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Peugeot Design Lab is a Global Brand Design studio. The strength of a brand is not just measured by its products; everything that a client sees plays a defining role in the perception of the brands image. Peugeot Design Lab specializes in developing global brand & product experiences.
Our expertise covers a large range of competences: Brand strategy, Illustration of brand vision & values - the creation of a unique form language & identity, the development of innovative products, graphics, packaging & communication, perceived quality & process consulting...
With over 200 years of industrial experience and 120 years of automotive innovation, Peugeot Design Lab's expertize and know-how is available to other brands.
The technical and design resources of the 4 Peugeot Design studios; in Paris, Shanghai, San Francisco & Sao Paulo gives us the capability to develop the most complex or simple products and experiences anywhere in the world.
A brand consists of much more than just its products, it needs to create unique experiences. At Peugeot Design Lab we develop every stage of the consumers global experience which together enhance the values, identity and image of the brand.
Our multi skilled and enormously experienced team is here to help you realize your brands full potential.Learn More
Founded in 1810, Peugeot has a rich industrial past stretching over multiple product ranges. On our website you can discover 20 of the defining moments from our history.Learn More
Our concept cars are the ultimate expression of the Peugeot brand vision. These unique vehicles demonstrate over 120 years of automotive know how and design experience, which is now available to our customers.Learn more
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Enjoying an off day after a great finish to the road trip
What's up, guys?? Yes, it was a crazy couple of days in Texas and Toronto, but we left Boston on a very high note. Any time you are able to go into Fenway Park and sweep a team as good as the Red Sox it's pretty awesome. I'm sure all the guys are feeling pretty good. We went 5-5 on another long road trip and, of course, we would have liked to have been better, but all things considered we will take it. We finished by playing what is probably our best series of the season. The pitching was good and the hitting backed them up. Right now, it just feels good to be back in Chicago enjoying a much-needed day off.
Today I'm actually filming the TV show "Iconoclast" with Ruben Blades, who if you don't know, is a legend. I can't wait to see my good buddy and get this thing going; it should be a lot of fun!
It's back to work tomorrow with Detroit rolling into town. It's a big series, we know, and we will be ready to play. We know we are in a position right now where we can't afford to give many games up. Now's the time to try and build on some momentum. Hope to see many of you out at the ballpark during this nice homestand.
On a sadder note, I hope the Bulls are proud of what they accomplished this year and are not ashamed at all. It was awesome what they did because at the beginning of the year nobody expected them to go this far. The Heat were just a little bit better, but I know the Bulls will be back next year ready to go. Congrats to D-Rose, Joakim Noah and coach Tom Thibodeau on a great season. I'm hoping the Sox and Cubs can make the summer even more interesting for the fans!
Ok, now it's time to enjoy the day off. Talk to you soon!
— Ozzie

subset: commoncrawl


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Correspondent Brendan Keogh recently attended a 48 hour "game jam" at the Queensland University of Technology to document how 20 sleep-addled dev teams create complete video games in only two days using the words "key," "badger," and "suit" for guidance. Here's the third and final part of the story about that strange weekend.
Sunday, 6:22am
I wake with a start as Becky shakes my shoulder. "Sorry, Brendan," she says. "I fell asleep, too."
My iPhone lies right beside my head. I slept through the alarm that must have been going off for ages. The sun is shining through a single slit in the light-blocking curtains and I feel worse now than I did before I went to sleep nearly five hours ago.
I look up at the countdown clock: 09:35:40 to go. We are now well and truly in the final stretch. I expect the frantic crunch to have started, but looking around the indie room, sleeping bodies still lie everywhere. Jason, the programmer, is the sole person awake for Rockin' Moses; everyone else is asleep below and around him. Ash is nowhere to be seen. Matchbox Battery is out.
Downstairs I find the rest of the pros and indies sleeping, scattered around the halls and under the stairs, away from the noise.
In the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face and hair before I realize that I don't have a towel. I use my hoodie instead—it's already been a makeshift blanket, pillow, and blindfold. Outside, the morning air is cool and windy but the sky is that translucent kind of blue you only get in springtime, right after dawn. Going back to the indie room, a cold breeze hits my face and finally snaps me awake.
It's too early for any nearby cafes to be open, if they open at all on a Sunday. I make my way to the kitchen instead for a Styrofoam cup of instant coffee-sludge, but the kitchen is out of Styrofoam cups. I take a risk, pouring the boiling water and brown powder into one of the plastic cups instead. The bottom doesn't melt through; that's good enough for me.
I take the cup around the side of the building, walking past a glazed-over Kai nursing a steaming mug of her own, to sit in the sun. Being outside really brings home the particular warm scent of the indie room. It's the stagnant heat of dead air, bodies, and computer towers. The photographer who has been visiting intermittently over the weekend described it best: "Walking into that room is like sticking your head in a box full of puppies." By contrast, the morning breeze and direct sunlight feel like a fresh shower.
|Read the complete story
|Part one: Friday night
|Part two: Saturday
|Part three: Sunday
It truly alarms me how tired I feel. Somewhere in my arms is this hollow, shivering feeling. I can't focus on anything; I don't know what to do next. I sympathise with the contestants refusing to get up, even as the timer ticks past 09:00:00. Why would you?
But even as I type this paragraph, Jason of Rockin' Moses gets up from his computer and wakes his team members. Tim looks alarmed, almost like a wild beast, not sure where he is or how he got here. He immediately starts to walk toward the door, stops, then walks slowly back to his workstation. Rocco rubs his eyes and sits right back down at his desk, pulls out a notepad, and starts to scribble ideas.
I ask him how he is feeling. He nods, still groggy. "I think I slept far more deeply than I intended to."
"Yeah. I know that feeling," I say.
I read back over the stuff I typed last night. The paragraphs spiral into incoherency near the time I passed out. I do my best to mold them into actual sentences. I remove a brainstorming-as-egg-fertilization metaphor that seemed so clever the night before.
Feeling slightly more human now, I do another round of the indie room. Teammates are now being forcefully awakened and told to get back to work. The key to the showers is in high demand.
Matchbox Battery are still recharging, though. Isaac has left and now James is the only one at the workstation, though he hardly seems awake. All of Rockin' Moses are back and are working on a menu screen, HUD, and yet more polish. At Well Placed Cactus, Tyson tells me that they have everything more-or-less working and now they just need to polish and tweak. While talking to him, I hear a snoring sound. Not a few inches from my foot is Chris' head, camouflaged in his sleeping bag among piles of chip packets and soft drink cans.
Notably, lone developer Ash hasn't appeared at his workstation yet. I don't know how late he worked, though; for all I know, he went to sleep just before I woke up.
Entering the pro room for the first time that morning, I notice that For Science! are all still there, sleeping beneath their desks like an indie team. Steve and Szevvy are the only ones awake, working on code.
All of Heinous Agenda are back, too. Their game looks practically the same as when Pres talked me through it yesterday afternoon, but they have been implementing sound and tweaking the gameplay.
Over at Convict Agenda, Rebecca is toying with a playable prototype, flicking pink squares around a picket-fence yard. It surprises me how few prototypes there are in the pro room compared to the rough-but-playable things coming out of the indie room twelve, fifteen hours ago.
"I guess we are more relaxed about it," Rebecca says. The indies need to prototype early to ensure what they are doing is actually fun. The pros can take a bigger gamble on assuming what they have designed will be enjoyable. Rebecca does give me one caveat: "If you come back and ask us at 3pm—or at least try to ask us—we might not be so calm."
Alliance of Indie's Milenko and Liam are working on their Alien Badger Queen model. She is sprawled on her back with multiple autonomous teats squirming around her underside. She is also wearing a small crown. "I think the breasts are jiggling too much," Milenko muses. It's the perpetual bane of videogame design.
Finally, the cafe across the road opens. I head over for a proper, strong coffee and a ham and cheese croissant. On the way, I spy a familiar lump asleep on a park bench: James from Matchbox Battery is passed out in the sunlight like a lizard.
As I re-enter the indie room, the timer ticks down to 06:59:59. Rockin' Moses is back in 3DS Max. I ask what they could possibly be animating at this stage. "Oh no," says Elliot. "We're just taking pictures of the badgers in poses for the menu and stuff."
Ash has yet to re-appear. I worry he has overslept his alarm, much like I did. He has no teammates to wake him. I want him to make it, I realize, one man doing everything. He came into the competition with such clear vision, and to see him stumble now would be heartbreaking. I head downstairs to see if I can't find him in the hallways, but no sleepers are left.
Matchbox Battery's workstation, meanwhile, is practically abandoned. Only Andrew is sitting at his computer, but his eyes are bloodshot and glazed over. Minutes later, he just up and walks out of the room.
Heads are all down at Well Placed Cactus, frantically pulling together the various game assets. The team is increasingly enthusiastic about their project, which has a name now: "Badger of Honour." Tyson hands me a controller and some earphones and gives me a turn. Jack's sound effects work great. The game doesn't quite have the atmosphere of Modern Warfare's gunship level, but it's getting close. The camera can be viewed in normal color, showing the green island, white beaches, and crystal water, with worms walking around. Swapping to "white hot," the worms stand out against the backdrop. I zoom in, the camera "whirring" beautifully, and fire. The projectile is still just a cube and not yet a badger.
"That's a cluster badger," Tyson tells me. "If you press the button again you split up and explode everywhere."
I press 'A' and the camera switches right back to the gunship as smaller cubes rain down on the island and fiery explosions ripple through the air. It can't be overestimated how having the "spectator" camera grounded in the gunship lends a strange sense of gravitas to a game about shooting kamikaze badgers down at evil worms.
"Try the honey badger," Tyson says.
The honey badger is the navigable one. I shoot one and direct it right into a worm. The explosion is huge, and it's incredibly fun. I'm astounded to think that less than 42 hours ago this was just a crazy idea in a pub.
"So what do you guys have left to do?" I ask.
Tyson points at blue Post-it notes stuck down the sides of his monitor: menu visuals/sounds, badger animations, inversion, score. It doesn't sound too bad until I realize that each team member's computer has a similar number of notes.
I ask Rockin' Moses if I can have another go at their game, "The Fifth Suit."
It feels like a lifetime since Rocco pitched me on "Bomberman Musical Chairs," but now here it is. Four players. Four 360 controllers. I'm playing the badger of clubs and the other team members take the other suits. I start digging through blocks and before long I burst into the badger of hearts' tunnel. I sprint past him and beeline to my first card. On my way to the second card, I get punched out by the badger of spades. Still, I get my key first and make it to the next level while the others are still bickering. Badger of spades, meanwhile, is knocked out.
The "ghost" mechanic has finally been implemented, so in the next level, while the three remaining badgers try to get our cards, the badger of spades' ghost can steal cards and run around with them at half speed. The other badgers have to chase him down and punch him to get their cards back. This is, essentially, trolling, but it works great. You can't win once you are kicked out, but you can still play. Most crucially, it is truly fun.
Matchbox Battery is back in place and Andrew gives me a turn on their dual-stick "shooter" in which players "badger" each other by bouncing balls around using shields. I'm a Geometry Wars addict and have been eager to try this one further. The controls are slick. Moving the shield to cover your ship feels perfect and intuitive. Various USB keys appear as power-ups (full shield, more speed, destroy all balls) and the number of balls on the level steadily increases. While one player staying alive is pretty basic, I can see that with four players bouncing balls everywhere, badgering the other players, the action will quickly get chaotic. Sound hasn't been implemented yet, however, and there are still a lot of bugs. The server is lagging, and occasionally balls pass straight through the shield. I leave Andrew with his pages of code to figure out the solution.
The countdown clock is at 05:47:04 and Ash is still not here. One Lonely Developer's workstation is empty. I mention this to Truna, who is busy uploading her latest round of "body count" photos to the Twitter feed. She isn't bothered. "I think that demonstrates a quiet confidence on his behalf," she says.
I wish I could share her confidence in Ash's confidence. He is running out of time.


