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HEADPHONE INFATUATION
AN ENTERAINTMENT BLOG WRITTEN BY ALEX NAGORSKI
Category Archives: Joshua Jackson
REVIEW: BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP’S “CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD”
Posted on July 11, 2017 by Alex Nagorski
THE NEED FOR HUMAN CONNECTION IS UNIVERSAL. HOW THAT CONNECTION IS ACCOMPLISHED, HOWEVER, IS NOT.
Now playing at Berkshire Theatre Group (in Stockbridge, MA), Children of a Lesser God examines some of the various ways that people seek that connection. Originally written in 1979 by Mark Medoff (who won a Tony and Olivier Award upon its publication), the play beautifully showcases the relationship between a speech therapist and his deaf student.
Sarah Norman (Lauren Ridloff; Wonderstruck, former Miss Deaf America) was born deaf. Growing up, she thought that there was something wrong with her. As she got older, she realized that the world she lives in is not necessarily the same one that the other people around her inhabit. Now a grown 26-year-old woman, Sarah does not feel the need to succumb to the communicative demands of the hearing world. Instead, she embraces sign language as her primary method of interacting with others.
Enter James Leeds (Joshua Jackson; Dawson’s Creek, The Affair). Specializing in teaching deaf students how to speak out loud, James emphasizes tools such as lip reading to help his students communicate more freely with the hearing. His ultimate goal is to educate his students how to overcome their fears and trust themselves enough to use their voices as a comfortable form of conversation.
For James, taking on Sarah as a student presents an interesting challenge. How can he teach someone something that they not only don’t want, but strongly feel that they don’t need to learn? An unconventional teacher from the moment he’s introduced, James quickly goes from being frustrated with Sarah to admiring and ultimately falling in love with her.
As their connection continues to deepen, James is forced to call into question his firmly held notion that Sarah must adhere to the standards of the hearing world in order to succeed within it. How can he rightfully claim that she must change how she interacts with her hearing counterparts? How can he argue that she must conform in order to be heard? After all, the way she’s communicated her whole life has resulted in the two of them developing the most intimate relationship he’s ever had. Their incandescent love for and understanding of one another evolved naturally without Sarah ever having to audibly speak a single word.
The ensuing result is a fascinating dichotomy and exploration of human boundaries. Does James put pressure on Sarah to use her voice out of his love and caring for her? Or is it cruel for him to ask and expect her to relinquish her lifelong beliefs to appease him? And despite their passion, can Sarah hold onto her fierce independence while romantically involved with someone who will never fully understand her experience?
The role of Sarah has previously won actresses Phyllis Frelich a Tony Award and Marlee Matlin an Academy Award (for the 1986 film adaptation). Yet Ridloff manages to define her Sarah in simultaneously assertive, comical and heartwarming ways that make this standout performance unique and unforgettable. Her vulnerable interpretation of the character is nuanced and brilliant. Not a moment passes by that Ridloff is unable to relay every thought that Sarah has through her perfectly expressive and daring work. The window she provides into Sarah’s mind and soul allows for a rich and layered understanding of her character that is a real feat to accomplish for any actor in a singular setting.
Likewise, Jackson’s portrayal of James is a true tour-de-force. His command of sign language is spot-on, and watching James’ journey unfold while he audibly interprets Sarah’s side of each conversation for audience members unfamiliar with ASL, makes for a gripping performance that could easily rebrand the seasoned screen actor as a powerhouse stage presence. Producer Hal Luftig has already expressed interest in extending this production’s life after its initial Berkshires run is over. If a Broadway transfer is indeed in its future, don’t be surprised to find Jackson and Ridloff’s names on upcoming Tony ballots. Both actors give mesmerizing, fully committed and high caliber performances that demand to be seen.
Under the masterful direction of Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Hairspray Live, The Wiz! Live), this triumphant production of Children of a Lesser God is as poignant as it is marvelously executed. Even its minimal set provides a crucial sense of intimacy that allows the play to skillfully examine language and love in moving and thought-provoking ways. Now playing through July 22, Children of a Lesser God will deeply resonate with audience members long after the final curtain drops.
CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to Children of a Lesser God, now through July 22 only at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Fitzpatrick Main Stage in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Originally published on PopBytes
Posted in Berkshire Theatre Group, Berkshires, Children of a Lesser God, Hal Luftig, Joshua Jackson, Kenny Leon, Lauren Ridloff, Mark Medoff, Marlee Matlin, Massachusetts, Phyllis Frelich, The Berkshires
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The Geneva Experiment
We caught up with the guys ahead of their debut EP release
Local four piece The Geneva Experiment are on the verge of releasing their debut EP titled ‘Birthmarks’ and will celebrate with a launch show at Sandinos Bar on Friday 11th March.
Tracks taken from the EP have already received significant airplay on BBC’s Across The Line and the guys are looking forward to unleashing their new music on local ears having worked tirelessly behind the scenes.
With plans of getting back into the studio soon, as well as taking their new tracks on the road, it will be a busy time ahead for the local rockers.
We caught up with the guys ahead of their EP launch show to get the lowdown on The Geneva Experiment.
Who are The Geneva Experiment and how did you get together?
We are a four piece alternative rock band from Northern Ireland who are made up of James Moore on Vocals, Mike Norton on Lead Guitar, Robert Arbuckle on the bass guitar and last but not least Dylan Norton on the drums. Most of us had met each other for the first time through playing in other bands with the exception of Mike and Dylan who couldn’t avoid each other being brothers.
We all came together through the love of a lot of the same bands and ideas we had when it came to writing songs. We’re always trying to stretch the sound of the band as much as we can when it comes to dynamics. For us it’s more interesting trying to create an atmosphere rather than be conventional. We just hit it off straight away too as friends as when we’re in the same room our goofy sense of humour always seems to come out at full force.
Tell us a bit about the band name…
Like most bands when they first hit it off, there’s the dreaded choosing of the band name. Has the name already been taken? Can it avoid being used with too many sexual innuendos? The Geneva Experiment was one of those names we had floating about and it just really stuck and had more meaning to how we came together.
The band name derived from the large hadron collider in Geneva. We talked about how we met at gigs and never collaborated musically and this happened for years until we finally came together to create something great, and it kinda reminded us of the particles whirling around the large collider passing each other until they finally collided to create a bang.
Who would you say the band as a whole take most inspiration and influence from?
There’s a never ending list of influences within the band as we’re always really searching for new things to gravitate to for inspiration. There’s two bands we feel we really have to give credit to from helping shape our sound, and number one would be Deftones as we really just connect with the way they use dynamics and even take simple things and make them sound huge! The second band would be At the Drive-in, as the energy they provoke within their music is just unique and if we could strive to get anywhere close to that we’d be a happy band.
‘Birthmarks’ is the title for the forthcoming EP, what made you choose that for the title?
The name Birthmarks we felt really connected with the journey we’re currently on in the band. With this being our first EP release we feel like we need to make a statement and it also symbolises the start of something new.
The Geneva Experiment - Redroom (Audio)
'Redroom' is the first single of our up coming E.P 'Birthmarks'.
How many tracks are on the EP and what are they about?
There are 3 tracks in total and the theme of the E.P tends to touch on dark and personal matters. Our first track and first single is entitled "Redroom" its a dark psychological tale of a stalker type character with a POV telling of their twisted world. The second track entitled "Sincerely Yours. E" is a relationship gone wrong title with a message of hope if you are willing to work through the hardship. And our third and final track is entitled "El Capo", this song is a more light-hearted satire track that innocently pokes fun at the obsessive gaming world by creating a dictator fantasy in the mind of a obsessive gamer.
Where was the EP recorded?
Birthmarks was recorded, mixed and mastered by the absolutely brilliant Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios. Neal was really great at helping us take the sound out of our head onto record. We’d also personally like to thank Neal too for being able to put up with us, as I’m sure we did his head in at times when trying to create the little details on the record.
How did you find the journey of releasing your first record?
Our first releases were singles, Collision and Drive. Both singles were played and featured on BBC's Across the Line with Drive being made ATL's track of the day. We wanted to test the waters and felt singles were the right thing to do that, and with the great response we then decided to record an E.P. We've been really excited and eager to get Birthmarks out there and it hasn’t been an easy road with having to overcome setbacks, but we’re excited to finally get these songs out there and can’t wait to showcase them live.
The way the four of us work, everyone has a voice and influence right down to the final stage, whether it’s from the song to the artwork or music video. So that collaborative process really elicits an array of ideas, and only grows on initial thoughts for the release itself to make it as great as we can.
What next for The Geneva Experiment?
We really want to hit the road and tour all over, try and get birthmarks out to as many towns and people as possible. We are also in talks about shooting a music video for our first single "Redroom" and hope to play festivals in the summer. We also plan on hitting the studio soon with a new repertoire of songs that we have been eagerly preparing.
You can keep up-to-date with all things Geneva Experiment via their Facebook and Bandcamp pages.
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Hamdan bin Mohammed: Taqdeer is an important initiative to recognise companies with exceptional lab
Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai and Patron of the Taqdeer Award His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that the Taqdeer Award is a key initiative that makes significant contributions to the UAE’s efforts to enhance labour welfare practices.
His Highness said the success of the first and second editions of the Award in attracting the widespread participation of companies, and endorsement from international organisations are testament to the positive impact of the Award. He said the Award provides guidelines for improving the productivity of workers by enhancing their working conditions. The initiative contributes to realising the vision of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to make Dubai the world’s best city to work and live, the Crown Prince said.
The Patron of the Taqdeer Award directed all organisations and companies to support the Award by promoting a positive and productive relationship between employers and workers.
His Highness’s remarks came at the launch of the third edition of the Taqdeer Award that has been expanded to include factories, Dubai free zone companies and construction firms.
Major General Obaid Muhair bin Suroor, Deputy Director General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA-Dubai) and Chairman of Taqdeer Award, expressed gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for his unlimited support. Major General Bin Suroor underlined the Award’s efforts to expand cooperation with various entities to enhance labour conditions and promote excellence.
The first edition of the award, which focused on construction companies, saw the participation of 280 companies that together employed more than half a million workers. The second edition of the Award was expanded to include factories and free zone companies operating in Dubai, which gave an opportunity to about 10,000 factories and 36,000 other companies from different sectors to participate in the Award. Following this expansion, over a million workers were covered by the Award.
The second edition of the Award organised last year received praise from international labour organisations, diplomats and international media. Officials expressed their interest in studying the award to implement similar recognition programmes in their countries. The Award has played a key role in enhancing the UAE’s reputation in worker welfare.
Major General Obaid called on contracting firms, factories and companies located in the free zones to participate in the Award, as this will help them enhance their reputation locally and internationally. All companies participating in the Award will receive assessment reports that will help them to build on their strengths and address weaknesses. The award provides an opportunity for companies and factories to better prepare themselves for the future and enhance business sustainability.
An arbitration committee consisting of Dubai Government leaders and specialised assessors are tasked with evaluating the submissions. Members of the committee are divided into evaluation teams of three assessors and a team leader each. After evaluation, each team submits a comprehensive report to the committee for approval and final decision.
The Award programme is based on a comprehensive points system. Companies are given a score out of 1,000 that includes 500 points for the criterion of labour empowerment, 250 points for the work environment and workers’ relationship with employers and 250 points for key performance indicator scores.
The highest rating of 5–stars is awarded to companies that obtain 700 points or more. Companies that obtain over 550 points receive a 4-star rating while companies with over 450 points g
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Page last updated on September 12, 2018
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Valises & Vermouth
Alan Folsom's The Exile
Posted by Unknown on August 20, 2006
Alan Folsom’s The Exile is perfect summertime beach reading. Written like a movie script, The Exile is fast-paced, moving from Los Angeles to England to Paris to Switzerland to Russia. Flashy explosions and citywide chases are balanced by intimate moments of intense emotion. Folsom does worldwide conspiracy better than most, as evidenced by previous best sellers Day After Tomorrow and Day of Confession.
Folsom has a knack for including little details about his characters that makes them come alive. They are real people, and like people you meet in real life, you learn about these characters over time, not in a single descriptive paragraph like so many hacks. Each of the characters is a complicated individual, with a mixed bag of good and bad impulses, acting on all of them.
John Barron is the youngest and newest member of the elite 5-2 Squad, LA’s best investigative team that for a century has brought down some of the worst criminals in the city’s history. On Barron’s first day, he witnesses how the squad really works, and is appalled by the assassination of a prisoner in custody. In the midst of that investigation, another more deadly murderer, Raymond Thorne, comes into the custody of the 5-2 Squad. The trail of bodies he leaves behind after he escapes leads to another attempted assassination. At the end of the day, the 5-2 Squad is no more, and John Barron is a hunted man.
With his sister Rebecca in tow, Barron changes their names and moves to England to escape LAPD reprisals. Just as a new life is beginning for John and Rebecca, as the nightmares dissipate and the fear subsides, the once dead Raymond Thorne enters their lives again and the body count resumes. By virtue of his tenacity and intuitive detective skills, Barron is the only person who can stop Thorne, if he can keep from being killed himself.
109th Bethlehem Bach Festival
When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to play the oboe. I have no idea why I wanted to play this obscure instrument. It's not sexy like the trumpet or the sax, and it's not quirky like the trombone or fun like the drums, but regardless the oboe was for me. (I never did play the oboe, but that is another story.) I think I knew intuitively what the oboe could do was special.
This weekend at the 109th Bethlehem Bach Festival in Pennsylvania I heard what might just be the very reason the oboe exists. Friday night, at Packer Memorial Church at Lehigh University, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Bach Festival Orchestra, under the baton of veteran conductor and artistic director Greg Funfgeld, gave us Songs of Joy, including Bach's Easter Oratorio BWV 249. In the second movement, an unusual second orchestral sinfonia before the joyous aria, is centered on a mournful oboe solo. It reminds us that Christ has died and lies within the tomb, the perfect counterpoint to the bright,…
Hello, Bette!*
Some Broadway shows tell a poignant story, others are fall down funny, and still others showcase a selection of songs. Then, there is the star vehicle. Hello, Dolly! is just that, and there is no more perfect a star for the role of Dolly Levi today than Bette Midler. Every time she was on stage it was just her and the audience, and this 71-year-old left nothing in reserve. From the moment she arrived on stage to the final bow, it was hard to look at anything other than Bette out of fear that I might miss something. Yet there was so much worth looking at, including some of my favorite costumes ever. Bette's every look, every step, every turn is in service to comedy, and the the audience of course. Her smile would light up the theatre every time, and I'm sure every one of the 1430 in the audience thought it was for them. When she finally made her appearance for the the 11 o'clock number and title song, all in red sequins and feathers at the top of the staircase, there was n…
Sharon Kay Penman's A King's Ransom
Richard the Lionheart, King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Poitou and Anjou was the very definition of foolhardy. At the approach of his death (no this is not a spoiler as he died in 1199), I found myself angry with the great king for the reckless behavior that ended his life after only a decade of rule. The promise of what could have been died that April day with the Lionheart. If there are moments where the future of the world changes, author Sharon Kay Penman makes you believe that this was one of them. Jerusalem might have been returned to Christian rule had Richard returned to the Holy Land, and if he ruled long into old age, as his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine did, the Magna Carta forced on King John in 1215 at Runnymede would have been unnecessary, and thus even American democracy might have been affected by the Lionheart.
