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Amdocs Ain't What It Used to Be
Amdocs Ltd. has been an influential and powerful player in the back-offices of communications service providers (CSPs) for decades, helping operators build and maintain their billing and customer care systems.
But for many of those years it was labeled (in a pejorative way by its rivals) as a company that marketed products but delivered expensive services (consultancy, integration, bespoke software builds) that would stretch an implementation timetable into years. "Amdocs has no real products," its critics would say (though they often neglected to add how much business that approach generated…).
Now, though, such criticisms carry less weight. And not just because Amdocs has spent the past 10 years expanding its product portfolio with a series of acquisitions, which has included (but which is not limited to):
2003 -- Xacct: Amdocs Buys Xacct (At Last)
2005 -- DST Systems: Amdocs Buys Into Cable
2006 -- Qpass: Amdocs Buys Into Content Delivery
2006 -- Cramer Systems: Amdocs Snaps Up Cramer
2007 -- SigValue Technologies: Amdocs Continues Spending Spree
2008 -- JacobsRimmel: Amdocs Provisions $45M for JacobsRimell
2009 -- jNetX: Amdocs Rallies, Fills SDP Hole
2011 -- Bridgewater Systems: Amdocs to Buy Bridgewater for $215M
Having more products isn't enough -- actually integrating them and developing a Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) software system that ties them together is something else. And developing tools that enable customers to build their own applications is a step further again.
But it's that level of integration, and the capability to enable application creation, that can be found in CES 9, the latest software suite release from Amdocs.
The company has gone to town with its press release pitch -- it's extensive, to say the least, and full of buzzwords and phrases. At the first read, I expected "espresso-making function" to crop up as one of the bullet points, because everything else of use to a CSP's operations and marketing teams appeared to be in there.
You can see all the details by reading the press release: Amdocs Releases CES 9. (We're still waiting for the first telecom tech company to include a caffeine-related application in a new release, but we live in hope.)
But there are a number of key elements worth highlighting that, for different reasons, point toward a shift in corporate mindset.
Three developments of note
First, there's the integration between various Amdocs elements. Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Ari Banerjee, who is well versed on Amdocs and its portfolio, notes that the vendor has "done a lot of plumbing and created a lot of ready-made connections between different elements."
This is evident in the Omni Convergent Charging part of CES 9, which combines the company's "real-time charging, policy control, enterprise product catalog and service platform." Banerjee notes that this is the first time the Bridgewater policy management capabilities have been truly integrated with other Amdocs elements.
Then there's the Business Building Blocks element, which, according to Amdocs, offers "pre-integrated and pre-tested software functionality designed to support specific business needs and reduce time to market." Of course this only works if you are building applications with the Amdocs building blocks -- it doesn't cater for stitching in third-party code -- but this is empowering the customer, enabling CSPs to develop new capabilities themselves. That's a major change in thinking for Amdocs.
And then there's Proactive Care, a new customer care module that enables greater efficiency and availability of relevant information for customer care staff and the customers themselves. This is based on the analysis and processing of real-time information (it comes with the Big Data tag, of course) and it utilizes analytics capabilities that Amdocs has developed in-house. Banerjee believes it incorporates a "very good concept" in terms of customer care and notes that it "isn't slideware -- this is already functional and being used."
Amdocs is being a bit coy on naming names. Eric Carrasquilla, general manager of the customer management division at Amdocs, told Light Reading that CES 9 has been tried and tested by: a cable operator in Europe, which piloted the Multichannel Self Service capabilities; a mobile operator in North America (Proactive Care); and two fixed-plus-mobile operators in North America (Multichannel Self Service and Proactive Care).
What hasn't changed so much is the financial clout of Amdocs. It has just reported quarterly revenues of $826 million and net income of $99 million for the three months to the end of 2012.
The company is something of a money machine. In its full fiscal year ending September 2012, it generated revenues of $3.25 billion and a net profit of $391.4 million.
But Amdocs knows it can't sit pretty on that business. It faces tough competition from the likes of Oracle Corp., NetCracker Technology Corp. and CSG Systems International Inc. for major billing deals, has a new international rival in the form of aggressive Chinese vendor AsiaInfo-Linkage Inc., and is challenged in multiple niche areas by a host of specialist vendors with real-time policy and charging, rating, mediation, customer experience management (CEM) and many other SPIT applications. (See NEC to Buy Convergys Unit for $449M.)
That's one reason why Amdocs is looking to do lots of things differently, including working with Microsoft Corp. (instead of Oracle) as an IT platform and database partner. (See Why Amdocs Is 'Seeing' Microsoft.)
Of course, Amdocs is still a company that relies on services for that financial strength: In that full fiscal year, only 4 percent of its sales came from product licenses, while the remainder was generated by services, and that ratio is hardly going to alter dramatically overnight.
But its DNA has changed -- it's now a company that is developing product solutions for customers. And that's not the way it used to be.


In my first article of this series, I introduced a demonstration of a custom Canvas App, named ‘Marketing List App’, that is used to create new or replace existing static Marketing Lists in Dynamics 365 populated with a list of Supporters selected in a Power BI report.
In this article I will describe an approach for ensuring that a list of many thousands of Supporters selected in the Power BI report are made available to the Canvas App.
This approach resolves the limitations encountered so far, and described in my previous articles, when attempting to use the ‘PowerApps for Power BI’ visualisation in the report and corresponding ‘PowerBIIntegration’.Data component in the app or attempting to use the ‘OneDrive’ or ‘OneDrive for Business’ connector to connect to a Microsoft Excel file that has been exported from the Power BI report.
Here is an outline of the complete end-to-end process. The user …
1. uses the Slicers in the Power BI report to filter the Supporters
2. optionally also uses Report Level Filters in the Power BI report to filter the Supporters
3. exports the selected Supporters from the Power BI report to a Microsoft Excel file named ‘Supporters (Marketing List App).xlsx’
4. saves the Microsoft Excel file to specified Document location in Microsoft SharePoint
5. starts a process that imports the contents of the Microsoft Excel file into a Common Data Services (CDS) entity
6. uses the ‘Marketing List App’ to create new or replace existing Marketing Lists from the selected list of Supporters.
The design of the Power BI report guides the user through this process. For instance, this page of the report provides instructions for the user and corresponding navigation buttons.
The first four steps take one to three minutes to complete. The fifth step takes approximately one minute per 1,000 selected Supporters to complete. This is the longest step in the end-to-end process. The sixth step takes one to three minutes to complete.
In the remainder of this article will describe how the list of Supporters are imported from the Microsoft Excel file into the CDS entity for use by the ‘Marketing List App’.
The Marketing List App requires the following fields for each Supporter, the CustomerKey and the EntityTypeCode. The CustomerKey is a ‘contactid’ and the EntityTypeCode is 2 if the Supporter is an Individual (i.e. a Dynamics 365 Contact), and the CustomerKey is an ‘accountid’ and the EntityTypeCode is 1 if the Supporter is an Organisation (i.e. a Dynamics 365 Account).
The following image shows the columns for the custom CDS entity. The physical name of this entity is ‘mag_marketinglistapp’ and its display name is ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’.
A Power Apps Data Flow named ‘Refresh Supporters (Marketing List App)’ and related Power Automate Flow named ‘Marketing List App (Populate Lookup Fields)’ are used to refresh the contents of the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ CDS entity. In this article I will only describe the Power Apps Data Flow.
When importing the list of Supporters from the Microsoft Excel file into this entity the following columns are populated:
The ‘Refresh Supporters (Marketing List App)’ Data Flow has one Query and four Parameters. The Parameters are used to configure the name and location of the Microsoft Excel File. The Query named ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ imports the Supporters from Table1 in the Microsoft Excel file into the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ CDS entity.
The Query has these eight steps:
1./2. The Source and Navigation Steps simply connect to Table1 in the Microsoft Excel file using the ‘Excel’ connector and a File Path or URL similar to ‘https://acme.SharePoint.com/Sites/MarketingListApp/Shared Documents/Supporters (Marketing List App).xlsx’. Once connected to the ‘Supporters (Marketing List Ap).xlsx’ Microsoft Excel file, select Table1.
3. The Choose Columns step chooses only the CustomerKey and EntityTypeCode columns. Any other columns that might exist in the Microsoft Excel file are not used by the ‘Marketing List App’ and so do not need to be imported.
4. The Added Index step adds a unique sequential Index column to every row. This Index is used by the next step.
5. The Added MarketingListAppGroup step then groups every row into multiples of 1,000 based on the Index as follows:
Rows 0 to 999 will be assigned to MarketingListAppGroup 1; rows 1,000 to 1,999 will be assigned to MarketingListAppGroup 2; . . .; and rows 148,000 to 149,999 will be assigned to MarketingListAppGroup 150.
Because a maximum of 150,000 rows can be exported from Power BI to Microsoft Excel, there would only ever be a maximum of 150 MarketingListAppGroup values when grouped into groups of 1,000.
A modification of this approach would be to make the sequential Index specific to Individuals versus Organisations and to group them into groups of 2,000.
The presence of the MarketingListAppGroup is very important for the Marketing List App being able to access all the rows in the CDS entity using a delegated query. The Marketing List App uses the MarketingListAppGroup to load the selected Supporters from the CDS entity into one of two collections, one for Individuals and one for Organisations, in batches of 1,000. This will be demonstrated in my next article.
6. The Remove Index step removes the Index column because this column is no longer needed.
7. The Change Column Type step changes the CustomerKey column to Text and the EntityTypeCode and MarketingListAppGroup columns to Whole Numbers.
8. The Rename Columns steps renamed CustomerKey to ‘mag_Name’, EntityTypeCode to ‘mag_EntityTypeCode’ and MarketingListGroup to ‘mag_MarketingListAppGroup’. This ensures that automatic mapping is effective at the Field Mapping step of the Data Flow configuration.
One very important aspect of the configuration of the Data Flow, is that it needs to remove any previously imported Supporters from the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ entity that do not exist in the current list of Supporters imported from the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ Microsoft Excel file. This is accomplished in the following manner:
1. Prior to configuring the Data Flow, add an Alternate Key based on the CustomerKey, i.e. the ‘mag_name’, field to the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ CDS entity.
2. At the Load Settings and Field Mappings step of the Data Flow configuration select the ‘Delete rows that no longer exist in the query output’ option and ensure that the ‘mag_Name’ field is selected in the Alternate Key Fields section. Without the existence of this Alternate Key, the ‘Delete rows that no longer exist in the query output’ option cannot be used.
Finally, the Data Flow is configured to be run manually rather than on a schedule. When required, the user can navigate to the Data Flows page by clicking Data Flows in the Power BI report and select the Refresh option on the ‘More options’ menu of the Data Flow.
This approach resolves the limitations of the previously reviewed approaches. However, it does have these three limitations:
– Firstly, the Data Flow cannot set lookup fields, such as the ‘mag_accountid’ and ‘mag_contactid’ lookup fields. However, the automatically triggered ‘Marketing List App (Populate Lookup Fields)’ Power Automate Flow sets these fields as each ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ record is created by the Data Flow.
– Secondly, Power Apps Data Flows cannot be shared. Therefore, a separate copy of the Data Flow needs to be created for and owned by each User. In this implementation, this was not an issue, because there were only three Users.
– Thirdly, users cannot access the Data Flows area unless they have a Security Role such as System Administrator, System Customiser, Environment Admin or Environment Maker. A good option here is to use the Environment Admin Security Role after first optionally removing almost all its existing permissions, adding a few additional permissions, and then also optionally renaming it. Using a modified copy of the Environment Admin Security Role does not work. It must be the original. Use of this Security Role is a good option because its use for administering the Power Platform Environment is superseded by the System Administrator Security Role. The System Administrator Security Role is created once a database has been created for the Environment. The following table shows the permissions I used.
If the methods of resolving these limitations are not suitable for your implementation, then a custom user invoked application or service may be used to refresh a CDS entity.
In my next article, I will demonstrate how my ‘Marketing List App’ is able to access all the Supporters in the ‘Supporters (Marketing List App)’ CDS entity with no limits on the number that may be accessed.