text:
Description: A tray used for the children to sort all kinds of things from within their environment. Good for practice of the fine motor skills, colour discrimination and sorting.
Age: 3+
Remarks: This is an educational product and is only to be used under the supervision of professional trained adults.


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Ernst & Young agreed on Friday to pay $123 million to resolve a federal investigation into its role developing and marketing tax shelters that helped its clients avoid more than $2 billion in tax liabilities, the U.S. government said.
As part of the settlement, announced by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, the accounting firm also entered into a nonprosecution agreement and admitted to the wrongful conduct of certain partners and employees.
The settlement amount reflects the gross fees Ernst & Young earned developing and marketing four tax shelter products from 1999 to 2004, according to the nonprosecution agreement.
The accord will resolve a longstanding federal investigation that has already netted other accounting firms accused of selling tax shelters that generated phony losses for well-off clients.
Ernst rival KPMG avoided indictment in 2005 over its sale of tax shelters, agreeing to a $456 million settlement.
In June 2012, accounting firm BDO USA agreed to a $50 million settlement over similar allegations.
In a statement, Ernst & Young said it disbanded in 2003 the group that put together the tax shelter services.
That year, Ernst agreed to pay a $15 million settlement to the Internal Revenue Service over the group's promotion of the shelters. Ernst has been cooperating with the Justice Department's investigation since 2004, the nonprosecution agreement said.
"Ernst & Young is pleased to put this matter from a decade ago behind us," the firm said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond, Reuters)


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Background information about our organization and the global network
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Globalplacement.com was founded in 2003 as an online mediation agency for international internships, graduation assignments and traineeships. The Dutch success formula of Stageplaza.nl (Dutch market leader in online mediation for students) founded Globalplacement.com. The web site is the answer to the high demand for foreign internships, increasing mobility among students worldwide and quickly reducing international trade barriers.
Online mediation
Both students and companies have an increasing international focus. Globalplacement.com seeks to bring students and companies together with an internet-based communication network that matches students and companies better and faster than ever before.
The global network
In close cooperation with a global network of franchise partners, our website has grown and is still growing very quickly (more than 5000 student subscriptions a month). Besides a global network Globalplacement.com has been supported by the European Union initiative Leonardo da Vinci.
Vision & mission
We share a vision: to increase mobility, to stimulate innovation and to improve training quality. Our dedicated team is consists of 45 employees. We consequently live up to our mission: to serve as a national and international authority in online internship mediation.


text:
By Francesca Trianni
NEW YORK (Reuters) - He's been commander in chief, Time magazine's 1993 man of the year, had hopes of becoming "First Laddie" of the United States and now former U.S. President Bill Clinton is in line for a new title - Father of the Year.
The non-profit National Father's Day Council plans to award him that honor at a New York fundraiser for Save the Children on Tuesday.
Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, was just 12 years old when the family moved into the White House and Bill Clinton and wife former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton worked to keep her out of the limelight.
One of the most iconic images of the family to come out of that period was when the three were photographed, walking hand in hand across the White House lawn to a waiting helicopter shortly after the news broke of Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. That scandal lead to Clinton's impeachment for perjury.
Chelsea Clinton, now 33 and a special correspondent for NBC News, said on Twitter "I completely agree!!!" when the award was first made public in January.
The National Father's Day Council cited Clinton's philanthropy work through the William J. Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, both started after he left the White House in 2001.
In addition to his charity work, Bill Clinton appeared on the campaign trail in 2008 when Hillary Clinton ran for president, joking that if she was elected his honorific title could be "First Laddie."
Clinton, 66, as well as Macy's Inc Chief Executive Terry Lundgren, will be honored for "their success in balancing accomplished careers and the demands of fatherhood," the council said in a statement.
Since the Father of the Year award was first bestowed in 1941, the citation has gone to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, Generals Douglas MacArthur, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, and sports notables Shaquille O'Neal and George Foreman.
Years after leaving the White House, as he prepared for his daughter's 2010 wedding to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, Bill Clinton said he was preparing for what he called the most important job he would ever do: "walking Chelsea down the aisle."
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Andre Grenon)


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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court has blocked Alabama schools from checking on the citizenship status of new students. The provision was part of the state's tough new immigration law.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the provision wrongly singles out children who are in the country illegally.
Alabama was the only state that passed such a requirement. The 11th Circuit says a lower court should have blocked that part of the law.
The court separately says Alabama police can continue checking immigration documents for people they stop.
Both private groups and the Obama administration filed lawsuits to block the law considered the toughest in the country.
The 11th Circuit was the first appeals court to consider the schools provision.


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Students starting summer in class
This has been a brutal winter as far as snow days are concerned.
Districts across the state used much of their snow day allotments by the beginning of February, only to see winter persist for two more months, unleashing storm after storm, many of which included ice.
This onslaught has led to several districts being forced to extend their school year into the summer.
"As of right now, we have six days to make up," said Mark Dombroski, Cheboygan Area Schools' superintendent. "It was a tough winter. It seemed like every time we got any kind of weather, it included rain with it."
As it stands currently, CAS's last day will be June 13 for students and June 14 for teachers.
The ice was the biggest problem for districts.
"The rain is particularly tough for us," explained Bill Tebbe, Pellston Public Schools' superintendent. "When we get any kind of rain, we're pretty much cooked. The back roads ice over and our buses can't handle that."
Districts don't get a specific allotment of 'snow days' per year. Instead they get 30 act of God hours, which can be used for anything from inclement weather to sickness.
On a rare occasion districts are forced to close because of rampant illness, but overwhelmingly, act of God hours are used as 'snow days'.
December and January are usually tough months for area districts. Winter hits in full force and almost inevitably a few storms choke back-roads with snow, forcing districts to close. This year, December and most of January were tough, but the last three weeks have delivered several storms that have forced schools to cancel.
After these 30 act of God hours are used, districts have to make up any additional time they were forced to close as to meet the 1,098 hour state requirement for a complete school year.
There are generally three options for districts that exceed their 30-hour act of God limit. First, use extra hours built into the calendar, such as eliminating mid-winter break. Second, add minutes to the remaining school days to make up for lost hours. Third, add on days at the end of the school year. The first and third are the most common.
"We're looking at that and figuring things out, but there is the possibility of make up days," said Tebbe.
Calculating a final day of school after make-up days is not as easy as some may think.
"It's a combination of hours and days and then its based off your 09-10 calendar," explained Joe Hart, Wolverine Community Schools' superintendent. "I'm just starting to look at that and not even close to ready to make an estimate on the last day of school for us."
Wolverine has had 13 snow days thus far, falling in line with the rest of the area districts.
Inland Lakes Schools added time to its elementary school day to help soften the blow when summer rolls around.
"We have had numerous snow days and need to make a proactive adjustment to our schedule to compensate," said Fred Osborn, ILS superintendent.
The adjustment began March 4, adding 20 minutes at the end of each school day. This schedule change will provide the district additional instructional time each day for 59 days to the elementary, totaling over 19 hours.
Along with extending the school day, the district is carrying a pocket ace, May 24, which can be used as an instructional day if necessary.
"We put an extra day into the schedule the Friday before Memorial Day," explained Osborn.
Despite these measures, make up days are still possible for ILS, especially if winter deals any more spring snowstorms.
With 50-degree weather slated for the end of the week, winter looks to be in the rearview mirror, but that doesn't mean the threat of school closures is over. Spring presents it own set of challenges.
In the coming weeks, day time highs will consistently peak in the upper 40s and 50s, but over night lows will still dip below freezing.
That results is snow melting during the day and washing over road, and then freezing overnight. That's a recipe for dangerous morning driving conditions on back roads.


