Students reported that learning was more fun, and teachers felt more organized, with everything in one place and the ability to share information quickly.
"When we do our work, it is easier and faster than using paper and pencil," said Jacob Punivai, grade 4. "It makes it easier for my teacher to teach and the students to learn."
Other benefits include learning about and taking responsibility for digital citizenship – understanding social media, cyberbullying, privacy and Internet safety. Students must score 100 percent on a test about online behavior before receiving laptops.
Future Ready supports families as they transition to high-tech access. There's ongoing parent education plus a family contract that features a "Kid's Pledge" to sign.
"I have no phone or anything at home, so it has been entertaining to learn about a computer," said Hanna Hendricks, grade 5. "I love how advanced it is. It makes my schoolwork easier."
"Students are more excited about learning," Obra said. "They see us taking risks and then they feel motivated to try new things and move outside of their own comfort level."
Next, Obra plans to apply for the program's Fast Track component. If selected, Waiahole will receive one year of free tech support and more professional development for teachers. (Fast Track is available to schools that have received the necessary leadership training, taken the Future Ready Assessment, developed a Future Ready Implementation Plan, and committed to the programmatic and evaluation components of the Future Ready Fast Track Program. Learn more: HIDOE Future Ready Hawaii plan.)
"The biggest change for our students is the realization of these Chromebooks' impact: The opportunities are endless and connecting with the world is virtually effortless," said teacher Pam Alo.
Future Ready Hawaii program
Learn more about HIDOE's plan to expand digital learning opportunities for staff and students.
Jorene Barut
Phone: 808-233-5700 ext. 268
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
View all FAQ's


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Custom VIP / Event Passes
If you're looking for a way to make your VIP's stand out, need to quickly admit people backstage or just give your staff some credentials custom VIP / Event Passes (laminated badges) can help you achieve that professional image you're looking for. Custom VIP / Event Passes are great for any event! Clubs, Concerts, Reunions, Parties, Trade Shows, etc.
Choose from a variety of quantities and add on options, with no minimum order. I also offer quantity discounts based on order total. You can create a package to fit your budget and needs. Passes are printed in full color, choose from single or double side printing. Add a lanyard to your pass or save a little and use your own.
All orders are mailed through USPS, with a variety of shipping options to fit your schedule and budget.
*By placing an order on this site you agree to the "Terms and Conditions".


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Towards the end of last year, God gave me the word "Increase" as my word for the year 2018. I didn't know exactly what this would mean for me or for our family, but I went with it and looked up the definition to gain more clarity.
increase – (verb) become or make greater in size, amount, intensity, or degree; add to, make larger, make bigger
synonyms…. grow, get bigger, get larger, enlarge, expand, swell; rise, climb, escalate, soar, surge, rocket, intensify, strengthen, extend, heighten, stretch, spread, widen, multiply
increase – (noun) an instance of growing or making greater
synonyms… growth, rise, enlargement, expansion, extension, multiplication, elevation, inflation; intensification, amplification, surge
So after reading the definitions of the word and the synonyms, I absolutely wanted this to be my word. I was reminded of the Prayer of Jabez, "Oh that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from hard times so that I will be free from pain."
1 Chronicles 4:10
Jabez wanted to succeed and increase his sphere of influence for God. What is important here is that when we want to reach for goals and accomplishments that we have God on our side. Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." This has been my prayer this year, that I would increase in my trust and faith in what God has for us, and my plans and thoughts would be established that are aligned with His will for us.
This is April, and I've already seen so much Increase in my life for 2018. After losing our baby in December of last year, our response has been worship and trust. We didn't understand. It wasn't our choice, but we accepted what God had us go through.
The most beautiful moment for me was worshipping with my husband in the car the evening of my surgery as we traveled to visit with family. The fact that we chose to worship together, amidst one of the biggest struggles we've ever faced was an incredible thing for us. I can't say that I would have always chosen that response, but I just knew that God had greater plans still. I was thankful that He'd brought me far enough along in my Christian walk that I could just fall into his arms and let Him hold us there.
Since then, I believe that we've leaned in all the more closer to Him this year to see just what He has in store for us. He's led us to make some tough decisions, and we don't know what all they will lead to, but we are trusting Him fully, knowing that He has great things in store for us always, better than we could ever imagine. He has never let us down, and He won't start now.
One of the songs that we sang together in the car on that ride was Captain by Hillsong United. Music always speaks to me, and since that day, it's been one that I've played most often.
"Through waters uncharted my soul will embark
I'll follow Your voice straight into the dark
And if from the course You intend I depart
Speak to the sails of my wandering heart"
"Like the wind You'll guide
Clear the skies before me
And I'll glide this open sea
Like the stars, Your Word
Will align my voyage
And remind me where I've been
And where I am going"
"Lost in the shallows amidst fear and fog
Your truth is the compass
That points me back north
Jesus, my Captain
My soul's trusted Lord
All my allegiance is rightfully Yours"
"Jesus, my Captain
My soul's trusted Lord
All my allegiance is rightfully Yours"
This year I have seen Increase in my trust and my faith in the Lord. I have grown. My faith has intensified, strengthened, and it's a good year.
The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the Lord, who made the heaven and earth! Psalm 115:12-15
After our miscarriage, we weren't emotionally ready to get pregnant again. I needed some time to heal there. Then, God spoke to us, we put our house up for sale, and lots of things are now up in the air for us. It feels like we are following God's voice straight into the dark, like the song says, because of all of the unknowns we are facing this year and decisions we've made. Into the dark, maybe, but still fully trusting. I began to start thinking about our family again a few months ago, and I just began to pray about it and bring those thoughts to the Lord. I didn't think I was ready to have a baby, and with all of the unknowns we were facing, it didn't seem like a very wise decision to make. I just voiced my prayers and asked that God would align my heart with his will for us in this area, and that He would do the same for Justin. And with that, He did.
We didn't know it at the time, but God already had plans for us to Increase our family as well this year. We are expecting baby #4 in December.
After our miscarriage last year, we decided to keep this pregnancy a secret until we had a healthy ultrasound. I had full faith that this was going to be a healthy pregnancy, but I guess we just proceeded with caution to make it a little easier for us, emotionally. Today, was that day. My ultrasound tech measured me about a week ahead of what we calculated, and I saw an actual baby on that screen today. I can't tell you that relief that I felt just by seeing something in that gestational sac, where last year I saw nothing. And then to see movement, and know that there is a life there, with a healthy heart rate of 166, it's our baby! We are blessed, and I am so filled with joy today.
I couldn't help but cry tears of joy on my way home today, as I, again worshipped, and thanked God for this blessing. I guess it's a trend that I always cry on that drive home. Before it was tears of fear and sadness, but today it was joy and gladness.
We planned three, but we couldn't see… God's plan was four, so we're having one more!
"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."
Psalm 127:3-5


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text: Pure topaz is made from crystalline silicate of aluminium and fluorine. When it is pure it has no colour, but can be coloured pale yellow, brown, pale green, reddish or even rare instances blue if the stone contains impurities. Topaz has been used in jewellery for thousands of years, and originally any clear yellow stone was called topaz. Now only stones that are the correct chemical composition can be called topaz.