My anger was fleeting in response to A King's Ransom, for there is a deep and abiding sadness that permeates this biography of King…
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Jewish terror attack suspect in Duma case refuses to testify due to ‘injustice’
The primary suspect in a 2015 terror attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed three members of a Palestinian family waived his right to testify in court on Wednesday, saying through a statement read by his attorney that he would not cooperate with the “injustice” of the proceedings.
“This is an expression of the sense of injustice done to him in the pretrial hearing during which the court rejected only some of his confessions,” Amiram Ben-Uliel’s lawyer Yitzhak Bam said, referring to the Lod District Court’s ruling last July in which a number of confessions given by his client were quashed since they were elicited by Shin Bet security service investigators using so-called “enhanced interrogation methods.”
However, the court ruled back then that his remaining admissions of guilt, which were not given under duress, could be used in the case against him, even though they came after he was tortured.
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According to the indictment against him, Ben-Uliel and a teen accomplice planned to carry out an attack against Palestinians as revenge for a drive-by shooting days earlier in which Israeli civilian Malachy Rosenfeld was killed.
When the younger accomplice failed to show at the rendezvous point in July 2015, Ben-Uliel decided to carry out the attack on his own, the charge sheet says. He entered the Duma village and sprayed Hebrew graffiti on one home, then hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of a pair of homes. The first building was empty, but in the second slept the members of the Dawabsha family. Eighteen-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha was burned to death along with his parents, Riham and Saad, while 4-year-old Ahmad was seriously injured.
Last month, the state reached a plea deal with the younger accomplice. The 19-year-old, whose name is barred from publication as he was a minor at the time of the attack, admitted to having planned the torching of a Palestinian home in the northern West Bank four years ago. However, the indictment against him was amended to make no mention of toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha and his parents, Riham and Saad, thereby allowing him to escape conviction for planning the murders of the three Palestinians killed in the firebombing.
The State Prosecutor’s Office requested that the younger suspect be sentenced to five and a half years of actual jail time. Deducted from the sentence would be the time the teenager had already spent behind bars — about two and a half years.
עמירם בן אוליאל, הנאשם ברצח שלושת בני משפחת דוואבשה, מסרב להעיד בבית המשפט pic.twitter.com/vsl0b2aKUe
— Carmel Dangor (@carmeldangor) June 26, 2019
An attorney representing the Dawabsha family told reporters outside the courtroom on Wednesday that Ben-Uliel’s decision not to testify was planned in advance and is part of an effort to delegitimize the current proceedings as the defense prepares to appeal to the Supreme Court against the lower court’s ruling in the pretrial hearing.
Following the statement from the suspect’s attorney, the prosecution called on Ben-Uliel’s wife Oriyan and mother-in-law Nechama Nizri to testify.
In Nizri’s questioning, prosecution attorney Yael Atzmon sought to prove that she knew about Ben-Uliel’s involvement in the Duma attack before she was notified.
Atzmon played a recording of a phone conversation Nizri had had with Oriyan immediately after Ben-Uliel’s arrest.
“A lot of police officers just came, beat him up and jumped on top of him,” Oriyan was recorded saying.
“May God burn them [the police officers]… There was a development in the investigation into the Jewish terror attack, and I’m connecting these things,” Nizri responded, ostensibly referencing the reported headway that the Shin Bet had made in its probe into the Dawabsha murders.
Explaining the recording in court on Wednesday, Nizri said that she hadn’t been implying that Ben-Uliel had been involved in the Duma firebombing, but that the Shin Bet had wrongly arrested her son-in-law for the crime.
Moreover, she claimed that she hadn’t been referring to the Duma attack when she said “Jewish terror,” but rather to general hate crime incidents against Palestinians. Nizri claimed the firebombing had been carried out by neighbors of the Dawabshas as a result of an internal dispute.
Called to the stand after her mother, Oriyan testified that Ben-Uliel had been with her the entire night that the crime had taken place.
“I can remember what Amiram did that night from 10:30 p.m. It never happened that he would come back at such late hours, He would not leave us alone. We had a seven-month-old baby,” she said. “He did not do it. It for sure wasn’t him. There is an injustice being done here.”
Subsequently, Ben-Uliel’s other attorney Asher Ohayon told the court that he planned on submitting a legal opinion arguing that the Hebrew graffiti found at the scene was not done in his client’s handwriting.
Source Article from https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-terror-attack-suspect-in-duma-case-refuses-to-testify-due-to-injustice/
HUGE! Mueller Won’t Testify Despite Democrat Threats
* * * Update (2030ET): Angry Democratic Congress members have turned up their rhetoric amplifier
US Again Jails Chelsea Manning for Refusing to Testify on WikiLeaks
May 17, 2019 By Jason Ditz (ANTIWAR.COM) — Released only last week after 62 days in
Chelsea Manning Released, Faces New Imprisonment For Refusing To Testify Against Assange
Chelsea Manning Released, Faces New Imprisonment For Refusing To Testify Against Assange Above Photo: From
Fraud investigators testify Clinton Foundation is a "foreign agent" at oversight panel
Fraud investigators have exposed the Clinton Foundation's alleged misdeeds in a Congressional hearing, describing
Financial Investigators Testify That Clinton Foundation Operated as ‘Foreign Agent’
In explosive new testimony to the U.S. Congressional House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a
Posted in World News, World Politics Tags: attack, injustice, Jewish, refuses, Suspect, terror, testify
« Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff: June 26, 2019
Bahrain FM to Times of Israel: Israel is here to stay, and we want peace with it »
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The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue
Once upon a time, in a theatrical galaxy far, far away, there used to be a musical revue almost annually produced by a man named Florenz Ziegfield. From 1907 through 1927, he presented spectaculars in which audiences would see showgirls in exotically skimpy costumes doing little more than walking around to music. There'd be tablaux set on such fanciful places as the moon. The first act would almost always end with a number celebrating a wedding. In between came vaudeville acts, singers like Sophie Tucker and Eddie Cantor, and comics like Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, and--from 1922 through 1927--the rop twirling, folksy philosopher Will Rogers.
"All I know is what I read in the papers," he'd say, before launching into pointed observations like "We have the finest politicians money can buy." (What's interesting is that many of the observations that he made in the 1920s prove that old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same.) But Will was most famous for making a much more affirmative statement: "I never met a man I didn't like." The show follows Rogers from his humble Oklahoman roots to his stardom in the Ziegfield Follies, through his difficult marriage to Betty Blake, to his untimely death in a plane crash.
Synopsis (c) Peter Filichia
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Abbott gaffe gives swift lesson in internet history
A recent comment from Tony Abbott was never going to fly past Australia’s army of internet-enthusiasts. Mr Abbott has credited Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull with inventing the internet, which it turns out, he did not.
Mr Abbot gave the alarmingly high praise of Turnbull while acknowledging his party for their efforts in NBN reform, the Liberal plan would see a large figure lopped off the total bill for the National Broadband rollout, but would produce a network that is inferior in many ways to the current plan.
Mr Turnbull may have had an illustrious career in the dot-com domain, serving as chairman of OZEmail from 1994 to 1999, at a time when the company was ranked Australia’s 33rd largest internet service provider. Malcolm Turnbull's new title as the man who "virtually invented the internet" has been widely discredited and lampooned on the internet.
Mr Abbott’s comments were likely most informative for Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist who has been labouring under the misapprehension that he invented the internet in the 1980s.
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Yankees' Shifting Infield Alignment A Potential View Of The Future
Brian McCann at 1B, Francisco Cervelli behind the plate and Mark Teixeira sitting forlornly on the bench with an ailment of some kind. That was the defensive alignment for the New York Yankees on Tuesday night and it just might be the situation for the remainder of the season as manager Joe Girardi acknowledged that he doesn’t know when Teixeira will be back.
It’s also a possible harbinger of things to come if Teixeira can’t make it all the way back from his wrist injury next season, or even in a few years when his contract is up and he’s gone. Some might argue that he’s been gone for most of the second half of the season but, for as bad as he’s been offensively, he still retains his defensive prowess.
Couple Teixeira’s absence with the appearance of Cervelli, John Ryan Murphy and, in a few years, Gary Sanchez, and McCann might have to move away from catcher sooner than he thought.
As much as Teixeira frustrates me with his inability to stay in the line-up, his refusal to adjust his swing to beat the shift and his strike-outs, I’m hoping that he comes back healthy enough to play 1B for most of the rest of his contract. It strengthens the defensive makeup of the entire lineup.
When McCann signed his $85MM contract, I actually thought it was a good deal. It is relatively short term, which means it bought some more time for the prospects to get some seasoning in the minor leagues, and he was billed as a decent enough athlete that he could move to 1B in the latter years of the deal to replace Teixeira.
Most of the value, however, I attributed to his catching abilities. If he can’t carry over his strong hitting of the past two weeks into next year and he moves to 1B on even a part time basis, that deal no longer looks so terrific to me, especially since he has been learning 1B on the job, having only played fifteen games there. As seen with Kelly Johnson earlier this year, that’s not necessarily the best way to do it.
I’m also not sold on Cervelli as a full-time catcher. He hasn’t played anywhere close to a full MLB season since 2010 and I think he gets exposed if he does. Murphy and Austin Romine are probably back-ups at best and Sanchez has some maturing to do.
As seen in Tuesday’s game, just one player out of position can lead to game losing errors. Given the run scoring difficulties, that’s just one more wrench in the works that the Yankees can ill afford. Teixeira needs to get healthy and McCann needs to stay at catcher. As unsettling as it sounds, those two are the best chance at stability in a Yankee infield that will see more than enough changes next season.
Tags: American League, The Yankees
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Large Igneous Provinces Commission
International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior
LIP record
LIP Of The Month
February 2019 LIP of the Month
Hekpoort Formation, South Africa, ca. 2.223 Ma
Wladyslaw Altermann,
Exxaro Chair, Department of Geology, University of Pretoria, RSA.
altermannw@gmail.com
This is based on the following:
Humbert et al., 2018, Petrology, physical volcanology and geochemistry of a Paleoproterozoic large igneous province: The Hekpoort Formation in the southern Transvaal sub-basin (Kaapvaal craton) Precambrian Research, 315, 232–256;
Humbert et al., 2019, Neoarchaean to Early Palaeoproterozoic Within-Plate Volcanism of the Kaapvaal Craton: Comparing the Ventersdorp Supergroup and the Ongeluk and Hekpoort Formations (Transvaal Supergroup), In Kröner, A. and Hofmann, A. (eds): The Archaean Geology of the Kaapvaal Craton, Southern Africa, Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG, March 2019. 277-302. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-78652-0_11,
The Archaean-Palaeoproterozoic Kaapvaal craton (South Africa) records several successive voluminous intra-plate magmatic events. Here we concentrate on the early Palaeoproterozoic Hekpoort Formation (Fm.) which represents an episode of widespread continental flood volcanism and localized rift-related sedimentation at about 2223 Ma in the Transvaal sub-basin, South Africa. The Hekpoort volcanism predates the emplacement of the ∼2.055 Ga LIP of the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC), the world’s largest layered intrusion and an endless source of chromium and Platinum Group Elements (PGEs).
Based on its areal extent of ca. 100,000 km2 and maximum thickness of up to 1100 m (Lenhardt et al., 2012), the Hekpoort Fm. can be classified as a Large Igneous Province (LIP). The Hekpoort LIP consists of a thick subaerial volcanic sequence in which volcanoclastic rocks occur mainly at the base. Localized hyaloclastites and variolitic rocks record the presence of ponded water in lacustrine and adjacent environments, while interbedded sedimentary rocks and paleoweathered flow tops suggest prolonged time-breaks in volcanic activity. The Hekpoort Fm. is the youngest of a trinity of Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic subaerial large igneous provinces of the Kaapvaal craton, encompassing the Ventersdorp Supergroup (2.78-2.71 Ga) and the Ongeluk Fm. (2.426 Ga).
The sedimentary and tectonic setting of the Hekpoort and Ongeluk formations within the Transvaal basin and their geochemical character are so similar that both formations were long viewed as lateral equivalents of each other, but representing different subbasins. Only the dating of dykes in the Ongeluk Fm. (Gumsley et al., 2017) revealed that it is actually ca. 200 myr older than the Hekpoort Fm. Thus, the two formations do not correlate and there is a large age discrepancy between the Pretoria Group in the Transvaal subbasin (Hekpoort Fm.) and the Postmasburg Group in Griqualand West (comp. Eriksson et al., 2006). At the same time Humbert et al. (2017) showed that the paleomagnetic poles for the Ongeluk and Hekpoort formations differ from each other (the Ongeluk paleopole being characterized by Evans et al., 1997).
The age of the Hekpoort Fm. is not precisely constrained. Dates of 2236 ± 38 Ma (whole rock Pb–Pb isochron; Cornell et al., 1996) and 2224 ± 21 Ma (whole-rock Rb–Sr isochron; Burger and Coertze, 1973) result directly from the lavas. U-Pb SHRIMP dating of detrital zircons from palaeosols or interbedded sedimentary units in the formation yielded a maximum age of 2247 ± 10 Ma (Schröder et al., 2016). Sedimentary rocks directly overlying the Hekpoort Fm. contain detrital zircons of 2233 ± 15 Ma (Dorland, 2004 – U-Pb SHRIMP ages).
The Hekpoort Fm. is composed mainly of thick successive lava flows interpreted as originating from a single magma pulse (i.e., similar to ‘tabular-classic flows’, Jerram, 2002). The lava flows have thicknesses of between 8 and 60 m, and are often characterized by amygdaloidal flow tops with thicknesses between 0.5 and 1 m. Abundant amygdales are coalesced, with anastomosing geometries and are partially or completely filled with secondary minerals: mostly quartz, but also clinochlore, zeolite and calcite. The flow tops can be highly altered. These apparent weathering horizons are more common near the base of the formation, which may suggest a lower initial eruption rate. However, all outcrops have a reddish hydroxide coating due to weathering. Locally developed, several meters-thick flow top breccias were described and volcanoclastic materials occur in the formation (e.g., Button, 1973; Sharpe et al., 1983; Oberholzer, 1995; Oberholzer and Eriksson, 2000; Coetzee, 2001).
Manifold additional physical volcanology phenomena can be observed in these ancient lavas (Humbert et al., 2018b), such as:
Shear induced outgassing or ‘second order’ lava flows
Vesicle cylinders of amygdale concentrations in the form of oblique columns or pipes
Pahoehoe lava or ropy lava flow tops
Hyaloclastites
Variolitic lava flows
Stratified and massive lapilli tuffs and lapilli tuff breccias
Pyroclastic breccias
Lahars and related mass flow deposits
Like most Archean to Paleoproterozoic LIPs, the Hekpoort rocks underwent at least greenschist facies metamorphism but also episodes of metasomatism and silicification. Preserved primary magmatic minerals are clinopyroxene (pigeonite, augite and diopside), and rarely plagioclase (labradorite).