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The new Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered his ‘Mini-Budget’ on 23 September, with changes to income tax amongst the measures announced. This will have an impact on pensions, and specifically your pension contributions next year.
If you’re a basic rate taxpayer in England and Wales, you’re currently paying 20% income tax, so 20 pence for every pound you earn above the personal allowance. From April 2023 that rate will drop to 19%, so you’ll be paying one pence less per pound. This will apply to anyone with annual earnings between £12,571-£50,270.
There are no changes to the higher and additional rate tax bands at this time, although if you’re a higher or additional rate taxpayer then you’ll also benefit from the 1% tax reduction on the portion of your earnings in the basic rate band. The higher rate income tax of 40% will continue to apply to anyone earning between £50,271 and £150,000. And following a government reversal 10 days on from the initial Mini-Budget announcement, the planned abolition of additional rate tax of 45%, will no longer go ahead. This means anyone earning over £150,000 will continue to pay the top rate of income tax. It’s worth remembering that income tax isn’t paid at the same rate across all of your income. It’s only paid on the portion of your income that falls within a tax band.
Overall, in the 2023/24 tax year, it’s expected that basic rate taxpayers will save £130 in income tax while higher rate taxpayers will save £360. These savings also apply to anyone withdrawing taxable income from a pension.
Changes to pension tax relief
Private pensions enable most savers to receive tax relief on their personal contributions corresponding with their rate of income tax. Therefore, if your income tax rate drops, the amount of tax relief you get from your savings will also drop. Basic rate taxpayers currently get 20% tax relief. In practice this means if you wanted to add £100 into your pension you’d only need to pay in £80 and HMRC will add the rest. When the rate reduces to 19% you’ll need to pay in £81. However, those saving into ‘relief at source’ pension schemes, such as those used by PensionBee, will continue to receive tax relief at 20% until April 2024.
Whilst the basic rate of tax relief is usually automatically added to pension contributions, additional and higher rate taxpayers will need to claim further tax relief by submitting a Self-Assessment tax return. Alternatively, they can contact HMRC directly.
If you can afford to, you may want to consider raising your pension contributions before these new rules come into effect in April 2024 to make the most of the tax relief currently available. If you’re thinking about doing so, it’s important to keep your annual allowance, which is up to £40,000 for the tax year (2022/23), in mind - you’ll be liable to pay tax on any amount over this limit. However, if you’ve any unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years, this may be a good opportunity to maximise tax relief on contributions you make before April 2024 using the pension carry forward rule. If you’re unsure of what your limits are, you may wish to speak to a tax consultant.
Changes to IR35 rules
It was also announced that the government plans to repeal IR35 rules. If you were one of the many people who were classified as ‘employed’ and brought on to an employer’s PAYE payroll as part of IR35’s implementation then this might be relevant to you. As part of this arrangement your employer would likely have auto-enrolled you into a pension scheme and provided contributions along with yourself and tax relief from the government. If you’re considering reverting to a contractor style arrangement as a result of the IR35 changes then it’s important to remember that you’ll once again be responsible for sorting out your own pension, although there may be tax advantages in doing so.
Pensions, and indeed, tax, can be complex to understand let alone keep up with how changes in policy affect them and therefore your finances. Our Pensions Explained articles are designed to help you understand everything you need to know in an accessible way. Plus, you may want to check back here on our blog as we regularly update it with news and information on how your pension’s affected by recent events. We’ll be sure to keep you informed if there are any further announcements which impact your pension.
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.

domain: law


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Two Shores Rum debuts in UK
Premium rum brand Two Shores has launched into the UK market to pay homage to the ‘rich culture of Ireland’.
The golden rum has been created using a ‘unique’ ageing process that takes place both in Central America and on the west coast of Ireland.
After having spent eight years ageing in a humid on-the-equator location, the rum was moved across the Atlantic Ocean into a combination of hand-selected casks for the remaining six months.
The range is composed of four expressions, including finishes in 19-year-old single malt Irish whiskey, oloroso Sherry, rich peated whisky, and Amarone wine casks.
This combination of geographies and cask varieties creates a range of rums that are ‘unlike any other on the market’.
Two Shores founder Jason Kidd said he had a vision to create a rum that would “stand out” from the rest and showcase the best of what Central America and Ireland have to offer.
He commented: “We are thrilled to be launching Two Shores Rum in the UK. I have always been drawn to the rich culture and history of Ireland and I wanted to create a rum that would pay homage.
“We believe that Two Shores Rum is a true representation of the marriage of Central American sugarcane and Irish whiskey ageing. The result is a delightfully smooth yet complex liquid that is perfect for sipping neat.”
Two Shores Rum is aimed at consumers that enjoy higher-end whisky and Bourbons, and are seeking ‘something different yet familiar’.
The rum is recommended enjoyed neat, on the rocks or in a cocktail.
The Two Shores range is expected to bring new consumers and liquid expressions to the Irish rum category.
Two Shores Rum is now available from Master of Malt for RRP £50 (US$60).
Goslings Rum recently added a new permanent expression to its portfolio that was ocean-aged onboard a cargo ship.

domain: geography


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Christmas Disappearing Pinwheel
My husband and I travel from Michigan to Florida to spend the winter each. Space is at a premium somImtey to take pre-cut fabric projects with me. This last year I cut all of my stash "chunks" of Christmas fabric intom10 inch squares. I also took 45 white 10 inch squares. The result was this Christmas quilt. In addition Indid not have an appropriate backing so I pieced the remaining squares into a back.


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Paris will switch off the Eiffel Tower's lights an hour earlier than normal, lower the water temperature in municipal pools and delay heating public buildings to save energy this winter, the city's mayor said on Tuesday.
The measures are aimed at meeting President Emmanuel Macron's goal that industry, households, and municipal authorities reduce their energy consumption by 10 per cent in response to Russia's cut to gas supplies and spiralling energy prices.
Around Europe, countries are looking for ways to cut energy consumption and fill up their gas stores in preparation for a possible total cut-off.
France is not as exposed to Russian gas as some neighbours but a record number of nuclear reactor outages has forced France to import power when it would typically be an exporter, exacerbating the pressure on power markets.
"France will always be the City of Light", Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
The Eiffel Tower is currently illuminated until 1:00 am by a lighting system that lends it a golden glow.
At the top of each hour while lit, it twinkles thanks to 20,000 flashing bulbs. Extinguishing the monument's lights at 11:45 pm would mean a 4 per cent reduction in its power consumption.
Hidalgo said that from September 23, lighting in Paris' public buildings would be switched off at 10:00 pm while the water temperature in pools would be reduced to 25 Celsius from 26 Celsius. The heating in public building will be dialed down to 18 Celsius.
The capital's energy bill would hit 90 million euros this year, 35 million more than usual even with long-term electricity and gas contracts shielding authorities from the worst of the cost increases.