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Clearly, faith is the means to salvation and the seven "by this we know" statements John makes in I John are the result of salvation. The non-Christian is incapable of truly living out God's high standards. I will elaborate on each one later but we see in I John the results of true faith in Christ.
- I John 2:3 the true Christian keeps God's commandments
- I John 2:5 the true Christian lives in obedience
- I John 2:18 the true Christian is faithful to God and not the world
- I John 3:24 the true Christian's identity is in Christ
- I John 4:6 the true Christian discerns truth and error
- I John 4:13 the true Christian walks in the Spirit
- I John 5:2 the true Christian loves the brethren
Does this mean that the true Christian will fulfill each one of these characteristics perfectly as a demonstration that he is a true Christian? No. Remember, John said, "I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." I do believe that the demonstration of true Christianity will be a life that consistently fulfills these characteristics. Keep in mind, these characteristics are not the means to salvation, faith is, they are the result of salvation. A life that consistently rejects these characteristics is a life of a non-Christian that has not placed his faith in Christ and therefore is not in true fellowship with God.
When one accepts the atoning sacrifice of Christ, he enters into a relationship with God. They now have fellowship with God. John said that he wants us to have fellowship with him because he has fellowship with the Father and with Jesus. (I John 1:3). What we see here this is that we not only have fellowship with God through our saving relationship, we have fellowship with all believers. John's heart was for others to have fellowship with God in the way he has fellowship with God.
Apart from fellowship with God, we cannot walk in the manner He desires us to walk. Through our fellowship with Him, He gives us that ability. Jesus said in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." If we abide in Christ, have fellowship with Him, we will bear much fruit. If we do not abide in Christ, we can do nothing.
I John 1:5-6 says, "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." In other words, if we say we have fellowship with God yet we are walking in a way that is contrary to Him we are not practicing the truth. This is a demonstration that we do not have true fellowship with God. Then John said in I John 1:7," but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." In other words, if we are walking in a way that is consistent with who He is we are demonstrating that we have fellowship with God. We walk in the Light only because God is Light and we are walking with Him. If we are not walking with Him, we cannot walk in the Light, for He is the Light.
As we examine these seven characteristics of a true Christian, we need to keep in mind that we have these characteristics only because of our salvation in Christ. They are a demonstration that we have fellowship with God and are therefore walking in the Light. Apart from our fellowship with God we cannot, and will not have these characteristics. By faith, we are saved and by faith, we walk in the Light. By faith, we know that God is at work in our lives giving to us the ability to walk in Him.


text: I was in the mood to buy a new purse but didn't feel like I should spend any money. So at nap time, I tackled this project and got it done in about an hour. I took an old sweat shirt I never wear, and sewed the bottom together. Sewing it inside out, so that the seems are on the inside when done. I then cut the arms off and neck off. You can do this to suit your preference. I wanted it to be able to fit easily over my shoulder, even when wearing my winter coat. I also made sure to cut off the glitter picture that was on the sweatshirt which was used to make my two smaller flowers. I then just folded the edges of the straps in and sewed them over to give it a bit more finished look. I did not bother lining the purse, since it is after all a casual style. I really loved how the flower embellishments turned out. I will probably make more of them to attach to bobby pins for cute hair accessories and maybe up cycle a boring old t-shirt with some cute flower power. You could even use them to decorate a picture frame, for Valentines in red and pink. If you try this easy sewing project, I would love to see your new purse too. Happy Crafting Everyone!


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Teacher Jobs in Army Public School & College Rawalpindi
Jobs are vacant in Army Public School and College. Army Public School and College is seeking for highly educated, very experienced, hardworking and well disciplined staff for the position of Teacher. Those who are interested and willing to apply for the job must have qualification of M.A in these subjects (English, Urdu, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, History and Geography) and experience in the relevant field. Interested candidates who fulfill the criteria may submit their application along with detailed CV and relevant document on the address given below, before last date 1st March, 2014. Only shortlisted candidates will be called for interviews. For more Information and Updates about jobs please visit our website Jobs Alert.pk
Last date to Apply: 1st March, 2014.
Address: Army Public School and College, Fort Road, near COD, Rawalpindi.
Contact: 051-5586161
Teacher Jobs in Army Public School & College Rawalpindi
- King Edward Medical University |
- 34 Vacancy |
- Last Date: Oct 17, 2022
- Police Department Azad Jammu & Kashmir |
- 30 Vacancy |
- Last Date: Oct 17, 2022
- Ministry of Defence |
- 6 Vacancy |
- Last Date: Oct 14, 2022
- National Information Technology Board |
- 18 Vacancy |
- Last Date: Oct 10, 2022
- National Database & Registration Authority |
- 10 Vacancy |
- Last Date: Oct 08, 2022


text: The quality of liquid food products has always been a primary concern to ensure food safety for human health. Industrial waste products such as heavy metals may contaminate your water supply making valuable water resources to become undrinkable. High amounts of sugar and salt in liquid foods may also produce …Read More »


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Building The Base
This project builds upon a previous project. If you have not already done so, follow the instructions in the following blog post first:
How To Create An Expanded LightSwitch 2013 Project
You will also need the code from GitHub at:
Updated on GitHub: AccountController.cs
Make sure you right click on your downloaded file and unblock the file.
All done? Great… lets start!
- Under your App_Start folder in your server project, Open WebApiConfig.cs
Add the following new route
name: "DefaultRpc",
routeTemplate: "rpc/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
- Save and close the WebApiConfig.cs
- Add a new folder in the root of your server project name it: DTOs
- Add another new folder, this time in your Controllers folder: RpcOdd… but with LightSwitch I have found the easiest way to add external files is to load up an instance of Windows Explore and copy from there. Then back in Visual Studio, show all the files for your project, press the refresh button, then right click on the new files and include in your project.So… lets add some files.
- Add the AccountDTOs.cs file from the DTOs folder, in the zip you downloaded from GitHub, to your server project DTOs folder. Include the file in the project.
- Add the AccountController.cs from the RPC folder, in the zip you downloaded from GitHub, to your server project Controller/Rpc folder. Include the file in the project.
- Right click on the your server project, select Add, Reference, find and select: System.Web.ApplicationServices
- Open the properties of your LightSwitch main project. Click on the access control tab and add a few permissions so you can see how this works.
- Save all
- Select Build, Clean solution
- Select Build, Build solution
- Run your solution…
Hopefully you will get a clean build.
So… now lets talk about good ways to test API/RPC type of calls. You might want to Install Fiddler… it's a pretty robust product…
But, if you have Google Chrome, Go to the app section in Chrome and install the REST Console. This app does a nice job of including authentication into the calls it makes. Definitely should have this in your tool belt since putting authentication into Fiddler is not so easy.
Now that you have the REST Console installed… you can call some of the functions in the account controller. Notice the /rpc/ in the URL:
Hmmm… didn't work? Most likely due to the [Authorize] attribute is still turned on in the controller.
For this exercise, go back into the AccountController.cs and comment out the attribute beginning at line 46 of the controller. Then test again.
Pretty cool eh? Next up will be a full HTML based User Management app.