Lavas of the Hekpoort Fm. are mostly basalts, with widespread silicification responsible for increased SiO2 content. The variable whole rock Mg# (evolving from 69 to 50) and the changes in clinopyroxene composition attest to magmatic fractionation. The Hekpoort Fm. displays remarkably similar trace elements patterns to those of the 200 myr older Ongeluk Fm. in the west of the Kaapvaal Craton; such a compositional match is remarkable and unique among the Precambrian mafic magmatic units of the Kaapvaal Craton.
Similar to the mafic rocks of the Ventersdorp Supergroup (2.78-2.71 Ga) and the basalts of the Ongeluk Fm. (2.426 Ga), the Hekpoort basalts show an arc-like trace element signature, mainly represented by negative Nb-Ta anomalies (in normalized trace element patterns). The Hekpoort and Ongeluk also exhibit relatively high contents of Th and U and high Th/Nb ratios, which sharply contrast with Archean units. The Hekpoort magmas thus seem to represent a stage in a progressive differentiation series from a single parental magma with variable degrees of crustal assimilation, strongly inconsistent with their extrusion order on the craton, and which can be related to metasomatism of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle by past subduction(s). This suggests that a subduction process marked the Archean-Proterozoic boundary on the Kaapvaal craton.
The Hekpoort Fm. was described as having been largely deposited in a subaerial setting (e.g., Button, 1973; Sharpe et al., 1983; Engelbrecht, 1986; Eriksson and Twist, 1986; Oberholzer, 1995; Reczko et al., 1995) and is seen as a major continental flood basalt event on the Kaapvaal craton (e.g., Reczko et al., 1995; Cornell et al., 1996). Notable is the absence of wide-spread pillow lavas, and the presence of rare hyaloclastites and of pahoehoe flow tops with uniform amygdales layers. In a small area east of Pretoria a bedding plane with preserved syn-depositional raindrop imprints has been identified (Altermann et al., 2018), clearly evidencing subaerial deposition.
Localized ponds and lakes (Button, 1973) can explain the hyaloclastites and possible pillows at the top of the Hekpoort Fm., and the variolitic lava flows (Humbert et al., 2018a) and volcanoclastic rocks, which mostly result from phreatomagmatism. Nevertheless, lavas are preponderant in the whole Hekpoort Fm. (Button, 1973; Sharpe et al., 1983; Engelbrecht, 1986; Schreiber, 1991). The rare presence of large amount of volcanoclastic rocks in some localities (e.g., the Hekpoort River Valley, suggest that the Hekpoort magma chamber was rich in volatiles and/or that the lava encountered fluids at shallow surface (e.g., Fisher and Schmincke, 1984), thus promoting a more explosive style of volcanism and allowing the formation of varying proportions of lava flows and pyroclastic rocks.
The Hekpoort river area is in a way anomalous because it contains mainly coarse volcanoclastic deposits and mass flow deposits of lahars and coarse tuffs (Oberholzer and Eriksson, 2000; Humbert et al., 2018b). In places, the NE striking strata are oriented partly sub-vertical, with evidence for folding and faulting, but without developed schistosity. Areas with subhorizontal bedding appear to be separated by normal faults from steeply dipping blocks of regional extent. Humbert et al. (2018b), envisage therefore the development of a paleo-graben valley during the subsidence of the Kaapvaal craton, which experienced stretching perpendicular to graben shoulders (Eriksson et al., 2006). Mass flows were triggered by earthquakes, accompanied by volcanic eruptions which led to the accumulation of thick and laterally extensive fans of coarse to fine, proximal to distal volcanoclastic deposits. This extensional event was likely an underlying cause for Hekpoort magmatism. Similar processes were discussed for e.g., the Ventersdorp LIP lavas by Van der Westhuizen et al. (2006), Altermann and Lenhardt (2012) and Humbert et al. (2019).
Fig. 1. Distribution of the outcrops of Hekpoort Formation in the Transvaal sub-basin with the Bushveld Complex in the centre of the Transvaal Supergroup. (TB) and the Ongeluk lava formation in the Griqualand West sub-basin (GWB); compiled from 1:250000 South African geological maps. The location of both subbasins within the Transvaal basin it is shown in the bottom right inset. The red rectangles and the red ellipse represent the studied areas; the rectangles emphasizing zones with outcrops (zones sampled: solid rectangles; the Hekpoort river valley: dashed rectangle). The dashed circle segment represents the maximum extension of the Vredefort Impact Structure. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Chronostratigraphy of the Transvaal Supergroup based on Gumsley et al. (2017) and Humbert et al. (2017). The age dates are from: (1) Moore et al. (2012) – U-Pb on detrital zircon, (2) Gumsley et al. (2017) – U-Pb on baddeleyite, (3) Bau et al. (1999) – carbonate Pb–Pb isochron, (4) Fairey et al. (2013) – whole rock U-Pb isochron, (5) Burger and Coertze (1973) – whole rock Rb-Sr isochron, (6) Cornell et al. (1996) – whole rock Pb–Pb isochron, (7) Schröder et al. (2016) – U-Pb SHRIMP on detrital zircon, (8) Dorland (2004) – U-Pb SHRIMP on detrital zircon, (9) Zeh et al. (2015) – U-Pb on detrital zircon. Formations of the Pretoria Group: Das.=Daspoort; Dwa.=Dwaalheuwel; Str.=Strubenkop. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Fig. 3. N-S schematic cross-section of the Hekpoort Formation along the Hekpoort river valley and a composite vertical sections of the three main sampling zones. AC=amygdale layer rich in clinochlore: MTB=massive tuff-breccia; MLT=massive lapilli-tuff; PB=pyroclastic breccias; PL=pahoehoe lava; PWTF=paleo-weathered flow top; SLT=stratified lapilli-tuff; VC=layer rich in vesicle cylinders. See text for discussion. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Fig. 4. (a.) and (b.) Subparallel layers showing high concentrations of amygdales that can either be ‘second order’ lava flows or related to shear-induced outgassing; a tiny oblique vesicle cylinder can be also be seen in (b.). (c.) to (g.) vesicle cylinders in subvertical (c.) and subhorizontal (d., e., f.) sections with a fresh surface in (d.) and in thin section (g) showing the contact between the cylinder (left side) and the surrounding lava (right side). Some vesicle cylinders are asymmetrical (e.) or elongated (f.), likely linked to their development while the lava flow was still mobile. (h.) example of pahoehoe lava. (i.) to (l.) volcanoclastic rocks: stratified lapilli tuff (i., j.) massive lapilli-tuff (k.), pyroclastic breccia showing a block that was a flow top (l.). Detail of limestone xenolith, showing rounded crystals of calcite in the massive lapilli-tuff (m.). (n.) and (o.) interbedded sedimentary units in the area of Mooikloof of metamorphosed fine sandstone rich in iron oxide (o.). Some kink folding can be observed in the outcrop (n.) as well as in the thin section (o.). (p.) and (q.) hyaloclastites from the Potchefstroom syncline (Fig. 4) showing vesicle-rich block surrounded by breccias; see close-up in (p.). The up to half centimeter-thick yellow rim around (p.) is linked to recent weathering. (q.) evidence of palagonitisation. (r.) variolitic lava flows showing individual variolites and partly coalescent in the center of the picture. Diffusion areas between the variolites and the groundmass can be observed (bright 1–2 cm rims around the variolites). (s.) thin section of a small variolites. The center is occupied by an orthopyroxene crystal now fully pseudomorphosed by clinochlore. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Fig. 5. (a.) Classification diagram of Winchester and Floyd (1977), modified by Pearce (1996) with the Hekpoort and Ongeluk samples. (b.) Same samples in the Total Alkali versus Silica (TAS; Cox et al., 1979). In the latter, the samples mainly plot in the range of basaltic andesite due to an increase of SiO2 related to silicification and the pronounced scatter of samples along the Y axis is the consequence of K- and Na-metasomatism. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Fig. 6. REE (a, b) and multi-element diagrams (c, d) of the same samples as in Fig. 5. Samples were normalized to chondrites (REE diagram) and to primitive mantle (multi-element diagrams) respectively, after Palme and O'Neill (2014). The shaded area behind the Ongeluk samples corresponds to the Hekpoort samples on the left. (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Fig. 7. (a. to c.) Th/Yb versus Nb/Yb diagrams. Subduction zones have Nb/Yb ratios similar to Depleted Mantle, but higher Th/Yb ratios. Enriched mantle sources have higher Nb/Yb as well as Th/Yb ratios. The examples of crustal input model by contamination (b.) and subduction zone (SZ) component (c.) are taken from Pearce (2008). In (b.), the AFC model is characterized by a rate of assimilation relative to the rate of crystallization r=0.3; F=proportion of mass of magma remaining relatively to its initial mass. The SZC model in (c.) is based on (Th/Nb) SZ=5 and (ThSZ/Th DM-magma)=100; %=% SZ component in wedge. Note that the assimilation–fractional crystallization (AFC) and subduction zone component (SZC) models in Fig. 12(b, c) are from Pearce (2008) and purely indicative. DM=Depleted Mantle, PM=Primordial Mantle, EM=Enriched mantle, OIB=Oceanic Island Basalt source (Sun and McDonough, 1989), LC=Lower Crust, MC=Middle Crust, UC=Upper Crust, BC=Bulk Crust, PC=Phanerozoic Crust, AC=Archean Crust (Rudnick and Fountain, 1995). (From Humbert et al., 2018b).
Click to open/close ReferencesReferences
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Humbert, F., Sonnette, L., de Kock, M.O., Robion, P., Horng, C.S., Cousture, A., Wabo, H., 2017. Palaeomagnetism of the early Palaeoproterozoic, volcanic Hekpoort Formation (Transvaal Supergroup) of the Kaapvaal craton, South Africa. Geophys. J. Int. 209: 842–865. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggx055.
Humbert, F., de Kock, M.O., Altermann, W., Elburg, M.A., Lenhardt, N., Smith, A.J.B., Masango, S. 2018b; Petrology, physical volcanology and geochemistry of a Paleoproterozoic large igneous province: The Hekpoort Formation in the southern Transvaal sub-basin (Kaapvaal craton) Precambrian Research, 315, 232–256.
Humbert, F., de Kock, M.O., Lenhardt, N., Altermann, W., 2019; Neoarchaean to Early Palaeoproterozoic Within-Plate Volcanism of the Kaapvaal Craton: Comparing the Ventersdorp Supergroup and the Ongeluk and Hekpoort Formations (Transvaal Supergroup). In Kröner, A. and Hofmann, A. (eds): The Archaean Geology of the Kaapvaal Craton, Southern Africa, Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 277-302. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-78652-0_11.
Humbert., F., Elburg, M., Ossa Ossa, F., de Kock, M., Robion, P., 2018a; Variolites of the Paleoproterozoic Hekpoort Formation (Transvaal sub-basin, Kaapvaal craton): multistage undercooling textures? Lithos 316-317, 48-65.
Jerram, D.A., 2002. Volcanology and facies architecture of flood basalts. In: Menzies, M. A., Klemperer, S.L., Ebinger, C.J., Baker, J. (eds) Volcanic Rifted Margins. Geological Society of America Special Paper 362, 121-135.
Lenhardt, N., Eriksson, P.G., Catuneanu, O., Bumby, A.J., 2012. Nature of and controls on volcanism in the ca. 2.32-2.06 Ga Pretoria Group, Transvaal Supergroup, Kaapvaal craton, South Africa. Precambrian Res. 214–215, 106–123.
Oberholzer, J.D., 1995. Die geologie van die piroklastiese gesteentes in die Hekpoort Formasie, Transvaal Opeenvolging. MSc. thesis. University of Pretoria.
Oberholzer, J.D., Eriksson, P.G., 2000. Subaerial volcanism in the Palaeoproterozoic Hekpoort Formation (Transvaal Supergroup), Kaapvaal craton. Precambr. Res. 101, 193–210.
Reczko, B.F.F., Oberholzer, J.D., Res, M., Eriksson, P.G., Schreiber, U.M., 1995. A revaluation of the volcanism of the Palaeoproterozoic Pretoria Group (Kaapvaal craton) and a hypothesis on basin development. Journal African Earth Sciences 21, 505–519.
Sharpe, M.R., Brits, R., Engelbrecht, J.P., 1983. Rare earth and trace element evidence pertaining to the petrogenesis of 2.3 Ga old continental andesites and other volcanic rocks from the Transvaal Sequence, South Africa. University of Pretoria Institute for Geological Research on the Bushveld Complex Research Report 40, 63 pp.
Schreiber, U.M., 1991. A palaeoenvironmental study of the Pretoria Group in the eastern Transvaal. Ph.D. thesis. University of Pretoria.
Schröder, S., Beukes, N.J., Armstrong, R.A., 2016. Detrital zircon constraints on the tectonostratigraphy of the Paleoproterozoic Pretoria Group, South Africa. Precambr. Res. 278, 362–393.
Van der Westhuizen, W.A., De Bruiyn, H., Meintjies, P.G., 2006. The Ventersdorp Supergroup, In: Johnson, M. R. and Anhaeusser, C. (Johnson, M. R. and Anhaeusser, C. (Eds.), The Geology of South Africa. Geological Society of South Africa/Council for Geoscience, Johannesburg/Pretoria, 187-208.
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Top 400 contractors are feeling no pain, ENR report says
The nation's construction contractors are generally doing quite well, thank you.
The Engineering News Record's list of Top 400 U.S. contractors based on revenue was released last month, and it provided a favorable diagnosis for the nation's construction economy a decade after the Great Recession.
"The still-healthy market is evident in the results of this year’s ENR Top 400 Contractors survey," the ENR said. "As a group, those firms generated a new record of $405 billion in contracting revenue in 2018, a significant increase of 8.3 percent from the 2017 total of $373.98 billion." The ENR added: "The construction market has been growing steadily for nearly 10 years, with no signs of stopping."
Among the nation's top 100 contractors, the ENR's list has, for the entirely of this century, annually included two Michigan-based contractors: Southfield-based Barton Malow and Detroit-based Walbridge. It's more of the same this year, as Barton Malow (No. 40, down 12 spots from 2018) and Walbridge (No. 59, -11 spots compared to 2018) were Michigan's top contractors. But for the first time, they had company in the top 100: Lansing-based The Christman Co. jumped from No. 110 in 2018 to No. 93 this year.
Other Michigan-based contractors that made the list include Aristeo Construction Co., Livonia, (No. 194, +5 vs. 2018); Rockford Construction Co., Grand Rapids (No. 243, +7); Commercial Contracting Corp., Auburn Hills, (No. 260, +21); Pioneer Construction, Grand Rapids (No. 268, +5); Granger Construction Co., Lansing (No. 305, -103); Wieland, Lansing, (No. 319, -43); Clark Construction Co., Lansing, No. 320, not on the 2018 list); Roncelli Inc., Sterling Heights (No. 340, -50) and Wolverine Building Group, Grand Rapids (No. 400, not on the 2018 list).
Notable contractors that didn't make this year's list (or last year's), but that have in the past, include Sachse Construction, Detroit (No 393 in 2017) and George W. Auch, Pontiac (No. 394 in 2017).