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LOS ANGELES (AP) Kerry Washington, Lena Dunham, Emma Watson, Selena Gomez and Serena Williams say help from other women has been critical to their success.
The stars appear in a video released Thursday by LeanIn.org to promote its new "Together Women Can " campaign.
Washington says she's "not really sure what my life would look like if it were not for Shonda Rhimes," who cast her as the lead in "Scandal."
Williams cited her sister Venus as her guide. Watson said Sofia Coppola was a mentor: "She supported my work and made me believe I could do more."
Eva Longoria, newscaster Megyn Kelly and soccer star Abby Wambach also appear in the video.
LeanIn.org founder Sheryl Sandberg said the campaign is meant to raise awareness of the ways women can support each other in the workplace and encourage confidence and leadership skills in girls.
Women working together leads to more women in leadership positions, a key objective of LeanIn.org, Sandberg said.
The video is among several set to appear on the campaign's website, which also includes tips for mentors and those they mentor and guidance for modeling leadership skills for girls.
"When women are CEOs, when women run for office, we inspire girls and women everywhere to believe they can do more," Sandberg, a self-made billionaire and top executive at Facebook, said in an interview. "And we still have a very small percentage of leadership roles anywhere, in any industry, in any government anywhere in the world. Our goal is to change that. And while the gap may be big, the numbers change one by one."
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .


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text:
The political career of Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's vice presidential pick, has been marked by conflicts, score-settling and her own claim that she faces "enemies — powerful enemies."
But the 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor is a favorite of right-wing Christian groups and was hailed Friday by one organization as "a true Christian" who is "pro-life and pro-marriage." She also has favored the teaching of creationism in Alaska's schools.
After the surprise announcement Friday, the McCain campaign tried to frame Palin as a reformer who has taken on corruption in Alaska. However, an examination of her career as a small-town mayor and inexperienced governor reveals an official prone to petty squabbles and personal retaliation.
In 1996, after winning the election to be mayor of Wasilla, then a town with a population of 5,000, Palin sought to oust six department heads because they had signed a letter supporting the previous mayor, their old boss.
Palin ultimately fired two of them, the police chief and the museum director, and pushed two others into quitting.
In 1997, some residents considered her actions so high-handed that they tried to initiate a recall election.
"Four months of turmoil have followed in which almost every move by Palin has been questioned," the Associated Press reported in a Feb. 11, 1997 dispatch. "Critics argue the [Palin] decisions are politically motivated."
Wasilla's ousted police chief, Irl Stambaugh, sued Palin that year for alleged contract violation, wrongful termination and gender discrimination The police chief claimed Palin fired him not for cause but for being disloyal and because he was a man whose size – 6 feet and 200 pounds – intimidated her.
However, the recall election never got off the ground, and a federal judge rejected Stambaugh's lawsuit.
Now, as Alaska's governor, Palin is under investigation for allegedly ousting Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper entangled in a divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister.
That probe also is examining whether Palin's extended family, including her husband, and members of her staff tried to pressure Monegan to fire state trooper Mike Wooten because of the divorce.
Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News that the governor's husband, Todd Palin, showed him the work of a private investigator, who had been hired by the family to dig into Wooten's life and who was accusing the trooper of various misdeeds, such as drunk driving and child abuse.
In early August 2008, the state legislature agreed to investigate the circumstances surrounding Gov. Palin's firing of Monegan. She initially welcomed the probe and denied that she had put pressure on Monegan.
Later, however, Palin acknowledged that there had been more than two dozen inquiries from her staff to the public safety department regarding trooper Wooten, though Palin still insisted she had no role in them.
Gov. Palin also released an audio recording of her director of state boards and commissions, Frank Bailey, pressing police Lt. Rodney Dial in February 2008 about why no action had been taken against Wooten.
Besides the prospect of more embarrassing disclosures about Palin's thin government record, McCain's VP choice also undercuts his campaign's theme that Barack Obama lacks the foreign-policy experience to be Commander in Chief, since Palin is a virtual unknown on the international stage.
However, as the first woman on a Republican national ticket, she potentially appeals to angry Hillary Clinton supporters and to so-called values voters who pushed McCain to choose a running mate who is against abortion and gay marriage.
"John McCain is to be commended on his choice of Sarah Palin, a true Christian for Vice President," said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.
"Palin, an evangelical who is pro-life and pro-marriage, meets all the criterion that CADC set forth for a VP pick. Unfortunately, Obama chose Joe Biden, a liberal Catholic, who is not in compliance with Christian moral teaching on abortion or homosexuality."
Cass was particularly relieved that McCain did not tap former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, or Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Jew.
"Will [McCain] pick a pro-choice Republican or perhaps a moderate Mormon or a liberal Jew?" Cass said in an earlier statement of concern that was echoed by other conservative Christian organizations nationwide.
"Unless McCain picks a true Christian for Vice President, real conservative Christians are being disenfranchised from this presidential election," Cass warned. "Obama missed a great chance to reach out to Christians. Now we will see if McCain will let conservative Christians have someone we can vote for, not just vote against."
On Friday, other conservative Christian groups also celebrated Palin's selection.
"The country now has a clear choice," said Darla St. Martin, Co-Executive Director of the National Right to Life Committee, "between an avowed pro-abortion ticket that would continue to push for unrestricted abortion on demand, and a strongly pro-life ticket that will bring us closer to a society that embraces the value and dignity of human life."
Palin is staunchly opposed to both same-sex marriage and granting benefits to same-sex partners. When a state court ruled last year that civil unions are to be permitted for same-sex couples, Palin balked, and called for the state constitution to be amended to in an attempt to upend the ruling.
She also has favored the teaching of creationism in schools along with evolution. "Teach both," Palin said in 2006. "Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both."
Still, many political observers wondered if Palin's limited — and checkered — career as an official in a lightly populated state like Alaska might prove to be a liability for McCain.
Following her two terms as mayor of Wasilla, Palin made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination in 2002.
Then, as chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, she fell into a public spat with fellow commissioner Randy Ruedrich, the state's GOP chairman.
In 2003, she reported Ruedrich to Gov. Frank Murkowski's administration, saying she suspected him of an ethics breach in conducting work for the state GOP on government time.
To obtain evidence of Ruedrich's alleged malfeasance, Palin hacked into his computer, an ethical lapse in its own right. She resigned from the commission in January 2004.
But Palin's ethics complaint against Ruedrich gave her a reputation as an anti-establishment reformer at a time when the Alaskan Republican hierarchy was coming under scrutiny for corruption.
For two years, she stayed out of politics, acquiring a business license for a marketing and consulting company named Rogue Cou, "a classy way of saying redneck," Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in a June 2005 interview.
Palin also faced questions about hypocrisy in the vendetta that she waged against Ruedrich when it turned out that, as mayor of Wasilla, she had used her office computer for political purposes.
"We wondered how her using a city computer to run for lieutenant governor in 2002 was different than Republican Party chief Randy Ruedrich using Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission computers for party business, for which he was fined and resigned under pressure. She said it was different," the Anchorage Daily News wrote in a July 14, 2006, editorial.
"In a release [Palin] fired off to everyone she could think of after the questions, she huffed about a 'smear' campaign organized by her 'enemies — powerful enemies.' Later, there were references on various radio talk shows to whispering campaigns and other craziness, but we wrote that off as the vapors and a touch of paranoia."
The editorial continued: "She characterized as 'innocuous' her political e-mails sent on a city computer to the Alaska Outdoor Council and another complaining about the Right to Life folks not choosing her as their candidate in the 2002 race.
"That was bad enough, indicating she just does not get it, but then she had this to say: 'We've had lots of people come forward with dirt on (gubernatorial candidate John) Binkley . . . as well as dirt on (Gov. Frank) Murkowski. We've told them to bury it. I'm not running that type of campaign.'
"Apparently, that is exactly the kind of vicious campaign the former two-term Wasilla mayor is running. In our view, that kind of backdoor character assassination is the most scurrilous type of attack." the Anchorage Daily News wrote. "Oh, I have dirt, Palin says smugly, yes, indeedy; but I'll not give the details because that would be wrong. She is right. It is very wrong. It is very much the hallmark of lightweight politicians in over their heads."
Now, however, John McCain has proposed putting Palin in a position within a proverbial heartbeat of the presidency.