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Update to Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility
12/23/16. Starting 02/21/17, USCIS will only accept the 12/23/16 edition. Until then, you can use previous editions. However, all filings postmarked 12/23/16 or later must include the new fees or we will reject them. You can find the edition date at the bottom of the page on the Form and Instructions.
Last Reviewed/Updated:


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Ukraine speaks out on the Bad Rabbit running rampant in Russia, stating that the hackers behind the NotPetya virus were the probable group responsible for the release of Bad Rabbit.
A Ukrainian official stated that the attacks from Bad Rabbit could have been mitigated greatly had organisations followed the recommended methods of malware handling, as well as basics on not clicking on suspicious messages. A prominent characteristic of the Bad Rabbit virus is the coding and method of approach, which leads to further believing that the same group who released the NotPetya, also released Bad Rabbit.
Thus far, it is believed that the hacker group known as Black Energy are responsible for the NotPetya and Bad Rabbit virus'. This hacker group is a Ukrainian hacker group know to work in favor of Russia.
As of late, Ukraine has been the victim of multiple cyber attacks, having power knocked out in thousands of homes, frozen super market tills, and government computers that were left paralyzed. Ukrainian officials have stated that they think Russia sees the Ukraine as a testing ground for cyber attacks.
The US and Ukraine have been working together to teach comprehensive hacking combat techniques and skills.
Ukrainian officials believe there are many more cyber attacks on the way.


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I got an email yesterday from CVS saying I had extrabucks that were about to expire. For those not familiar, you earn extrabucks when you buy things at CVS and it's basically like a voucher. Free money?! Drugstore spree time. Wheeeeeeeeeee
Ok so when I got home I decided to just try out the new things I have, as well as some other items I've obtained recently. First up I applied some TooFaced Hangover Primer and NARS eyeshadow primer, then I put some of my new Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation.
I gave a sample of this a pretty good go before I bought it so I was already pretty happy with it. It's not too matte, not too glowy (though the Hangover primer does make it a little more glowy) but has a satin finish. It's a good every day medium coverage foundation. Obviously not drugstore but it's a recent purchase and I didn't buy any foundation today.
All looking okay so far, let's continue.
I had heard good things about the Maybelline Better Skin corrector/concealer from a few beauty youtubers so I grabbed it today in the shade "light".
I applied it under my eyes, between my brows, on some blemishes, on my chin, above my cupid's bow and at the sides of my nose/nostril area – don't we all get that bit of redness? I was really pleased with how easily this product blended out using the Real Techniques contour brush.
Not bad! Ok, next up is the Maybelline Fit Me Matte+Poreless powder in 220/Natural Beige, applied with another new purchase – the Real Techniques Powder Brush. Recently it occurred to me that the RT Blush Brush is actually great for blush so I stopped using it for powder. This left a powder-brush shaped hole, so I picked this little number up today.
Decent color match, I decided to see how it wore before I made any snap judgments. And look, the truth is, I don't love it. I feel like my pores are actually emphasised (picture later) rather than made 'less' and I got shiny pretty fast. I don't want to immediatly dismiss it though, I'm going to try it with a pore-minimising primer and see how that goes before I throw it in the trash. The brush is lovely and exactly what I wanted – soft and loose but still dense enough to pick up enough product to make a difference.
Next I applied the deluxe sample size of Tarte's Park Ave Princess bronzer with my ELF Complexion Brush.
I like this brush because it is paddle shaped so it's great for applying bronzer to the cheekbones, temples and forehead areas and for blending out as well.
This bronzer is okay. It's got nothing on the MAC Mineralize SkinFinish Natural so I probably won't reach for it too often but it will be a good one to keep in my handbag or travel makeup kit.
The above photo also has my brows done with this sexy little number – the NYX Micro Brow Pencil in Ash Brown. This is a FANTASTIC dupe for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz. GREAT product!
Onto eyes. As mentioned earlier I already applied some primer, and this primer is tried and true. Today I bought the Rimmel ScandalEyes Eyeshadow Stick in Naughty Navy.
I'm really into navy at the moment, even more than usual! Ok, on it goes.
First impressions: it applies really easily, but the pigmentation isn't great and it's quite hard to get a smooth appearance. Also I noticed as soon as I blinked, even after letting the product dry for a good 30 seconds, it got all messed up.
I decided to put some of my trusty L'Oreal Infallible shadow on in All Night Blue just to set the eyeshadow stick.
Marginally better but I sorta don't think there's any saving this eye crayon, it's just really bad. Glad it was cheap. Not impressed.
I picked up the Rimmel Exaggerage Full Colour Lip Liner in Obsession, a dark wine color. I already have EastEnd Snob in this product which I really love so I was keen to grab another one. The lipliner went on nicely as expected. I then applied Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Black Cherry.
It's pretty nice, I like that it applies nice and smoothly and doesn't pull the lips around like some more matte lipsticks can. This isn't matte as you can see, which is a fun change for me. But it is a smidge patchy. It requires a few coats. I found it to wear well though and it stayed comfortable so this is a winner. The slightly melon-ish smell really doesn't do it for me but it definitely fades very quickly so that's a bonus. This will be a great product for winter because it doesn't dry out the lips.
In brighter light:
So that's the finished look. I wanted to add a closer-up photo of the eye and inner-cheek area to highlight the products I found problematic.
Yeahhhh… not great. Check out those pores. Who were they testing the "poreless" aspect of this powder on, exactly? And what good is a "waterproof" eye crayon when it sets like this?
But the lipstick is lovely, the brow crayon ROCKS and the concealer is great too.
I also bought a set of the Sally Hansen MiracleGel polish, in Teal Twin with the top coat. I applied it and it's nice. Is it a gel-like finish? Frick no. No, nope, not at all. It's precisely and exactly like a normal nail polish with a shiny top coat. Meh.
It's fine. But it's not gel. It's just not!
Ok team that's it from me today. Have a great weekend, whatever you're doing!