The list's 2019 top five U.S. contractors by revenue include, in order, Bechtel, Reston, Va.; Fluor Corp., Irving, Texas; Turner Corp., New York, N.Y.; Aecom, Los Angeles, and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore.
"Industry veterans know the market can’t sustain this pace forever, but they are focused on the opportunities in front of them," the ENR said.
Gilbane Building Co. Executive Vice President told the publication: “We all remember 2009-11 and don’t want to see that again. So we as an industry are constantly wary, watching for signs of a downturn. But we don’t see any yet.”
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U.S. Supreme Court sides with employers workplace arbitration case
By Celine McNicholas
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on May 21 handed down a 5-4 decision in Epic Systems Corp. v Lewis that deals a significant blow to the fundamental right of workers in this country to join together to address workplace disputes.
For over 80 years, the National Labor Relations Act has guaranteed workers’ right to stand together for “mutual aid and protection” when seeking to improve their wages and working conditions. However, the Supreme Court decision clears the way for employers to require workers to waive that right as a condition of employment.
The use of mandatory arbitration and collective and class action waivers—under which workers are forced to handle workplace disputes as individuals through arbitration, rather than being able to resolve these matters together in court—makes it more difficult for workers to enforce their rights.
These agreements bar access to the courts for all types of employment-related claims, including those based on the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act. This means that a worker who is not paid fairly, discriminated against, or sexually harassed, is forced into a process that overwhelmingly favors the employer—and forced to manage this process alone, even though these issues are rarely confined to one single worker.
Today’s decision undermines the National Labor Relations Act and further erodes workers’ rights and freedoms. Workers depend on collective and class actions to combat race and sex discrimination and enforce wage and hour standards. It is essential to both our democracy and a fair economy that workers have the right to engage in collective action. Congress must act to restore this fundamental right and ban mandatory arbitration agreements and class and collective action waivers.
The New York Times said writing for the majority, "Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the court’s conclusion was dictated by a federal law favoring arbitration and the court’s precedents. If workers were allowed to band together to press their claims, he wrote, 'the virtues Congress originally saw in arbitration, its speed and simplicity and inexpensiveness, would be shorn away and arbitration would wind up looking like the litigation it was meant to displace.'"
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented strongly, saying the case will lead to "huge under-enforcement of federal and state statutes designed to advance the well being of vulnerable workers.”
Said AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka: "Today, five justices on the Supreme Court decided that it is acceptable for working people to have our legal rights taken away by corporations in order to keep our jobs. This decision forcing workers to sign away the right to file class-action suits against such illegal employment practices as wage theft, sexual harassment and discrimination is outrageous—and it is wrong.
"In this case, the newest justice has joined the dangerous trend of this court to side with corporations over working people. We call upon Congress to immediately enact legislation making clear that no worker can be forced to give up their right to effectively challenge illegal conduct in the workplace in order to keep their job."
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Meet Gibbi
Gibbi on Lampedusa island, about one month after rescue at sea. Lampedusa, Italy; November 2016. ©Pamela Kerpius
Meet Gibbi.
27 years old and from Gambia.
To reach Lampedusa he crossed six countries: The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and the most dangerous of all, Libya.
His journey took six months, five of which were in Libya. From Agadez, Niger he crossed the Sahara desert in a pickup truck with 28 people. Each, as standard, had 5 liters of water. He made it through four checkpoints across the desert with the help of his driver, who negotiated lower rates to pass.
When he arrived in Sabha, he says, even the little kids have guns. They’re called “small boys,” as I’ve heard them described throughout almost all of my interviews. (They are also throughout the city of Tripoli, making prey of migrants who congregate on known corners looking for day work.)
He mostly stayed inside the compound because it was too dangerous to leave. There were about 300 people living in his particular house. Some slept outdoors because there wasn’t enough room. He spend one week in the compound and never felt safe.
Gibbi stopped in Bani Waled, then it was on to Tripoli, where he spent three months and two weeks in a prison somewhere within the city limits. He arrived with over 90 people to a space holding somewhere around 700-800, by his estimate.
There was scant food or water. He shared a plate of macaroni with 10 other people each day for food. He was allowed one teacup of water daily. Men, women, and children and babies were all kept together in the same space.
He was given the option to pay 1000 dinars for his release, but he escaped instead. It took him days to plan it. During his allowed visit to the toilet one morning, he left alone on foot. He looked for other black people along the way for aid.
Gibbi’s family thought he was dead during this time because he was never able to call home. He was married in 2009 and has a wife, a five year old son, and a baby girl about a year old.
He spent a month at the seaside camp before his boat was ready. He crossed the Mediterranean Sea in a wooden boat with 140 people around 9:00pm. There were 40-50 women on board. They were out to sea for eight hours.
At 5:00am he was rescued by a German vessel, and was then transferred to the Guardia Costiera who brought him to Lampedusa.
He has worked as a mechanic and is eager to maintain his skills. In time, he would like to earn money and send for his family in The Gambia.
He was always wearing that same ball cap and had his hands muffled in his pocket to keep warm when I’d see him everyday on Via Roma. He is kind and friendly and his eyes light up when he speaks.
Gibbi is an amazing human being.
Leggete in italiano
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Meet Dr. Brett Zubeck
Meet Dr. Megan Barnes
Meet Dawn Branson
State of the Art Facility and Equipment
Created in Newsletter Library, Wellness
The natural world functions very well on its own. Left to their own devices, members of the tens of millions of species on our planet thrive and prosper without relying on outside agencies.
In order to grow abundantly, plants consume carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients from the soil. Likewise, herbivorous animals consume plants whereas carnivorous animals consume other animals. Insects eat a wide variety of foods, including plants, fruit, other insects, detritus (dead leaves, stems, and twigs), and even blood. Many types of bacteria and fungi recycle decomposing matter. Whales, the top predator in the oceans, may consume more than a ton of plankton per day in addition to fish, squid, and other crustaceans.
Every member of every species excepting humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) obtains everything it needs from the environment. Modern humanity is the only species for which the abundance provided by the global ecosystem is insufficient.
For instance, mountain lions, raccoons, and coyotes don't need sleeping pills. But humans spend more than $1.5 billion per year on the sleep aid Ambien. Dolphins, antelope, and bluebirds don't have problems with blood glucose levels. In stark contrast, the annual cost of diabetes medications in the United States was $12.5 billion in 2007. In the wild, oak trees, tuna, and elephants don't need nutritional supplementation. Humans, however, spend more than $23 billion annually in the United States alone. What is wrong with this picture?
As a species, humans have the unprecedented ability to manipulate and drastically alter the world in which we live. Also aside from epidemic infectious disease, there exists no natural check on human population growth. As populations expand, resources become scarce. Populations flocking to urban enclaves not only leave behind the countryside but also local sources of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry. Canning, packaging, and transportation of food over long distances become necessary to supply the energy needs of cities. But only calories and not much else are obtained by these methods. Energy is provided but food quality is substantially reduced.
Chronic disease becomes widespread. Diabetes, cardiovascular disorders including high blood pressure, heart attacks, and stroke, and obesity are all the direct result of a severely compromised food supply.1,2,3
Our disconnect from the natural world poses many additional challenges. Our bodies were designed to meet the demanding physical requirements of a hostile environment. But for the most part we don't do physical work anymore. If we don't find satisfactory substitutes for strenuous physical activity our musculoskeletal, metabolic, and endocrine systems easily deteriorate. The consequences include osteoporosis, chronic aches and pains, gastrointestinal problems, and anxiety and depression.
It takes a lot of effort to maintain good health when we're so far removed from the natural world. We need to make sure our diets are healthy and we need to get sufficient and regular strenuous exercise. The short- and long-term benefits include happiness, self-esteem, and ongoing well-being.
1Kesse-Guyot E, et al: Adherence to nutritional recommendations and subsequent cognitive performance: findings from the prospective Supplementation with Antioxidant Vitamins and Minerals 2. Am J Clin Nutr Nov 24 2010 (Epub ahead of print)
2Wolfe AR, et al: Dietary protein and protein-rich food in relation to severely depressed mood: A 10 year follow-up of a national cohort. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry Nov 22 2010 (Epub ahead of print)
3Pekmezi DW, Demark-Wahnefried W: Updated evidence in support of diet and exercise interventions in cancer survivors. Acta Oncol Nov 24 2010 (Epub ahead of print)
Prudenville Office
By Appt.
Life Chiropractic and Wellness Center
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Home/News Print This Page
County declines MTO transportation grant
Published Feb. 1, 2018
Haliburton County council will stick with its plan of commissioning an implementation plan for a transportation service in the community, forgoing a grant opportunity from the Ministry of Transportation.
At a December meeting, council decided it will hire a consultant to complete a transportation project implementation plan and has allotted $50,000 in the 2018 draft budget for that purpose.
During a Jan. 24 meeting, councillors were visited by Tina Jackson and Sue Shikaze of the Haliburton County community transportation task force, who asked councillors to take advantage of a new community transportation grant program offered by the MTO.
A business case prepared by the task force that councillors had received at their December meeting outlined a number of transportation options, one being a booked, shared ride service that would transport residents who called to book rides. It was estimated the cost for such a service would be at least $192,000 a year.
“I know there is some concern about how this model will meet the needs of all residents, and I’m here to assure you that it can’t and it won’t,” Jackson said, adding that ideally a suite of transportation services is required to fulfill the needs of residents.
“Our request is that you reconsider your decision and prepare and submit an application to the ministry of transportation,” Shikaze said.
She emphasized the grant program is designed for communities that are not served or are under-served by transit, and can be used to develop new systems, with an emphasis on improving mobility for the entire community, including those with transportation barriers, seniors, people with disabilities, youth and individuals with low incomes.
The program offers funding of up to $500,000 over five years, however, a caveat is that it is a five-year commitment.
County planner Charlsey White told councillors that if council decided after a few years a system was unsustainable and decided to pull out of the arrangement, it was possible that some or all funds received from the province would have to be paid back.
With municipal elections taking place this October, a five-year commitment would also mean that council was committing not just the next county council, but also the council after that, to the project.
“I need to see an implementation plan,” said Dysart et al Deputy Mayor Andrea Roberts. “I’m just worried about committing future councils.”
“We have to acknowledge this whole project is fraught with various risks,” said Algonquin Highlands Mayor Carol Moffatt. Moffatt said she did see the grant program as an opportunity, but noted the county would be taking a risk with the five-year commitment.
“I see it as hedging our bets,” Moffatt said.
Dysart et al Mayor Murray Fearrey, who emphasized he was not against the project, noted the county would be responsible for administration of the service, something likely not possible with its current staff level. With vehicles, gas and drivers, he said he believed a booked, shared ride service would end up costing more than the $192,000 that had been estimated in the task force’s business case.
The grant application deadline is also fast approaching, at the end of February.
Chief administrative officer Mike Rutter said it was staff’s opinion the more financially prudent option for council would be to use gas tax funding to help finance whatever transportation system is eventually created. That way, Rutter said, there would not be a specific time commitment, and council could abandon a financially unsustainable program at any time.
Moffatt and Minden Hills Mayor Brent Devolin acknowledged the decision would likely draw criticism from some members of the public.
“I think we’re sincerely committed to this, and we’re going to do something,” Devolin said. The county will not submit a grant application and will continue with the creation of its implementation plan.
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2013 Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) Winners
OVER 1,000,000 VOTES CAST BY KIDS & TEENS -- JEFF KINNEY WINS AUTHOR OF THE YEAR AND ROBIN PREISS GLASSER NAMED ILLUSTRATOR OF THE YEAR
New York, NY — May 13, 2013 – The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader announced the winners of the sixth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) at a charity gala benefitting Every Child a Reader in New York City this evening. The announcement is an annual highlight of Children’s Book Week (May 13-19, 2013)as the CCBAs is the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. Young readers across the country voted in record numbers for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and a tbookweekonline.com, casting more than 1,000,000 votes. Full video footage of the awards ceremony is available for book lovers of all ages at bookweekonline.com/gala.
The 2013 Children’s Choice Book Awards winners are:
KINDERGARTEN TO SECOND GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta, illustrated by Ed Young (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
THIRD GRADE TO FOURTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Bad Kitty for President by Nick Bruel (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
FIFTH GRADE TO SIXTH GRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Dork Diaries 4: Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess by Rachel Renée Russell (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
TEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton/Penguin)
AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7: The Third Wheel (Amulet Books/Abrams)
ILLUSTRATOR OF THE YEAR
Robin Preiss Glasser for Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
About the Children’s Choice Book Awards Program (CCBAs)
Launched in 2008 by the Children's Book Council and Every Child a Reader, The Children’s Choice Book Awards program was created to provide young readers with an opportunity to voice their opinions about the books being written for them and to help develop a reading list that will motivate children to read more and cultivate a love of reading. More at www.bookweekonline.com/about-CCBAs.
About Children’s Book Week (CBW)
Established in 1919, CBW is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. Each year, official and local commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes -- wherever young readers and books connect.In 2013, official events will be held in 50 cities nationwide. Learn more at www.bookweekonline.com.
List or update your festivals or literary event>>
List your author details>>
Featured Literary Journal -
Pilcrow & Dagger are inviting submissions!
Advertise on site>>
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About Kits House
Kitsilano Neighbourhood House (‘Kits House’), member of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses BC, is a registered non-profit, charity organization dedicated to meeting the needs of those most vulnerable as well as providing an opportunity for everybody in our community to get together and be engaged. We offer many different programs like volunteer-led English Conversation Circles, weekly hot lunches for seniors, childcare and much more. We are the only Neighbourhood House on the Westside and serves many different communities like Kitsilano, Dunbar, Arbutus Ridge and Point Grey.
Kits House has a rich history on Vancouver’s Westside since 1894 when it was originally opened as Alexandra Orphanage and Non-Sectarian Home Society. This original site was located at 7th and Pine. The orphanage was eventually renamed “Alexandra House” in 1938. In 1972, the House moved to its current location, was renamed Kitsilano Neighbourhood House and still serves the six communities of the Westside.
Check out “A Place on the Corner” for some more Kits House History.
Our Statement of Diversity
Vancouver’s Westside is a healthy, vibrant and connected community where everyone thrives.
Kitsilano Neighbourhood House creates community for all by connecting people, ideas, and opportunities.
Our community welcomes people of any age, race, or religion.
We see value in every person, regardless of physical ability, mental ability, or economic standing.
We welcome the experience and knowledge of people from other places. Many languages and cultures are heard in the community at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.
People of any gender and sexuality are welcome in our community.
Our staff, board, membership and volunteer community reflect the diversity of our neighbours.
Any person who transmits or receives our services can expect to be treated with respect.
Our dedication to diversity means that all people are part of our community; therefore, we act to promote the inclusion of everyone in our House.
democratic participation
What is a Neighbourhood House?
Neighbourhood Houses are non-profit organizations, which function as resource centres with the flexibility to meet changing community needs and challenges. They work towards improving the quality of both community and family life and differ from other social organizations as they are concerned with the community as a whole while working towards improving the quality of both community and family life.