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break was really amazing! No school work, 1,000 pound text books, or
crabby teachers = super relaxing. The only bad part is that I have been keeping
really busy with work, and I haven't hung out with my friends as much as I
would like to. That is, until I had an unexpected encounter with my roommate...
Year's Eve was a really calm, nice night for me. I went out to dinner with my
family and helped my boyfriend move into his new apartment. We rang in the New
Year with a kiss as we filled his pantry with mac and cheese! No big parties or
anything — just simple fun! It was really great night. The next day, we drove
back to his old house to pick up the rest of his stuff, and to my surprise, I
walked in on MY roommate cuddling... with MY BOYFRIEND'S roommate! I was shocked
and had no idea what to say. I thought they were sleeping, so I scooted past
and went to the other room. It turns out, they partied all night together — then
hooked up! I never saw it coming. All four of us always partied together and
had so much fun (just as friends... at least, that's what I thought).
More From Seventeen
So, now I
don't know how to feel about this whole situation! Does this mean more double
dates... or double the drama? I hope it turns out for the best, but I kind of wish
things would have stayed the same. Although, who knows? Maybe our nights out
will be even more fun than before!
What do you think of this situation? Has something similar ever happened to you?


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Well, once again I was too ambitious last week and didn't make anywhere near all the food I had planned. We ended up going out to dinner with friends one night at a new-to-us restaurant, The Outlook Cafe, in Rio Rancho. (Review forthcoming!) As well, we had our monthly celiac/gluten free potluck meeting, after which I am always stuffed to the gills from all the yummy food and usually don't eat much the rest of the day! So, you'll find that this week's plan is just another iteration of last week's plan. So it goes, right?
This week's host for the swap is Angela's Kitchen and her theme is slow cooking. I have a great vegetarian slow cooker cookbook and thought about making the wonderful vegetarian pho again but had been browsing around over at A Year of Slow Cooking and saw this incredibly delicious sounding soup. And I have a feeling I might need something this comforting this week.
Brown Rice with Miso from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, with stir-fried vegetables (red bell pepper, onion, bok choy and snow peas) and possibly a few chunks of tofu.
Enchiladas and Karina's Snappy Crunchy Coleslaw
White Beans in Tomato Sauce with Sage over Creamy Polenta
Tortilla Soup and salad
Crockpot Broccoli and Three Cheese Soup from Stephanie at A Year of Slow Cooking – sounds decadent and totally comforting!
Be sure to head over to Angela's Kitchen for more meal plans.


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Every two years after the Olympics, we should declare a Post-Olympics Withdrawal Stress Disorder Day. After 2 weeks of constant updates and events filling our TVs, tablets, and phones, it feels like not much is happening out there this morning. I predict speaking with a lot of grumpy people over the next couple of days.
We'll be missing the events, pre-packaged stories of inspiration, cheesy NBC montages, musical cues, and drama that dwarfs any scripted television programming.
My wife and I get pulled in to this sports-opera more than most. Since the '92 games, we have gotten caught up in the big events as well as the stuff that you can only see during an Olympics. Trampoline, badminton, and the equestrian events were tough to catch this year.
I didn't see nearly as much coverage on TV this year as in years past due to travel, work, and other real-life events infringing on our TV time this summer. But with the ample updates via social channels, online video, and mobile apps, it was easy to get a quick fix.
It also marks the last time until the next Olympics that the once-great NBC will have any content of value. Case in point: the preview clips from the new Matthew Perry show, "Go On", looked dreadful. From the people who brought you "Joey", indeed!
The media geek in me will soon fill the entertainment / sports / news void with the NFL season (#GoBears!) and a big political storm about to hit. We've got two conventions, 4 debates, and an election night on the horizon people!
So there's lots of good media content to look forward to this fall. And, if that's not enough to cheer us up, note that the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi is only 543 days away.


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Filed under: Animal Abuse, animal cruelty, Bio Weapons, bovine growth hormone, cancer, depopulation, Dictatorship, Empire, Eugenics, fda, food market, food safety, genetic engineering, genetically engineered, genetically engineered food, genetically modified, Genocide, GM, gm food, GM foods, GMO, GMOs, health and environment, Human Experiments, malthusian catastrophe, Monsanto, rBST, soft kill, toxicity, Uncategorized | Tags: (IGF-1, Cancer Prevention Coalition, CPC, homogenization, milk, pasteurization
Genetically engineered hormones used by dairy industry promote cancer
E. Huff
Natural News
November 17, 2009
An industry report claiming that the genetically-engineered hormone Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST) is safe has received criticism from the Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) for its dubious findings. Funded by producers of rBST, the report was conducted entirely by industry-paid consultants rather than by independent, credible scientists, indicating it is fallacious.
Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, chairman of the CPC, lambasted the report for failing to recognize the grave, scientifically-proven dangers imposed by rBST. Author of the 2006 book What's In Your Milk?, Dr. Epstein stated the report was "blatantly false".
One of the primary effects of rBST on cows is that is causes them to become seriously ill with various diseases including mastitis, an infection of the udder that ultimately contaminates milk with pus. Commonly branded as Posilac, rBST unnaturally increases milk production at the expense of the cow's health, the repercussions of which are passed on to the consumer.
Monsanto, the original creator of rBST, was forced to reveal the truth that rBST induces roughly 20 toxic effects, all of which end up tainting the milk with disease. When farmers then treat these illnesses with antibiotics, those too end up in the milk that is eventually drunk by unsuspecting consumers.
Got milk hormones?
Research has also revealed that rBST-treated milk is both chemically and nutritionally different than natural milk and that traces of the hormone end up in the milk. Those who drink rBST-tainted milk readily absorb the hormone in their digestive tract which is then assimilated into the blood.
Milk from rBST-treated cows contains unnaturally high levels of natural growth factor (IGF-1) which inhibits the body's natural defense mechanisms designed to fend off cancer. Well-documented scientific studies have implicated the hormone in precipitating prostate, breast, and colon cancer.
CPC has been working for decades to eliminate rBST from the milk supply. In 1990, the group issued a warning in conjunction with over 40 other organizations about the dangers of rBST. The warning fell upon deaf ears at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which continued to accept the flawed notion that rBST was safe in spite of its proven dangers.
In 2007, CPC sent a petition to the FDA entitled "Seeking Withdrawal of the New Animal Drug application for rBST", which was endorsed by several farmer and consumer protection groups. Citing Congressional concerns about the hormone that date back to the 1980s, as well as countless studies illustrating the toxicity of rBST, these groups labored to reform the FDA's flawed position. Unfortunately, the FDA ignored the facts and continues to keep the interests of industry as its priority at the expense of consumer protection.
Dr. Epstein's recommendation, especially for children who are most susceptible to cancer-causing additives like rBST, is to choose organic milk if they are going to drink milk at all. Organic milk is not allowed to contain rBST or any artificial hormones and is the best alternative to conventional milk that may be tainted with rBST.
Organic, raw milk is the most preferable option as it is a whole, living food rich in beneficial enzymes, probiotics, and other nutrients that get destroyed during pasteurization and homogenization. Many believe raw milk is a perfect food rich in essential vitamins and high in protein.


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Louise Shelley
On her book Human Trafficking: A Global PerspectiveCover Interview of April 10, 2011
In a nutshell
There is more than one business model of human trafficking and there are enormous variations in human trafficking in different regions of the world. This book examines all forms of human trafficking in a global and comparative perspective.
Transnational crime is an important part of the rise in human trafficking as criminals are drawn by the enormous supply of people and the demand for cheap domestic servants, agricultural workers and laborers for dangerous industries.
The rise of sexual exploitation has been rapid and a truly global phenomenon, drawing increasing numbers of children and young women into this sphere. The growth of this crime has been very rapid because there is neither certainty nor severity of punishment. Unlike in the drug trade, criminal prosecutions for human trafficking are rare and profits are rarely confiscated.
Drawing on a wide body of academic research—actual prosecuted cases, diverse reports, and fieldwork and interviews I conducted over the last sixteen years in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe—the book concludes that human trafficking will be a defining issue of the 20th century.
Human trafficking will grow as a result of economic and demographic inequalities in the world, the rise of conflicts, and possibly global climate change. Coordinated efforts of government, civil society, the business community, multilateral organizations, and the media are needed to stem its growth.


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Spring represents fresh starts. Winter's sharp wind gives way to a softer breeze, foliage heads for full bloom, and schedules fill up with new events. Amid all this newness, it's a prime opportunity to reboot your diet as well. As you let go of heavier, hotter Winter meals, welcome the lighter, cooler produce of the Spring season.
What else goes with Spring? On-the-go eating. Whether you're en route to the soccer field, the yoga studio, book club, or wherever the season takes you, Juice Plus+ is here to help you keep nutrition top of mind.
We've prepped tasty and refreshing smoothies, along with packable snacks, to get you aligned with seasonal, fresh, and local eating. They're so pretty that you'll want to snap a pic and share with all your social media followers!
The harvest period begins in Spring, and continues through Summer, for some of our favorite berries:
- Strawberries
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Cherries
Get your green on with these leafy Spring faves:
- Spinach
- Arugula
- Romaine
- Curled endive
- Butter lettuce
- Mesclun
Smoothie recipes starring leafy greens and berries
These first two recipes incorporate berries, and a multitude of other fresh fruits, in your daily Complete by Juice Plus+ smoothie. Enjoy these blends any time of day as a kick start at breakfast, a refreshing addition to lunch or dinner, or as a snack anytime in between.