domain: economics


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The Vision Council Spreads Eye Health Messaging Through Healthy Vision Month Interviews
The Vision Council hosted a Healthy Vision Month media tour in early May, spreading general eye health tips, digital eye strain messaging and eyewear fashion trends. The series of broadcast interviews with optometrist and medical adviser Dr. Justin Bazan and CEO of The Vision Council Ashley Mills were filmed during the second week of May and are airing throughout the month. Resulting in 22 live and live-to-tape radio and TV interviews that have aired thus far, as well as an Audio News Release, the media tour has garnered more than 11.4 million impressions and counting. A sample segment from "Coast Live" is available via YouTube.
For more information or questions regarding The Vision Council's Healthy Vision Month initiatives and consumer campaigns, please reach out to Maureen Beddis, The Vision Council's vice president of marketing and communications, at email@example.com.

domain: medical


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CTV News Channel
© 2021 All rights reserved.
Stop. Think. Act. Some safety tips for those working, often alone, out on the farm.
In challenging times, the things that matter most are often the things we take for granted.
Agris Co-operative, with the support of Libro, is implementing new technologies.
A sixth-generation family-run company, Burnbrae has been produce eggs for 75 years.
Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers farmers and processors make safe, health, affordable food that lasts.
From vineyards and orchards to breweries and farmers' markets, you've got to come visit Prescott-Russell with so much to see and do!
By growing their own ingredients, these soap-makers know exactly what goes into their products.
Affordable food is a priority for everyone, and grain farmers are doing what they can to keep costs down.
Women in Agriculture: What does a farmer look like? More and more women are helping to feed Ontario.
Dickey Bee Honey, Purple Hill Lavender Farm, Integrated Farms and Windlee Farms Maple Syrup are all right in Simcoe County.
A look at the importance of agriculture equipment on Delhaven Orchards.
Peter Hillen of Hillen Nurseries says he would recommend Kubota to anybody.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is encouraging those facing challenges to reach out.
Mental health issues are real, and it's OK to ask for help.
She is a farmer. She is strong but gentle and knows what it takes to get the job done.
This guy is the epitome of agriculture, a farmer whose family has been feeding Ontario for generations.
Two brothers from Wellesley are utilizing crabapples -- a tasty fruit that often goes to waste.
Listen to Pure Country London's Forman as he highlights the farming community and the issues that affect farmers. Brought to you by investinmiddlesex.ca.
Share your photos on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #fieldstoforks and you could be featured on the CTV News at 6!
Women are increasingly taking the reins in Canada's agriculture industry, even though it can mean long hours and grueling work.
Follow the adventures of a Huron County couple - a sheep farmer and a grain farmer.
Meet some of Ontario's farmers and learn about who they are and what they produce.
Take a tour of and learn how different producing eggs is from caring for dairy cows or growing grain or raising goats.
Learn why farmers do what they do and some other interesting facts about farming and Ontario crops.
Farmers gathered in Woodstock, Ont. on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017.
Six by Sixteen aims to get young people into the kitchen, with how-to videos, recipes and source guides.
Did you know over 7 billion eggs are sold in Canada each year? Learn more about what our farmers produce.
All food in Ontario is grown safely, but there are still different ways of doing things.

domain: agronomy


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Dr. Miller was very nice and did a great job treating my bunions.
Great experience with Dr. H. Had success with him in just 3 short months and 2 fertility treatments!
I have been coming to pain management for over five yrs now do to an accent through out this time all your staff has been very helpful and knowledgeable
Dr. Visanescu has taken care of all our needs related to our dental care. I would recommend her to anyone needing a dentist.
I highly recommend Dr. Ison and everyone I met on his staff. They are smart, nice, helpful, and they did a great job on my teeth.
It is evident that Dr. Barton and his staff genuinely care about people. He was so patient in explaining the procedure and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the... Read more
Nice docs and did my implant quickly and painless!
Very good service asked question very well explained the reception was very help full her name amber
My formerly in-grown toenail thanks Dr. Freels and her staff. They were very professional in every aspect of my visit. Have you ever had a doctor send you a handwri... Read more
My name is Dan. I reached out to Dr. Asumendi during a period of extreme depression and anxiety. She is the only psychiatrist in the Louisville area, that I have fou... Read more
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- Availability: Withdrawn from sale
- Product Code: Vista Green
One-piece swimsuit with a V-neck on the chest and wide, fixed straps. With foam non-removable cups and a high Brazilian fit. Care:
hand wash at 30°
do not wring out in the washing machine
iron at low temperature (up to 110°)
do not use bleaches
Composition: 86% polyamide/ 14% spandex.