Programs and services are designed to reach all age groups in a diverse population that is inclusive and reflective of the many different life experiences of the neighbours. Neighbourhood Houses build strong, independent communities, encouraging people to thrive. They are familiar and easily accessible; and effective in reaching people and helping them with their community aspirations, needs, challenges and problems.
Scent Reduction Policy
Kits House is not a scent-free environment; however, we do ask that everyone avoid the use of strong perfumes and heavily scented products while at Kits House. We ask for everyone’s cooperation in our efforts to accommodate staff, volunteer, resident, participant and visitor health concerns, and minimize unnecessary discomfort.
We collect personal information in order to maintain contact with you, to invite you to KNH, and ANH General Meetings and to provide you with information on future programs, services and events.
Complaint Resolution Process
Kitsilano Neighbourhood House is committed to working with children, youth, seniors, families and communities to provide supports and programs that meet community needs. In keeping with this all participants in all programs have the right to raise their concerns about any program decision or actions taken by Kits House.
• You will be treated with respect, listened to and acknowledged.
• Your concern will be kept in confidence and there will be no repercussions for bringing forward a concern in good faith.
• All staff will have a working knowledge of the complaint resolution process and a willingness to listen to your concern and find a resolution that works for all involved.
What we will do
• We will provide an opportunity for you to explain the complaint.
• We will respond to the initial complaint as soon as possible after it is received and not longer than one week from receiving the complaint.
• We will document your concern and the final resolution or decision.
• We will follow up until the issue is resolved.
• We will make sure the process is accessible and transparent.
How to bring your complaint to our attention
1. Work together with the Kits House staff involved to resolve the disagreement
2. If the disagreement is not resolved work together with the Program Manager
3. It is hoped that through these conversations, your concern will be addressed to your satisfaction. If a resolution has not been found you can contact the Executive Director by phone 604 736-3588 or email allens@kitshouse.org or in writing attn: Executive Director c/o Kits House.
4. If the Executive Director is not able to resolve the disagreement to the satisfaction of all parties, your concern can be referred to the current Chair of the Kits House Board (contact email on KNH website) and/or the CEO of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC 604-875-9111 ext 107.
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Dovetail is an American band from Dallas, Texas, fronted by singer/songwriter Philip Creamer. Joined by brother and co-writer Daniel Creamer, the band is a family of creative free-spirits in pursuit of the high and lofty. Giving much credence to their musical predecessors, the band lives in a magic place of sonic discovery.
Clearly drawing much of their musical inspiration from 60s and 70s era rock and roll, Dovetail taps into the simple yet dynamic arrangements and huge-sounding vocal productions of bands like The Beach Boys, The Byrds and The Beatles. Still, the band is able to create a fresh and modern sound, with frontman Phillip’s voice channeling the likes of Tom Chaplin of Keane, or at times, Matthew Bellamy of Muse. Fans of classic rock or of more modern bands like My Morning Jacket, Radio Head, Arcade Fire, Portugal The Man and Dr. Dog will likely connect with Dovetail’s music..
As a testament to the band’s tremendous songwriting capabilities, Dovetail holds the prestige of winning the 2012 John Lennon Song Writing Contest in the category of Rock Song Of The Year with their song “Julie” which appears on their debut album, Mount Karma.
For more information, visit their website at: http://www.dovetailband.com/
Be sure to stay up-to-date by following Dovetail on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Israel’s puppet war unmasks apartheid regime
By Fatima Masri - July 03, 2013
Section: [Main News] [Culture] [Life under Occupation]
Tags: [culture] [Jerusalem] [Palestinian Authority] [popular resistance] [social media] [Apartheid]
Send by email: Print:
Image from Puppets4All Facebook page protesting Israeli ban of Palestinian Puppet Festival
The El-Hakawati theatre was colorfully adorned for its annual International Puppet Festival when a closure order by the Israeli authorities dashed the expectations of the Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem. Now signs announcing the closure of the theatre from June 22 to 30 have replaced the festive decorations.
This “puppet war” was launched by the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, transforming a festival for children into a security issue. Officially, the order has been issued on the grounds that Israeli law prohibits the Palestinian Authority from funding or holding any gatherings in Israel without government authorization. The theatre’s director, Mohamed Halayiqa, was summoned by Shin Bet and questioned about the funds’ provenience. Halayiqa denied the involvement of the Palestinian Authority and so far no evidence of PA involvement has been offered by the Israeli police to justify the closing order.
This “puppet war” was launched by the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, transforming a festival for children into a security issue
The festival, which would have been in its nineteenth season, hosts a large number of international performers and theatre groups. Mohamed Halayiqa said the theatre closure was “disgraceful,” and claims that the Palestinian Cultural Foundation, which is supported by donations from Palestinian businesses and European Donors, provided funding for the project.
The cancellation of the puppet festival raises questions about Israel’s democratic principles. The Security Minister says he is not opposed to Palestinian cultural and artistic events as long as they are conducted according to Israeli law. However, if PA funding of cultural activities for Palestinians is prohibited and the Israeli government does not provide any alternative, the result is a system that regulates access to culture on the basis of ethnicity.
According to a study conducted by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, 78% of Palestinians in Jerusalem – and 84% of the children – are living below the poverty line. Israel neglects the Palestinian population’s basic needs, including access to education and professional training. Such practices make it hard to believe that any effort would be made by the government to promote cultural events even if they are in line with Israeli regulations.
As harmless as a puppet festival may be, Israeli authorities view Palestinian art as part of a national struggle that must be contained. Israeli authorities did not see the festival performances prior to their cancellation, suggesting that the theatre closure was not ordered on the basis of unacceptable content. It seems that any opportunity to enrich Palestinians is viewed as a potential threat to an Israeli system based on the exclusion and segregation of one group.
As harmless as a puppet festival may be, Israeli authorities view Palestinian art as part of a national struggle that must be contained
Among those protesting the cancellation of the festival are the puppeteers from the Israeli television series “Sesame Street.” Ariel Doron, who gives voice to the Israeli puppet Elmo, and Yousef Sweid, who gives voice to the Arab puppet Mahboub, have launched a campaign through the Puppets4All Facebook page, in which Israeli television and stage actors, as well as protestors from all around the world, are posting pictures with puppets and slogans such as “Culture is not a security issue”.
The Facebook page provides the link to a petition that states, “Every child has the right to enjoy puppet shows”. A short video, entitled “The puppet war”, was created by Doron to accompany the petition. In the video Israel is represented as an inflatable blue and white hammer chasing scared puppets that cry out for help.
Ariel Doron believes that every child has a right to culture. In an interview with Haaretz, he expressed his disbelief in regards to the measure adopted by his own government: “It sounds incredible to me that they’re keeping Palestinian children from seeing puppet shows. It seems ridiculous and cruel and sad and completely unnecessary, and hypocritical too. When an Israeli artist attends a festival abroad and is boycotted because he gets Israeli funding, Israel speaks against it, and now it [Israel] is saying the same thing.”
Israel targeting access to health and health workers in Palestine
Palestine‘s health care system is crumbling due to restrictions placed on Palestinians
Israel requires students to pass "propaganda" course before overseas trips
Israeli-Arab human rights group Adalah has labelled the course as "racist ideology",
Israel’s Defence Ministry erases historical Nakba documents
An investigative report by Haaretz has uncovered the Israeli Defence Ministry
The El-Hakawati theatre was colorfully adorned to host its annual International
Rushdi Tamimi becomes second victim of Israeli army in Nabi Saleh
On Tuesday November 21st, the body of 31 year old Rushdi Tamimi was
Israel Avoids Hard-Right Shift: No Benefit for Palestinians
With many commentators predicting big wins for the settler movement in
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How can students health care to be improved?
March 4, 2017 iwona Education 0
In the run-up to the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, emeVia’s network of student mutual publishes a White Paper designed to challenge parties and their candidates on the issues of student health. 17 proposals centered around three main axes: access to care, prevention and education to the health system.
The local student mutually manages the student social security scheme of around 1 million students and offer a complementary mutual insurance scheme to nearly 250,000 of them.
Improving health, fighting against cessation of care
To elaborate the 17 proposals for access to care and improvement of prevention policies, the emeVia network has based its latest health survey in 2015 on 14,000 of its members. The proposals are intended to challenge the candidates, but also to be confronted with health professionals. Goal? To improve the health and well-being of students, in particular by facilitating access to care, while 16% of them declared in 2015 that they had refrained from visiting a doctor for financial reasons.
Which lines of thought should be taken from the White Paper?
Three priorities were identified: improving access to care and rights for young people, strengthening prevention and educating young people about their health system. More specifically, the Mutual Network proposes, for example, to link the 500,000 apprenticeship and salaried students to the student social security scheme, in order, according to its president, to “stop the double penalty” of those who, when registering in the superior, of the contribution for student social security but who also contribute through their professional activity.
Read also: How to acquire new skills without breaking the bank
According to emeVia, it would also be necessary to generalize the university health network Rhesus which exists in some faces like that of tours. This network is the result of an agreement between liberal health professionals, universities and mutual societies. It ensures the third-party payment so that the students have nothing to pay for the day of the consultation, more personalized follow-up and a permanence of care after 8 pm and the weekend. In the same vein would be set up a free gynecological consultation every 2 years for young women aged 16 to 25 years.
Lastly, stressing that only 75% of students benefit from a complementary health care compared to 93%. the population, emeVia recommends extending the check or “pass” health, already proposed by some local authorities. It would be set at $150 for fellows and employees.
Regarding prevention, emeVia advocates for a youth education by their peers, and this from the high school and proposes the creation of a foundation co-managed by the State, the private sector and the actors of the prevention. We estimated that by setting a tax of one cent on each bottle of wine, we would release 10 million dollars of a budget for this foundation.
To challenge the candidates for the presidential election
EmeVia has put in place the presidential for which lists all the proposals of candidates for the presidential as well as their positioning on the measures of the White Paper. It will make it possible to compare programs according to thematic criteria.
Internet users will be able to vote for a measure, share it on Facebook or Twitter, as well as directly interview candidates via social networks. One limitation, however, is that they will not be able to suggest other measures that they feel could improve their situation.
EmeVia ensures that it has sent its White Paper to all candidates, and hopes that answers will be added to the comparator. It remains to be seen if the policies, very discreet until now on the living conditions of students, will play the game.
How to Kick College Distractions to the Curb
How to create a private school?
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Immunophenotypic characterisation of morphologically diagnosed cases of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML)
Immunophenotyping and Aberrant phenotype in AML
Maria Basharat
Saleem Ahmed Khan
Nasir ud din
Dawood Ahmed
Keywords: Immunophenotyping, Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Aberrant phenotype in AML, Flowcytometry
Objective: To determine immunophenotypic pattern in newly diagnosed cases of acute myeloid leukaemia by flow cytometry and its correlation with morphological findings.
Methods: This study was conducted at Haematology (Pathology) department, Army Medical College, in collaboration with Immunology Department Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi from 16 November 2016 to 16 November 2017. One hundred and six patients of both genders and all age groups diagnosed as acute myeloid leukaemia were included in the study. Demographic data was noted. Complete blood counts, bone marrow examination and cytochemical stains were carried out and evaluated microscopically for blast percentage and morphology. Immunophenotyping was performed by flow cytometry using standard panel on peripheral blood or bone marrow samples. The surface and cytoplasmic antigens of interest were analysed and correlated with morphological findings.
Results: The most commonly expressed antigens were CD13, CD33, CD45 and HLA-DR. Almost all blasts expressed CD45 with no remarkable difference among the subtypes of AML. The mean positivity for CD13 among all AML subtypes was 57% and for CD33 was 67%. Aberrant expression of CD7 and CD19 were expressed in 26.4% and 1.1% of all cases respectively. There was concordance rate of 90% between morphology and FCM in our study.
Conclusion: Flow cytometric analysis of acute leukaemia done by a combination of patterns and intensity of antigen expression improves diagnostic yield in AML. CD13, CD33 and CD45 are the most frequently expressed antigens in AML. Our findings suggest a 90% concordance between morphology and flow cytometry. It is pertinent to conclude that flow cytometry results interpreted with morphology are complementary.
Basharat M, Khan SA, Nasir ud Din, Ahmed D. Immunophenotypic characterisation of morphologically diagnosed cases of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(2):470-476. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.2.614
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[INTERVIEW] Prof Mehmet UGUR: "We may be enjoying relative freedom in Europe but this freedom is tainted by continued violations in Turkey"
Fernando Lozano
Elections in March, Hydrocarbons in Cyprus and Erdoğan’s Nationalist Footsteps
Dr Anthony Derisiotis is a lecturer of Turkey and the Middle East, at the Department of Turkish and Modern Asian studies, of the National and Capodistrian University of Athens. He has graduated from the Department of Turkish Studies of the University of Cyprus and got his MA and PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. He teaches Turkish political history and foreign policy. His publications and research interests include Turkish domestic and foreign politics, with a special focus in the Middle East and the United States, as well as the Kurdish issue. He has previously held a research associate position at the Hellenic House of Parliament.
A major characteristic of Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, one that he has mastered during his political career, is the ability to adapt to conditions, especially when he can’t adjust conditions to his views. The latter may sound absurd, but in the past 16 years, the Turkish leader has done so a few times, with the most significant cases being the way he handled the Kurdish issue, from the pro-Kurdish reforms and the solution process to the sacrifice of the Kurdish vote in favour of the nationalists, or the turn against his former political ally and AKP supporter, cleric Fethullah Gülen.
Erdoğan simply changed his attitude and turned against them, when he deemed it necessary to serve his own political interests. In the process he accused Gülen of terrorism, treason and being an enemy of the state, while he practically demonised the Kurds for demanding the rights he has promised them in the early years of his government. In both cases, he used this as an excuse to proceed to a wide-range purge from the armed forces, political institutions, media, universities, etc.
Whenever he can’t manipulate a situation, he will compromise and adapt to it, as he has done with his relation to Putin that actually flourished after the Sukhoi Su-24 shoot down in 2015 and the Russian economic sanctions to Turkey; or with Assad’s advance in former strongholds of the opposition in Syria, which Turkey has been sturdily supporting against the Syrian leader.
Another similar challenge for the Turkish president is his alliance to the nationalist MHP, one that has ensured him crucial political victories in the 2017 referendum and in the 2018 presidential and parliamentary elections, the latter through the People’s Alliance.
The upcoming local elections in March 2019 is the next challenge in Turkey’s troubled internal political scenery and the discussion on a joint campaign under the People’s Alliance is already on the way.
President Erdoğan has been targeting the nationalist sentiment after the June 2015 elections, especially since the nationalist vote has been a fundamental element of his electoral dominance. He has incorporated nationalism in his approach to Turkey’s foreign policy and has adopted an anti-Kurdish and anti-American rhetoric regarding the Syrian autonomous area of Rojava in the east of the Euphrates that is controlled by the PYD.
Relations with Washington have been stressed due to a number of reasons, including Ankara’s affiliation to Moscow, the Andrew Brunson case and Iran, as well as, Ankara’s request for Fethullah Gülen’s extradition and the US-YPG alliance. In the process, Erdoğan has conceded to a significant rise of MHP’s influence within AKP’s ideological core but seems to remain in control of a significant segment of the nationalist vote with political manoeuvres like the recent developments in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus, where Ankara has been raising objections on the right of the government of Nicosia to issue drilling permissions to foreign companies, on the basis that the rights of the Turkish-Cypriots have not been secured.