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When you look closely between a photograph of the stepsisters from Disney's animated "Cinderella" and a photograph of Wetzel O. "Judge" Whitaker and his brother Scott, you may notice a striking resemblance.
The Whitaker brothers, who were former animators for Walt Disney, actually based the faces of the "ugly stepsisters" on their own, wanting them to be more masculine.
As chief animator for the beloved classics of "Cinderella" and "Peter Pan," among others, Wetzel O. Whitaker's future was filled with opportunity when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began showing interest in learning to use media.
The LDS Church's early efforts in film are a little-known history, one filled with sacrifice, dedication, hard work and successful results. This story has now been preserved by Thomas Laughlin, producer, director and editor behind the documentary "A Reel Legacy," a history of filmmaker Wetzel O. Whitaker and the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Studio.
"Latter-day Saints love pioneers across the plains, but there are other pioneers out there," Laughlin said. "We're all about media today … it all came from a guy that left a lucrative career with Walt Disney to come here."
The documentary
"A Reel Legacy" is a story of faith, toil, sacrifice and humility about Whitaker's mission as a father, husband, friend and filmmaker. The film features interviews with veteran filmmakers who knew and worked with Whitaker as well as dozens of rare and never-before-seen images released by family members and friends. They talk about Whitaker's life, trials and the challenges he faced in building up the BYU Motion Picture Studio.
"The purpose (of the documentary) is to raise awareness in that Judge Whitaker was a pioneer of Mormon media," Laughlin said.
Whitaker was responsible for founding the BYU studio, which would produce such films as the original "Johnny Lingo" and "Man's Search for Happiness." Whitaker also mentored Reed Smoot, who filmed all the aerials for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and worked on "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"; T.C. Christensen, cinematographer for "17 Miracles" and "Forever Strong"; Karl Wesson, hair stylist for "The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Thelma & Louise" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"; and George Griner, camera operator for "High School Musical" and "The World's Fastest Indian."
The documentary "A Reel Legacy" got its start when Laughlin saw a framed photo of Whitaker in the basement of the BYU Motion Picture Studio. Wondering who the man with the wavy white hair was, Laughlin inquired and was told several stories by veterans of the studio who had worked with Whitaker. Intrigued, Laughlin began the project independently and about 18 months later had produced the film, which was released in early October.
"There are a lot of people who've worked with Judge," Laughlin said. "I wanted to interview and hear from the horse's mouth from people who were actually there."
The story of Judge Whitaker
For Whitaker, one call from President David O. McKay, the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, changed everything.
The LDS Church's leaders wanted to use film to help people understand the church's programs, such as Mormon missionary work and welfare, and soon it was arranged to have a contingent of general authorities come down to see what the industry was doing, according to Pete Czerny, a film editor who was with the Motion Picture Studio from 1971-1983.
Whitaker offered to make a film for the general authorities. After struggling to get the script right, he produced a film on the LDS Church's welfare program. During the production, he asked for a blessing and in it was told, "What you're going to do for the church on the welfare is going to be just fine. But the Lord wants you to know you have a mission way beyond that and that you will be … a significant person in bringing communications to the church like has never been done before," according to Peter Johnson, an executive producer and studio director who was with the Motion Picture Studio from 1983-1992.
Soon after the blessing, Walt Disney, a good friend of Whitaker's, took him out to Anaheim and, according to David Kent Jacobs, a director and producer who was with the Motion Picture Studio from 1971-1983, in the documentary, told him, "Judge, nobody knows this yet, but we're going to be building a huge park here," and suggested he buy some real estate.
At about this time, Whitaker took a leave from Disney to work on his home in Heber, Utah. It was then that the church leaders approached him about building a motion picture production department at BYU.
Whitaker had to make a decision. Should he go back to Disney, or should he stay in Utah? He was worried because the church had no facilities and no equipment. It didn't even have a camera.
In the end, he decided he would do what the church leaders asked him to do, and he was hired.
"Judge knew this was an errand of the Lord," Jacobs said.
Whitaker's decision to stay eventually made his name synonymous with church films such as "Pioneers in Petticoats," the original "Johnny Lingo" and the church's temple films. After his death in 1985, his legacy as a film pioneer would continue through his productions and BYU's film department.
Whitaker built the studio from the ground up. They started out with a plywood building with a soundstage located where the BYU bookstore stands today. Nicknamed "the green barn," it had a logistical problem — it would pick up sound and amplify it inside. The crew couldn't use it during the day because of the noise from school, so they did most of their work at night.
The crew itself came in with little experience, except for Whitaker's brother Scott, who came from Disney as a creative force and began to design the majority of the projects and to write scripts while Wetzel produced and directed.
With hard work but an inexperienced crew, Wetzel Whitaker worked hard to justify the existence of the studio and its budget, and ultimately everything came together. The first church film premiered at the Salt Lake Tabernacle during a session of general conference in October 1954.
On Feb. 18, 1959, the BYU Motion Picture Studio was dedicated. At the time, most of the equipment was discounted or discontinued hand-me-downs from other studios. According to Grant Williams, a key grip and camera support who was with the Motion Picture Studio from 1966-2009, Whitaker came to enjoy the idea of learning to work with real people rather than animated characters, and soon began bringing students in for every production.
It was not long before Whitaker became known as the man with the wavy white hair. George Greener, a cinamatographer and camera operater who has been with the Motion Picture Studio since 1974, said in the documentary that Whitaker had a commanding presence with a demeanor demanding respect and admiration. He was a husband who adored his wife, Doris, making sure to be home at noon for lunch everyday. They made a striking couple.
Whitaker was nicknamed "Judge" as a kid because there was a judge in town who walked very strict and upright, similar to the way Whitaker walked. His brothers mocked him, saying, "Here comes the judge," when Whitaker would come in, but the name stuck.
Whitaker ran the studio with a sensitivity to the Spirit. They had a prayer every day at the start and close of work.
On Sept. 15, 1964, one day after Whitaker was given the assignment to make films to be used in LDS temple ceremonies, the studio burned, according to Richard Bickerton, a producer and editor who was with the Motion Picture Studio from 1963-1970, in the documentary. It wasn't until a new studio was built in the Riverbottoms area at 300 W. 2230 North, in Provo, that they could continue the work.
In 1976, Whitaker's brother Scott was diagnosed with cancer and died. He continued working on the films up until his death.
Whitaker died in 1985. He felt the most important films he did were "Man's Search for Happiness," the temple films and yearly documentary histories of the church, according to Jacobs.
In 1994, the studio was handed over to the church and became the LDS Motion Picture Studio.
"It's important for members (of the LDS Church) to realize the sacrifice and dedication that went into the Motion Picture Studio," Laughlin said.
The film is available on Amazon and at Deseret Book for $12.95.
Email: email@example.com


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Klobuchar: Unemployment remains high, but senator sees glimmers of hope
WILLMAR -- Although unemployment remains high, Sen. Amy Klobuchar sees some glimmers of hope that the U.S. economy is on the mend. "I can say that things have improved from three or months ago," said Klobuchar, a Democrat and Minnesota's senior s...
WILLMAR -- Although unemployment remains high, Sen. Amy Klobuchar sees some glimmers of hope that the U.S. economy is on the mend.
"I can say that things have improved from three or months ago," said Klobuchar, a Democrat and Minnesota's senior senator.
What's important is to keep moving forward, she told an audience in Willmar Saturday.
"We're just hopeful we can get more jobs and have the employment go up," she said.
Klobuchar spoke at the annual Women's Expo, hosted by the West Central Tribune and Affiliated Community Medical Centers. An audience of around 100 greeted her warmly with applause. Afterwards they waited in line to shake the senator's hand and have their pictures taken with her.
"It's always fun to talk to a group of women. I don't always get to do that," Klobuchar said.
Before leaving the stage of the Kennedy School theater, she issued an invitation for any Minnesotan who happens to be in Washington to attend the "Minnesota breakfast" her office hosts every Thursday morning while the Senate is in session, featuring a menu of Spam puffs and other home-grown foods.
Klobuchar said history will some day judge Congress's actions to fix the economy and reform health care and determine "whether we were timid or courageous, or right or wrong."
Bailing out Wall Street was a controversial decision but was necessary to help stabilize the economy, she said. "That was a crisis moment in the economy."
One of her current priorities is to improve the regulation of large financial institutions and prevent another future collapse. Small community banks that were fiscally prudent should be treated separately so they don't end up being hurt by regulations designed to rein in the largest banks, Klobuchar said.
"I still believe we're going to have to be very careful to protect our community banks," she said.
Klobuchar, who sits on five Senate committees, including the Agriculture and Commerce Committees, said she also sees a need for more incentives to promote energy alternatives and to ensure the U.S. infrastructure doesn't lag behind those of other nations.
When she returns to Washington this week, she expects to tackle another huge issue -- health care reform.
The Senate health care reform bill is scheduled to be voted on in committee this week. Klobuchar then plans to review each section of the bill with her staff. She's already concerned about a provision that would tax medical devices, which could hurt Minnesota's medical device manufacturers.
Klobuchar said she'll work with a coalition of other senators to introduce an amendment designed to be more protective of the medical device industry.
Her priorities for health care reform include cost containment, incentives to provide quality care, and preserving the ability to see one's doctor of choice.
The discussion at the Capitol has been moving at a slow pace but Klobuchar sees this as a good thing.
"I think we needed a lot of time and continue to need a lot of time to get it right," she said.