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|Publication number||US3718184 A|
|Publication date||Feb 27, 1973|
|Filing date||Sep 21, 1971|
|Priority date||Sep 21, 1971|
|Publication number||US 3718184 A, US 3718184A, US-A-3718184, US3718184 A, US3718184A|
|Inventors||Bayless J, Penberthy W|
|Original Assignee||Exxon Production Research Co|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Referenced by (2), Classifications (9)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
Feb. 27, 1973 J. H. BAYLESS ET AL INSULATION FOR A WELLBORE Original Filed Aug. 23, 1968 FIG.I
WALTER L. PENBERTHY, JR.
JACK H. BAYLESS INVENTORS A TTORNE Y United States Patent Int. Cl. E21b 43/24 US. Cl. 166-57 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for thermally insulating a well for use in a thermal process for oil recovery. The apparatus is a tubular conduit mounted within the well and having a coating of foam consisting essentially of an alkali metal silicate. The insulated tubing may be fabricated on the surface or within the wellbore.
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 12,494, filed on Feb. 2, 1970, now abandoned, which in turn was a division of Ser. No. 754,887, filed Aug. 23, 1968, now 'Patent No. v3,525,399.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the invention This invention relates to apparatus for use in a well. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus for thermally insulating a wellbore.
(2) Description of the prior art In the recovery of heavy petroleum crude oils, the industry has for many years recognized the desirability of thermal stimulation as a means for lowering the oil viscosity and thereby increasing the production of oil.
One form of thermal stimulation which has recently received wide acceptance by the industry is a process of injecting steam into the well and into the reservoir. This process is a thermal drive technique where steam is injected into one well which drives oil before it to a second, producing well. In an alternative method, a single well is used for both steam injection and production of the oil. The steam is injected through the tubing and into the formation. Injection is then interrupted, and the well is permitted to heat soak for a period of time. Following the heat soak, the well is placed on a production cycle and the heated fluids are withdrawn by way of the well to the surface.
Steam injection can increase oil production through a number of mechanisms. The viscosity of most oils is strongly dependent upon its temperature. In many cases, the viscosity of the reservoir oil can be reduced by 100 fold or more if the temperature of the oil is increased several hundred degrees. Steam injection can have sub stantial benefits in recovering even relatively-light, lowviscosity oils. This is particularly true where such oils exist in thick, low permeability sands where present fracturing techniques are not effective. In such cases, a minor reduction in viscosity of the reservoir oil can sharply increase productivity. Steam injection is also useful in removing wellbore damage at injection and producing wells. Such damage is often attributable to asphaltic or paraflim'c components of the crude oil which clog the pore spaces of the reservoir sand in the immediate vicinity of the well. Steam injection can be used to remove these deposits from the wellbore.
Patented Feb. 27, 1973 Injection of high temperature steam which may be 650 F. or even higher does, however, present some special operational problems. When the steam is injected through the tubing, there may be substantial transfer of heat across the annular space to the well casing. When the well casing is firmly cemented into the wellbore, as it generally is, the thermally induced stresses may result in casing failure. Moreover, the primary object of any steam injection process is to transfer the thermal energy from the surface of the earth to the oil-bearing formation. Where significant quantities of thermal energy are lost as the steam travels through the tubing string, the process is naturally less efficient. 0n even a shallow well, the thermal losses of the steam during its travel down the tubing may be so high that the initially high temperature superheated or saturated steam will condense into hot water before reaching the formation. Such condensation represents a tremendous loss in the amount of thermal energy that the injected fluid is able to carry into the reservoir.
A number of proposals have been advanced to combat excessive heat losses in steam injection processes. It has been suggested that a temperature resistant, thermal packer be employed to isolate the annular space between the casing and injection tubing. iSuch equipment will reduce heat losses due to convection between the tubing string and the casing string by forming a closed, deadgas space in the annulus. Such specialized equipment is not only highly expensive, but does nothing to prevent radiant thermal losses from the injection tubing.
It has been suggested that the wells be completed with a bitumastic coating. This completion technique utilizes a material to coat the casing which will melt at high temperature. When melting occurs, the casing is free to expand thus relieving the stresses which would otherwise be placed on the casing due to an increase in its temperature. This method has not proven to be universally successful in preventing casing failure. In some instances the formation may contact the casing with sufi'icient force to prevent free expansion and contraction of the casing during heating and cooling. Under these circumstances casing failure is possible due to the unrelieved stresses. Moreover, such a completion technique does nothing to prevent the loss of thermal energy from the injection tubing.
It has been suggested that an inert gas, such as nitrogen, be introduced into the annular space between the casing and tubing and pumped down the annulus to the formation. This method requires, however, a source of gas, means for pumping the gas down the annulus, and means for separating the inert gas from the produced well fluids.
Another means which has been successfully employed to lower heat losses from steam injection tubing is the heat reflector system. This is a shell of heat-reflective, metal pipe which surrounds the tubing string, It is assembled in joints which are equal in length to the joints of the tubing and run into the hole with the tubing string as an integrated unit. The outer shell may be sealed at the top and bottom to prevent the entry of well fluids into the space between the steam injection tubing and the heat reflective shell. Such a system has utility in preventing the losses of thermal energy from injection tubing due to radiation, conduction, and convection. Such a system, of course, is relatively expensive since it requires two strings of metallic pipethe injection tubing and the heat reflective shell. Moreo er the use of the heat reflective shell will reduce the diameter of the tubing which may be effectively employed in any given well. This can be particularly important where multiple strings of tubings are employed in a single well.
3 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a process and apparatus for thermally insulating elements of a well, such as a tubing string. The tubing string is run into the well and set in place. An aqueous solution of water soluble silicate is introduced into the annular space between the casing and the tubing string. Steam is injected into the tubing string to raise the temperature of the silicate solution above its boiling point. Boiling of the silicate solution removes its water and deposits a coating of alkali metal silicate foam on the tubing string. The silicate foam is relatively thin and has a remarkably low thermal conductivity.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a vertical section of the earth showing a well containing casing and steam injection strings.
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the well after deposition of the silicate foam.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a well shown generally at is drilled from the surface of the earth 11 to an oil-bearing formation 12. The well has a casing string 13 with perforations 14 in the oil-bearing formation to permit fluid communication between the oilbearing formation and the casing. Steam injection tubing 15 extends from the Wellhead 16 to the oil-bearing formation. The tubing string is equipped with an inlet line 17 and the casing has an inlet line 18.
A swab cup packer 19 is set on the tubing string and run into the well to the desired level. A suitable swab cup packer is Type GW, Guiberson Cup Packer, sold by Dresser Industries, Inc. A swab cup packer is simply a resilient cup which is sealed on the tubing at its base and extends outward to contact the casing with the lip at the top of the packer. The elastomeric material of the cup may be reinforced with spring steel wires for added strength. The packer cup should be chosen so that the flexible lip has an outside diameter which exceeds the inside diameter of the casing so that immediate compression of cup against the casing is obtained for instantaneous and positive sealing.
In the practice of this invention the packer cup is installed on the tubing with the base toward the bottom of the well and the lip extending upward. In this manner, a higher positive pressure above the cup will prevent fluids from moving downward past the cup. The greater the differential pressure across the cup, the more tightly the cup will seal. While it is preferred to employ a cup type packer, other packer assemblies known to those skilled in the art may be employed such as anchor type packers, hook wall packers, tension packers, or thermal packers.
After the tubing string with packer assembly is run into the hole and set in place, an aqueous solution of water soluble silicate is injected through inlet line 18 into the annular space 20 between the casing and tubing. The packer element will prevent the silicate solution from traveling below the packer assembly. Preferably, sufficient solution will be employed to fill the annular space.
Following injection of the silicate solution, steam is introduced into the tubing through inlet line 17, down tubing string 15, and into the oil-bearing formation through perforations 14. The casing inlet 18 is opened to the atmosphere to permit discharge of the water vapor which boils from the silicate solution. It is preferred to inject steam at a relatively high temperaure, approximately 600 F., and a relatively high mass flow rate. The high temperatures and high mass flow rates will permit immediate heating of the tubing string 15 to a high temperature and will rapidly remove the water from the silicate solution. In some instances, particularly in wells of extreme depth, it may not be possible to boil ofi all of the liquid within the annular space. The foam may build up at a rapid rate on the tubing and insulate the annular space so effectively that the temperature of the liquid remaining in the annular space drops below its boiling point. In wells of this type, it may be preferred to employ a reverse circulating device 22 in the tubing string above the packer. Such devices are well known to those skilled in the art and permit fluid communication between the annular space and the tubing above the packer. These devices can be opened and closed by wireline methods under pressure without moving the tubing or disturbing the packer setting. The remaining solution may then be displaced from the annular space.
As shown in FIG. 2 as the silicate solution boils, the water is removed and a thin film of alkali metal silicate foam is formed on the exterior of the tubing string. A more surprising aspect of this invention is the fact that the silicate foam will only deposit on the relatively hot steam injection tubing and will not deposit on the relatively cool casing string. This can be a decided advantage, particularly when a relatively permanent packer assembly such as a hook wall or thermal packer is employed. If substantial quantities of the silicate were deposited on the casing string, there might be a problem in withdrawing the tubing and packer assembly when desired.
Minor depositions of silicate foam on the exterior of the casing string is not totally undesirable, however, since any silicate deposited upon the casing will provide further insulation. Due to the high water solubility of the silicate foam, any minor deposits on the wall of the casing may be removed by circulating water down the annulus prior to pulling the packer.
It is not fully understood why the silicate foam deposits only upon high temperature surface. It is possible that this is a result of the boiling which occurs in the immediate vicinity of the high temperature surface. It is also possible that the foam deposition is due to a molecular interaction between the iron-containing surface and the silicate solution at high temperatures.
As shown in FIG. 2 after the silicate solution has been boiled and the water of solution removed, a thin, relatively-hard shell of alkali metal silicate foam 21 is deposited about the tubing string. This foam has amazing insulating properties. The thermal conductivity of such a foam may range as low as 7.0 l0 (cal.) (cm.)/ (sec.) (cm?) C.).
The silicates employed in the practice of this invention are those of the alkali metals which readily dissolve in water. This group is commonly termed the soluble silicates and includes any of the silicates of the alkali metals, with the exception of lithium. However, in the practice of this invention, it is preferred to employ silicate solutions containing sodium or potassium, as the alkali metal, due to the relatively low cost and ready commercial availability of such solutions.
When water is removed from solutions of the soluble silicates, they crystallize to form glass-like materials. When the soluble silicates are dried rapidly at boiling temperatures, the solutions intumesce and form a solid mass of bubbles having 30' times their original volume. The dried foam is a light weight glassy material having excellent structural and insulating properties.
In the practice of this invention, commercially available sodium silicate solutions have been found suitable. Such solutions have a density of approximately 40 B. at 20 C. and a silica dioxide/sodium oxide weight ratio of approximately 3.2/1. Alternatively, commercially available potassium silicate solutions may be employed. Commercial potassium silicate solutions have a density of approximately 30 B. at 20 C. and a silica dioxide/ potassium oxide Weight ratio of approximately 2.4/1. The silica dioxide/alkali metal oxide weight ratio ,is not critical to the practice of this invention and may range between 1.3/1 and 5.0/1. The density of the solutions may range between 22 B. and 50 B. 'at 20 C. It is only important that sufficient solids be contained in the solution so that upon boiling a coating of approximately 4; of an inch-or greater will be deposited upon the tubing string.
As is previously stated, it has been found that the silicate foam will form only on the heated surface of the steam injection tubing. In many instances it may be necessary to place centralizers 23 on the tubing to prevent contact with the casing wall and consequent transfer of heat from the tubing to the casing by conduction. These centralizers can be easily thermally insulated from the injection tubing by wrapping the tubing at such points with any suitably, heat-insulated material such as asbestos.
Under general operating conditions when extremely high temperature (600 F. or higher) steam is injected through the tubing, the swab cup packer may deteriorate permitting steam leakage across the packer. This will generally present no problem even though the silicate foam is water soluble. So long as the casing is shut in, there will be little tendency for steam to rise in the annular space and attack the silicate foam. If there is minor encroachment of steam above the packer after it deteriorates, the thermal insulation of the injection string can be maintained by utilizing several joints of heat reflective shielding just above the packer. This heat reflective shielding may also be used to advantage Where a more permanent type packer is employed rather than cup type packers. This heat reflective shielding at the bottom of the tubing string will prevent deposition of the silicate foam immediately above the packer which might prevent the packer from being pulled. A suitable heat reflective shield is sold by Summit Steam Techniques, Inc. under the trade name Thermoguard.
The following examples demonstrate the ease with which the suitability of various soluble silicate solutions can be determined. One of ordinary skill in the art using such techniques can readily determine the suitability for various operating conditions of solutions having various densities, silica dioxide/alkali metal oxide weight ratios, percentages of silica dioxide, percentages of alkali metal oxide, and viscosities.
EXAMPLE I A one-quarter inch O.D. stainless steel tube, 4 /2 feet in length was used to approximate a tubing string. A onehalf inch I.D. galvanized line pipe was slipped over the tubing string to approximate the casing and sealed at its top and bottom with an inlet and outlet for the stainless steel tubing. A tap was drilled in the top of the galvanized line pipe and the annular space between the tubing and line pipe was partially filled with 135 cc. of sodium silicate solution, 40 B., 3.2/1 silica dioxide/sodium oxide ratio. Steam was injected through the center tube at 400 F. and 250 p.s.i.a. After one-half hour, 75 cc. of liquid had boiled out of the annular space. The assembly was then dismantled and it was found that the casing (the outer pipe) was essentially devoid of sodium silicate deposits. The tubing (the inner pipe) was coated with a sodium silicate foam shell which was essentially uniform and /8 inch in thickness.
The thin deposition of sodium silicate foam was remarkably effective in reducing the transfer of heat from the interior of the tubing to the exterior. With the outer casing removed from the tubing, high temperature steam (420 F.-325 p.s.i.a.) was injected into one end of the tubing and discharged at substantially the same temperature and pressure at the other end. After injecting the high temperature steam for 45 minutes, the highest temperature which was measured on the surface of the sodium silicate foam was 150 F.
6 EXAMPLE 11 An apparatus similar to that described in Example I was employed to evaluate the depositional characteristics of potassium silicate solutions and the thermal properties of the resultant potassium silicate foam.
The annular space was filled with 600 cc. of a potassium silicate solution, 30 B6. and 2.4/1 silica dioxide/ potassium oxide weight ratio. Steam was injected through the A inch stainless steel tubing at 400 F. and 250 p.s.i.a. for approximately one hour.
After one hour the model was disassembled, and the casing and the tubing strings were visually inspected. The stainless steel tubing was coated with a layer varying from A; inch to inch in thickness. The wall of the casing was substantially free of potassium silicate deposits.
The thermal conductivity of potassium silicate foam was evaluated in the manner described in Example I. After injecting high temperature steam (420F.-325 p.s.i.a.) for approximately one-half hour, the highest temperature reported on the surface of the potassium silicate foam was approximately 200 F. The temperature on an uninsulated portion of the stainless steel tubing was 390 F.
In some instances it may be desirable to coat the tubing at the surface with the silicate solution rather than within the well. This may be particularly desirable in instances where the silicate deposit is to be coated with a water-proofing material before running the insulated tubing string into the well. Various plastics and resins which are not water soluble and have the ability to withstand the high temperatures encountered in thermal operations would be suitable for this purpose.
What is claimed is:
1. An improved well installation wherein the improvement comprises a first tubular conduit mounted within the well, said first conduit having a coating of solid foam consisting essentially of a water-soluble alkali metal silicate and a coating of waterproofing material on the exterior of the foam.
2. A well installation which comprises a string of tubing disposed Within a well and defining an annulus with the well, a coating consisting essentially of water-soluble alkali metal silicate on the exterior of the tubing, 8. packer assembly attached to the lower portion of the tubing string and engaging the wall of the well to form a fluid seal in the annulus at the location of engagement, and selectively openable or closeable means on the tubing and above the packer for permitting or for blocking fluid communications between the tubing and the annulus.
3. A well installation as defined by claim 2 further comprising a string of casing concentrically disposed above the tubing string and having an internal surface which is substantially free of thermal insulating means.
4. A well installation as defined by claim 2 wherein the packer assembly is a thermal packer.
5. A well installation as defined by claim 2 further comprising means on the tubing for preventing contact by the tubing with the wall of the well.
6. A well installation as defined by claim 5 wherein the means for preventing contact with the wall of the well are centralizers.
7. A well installation as defined by claim 2 wherein the water-soluble solid silicate coating is a sodium silicate coating.
8. A well installation as defined by claim 2 wherein the water-soluble solid silicate coating is a potassium silicate coating.
9. A well installation as defined by claim 2' wherein the coating has an average thickness of at least of an inch.
10. A well installation which comprises a string of tubing disposed within a well and having a coating consisting essentially of water soluble alkali metal silicate on the exterior of the tubing, and a string of casing disposed within the well, concentrically disposed about the tubing 7 8 string, and having an internal surface which is substan- 3,022,829 2/1962 Hodges 166-311 X tially free of thermal insulating means. 3,397,745 8/1968 Owens et al 166-57 11. A well installation which comprises a string of tub- 3,380,530 4/1968 McConnell et a1. 166-57 X ing disposed within a well, a string of easing disposed 3,451,479 6/1969 Parker 16657 X within the well and concentrically disposed about the tub- 5 3,478,783 1/ 969 Doyle 166-57 X ing string, and a coating consisting essentially of water soluble alkali metal silicate on the exterior of the tubing OTHER REFEIFEPFCES string- Baker, I. E., Jr.: New Apphcatlons for Sodium S11 1 References Cited cate, 12th Nat. Sample Symposium, October 1967, pp. UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,148,717 2/1939 Whitney 166-272 DAVID BROWN, Primary Examiner 2,734,578 2/1956 Walter 166-57 X
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US4296814 *||Jul 18, 1980||Oct 27, 1981||Conoco Inc.||Method for thermally insulating wellbores|
|US6085839 *||Oct 13, 1998||Jul 11, 2000||Shell Oil Company||Method of thermally insulating a wellbore|
|International Classification||E21B36/00, E21B33/10|
|Cooperative Classification||E21B36/00, E21B33/10, E21B36/003|
|European Classification||E21B36/00C, E21B33/10, E21B36/00|