On the same basis, Ankara has also deployed its own research vessels in the Cypriot EEZ causing further stir in its relations with Nicosia and Athens. All of these are related to Turkey’s national interests as they have been outlined by the AKP government, after Cyprus established its EEZ with agreements with Egypt (2003), Lebanon (2007) and Israel (2010), regarding Cyprus’ hydrocarbon potential riches.
Recent developments include Nicosia’s 2017 partnership with ExxonMobil-Qatar Petroleum consortium, the 16 November 2018 ExxonMobil launch of drilling operations with the escort of US Navy ships and the heated response by the Turkish government which vowed to begin drilling operations of its own in the Cypriot EEZ.
Earlier in the year, just before the June snap elections, the MHP leader, Devlet Bahçeli, was quoted saying “Cyprus is Turkish and will remain so”, while the party’s campaign issued a map that depicted Cyprus as Turkish territory.
Bahçeli’s statement was reiterated by İyi Parti leader, Meral Akşener, in her 21 November address to the parliament, where she also warned of a repeat invasion of Cyprus, while calling the international companies’ exploration for hydrocarbons commissioned by the Nicosia government as imperialist activity against Turkey.
Her statements came after the Turkish government hardened its stance, warning that the drillings off Cyprus would affect regional stability. Adding to the tension, Yeni Şafak newspaper published reports in October 2018 that Greece has been “stealing Libya’s EEZ”, as stated by defence minister Hulusi Akar in a recent visit to Libya.
Overall, there is significant tension brewing in the east of the Mediterranean Sea related to Cyprus’ hydrocarbons that serves as nationalist fuel for the MHP and the AKP that both parties are incorporating in their rhetoric, in the wake of the 2019 local elections.
Earlier disagreements over a Bill of Amnesty submitted by the MHP, the reinstatement of the national oath in schools and Bahçeli’s October statement that the party will not form an alliance in the local elections and will nominate its own candidate for Istanbul, were side-lined after the nationalist leader issued a new statement on 24 November, according to which, the MHP will not nominate metropolitan mayoral candidates in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir and will support the AKP’s candidates.
A few days earlier, President Erdoğan has called upon the benefits of an alliance, referring to “expectations from the grassroots of both parties”. His statement came just one day before a meeting between the two party leaders to discuss the March elections.
Erdoğan is surfacing on the top of the People’s Alliance, presenting himself as the guarantor of Turkey’s national interests in an acceptable way to the nationalist voters. He is manipulating the delicate conditions in the east of the Mediterranean to his behalf and is gaining the advantage in the nationalist field, ahead of the MHP leader and Akşener.
Turkey’s Idlib adventure; will it end in tears?
Soviel Scheinheiligkeit ist eigentlich unglaublich!
Summary of the Parliamentary Resolution of March 2019 on the 2018 Commission Report on Turkey
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Where has the Pledge gone? What impact has it had so far?
Stories will be added here as they come in – please send yours!
Each small step will take us closer to changing the way the system currently operates, and by collecting as many stories here as possible here, we can exponentially increase the momentum towards that change.
The Young Christian Workers (YCW) are very involved in the asylum seeker and refugee issue. Some of the actions they are currently undertaking include:
Hosting Asylum Seeker & Refugee awareness nights every fortnight at their Melbourne office. These nights include a dinner and discussion about the actions we can take as a community to support those seeking asylum and they invite guest speakers to talk about their experiences as an asylum seeker.
They have an online blog which touches on the topic of asylum seekers and they encourage opinions and awareness for change.
They are also entering a team in this years ‘Run 4 Refugees’ in Melbourne on October 12!
They’ve also been very supportive of the Pledge, uploading pictures of members signing the Pledge on twitter, facebook, and instagram and spreading the word! You can see their photos in the montage on the Pledgers page as well.
“The pledge has inspired us to get this awareness out there and to continue supporting those wonderful causes who make it their mission to support our refugees and to stop the injustices against them. All the very best, and keep up the wonderful work!”
Grade 2/3 students at Mount Barker South Primary School have explored the Pledge, and what it means to be an asylum seeker or a refugee.
From their teacher:
My year 2/3 class were fascinated with the lesson. It’s not often that they are completely silent but they all sat wide eyed with interest. Prior to the lesson, not a single student of 29 had any idea what the term ‘refugee’ meant but several recognised ‘boat people’….
They are eager to learn more and have already enthusiastically shared their learning with the rest of our school at our last assembly.
For the presentation you see in the photo, they were asked to think about an activity they enjoy doing then imagine how happy it makes them feel to have the freedom to do it in our country. From that they drew their activity, as visualised in their mind’s eye, and invited a refugee to enjoy the activity with them.
Not related to the Pledge, but this article talks about refuges who have gone on to become some of our greatest entrepreneurs. Ahn Do is one of those mentioned; have a look at his book, The Happiest Refugee, describing what it was like to be an asylum seeker travelling to Australia by boat. He’s also released a beautiful children’s book, The Little Refugee, on the same theme.
Linda and her husband Wes from the Combined Refugee Action Group are already active in assisting asylum seekers and refugees, but still loved the idea of signing the Pledge.
The Pledge really affirmed everything I have already committed to: lobbying politicians, writing letters and articles to the local papers, encouraging others to do the same, being involved in an action group, using my blog and Facebook for public education, supporting services financially, and befriending individual asylum seeker to make their lives in limbo just a little bit more bearable. We have to take whatever action we can. Every little bit helps.
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Satoro
Kent is distributing the Pledge amongst the South Australian Police (SAPOL), and to his fellow 10/27 Army Reserve Infantry Battalion Unit and 7th Royal Australian Regiment colleagues.
As a member of the Police operating in a multicultural area I have exposure to and deal with refugees within our community on a daily basis. As a soldier I served as a rifleman on the front line of operations in Afghanistan. I deployed to Afghanistan multiple times where the long conflict against the Taliban forced many from their homes. I am well aware that this is just one of many conflict areas in the world that refugees are coming from.
I am committed to helping those who seek asylum and educating both the refugees and the public.
I think the pledge is a fantastic idea. It’s proactive attitudes like yours we need to inject into all areas of our community.
Well done and thank you.
Sue* is a member of a group who visit asylum seekers in detention to offer them friendship, support and hope.
I made copies of the pledge and took it to a group of people who visit asylum seekers in a nearby detention centre. Some of us gather each week to review how things are going for the people we visit; we to talk about what kind of assistance may be needed, whether there are new people we individually may have met, or knowledge we may have gained about people being sent to other detention centres, including Manus and Nauru. At the end of our meeting last week we read through the Pledge at the end as a reflection and as our prayer of remembrance for the asylum seekers who are part of our lives.
Last night when I visited the detention centre, I decided to show the pledge to two families and explained what it was about. I, and two others who were there with me, then signed it and gave it to these people who were frightened and depressed that they have been told they are going to be moved to a more remote detention centre. Their faces were so filled with deep gratitude when we read the words “You are welcome here”.
Thank you so much for making the pledge available to us and for putting words around our thoughts and feelings.
* Sue is a real person, but this is not her real name. Her identity was kept anonymous so that her ability to visit asylum seekers in detention is not jeopardised. She is not, however, the only person who has shared the Pledge with people in detention and I thank them all for taking on the Pledge in such a personal way.
Rachel is part of the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN). Check out their Facebook page.
We’ve put the Pledge on our Facebook page and take printed copies to the weekly Nightcliff market stall for people to read, take and sign. DASSAN also visit asylum seekers in local detention centres, bringing them friendship and contact with the outside world.
Thank you for creating a powerful piece of prose and sharing it with the wider community!
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Quintiles partners to improve patient care
Quintiles has signed a collaborative agreement to help drive innovation, improve patient care and increase efficiency in early stage clinical research
Quintiles has signed a collaborative agreement with Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London to help drive innovation, improve patient care and increase efficiency in early stage clinical research.
As part of the agreement, the biopharmaceutical services company, has commissioned a research facility with 30 beds, for both patients and healthy volunteers involved in research within Guy's Hospital in London. The facility, to be named Quintiles Drug Research Unit, will be completed in early 2010 and will increase Quintiles' capacity to conduct proof-of-concept programmes that help biopharmaceutical companies develop better medicines faster.
Eddie Caffrey, senior vice president, Global Phase I, Quintiles, said: "The biopharmaceutical industry must bring new drugs to market faster and with greater predictability to address declining research and development productivity. The smartest move is to invest in intelligent, early-stage development because, when done well, it has significant impact on speed and cost of the overall development process."
Ron Kerr, chief executive of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust said: "We want to deliver the best possible care to our patients, and we know that aligning clinical service excellence with translational research has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to do this. We're excited by the potential of this collaboration as it will lead to a smoother and faster clinical trials process, ensuring our patients and local people are among the first to benefit from any new discoveries."
Professor Robert Lechler, vice-principal (health), King's College London and Director of King's Health Partners, said: "King's College London's important partnership with Quintiles and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, one of our Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) partners, is exactly the sort of collaboration we expect to see at the heart of King's Health Partners."
Lechler added: "Through this collaboration and the significant investments we have already made to develop first class clinical research facilities, we will create a powerful 'experimental medicine' hub across four floors of the Guy's Hospital Tower, allowing us to harness the expertise of our world class scientists and clinicians to drive new discoveries in medicine and clinical treatment."
Account Manager, MedicalCommunications/ Healthcare PR
Account Director - Healthcare Advertising Communications Agency
Senior Medical Writer
mXm Medical Communications
mXm Medical Communications meets the needs of pharmaceutical marketers and medics who require a highly experienced, bespoke service from their...
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THE CASE AGAINST LIBERAL COMPASSION
The following is reprinted in its entirety by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College by William Voegeli on October 9, 2014, sponsored by the College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship.
Four years ago I wrote a book about modern American liberalism: Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State. It addressed the fact that America’s welfare state has been growing steadily for almost a century, and is now much bigger than it was at the start of the New Deal in 1932, or at the beginning of the Great Society in 1964. In 2013 the federal government spent $2.279 trillion—$7,200 per American, two-thirds of all federal outlays, and 14 percent of the Gross Domestic Product—on the five big program areas that make up our welfare state:
1. Social Security; 2. All other income support programs, such as disability insurance or unemployment compensation; 3. Medicare; 4. All other health programs, such as Medicaid; and 5. All programs for education, job training, and social services.
That amount has increased steadily, under Democrats and Republicans, during booms and recessions. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, federal welfare state spending was 58 percent larger in 1993 when Bill Clinton became president than it had been 16 years before when Jimmy Carter took the oath of office. By 2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated, it was 59 percent larger than it had been in 1993. Overall, the outlays were more than two-and-a-half times as large in 2013 as they had been in 1977. The latest Census Bureau data, from 2011, regarding state and local programs for “social services and income maintenance,” show additional spending of $728 billion beyond the federal amount. Thus the total works out to some $3 trillion for all government welfare state expenditures in the U.S., or just under $10,000 per American. That figure does not include the cost, considerable but harder to reckon, of the policies meant to enhance welfare without the government first borrowing or taxing money and then spending it. I refer to laws and regulations that require some citizens to help others directly, such as minimum wages, maximum hours, and mandatory benefits for employees, or rent control for tenants.
All along, while the welfare state was growing constantly, liberals were insisting constantly it wasn’t big enough or growing fast enough. So I wondered, five years ago, whether there is a Platonic ideal when it comes to the size of the welfare state—whether there is a point at which the welfare state has all the money, programs, personnel, and political support it needs, thereby rendering any further additions pointless. The answer, I concluded, is that there is no answer—the welfare state is a permanent work-in-progress, and its liberal advocates believe that however many resources it has, it always needs a great deal more.
The argument of Never Enough was correct as far as it went, but it was incomplete. It offered an answer to two of the journalist’s standard questions: What is the liberal disposition regarding the growth of the welfare state? And How does that outlook affect politics and policy? But it did not answer another question: Why do liberals feel that no matter how much we’re doing through government programs to alleviate and prevent poverty, whatever we are doing is shamefully inadequate?
Mostly, my book didn’t answer that question because it never really asked or grappled with it. It showed how the Progressives of a century ago, followed by New Deal and Great Society liberals, worked to transform a republic where the government had limited duties and powers into a nation where there were no grievances the government could or should refrain from addressing, and where no means of responding to those grievances lie outside the scope of the government’s legitimate authority. This implied, at least, an answer to the question of why liberals always want the government to do more—an answer congruent with decades of conservative warnings about how each new iteration of the liberal project is one more paving stone on the road to serfdom.
Readers could have concluded that liberals are never satisfied because they get up every morning thinking, “What can I do today to make government a little bigger, and the patch of ground where people live their lives completely unaffected by government power and benevolence a little smaller?” And maybe some liberals do that. Perhaps many do. The narrator of “The Shadow,” a radio drama that ran in the 1930s, would intone at the beginning of every episode, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”
Well, the Shadow may have known, but I don’t. The problem with this kind of explanation for liberal statism is that very, very few liberals have been compliant or foolish enough to vindicate it with self-incriminating testimony. Maybe they’re too shrewd to admit that ever-bigger government is what they seek above all else. Or maybe they don’t realize that’s what they’re up to.
Such arguments trouble me, however. The great political philosophy professor Leo Strauss insisted that it is a grave mistake to presume to understand important political philosophers better than they understood themselves, unless one had already put in the hard work necessary to understand them as they understood themselves. Perhaps this good advice can be democratized, I thought, and applied as well to Elizabeth Warren and Rachel Maddow as to Aristotle and John Locke. If we make that effort—an effort to understand committed liberals as they understand themselves—then we have to understand them as people who, by their own account, get up every morning asking, “What can I do today so that there’s a little less suffering in the world?” To wrestle with that question, the question of liberal compassion, is the purpose of my latest book, The Pity Party.
Indifference to Waste and Failure
All conservatives are painfully aware that liberal activists and publicists have successfully weaponized compassion. “I am a liberal,” public radio host Garrison Keillor wrote in 2004, “and liberalism is the politics of kindness.” Last year President Obama said, “Kindness covers all of my political beliefs. When I think about what I’m fighting for, what gets me up every single day, that captures it just about as much as anything. Kindness; empathy—that sense that I have a stake in your success; that I’m going to make sure, just because [my daughters] are doing well, that’s not enough—I want your kids to do well also.” Empathetic kindness is “what binds us together, and . . . how we’ve always moved forward, based on the idea that we have a stake in each other’s success.”
Well, if liberalism is the politics of kindness, it follows that its adversary, conservatism, is the politics of cruelty, greed, and callousness. Liberals have never been reluctant to connect those dots. In 1936 Franklin Roosevelt said, “Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” In 1984 the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, “Tip” O’Neill, called President Reagan an “evil” man “who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and the future generations . . . . He’s cold. He’s mean. He’s got ice water for blood.” A 2013 Paul Krugman column accused conservatives of taking “positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable.” They were, he wrote, “infected by an almost pathological meanspiritedness . . . . If you’re an American, and you’re down on your luck, these people don’t want to help; they want to give you an extra kick.”
