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Trust In The Law
Visvaksen P | Updated on January 17, 2018 Published on August 15, 2016
My right In this file photo, a resident of Madurai puts up a notice board outside his house. The board says, "Our vote is not for sale. We will not vote for those who bribe us." But that is not always the case. There have been several instances of cash-for-vote, including in the recently concluded assembly elections in Tamil Nadu - K Ganesan
Indiafile eps
Electoral trusts were set up to bring transparency in political donations. Instead, they have been used to dodge disclosure, writes Visvaksen P
Over the first week of January 2009, residents of the small, poll-bound town of Thirumangalam in Tamil Nadu, woke up to newspapers. Even households that had never subscribed, or were illiterate, found a crisp copy at their porch, each of them stuffed with currency notes and a party symbol. "I have five votes in my family," a leaked American diplomatic cable quotes a voter as saying. "So I should get ₹25,000, which will pay for my daughter's marriage."
Cash for votes is a way of political life in India. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee once said in Parliament, "Every legislator starts his career with the lie of the false election return he files," acknowledging the constant violation of campaign expenditure ceilings by political parties.
While the law specifies an upper limit on how much a candidate can spend, it does not regulate the spending of political parties on the candidate's behalf. This loophole leads to inflated campaign bills. One estimate pegs the cost of the India's last General Elections in 2014 at close to ₹30,000 crore, about 10 times what it was in 1996.
Most of the money spent by parties on their campaigns is untraceable as they claim to receive close to 75 per cent of their funding in the form of cash donations of up to ₹20,000 that do not need to be disclosed. And even if there is a sliver of accountable funding, regulatory loopholes ensure that the money trail can be obfuscated.
One such avenue is an electoral trust, a supposedly independent and transparent entity through which an individual or a company can donate to political parties. But an investigation by BusinessLine over three months showed that the trusts have ended up as a conduit for political donations and channelling money, often untraceable, from companies to parties.
According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, there are 25 such electoral trusts operating in India at the moment. Only 18 of them are present on the list of trusts published by the Election Commission (EC). None of them has a website or publicly listed contact details. BusinessLine reached out to most of them, but just one responded.
Who's funding the party
Trust Name Party Name Year
The chart represents the donations made by electoral trusts to political parties, as well as the donations received by the parties over the years. The thicker the band, the larger the contribution made or received. All you have to do is follow the trail, and hover over the bands to know the amount contributed.
For instance, the General Electoral Trust has made a donation of Rs 97.27 crore to BJP and Rs 91.09 crore to Congress since 2004. Overall, the trusts represented here have made a contribution of Rs 515 crore over the past decade to 15 political parties. According to data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), donations peaked in 2008-09 and again in 2013-14.
Note -- 'Other Trusts': Bharti Electoral Trust, Corporate Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust, Jan Pragati Electotal Trust and Triumph Electoral Trust. 'Other Parties': BJD, JDU, JMM, JVM, LJP, RJD, SP, SS and TDP.
Data Visualisation: Mahima A Jain | Data: ADR
During the 2014 elections, six national political parties declared ₹622 crore as donations. About 40 per cent of that, about ₹250 crore, came from two sources — Satya Electoral Trust and General Electoral Trust.
The Satya Electoral Trust has received donations from multiple companies such as the Bharti Group, DLF and Hero MotoCorp. Though registered, the Trust has disclosed little. BusinessLine wrote to Mukul Goyal, a director at the Trust, and called at his office, but got no response.
General Electoral Trust (GET), on the other hand, is untraceable. The trust has never filed a report detailing the contributors and recipients of its funds, and neither is it registered with the Election Commission. Set up in 1998, General Electoral Trust is virtually a ghost in the system. Though media reports have associated the Trust with the Aditya Birla Group, the latter's spokesperson insisted that the GET operates independently, outside of the Group's purview.
According to a senior bureaucrat who previously served on the EC,"Trusts were created to introduce an additional layer between political parties and companies so that people cannot know who has given money to whom."
Close a leak and another sprouts
The electoral trust system can be traced back to a public interest litigation filed by activist HD Shourie on behalf of the NGO Common Cause in 1995. On New Year's Eve that year, the Supreme Court issued notices to political parties in the country, asking them to account for their income and expenditure in accordance with the Income Tax Act. Though the law has required such filings for over a decade and a half, few had complied.
Within a fortnight of the order, the finances of political parties became a matter of public record. The case concluded with a landmark judgement that coerced parties into regular disclosures by linking them to their campaign ceiling and income tax exemptions. Simply put, the parties could continue to avoid being taxed and spend as they saw fit on behalf of their candidates, as long as the spending could be accounted for.
Two months after the Common Cause judgement, the Tata Group pioneered a new method of political contribution. They set up the Electoral Trust, an independent entity that would channel funds from Tata Group companies to political parties without any mention of the original donor company's name on the balance sheets of the parties. The trust also sheltered companies from the scrutiny of their shareholders. Though their annual reports include details on political contributions, the beneficiary column now just had the name of the trust, instead that of political parties.
Over the next decade, according to data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a NGO, several other leading corporate houses set up electoral trusts. ADR's analysis of data released by the EC shows that between 2004-05 and 2011-12, six of these trusts — functioning without any regulatory oversight — allowed companies to contribute more than ₹100 crore to various political parties. Of this, nearly ₹50 crore was donated in the run-up to the 2009 General Elections.
Half-hearted regulation
In July 2009, Pranab Mukherjee presented the first budget of the UPA's second innings in office. Lost amidst the massive allocations to the food security and employment guarantee schemes, was a measure that proposed to make donations to electoral trusts tax-exempt. In 2013, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) formally notified the electoral trust scheme.
While the tax exemptions granted to the trusts were enshrined in law, disclosure norms remained mere guidelines, with no penal provision. "India is one of the very few countries that provide 100 per cent tax exemption to corporate political donations. It should follow naturally that you also impose a penalty for non-disclosure which the law doesn't provide for," says Jayaprakash Narayan, a former MLA in Andhra Pradesh who campaigned extensively for electoral reforms.
Narayan points out that this "is a very corrupt system running on black money in which there is a lot of extortion of companies by political parties." And that is why, adds Harsh Srivastava, a former consultant to the Planning Commission, "Everybody should have a trust." The head of Corporate Affairs at Feedback INFRA says a trust "allows for systematic distribution of funds and shields the company from shareholder and political backlash generated by their donations."
The year after the new regime was introduced, the number of corporate-backed electoral trusts doubled.
The trust and its incarnations
The Tatas' Progressive Electoral Trust (which replaced the earlier Trust after the 2009 law) is probably the poster child of this approach towards campaign finance. It donates the funds it receives from group companies on the basis of a formula. "Before the election, one half of the distributable funds are disbursed to political parties on the basis of the seats held by them," explains Dinesh Vyas, Trustee of Progressive Electoral Trust. "After the election, the remaining funds are distributed on the basis of percentage of seats won." The trust's adherence on its formula-based approach appears to be so stringent that it donated ₹27 lakh to the Trinamool Congress on the basis of its performance in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, barely a year after party supremo Mamata Banerjee led a high-profile campaign against the proposed Nano car factory in West Bengal.
But not all electoral trusts are made equal. Satya Electoral Trust, for example received donations from multiple corporate groups including DLF and Indiabulls. But it is impossible to ascertain which company's money has ended up with which party — and whether the companies influenced that division of funds — based on the limited public disclosures the trust is required to make by law.
The Public and Political Awareness Trust, operated by the UK-based Vedanta Group, presents another example of how electoral trusts can be used to dodge regulatory norms. The trust donated ₹35 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party between 2003-04 and 2012-13 according to disclosures made by the party to the EC. It received its corpus from companies like Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries — which have majority foreign stake-holding and are therefore ineligible to donate to Indian political parties.
In March, the Delhi High Court ruled that parties had violated the Foreign Contribution Regulatory Act in receiving these funds and ordered the Home Ministry to take action within six months. Though an appeal in the Supreme Court is pending, the Government has effectively nullified the verdict through Clause 233 of the 2016 Union Budget, which retrospectively legalised foreign contributions to political parties.
A ghost in the system
Mohandas Pai, former CFO of Infosys and investor, describes electoral trusts as being 'less than the full measure' required for clean political finance. "Companies should invest in the democratic process by giving to all parties. But instead they use means like electoral trusts to give to one party over another, which is morally and ethically wrong. A company cannot have politics."
And yet if the functioning of the General Electoral Trust is any indication, the political compulsions of the company can be at odds with the independence of a trust. Despite the Trust's claimed independence from the Aditya Birla Group, its address on several political parties' donor reports is listed as the same Chruchgate Reclamation premises that houses the Group headquarters. Additionally, documents filed by the BJP with the EC reveal that the trust has made at least one donation under a PAN belonging to UltraTech Cement, an Aditya Birla company.