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Read these 7 Bushnell Binoculars Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Binoculars tips and hundreds of other topics.
Most of the top binocular brands design their outer shell and parts to be pretty durable. This is so the inner parts won't get damaged from rain, snow or sleet. Though, what if these harsh elements aren't as obvious. Almost invisible to the naked eye. Stuff like fog and dust particles can be so teeny tiny that they could seep right in the binoculars and damage everything. For this reason you should make sure you are getting the best sealed brand you can find like Bushnell Legend Binoculars. These binoculars are sealed with an O-ring seal process. Making them fog proof, dust proof and basically anything proof.
If you're looking for high quality digital camera binoculars, Bushnell is probably your best bet. The line of Bushnell Digital Binoculars has all the features you'd expect with binoculars and also a great camera like:
- 8X to 10X magnification
- Up to 3.1 Megapixel photos
- LCD screen
- A rapid photo taking feature
- 16 MB of internal memory
- Even video capability
Most models also come with a slot for an SD or MMC card. If you are taking long trips these cards are a great investment. Not only does it add memory, but you can also take multiple cards in case one gets filled up.
There are binoculars that are waterproof. Then there are those that are made for the water. The Bushnell Marine Binoculars are the latter. They have a tough rubberized coating. One that protects itself from the rain and water. This shell also offers an easy grip so it won't slip away no matter what the conditions. Plus, these binoculars float. So even if they fall in they won't all fall way down. If you are an avid fisherman or sailor this is the perfect pair for you.
"When you buy our brand you're also buying the company…blah, blah, blah."
We hear that so much it almost loses it's meaning with some companies. Though for others it couldn't ring more true. A company like Bushnell doesn't just sell binoculars, they're specialists in the field. Just check their website. You'll find all kinds of customer service extras like:
- Instruction Manual files for downloading
- The ability to check your repair status
- Product Q&A
- Warrantee information
- Plus, order forms for parts
It never fails. You're watching a sporting event and you turn away for a brief second (to grab some nachos or something) and you miss the best play of the game. This might also occur when you are using binoculars. You spend so much time focusing on what you want to see, you don't see it at all. For this reason you need to find a pair that offers quicker focusing time like the Bushnell Sportec Binoculars. They are designed with Instafocus system. Which means that instead of the normal wheel you focus this system with an easy lever. Cutting focusing & fumbling time down tremendously. So you can catch things as they happen without having to wait for the instant replay.
Earth would most definitely be a big ball of nothing if not for the sun. It provides our planet with needed light and heat. Though, it does provide other things that are not so helpful. Like harmful Ultraviolet Rays. This type of light can cause premature aging or skin cancer. It you are the outdoors-type chances are you already slap on sunscreen with UV protection before leaving the house. Though, there are other products (like binoculars ) that also utilize this UV coating. Since the objective lens of the binocular collects the light it is also collecting these UV rays. This could prove to be pretty harmful if you are using them for extended periods of time. So if you are looking for UV protection, Bushnell Binoculars with UV coating are your best bet.
Some classics never die. Like the Mustang. The pocket watch. Even binoculars have a cool past – Jason Binoculars. The company was founded in 1947. It designed quality binoculars that made generations of loyal fans. Now, these binoculars are known as Bushnell Jason Binoculars. Bushnell had bought the company in 1992 and preserved a couple of their lines. So today you can still own top notch binoculars with a proud history. Since these Binoculars are not as commonplace your best bet is to shop for them on sites that deal Bushnell binoculars.
|Guru Spotlight
|Heidi Splete