Small-d democratic politics is Darwinian: Arguments and rhetoric that work—that impress voters and intimidate opponents—are used again and again. Those that prove ineffective are discarded. If conservatives had ever come up with a devastating, or even effective rebuttal to the accusation that they are heartless and mean-spirited: a) anyone could recite it by now; and, b) more importantly, liberals would have long ago stopped using rhetoric about liberal kindness versus conservative cruelty, for fear that the political risks of such language far outweighed any potential benefits. The fact that liberals are, if anything, increasingly disposed to frame the basic political choice before the nation in these terms suggests that conservatives have not presented an adequate response.
A first step in that direction is to note a political anomaly pointed out by Mitch Daniels, the former Republican governor of Indiana. Daniels contended that disciplining government according to “measured provable performance and effective spending” ought to be a “completely philosophically neutral objective.” Skinflint conservatives want government to be thrifty for obvious reasons, but Daniels maintained that liberals’ motivations should be even stronger. “I argue to my most liberal friends: ‘You ought to be the most offended of anybody if a dollar that could help a poor person is being squandered in some way.’ And,” the governor added slyly, “some of them actually agree.”
The clear implication—that many liberals are not especially troubled if government dollars that could help poor people are squandered—strikes me as true, interesting, and important. Given that liberals are people who: 1) have built a welfare state that is now the biggest thing government does in America; and 2) want to regard themselves and be regarded by others as compassionate empathizers determined to alleviate suffering, it should follow that nothing would preoccupy them more than making sure the welfare state machine is functioning at maximum efficiency. When it isn’t, after all, the sacred mission of alleviating preventable suffering is inevitably degraded.
In fact, however, liberals do not seem all that concerned about whether the machine they’ve built, and want to keep expanding, is running well. For inflation-adjusted, per capita federal welfare state spending to increase by 254 percent from 1977 to 2013, without a correspondingly dramatic reduction in poverty, and for liberals to react to this phenomenon by taking the position that our welfare state’s only real defect is that it is insufficiently generous, rather than insufficiently effective, suggests a basic problem. To take a recent, vivid example, the Obama Administration had three-and-a-half years from the signing of the Affordable Care Act to the launch of the healthcare.gov website. It’s hard to reconcile the latter debacle with the image of liberals lying awake at night tormented by the thought the government should be doing more to reduce suffering.
A sympathetic columnist, E.J. Dionne, wrote of the website’s crash-and-burn debut, “There’s a lesson here that liberals apparently need to learn over and over: Good intentions without proper administration can undermine even the most noble of goals.” That such an elementary lesson is one liberals need to learn over and over suggests a fundamental defect in liberalism, however—something worse than careless or inept implementation of liberal policies.
That defect, I came to think, can be explained as follows: The problem with liberalism may be that no one knows how to get the government to do the benevolent things liberals want it to do. Or it may be, at least in some cases, that it just isn’t possible for the government to bring about what liberals want it to accomplish. As the leading writers in The Public Interest began demonstrating almost 50 years ago, the intended, beneficial consequences of social policies are routinely overwhelmed by the unintended, harmful consequences they trigger. It may also be, as conservatives have long argued, that achieving liberal goals, no matter how humane they sound, requires kinds and degrees of government coercion fundamentally incompatible with a government created to secure citizens’ inalienable rights, and deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.
I don’t reject any of those possibilities, or deny the evidence and logic adduced in support of each. But my assessment of how the liberal project has been justified in words, and rendered in deeds, leads me to a different explanation for why, under the auspices of liberal government, things have a way of turning out so badly. I conclude that the machinery created by the politics of kindness doesn’t work very well—in the sense of being economical, adaptable, and above all effective—because the liberals who build, operate, defend, and seek to expand this machine don’t really care whether it works very well and are, on balance, happier when it fails than when it succeeds.
The Satisfaction of Pious Preening
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Latinate word “compassion” means, literally, “suffering together with another”—it’s the “feeling or emotion, when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it.” Note that suffering together does not mean suffering identically. The compassionate person does not become hungry when he meets or thinks about a hungry person, or sick in the presence of the sick. Rather, compassion means we are affected by others’ suffering, a distress that motivates us to alleviate it. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in Emile, “When the strength of an expansive soul makes me identify myself with my fellow, and I feel that I am, so to speak, in him, it is in order not to suffer that I do not want him to suffer. I am interested in him for love of myself.”
We can see the problem. The whole point of compassion is for empathizers to feel better when awareness of another’s suffering provokes unease. But this ultimate purpose does not guarantee that empathizees will fare better. Barbara Oakley, co-editor of the volume Pathological Altruism, defines its subject as “altruism in which attempts to promote the welfare of others instead result in unanticipated harm.” Surprises and accidents happen, of course. The pathology of pathological altruism is not the failure to salve every wound. It is, rather, the indifference—blithe, heedless, smug, or solipsistic—to the fact and consequences of those failures, just as long as the empathizer is accruing compassion points that he and others will admire. As philosophy professor David Schmidtz has said, “If you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, it isn’t.”
Indeed, if you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, the failure of government programs to alleviate suffering is not only an acceptable outcome but in many ways the preferred one. Sometimes empathizers, such as those in the “helping professions,” acquire a vested interest in the study, management, and perpetuation—as opposed to the solution and resulting disappearance—of sufferers’ problems. This is why so many government programs initiated to conquer a problem end up, instead, colonizing it by building sprawling settlements where the helpers and the helped are endlessly, increasingly co-dependent.
Even where there are no material benefits to addressing, without ever reducing, other people’s suffering, there are vital psychic benefits for those who regard their own compassion as the central virtue that makes them good, decent, and admirable people—people whose sensitivity readily distinguishes them from mean-spirited conservatives. “Pity is about how deeply I can feel,” wrote the late political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain. “And in order to feel this way, to experience the rush of my own pious reaction, I need victims the way an addict needs drugs.”
It follows, then, that the answer to the question of how liberals who profess to be anguished about other people’s suffering can be so weirdly complacent regarding wasteful, misdirected, and above all ineffective government programs created to relieve that suffering—is that liberals care about helping much less than they care about caring. Because compassion gives me a self-regarding reason to care about your suffering, it’s more important for me to do something than to accomplish something. Once I’ve voted for, given a speech about, written an editorial endorsing, or held forth at a dinner party on the salutary generosity of some program to “address” your problem, my work is done, and I can feel the rush of my own pious reaction. There’s no need to stick around for the complex, frustrating, mundane work of making sure the program that made me feel better, just by being established and praised, has actually alleviated your suffering.
This assessment also provides an answer to the question of why liberals always want a bigger welfare state. It’s because the politics of kindness is about validating oneself rather than helping others, which means the proper response to suffering is always, “We need to do more,” and never, “We need to do what we’re already doing better and smarter.” That is, liberals react to an objective reality in a distinctively perverse way. The reality is, first, that there are many instances of poverty, insecurity, and suffering in our country and, second, that public expenditures to alleviate poverty, insecurity, and suffering amount to $3 trillion, or some $10,000 per American, much of it spent on the many millions of Americans who are nowhere near being impoverished, insecure, or suffering.
If the point of liberalism were to alleviate suffering, as opposed to preening about one’s abhorrence of suffering and proud support for government programs designed to reduce it, liberals would get up every morning determined to reduce the proportion of that $3 trillion outlay that ought to be helping the poor but is instead being squandered in some way, including by being showered on people who aren’t poor. But since the real point of liberalism is to alleviate the suffering of those distressed by others’ suffering, the hard work of making our $3 trillion welfare state machine work optimally is much less attractive—less gratifying—than demanding that we expand it, and condemning those who are skeptical about that expansion for their greed and cruelty.
Those of us accused of being greedy and cruel, for standing athwart the advance of liberalism and expansion of the welfare state, do have things to say, then, in response to the empathy crusaders. Compassion really is important. Clifford Orwin, a political scientist who has examined the subject painstakingly, believes our strong, spontaneous proclivity to be distressed by others’ suffering confirms the ancient Greek philosophers’ belief that nature intended for human beings to be friends. But compassion is neither all-important nor supremely important in morals and, especially, politics. It is nice, all things being equal, to have government officials who feel our pain rather than ones who, like imperious monarchs, cannot comprehend or do not deign to notice it.
WILLIAM VOEGELI is a senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books and a visiting scholar at Claremont McKenna College’s Henry Salvatori Center. After receiving a Ph.D. in political science from Loyola University in Chicago, he served as a program officer for the John M. Olin Foundation. He has written for numerous publications, including the Christian Science Monitor, City Journal, Commentary, First Things, the Los Angeles Times, National Review, and the New Criterion. He is the author of two books, Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State and The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion.
Labels: Liberal Mindset, progressive/socialists, White House Policy
Violent Buddhism, Bob Ross’s Missing Paintings, and Shakespeare’s Lost London Home
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Marie Brennan September 16th 2007
Respecting history
I recently came across Guy Gavriel Kay’s essay “Home and Away,” which addresses the complex relationship between fantasy and history, both in the sense of historical fantasy, and fantasy which models itself on (without directly representing) history.
It provoked two major trains of thought for me. The first had to do with this notion:
It was Henry James who argued that historical fiction was, in fact, impossible. That it was condemned to be ‘cheap’ because getting to ‘the real thing’ with regard to the world views of people in the past simply could not be done. One could only write from within one’s own world view, leaving access to the vision or the soul of the past hopelessly barred.
If you think it’s bad in historical fiction, try anthropology. We’ve gone through several decades of angst over this very matter: how can we, as outsiders to a culture, try to represent its nature and point of view? Isn’t that arrogant? Or maybe just impossible? If we can’t achieve that goal, should we pack up and go home?
I’ll come back to those points in a bit; first, let’s turn to my other train of thought, which has to do with respect. I came across the Kay essay by way of Matt Cheney’s column “Pol Pot’s Fantasized Daughter,” published recently on Strange Horizons. Cheney makes some cogent points about the thorny difficulties of fictionalizing and fantasizing a real-world scenario like the aftermath of Pol Pot’s regime. I’ve thought about this in other contexts, too; I’m curious to see more of the world Naomi Novik presents in her Temeraire series, because I wonder how she’s chosen to handle the problems of nineteenth-century colonialism. We don’t necessarily want our historical fantasy to uncritically replicate the problems of real-world history, be they political, religious, economic, gender-based, what have you — but it’s also a little cheap to decide that magic makes the problems go away. Where’s the proper balance?
If it sounds like I’ve thought through this in detail, it’s because I have; I just finished writing Midnight Never Come, which I fondly refer to as my Elizabethan faerie spy novel. All of the faeries in it are made up, of course, but virtually every mortal character except for the human protagonist is real. And the premise of the novel, in a nutshell, is that the faerie queen has been interfering with mortal politics.
Here’s the thing. I find Elizabeth I to be a fascinating individual, and while she was far from perfect as a queen — she was vain, short-tempered, indecisive, and jealous — I have a lot of respect for her. But Midnight Never Come is a secret history, not an alternate history; I’m not making any visible changes to what really happened in sixteenth-century England, but rather saying that some of those things happened for secret reasons. Faerie reasons. And this runs the risk of diminishing the actions and achievements of real people. (A problem White Wolf occasionally ran into with the metaplot of their “World of Darkness” RPGs; sometimes it seemed like ordinary people were nothing more than the blind, clueless puppets of vampires, werewolves, mages, etc, etc.)
They were real people. As far as I’m concerned, just because they’re several hundred years dead doesn’t mean they don’t deserve respectful treatment.
It’s tempting to dodge the complexities of the situation by saying it’s fiction, it’s fantasy, it isn’t real. Unfortunately, that’s too facile of a response, and at its worst it can be a cousin of the “it’s just a joke” non-defense of sexist or racist behavior. If you misrepresent history — real people, real cultures, real events — not all readers will know the period well enough to recognize what’s been made up or changed, and what hasn’t. Benign example: you’ll never ever convince me Loki is really a bad guy, because my first encounter with Norse mythology was Diana Wynne Jones’ Eight Days of Luke. The story you tell will go into the reader’s mind along with everything else they read, and once there, it has a tendency to color their thoughts, even if it’s fiction.
So where am I going with all of this? Back to anthropology. First of all, anthropologists depend on the admittedly amorphous notion of respect. Everything they write may not be — will not be — uncritically positive, but it should be respectful toward the real people about whom they are writing. And second, just because I as an anthropologist can’t achieve “access to the vision or the soul of the past” doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. I can only ever think like me, but I can make my thinking more flexible, more open to other ways of viewing the world.
And that’s how I feel about historical fiction, too. Respect means researching the period, both its physical reality and its worldview, and attempting as best I can to work from that perspective. Respect means trying to fit what I’m doing in with the “real” Elizabeth, the “real” Walsingham — that is, our historical understandings of them — rather than replacing them with modern authorial sockpuppets that happen to bear the same name. And it’s worth trying to do, because fantasy offers an unparalleled opportunity to bring ourselves and our readers into a different cultural point of view.
But it’s hard work. Have any of you tackled historical fantasy yourselves, and if so, how did you approach it? What authors would you say have done a good job of it?
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1. S.C. Butler on Sep 16th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Never written any historical fantasy, though I’m a firm believer that modern fantasy is the direct successor of 19th c. historical romances. Hoever, regarding the respect issue, I think you can take it both ways. Revisionism can be as much fun as respect. Flashman is the classic case in point – Harry Flashman is a modern, cynical man (I won’t go so far as to call him an anti-hero) plopped down in the middle of Victorian England’s golden age to expose the hypocrisy of everything they said and did. Fraser’s research is dead on, but then he uses that research often enough to turn pre-conceived notions on their heads.
2. Jess Nevins on Sep 16th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Oh, I dunno. I think the target of Flashman is as much the modern reader, with their facile and often uninformed judgment of the Victorians, as the Victorians themselves.
But that ties in to the respect thing. Fraser, via Flashman, is telling us (sometimes very directly, as with his comments about the burning of the Forbidden City) that unless we put the Victorians’ actions into the proper cultural and historical context, we don’t know enough to judge. Which strikes me as what Marie (hi, Marie!) is talking about.
I’d also recommend Patrick O’Brian’s Maturin & Aubrey series, which I think is Literature and on a par with Austen and the other great novelists.
My one-and-a-half complete novels are both historical fantasies, and I tackled both by doing as much research as possible until I felt that I knew the eras fairly well. Then began writing. Contexts change, possibilities change, but people don’t. Of course, venality and compassion will manifest themselves quite different in the South China Sea in 1806 than in Istanbul in 1425–and that’s where the research comes in.
3. Karen Wester Newton on Sep 16th, 2007 at 11:57 am
What bothers me most in fantasy settings is otherwise medieval worlds in which women are warriors, just like men–not the occasional Xena but half the armies–with no explanation of why this fundamental difference occurred. I will buy almost any reason–religion, plague that kills or weakens men, you name it–but I want this accounted for.
I think it’s interesting that science fiction writers have similar problems. Look at Bujold’s Vorkosigan series. The Barrayarans conquer and colonize another world. How enlightened is that? Bujold knows this and sets it up so the other world allowed Barrayar to be attacked, so it’s self defense. And the Vor may be the universe’s best saber rattlers, but she gives them their own strong moral codes.