"Normally it is the company that decides who to donate to," says Julio Ribeiro, former Commissioner of Mumbai Police, who has been a trustee at General since its inception. "There is a committee of the Birlas that makes a recommendation and the trustees sanction it."
A Right To Information request filed by BusinessLine revealed that the Trust does not exist as far as the EC is concerned. A separate RTI filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak earlier this year also showed that the Trust hasn't registered with the CBDT. Ribeiro acknowledged that the Aditya Birla Group is aware that General Electoral Trust is not registered, insisting that they were told it was "not necessary." He also stated that, according to the Group, the EC's disclosure requirements were for political parties and did not apply to electoral trusts. Ribeiro added that since the Trust did not claim tax exemptions, it was not required to disclose its contributions. BusinessLine was unable to verify whether General had paid tax on its contributions. When contacted, officials at the CBDT agreed to respond to queries, but hadn't till the time of going to the press.
Who will guard the guards?
While some of the trusts may be violating the guidelines laid down by the EC and the CBDT, the real problem here is the toothless regulation. "The IT Act has been amended to provide for tax relief on donations to the electoral trusts. However, there is no disclosure provision under the Representation of People Act (RPA) corresponding to the changes in the income tax laws," notes a March 2015 report of the Law Commission which was looking into the subject of electoral reforms. In effect, this means that while the rights of the trusts are enshrined in law, their responsibilities towards transparency are mere lines in the sand.
"Additionally, the only penalty prescribed for non-submission of an annual report of contributions to the ECI… is that 'adverse notice shall be taken' of the failure to comply with the instructions." The report recommended amendments to the RPA that would ensure that errant trusts lost tax benefits and faced fines and prospect of a ban.
Like a vast majority of the other recommendations contained in the report, the proposals are nowhere close to implementation. "There is no penal action possible as of now," says the former Election Commission official quoted earlier. "The politicians did not create such a provision knowing very well that this is a layer that has been created so that the opaqueness is increased and people don't know who is giving to whom."
However, the official also insists that the Election Commission's hands aren't entirely tied. "It depends on how proactive the EC is. Some former Commissioners have taken the view that Article 324 (which defines the powers of the EC) encompasses all the aspects where the law is not there so it can be applied wherever there is a vacancy." The Election Commission declined to comment on this issue and simply referred to a copy of the official guidelines instead.
Speaking to a news magazine at the height of the Common Cause case, petitioner HD Shourie said that he had initiated the litigation simply because "he wanted to know why political parties weren't following the rules."
As he would have realised, when rules are framed by those they are meant to regulate, there will always be ways to get around them.
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Home›Travel›Africa Seeks Tourism Boom
Africa Seeks Tourism Boom
The African continent boast one of the world's greatest attractions, from the Pyramids and Victoria Falls to wildlife safaris and endless strips of pristine beach, but it only attracts just 5 per cent of the world's tourists.
However, as Africa continues to boost its tourism, during an African tourism conference hosted by Airbnb in Cape Town last month, the continent's huge potential can be unlocked by eco tourism, cultural experiences, domestic travel and political stability.
"When you look at the success stories, it's those countries who've embraced trends," said the African Tourism Association's (ATA) managing director Naledi Khabo who spoke at the summit.
"When you look at some countries which have made sustainability a focal point, like Tanzania, or Rwanda, they're very attractive for certain travellers."
According to the latest report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Africa's hotel sector is growing and will flourish in the next five years. The potential growth of the hotel sector in the region is attributed to the increase in both foreign and local travellers, as well as the expansion of various hotel brands.
PwC predicts hotel room revenue for the five major markets – South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya and Tanzania – will likely increase by 7.4% to $3.5 billion in 2022.
"Tourism to the African continent has proven to be resilient in the face of economic and political uncertainty, impacts of droughts and other regulatory changes. The opportunities are aplenty for this industry to enjoy further growth albeit at a more modest pace," said Pietro Calicchio, hospitality industry leader for PwC Southern Africa.
"However, as we continue to see there are also a number of challenges facing each country. This is an industry that is reactive to the smallest change in political, regulatory, safety and sustainability matters."
Experts agreethat currently, the hotel and tourism sectors in the aforementioned countries are showing strong signs of continued growth. Tourism is bound to remain an important driver of the African economy.
However, the smallest disruption in this can have a significant impact on the growth of each market.
"It is therefore important that investors, hotel operators, tourism bodies and governments continue to work together to grow this important industry and ensure its sustainability so that all stakeholders derive the maximum benefit from it," Calicchio said.
Eco-friendly safaris and carbon-neutral lodging draw increasing numbers of tourists from Europe and North America. While Africa is sometimes an often overlooked destination for some sun and warmth, it is the perfect destination for Canadians who are faced with the cold and dark winter.
Since 2006, the number of tourists visiting Tanzania has more than doubled to over one million contributing 14 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to Tanzania Invest.
Khabo, who represents the African tourism sector, said other tourism success stories included South Africa, "which is promoting the diversification of their products beyond the safari".
South Africa has witnessed a surge of experience-based tours, taking travellers on tours to disadvantaged township and rural communities as well as wine farms and game lodges.
Founder of 4RoomEkasi, Abigail Mbalosaid she created the concept to showcase food and lifestyles in South Africa's black communities to visitors.
"We tapped into the development of tourism in rural and township spaces," she said. "We are now starting to see cultural inclusivity. Those areas have been untapped."
For poor black South Africans, tourism is their major employer and accounts for nearly 700,000 jobs—a quite rare success story in a country with a high unemployment rate of almost 27 per cent.
During the summit, The World Bank, commended the rising trend for community-based travel projects like Mbalo's for creating opportunities for women and young people.
"Every new business, destination, route or visitor creates opportunity for local people," said the World Bank in a statement.
A lot of African destinations have encouraged the usage of foreign visitors' hard currency, but Kenya has invested heavily in promoting what is termed "staycations".
The country moved to promote domestic travel after a decline in foreign arrivals following violent unrest and criminal attacks in recent years.
"We have managed to develop the domestic market. About 21% of Airbnb occupancy is domestic market. It's benefiting us," said Kenya's Tourism Minister Najib Balala at the conference.
In 2017 tourism sector was worth $1.2bn and is now the second-largest driver of Kenya's GDP growth.
But many African countries have struggled to attract foreign visitors fearful of political instability, violence and terrorism.
"The biggest challenge is perception," said Khabo. "Sometimes there is a real threat and sometimes it's just perceived."
However, Rwanda is one of the 'troubled' African countries that have successfully transformed its global image. Torn apart by a genocide in 1994, the small east African nation has since established itself as a high-end tourist destination.
"Tourism is the number one foreign exchange earner, which is amazing to see in a country like Rwanda," said Rosette Rugamba who was appointed by President Paul Kagame as head of Rwanda Tourism from 2003 to 2010.
"It is a huge contributor to the image-building of our country."
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Deep-dive explorer reaches deepest part of the ocean ever explored by man — and finds plastic trash
By Brian Niemietz
Victor Vescovo's besides his deep ocean submersible "Limiting Factor." Forget mermaids, pirate treasure and lost cities. A deep sea diver fresh off exploring the lowest point of the ocean floor ever walked on by mankind returned to report it's littered with man made trash. (Tamara Stubbs)
Forget mermaids, pirate treasure and lost cities. A deep sea diver fresh off exploring the lowest point of the ocean floor ever walked on by mankind returned to report it's littered with manmade trash.
American explorer Victor Vescovo set a record by piloting a one-man submersible 7 miles deep into the southern end of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, where he found four species of previously undiscovered fish swimming around plastic bags and candy wrappers, according to CNN.
The 53-year-old adventurer's May 1 dive is thought to have broken the deep-dive record previously held by "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron, who reached a depth of roughly 6.8 miles in 2012. He, too, explored the Pacific's Mariana Trench, which is more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall.
Victor Vescovo and his vessel above the Mariana Trench after the successful dive. The 53-year-old adventurer's May 1 dive is thought to have broken the deep-dive record previously held by "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron, who reached a depth of roughly 6.8 miles in 2012. He too explored the Pacific's Mariana Trench, which is more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall. (Jolliefet Reeve)
Cameron called what he saw "a completely alien world" that was cold, dark and inhabited by "shrimp-like animals" that scavenge for food.
Vescovo, traveling in a vessel called The Limiting Factor, found similar bottom-feeding prawn-like creatures as well as sea cucumbers, which his team plans to test for plastic consumption. He also found peace and quiet.
"Towards the end, I simply turned the thrusters off, leaned back in the cockpit, and enjoyed a tuna fish sandwich while I very slowly drifted just above the bottom of the deepest place on earth, enjoying the view and appreciating what the team had done technically," Vescovo told CNN.