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Late last year, the Financial Times reached a pretty big milestone: It exceeded 900,000 paying subscriptions, both print and digital–up from 780,000 in 2015. That's no small feat for a media company that, like all other media companies, is facing the constant perils and headwinds of digital advertising.
But for John Ridding, the FT's CEO, this announcement felt inevitable. "We've been using our subscription business for the better part of a decade," he tells me. "People thought we were a little crazy."
That's no longer the case.
Every year publishers flock to business trends like moths to flames. Most recently, the pivot d l'année was to social video, in large part to please Facebook's algorithm. This bet isn't panning out as planned, as Facebook tends to change its algorithm from time to time and throw media brands' best-laid plans off-kilter. Most recently came this week's news that Facebook is going to de-emphasize content from brand and Pages to focus on posts from friends and family. As such trends ultimately let publishers down, some media companies are going retro and looking toward the age-old business model of subscriptions. Conde Nast recently announced its plans to offer more metered paywalls for magazines including Wired and Vanity Fair; the New York Times recently lowered the number of free reads it allows every month in an attempt to bring in even more paying customers; even digital juggernaut Business Insider has begun implementing a paywall for select stories.
For many companies, going the digital subscription route is a somewhat new plan–an attempt to reclaim old print-era strategies to drum up revenue alternatives. This comes as publishers are faced with a digital ad crisis. Media companies have historically relied on advertising as a primary means of revenue, but have seen growth sputter as Facebook and Google began sucking up the majority of the digital advertising marketshare. But online subscriptions are old hat for Ridding. He's been building a series of business models to counteract fluctuating digital ads. "We're on a journey to sustainable and dynamic growth," he tells me, "and we're having to swim against some pretty strong tides."
These strong tides, he says, are poisoning the media industry. In his telling, quality news is on the decline and newsrooms are having to adapt fast. Not to mention, tech giants like Facebook and Google are controlling both the flow of information as well as ad dollars. Meanwhile, print advertising has plummeted. The FT, says Ridding, read the tea leaves very early on. Currently print advertising represents only 17% of the company financial publishing division's revenue–and that division's 2016 profit margin exceeded 45%.
"Our thinking right before this became a huge issue," he says, is "quality journalism isn't going to survive on advertising alone." The FT's paywall, for instance, has been around since 2002. Trying to build such a business now, he claims, is "somewhere between difficult to impossible."
"I remember when we launched our subscription model," he says, "we got a lot of flak–people saying 'the internet wants to be free.'" Yet, as Ridding sees it, "the primary responsibility for any publication is to its readers and not its advertisers."
What Does The Future Hold For Digital Publishers?
If you were to aggregate all the news industry's editorial product moves of late, you'd find publishers have thrown dozens of monetization strategies on a wall, hoping one sticks. Take Mashable: the site has seen numerous shifts over the last two years–going from hard news to video to social–which ultimately resulted in its sale for a fraction of what it was once worth. One of Mashable's biggest problems was that it relied predominately on digital media advertising–and its growth was slowing down at an alarming rate.
Ridding says building a captive audience is what helped differentiate the FT from other, similar publications. Over the years, the media company has amassed a trove of user data to both hone coverage and direct product strategy, thanks to the information it can collect about digital subscribers.
"For us, the whole digital strategy is rebuilding in digital what is happening in print," he says. "We want to recreate that brand loyalty and brand habit."
Hidden in that jargon is the goal of figuring out what makes a person either pick up a newspaper or navigate to an article–and what content makes them return. "We've become quite precise about this," Ridding says. Each subscribed reader has what is called an "engagement score," which triangulates how recently that subscriber or trial member visited the FT's website with how long they stayed and their frequency on the site. This data is used to understand which stories work best and why, to retain and grow subscribers. For example, a user who stays on the site for long periods of time and reads many different stories in full is more engaged than a reader who only visits the FT once in a while.
The Wall Street Journal has implemented a similarly data-driven system, one that focuses heavily on future customers. It uses identifiable data, like cookies, to rank how likely someone who navigates to an article will purchase a subscription to the site. According to Karl Wells, the Wall Street Journal's general manager of membership, subscription sales, and marketing, he and his team have spent the last few years building a data-driven strategy to try and wrangle in more subscriptions–"customers," in his parlance. Metered paywalls, which give all readers a set amount of free articles per month regardless of how often they visit, he argues, are "very one dimensional."
"What effectively we created was an intelligence layer [that] looked at all the factors that might influence someone to buy a subscription," Wells says. In essence, every time you click on a Journal article, you are given a score based on an algorithm that ranks how likely you are purchase the subscription. Wells says there are three degrees of reader engagement–cold, warm, or hot. A cold reader doesn't visit the site very often. A hot reader probably visits more frequently. "If you're cold, my greatest asset is to get you to subscribe to our content," Wells explains, so he gives that reader a guest pass to the site. If you're a frequent visitor and therefore hot, you're very likely to subscribe if you're forced to–so why give away the content for free?
It should be said that both these examples have been in the making for years. Now more media companies are changing their models, finally perhaps recognizing the writing on the wall about digital advertising. Both the FT and Journal strategies, however, require a longsighted eye for the future–and a certain finesse. Audience building and quality journalism, says Ridding, "requires years of experience." Ridding's words suggest that if your media company doesn't yet have a long game, it's may be too late in the digital era to build one.
Fighting The Headwinds
The biggest issue facing digital newsrooms these days is the ever-growing Google/Facebook duopoly. Current estimates place the two companies as controlling around 73% of the United States' digital advertising marketshare. This has made for a news market that prioritizes frequent churn and sensational headlines in order to satisfy these platforms' algorithms and newsfeeds, which favor content that is more likely to be popular (as opposed to high quality).
The way these platforms operate, believes Ridding, creates "a flood of low-quality information [that make it] very hard to get traction." There's a deluge of news–fake news, poorly reported news, sensationalist news–that has been, sometimes quite successfully, competing against the voices of legacy players. This problem exists because of the digital advertising landscape. When Facebook hints to publishers that a certain type of content (like video) is preferred, many companies have no choice but to conform. We need only look at examples like Upworthy, which saw huge success with its clickbait-y, Facebook-friendly headlines–and then faltered once Facebook tweaked its algorithm.
Things may be changing a bit. Facebook has been working on its own subscription platform for articles, which might help organizations like the Journal and FT remain viable on the platform. Similarly, Google has begun listening to publishers' needs, says Ridding, pointing out that the tech behemoth no longer requires media companies to make content free when a user accesses it from Google search results.
"This is very welcome," says Ridding. "I would regard it as necessary but not sufficient." He points to the fact that Facebook isn't giving enough preliminary reader data to the publishers. "We have to understand the readers, we have to have the data on the readers," he says, arguing that the digital media landscape today is "not a publisher system, it's a Facebook-friendly system." More importantly, Ridding believes, Facebook's algorithm needs to stop de-ranking paywalled content like the FT's.
"There are things the tech and social media platforms can do to help the quality of the news industry as a whole," Ridding says. For one, he thinks these platforms need to be more open with user data–tell publishers who their readers are and how engaged they are on these outside platforms, or what kinds of content they like looking at. Two, the companies should create easier ways for media companies to implement subscription models on outside platforms–something Facebook has begun testing. Lastly, tech companies should allow publishers more flexibility around how readers can access their content through those platforms, rather than make their work conform to systems like Google's AMP or Instant Articles. In action, this simply means: don't hurt publishers' rankings because they don't use your proprietary tool.
But these changes are all incremental and still require a reliance on the platforms for distribution and revenue. If there's anything to learn from the last few years, it may be that publishers shouldn't tailor their programs toward the technology platforms' whims, but instead begin weaning themselves from the duopoly. Both Upworthy and Mashable are helpful bellwethers–and maybe even BuzzFeed, which has been considered a digital and social media success story for years but missed many key revenue goals in 2017, resulting in a round of layoffs. Ridding doesn't mince words: "anyone who thinks advertising alone is going to get them through should be disabusing themselves of that notion."
"It shouldn't be that hard to make meaningful improvements to the ecosystem which shift the needle toward sustainable quality journalism," Ridding believes.
Now, with Facebook's most recent changes to its News Feed, Ridding's stance is even more firm. In a follow-up statement sent to Fast Company in response to this news, Ridding said, "a sustainable solution to the challenges of the new information ecosystem requires further measures–in particular, a viable subscription model on platforms that enable publishers to build a direct relationship with readers and to manage the terms of access to their content." He went on, "Without that–as the large majority of all new online advertising spend continues to go to the search and social media platforms–quality content will no longer be a choice or an option. And that would be the worst outcome for all."
For Wells, he see an opportunity in changing consumption patterns. "There's huge huge growth in 18 to 34-year-olds who are willing to pay for journalism," he says. Wells describes this as a "macro trend that's helping publishers."
Silver lining or not, change is on the horizon, and 2018 will be the year when media can no longer rely on short-term changes to stay afloat. With that, warns Ridding, "there will be consolidation, there will be casualties."


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Posted August 8, 2017 1970 0 0
Healthy Beef in Garlic Sauce
1 Plan serving tenderloin (4 oz)
1 Cup raw broccoli
1 clove minced garlic (low sodium)
1/2 Cup water
1 beef bouillon
Slice beef into thin strips. Cut broccoli into small chunks. Spray Pam in skillet, add beef strips, broccoli, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir-fry till almost done. Add water, bouillon and simmer 30 minutes.
Counts As: 1 limited protein, 1 vegetable, 1 condiment