domain: chemistry


text:
The north west arts and health network is changing – flexing and evolving with the occasions – still with its feet firmly on the bottom in the north of england, however aware of the many worldwide voices that get in touch. The humanities ought to be central to up to date society. We are going to share alternatives – each local and international – and offer well timed responses to the cultural and political components that perpetuate societal inequalities, which exclude individuals from the humanities, and impact on public health. I will be sharing some Dementia & Imagination work on the Nationwide Art Gallery of Lithuania , alongside new work with Vic McEwan following his residency at Alder Hey, which all precedes his residency at TATE Liverpool at the end of the month. Free tickets for a TATE Exchange occasion on 29th June can be found RIGHT HERE For these of you attending the Tradition, Well being and Wellbeing International Convention in Bristol, you can hear from Vic and I on the ultimate day of the conference within the last keynote of the convention. Vic might be sharing work from The Harmonic Oscillator and I will be framing in by way of an extract from a brand new work, Vital Care.
Nice concepts! Thank you a lot for together with my thank you bucket! You definitely gave me an thought for next yr to change it. Revolutionary Arts Alliance began in 1999 with founding members Diane Eyerman, Anna Prince, and … Read More
The 70’s noticed a lift within the interest in personality pin up posters because of the mega success of Farrah Fawcett’s purple bikini poster from 1976. Her pose, showing off her beautiful smile and the hairstyle that will develop into one of the vital well-known of all time, sold a document 7 million items (I’ve seen the determine listed as 11 million in some sources) and was most certainly one of the best selling character poster of all time. Be affected person with kids. They’ll spill water, drop paint on the floor and get coated in paint by some means. It is part of the method. Clear acrylic paint with water earlier than it dries and it will not be an excessive amount of of a problem. I have never seen an adult artist that didn’t wear a part of the paint either. Costume kids in paint garments or a paint smock. Ultimately they are going to be capable of establish each painting they did by the paint colours on their smocks. Throw down newspaper or a drop cloth or an outdated sheet you should utilize again and again. Don’t count on them to be good at anything without observe however do compliment every thing they do anyway.
My Favourite Quotes – paint your favourite quote, poem, Bible verse and use some of the words within the artwork. At some stage this week, head to Mayfair’s Victoria Miro Gallery to see this dotty exhibit by the even dottier Yayoi Kusama … Read More
Seeing is believing, and what I have to point out you will undoubtedly make you a believer— a believer in your means to make stunning and helpful objects out of glass jars. The artwork of stone carving in Cambodia has roots that predate the foundation of the Angkor kingdom by many centuries. Some of Cambodia’s oldest recognized stone sculptures have been made in the Funan kingdom (located in the modern-day south of the country), which existed in the 1st or 2nd century ADVERT until the 6th century ADVERT, in addition to in the pre-Angkor kingdom of Chenla. The Advertising main in the Bachelor of Commerce is accredited by the Australian Advertising and marketing Institute (AMI) till 2018. Relying on subject choice throughout the Bachelor of Commerce, college students could also be eligible to graduate with an accounting qualification accredited by CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ); please discuss with the Handbook for additional details.
This is a beautiful and informative hub! I am an artwork minor and cultural research main – I gobble this stuff up! 😀 Nice data and facts right here!! Voted up. Once the glue is dry, place a piece of masking tape over the glued space for further hold. MoMA Artwork Lab is a window into the fantastic world of the museum’s modern art assortment and full of easy, beautiful actions that introduce art strategies and reasonably uniquely, encourages creativity between friends and family members. It is free and it’s loads of … Read More
MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts, a full combat sport. It is a mixture of different fighting types all packed in a single, a mix of grappling, hanging, and floor struggle. This sport got here into existence throughout the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and through the previous years Pakistan has additionally began making identify of itself in ONE Preventing Championship (ONE FC). Any little child would love playing in this haunted house. Discover the directions for making one prefer it at alphamom. You put quite a lot of nice data to this hub. Im doing martial arts for about 20 years and love to assist others with discovering their answer. I’ve black belt in taekwondo and in karate, however i ccan not say that one is best then different. Martial Artist, do you may have any expertise or knowledge of Praying Mantis (Chow Gar Tong Lengthy) Type Kung Fu? I’ve been beneficial by a buddy, however am unsure of how effective it could be in road situations.
This is a helpful printable in your Christmas preparations. The printable template may be found at Polka Dot Pixies. This will make writing to Santa straightforward. So many nice concepts. I noticed a bunch that I wish to make. Love this lens. Bookmarked! Thanks for sharing with us. Emotions Journal – I seize a particular journal to specific my emotions by means of art. Whether or not I’m excited about a new alternative or unhappy a couple of misplaced beloved one, I … Read More
I used to search out it troublesome to seek out art and craft initiatives, suitable for the Lenten season, for my elementary artwork courses. So, I received busy and developed some new Lenten projects and put the tutorials on my blog, Children & Glitter. On this article I’ll share these tasks, and likewise projects from different websites that share Lenten arts and crafts. Only these initiatives that have directions are included. Accordingly, the principles of physique mechanics underpinning the inner arts arise from a deeper understanding of this technique of change, both philosophically and physically. And it is to those rules that I shall now flip. Successful completion of English for Additional Research Advanced Stage 5B certificate at undergraduate (EFS5 (70%) PG1) stage carried out by La Trobe Melbourne; for more info please go to the La Trobe Melbourne web site. John Ruskin was an art critic and social reformer who influenced the Aesthetic Movement. His lifelong interest in particular person craftsmanship, social justice and his opposition to the monotony and dehumanization of the commercial era, in addition to his curiosity in mythology informed the ideals of the motion.
Recently my very long time pal Patricia of PVE Design posted a really poignant feature discussing her causes for running a blog and asking fellow bloggers to share our personal stories and one profit from running a blog. Firstly, simply want to say thanks again in your advice final yr to have my 5-year previous son begin in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu before … Read More

domain: artistic


- “A long-range, high-damage weapon with a slow rate of fire.”
The Pulse Cannon is a vehicle weapon featured in RAGE. Used on the Monarch class vehicles, it fires a large bolt of energy with certain homing abilities, almost similar in appearance to the Authority Pulse Cannon charges produced by BFG Rounds. It's also available as a primary weapon in the multiplayer mode Road Rage. It has the same power as the Pulse Cannon featured in the Campaign and is powerful enough to even take down a Boss.
This is the most technologically advanced and powerful vehicle weapon in the game. One hit is enough to destroy any enemy vehicle, including the Authority Predator. It only comes with the Monarch vehicle and available after completing the quest "Monarch Needed".
In the Campaign, the matching ammo becomes available from some vendors after acquiring the vehicle. It's rather expensive, but well worth the price due to the devastating effect on the enemies. Also, it helps to save some money on vehicle armor and some quick-use items.
|Vehicle items in RAGE|
|Vehicle weapons|| Cluster Bomb · Heavy Machine Guns · Homing Missile · Machine Guns · Miniguns|
Mortar · Nailspreader · Pulse Cannon · Pulse Repeaters · Rocket · Rocket Launchers
| Aftershocker · Air Burst · Armor Restore · Boost Restore · EMP|
Escort Bomb · Hover Turret · Mine · Shield
|Pick-ups||Ammo Recharge · Armor Recharge · Boost Recharge · Quad Damage · Quick-Use Recharge|
|Rally objects||Capture Zones · Meteors · Rally Points · Rally Stations|