Mueller Airport
Type: Historic Site
Rating: (3.00)1
Cost: N/A
Years In Use: 1930-1999
Year Destroyed: 2002
Open To The Public: No
Historical Marker: No
ADA Accessible: N/A
Bikes Allowed: N/A
Dogs Allowed: N/A
Interpretive Guide: N/A
Address: Manor Road
City: Austin
County: Travis
Log Your Visit
Topo maps provided by MyTopo.com (purchase) Larger Map Order a topo map
The sign at the airport entrance off of Airport Blvd. Future generations will wonder why the street is named that.
In the early 20th century airplanes were the transportation method of the future and having a first-class airport was the sign of a prosperous city. The problem was that Austin did not have much to speak of in terms of a city airport in the 1920's. City leaders and local citizens changed that when they set into motion the development of what would be Austin's airport for almost 70 years. Mueller Airport provided service to Austin up until its closure in 1999 when Austin Bergstrom Airport opened near Del Valle.
The current location of Mueller Airport was first utilized for aviation use in 1926 when the Austin Air Service operated on 40 leased acres that were to become the northwest end of the airport.
The control tower of Mueller was a distinctive shape on the skyline of Austin.
In 1928 Austin voters approved bonds that would be used to purchase land that would become Mueller Airport. City officials began surveying for appropriate sites and securing options on land. Outside help was used to decide on the most promising sites. Claire Chennault, who would later go on to fame as head of the Flying Tigers in World War II, recommended Mueller's present location over the other options.
The airport officially opened on October 14, 1930. The airport was named for Robert Mueller, a city council member who passed away in 1926. At the time the airport facilities included one small building smaller than most houses today, a gasoline pump and gravel runways.
Over the years the facilities at Mueller have improved with the times. The airport's distinctive control tower was part of a terminal dedication in 1961 that was attended by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson. However, improving the facilities at the airport was not enough to stave off closure. The airport was simply ill placed for modern day Austin.
Parking at Mueller is not a problem. Feel free to pull right up to the terminal.
What was open farm land in the 1920's was now the center of town, with upset residents all around it. A drive down I-35 was not complete without an airliner buzzing overhead. As the airport needs of the city continued to grow there was simply no place to go.
Several old support buildings remain on the northern edge of the airport off of 51st Street. This old hanger used to have some painted identification on the side that has badly faded.
Near that same time a series of events were set into motion that seemed fortuitous. In a cost saving measure, the military was closing bases across the country and Bergstrom Air Force base was on the cut list. In the 1940's the city of Austin donated the land to the US government for use as an air base with the stipulation that it be returned to the city when no longer used. With the base closure the city had land already paid for that was farther from the center of town and that already had runways more than large enough for most modern jet liners. Mueller was doomed.
As of August 2002, the buildings of the old airport largely remain, but they are in the process of being torn down with parts being sold off when possible. Anybody want to buy a "part" of an airport?
The city has big plans for the hundreds of acres that will now be freed up so close to the center of town. A master plan has been in the works for a few years. If you'd like to see the remains of this once great airport you had better get out there before the memories fly away.
The old control tower still stands amongst houses and apartments. (Photo by heatharcadia)
A closer view of the top of the control tower. Chances are that most of the electronics have already been removed, but a few antennas remain. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
This is where passengers would be picked up and dropped off. Fences now block the path and keep people from getting a closer look. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
The opposite side of the curb side drop off lanes. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
During our visit the main terminal was in the process of being gutted and hauled off. These rows of chairs were just sitting outside. I think the new airport could use some! (Photo by Austin Explorer)
Most of the demolition during our visit was taking place on the airport gates behind the mail terminal. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
This rental booth was destroyed by vandals and not a demolition crew. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
Parking is now free at the old airport. Feel free to continue through without paying. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
Later, as the terminal was being torn apart, the control tower was spared, at least temporarily. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
Looking down what used to be the drop off ramp the full extent of the terminal demolition can be seen. (Photo by Austin Explorer)
Now it's a neighborhood and shopping center(s)
By heatharcadia on 12/31/2015
I remember coming here so many times as a child to see my dad off on his business trips. It is now a housing development and shopping center. Thankfully, the old control tower still stands and they still put the NOEL lights up on it for Christmas.
Austin, Cleared for Takeoff: Aviators, Businessmen, and the Growth of an American City (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture, No. 14)
Kenneth B. Ragsdale
List Price: $30.00 Your price: $22.37
Austin, Texas, entered the aviation age on October 29, 1911, when Calbraith Perry Rodgers landed his Wright EX Flyer in a vacant field near the present-day intersection of Duval and 45th Streets. Some 3,000 excited people rushed out to see the pilot and his plane, much like the hundreds of thousands who mobbed Charles A. Lindbergh and The Spirit of St. Louis in Paris sixteen years later. Though no one that day in Austin could foresee all the changes that would result from manned flight, people here—as in cities and towns across the United States—realized that a new era was opening, and they greeted it with all-out enthusiasm.


527 F. 2d 11 - Sloan v. Securities & Exchange Commission
527 F2d 11 Sloan v. Securities & Exchange Commission
527 F.2d 11
Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 95,327
Samuel H. SLOAN, Petitioner,
SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION, Respondent.
No. 98, Docket 74--2457.
Decided Oct. 15, 1975.
Samuel H. Sloan, pro se.
Michael J. Stewart, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Securities & Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C. (Lawrence E. Nerheim, Gen. Counsel, David Ferber, Sol., Thomas L. Taylor, III, Atty., Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C.), for respondent.
Before MOORE, MULLIGAN and VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges.
Samuel H. Sloan, plaintiff-appellant pro se, no stranger to this court, instituted this action essentially to protest a series of SEC suspension-of-trading orders imposed on the stock of Canadian Javelin, Ltd. ('CJL'), a Canadian corporation, in which Sloan dealt extensively.
The SEC has the statutory authority summarily to suspend trading in a stock on national exchanges or in the over-the-counter markets; at the time the events in question transpired, such suspensions could run up to ten days. Formerly Securities Exchange Act of 1934 §§ 15(c)(5) and 19(a)(4), 15 U.S.C. §§ 78o(c) (5) and 78s(a)(4).1 On November 29, 1973, the SEC issued its first ten-day suspension in CJL stock because of its finding that CJL had issued false and misleading press releases. These suspensions were issued anew every ten days, so that trading in CJL stock was suspended in an unbroken period through January 26, 1975; the following day trading was permitted to resume.
But not for long. On April 30 of the same year, the SEC again initiated a series of ten-day suspensions that has continued until the present day; this second series of suspensions allegedly was instituted to allow dissemination of information about regulatory action against CJL by Canadian authorities, although the record is unclear on this point.
Sloan engaged in extensive transactions with CJL stock, including short selling, which were frustrated by the suspension orders.2 Sloan, in addition to other actions, has initiated the instant proceeding in this court to obtain review of the suspension orders, pursuant to the 1934 Act § 25(a), 15 U.S.C. § 78y(a), as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 78y(a)(1) (Pub.L. No. 94--29, § 20, 89 Stat. 158 (June 4, 1975)).
We consider his blunderbuss attack frivolous except for his allegation that the 'tacking' of ten-day summary suspension orders by the SEC for an indefinite period constitutes an abuse of that agency's authority and a deprivation of due process. Apparently this question has never been judicially considered and would seem not to be frivolous; see 2 L. Loss, Securities Regulation 854--55 (2d ed. 1961). We cannot decide it on the record before us. The record is entirely silent as to the reasons for the second series of suspensions, commencing in April of this year; we cannot tell whether they are based on substantial evidence, and hence cannot decide if they amount to an abuse of discretion by the SEC. Sloan's pleadings also cover only the first series of suspensions, which now have terminated. It may be that Sloan intends to challenge the series of suspensions currently in effect as well. Moreover there was no hearing (or any other proceeding) below before the SEC itself; in fact, there was at the time no formal statutory provision for any such proceeding involving suspension orders.3 Nonetheless, the SEC on this appeal has indicated that it is willing in fact to grant Sloan some sort of administrative hearing, thus satisfying any possible exhaustion requirement4 while also contributing to the record we now find insurmountably sparse.
We therefore dismiss Sloan's appeal but without prejudice to his repleading after an administrative hearing before the SEC, from which judicial review may be sought.