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when i made the above header back in september, i paused just before i typed out "september 2011", wondering if it was really smart for me to put a date on something like that. then it would have to be changed, like, in a month. and then the month after that, too. clearly, i made the wrong decision.
yes, it's november now. holy cow, soooooo much has happened. my baby boy turned TWO, for starters. ezra is a white-blonde, repeat-anything-you-say, jump-from-any-surface powerhouse. the boy is STRONG. we've been saying for about a year now that whenever he leaves the toddler stage, his big brother better watch out — ezra will definitely win more fights than he loses.
we've also gone through bronchitis, tonsillitis, and a sinus infection for jones, which had him laid up for over a week. (it was pretty sad.) and then we got immunized and caught colds at the doctor's office. ezra first, then harper, then jones (again). and i have reports that dad is next on the list. i'm loading up on vitamin C, hopeful that i might evade it — it was a nasty fever/cough kind of bug, and i would just rather not.
now on to self-analysis part of why i haven't written in two months: after i have babies, i don't feel right/normal/happy until they are about 10 months old. i sort of feel lost in a cloud, and my thoughts don't really shoot straight. this (plus the normal demands of life with three kids) makes it incredibly difficult to feel inspired enough to write. after my first baby, this was quite shocking, and i cried often and with great drama: what's wrong with me? what have i become? will i ever be myself again? is this what life after kids will always be like? why didn't anyone tell me? then it just sort of … disappeared. and i thought i owed it to all sorts of life changes i had made. but then the fog descended again after my second birth, and lifted again right around 10 months postpartum. this time, i was prepped for it. i know what normal is for me, i suppose, but it doesn't make it enjoyable. i guess you could say i'm waiting it out. (does that mean i've given up?) i'm waiting to be inspired again.
anyone else out there have a similar experience? i'm trying to be gracious with myself, and part of that is enjoying (attempting to, anyway) the baby phase to the fullest. man, is it ever FLYING BY. harper evelyn will be five months in a few days!
then again, if i could just sleep through the night for more than two consecutive times, maybe this would all just fade away..


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As I mentioned last week, I'm on vacation now for two weeks. This week is a staycation and next week we'll be renting a house on Cape Cod. We're really looking forward to our week away but there are lots of cool places to visit while staying home, too. One place we visited was Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI.
Dale took a school group there last winter and he came home raving about it and telling me how much I would enjoy seeing the mills. He was right!
The setting is beautiful and even though it was very warm we had blue skies for our visit. The mill is right next to a water supply, of course, so that the machines could be operated by a giant water wheel.
I can't remember the official names for everything we saw but there were huge looms and carders and electric spinners. Of course the photos I took of the circular sock machine looked like crap but it was a really neat sock machine that made argyle socks – so cool!
This machine loom fired the shuttles back and forth at a really fast rate. There were instances were children were maimed while operating the machine.
And this one makes shoe laces. I love all the colors and watching the braid being created right before our eyes was pretty neat.
I thought this was just a regular ole skein winder but the interpretor said it's called a weasel and that the children would wind the yarn onto it while singing "Pop Goes the Weasel" and when the winder was full it made a popping noise and the children would know to stop. Fact or fiction?
Slater Mill was a great place to visit and one of those spots we take for granted like Plymouth Plantation or the Freedom Trail. I bet you have historical places right in your backyard, too. You really ought to go visit. Yes, that's an order.


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The peasant producer exchanges 1,000 hours of value, contained in their grain, for 1,000 hours of value contained in linen. The textile worker expends 1,000 hours of labour-time, but is paid only for 800 hours, equal to the value of their labour-power, and thereby obtains only 800 hours of value, in grain, whilst the textile capitalist appropriates the other 200 hours of value, in grain, for themselves.
When looked at in terms of an exchange of commodities, all the requirements of the law of value have been met. As a commodity owner, the peasant exchanged a commodity – grain – with 1,000 hours of value, for another commodity – linen – also with 1,000 hours of value. The worker, as a commodity-owner, has exchanged their commodity – labour-power – with a value equal to 800 hours, for another commodity – grain – also with a value equal to 800 hours. The difference resides in the fact that, in both cases, the value of the labour-power was equal to 800 hours, but the value of the output of that labour-power was equal to 1,000 hours, creating 200 hours of surplus value, in each case. But, the peasant, as owner of the means of production, sold the product of their labour, not their labour-power itself, and thereby appropriated to themselves, the surplus value they created. They expended 1,000 hours of labour, divided 800 hours of necessary and 200 hours of surplus labour, and it took the form of a quantity of grain, which they exchanged for an equal value of linen.
The worker, however, also expended 1,000 hours of labour, similarly divided 800 hours necessary, and 200 hours of surplus labour, which took the form of linen. But, because the worker sold their labour-power, rather than the product of their labour, this linen belongs not to the worker, but to the capitalist. The capitalist exchanges the 1,000 hours of value of linen, for 1,000 hours of value of grain. The capitalist then gives the worker 800 hours of value of grain, in exchange for the value of the labour-power provided, and retains the other 200 hours of value of grain for themselves.
In other words, looked at from the perspective of what labour-time is expended to obtain commodities in exchange, the peasant expends 1,000 hours of labour, and obtains 1,000 hours in return, whereas the worker expends 1,000 hours and obtains only 800 hours of value in return.
"Conversely, the money with which the capitalist buys labour contains a smaller quantity of labour, less labour-time, than the quantity of labour or labour-time of the workman contained in the commodity produced by him. Besides the quantity of labour contained in this sum of money which forms the wage, the capitalist buys an additional quantity of labour for which he does not pay, an excess over the quantity of labour contained in the money he pays out. And it is precisely this additional quantity of labour which constitutes the surplus-value created by capital." (p 87)
To be more precise, Marx should really have said appropriated by capital, rather than created by capital, because, for the reasons outlined, the surplus value already exists, as a consequence of the difference between the value of labour-power, and the value of the product of labour. Capital appropriates the surplus value, because the product is alienated by labour, and owned by capital, and consequently, capital appropriates the surplus value contained within it.
The capitalist buys labour-power, in exchange for a money wage, but this money wage is only a transmuted form of the commodities required for the reproduction of labour-power. At any one time, the society's consumption fund, or variable-capital, is just as much a fixed quantity of use values, which must be "reproduced in kind" as is the fund for means of production, or constant capital.
In fact, as Marx outlined in Capital, the variable capital is denoted precisely by the fact that it is a fixed sum of value, equal to the value of these necessities, which creates a larger sum of value. It would then be just the same if the capitalist paid the workers not in money, but in these commodities, in the necessities required for the reproduction of labour-power. That indeed was a situation that the Physiocrats encountered.
But, then it would be clearer that the workers had bought commodities representing one amount of labour-time, only with a greater quantity of their own labour-time; that, in order to obtain commodities with a value of 800 hours, they had to exchange 1,000 hours of their own living labour.
"It is Adam Smith's great merit that it is just in the chapters of Book I (chapters VI, VII, VIII) where he passes from simple commodity exchange and its law of value to exchange between materialised and living labour, to exchange between capital and wage-labour, to the consideration of profit and rent in general—in short, to the origin of surplus-value—that he feels some flaw has emerged." (p 87)