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text:
Sally O’Dowd is a magazine self-publisher, blogger and poet. Her story Swan Castle placed fifth among 26 entries in NYC Midnight’s writing contest. Genre: Romantic Comedy
Anne and her sister Carrie were having a drink Tuesday night at Molly’s, their local pub, where the subject was routinely Anne’s sexist CEO.
“Period pain? I can’t believe that’s the reason Jack thought you took a sick day,” Carrie said. “What a wanker. Doesn’t he know it’s still against the law to speak that way?” The two young women were not alone in fearing that, under the influence of the country’s new president, such behavior would become normalized.
Two years older, Carrie felt responsible for both Anne’s libations and existential progress. “How much longer are you going to take this?”
“I’ll get out. Give me some time.”
“Can you go to HR?”
“No, she’s a friend of Jack’s wife.”
Just then two twenty-something men approached to order a couple of lagers. “Thanks, buddy,” the taller one said, leaving a tip on the bar. Their faces seemed nice.
The shorter one took the initiative. “Hi, there. I’m Chris and this is Oliver.”
“Hi.” Carrie nudged Anne under her knee. Potential.
As Carrie and Chris laughed at Alec Baldwin’s Trump impersonation on YouTube, Anne turned to Oliver. As cute as he was, she couldn’t entirely forget the day. “I wish I could spread shit sandwiches on my CEO’s office floor. He hates sandwiches.”
He laughed into his near-empty glass. “I’d love to see that,” he said, signaling for another round. “But seriously, I hear you. My boss is an ass, too. My bonus was so effing low last year, even after exceeding my quota.”
Salesmen – all they care about is money.
“This is a town of wealthy entrepreneurs, you know that, right? What do you want to do if not that?”
“Make the world a better place.”
“You have noble goals. I don’t look that far ahead.”
Running out of things to say, they went to play the Jukebox—The Chainsmokers and The Killers, Taylor Swift and Prince. He let her pick the songs and paid kind attention all night. And she liked his moves on the improvised dance floor.
Two hours later they walked down the street to the corner. Her head was dizzy from the wine, but she didn’t give it much thought as he put his mouth onto hers, the smell and touch reminding her of warm air under clean sheets. Oliver held her close; she pulled away just enough to pull up her blouse and his button-down shirt. The pure humanness of skin relaxed her muscles. She exhaled onto his neck.
“Get the hell away from my diner!” The owner appeared out of nowhere. “Scram!”
Like teenagers who had stolen gum, they ran down the street to Anne’s apartment building where they caught their breath and said good-bye. She woke triumphantly to a text Wednesday morning.
—GM Anne! Whoa. I was over-served last night. With that said, I can remember that UR smart and sexy. Never eating at that diner! You?
Disappointment dropped into her gut like a New York bagel. Over-served? No, he wasn’t! What doesn’t he remember about me?
She held back from typing, feeling over-exposed.
Hungover and perplexed by Oliver’s distant tone, Anne moved slowly. But if she moved faster, she’d encounter more misery, sooner.
Her inability to breathe, brought on by a cold, made her feel hot and faint…she exited the elevator sweating under her blouse and trying to balance her tea, which had spilled through the lid’s opening onto her backpack. She threw it onto her desk, riddled with Post-it notes from the CEO, at 10 a.m. Jack’s going to be pissed.
She blotted her backpack to a semi-dry state, pulled out her hand sanitizer, and began to take her place in the large, echo-filled reception area. Imposing in black letters, HARTMAN CAPITAL signage hung on the wall. She grabbed a clean tissue just in time, sneezing the word “shit,” which is exactly how she felt.
Jack approached from behind. “After you boot up, read my email; I need you to order lunch—12 people. And you know how I hate those sandwiches.”
Her neck muscles tensed—a familiar sensation after two years as Jack’s admin. Having made a fortune as a serial entrepreneur, he was a prominent venture capitalist in San Francisco. And while money was not her ultimate goal in life, her $35,000 salary was another insult. I was summa cum laude in European history for God’s sake.
Later that morning, she replied to Oliver.
—Hey there-busy at work. thx 4 nice time.
—My pleasure. TTYL.
Reassured of his interest, she didn’t write back.
She jumped at a text late in the day—from Amazon. So-and-so’s business book, featuring advice from Jack, had been shipped. Damn it.
“Did God have to create men? Seriously!” Anne yelled, forcibly heaving her backpack on the kitchen counter that night. Partly regretting the third-base make-out and reeling from Jack’s recurring insensitivity, she ordered-in chicken noodle soup and went to bed.
While she couldn’t do anything about Jack, She was hoping Oliver would be a source of validation. But it was now Thursday afternoon and no word, so she did like other dejected girls—confide in her hair stylist. “Hey, why don’t you text him a photo? You look awesome if I say so myself,” said Jodi, admiring her work.
Anne agreed, a rare moment of self-confidence. “What guy doesn’t like a photo of a pretty girl?”
Her faith in all humanity had diminished by the time she slammed the apartment door. “He has completely DIS-UH-PEARED!”
“Bollocks!” Carrie was learning Irish slang—it was part of her plan to meet Niall Horan from One Direction and make him fall in love with her.
Enough was enough. With Carrie as editor, Anne texted around 10 p.m.
—Re: photo. That was before I shaved my head.
He responded within minutes.
—Hey Anne-great hair! Sorry 4 not writing. I was hung over yesterday and have lotsof work to catch up on. We should grab coffee but not sure of UR expectations? U R cool n interesting.
“Cool and interesting? Blimey!” Carrie said, handing Anne the bowl of popcorn.
Anne shooed it away, folding her arms tightly across her chest.
“He had his hands down your pants for bloody sake.”
“Shush. I feel bad enough.”
Anxiety getting the best of her, the adrenal glands responded:
—What happened to liking our make-out session and calling me sexy?
—Epic make-out, but I’m platonic for several reasons. I’d be happy to explain in person.
“So he’s communicative but inconsistent. What do I do now?”
“Play it two ways. One: Ignore his game-playing arse. Two: Hear him out and maybe you’ll learn something for the next buck who comes along.”
Anne decided that the path of least resistance was to a coffee shop.
—What about this weekend?
—GRT. 1 pm Saturday at Charlie’s?
Scratching an arm fighting two dressers and a closet, Anne decided to wear ripped jeans, red flats and black V-neck with minimal makeup—sheer gloss instead of red lipstick. She didn’t want to look as though she’d made an effort.
Oliver’s excuse was honest if not a little lame. His ex, two years ago, had repeatedly put him down and he still felt self-conscious and hurt. “Perhaps that’s why I don’t think that far ahead—commitment-phobe,” he said, raising his hand. “I’m sorry if it irked you. I really like you and hope you’re willing to see me for coffee once in awhile.”
Under the table, she hit her thigh with her fist. Looking for love in all the wrong...But overall, his character was a positive—endearing in an emasculated metrosexual sort of way.
“I’d like that.”
Then, the zinger. Anne started talking about life post-election, assuming he had voted for Hillary like everyone else she knew, or liked. Jack had probably voted for Trump; they were cause and effect.
“I voted for Gary Johnson.”
“You mean Gary What is Aleppo? Johnson?”
“Is it that bad?”
“If you know about murder of innocent Syrians!” She knocked her teaspoon to the floor; picking it up she banged her head on the table.
“I didn’t know you were so political.”
“I haven’t needed to talk about it—everyone I know is a Democrat,” she retorted, now rubbing her head, her hair looking like a big M on top.
“At least I didn’t vote for Trump.”
“Any vote not for Hillary helped him win.”
“I didn’t like either of them, OK? You guys are the party of voting rights, after all.”
She stood down. “That’s true, I’m sorry,” she said, flattening her hair, disappointed by yet another difference but seeing his point.
“Please, let’s not let politics divide us like the rest of the country.”
Simmering down, she ordered another tea. It was almost 4 o’clock by the time they parted.
Carrie was practically jumping in anticipation when she opened the door. “What’s the craic? Did you snog?”
“His ex said he smelled, he voted for Johnson, and he offered to rewrite my resume.”
Carrie shrugged her shoulders and winced.
“One out of three ain’t bad.”
“That’s the Sleeping Beauty castle on back.”
“The nineteenth-century Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, to be exact. His senior adviser at UCLA gave it to him for good luck, and now he’s passing it on to me.”
Indeed, their talk had ended on a true high note. Anne would treasure Oliver’s gift, having studied the European Union in college. The coin, she knew, was part of Germany’s commemorative series launched in 2006. Every year for 16 years, the country would honor one of its 16 states on the back of a small percentage of its issued currency. While collectors bought such coins as investments, Anne cherished history. The coin with the fairytale castle, personally financed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, was one of the prettiest objects she’d ever seen.
“You know mom’s grandparents came from there, right?” The girls’ mother had died when they were children.
Anne spent the next three weeks looking for administrative jobs—what else was she qualified to do? Despite Carrie and Oliver’s cheering squad, she couldn’t overcome Jack’s influence. He had worn her down; her self-esteem dragged like an old robe. In her helpless solitude, she longed for her mother. Falling asleep, she thought she heard her say, Let Oliver help you.
Anne met him at Charlie’s the following Sunday. As they pulled out their laptops, he asked, “What do you want to do, really do?”
“Told you. Make the world a better place.” She paused. “And earn a respectable salary.”
“Broad, but good. Name the organizations you admire.”
The ones fighting for political prisoners, press freedoms, civil rights—she counted them emphatically on her fingers. They spent the afternoon combing for jobs, many of which were too senior, or boring positions in technology. But then the Internet revealed itself in all its glory.
“I found one!
College grad with two+ years experience needed
on fundraising team at Women’s Rights International,
a provider of healthcare and family-planning services.
Must have excellent written and oral communication skills;
team player and organized.
“Totally you! Now— your resume.”
He moved his chair beside her, going line by line to shape her experience to the job. The waitress came by, gently turning around with a smile—they couldn’t be distracted.
A few weeks later she got the offer—$48,000 with benefits and a tuition-reimbursement program. She texted Oliver immediately.
—Meet me at Molly’s to plan Operation Get Out (O-GO).
The following Monday at 7 a.m., a delivery guy came with 50 sandwiches that they used to spell, “I QUIT” on Jack’s office floor. Oliver then hid in a meeting room.
Jack said good morning gruffly an hour later, went to his man-cave and quickly returned. His narcissistic anger spread welts on his chubby face. “Get out! I never want to see you again!”
“That’s the point!” Anne exclaimed as Oliver pushed the elevator button.
“What am I supposed to do with the food on my floor?”
“Eat it!” they said in unison, waving good-bye.
As spring turned into summer, Anne blossomed, speaking at team meetings, handling correspondence with donors, regularly receiving praise. She started swimming laps, treating herself afterward to the club’s Jacuzzi and steam room. She felt purified. Her skin glowed.
The pair began to see each other more frequently. If he’d attend Carrie’s poetry open-mic, Anne would be his wing-woman at business functions; if she watched the Bengals, he’d attend a pro-choice rally. She kept the two-euro coin in her jewelry box, admiring it every morning.
Their first romantic kiss, apart from the fateful night at Molly’s, occurred at the close of WRI’s annual fundraiser. Anne had curated a stellar list of goods for auction, certain to attract wealthy donors—a grand piano, cruise down the Nile, a case of Bordeaux. With an eye for surprise, she gave guests a laugh at the exit—a crystal bowl filled with complimentary condoms.
“I’d take one but don’t want to be presumptuous,” he said, just before the revolving doors.
“You kidding? Take three.” Arm in arm, they headed for his place.
They made a gentle love. Oliver’s appreciation of her body provided a divine sense of maturing womanhood surrounded by the safe zone of his sheets. “I really want this to last,” he said after climax. She was still, careful not to shift his body, which lay upon her. They fell asleep just so.
They moved in together after the new year.
Boxes unpacked, Oliver suggested a vacation. “Where do you want to go?”
“Gosh, I haven’t thought about it.”
He already had a plan. “What about Bavaria?”
Anne immediately started to plan the trip, choosing a small hotel in the village of Hohenschwangau, at the foot of Neuschwanstein Castle. Anne was joyful to the point of tears when sharing the meaning with Oliver: The “New Swan Stone” fortress paid homage to German medieval literature. Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail, is sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden forbidden to ask his name. The castle would inspire Disney himself.
After a week of walks around the Alpsee and Schwansee lakes, of hiking hills, of Franconian wines accompanying hearty dinners, they dreaded their departure. On their last night they placed a blanket amidst beech trees and spruces, fulfilling their own fantasy of making love in a forest.
“I told you the first time I wanted this to last,” he said, pulling out a ring.
“Yes, my darling, yes!” Oliver wrapped the blanket tightly around them. They didn’t move the rest of the night.
Walking along the Schwansee at sunrise, they paused to listen.
She took out the coin from her coat pocket. “Should I?”
“It belongs here.”
The coin rippling the water, the startled birds flew away.
Short story submission for NYC Midnight writing contest. © Sally O’Dowd