The relevant sections are now §§ 12(j) and (k) of the 1934 Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78l(j) and (k); these sections were added by amendment in 1975, Pub.L. No. 94--29 § 9, 89 Stat. 118 (June 4, 1975). The latter of these two sections substantially repeats the earlier ten-day suspension provisions; the former gives the SEC the new power to suspend trading in a stock for up to one year, after notice and a hearing
We think therefore that Sloan satisfies the standing requirement of the 1934 Act § 25(a), 15 U.S.C. § 78y(a) (as amended in 1975, Pub.L. No. 94--29, § 20, 89 Stat. 158 (June 4, 1975)) to seek court review of these SEC orders, since he was 'aggrieved' thereby
We note that some sort of hearing is now required for the up-to-one-year suspensions authorized by the 1975 amendments to the 1934 Act, see note 1 supra. However, this requirement postdated Sloan's action here, and in any event is not applicable to ten-day suspensions
We do not suggest, nor need we decide, that such a requirement necessarily exists. But see the 1934 Act's new section 25(c)(1) (formerly § 25(a)), 15 U.S.C. § 78y(c)(1) (as amended in 1975)


Home : Local News Feeds : Classrooms: Amherst educator named teacher champion for district gardening program
Classrooms: Amherst educator named teacher champion for district gardening program
Published by CISA under Agriculture, Amherst, Especially for Kids, Food in the Pioneer Valley, Health and Wellness, Local News Feeds
By SCOTT MERZBACH, Staff Writer, Daily Hampshire Gazette, September 10, 2019
AMHERST — A program entering its fourth year that shows Amherst elementary school children how to dig in soil, watch plants grow and get pleasure from being outdoors also has another benefit — it teaches them about where their food comes from.
Though Jennifer Reese, elementary science and garden coordinator, said joys and connections of gardening are still at the heart of the district garden program that began in fall 2016, promoting systemic changes has become a powerful motivator in developing the program with co-creator Leila Tunnell.
"We've learned how gardening impacts children's food choices and intersects with food justice, and understand our opportunities and responsibilities in new ways," Reese said.
This was illustrated recently when Reese became one of 11 educators across the state to earn a teacher champion award from Project Bread, a nonprofit organization that aims to have all children in the state get healthy meals year-round. The awards come through a partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
According to Project Bread, one child in nine across the state lives in a food-insecure household, and children who attend school hungry have less focus and face learning challenges in the classroom.
Reese said she appreciates that Project Bread, which has worked with school districts to increase participation in the school breakfast and summer food service programs with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is effecting meaningful change in Massachusetts, and that it is wonderful to have their support.
But she said that the award should also be seen as a celebration of the school garden ecosystem that includes Tunnell, teachers and administrators, community partners, interns, students and the Amherst Education Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation, which have provided grants.
For instance, last year Reese got $5,000 from the Amherst Education Foundation so all second-grade students could have year-round garden-based learning, including universally accessible raised beds at each school, and go on field trips to Brookfield Farm. The curriculum built on lessons individual teachers used in kindergarten and first grade so second graders would have the opportunity to learn about the local ecosystem, food sources, collaboration and problem-solving.
In spring 2018, a garden as outdoor learning space at Wildwood Elementary School was built with assistance from students at the Department of Architecture at the University of Massachusetts.
The recent Project Bread award comes with a $1,000 cash prize that can be used to invest in a nutrition program within the district, as well as a $500 stipend for personal use.
Erin McAleer, president of Project Bread, said in a statement that teachers play an important role in fighting childhood hunger because they are strong advocates for children.
"But they need proper support, resources and partnerships to make a difference for their students, without compromising their primary role as educators," McAleer said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.


Tension built upon whether the main character will commit suicide or not. Problem: I'm using first person narrative
I'm writing a novel, called Animal Suicide, about a girl who tried to commit suicide but then postponed the plan after a phone call she received. Everything OK. But then I realized...wait a minute...this is 1st person narrative, obviously she cannot die. Can I still create tension (will the reader eventually "forget" about this)? Or should I change the narration to the present tense (that way it is possible for the main character to die)?
(Here's the short story version for those who are interested.)
Alexandro Chen
Alexandro ChenAlexandro Chen
not quite a duplicate but very relevant: writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7612/…
– Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
Why does 1st person exclude suicide? If things point to suicide, and it's well-written, as a reader I'd be expecting to any moment come about a sentence such as: "Well, now that I've told all my story, it is time to conclude this suicide note, it's already awfully long, anyway nobody will read it. I have things to do. Goodbye."
One possible solution would be to structure the narrative in such a way that the reader might come to believe it is a (rather long and drawn out) suicide note, explaining your character's reasons for her act. Obviously, this would only work if the potential suicide is right at the end of your story, rather than in the middle...
JulesJules
structure the narrative in such a way that the reader might come to believe it is a (rather long and drawn out) suicide note Mr. Vonnegut, is that you?
– Tobia Tesan
First person narrative is just a device, and it doesn't necessarily imply that the narrator lives through the story. For example, plenty of horror stories end with something on the lines of:
And then the beast's bloated tentacles began to squeeze me. The world grew dark, and I knew no more.
...or some such. (Shel Silverstein did this in True Story, although that's tongue-in-cheek...)
The point is, first-person doesn't mean the narrator actually sat down after the story ended and wrote a book about it. It's just a choice of style and narration.
I will grant that some readers will expect (incorrectly) that first person means the character lives, but if this were a serious barrier, you could have no first-person fiction relying on suspense from danger to the narrator's life. (Suicide isn't your problem here; it's "did the character make it to the end of the book or not.")
Your best guideline is to write the story as you see fit, and then get some reader reactions to it. If people tell you "Listen, this didn't work because I knew the character lives," then fine, figure out a way to change it. If they don't then you're fine.
The one exception to this is: if you first person narrator is actively referring to things that happen "later." For example, How I Met Your Mother is essentially in past-tense/first-person, but the narrator is established as "telling the story to his kids." He drops references like "That's how I met your Aunt Robin" or "Of course, we only found out about that years later" - which clearly establish a lot of facts about what happens after the primary story is over. If you do that, then yes, suspense over "Will the narrator live through the story?" will be very weak (similar to how in How I Met Your Mother, suspense over "Will this relationship be Ted's Happily-Ever-After?" was very weak and usually not the focus).
Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
StandbackStandback
I agree that the "rule" is another of those ones that doesn't really exist, and that first person doesn't mean the narrator can't die at the end. However, I just wanted to flag up that I've had a story rejected in the past because it was first person and the narrator died at the end.
– CLockeWork
@CLockeWork: Ouch. Harsh :-/ Here's hoping that's an outlier...
– Standback
The tense in narrative fiction is not a time specification but a narrative convention.
When a story is narrated in present tense it does not mean that what is told happens now, which is why linguists call it "historical present".
Tempus in literary writing does not have the function of locating an event in time, but, among others, of creating immediacy or distance.
There is therefore no reason, why a character telling a tale in the past tense, cannot die in the course of the telling.
The past tense might make some readers expect that the protagonist will not go through with her plan to kill herself, but page count will be a much stronger hint: The consciousness of the narrator can only extinguish in the last sentence on the last page. If there are pages following the attempted suicide, I will know that either the narrator did not kill herself, or tells the tale from her afterlife.
In any way, you can lead the reader to believe what you want, by (falsely) foreshadowing the outcome you want them to believe will come true. This is called a plot twist and works here as it works anywhere else.
There is a very simple solution to the first-person-narrators-cannot-die-at-the-end rule:
Set the story in present tense.
If the story is set in present tense anything that happens later happens in the narrator's future.
And the last breath of air rushed from my lungs, as blackness claimed my life.
And the last breath of air rushes from my lungs, as blackness claims my-
CLockeWorkCLockeWork
Are you writing a ghost story? A ghost story can be written in first-person, and have the narrator die at any point -- including before the story begins, partway through the story, or at the end. You can even have the story be entirely about when the narrator was alive, so the narrator dies after the end of the story.
JasperJasper
I understand the question so that the story continues after the (postponed) death. Usually the reader knows how far into the story he is, so if there's too much story left, the reader will know, or at least expect, in advance that the first-person narrator will not die (unless it's a ghost story, as Jasper guessed).
But then, tension may still build up on what event will cause the suicide not to occur, or to occur but not be successful. After all, in the classic criminal story we know from the beginning that the crime will be resolved. Yet it would be a bad criminal story that would not build up tension anyway, because we don't know in advance how it will be resolved.
The more you make the suicide seem inevitable, the more tension there will be how this suicide is ultimately avoided.
Of course if that postponed suicide is close enough to the end of the story that the reader could reasonably expect it to occur at its end (or you're not close to the end, but the pace of your narration makes it still reasonable to expect the suicide to be at the end), then the question of whether the character commits suicide may of course also be a source of tension.
Note I've not read your short story, so I can't comment on if it creates tension as is (but then, given your spoiler I would have known what will happen anyway, which certainly reduces the probability of tension building up significantly).
celtschkceltschk
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Home Blog Archive Atlantic Hockey Picks, Nov. 6-10
Atlantic Hockey Picks, Nov. 6-10
By Chris Lerch
Dan: 9-4-1
Chris: 10-3-1
On the season:
Dan: 36-15-4 (.691)
Chris: 39-12-4 (.745)
This Week's Picks:
Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7
Rochester Institute of Technology at Army West Point
Dan: Hard to believe it took RIT six games this year before they won their first last weekend against AIC. Continuing their swing east this weekend at West Point, I think they continue getting better, setting up a typical titan matchup next week against a well-rested Bentley squad. RIT sweeps.