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As the Republican primary process wound down and Mitt Romney emerged as the likely candidate in spring of 2012, President Obama was itching to take him on, according to Glenn Thrush's inside look at the Obama campaign, "Obama's Last Stand." How to take Romney on was another story, as the campaign waffled between pegging Romney as a man with "no core" or a "rotten core." But the issue wasn't just one of a strategy disagreement, as Thrush explained:
"Inside the White House, Romney was such an object of ridicule that it was hard to take him seriously, difficult to narrow the mass of contempt into a single, coherent narrative for not electing the presumptive GOP nominee."
Was that the attitude President Obama brought to his three days of debate prep in Nevada? Obama certainly seemed to have trouble Wednesday "narrowing the mass of contempt into a single, coherent narrative for not electing the presumptive GOP nominee." He meandered and stuttered in lengthy answers the media is generous in calling "professorial." He sounded unprepared, pulling the same lines from his stump speeches again and again. He reached for straw men Mitt Romney had already dismantled.
The president inexplicably took Social Security off the table as a campaign issue, declaring, "You know, I suspect that, on Social Security, we've got a somewhat similar position." That exchange came after Romney had already dominated a large portion of the debate, batting back hard at Obama's description of his tax plan and pulling anecdotes and factoids together effortlessly. Obama reminded me of a wide receiver who's been hit hard on a couple of attempted catches, and starts hearing footsteps every time he runs a route. The normally confident president got alligator arms on the Social Security issue and was afraid to lay out for the ball.
Obama supporters were blaming moderator Jim Lehrer just minutes into the debate for letting Romney control the clock. But the truth is Romney didn't have the ball for longer, as the MSNBC crew kept claiming in their post-debate coverage; he just did more with it. Obama spoke for fully three minutes longer than Romney, according to the CNN live clock.
A parody Twitter account was created to embody liberals' frustration with a debate that veered from its intended structure. Silent Jim Lehrer mumbled his way to almost 10,000 followers.
But how silent was Jim Lehrer, really? A check of Wednesday's transcript shows he spoke about 1,400 words. When Lehrer moderated the first McCain-Obama debate in 2008, he tallied about 1,200 words, so his performance wasn't out of character. The transcript also indicates he interjected more often than the average presidential debate moderator over the past three cycles. Transcripts show most moderators interject between 60 and 70 times, but Lehrer's tally was in the 80s Wednesday.
Whatever the numbers, it did feel rough-and-tumble while remaining civil and substantive, and that's what I appreciated about it. What happened to the days when windy, contentious Lincoln-Douglas-style debates were upheld by the media as the debate ideal? What happened to bemoaning a showboating moderator or a public that doesn't digest in bigger chunks than soundbites?
Back in 2010, NBC's Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell were using the free-wheeling, high-minded Lincoln-Douglas debates as a foil for novice Tea Party candidates' performances in Senate races in Nevada and Delaware. As with discussions about entitlements after Ryan was added to the ticket, the press only wants a substantial conversation when Obama's guaranteed to win it.


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Mifuko's wonderful baskets help you organise your home and to find the right place for everything from small toys to pillows.
Restocking soon Size Guide
Medium baskets add style to your storage. Keep knitting projects together, store scarfs and gloves, pet supplies and more. Use them as basket planters to change up your house plants with a new look.
Beautiful Nordic design and skilful Kenyan handicraft are the hallmarks of our Kiondo collection. Each basket is one-of-a-kind, handmade by a talented artisan, from the weave to the final stitching of the Mifuko label.
Handmade brown basket is made of lightweight, environmentally safe paper. The specially developed twine gives the basket extra strength and longevity.Each Mifuko product carries the name of its maker.
Mifuko baskets weave together timeless Nordic design and traditional African handcraft. Each unique item is a work of hands and hearts, beautiful yet durable. As a beautiful detail each of our bags is signed by the artisan who made it. We want their stories spread to all homes.
We are a certified member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). Fair Trade certification ensures that products have been produced following WFTO's principles and putting people and nature first in everything we do.


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The two Steubenville high-school football players who stood trial this week on rape charges were found guilty this morning.
The trial, which divided a small Ohio town and uncovered a history of adults associated with the football program protecting players from prosecution, came to a close Sunday morning as Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were found delinquent by the juvenile court, which was decided by a sole judge and not a jury. The two boys will be jailed a minimum of one year, and now face a possible sentence of juvenile jail until they turn 21.
Details of the rape of the 16-year-old West Virginia girl spread through social media the morning after an August 11th party where Mays was seen leaving with the intoxicated girl. A series of texts and tweets from phones confiscated by the state were used as evidence against the defendants. A photo of the unconscious girl being carried by undisclosed males surfaced online months after the assault.
The Ohio Attorney General will announce later today whether additional charges will be brought in the case, including against other boys at the party.


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Strict laws on the criminalisation of drug use and drug users are fuelling the spread of HIV and other serious harms associated with the criminal market and should be reviewed, say experts in a series of articles published on bmj.com today to coincide with the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, 18-23 July 2010.
Countries most affected include Russia and Ukraine, which operate strict drug laws and remain resistant to evidence-based harm reduction services like opiate substitution therapy and needle exchange programmes.
Professor Tim Rhodes and colleagues estimate that Russia could cut HIV rates by up to 55% if it legalised and scaled-up opiate substitution therapy and call for legal change to enable such treatment to tackle drug related harms.
Research shows that opioid substitution treatment can reduce risk of HIV infection by 60-84%, say Rhodes and colleagues. The World Health Organization promotes it as an "essential medicine" and methadone or buprenorphine substitutes are prescribed to over 650,000 people in Europe. Opioid substitution treatment is a core harm reduction intervention alongside distributing clean needles and providing easy access to HIV treatment.
Yet Russia prohibits opioid substitution treatment and has only about 75 needle and syringe programmes for its two million injecting drug users. It also has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. A strong emphasis on the criminalisation of drug users hampers HIV prevention.
Using mathematical models, Rhodes and his team estimate that "Russia could substantially reduce the incidence of HIV infection if it permitted the use of opioid substitution treatment."
"The roots of resistance to harm reduction in Russia are complex," they add, "and show why efforts to bring about structural changes in national laws and policies should be at the forefront of global efforts to scale-up HIV prevention." The prohibition of opioid substitution treatment "limits rights of access to evidence-based health care, as championed by the UN and other international agencies."
In a second article, Stephen Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst at Transform Drug Policy Foundation argues that we need to end the criminalisation of drugs and instead set up regulatory models that will control drug markets and reduce the health and social harms caused by current policy.
He outlines Transform's blueprint for regulating drug availability and points to evidence that less punitive approaches do not necessarily lead to increased use. "Transform's blueprint does not seek to provide all the answers but to move the debate beyond whether we should end the war on drugs to what the world could look like after the war on drugs," he says. "It is a debate that the medical and public health sectors have failed to engage with for far too long."
In an accompanying feature, Richard Hurley of the BMJ reports on the situation in Ukraine, which has an estimated 290,000 drug injectors and possibly the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe. Despite entrenched corruption and police interference, he explores how community organisations are leading the fight against HIV among drug injectors and sex workers.
A linked study of injecting drug users in Edinburgh finds that while long term opiate substitution treatment reduces the risk of death, it does not reduce the overall duration of injecting. An editorial believes that doctors and scientists working in the field of drug addiction have an ethical obligation to speak out about the need for evidence based approaches to tackle drug related harms.
Finally a doctor and former heroin user gives a personal and candid account of his addiction. Writing anonymously, he says, "It has made me a better doctor, more understanding of human frailty because my own frailty is so stark."


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Wendy Davis is the country's most prominent defender of late-term abortions. What Rosa Parks was to desegregation, what Eunice Kennedy Shriver was to respect for the disabled, what Elizabeth Cady Stanton was to women's suffrage, the Texas state senator is to abortion after 20 weeks of fetal development.
Texas just passed a law banning abortion after that point, a measure supported by the public and by common sense, but not by the stalwart Davis. For her trouble, she has been accorded fawning media coverage and showered with $1 million in donations, showing that abortion radicalism sells in America — so long as it is pro-abortion radicalism.
A ban after 20 weeks, near the end of the second trimester, represents a minor restriction on abortion by any reasonable standard. Many European countries, which we tend to consider laxer on such matters, ban abortion well before 20 weeks. It's not just that Wendy Davis is out of step in Texas; she would be out of step in Belgium and France, where abortion is banned after 12 weeks.
Davis likes to say that less than 1 percent of abortions in Texas take place the 20th week or later, without realizing how that damns her own case. By her own admission, she is not even willing to give up 1 percent of abortions. Nationally, opponents of the 20-week prohibition cite the same 1 percent statistic. Even if it is accurate — and no one can know for sure — that means 8,000 abortions a year after 20 weeks.
The 20-week benchmark isn't arbitrary. By then, the latest research suggests that fetuses feel pain. The respected University of Utah expert Maureen Condic recently testified before Congress that at 20 weeks, a fetus has "an increase in stress hormones in response to painful experiences," and other reactions that "reflect a mature, body-wide response to pain." It is her view that fetuses "deserve the benefit of the doubt regarding their experience of pain and protection from cruelty under the law."
The public basically believes the same thing. In Texas, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found 62 percent of people support the ban. Nationwide, even a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 59 percent support a ban after 20 weeks. A Gallup poll late last year found that 64 percent think abortion should be illegal after 12 weeks.
There is nothing outlandish or — assuming its supporters don't make suicidally stupid rhetorical mistakes — politically risky about the Texas law. It includes an exception for the health of the mother and for extreme fetal abnormality. Asked on "Meet the Press" about a federal version of the Texas ban, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid notably took a pass in criticizing it. On this topic at least, the formerly pro-life Democrat displays more political and moral sense than his party's heroine of the hour from Texas.
Wendy Davis always couches her position, of course, in terms of reproductive "health." In the very same breath, though, she opposes a provision of the Texas law requiring that abortion clinics meet the same standards as outpatient surgical centers. Since abortion involves outpatient surgery, this would seem an uncontroversial measure, especially given that Democrats favor the strict regulation of practically every other business and activity in America.
The provision is drawn from the recommendations of the Gosnell grand-jury report that wanted tighter controls to prevent the kind of butchery that it had investigated from happening again. The requirements, like wider hallways, aren't frivolous. One of Kermit Gosnell's "patients" bled to death because his clinic couldn't properly accommodate a hospital gurney. Whistle-blowers from an abortion clinic in Houston have told horror stories reminiscent of Gosnell's unspeakable practices.
If the balance of the Democratic Party weren't invested in protecting abortion as a kind of secular sacrament — "sacred ground," as Nancy Pelosi calls it — it would recoil from Wendy Davis in embarrassment. Instead, it lionizes her. And why not? She exemplifies its moral and political bankruptcy on this issue.