domain: literature


text:
Oman Air and KLM have launched a new codeshare agreement for flights between Amsterdam and Muscat.
The arrangement allows Oman Air’s customers to book flights operated by Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Royal Aviation Company) the flag carrier of the Netherlands and a good example of how acronyms can aid simple discourse. on the Schiphol-Muscat route, which the Dutch airline currently operates five times per week.
Oman Air’s CEO Paul Gregorowitsch said: “It will increase the number of destinations we offer in Europe to seven and represents an expansion of the choice we offer our customers.”
Oman Air has also launched new services from Muscat to Manila, Jakarta, Singapore and Goa in recent months, as part of a growth strategy which will see the carrier increase its fleet from the current 39 aircraft to 50 by 2018 and 70 by 2020.


text:
Coming straight from the studios of Sascha Müller is his new single "Yo Body" which, similar to other releases of the SMSM-series, gravitates more towards commercial or at least mainstream-suitable aspects of electronic dance music a.k.a. big room and open air terrace floors. The so-called 'Ibiza Summer Mix 2016' fuses samples related to High NRG House with dream-inducing (Neo)Trance-strings and balearic guitars suitable for sunset workouts throughout the golden hours whilst the 'Original Mix' caters a sweet menu of classic House music, maximum bassline funk, hyped vocal bits and ecstatic stabs for all those remembering heaps of great tunes released during heydays of labels like Strictly Rhythm and other seminal imprints. This is massive!
Review by nitestylez.de

domain: entertainment


text:
Photographer and Artist - Ivor Tarrant BA(Hons)
Ivor Tarrant spent over twenty years as an
amateur photographer photographing much of the worlds wildlife and has enjoyed entering the
occassional natural world photographic competition.
After a succesful twenty five year career in
computing and finance Ivor took the decision to follow his passion of photography and
undertook a full-time degree in photography.
After gaining a First Class Honours degree in
'Photography and Digital Imaging' Ivor acquired a local succesful photographic portrait
studio business and now works as propriator and photographer providing portrait studio prints
and wall hangings and the occassional commercial photographic commission.
Continuing his passion for wildlife photography
Ivor now also produces works of art based around some of the photoghraphs he has taken
of some of the world's most exotic animals.
the art arts artist by
animals painting artists drawing paintings posters artwork gallery art free art fine art Safari Cats Lion
Cheetah tiger zebra art pictures wall art photographs photography
images contemporary art modern art art wall


David Slusser was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. He began playing tenor saxophone at age 10, around the same time he started experimenting with reel to reel tape recorders. Getting his first film sound job in 1975, he continued his career with a move to the San Francisco Bay area in 1977, where he joined Lucasfilm in 1984, and received an Emmy award for sound editing in 1993. He has worked often as a music editor for directors Francis Coppola, George Lucas and David Lynch, with whom he has co-composed music for his films. On his own he has composed for documentaries and public radio, as well as his jazz group Rubber City
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text:
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Endorses Romney
10:28 AM, Feb 26, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER
Arizona governor Jan Brewer endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this morning on NBC's Meet the Press.
“It was a difficult decision, but I think Mitt by far is the person who can go in and win,” Brewer said, the Washington Post reported. “It’s been an interesting campaign. . . but I think things will settle down and I think after Super Tuesday we’ll have our candidate. . . I think that he handles himself very, very well, but more than that I think that he has that pro-business background and he has that political history that I think that he would serve America the best of all the candidates."
At last week's Republican debate in Mesa, Romney praised Arizona's handling of the immigration issue. "I think you see a model in Arizona," Romney said in response to a question about immigration. "They passed a law here that says -- that says that people who come here and try and find work, that the employer is required to look them up on e- verify. This e-verify system allows employers in Arizona to know who's here legally and who's not here legally. And as a result of e-verify being put in place, the number of people in Arizona that are here illegally has dropped by some 14 percent, where the national average has only gone down 7 percent. So going back to the question that was asked, the right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona and other states that are trying to do the job Barack Obama isn't doing."
The Arizona presidential primary is this Tuesday, February 28.
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domain: news


text:
T-Minus On The Come Up Show [Video]
Toronto, ON – DJ Chedo sits down with Grammy Nominated producer T-Minus who is responsible for hits like DJ Khaled’s I’m On One, Lil Wayne’s She Will, Nicki Minaj’s Moment For Life, Ludacris’ How Low, T.I.’s Poppin Bottles, and he produced four tracks on Drake’s latest album Take Care; Underground Kings, HYFR, We’ll Be Fine, The Motto.
Check out the interview below.
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Historical Items Showing 3 of 82 View All
Contributed by: Patten Lumbermen's Museum
Date: circa 1930
Contributed by: Norway Historical Society
Date: circa 1945
Location: Norway; Oxford
Media: ink on paper
Contributed by: McArthur Public Library
Tax Records Showing 3 of 9 View All
Owner in 1924: Maxim & Hersey
Use: Gasoline Tanks
Owner in 1924: Heirs of John Russell
Use: Stores & Rooming House
Street railways, whether horse-drawn or electric, required the building of trestles and tracks. The new form of transportation aided industry, workers, vacationers, and other travelers.
Maine has some 17 million acres of forest land. But even on a smaller, more local scale, trees have been an important part of the landscape. In many communities, tree-lined commercial and residential streets are a dominant feature of photographs of the communities.
In 1924, with Portland was on the verge of profound changes, the Tax Assessors Office undertook a project to document every building in the city -- with photographs and detailed information that provide a unique view into Portland's architecture, neighborhoods, industries, and businesses.
View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.
When Peleg Wadsworth built his house in 1785, what is now Congress Street in Portland was on the rural outskirts of the community known as Falmouth. The house passed on to other family members and Portland changed around what remained a family home until 1901, when it became a historic house museum.
The history of a northern Maine community as told by an array of local institutions and organizations. Site contributors include University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle Historical Society, Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library, Presque Isle Middle School. Some of the topics include historic buildings, potato farming, transportation and the Aroostook Valley Railroad.