Chris:The teams split last season in Rochester, ending a 15-game unbeaten streak for the Tigers against the Black Knights. I like RIT to take three points this weekend, but since picking ties isn't allowed, I'm going with an RIT sweep.
Sacred Heart vs. Holy Cross
Dan: This is as evenly-matched as a weekend can get in Atlantic Hockey; neither team has a weekend sweep of two games since Holy Cross took two from the Pioneers in February, 2012. I think that changes this weekend on one fact – Sacred Heart is ninth best in the nation with a 1.67 GAA (a number that drops to 1.33 in league play). Fun fact: the Pioneers haven't swept the Crusaders since February, 2010. SHU sweeps.
Chris: I agree with Dan, this series could go either way and should be highly entertaining. Friday's game is at Holy Cross; Saturday's at SHU. I'm going with the home team each night. Holy Cross wins Friday; Sacred Heart on Saturday.
Air Force at Mercyhurst
Dan: This is the weekend for Rick Gotkin. Entering Friday at 499 wins, I think the Lakers get it done on one of these nights this weekend. I won't take them to sweep, but I think we're going to wake up on Saturday with the Mercyhurst coach as the 23rd coach across all divisions to hit the sacred 500-win mark. Mercyhurst wins on Friday; Air Force wins on Saturday.
Chris:Air Force has played a very tough schedule so far, but so has Mercyhurst. It's tough to sweep the Falcons, but I think Mercyhurst finds a way. Mercyhurst sweeps.
American International at Robert Morris
Dan: This is a weekend coming at a bad time for AIC. They head to Pittsburgh to take on a Robert Morris team that is looking at the way-too-early Pairwise Rankings from just outside the top 16. I think AIC is going to be much better as the year rolls on, but this is a weekend where they're facing down a machine playing out this year with something to prove. RMU sweeps.
Chris: I think Robert Morris is locked in right now, and the only way the Colonials don't take four points is if they suffer a letdown after last Saturday's big win at Michigan. I don't think that will happen. RMU sweeps.
Penn State at Niagara
Dan: Niagara continues to search for their first win of the season after battling through a tough weekend with Cornell last week. Penn State is looking like they're going to be a tough out for anyone this year. Call this one for the Nittany Lions. Penn State wins.
Chris: I wouldn't be surprised for Niagara to pull out a win here, but I think Penn State has a shot at winning the Big 10 this season, and should take care of business as it tunes up for league play. Penn State wins.
Merrimack at Canisius
Dan: I got a first-hand chance to see Merrimack this week when they beat Bentley, 5-1. They're big, skilled, and physical. They play tenacious team defense and do a very good job mucking up the neutral zone. They play a stifling 1-3-1, and I honestly think their 16th-overall ranking in the USCHO poll is a little too low for them. That's bad news for a Canisius offense that's scored only 11 goals in six games, nine of which from three players. Merrimack wins.
Chris: Like Dan said, Merrimack is firing on all cylinders and on Wednesday broke open what was a close game with Bentley with a barrage of goals in the third period. This is a long way for the Warriors to go for one game, but I think it will be worth it. Merrimack wins.
Tuesday, Nov. 10
Sacred Heart at American International
Dan: After beating AIC 4-1 a couple of weeks ago, Sacred Heart rolls back to Springfield for their second game at the Olympia Ice Center. I really think AIC could shock people in this one, but the Pioneers are one of those teams that could get rolling to start the season. SHU wins.
Chris: This ends a busy stretch for AIC, which will play 8 games in 19 days. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll get a win in any of them. Sacred Heart wins.
Army West Point at Connecticut
Dan: Dr. Jeckyll UConn beat Boston University, 5-2, before 5,225 people at the XL Center. Mr. Hyde UConn gave up 10 goals to Notre Dame last weekend, including eight last Sunday at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn in the second part of the collegiate twin-bill (Army played Bentley in the front end). Depending on which UConn shows up, Army has a very good chance at picking up the win. Army wins.
Chris: I look for UConn to bounce back from a tough weekend and get a non-conference win against an old conference rival. UConn wins.
Previous articlePickin' the Big Ten: Nov. 6-7, 2015
Next articleWCHA picks, Nov. 6-7
http://www.uscho.com/
Atlantic Hockey Columnist


Are hydrogen-powered aircraft the future of sustainable aviation?
© Aurbus - All rights reserved
Hydrogen-powered aircraft produce zero CO2 emissions and, depending on the technology used, can substantially reduce or even eliminate air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, as well as helping prevent contrail formation.
These environmental advantages are the most compelling reason why aviation sustainability experts are excited about hydrogen technology. The possibility of hydrogen-powered planes flying in Europe's airspace gained momentum when Airbus' announced in 2020 that zero-emission commercial aircraft based on hydrogen could enter into service by 2035. But for that to happen, as Glenn Llewellyn, Airbus VP Zero Emission Aircraft underlined at EUROCONTROL's recent webinar on hydrogen planes,
"creating a hydrogen infrastructure will be critical: no infrastructure means no ZEROe aircraft. We will need efforts from energy providers, airports and the entire aviation industry in order to make it possible to refuel our ZEROe aircraft at airports in the future."
Glenn Llewellyn VP Zero Emission Aircraft, Airbus
First steps have been taken: Group ADP, has teamed up with the aircraft manufacturer, Air France-KLM, and the Paris Region to build a unique ecosystem that will transform Parisian airports into 'hydrogen hubs'.
"We have launched a call for interest to put in place the relevant hydrogen infrastructure and create a sizeable market around Paris airports, which can start with the use of hydrogen for trucks, logistics, ground handling and more."
Amélie Lummaux Sustainable Development and Public Affairs Director, GROUPE ADP
The environmental advantages of hydrogen-powered aircraft certainly are a decisive element for this decision.
What do we mean by "hydrogen plane"?
Hydrogen planes describe an aircraft which is either equipped with hydrogen-powered fuel cells or with hydrogen-based jet engines, or a hybrid of hydrogen turbines and fuel cells.
In the context of hydrogen planes synthetic fuel – or synfuel - also play an important role: While they belong to the group of sustainable aviation fuels, synfuels are not based on biomass but their main source is electricity. This electricity is used to first produce hydrogen and to capture carbon, combining the two into a kerosene-like fuel. Synfuel can be used in current aircraft engines.
Clear environmental advantages of hydrogen-powered planes
Hydrogen propulsion powered aircraft emit zero CO2 emissions, and demonstrate a 30-50 % reduction in impacts from contrail and cirrus formation, compared to kerosene aircraft, according to a study released by the Clean Sky 2 and Fuel Cells & Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertakings. The study estimates that hydrogen combustion could reduce climate impact in flight by 50-75%, and with fuel-cell technology by 75-90%.
"The 2020s will be the 'Decade of Hydrogen'. There is no viable path to a zero carbon or climate neutral aviation system that does not involve hydrogen: whether in liquid form as a true 'zero carbon' energy source, or as a key building block in the liquid fuels of the future. In order to reach the goals of the European Green Deal, aviation will need radically different aircraft with disruptive technologies to enter the market by 2035 at the latest." Time is critical, he admits: "The research and innovation effort must start today, and must include the development and demonstration of hydrogen-based options. This is an Apollo-scale challenge, and getting a hydrogen-powered commercial airliner into service would truly represent a 'man on the moon' level accomplishment for Europe."
Ron Van Manen Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking
Policy-makers bet on hydrogen transport solutions
At present, hydrogen is almost entirely produced from natural gas or coal. The International Energy Agency reckons that its global production is responsible for annual CO2 emissions equivalent to those of Indonesia and the United Kingdom combined.
Yet, because of its clear environmental benefits when being used, hydrogen is an important part of the solution to meet the 2050 climate neutrality goal of the European Green Deal, which the European Commission underlined when it adopted its EU Hydrogen Strategy in 2020. The aim of the strategy is to decarbonise hydrogen production using mainly wind and solar energy and to expand its use in sectors where it can replace fossil fuels. The Commission estimates that renewable hydrogen technologies should reach maturity and be deployed at large scale from 2030 onwards.


| How-To - Paint and Body
25 Resto Tips and Tricks
We present 25 tips and tricks to help you stay on top in the constant struggle to keep vintage muscle on the road.
Terry McGeanwriterCar Craft Staffphotographer
We're labeling this a resto piece, but consider it the Car Craft version of restoration. That means not all the subjects and methods covered here are necessarily restoration in the concours-correct, exactly-as-the-factory-meant-it sort of way. You don't build your cars that way, so why would we tell you how to reproduce a factory chalk mark or where to find date-coded glass? We're more into making stuff look good and run better so it can pound the street or track regularly. Considering that our cars usually start out rough and that we're typically over-eager to drive them, we might be considered experts of a sort on what we like to refer to as "practical" restoration techniques. We're also experts on having lots of cars in pieces, for what that's worth. Actually, we've focused on things that have worked well for us in the recent past, and most of it is stuff we wish we'd known about sooner. So reap the benefits of our late nights in the shop, and get out there.