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Lobbyists keep busy during offseason
TALLAHASSEE — It might be the closest thing to an offseason for Florida lawmakers and lobbyists.
With the 2013 legislative session put to rest, the Capitol hallways and committee rooms were mostly quiet in July, August and September. What's more, the full slate of legislative elections was still a year away.
But that relative calm did not stop the business of lobbying. Millions of dollars continued flowing during the three-month period from businesses, associations and local governments to lobbying firms that are hired to look out for their interests in Tallahassee, according to newly filed reports.
Three firms — Ballard Partners, Ronald L. Book PA and Southern Strategy Group — each reported receiving at least $1 million in fees during the period, as they represented clients ranging from Florida Power & Light to Al Estes Bail Bonds in Clearwater.
Lobbying firms are required to file quarterly reports with the state that give a glimpse of the fees they receive, with a deadline passing Friday for reports from the third quarter of the year. It is difficult, if not impossible, to decipher the exact amounts that firms collect because they mostly report income in ranges — for example, $1 to $9,999 and $10,000 to $19,999.
But exact amounts are required to be filed when firms receive fees of $50,000 or more. As an example, the Book firm reported receiving $75,000 during the third quarter from the AutoNation car-dealer chain and $50,000 from Florida Power & Light.
Similarly, Ballard Partners reported receiving $75,000 during the period from Automated HealthCare Solutions, a South Florida company that supplies technology that doctors use in dispensing medications to patients. Lawmakers this spring passed a bill aimed at ending a long-running controversy about the costs of such drugs dispensed to workers-compensation insurance patients.
But more common than the large fees paid by some companies are the smaller amounts paid by dozens of other clients of the firms. Southern Strategy, for instances, received fees from more than 100 clients during the third quarter, with the clients as diverse as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and Jacksonville's Casbah Café Inc., according to the reports.
Along with the three firms that reported receiving more than $1 million during the quarter, 11 others brought in between $500,000 and $999,999. Also, 19 others collected between $250,000 and $499,999, the reports show.


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Life Comes at You Fast (Part III)
One of the other factors in my lengthy hiatus was seasonal: the annual ritual of trial advocacy competitions!
Some of you might remember back in February of last year I penned this bittersweet entry celebrating the accomplishments of some students I coached in the TYLA National Trial Competition, but sharing my disappointment that my talents were being used to benefit UNCCH Law rather than my own alma mater.
Well this year was… interesting.
The folks at UNCCH Law plan ahead, and had contacted me at the beginning of last August to ask if I'd come back for the 2015 competition. And me, being the naïve person I am, told them to give me some time so I could check with NCCU Law — just in case the whole "us kicking NCCU's rears" would prompt them to let me come home.
(cue the "LOL!"s)
I hit up my old coach to ask for his advice. We met over lunch to talk that week, and he told me to hold off with the acceptance; he was going to step down as coach, and wanted to recommend me as his replacement. All I'd need to do is contact the advisor for the Trial Advocacy Board and let her know.
So I do. And get her voicemail.
A week goes by without a response. I call again. Voicemail.
A few more days go by, and I stop by the school in person. She's teaching a class so I leave a note.
Another week goes by without a response.
It was around the third week in August when I learn that Prof CrimLaw had now been made the new Dean of our clinical programs (which also has responsibility for our competition teams), so I reached out to him. He suggested I contact a different professor who is now in charge of overseeing competition programs for everybody across both the Trial Advocacy Board and the Moot Court Board — and that, whatever she says, not to feel any shame or regret for working for a different law school. "That's what we do as lawyers."
So I call the other professor. She actually answers the phone ( ) and asks me to give her until that Friday. Then actually calls me back when she said she would!
Just to tell me that the first professor told her my old coach was coming back for another year…
(cue the "#dafuq?"s)
Now this call to me happened around 3pm-ish. Keep that in mind.
I email UNCCH my acceptance that afternoon and resign myself to going another year without helping my own alma mater.
The following Monday I text my old coach and say "Guess I'll be seeing y'all in Charleston" — and almost immediately get a text back, even though it's during work hours and he's rarely that quick with a response. "Call me after lunch."
We connect later that afternoon, and he's just as confused as I am. Turns out no one from NCCU Law had contacted him until after they had told me he was coming back. But he hadn't changed his mind: he still wasn't coming back, so he asked if I still wanted to coach NCCU (duh). I'd already emailed my acceptance to UNCCH though and couldn't break my commitment to them.
(cue the sad trombones)
Well fast forward to the end of January. I survive the car drama and make it down to Charleston. Both TYLA teams do admirably well under the circumstances but neither advance. I drive back feeling like I failed.
Then about two weeks later I get a call from NCCU.
Turns out the AAJ coaches had quit unexpectedly, and no one seemed to notice until a month after the problem packet had been released. The second professor asked if I'd be willing to step in (duh again). Given the short timing I bring in EIC as a co-coach, we get started about a month after everyone else…
…and make it to the Regional Finals for the first time since 1998.
(cue the victory trumpets)
At various points during the month of February, EIC and I both had our doubts. Really right up until competition (the last practice did not go well at all).
But then when the first round happened, she and I were both totally blown away. So much so that we both did a look at each other like "Where did this come from??"
And then did it again in the 2nd round. And again in the 3rd. And again in the semifinals.1 When it was all said and done, a new plaque was getting added to the trophy case at the law school.
There's a lot getting glossed over here simply because this entry is pushing 1,000 words and I realize many of you won't actually read that far. But trust me when I say it was a busy-but-interesting Spring semester
So after two years of coaching, of two law schools, in two different competitions, I've had the privilege of helping a batch of proto-lawyers make the regional finals both years. I'm going to count that as a 100% success rate.
Now we'll just see if NCCU Law finally lets me come back for 2016…
Good night y'all!
From the law:/dev/null competition-related archives:
- Life Comes at You Fast (Part III) (05/28/15) [this post]
- A Mercenary's Lament (02/11/14)
- Going out on a W (04/01/12)
- Greetings from Washington (briefly)! (02/26/12)
- NCCU Law 1Ls *sweep* Kilpatrick-Townsend competition!! (01/15/12)
- When polysyllabic surnames attack! (10/03/11)
- Wrong man. Wrong place. Wrong time. (05/05/11)
- Getting caught up (03/12/11)
- NCCU Law 1Ls take Silver (again) in K-S competition! (02/22/11)
- The #omgwut continues… (02/21/11)
- Top 10 works for me! (02/20/11)
- 2 out of 3 ain't bad… (02/19/11)
- "It's a Small World After All" (02/18/11)
- Game Time (02/17/11)
- TYLA! ::happy dance:: (11/09/10)
- Making lemons into lemonade (10/07/10)
- Scaling the wall, redux (09/19/10)
- And litigators do this everyday?? (09/18/10)
- Alice in Wonderland (03/24/10)
- NCCU Law 1Ls take Silver in K-S competition (01/17/10)
- Success!! (Redux) (01/15/10)
- Success (01/14/10)
- Getting into competition mode (12/30/09)
- "Just because everyone else is doing it…" (11/23/09)
- We eventually lost to Wake Forest Law in the final round, whose team was actually quite good. [↩]


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Fortunately our house has held up well during two hurricanes now, Irene and Sandy. We haven't had to deal with flooding or leaks.
Now take our pets into consideration with hurricanes and you can say we aren't so lucky. Right before Hurricane Irene passed through the area in 2011, our Roborovski hamster Henrietta started to get sick and she passed away the night we had a tornado warning.
Just recently, my cat, Lily, started to eat less and less. When Lily was a young cat, she was diagnosed with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (known as FIV) during her first vet visit in 2007. At that time, the vet told me that cats with FIV may be able to live just a few years and some even make it to 10 or 13.
Although I was upset at the time, I was hopeful that Lily would enjoy her life and see her twilight years.
Throughout the past two or three months, Lily had gotten sick twice with a 'cold' or infection resulting in two vet visits. At one visit, the vet said that she either had an infection that was affecting her lymph nodes or she had cancer. Lily had a lump on her belly. We could have gone through tests or X-rays to confirm it was cancer, but I didn't want to spend the money or go through the heartbreak. I took the option of giving the cat antibiotics and thought if those didn't work, then we may be heading down that sad road I wanted to avoid.
The lump disappeared and Lily had her appetite back. Again I was hopeful she would stay healthy. Then we encountered a repeat: she would drink her water, but wouldn't eat a thing. She was losing weight fast and I was faced with a painful decision: do we go with antibiotics or should she be put down? This time her sickness was different. It was like she was a skeleton of herself and when she walked, it was a slow walk. I knew antibiotics were not going to be the solution.
After many thoughts and tears, I was on my way to the vet's with Lily knowing that this would be our last car ride. (Fortunately we were able to get an appointment before the mess of the hurricane hit.) At the vet's office, workers gave their condolences. I waited with Lily in an examination room until the vet arrived. While we were waiting, she didn't look scared like her usual visits. A few times she purred and laid down. It was if she knew she was at a place that could help her and she was at peace. When the vet came to the room, I petted her, gave her a hug and said, 'I love you.' I didn't want to stay for what would happen next.
I miss Lily dearly. When I go into her room she hung out in, I feel the sadness grow since she's not there and I know in a few days we will be getting rid of her belongings so it will be even more empty.
I know my loss of a pet doesn't compare to the loss of a person and those who have lost family in the hurricane are in my thoughts.