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Sungei Tua Falls
The link road from Selayang to Ulu Yam has a number of numbered carparks. There is a nice river along the road, where many people come for a picknick and a bath, especially during weekends. On the other side of the road, at parking P3, a waterfall can be seen.
A trail leads uphill on the left side of the fall. Within a short distance you are in the jungle, a strange contrast.
It is not a long scrable to the upper fall. The jungle is nice and we found beautiful ginger flowers during our visit.
Check if you need a permit before planning a waterfall trip. More information here
Waterfalls can be dangerous ! Always take care about your safety
Visitor Comments


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A Revolutionary Change in Marketing Education by SLIM and FCCISL "Marketing Sinhalen"
A new marketing programme "Marketing Sinhalen" is introduced to the Sri Lankan students by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) and hot on the heels SLIM has signed an MOU with the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) on 9th February 2012 to promote and deliver this programme in Sinhala throughout the country. Both FCCISL and SLIM are in a view of that the demand for teaching marketing in Sinhala is growing steadily and there is a huge necessity for it as consumer need are also diversifying, as the middle income basket expands and urbanization.
Marketing in Sinhala is launched with the objective of providing marketing knowledge to all the segments of society to promote, upgrade and exchange marketing knowledge and encourage entrepreneurs, SME business owners, state sector employees and school leavers who are keen to get an exposure in marketing to develop their businesses, careers or professions. Students who are fascinated with marketing, but find difficult to initiate in English would have a better chance to complete the preliminary stage in Sinhala language and if they want to pursue the next stages they would have to switching to the English language which may help students to be confident in the corporate world.
SLIM has been promoting marketing excellence and elevating the status of marketing in Sri Lanka and is recognized for its practical approaches in its marketing education and is the most popular amongst the business community and students for its level of study. The text book "Marketing Sinhalen" by SLIM is a most comprehensive marketing book written in such simplified language and introduces modern marketing concepts to the Sinhala reader. This is a Preliminary Certificate in Marketing (PCM) course with a duration of four months on a part time basis. PCM is the first step towards an internationally recognized professional status in Marketing conferred by the prestigious Asia Marketing Federation. Students who successfully complete this course will be awarded "Certificate in Marketing (Sinhala)".
Being the apex organization of the Chambers, Sectored Trade Associations and Professional Bodies, FCCISL has taken many initiatives to establish one of the strongest education and training platform by operating a network of Chamber Academies, HandWerk Centers and FCCISL Accredited study centers belongs to the private sector enabling the FCCISL to service their members and stakeholders in every corner of the country. FCCISL, the exclusive implementation partner of this "Marketing Sinhalen" programme intends to start it in every District where demand is available. SLIM is a member of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka and their Courses are conducted at the FCCISL Chamber Academies in Vavuniya, Chelaw, Kurunegala and Gampaha.
Mr Thushara Perera, the president of SLIM stated that employees of private and public sector and school leavers can learn the fundamentals of business and marketing and could eliminate the barrier of language particularly benefited who are in the hinterlands or away from popular educational hubs. The president of FCCISL, Mr. Kumar Mallimaratchchi is in the view of that this programme will paves the path for success of a large number of Medium and small scale entrepreneurs in the distant areas as they suffer from critical setback revolve around the effective marketing of goods and services. He has stated at the launch that this initiative would uplift the knowledge of doing businesses and enable entrepreneurs to step in to the international level. Further to that the CEO of SLIM Mr. Sanath Senanayake stated this as an excellent opportunity for students to acquire knowledge, skills and excellence to become professional marketers. The acting Secretary General of FCCISL Mr. Sam Stembo highlighted the excellent benefit packages offered to the really skillful and qualified marketers by their employers in Sri Lanka as well as around the globe. The Head of Training of FCCISL Mr. Rohan Suriyapperuma and DGM Training of SLIM Mr. Samantha Rathnayake also added their valuable inputs at the discussion held during this occasion and they show the countless opportunities available in this prospective profession pave the way for the pursuers to reach the pinnacle of success.
More information on this marketing course can be obtained from the FCCISL website www.fccisl.lk or email to [email protected]


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Less Loops
The Less Loops statement facilitates you to execute a statement or group of statements multiple times. These iterative loop structures are created when recursive mixin incorporated with Guard Expressions and Pattern Matching.
Let's take an example to understand the working of Loops in Less.
Create a HTML file named "simple.html", having the following data.
HTML file: simple.html


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GND Builder Colour Gel #7 | GND Canada®
Regular price $19.99 Sale price
Unit price
GND Canada® Builder Gel is now available in 17 new colours!
Use this builder gel, cure for 1 minute, for beautiful, natural, stronger nails. This gel was formulated to self-level, masking fill lines with no need to file or buff. It can be applied over tips and natural nails for added strength. Perfect for natural overlays and great to use with any manicure or pedicure. The best part is it doesn't need a gel bonder, base or top coat. Yup. It's that easy.
How to Use
- No need for a base coat, gel bonder, topcoat, or gel brush.
- This gel provides a translucent effect if used alone on nails.
- To get full opacity, apply 2 coats. Cure under UV/LED nail lamp for 60s.
- Note: Due to the display effect of different monitors, the product will have slight colour differences, and the pictures are for reference only.
Product Details
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) per bottle
- Available in 17 colours
- This gel has the highest durability among any gel polish competitors, with ultra-shine, super-flex, and chip/peel resistant technology.
- Suitable for professional salon use or personal use.
CM Nails & Beauty Supply is a family-owned business and has been operating in Canada for over 15 years. Since our launch in 2003, CM Nails Supply has grown into a flourishing community business with passionate and dedicated owners, while growing relationships with new and old clientele.
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Come see our showroom of brand names such as OPI, CND and more while you get the best deal in the GTA!
Contact Information:
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
L: 1105 Queensway E #25, Mississauga, ON L4Y 4C1


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The funeral has taken place at Ballybunion in north Kerry of former Fianna Fáil TD and Senator Kit Ahern.
Ms Ahern, who was 92, died on 27 December and was the oldest surviving former Oireachtas member.
She came to prominence with the Irish Countrywomen's Association and was appointed to the Seanad in 1965 by the then Taoiseach Sean Lemass.
She won a Dáil seat in 1977. A staunch supporter of George Colley, she later joined the Progressive Democrats after their formation by Des O'Malley.


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Guido Deiro
Deiro Directs 1500-Piece Accordion Band; World's Largest
One notable Deiro achievement was the creation and direction of the world's largest accordion band of 1,500 players for the First Annual Southern California Music Festival held on June 1st, 1940, at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Coliseum was (and is) one of the largest arenas on Earth and seats 110,000 people. Guido Deiro's accordion band was (and remains after more than a half century) the largest assemblage of accordionists in history.
Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1940
The advertisement and reviews for this event are kept in the Guido Deiro Archive at the City University of New York, and will be submitted to the Guinness Book of Records, which incorrectly lists the present record at 600 accordions.
The Los Angeles Fiesta Day was a big event which included 6,000 participants: 300 majorettes, a 2,500-piece band, a 1,000-voice male chorus, a 50-piece symphony orchestra and 700 dancers. The only group larger than Guido Deiro's 1500-piece accordion band was the [woodwind, brass and percussion] band of 2,500 players.
Guido Deiro figured prominently in the article, which included his photograph plus four paragraphs of text highlighting his accomplishments as the premier pioneer accordionist in America.