Polish Old Glass
You probably already know how annoying it is to try to see out of an old, sand-blasted windshield, but have you ever noticed how much better cars look from the outside with fresh glass? Check it out at the next car show. Of course, new glass is usually an option, as it's available for even obscure old stuff these days, but it's not cheap. Instead, try to polish your existing glass. We've seen it done with fine body-shop compounds, but Eastwood actually offers a kit with the proper polish and an arbor and buffing wheel for a drill motor. It won't eliminate anything you can catch a fingernail on, but it will get rid of small scratches, acid-rain spots, and hazing.
Save Stainless Trim
The older a car is, the more bright trim it's likely to have. That might have contributed to its sharpness when it was new, but now much of that trim is likely dinged, dented, and scratched. Like lots of old car parts, new stainless trim is available for many popular '50s, '60s, and '70s cars, with more applications turning up all the time, but don't expect bargain pricing. So before spending the bucks, investigate the possibility of repairing your old stuff. Stainless steel is very workable; it can be reshaped and refinished to look like new with the right techniques. Granted, those techniques require skill, but if you're adept with tools and have some patience, you can probably make your stuff look better. If not, maybe someone with skills can assist.
Hand-Paint Dash Details
Lots of old interior trim bits can be refurbished at home with simple tools and finishing products, but what separates the hacks from the heroes lies in the fine details. Take this instrument cluster from one of Smith's Chevelles, for example. It could have been sprayed with some aluminum silver and reinstalled, but instead, he masked off the perimeter, coated it with Krylon Dull Aluminum, then came back with a small, model paintbrush and carefully touched in the raised lettering around the ignition switch. His Olds F-85 has recessed lettering, so Jeff sprayed some aerosol paint in a cup, dipped a pin in it, and let the paint flow into the letters. Nice touch.
Renew Faded Lenses
Another detail item that can have a big impact on a car's appearance is the condition of the lenses. Parking and tail lenses tend to get dull with age, and now that '80s cars are a couple of decades old, the early plastic composite headlights are commonly clouded. Again, between the aftermarket and the OEs, lots of new stuff is available, but you might be surprised how much hazing and how many fine scratches can be eliminated with polishing. You can experiment with body-shop compounds here-pros advise starting with the least-aggressive stuff and moving up as needed-but Eastwood offers a kit for this as well. If you're dealing with heavily clouded plastic and are willing to take chances, we're told fine-grit wet/dry sanding followed by polishing can be very effective. We haven't tried it yet, so proceed at your own risk.
Use Factory Assembly Specs
We all know how to spin wrenches, and most of us are convinced we know how to take apart and reassemble our cars blindfolded, but do you really know everything you should? Unless a factory assembly manual was used to glean techniques, procedures, and specifications, you probably don't. For example, the subframe on an early Camaro is pretty easy to bolt up, but did you know there are alignment holes in the floorpan to help square it up? Misaligned subframes, either from improper installation or worn-out bushings, are the source of much body-panel-gap frustration. Most factory manuals are either reprinted or sitting in an auction on eBay right now, so see what the guys who built your car the first time had to say about it.
Lube Door Seals
This one is simple but might save you some aggravation. The original door seals on many cars are coated or even impregnated with silicone when manufactured to help prevent them from binding and squeaking. If you've replaced yours with repro stuff, the new seals may not have this feature. If the seals seem to be "grabbing" the painted surfaces they mate with and/or squeaking, try a light spray of silicone from an aerosol. A quick call to the tech line of your seal manufacturer is advisable to make sure there will be no detrimental effects, though.
Brighten Lamp Housings
Dull, uneven lighting makes a car look dilapidated. (That means junk-like.) Correcting the situation can be simple. Pull off the offending lamp assembly, and take it apart; chances are, the inside is weathered from faulty seals. After freshening the lenses as prescribed in tip No. 2, clean out the flakes of old paint or silvering, and treat any rust, then mask off the socket and lay down some bright, yet flat, silver or white paint. If the lens is of the clear, parking-light variety, install new amber bulbs. Finally, screw the lens to the housing using a fresh set of gaskets. The difference with the lights on will be surprisingly dramatic.
Form Your Own Bezel Gaskets
If, upon dismantling the taillights or parking lights to clean out the inside as prescribed in the previous step, you find that the seal gaskets are shot and you can't get new ones, you may have to improvise. We've used black silicone gasket sealer to repair voids in seals, and it can work well. Use the small tip, and squeeze some into the repair area, then cover it with clear plastic wrap-we like to wet the wrap with water or even spray it with WD-40 or cooking spray so the silicone won't stick. Carefully press the gasket into place, and put the lens in. If you don't use too much silicone, you should be able to get the stuff to conform, and when it sets up, the wrap should come off.
Factory-style Gauge Lighting
This isn't really a resto tip, but it can help to lend a factory feel. Add-on gauges are standard fare for musclecars, even ones that are mostly restored, but it looks cheesy if their face lighting stays on whenever the car is running, and driving at night without gauge lights is aggravating. What many don't know is that a lot of car manufacturers provided a simple means of adding gauge lighting by putting a terminal in the fuse block to tap into the factory gauge-light circuit. Plug your aftermarket gauge lights in here, and they'll come on with the lights and even dim when the knob is twisted.
Door-Lock Ferrules
This will seem like a trivial detail, but we have a pet peeve regarding junk door-lock buttons. As small as they are, they're also obvious, and for some reason, on older cars, they've often been replaced with either the wrong type or universal parts-store junk. When the wrong buttons are used, they can bind and rattle in addition to looking lousy. New ones are offered for lots of popular cars all the way back to the '50s, and they can make a big difference in interior feel and function. The lock buttons on this '67 (left) Camaro actually serve to guide the mechanism; new buttons and new ferrules were the best $5 we ever spent. The others are from a '93 Mustang, and they have felt inside for smooth operation and no rattles. They work on older Fords, too.
Alternative Power Source
Back in the '60s and '70s, there wasn't so much in the way of electrical accessories to add to a car, but that's changed. In addition to today's killer sound systems, it's common to add electric fans, high-amperage lighting, aftermarket power windows, and so on, not to mention all the little items, such as extra gauges, upgraded ignitions, and, well, you get it. Instead of having a snarl of wires stuffed into the stock fuse panel (most of them likely hooked to the wrong side of the fuse), why not add a fuse or switched-and-unswitched relay panel to manage the extra load? Smith made this one using stuff from M.A.D. Enterprises, and it prevents him form burning down his Chevelle.
Vinyl Dye for Success
Whether you're attempting to change the color of your interior or just trying to match reproduction pieces to your factory stuff, you're going to have to do some vinyl dying. The thought of this makes some guys cringe, thinking of how the color will peel or wear off shortly, but actually, if you use the right stuff and the right procedures, it can look and last almost like OE. First, get good dye, like the stuff the body-shop supply stores carry. We used some SEM products recently with some success. The key was also using SEM's vinyl-prep aerosol and flexible primer first. The label on the can of dye will guide you to the other products you should use with it.
Window-Regulator Repair
One of the simple pleasures when fixing up an old car is the smooth, steady motion of a properly functioning window regulator. But after 40 years or so, most of the cars we mess with have stiff, clunky window action, and correcting it takes more than a few squirts of WD-40. What's worse is when you pull out the regulator and find broken plastic rollers that are no longer available. Try this: Go to the local home center, and check out the vast array of shower-door rollers to find a close match. We did it with a '67 Chevy and know of other guys who had similar success with other cars.
Lacquer for Interior Panels
Before interiors were layered with various forms of plastic, there was still a lot of painted steel. Trying to recondition this stuff can be frustrating, as typical spray enamel goes on thick and gets orange-peel quickly, which just doesn't look right on the inside of '60s cars. As an alternative, check the resto catalogs for aerosol lacquer interior paint. Lacquer has more solvent than typical enamel and goes on in thinner coats that seem to "flow out" more, resulting in a smooth finish just like factory. If you can't find the right color in a spray bomb, see if you can look up the paint code and have some mixed, then use a low-cost touch-up gun for the same effect.
Aerosol Etching Primer
Unless you have your own body shop, chances are good that some of your resto work will involve aerosol spray paint. When painting engine parts, brackets, wheeltubs, and so on, quality paint can be made to look as good as factory with the right technique. We recently started prepping our surfaces with etching primer from a spray can; previously we thought you had to use a gun to take advantage of this stuff. The high-quality aerosol isn't cheap ($20+ per can), but it goes a long way. The real benefit is the improvement in the paint adhesion and finish; fisheyes and runs are all but eliminated, and the end result seems more even. Give it a try.