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Whether you're a CrossFit junkie or not, you've probably seen the headlines claiming the fitness craze is to blame for extreme numbers of rhabdomyolysis cases. The condition is brought on by extreme exercise that causes muscle breakdown that can lead to kidney damage. But before you cancel your CrossFit membership, keep in mind that the condition is incredibly rare, and Rhabdo (as it's nicknamed) isn't exclusive to CrossFit by any stretch of the imagination. Football players can get it, runners can get it—it's less about what you're doing and more about how you're doing it. Or, rather, how hard you're doing it. Find out about one woman's experience with rhabdomyolysis.
Overtraining—or improperly training—will get you in trouble no matter what your fitness pursuit. Although it is true that CrossFit instructors sometimes nurture the sort of "push to your limit—and then push further" mentality that's more likely to lead to injury, if you adhere to a smart strength-training plan—and focus on quality over quantity—there's no reason you can't stay Rhabdo- and injury-free. Here, five signs your workout is too intense:
You Have to "Cheat"
Pushing yourself is good—it's what makes you fitter. Pushing past your limits however, is just, well, not smart. And there's a very fine line between the two, says Mike Boyle, owner of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Woburn, Massachusetts, and a strength and conditioning coach. The simplest way to stay on the right side of the line is to stop when you reach "technical failure." That means you can bang our as many burpees as your heart desires—until you can no longer do the textbook version of that burpee. "Whatever exercise you're doing should have a prescribed technique," says Boyle. "Don't compromise your technique to get in an extra rep or hit a prescribed number of reps you were given by a coach—that's when you amp up injury risk."
More From Women's Health
You Have Sore Joints
Soreness can be a good thing—it's a sign you're building muscle, getting stronger, and improving as an athlete. But soreness that disrupts normal functioning like being able to go to the restroom—or soreness in your joints (knees, elbows, wrists)—is a totally different beast. "If you can't straighten your arms the next day, that's a problem," says Boyle. So if you worked your biceps, for example, you can expect they'll be a bit achy the next day—but your elbows shouldn't be sore. That's a sign that you were doing the move wrong—or that you did too many reps or lifted too much weight, says Boyle.
You Gain Weight—Fast
We're not talking about your waistline here. Increasing the weight you lift in the gym will help you bust through plateaus—but you shouldn't go up by more than 2.5 to 5 pounds (for women) each week, says Boyle. Just like runners shouldn't increase their mileage by more than 10 percent each week, upping your weights by more than 5 pounds can sideline you in the gym. You have to give your muscles time to adapt to the extra lbs, says Boyle.
You Train Every Day
When it comes to strength training, you shouldn't hit the weights more than three to four times a week. Although it's fine to do some light cardio or yoga on the other days, your body needs time to recover from strength training, says Boyle. And doing it more than four days a week is a surefire way to end up with an injury.
You Push Past Pain
If something hurts, stop, says Boyle. "It seems like an oversimplification, but ask yourself: 'Does it hurt?' If the answer is yes, stop," says Boyle. In other words, while a little soreness is fine, if you can't get up and down stairs or lift your groceries the next day, you should scale back your routine.


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V.A.M. has been saved
ME PoV Spring 2016 issue
Malta is turning the European Union's challenging asset management regulatory landscape into a competitive advantage for your business.
A main objective of the European Union (EU) is to create a level playing field across the entire Union. This is especially evident in the asset management sphere. The Union's directives and regulations ensure that collective investment schemes, asset managers and regulated investment services companies created in any of the member states are regulated under a uniform set of rules, while benefitting from the opportunity to operate within the entire Union. Effectively, a fund or asset manager incorporated and regulated in an EU member state can operate throughout the entire Union. The objective is to eliminate jurisdiction shopping by having the same regulatory framework apply, irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the entity is incorporated and regulated.
While the objective is a noble one, in practice things have panned out differently, and this for a number of reasons. First and foremost there are a myriad of non-regulatory factors, such as fiscal considerations and the cost of operations that weigh in when a promoter is making his choice of jurisdiction.
More importantly, the European Union's challenging and ever changing regulatory regime itself also creates opportunities for efficient and proactive jurisdictions such as Malta to differentiate themselves from other member states.
The background
The regulatory operating landscape within the European Union has experienced a seismic change in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. In the space of seven years the European Commission enacted approximately 40 pieces of legislation and regulation, most of which have generated an average of around 10 technical standards and sub-regulations, making a daunting total of some 400 documents to assimilate, evaluate and comply with when appropriate. Nowhere is this more evidenced than in the asset management sector: regardless of the spate of new regulatory requirements, the entire hedge fund industry now falls under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), whence this sector had not previously been regulated at Union level.
So in this daunting regulatory landscape, how is it that Malta can offer a competitive advantage to financial services firms looking for a European solution?
Firstly, Malta is the EU Member State with a record for efficiency in transposing EU Regulations and Directives into its domestic legislation. Malta has continued to rank top among European Union Member States, having the best transposition record of European Legislation, according to the May 2015 scoreboard published by the European Commission.
The scoreboard benchmarks Union member states' efforts in the implementation of Internal Market Law, by recording the transposition deficit, which is the gap between the number of Internal Market laws adopted at EU level and those in force in the member states.
To name just one example, Malta was the first member state to fully transpose the aforementioned AIFM directive.
There are even more compelling reasons for Malta to be considered as a natural choice for companies seeking to gain a competitive advantage in terms of regulatory challenges in the asset management industry.
Our single best testimonial comes from the industry itself. Regulated companies in Malta repeatedly assert that the big attraction to the industry is the peace of mind with which they are able to deal with regulatory change. This is the result of a well-honed approach that sees all the stakeholders–whether the legislator, the regulator, the various industry bodies, the service providers or the license holders themselves–come together to ensure that regulated entities always have complete visibility, instant access and timely responses on regulatory matters. The country's size ensures that it is nimble and effective, and this is something that is difficult for larger jurisdictions to replicate.
Add to the above the fact that English is an official language in Malta, and that the prevailing company law is based on UK Company Law and it becomes clear why Malta is a favorite destination for promoters looking for a European Union regulatory solution.
That Malta is best in class in transposing and enacting relevant directives in an efficient manner is, for us, a given. Our real strength is the continuous evolvement of our regulatory solutions, enabling market players to find a 'best fit' in terms of the most appropriate channel through which to offer their services.
Let us take the advent of the aforementioned AIFMD as an example.
Apart from having a fully- fledged AIFMD solution, Malta provides, among other things, the following possibilities:
- Re-domiciling non-EU managers and non-EU funds into the European Union. Effectively this is a simple continuation procedure wherein the fund, or manager, transfer their operation to Malta, where they will fall to be licensed and regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority. The continuation is a seamless one wherein the entity retains its track record and there is no requirement for any redemption or realization of any sort.
- Establishing a fully regulated manager and fund outside the scope of AIFMD. Malta has retained its popular Professional Investor Fund regime and as long as the structure falls outside the scope of the directive, it will be possible to continue operating without adhering to the more onerous obligations of the AIFMD.
- Malta does not adopt a one-size fits all approach to regulatory obligations. The principles of proportionality are firmly entrenched in our jurisdiction such that the substance requirements will be firmly in line to the nature and complexity of the operation and the assets being managed.
- Fund platforms that allow the co-existence of fund structures operating under different regimes.
This last point is a very relevant one and a further illustration of Malta's ability to create new products to satisfy market requirements. In this particular sphere Malta has not one, but three different regulatory modules under which a fund platform can be established. These range from the traditional model wherein each sub-fund is legally a separate patrimony of assets, distinct and ring fenced from other sub-funds within the platform, to the more recent incorporated cell concept, where each cell regulated as a fund scheme has its own independent board of directors and is a separate and distinct legal personality at law.
Yet another strong selling point is the plurality of structures available to establish a fund, ranging from a limited liability company with variable share capital, to a partnership, to a mutual fund and beyond.
There is also plenty to look forward to with the Capital Markets Union aiming to bring about greater flexibility and access to the capital markets and the imminent introduction the European Long-term Investment Funds that should open the market of infrastructure investment to the retail market.
In conclusion, Malta has a vibrant financial services sector, with one of its main assets being its robust and yet flexible regulatory regime, enabling you to transform the EU's challenging regulatory regime into a competitive advantage for your business.