domain: library


Friday, May 19, 2017
Questioning DOJ Independence
Recent new stories suggest that part of the conflict between James Comey and President Trump arose out of Comey’s desire to keep the FBI independent from the administration. Comey’s goal was not an idiosyncracy; there are regulations that limit and channel contact between the White House and officials at the Department of Justice.
Given the events of the past several months, a debate has emerged over how independent the FBI can or should be from the administration. Most of what I read seems to assume that such independence should exist, and that it is an unmitigated positive. I am not so sure.
To the extent that the FBI is independent from the administration, the FBI is not democratically accountable. Of course, most democratic accountability in the Executive Branch is indirect. The primary democratic check on executive officials is the presidential election. The president can select the individuals he or she wants to appoint to various positions, the president can tell that official which policies to pursue, and the president generally has the ability to fire the official. But indirect accountability comes at a price: independence from the administration.
Years ago, when the legal community was in an uproar about whether the Department of Justice had become too politicized under George W. Bush’s administration, I had the good fortune to attend a panel on the U.S. Attorney firings. The panel consisted of all of the former U.S. Attorneys who had been fired at the beginning of President Bush’s second term. One U.S. Attorney said he had been fired for refusing to seek the death penalty in a particular case. Another said he’d been fired for refusing to move quickly on political corruption charges against Democratic officials. And a third said that he had been fired for refusing to bring obscenity charges against internet providers. The prevailing sentiment, both at the panel and also in the press, was that, although the President had the power to fire those U.S. Attorneys, the decision to fire these particular attorneys was inappropriate because it had been done for “political reasons.”
The panel was fascinating, but I had the same question then that I do now: If prosecutors, the FBI director, and other executive officials derive their legitimacy from their indirect democratic accountability, then why is it a scandal to fire such an official for “political” reasons. How do you draw the line between a legitimate “policy” reason and an illegitimate “political” reason?
Because I apparently do not lack self-confidence, I asked the panelists this question. And the answer that I got was, essentially, that general policy directives are okay, but any attempt to influence decisions in individual cases are off-limits. At the time, I thought that this was a satisfying answer. But now I am not so sure.
When it comes to police and prosecution, policy statements don’t seem to mean very much. Policy statements, like the charging memos that Attorney Generals regularly disseminate to federal prosecutors, are necessarily general. And they invariably leave room for professional judgment. In fact, you might say that the true policies of a prosecutor or law enforcement office can be discovered only by assessing how that professional judgment is employed in different circumstances. To use one of the examples from the U.S. Attorney firing, it doesn’t tell you much to know that a particular prosecutor supports capital punishment; what you really care about is the circumstances under which he or she will seek the death penalty.
Of course, the news accounts of the interactions between Director Comey and President Trump are not a simple example of law enforcement independence. Because the investigation at issue involved the President’s own campaign, there are a multitude of other issues at play. But whatever we take away from the Comey affair, I don’t think it should be a lesson of absolute independence for the Department of Justice.
I think Asher has the right of it. There's a difference between ordinary independence and independence in cases where an agency is charged with investigating the person with respect to whom the independence is under consideration. In other words: I can't see any particular rule of law damage from the President getting to exercise prosecutorial discretion directly w/r/t which bankers get charged with mortgage fraud or whatever (well, except with this administration, which of course totally lacks the ordinary mechanisms of insulating presidential decisions from personal presidential financial interests). But matters are rather different in the case of the circumstances of the Comey firing and indeed of the independence he was trying to protect...
Posted by: Paul Gowder | May 20, 2017 6:03:44 PM
My experience as a civil enforcement officer at the state and federal level is that, unless the violation is particularly egregious (imminent threat to human health or the environment), we tend to use formal enforcement (citation and penalties) as the last resort due to the resource-intensive nature of this action. From a public policy perspective, the states and feds prefer to use enforcement as a tool to (a) level the playing field, and (b) demonstrate credibility to various stakeholders.
My friends in the criminal side of enforcement remind often remind me, "We only catch the stupid ones".
Posted by: Paul | May 20, 2017 5:19:56 PM
Is that, responding to the end of the comment above, the choice, exactly? What if conflict rules prohibited presidential/AG directives on certain investigations, but not others, like some of the examples Professor Hessick gives? Is there anything corrupt about demanding a particular obscenity prosecution or demanding that a prosecutor seek the death penalty in a particular case? In fact, I thought that was something like the situation we had; Sessions is conflicted out of the Trump campaign investigation, but can, I suppose, make the ultimate decisions on other investigations or prosecutions.
Posted by: Asher Steinberg | May 20, 2017 10:50:05 AM
Independent agencies are for the most part given independence because Congress made a particularized policy choice in setting them up that it did not WANT them to be "democratically accountable." Independent agencies don't "derive legitimacy" from "accountability"; they, like courts, generally derive it from expertise.
Granted, Congress didn't set the FBI up as an independent agency, but (at least for the FBI) it's a completely coherent policy position to think that it SHOULD have, and that a literal application of the idea that the President can cashier the Director any time the latter threatens to undermine the former would abolish the rule of law by rendering the President effectively immune from investigation and prosecution.
The only way to combine "democratic accountability" with the rule of law is to elect prosecutors separately from the President. Most state governments are of course structured that way, but that would require a constitutional amendment to the Appointments Clause at the federal level. Still, given that we have to sacrifice one or the other, the choice between "vague notions of indirect accountability" and "government that isn't root-and-branch corrupt" doesn't seem like a very hard one to make.
Posted by: Paul Thomas | May 20, 2017 1:03:06 AM
That looks like a fascinating article, Adam. Thanks for alerting me to it!
Posted by: CBHessick | May 19, 2017 2:55:59 PM
Maggie Lemos (Duke) addresses some of these same questions in an forthcoming forthcoming in the Cornell Law Review, Democratic Enforcement? Accountability and Independence for the Litigation State, https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/3588/
I recommend her whole article, but here's a small taste from her introduction:
Enforcement, I will argue, shares features with both legislation and adjudication, making familiar notions of political accountability and responsiveness to the public will seem simultaneously indispensable and alarming.
On the one hand, enforcement entails the sorts of policy judgments that characterize legislation and regulation. No public enforcers —at least not in the U.S. —have the resources to pursue every possible
violation of the law. They have to pick and choose, to set priorities and goals. These are policy questions through and through, and it seems not only inevitable but appropriate that their resolution be “political” in some sense. Accountability, then, surely is part of the enforcement story.
On the other hand, certain aspects of enforcement seem more akin to adjudication than to legislation, making the strongest versions of popular control appear inapt. Enforcement decisions are not just made at wholesale; in actual day-to-day practice, law enforcement is a retail endeavor. Having determined to go after fraudsters, for example, enforcers must then decide to pursue this offender or that one, to seek these remedies or those. And, given that the overwhelming majority of government enforcement actions are resolved through settlement rather than judicial decree, enforcers frequently decide on outcomes as well as objectives. The individualized and retroactive nature of enforcement distinguishes it from prospective, generally applicable legislation, and complicates the answer to the accountability question. There is something decidedly uncomfortable in the notion that government’s choice of enforcement targets— and of penalties in each case —should be subject to public, or political, whim.
Posted by: Adam Zimmerman | May 19, 2017 2:33:14 PM


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EU Tightens Rules on Savings Taxation
Austria and Luxembourg have agreed to back EU plans to increase transparency in tax reporting at a summit in Brussels, Thursday.
The two countries had delayed endorsing EU reforms on the tax savings directive since 2008. The law requires all EU member states to exchange information on their citizens' accounts abroad, in order to easier find hidden funds and collect taxes on interest income.
The updated directive is set to be adopted next Monday, before it is transposed into national law over the next two years, the EUobserver reports.
"This is indispensable for enabling the member states to better clamp down on tax fraud and tax evasion," said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in a statement following the adoption of the agreement.
The amendments to the savings tax directive are intended to prevent its circumvention, reflecting changes to savings products and developments in investor behavior.
Under current rules, member states do not exchange data on interest earned from financial products linked to investment funds, pensions, trusts or foundations.
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The TXII is a hackney carriage ( London hail taxi) manufactured by LTI. It is the second model following the modernisation and re-design of the London taxi that began with the TX1.
The vehicle has a handful of differences from its predecessor including a change of engine from Nissan to the intercooled Ford Duratorq, which, according to the manufacturer increases torque by 21%. The remaining modifications are largely cosmetic or are minor improvements to the design and equipment on the TX1. It was available with a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic.
It was succeeded by the TX4.