Invisible Clear
For decades, new cars have been built with lots of parts that remain in bare metal. Stuff like aluminum and iron castings or metal-finished items like zinc-coated brake boosters or backing plates all look great when new but quickly start to corrode or rust when exposed to the elements. Restoring or replacing these items brings the opportunity to hold off the oxidation process by using clear coatings, as many resto experts have been doing for years. Some guys don't want to clear their parts because they think the clear is obvious and incorrect, but that's probably because they've been using typical, glossy clears. Instead, try using a satin-finish clear to conceal its presence. Jim Grubbs of Grubbs Motorsports uses Aervoe clear engine enamel on parts like this intake, and it looks trick. There is lots of other nongloss, clear options available.
Rally-Wheel Resto
Some of the rally wheels from the muscle era used two-tone paint schemes that have either faded with time or were victims of monochromatic custom paint jobs sometime back when that was cool. Whatever the case, when you attempt to return these wheels to their original appearance, figuring out the proper colors and trying to mask off the separate sections of each wheel take up a lot of time. Fortunately, the paint part is solved for you, as factory-matched paint for most of the performance wheels from the '60s and '70s is now available from sources like OEM Paints and is sold through resto sources like OPG and Year One. To make it even easier, these places also stock wheel-mask kits made for specific wheels, like the Pontiac Rally II this guy is struggling to mask with standard tape and a razor blade. The special masks are cheap and well worth it.
Spray Manifolds Gray
Exhaust manifolds may not be the ultimate in flow, but they fit right, they usually seal well, and they look stock. Unfortunately, they also usually look like hell, thanks to rust. You've probably tried to paint them only to have it burn off and look worse. Try this: Pull the manifolds out, strip them down to clean iron, either in a sandblast cabinet or with a wire brush, then get a can of spray graphite lubricant and follow up with a soft rag to rub it in. The spray is powdered lead in an oily binder, and it will make the manifolds look like fresh, bare, cast iron, but it won't burn off. When it eventually gets to looking shoddy again, get out the spray can and touch it up.
Window-Molding Tools
This one's brutally simple but still worth discussing. Metal window moldings seem like they should come off readily, but when the time comes to pull them, they usually fight, leading guys to get rough and bend/fold/mutilate them or get out the flathead screwdrivers and pry stuff into oblivion. The moldings really can be removed quickly without wrecking anything, you just need the right tool. This item came from the local auto parts store for about five bucks, and it works like a charm. Just slip it under the molding, slide one jaw until it catches a clip, then gently squeeze the other end of the clip with the other jaw-the molding pops off and no one gets hurt.
Trick Distributor Cap
If you're into the period-correct look but hate period-correct technology, here's an easy one. Electronic ignition brought additional benefits with it, such as the need for more positive connections between the spark-plug wires and distributor cap to contain the increased electrical current. But most of the later-model caps that use these wires look very different from the breaker-point versions that preceded them. For GM cars, you can get a hybrid cap that looks old-school but has HEI-style terminals (this one came from Summit). Slip it on, order a set of black HEI-type wires (as offered by PerTronix, for example), and no one will be the wiser. Might as well go the extra step and hide a PerTronix or similar electronic-ignition conversion under the cap, too.
Bright Dipping
Before plastic trim came into prominence, the shiny stuff on a car that wasn't chrome-plated steel or polished stainless was aluminum. But if you've ever tried to restore an aluminum grille or molding by polishing it, you probably noticed that it didn't come out looking quite like original, and it needed repolishing soon after. That's because the factory didn't just polish this stuff, it used a "bright-dip" process. This is a procedure that involves anodizing and other treatments to give a bright appearance that won't tarnish or corrode. We did a story on it in the Apr. '00 issue, and the results were excellent; the only trick is finding a place that performs the procedure.
Window-Channel Repair
This one is really in interim repair rather than a resto fix. It's pretty common to pull off the window moldings on '60s cars and find that the channel that holds the glass is rotten. Dirt tends to settle here, and when it gets wet, the resultant mud helps accelerate the rusting process. But, if your vintage muscle is currently a driver, and you don't intend to pull it all the way down for a total resto, you should still make an effort to deal with the channel rot. It will only get worse as it leaks water into your trunk or cowl leading to further damage. One of the products offered by POR-15 is a putty intended for floorpan repair. The epoxy is easily formable and sets up hard as a rock. Top-coat it with POR-15 to seal up any remaining rust and seal out moisture. You can worry about replacing the affected steel later on when the real resto gets underway.
Removing Trim Studs
Sometimes the factory went a little overboard on trim moldings, and on older cars, a lot of this stuff was held on with clips that were fastened to studs and welded to the body. Getting rid of them means bodywork, but if you're careful, you can minimize the aftereffects of the removal. That means absolutely do not grab them with pliers or vise grips and start yanking; you can easily dent or warp the surrounding panel. Instead, clamp the vise grips to the stud so the tool is parallel to the panel surface. Then, swing the vise grips in a circle to twist off the stud. It should break off nearly flush, possibly leaving a minor divot that will take just a dab of filler.
Do-it-yourself types tend not to want to spend money where they think they don't have to. So if a guy pulls apart his car, he might scoff at the thought of spending some of his budget on a replacement bolt kit, since he can always salvage the original stuff and fill in the blanks as needed, right? We say, if you take apart an old car that is anything less than mint to begin with, you ought to pony up for the repro bolt kit like the ones offered by AMK Products. These kits provide fasteners that not only function like the stock stuff, but also look just like original; it is restoration-quality stuff, after all. Everything in the kit is individually packaged and labeled, and when you're in the midst of trying to bolt the car back together, it's super sweet to be able to reach over and pick up a little baggie with exactly what you need.
Lube Your Decals
The instruction sheets for most factory-style decal kits advise using a soap-and-water mix as a lubricant to help slide the decals into place on the painted surface of the body. Most also recommend using a specific product for this purpose as an alternative. Having tried both, we'd say the special product is worth the extra few bucks. This stuff is usually a clear gel that comes in a pump bottle, and smearing some on the surface before laying down the decal makes working out bubbles and creases much easier, particularly on vertical surfaces, since it stays put, where the soapy water will just run off. The 16-ounce bottle we have has lasted through several installs and still isn't empty.


NATO expresses support for process of normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov received NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia Javier Colomina on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry told News.Az.
At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on mutually beneficial cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO.
Minister Bayramov noted that Azerbaijan continues its partnership with NATO on the basis of mutual interests and equality, in particular, he referred to the experience of our country's participation in the Alliance's peacekeeping operations.
The minister informed the opposite side about the current situation in the region, in particular, the steps taken to normalize relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the preparation of a peace agreement, the delimitation of the border, the opening of all communications and confidence-building measures.
Colomina noted that NATO supports the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on energy security, Azerbaijan's Individual Partnership Action Plan, as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.
Fire at Azersun Industrial Park in Azerbaijan's Sumgayit extinguished
US House passes Ukrainian Lend Lease Act
President Ilham Aliyev meets with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the United Arab Emira (...)
ICRC vehicles pass through Lachin-Khankandi road without hindrance
Vehicles belonging to the International Community of the Red Cross (ICRC) continue to pass through t (...)
Iranian President makes a phone call to the Azerbaijani President
President Ilham Aliyev extends condolence over the terrorist act committed in Israel
Israel's President makes a phone call to the Azerbaijani President


Home/Fighting/Download WWE 2k15 Game For PC
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From the category archives: GA-Energy & Environment
GA-Energy & Environment
Biden Administration Releases Fall 2021 Regulatory Agenda
Wednesday, December 15, 2021 12:51 PM | ABC News, Politics & Policy, Regulations, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-Workplace Safety
On Dec. 10, the Biden administration released its Fall 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda lists upcoming rulemakings and other regulatory actions from each agency that the administration expects to publish through the end of the year and into 2022. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency.
Proposed NEPA Revisions Must Keep Clarity and Consistency From 2020 Rule, Says ABC
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 11:39 AM | ABC News, Politics & Policy, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-Infrastructure
On Nov. 22, ABC filed comments with a coalition stakeholders to the Council on Environmental Quality in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking revising the implementing regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act. ABC filed these comments in support of a streamlined approach to the permitting process under NEPA to reduce delays hindering critical projects, resulting in better infrastructure, a stronger economy and continued environmental stewardship.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 2:11 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Workforce Development, GA - Employment, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
On Nov. 15, President Biden signed H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, into law at the White House. The IIJA authorizes nearly $550 billion in new federal money for infrastructure projects, while renewing approximately $1.2 trillion for existing programs that were set to expire.