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Suddenly, such good neighbours
With America at war against terror, and keen to build missile defences, Russia has an opportunity
IT COULD almost be old times. America's president meets his Russian counterpart for a summit to discuss missile defences, tallies of nuclear warheads and the need to avoid unnerving instability between the world's two biggest nuclear powers. But there the cold-war similarities end. As George Bush prepares to show Vladimir Putin round his Texas ranch, their officials are totting up not how many missiles are enough to keep the peace, but how few. It is more than a decade since the nuclear rivalry between America and Russia threatened the world with Armageddon. Across-the-fence relations have been much more neighbourly for decade. All the same, there is a whiff of history about next week's encounter.
If all goes well, the summit centrepiece will be a new set of strategic understandings better suited to the post-cold-war world. One could be an agreement that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which banned most missile defences so as to keep either Russians or Americans from believing they could strike first and be safe from counter-attack, should not now inhibit the testing of defences against smaller missile threats from places like North Korea, Iraq or Iran. Another might cut each side's long-range nuclear arsenal to perhaps 2,000 or fewer (compared with 3,500 or so under the yet-to-be-implemented Start-2 strategic-arms treaty). That is especially important to Russia, which can barely afford the weapons it has. Yet it is Mr Putin's apparent readiness, by standing four-square with Mr Bush in the anti-terror campaign, to signal an end to Russia's decade-long sulk over its loss of influence in the world that makes this a potentially history-making summit.
China next?
Mr Bush was anyway determined to press on with what would eventually have been treaty-busting missile-defence tests. Doing so without picking a fight with Russia reduces the diplomatic friction with America's allies in Europe. It also blunts the more determined opposition from China, which, unlike Russia, fears for the usefulness of its smaller nuclear deterrent force and worries that regional anti-missile defences could someday be used to protect Taiwan. China has worked hard to build a rejectionist front with Russia against America. But if Russia breaks ranks, China may be persuaded to talk too.
It was Mr Putin's reaction to the September terrorist assaults on America, standing down his soldiers even as America's went on red alert, that Mr Bush says persuaded him that Mr Putin had finally understood the cold war was over and that a new strategic bargain could be had. But Russia is helping in other ways too. Overriding the instincts of his generals and diplomats, Mr Putin has offered over-flight rights to American military aircraft, provided intelligence help, and encouraged Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two neighbours of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, to allow the use of bases on their territory.
The question for Mr Bush is how far he wants to make use of the better relations that Mr Putin is offering. Some of his advisers have wanted to press ahead on missile defences regardless. They scorned the Clinton administration's efforts at "partnership" with Russia; in the first months of Mr Bush's presidency Russia's diplomats were pushed further down the receiving line. Mr Bush had started out trying to cut the money America spends in Russia to prevent the leakage of materials and expertise from its sprawling complex of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Given the new dangers of such weapons in terrorist hands, it would be wiser now to step up these efforts—increasing security at storage sites, improving the ability to detect theft, finding safe ways to dispose of dangerous stockpiles, finding useful work for former weapons scientists—not pare them back. And for safety's sake, monitorable ways need to be found to dismantle surplus nuclear warheads, from any new arms-cutting deal at the summit, as well as from earlier agreements on both long- and short-range weapons.
Better Russian-American ties offer Mr Bush more such opportunities than he may care to take. But for Russia this is a chance to recover lost respect and influence in the world. Early post-cold-war hopes for a "strategic partnership" with the West foundered on old thinking in the Kremlin that still weighed up the world in spheres of influence. Russia's response to NATO's decision to take in the first recruits from Eastern Europe, and to western intervention in Kosovo to end Serb ethnic cleansing, was to toss as many spanners in western works as possible, and to seek friends instead among awkward regimes, such as Iraq, which continues to flout UN disarmament resolutions, and Myanmar. Asked to set aside the one flattering measure of Russia's old worth—the raft of cold-war treaties, including the ABM treaty, with America—the instinct was to dig in its heels.
Mr Putin is not about to drop all Russia's old friends, but he has a clearer-eyed assessment of where its real interests lie. He knows it is not western ill-will, but his country's own political and economic weakness, that has reduced Russia's standing. The stand-off over limited missile defences, which anyway do not threaten Russia's security, had been getting in the way of his other foreign-policy goals: to put Russia back in the diplomatic mainstream, to win a bigger voice in European security matters, and above all to build up its economy. The anti-terrorism campaign gives Mr Putin an unexpected diplomatic opening to show that Russia is still a country worth doing business with. His other two goals will be harder to achieve.
A new agenda for Russia
Russia has long made a big play of putting its name to the human-rights rules and codes of conduct of organisations like the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, only to flout them repeatedly in the brutal fighting in Chechnya and by meddling in conflicts across its own borders: in Georgia (see Charlemagne), in Moldova and in the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. If Russia wants a more constructive voice in European security, it could show earnest by doing more to resolve these conflicts rather than stirring them up. Similarly, Russia has in the past leaned hard on the Balts—by refusing to ratify new borders, for example—and others to deter them from closer contacts with the West. Mr Putin at last seems to have recognised that NATO is the least of the threats he faces, that he can anyway have no veto over who joins the alliance nor over America's defences, and that heavy-handedness has merely lengthened the queue to join.
Better working relations between NATO and Russia now seem in prospect, though frictions are bound to continue. But it is other clubs, such as the World Trade Organisation, that Mr Putin needs to have in his sights. He has already said Russia would like to join the WTO. The difficulty will be in getting Russia's mafia-like economy in any sort of shape to do so.
So far Russia has bumped along, selling weapons, oil and gas. Mr Putin wants to change that. Oil and gas will remain important: Russia may find itself increasingly attractive as a non-OPEC supplier and, 20 years from now, as the European Union expands, Russia could end up controlling the taps of well over half of Europe's gas. Yet Mr Putin wants Russia to be more than a giant pumping station. He wants it to have a seat alongside the richer, industrialised nations. He has started to speed up economic reform at home, but it is still galling to Russians that China pulls in vastly more foreign investment each year. Prospective WTO membership could be a useful tool, as it has been in China, to force the better business practices and rule of law that would make Russia a place worth investing in.
All this may seem a long way from Mr Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. But Mr Putin has a vision of Russia's future that is different from its past. Mr Bush has started to see that. Now Mr Putin has to persuade his countrymen of it too.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Suddenly, such good neighbours"
Leaders November 10th 2001
From the November 10th 2001 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
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