1. you select some text

2. you press ctrl+p, type "apply shell command"

3. you type (for example): "nl -ba"

4. highlighted text is echoed into the command you gave, its output is soaked up, and the highlighted text is replaced with the output.

5. et voilá! you have just prefixed all lines with a line number.

other useful commands would be fmt, sed, grep -Eo etc.

I could code this myself in Python but maybe someone will beat me to it.

Now's Your Chance to Own an Entire Gold Mining Ghost Town

Need to expand your property portfolio? Ever dreamed of owning your very own ghost town? Get excited, because the old mining town of Seneca, California just went up for sale, complete with a gold mine, three cabins, and a working distillery. You really can buy anything on Craigslist.

Once home to a thriving community of gold miners, Seneca, formerly known as North Fork, is a 12 acre plot of land in Plumas County, California that has been slowly drying up since the post office closed in 1943. Sure, it once hosted the "Woodstock of the West" for thousands of people in the 70's, but gone are the hotels, casinos, and feed stores that once made up the booming town.

Still standing, however, are a number of cabins, a working gin distillery (with liquor license!), one of the oldest restaurants in the area, and even a defunct opium den still exists within the mine built by Chinese workers. Sound enticing? It can all be yours for just a quarter of a million dollars.

If you think the asking price of $225,000 is a little steep, consider this: the largest gold nugget discovered in Seneca was 43 ounces in weight. With today's gold prices, that's worth $414,763.10 - almost enough to buy yourself a second ghost town. Or a fully stocked opium den.

http://tanagoldfields-plc-blogs.blogspot.co.uk/

https://plus.google.com/communities/101988058982611709769

The Future of U.S.-Venezuelan Relations

The United States should leverage business interests in Venezuela to open diplomatic engagement and repair U.S.-Venezuela relations.

By Clay Moran

Contributor
October 28, 2013

“Yankees, go home!”These were President Nicolas Maduro’s words on September 30th as he expelled three U.S. diplomats, including Chargé d'Affaires Kelly Keiderling, accusing them of plotting to sabotage Venezuela’s electrical grid. While news outlets worldwide briefly reported on this incident, most failed to analyze the diplomatic turmoil within the larger context of U.S.-Venezuelan relations and its potential impact on diplomatic cooperation.

Over five hundred American companies have operations in Venezuela. Over$12 billion was investedin Venezuelan in 2011, concentrated in the energy, financial, and manufacturing sectors. Venezuelan imports rose by 122 percent from 2000 to 2011,reaching $12.3 billion. Washington and Caracas have developed a trade relationship that both parties value: U.S. companies gain substantial profit from operations in Venezuela, while Venezuelans gain access to higher quality job opportunities.

Despite the large volume of trade, political relations remain fractured at best. The United States and Venezuela have each been without ambassadors since 2010, when then-President Hugo Chávez suspected the United States of sponsoring a coup to overthrow his regime. Each country has retaliated against the other through a series of diplomatic expulsions. Venezuela has also restricted commerce from leaving the country. Capital controls put corporations in a tricky situation,trapping an estimated $8 to $12 billion within the country. Current President Nicolás Maduro has no intentions of lifting these controls, although Venezuela continues to experience inflationrising over 45 percent per month, threatening to erode profits. As a temporary measure, corporations have begun reinvesting these profits into Venezuelan real estate.

Domestic politics add another dimension to the problem. Former President Chávez formed the Chavista coalition, which consists of an array of lower and middle class citizens aimed at empowering workers and the urban poor. The bottom line is that Chávez’s governing doctrine, Chavismo, has united unlikely groups into the Chavista coalition due to favorable economic conditions. However, the erosion of economic stability due to rising inflation over the past year is beginning to unravel the Chavista coalition, which is the very force that brought Maduro to power. This can be seen in the March 2013 special presidential elections, in which theopposition lost by a margin of 1.5 percent. Maduro’s response has been to consolidate power byundermining his political opponents.

Venezuela needs foreign firms to operate within the country, but expelling U.S. diplomats while restricting U.S. profits does not bode well for constructive bilateral relations. The best prospect for improving these relations is for Washington to send a diplomatic convoy to Venezuela to meet with President Maduro and administration officials and discuss interests in attaining greater domestic stability to maintain corporate operations. Furthermore, the United States must meet with European counterparts that conduct business operations in Venezuela in order to establish a joint approach to address the rising political instability. Since Venezuela controls the domestic climate for U.S. corporations, the U.S. should take the initiative in securing its business interests.

The Obama administration can also offer to negotiate the Iran Sanctions Act, which was enacted in 2011 against the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, because of Venezuela’s exports of reformate to Iran. These sanctions currently prohibit Venezuela from competing for U.S. government procurement contracts and receiving financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Washington should negotiate with Caracas, maintaining the position that if Venezuelan currency controls are completely removed, the portions of the Iran Sanctions Act pertaining to Venezuela could be lifted – an option that looks more plausible given the current U.S. – Iran rapprochement.

Unless domestic turmoil subsides enough to allow for secure business operations in Venezuela, the likelihood of U.S. companies minimizing their business operations increases. Coupled with desolate diplomatic relations, revamping U.S.-Venezuela relations proves to be a complex process that will take time, cooperation, and concessions from both sides. A key opportunity to improve relations does exist, but the United States must demonstrate to Maduro the vital role that U.S. companies continue to play for Venezuela’s economy. Securing Venezuela as a quasi-ally will not only secure longer-term U.S. business interests, but also give the U.S additional leverage in Latin America, a region that the Obama administration has neglected.

Clay Moran is an M.A. Candidate in International Affairs, with a concentration in Development Security, at the Elliott School of International Affairs. His research focuses on democracy and governance in developmental programs. Previously, he lived and studied in Argentina, and spent substantial time in Bolivia and Spain.

Read More: http://www.thecrownmanagement.com/category/diplomacy/

The New Zealand High Court has rejected a bid by a man from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati to stay in the country as a climate-change refugee.

Ioane Teitiota - whose work visa had expired - had said rising sea-levels meant there was no land in Kiribati he and his family could return to safely.

The low-lying island nation is vulnerable to climate change.

But the judge said environmental problems did not fit internationally recognised criteria for refugee status.

"By returning to Kiribati, he would not suffer a sustained and systemic violation of his basic human rights such as the right to life... or the right to adequate food, clothing and housing," High Court Justice John Priestley wrote in his judgment.

Mr Teitiota, 37, has lived in New Zealand since 2007 but overstayed his work permit. Earlier this year the immigration department rejected his bid for asylum saying he was not facing persecution at home.

But Mr Teitiota's lawyer had challenged that decision, arguing that he and his family - including his three New Zealand-born children - would suffer harm if forced to return to Kiribati because of the combined pressures of over-population and rising sea-levels.

They told the court that Mr Teitiota was being "persecuted passively by the circumstances in which he's living, which the Kiribati government has no ability to ameliorate".

Kiribati, with a population of more than 100,000, has an average height of 2m (6,5ft) and is one of the countries most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Visit  -  Climate-Change