ABC Continues to Advocate as Infrastructure and Reconciliation Negotiations Persist Through October
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 1:21 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Regulations, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
Congress passed a 30-day extension of the highway funding bill, just hours before surface transportation authorization lapsed. The extension came at the end of a weekslong negotiation and interparty disagreement on a trillion-dollar-plus budget reconciliation package and the bipartisan Senate-passed infrastructure bill, H.R.3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Take Action: Democrats' Budget Reconciliation Package Contains ABC-Opposed Tax and Labor Provisions
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 2:38 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Regulations, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
On Sept. 15, House Democrats released additional details on planned tax increases to pay for their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. The House Ways and Means Committee continues to mark up its portion of the budget reconciliation package, and some of the top-line tax provisions already revealed may affect ABC members.
EPA, Corps Halt Implementation of Trump-era WOTUS Rule
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 9:21 AM | ABC News, Politics & Policy, Regulations, GA-Energy & Environment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers recently announced they have halted implementation of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule nationwide and are reverting back to a definition of waters of the United States, or WOTUS, established in the 1980s. This announcement comes after a federal district court judge struck down the Trump administration's final rule defining waters of the United States that are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act.
Take Action: Urge Congress to Oppose the Partisan Reconciliation Package
Wednesday, September 8, 2021 12:41 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Regulations, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
On Sept. 7, ABC issued an action alert opposing the U.S. House of Representative's efforts to move forward with the partisan budget reconciliation process that could result in tax hikes and far-reaching labor requirements for ABC members. Please urge your representatives to oppose this package this week as House committees continue to mark up their sections of the package.
Judge Overturns ABC-Supported Trump-Era WOTUS Rule
Wednesday, September 1, 2021 2:14 PM | ABC News, Politics & Policy, Regulations, GA-Energy & Environment
On Aug. 30, a U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona judge struck down the Trump administration's final rule revising the definition of "waters of the United States" that are federally regulated under the Clean Water Act. As a member of the Waters Advocacy Coalition, ABC applauded the 2020 rule, known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which provided four clear categories of waters under the CWA that businesses and landowners could easily understand.
House Passes Rule to Advance Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and ABC-Opposed Partisan Budget Resolution
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 2:09 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Regulations, Workforce Development, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
On Aug. 24, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to advance a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which was embedded in a House rule that tied its advancement to both the Senate's bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package—the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—and H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The rule was approved by the House by a vote of 220-212, with all House Democrats supporting the rule and all Republicans voting in opposition.
Senate Passes Partisan Budget Resolution; Reconciliation Package Expected to Include ABC-Opposed Provisions
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 3:21 PM | ABC News, Legislation, Regulations, Workforce Development, GA - Employment, GA - Union Organizing, GA-Davis-Bacon, GA-Energy & Environment, GA-PLAs, GA-Workplace Safety, GA - Federal Procurement, GA - Private-Public Partnerships, GA-PLAs-Federal, GA-PLAs-State & Local, Ga-PLAs-Federal-Legislation
On Aug. 11, The U.S. Senate passed a Budget Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 before leaving for its August recess in a 50-49 vote that will set the stage for a proposed $3.5 trillion partisan spending bill through the budget reconciliation process. Prior to the final vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also released reconciliation instructions for Senate committees so they can begin to draft relevant sections of the final spending bill as it relates to their policy areas, which they hope to finish by Sept. 15.
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POSTED ON MAR 13, 2018 TO Android, Developer Tools
Delyan Kratunov
The Facebook apps for Android and iOS are used by billions of people across the world. We have ambitious goals around delivering a delightful experience for people using Facebook and a strong belief that responsiveness and smoothness are keystones of a high-quality product experience. Together, these mean that, among other things, we need to quickly and efficiently investigate performance problems.
Every engineering team at Facebook is encouraged to monitor app performance using common tools and frameworks within our family of apps. In practice, this means that with a few lines of code we can collect telemetry information from a new feature, along with centralized reporting, data pipeline management, and tools to work with aggregate data.
The ability to monitor for regressions and explore changes over time has been an important part of our mobile performance efforts. When we first developed tools that allowed us to view performance changes over time, we discovered many low-hanging opportunities: cases where we gathered new insight on how our app behaved in practice, as well as other "easy" issues. But it also showed us how much we didn't know about performance tracking; everything that wasn't immediately obvious was incredibly hard to investigate. We often knew the overall metric regressed, but we couldn't pinpoint why.
Further, the variation of performance conditions and system behaviors we find "out in the wild" of real-world deployment made app performance investigations one of our most difficult and time-consuming engineering challenges.
Early on, regression management followed a simple workflow. When we discovered a regression in our beta or production releases, we would immediately look for configuration or experimentation changes that isolated it. However, not all regressions were easily addressed with server-driven configuration. We would then dive deep into our monitoring telemetry. Unfortunately, it was often insufficient to diagnose these harder issues as we only collected durations alongside a few "proxy metrics" (e.g. CPU time). This usually left us with only one possible path — to reproduce the regression locally, with profilers (Systrace and other local tools) and isolate the root cause.
This last step is where a lot of investigations stalled, particularly when we found outlier regressions where only a small number of devices were experiencing a severe slowdown. These cases couldn't be easily replicated in our mobile device lab, which was designed to replicate more mainstream experiences. This inability to reproduce the state of the device and the system locally led to long turnaround times and an exhausting search through a stream of code and configuration changes.
We soon realized that in order to increase our ability to diagnose issues and find opportunities for performance improvements, we needed to build a dedicated tool that could better gather and analyze much more detailed telemetry from the app as these slower interactions took place.
The tool we ultimately built is called Profilo. Profilo is a high-throughput, mobile-first performance tracing library. Today we're happy to announce the open source release of Profilo, starting with the Android library. We hope that by sharing our methodology and tools, we can enable more mobile engineers to work on production performance traces effectively and together build better workflows and analysis systems.
Profilo gives us a foundation to efficiently manage multiple streams of data coming from different sources measuring different aspects of the app, so that we can reconstruct important parts of the state of the app and the system during any run of an interaction being measured. The focus on high throughput has allowed us to collect telemetry at rates of 3000 events per second or more, with minimal disruption or distortion of the underlying interaction.
It also provides us with a powerful configuration system we use to enable telemetry collection from specific devices, without overburdening the apps of all users. By allowing teams to change trace configuration remotely, we have enabled key workflows such as increasing sampling rates for suspicious A/B tests on demand, enabling higher-overhead data providers when debugging regressions, and overall fine-tuning of trace volume and contents, as our needs evolve.
Profilo vastly improves the turnaround time on performance regressions by giving us the precision to understand the root cause for regressions as small as tens of milliseconds of CPU time. By collecting rich streams of telemetry, it also enables new types of causality analyses, as well as a much more precise understanding of metrics such as "scroll fluidity" and "app responsiveness."
Before Profilo, our cold app startup was a very difficult metric to understand and maintain. While we had a pretty good idea of how long different subsections within it took (along with a solid set of secondary, related metrics), regressions took a long time to root-cause and triage and often remained unsolved for months. With the rich telemetry from traces, we are able to build tooling to aggregate and compare CPU stack traces from release to release, making root-cause analysis of that particular type of regression something that takes less than an hour as opposed to days. Other telemetry streams allow us to tackle different types of common regressions such as more code being loaded or slow paths becoming more frequent.
One of the unique features of Profilo is its custom Java stack unwinder. We believe this is a first in Android performance libraries in that it understands internal VM structures and can collect stack traces without using the official Java APIs, thus overcoming many of the well-documented issues with suspension-based stack unwinding (see Evaluating the Accuracy of Java Profilers for past research on this topic). By implementing unwinding within Profilo itself, we sacrifice compatibility but also gain the ability to create a much more efficient stack trace representation that does not use class or function names within the trace data itself. We also gain the ability to collect true CPU usage stack traces (that is, stack traces taken with regard to the "CPU time" clock and not the normal wall time clock).
In order to get a better understanding of what the virtual machine and Android frameworks do on our behalf, we also developed ways to capture "systrace" telemetry (or more precisely, our apps' "atrace" usage) in production. This allows to us investigate garbage collection and other VM-specific events and their impact on our apps. For example, we've been able to determine causes of unintentional I/O operations on the UI thread, rare lock contention in critical pieces of the application, as well as tackle app smoothness issues by identifying the exact boundaries of a frame and analyzing stack traces and other instrumentation on a per-frame basis.
In the image above we can see aggregate changes in the types of garbage collection performed during an interaction. The change is mostly in frequency, not duration, but on average results in a ~15ms shift from "partial" to "sticky" collection.
These and other telemetry streams have changed how we think about regression detection and performance analysis for our mobile apps. We've created in-depth telemetry to explain a large chunk of our resource usage (CPU time), gained a much deeper understanding of our relationship with the VM, and enabled new, more intricate analyses of hard performance metrics like "app responsiveness."
As part of the open source release, we're also releasing basic tooling to work with traces and some example analyses to give you a feel for the workflow. We're very excited to see where we can take these ideas and tools with the help of the community and make mobile performance a much more tractable problem.
TAGS: Mobile Open Source Performance Tooling
MobileLab: Highly accurate testing to prevent mobile performance regressions
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