Real people in fiction is another question. I think the fiction writer does have an obligation to do research. On the other hand, he or she can say simply that it’s his or her take on that person. Even biographies of the same subject take a slant on what their subject was like. Short of a Vulcan mind meld with a dead person, what else can a writer do?
4. Marie Brennan on Sep 16th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Oh, certainly. I don’t mean to suggest one cannot skewer historical periods. But there’s a difference between mocking what they really did (because you’ve done your research) and mocking inaccurate stereotypes.
Kind of like my long-standing belief that the best parodies are the ones done by people who love the subject they’re making fun of.
5. Marie Brennan on Sep 16th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Yeah, I’ve written about that very gender problem before. (I put it in the context of infant mortality rates, actually: if half of your kids don’t live to be ten, then most women can’t afford to not have children, which means going to war is unlikely.) Part of my justification in Doppelganger was that magical healing made their lives generally healthier. I never found a good way to insert the other part of the explanation, but the people in that culture believe not only in reincarnation, but in the notion that one might be reincarnated as either sex, making the differences between the two less meaningful.
Back to history, though — of course you can’t avoid having your own take on a person’s life and personality, whether you’re writing fiction or biography. But in a biography, one is held to certain standards of evidence for one’s depiction; I feel the same should be true for fiction. So, you can give me a Doctor John Dee who’s a con man, or one who’s being conned, or one who’s genuinely delusional, but if you give me a Doctor John Dee who’s a neo-pagan earth-mother-worshipping Renaissance hippie (which apparently someone has done), then unless you’re writing a weird alternate history where that makes sense, I’m going to call BS.
6. Alma Alexander on Sep 16th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
“Secrets of Jin Shei” was historical fantasy – basically rooted in imperial China but with a lot of ‘different’ stuff in there that made it possible for my story to take place. That didn’t stop people from taking it as gospel and asking me which PARTICULAR period of Chinese history I was writing about. But that one was written as pure historical fantasy – lots of research went into it, but the story was pure me.
Its successor, “Embers of Heaven”, deals with a Cultural Revolution China setting. And this felt very different to me – not least because there are people out there who have either lived through this period of history themselves or have immediate relatives who did – and not only did I have to treat the period with respect, I had to care about making it perfectly plain where I followed the “historical” line and where I diverged from it for story reasons. It was damned hard, sometimes.
I’m planning at least one other historical fantasy. Pray for me…
7. Marie Brennan on Sep 16th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Yes, the need for respect becomes much more obvious when the history is recent, and people are still around who remember it.
8. S.C. Butler on Sep 16th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Jess-
Interesting take on Flashman – I’ll have to look for what you suggest the next time I read one. I’ve always felt Fraser, via Flashman, took every opportunity he had to stick a thumb in the Empire’s eye.
As you say, the Aubrey/Maturin books are excellent. But what do you think O’Brien was doing at the end when he ran out of time for Napoleonic derring-do? Secret history or alternate?
Hi, Jess! (I wish I knew the logic by which WordPress orders these comments. Does it pull the timestamp from the computer used to post? Because I didn’t get notification of your comment until about #7 or #8, yet there you are up at #2, where you most definitely were not before.)
I haven’t read Flashman, so I can’t judge it personally. But based on what you’ve said, it sounds like Fraser knew whereof he spoke, and that’s really what I’m getting at. Whatever you’re planning on doing with your history, know it first, and think carefully about the choices you make.
10. Jess Nevins on Sep 17th, 2007 at 9:46 am
The most recent one I read was Flashman and the Tiger, so I referred to that. Look at how Flashy adresses the reader about Elgin’s decision. His comments boil down to “you really can’t judge us because you weren’t here.”
As for O’Brian–I think he’d have found lots for Aubrey & Maturin to do elsewhere. The Brits were militarily busy throughout the 19th century, after all–lots of the “Little Wars” that A&M could have taken part in.
Flashman isn’t for everyone–his personality grates on some readers–but I think the books are very solid historically, and well-footnoted to boot.
And, hey, any author who has a scene in which Sherlock Holmes’ snap deductions are shown to be logical but wrong has a lot going for him. *g*
11. Diatryma on Sep 17th, 2007 at 10:55 am
At some point in the Aubrey-Maturin books, there’s a note saying, more or less, “I’ve run out of war for the moment, because ships take so long to get there.” It mentioned an 1812a, 1812b, et cetera, just because you can’t have your characters becalmed in the Pacific while the plot’s going on elsewhere.
However, I am sure that Maturin could have rigged up a nice FTL drive for the ship if necessary.
12. S.C. Butler on Sep 19th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Flashman and the Tiger is one of the best in the series. I should it put of on the top of my list to reread. And you’re right about recommending Flashy to other readers. I stopped years ago after too many people told me they couldn’t stand his sexism, racism, and bullying, whether he was honest about it or not.
Why I will never write a Mayan apocalypse novel at SF Novelists Pingback on Oct 16th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Marie Brennan is the author of more than forty short stories and seven novels, the most recent of which is the urban fantasy Lies and Prophecy. Visit site.
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Obama Hands Corrupt Ukraine Another Billion US Dollars
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What gets messy is when you get your way, the old government is overthrown, your "guys" seize power, and it turns out corruption and economic mismanagement are worse than before the US-backed "liberation."
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The Obama Administration thus continues with the fiction that there are completely separate, vetted, moderate rebels who are dedicated to creating an inclusive, multi-cultural and multi-confessional, secular and democratic Syria as soon as both ISIS and the Assad government are defeated.
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Wednesday June 1, 2016
Ron Paul, whose forty-plus years in the political arena include a run for president as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988, received at the party’s national convention last weekend a Hall of Liberty award for his achievement in advancing the libertarian movement. Paul, who was unable to attend the convention, did appear in the convention hall via a video address in which Paul both expressed his deep appreciation for the award and offered some advice to the people assembled. Paul’s advice includes that they strive to be principled instead of wishy-washy.
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Most Americans would think that after 9/11 and the four trillion dollar, 15 year "war on terror" that followed, the US government might actually wish to prevent individuals from visiting the country who are affiliated with al-Qaeda. Sadly, they would be wrong.
The McClatchy News Service reports that Labib al Nahhas, an official in the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist fighting group Ahrar al Sham, was granted a visa to enter the US for a brief visit.
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Today Agence France-Presse published shock photos of US Special Forces troops engaged in combat inside Syria with the US-backed, mostly-Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" as they moved toward the ISIS "capital" of Raqqa. The Pentagon has insisted that US troops in Syria -- numbering upwards of 300 -- play only an “advise and assist” role to the US-backed group, made up mostly of Kurdish YPG forces, but the AFP photos demonstrate clearly that the US forces are engaged in the fight.
The Washington Post reports that the US Special Forces were, "clustered around what appears to be an advanced Mk.47 40mm automatic grenade launcher. The system, built by General Dynamics, is primarily used by Special Operations units and has not been widely sold outside the United States."
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Ron Paul Institute Chairman Ron Paul told host Larry King on the Friday episode of Ora TV's Politicking that in November he would vote for neither Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump nor Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Nevertheless, Paul did have something favorable to say about each candidate.
Commenting in the interview first regarding Sanders, Paul said that Sanders “stands on principle” and that, “even though we disagreed on a lot of issues,” Paul and Sanders “would work together” sometimes when they were both in the United States Congress. Paul provides, in the interview, an example of where Paul and Sanders had common ground that led them to work together...
DNI to Make Recommendation by Today on 28 Pages Declassification
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper met this week with the Rep. Walter Jones who is the sponsor of a resolution (H.Res. 14) seeking the publication of the redacted 28 pages of Congress’ Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001. Jones relates in a press release concerning the meeting that Clapper said that Clapper intends to make his recommendation to the White House by the end of this week regarding declassifying the 28 pages.
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The 10 Driest Places on Earth
While water shortages in the U.S. make headlines, nearly 3 billion people globally suffer from droughts
by Ronald Agrella | Friday, October 2, 2015
Photo: Sunny Forest/Shutterstock
The worst droughts worldwide
While Californians are living through one of the worst droughts on record, they're not alone. More than 2.7 billion people — about a third of the world’s population — experience water scarcity at least one month a year, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF estimates that in 10 years about two-thirds of the world population may be facing serious water shortages, which can cause disrupt food production and promote life-threatening illnesses. UNICEF tracks the countries and populations most affected by droughts. Here are the 10 regions struggling the most, according to UNICEF.
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Can we still trust car stackers?
Having read a recent article in The Age that described the failure of a car stacker system, I was a little concerned. This wasn’t a rogue system bought online. This was a Wohr system from one of the most reputable German car stacker manufacturers.
Stackers are a good thing for the development world, at least in this world where we still need car parking. Countless tight development sites have been ‘unlocked’ through the advent of car stackers and many sites wouldn’t be viable without them. Stories about accidents like this one can erode the trust in stackers that has been built up over years with the public, developers, as well as with the decision makers at Council and VCAT.
Firstly, what happened here?
The article reported that non-genuine structural side rails had been installed in the system which were not up to the required steel grade strength and standard specified by Wohr and the Australian Standards (AS5124). It subsequently failed under load causing the accident to occur. How on earth did that happen?
Wohr Parking Systems Australia have advised that when the previous Australian distributor of the Wohr stacker systems, Car Parking Solutions went into liquidation, the Shmith’s car stacker system that had been ordered was sold by the liquidator at auction to the highest bidder – the Shmith’s builder. Unfortunately, the container load of equipment that was purchased at the auction did not contain the side rails that are critical to the strength of the stacker platforms.
Enquiries were reportedly then made directly to Wohr to purchase the missing rails but it was going to take too long for the rails to be shipped from Germany. It was also too costly for them to be freighted by air. Under pressure to finish the job, the builder decided to source the rails locally instead. Unfortunately, the rails that were sourced were reportedly not up to the required standard nor the drawings supplied. The inevitable disaster struck and the system failed under load. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Whilst it is unlikely that this sequence of events would ever happen again, how can we have more certainty that car stacker systems are constructed and installed to the required standards set out in the applicable Australian Standards?
What about at the Planning Permit stage?
Some Councils are already requiring Car Stacker Management Plans to be prepared and endorsed as part of planning permits which ensure that systems are serviced and maintained for instance. These could easily be extended to require all systems to be designed and installed by approved installers in accordance with the Australian Standard.
What about the Building Permit stage?
Perhaps there is an opportunity for further checks or demonstrations of compliance to be required after installation and before a Certificate of Occupancy is granted?
The benefits of car stackers are far too great to let this isolated accident take them out of consideration. DEMAND compliance with the Australian Standard (AS5124). DEMAND that they be installed by approved installers of the manufacturer. Do this and we can be sure that accidents like this do not happen again and we can continue to enjoy their benefits.
Brett Young - Director:Traffic
Image Source: The Age - August 13, 2017
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Program Goals & Objectives
The residency in Low Vision Rehabilitation is an intensive 52 or 54 week educational program at The Eye Institute.
The William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center provides low vision rehabilitation services to individuals with visual impairments at the Center and through its community outreach program. Through an interdisciplinary team, the Center provides comprehensive low vision evaluation and management services. These services may include the prescription of specialized optical devices and adaptive technology systems, as well as rehabilitative services to facilitate more efficient use of residual vision in vocational, educational, and home environments. The Center, with its hospital-based satellite clinics, also provides Low Vision evaluation services to individuals with multiple impairments as a result of head trauma, stroke, or developmental disabilities. The Center also provides low vision services to visually-impaired students through programs established with neighboring school districts. Counseling and support services are also available for patients and their families through the Center's social service department. Additional services include: evaluation of multiply-impaired individuals; pediatric low vision service; adaptive technology service; and neurovisual rehabilitation service.
The mission of the Low Vision Rehabilitation Residency at The Eye Institute of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University is to recruit a qualified graduating or graduate optometrist; to train the entry level graduate optometrist to provide patient care, including advanced low vision rehabilitative care, to patients with a broad range of ophthalmic disorders and ocular diseases; to train the resident to evaluate and manage patients with visual impairment, multiple impairments, and developmental disabilities; to provide an orientation and didactic program throughout the year; to promote development of skills as an educator and self-learner; and to provide a suitable environment in which the resident can flourish.
The nature of the patient population at The Eye Institute provides the foundation for the resident to hone his/her entry level skills to an advanced level and to cultivate new skills and knowledge as well. The resident is able to achieve the objectives of the program through an appropriate level of supervision and support of a highly-trained clinical faculty of optometrists and general and subspecialty ophthalmologists leading to clinical independence.
The Low Vision Rehabilitation resident is typically assigned 40-44 hours per week, and an average of every other Saturday. A total of three to four days are spent in the Low Vision Service, and the remaining time is in other patient care services, as well as in various educational activities. Residents are also required to attend lectures and conferences which are scheduled outside of normal patient care responsibilities.
During the assigned low vision sessions, the resident is primarily in the William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center. The resident also participates in the care of patients in the Special Populations Assessment and Rehabilitation Center in The Eye Institute, as well as to the Vision Rehabilitation Clinic at Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, to examine and supervise students in the examination of patients with vision impairment, ocular and systemic disease processes, brain damage secondary to head trauma, stroke, neurological disease, developmental disabilities, and multiple impairments. The resident also conducts examinations and screenings at low vision satellite program including Overbrook School for the Blind, Overbrook Educational Center, St. Lucy’s School for the Blind and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit Low.
Emergency Eye Care - Under appropriate supervision, residents manage their own patients in the Emergency Service, where they see walk-in patients with ocular urgencies/emergencies. Patients may be referred to our ophthalmology subspecialists. In addition, each resident is on-call weekends and evenings four to five weeks per program year.
The resident is assigned to Vitreo-retinal Disease, Neuro-Ophthalmic Disease, and Specialty Glaucoma Services in The Eye Institute on a rotating basis.
The resident may also have the opportunity to participate in other services in The Eye Institute and other area eye care venues.
The resident attends and participates in an educational program throughout the year, which includes conference and lectures, and is typically assigned to teach in a laboratory. They also participate in Grand Rounds presentations to fourth year students, fellow residents, and faculty members. A conference/lecture schedule is distributed to the residents on a quarterly basis. Our low vision resident will typically be assigned to teach in a laboratory at some point throughout the program year.
Residents are occasionally asked to conduct vision screenings off-campus and to participate in other College activities. An additional stipend may be paid for these services.
Sample Low Vision Rehabilitation Resident Schedule (PDF)
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Tag Archives: John Lennon
The Ultimate Christmas Playlist
Today is the day after Thanksgiving here in the United States of America. You’re officially allowed to start listening to holiday music now. To get you started, I compiled a playlist of what I consider to be 100 of the best Christmas songs. Okay, 98 songs, a stand-up routine and a skit. It’s a mix of standards, versions of standards with which you may not be familiar, and obscure but delightful tunes.
Tagged as "Weird Al" Yankovic, Aretha Franklin, Augie Rios, Band Aid, Billy Squier, Bing Crosby, blink-182, Bob Dylan, Bob Rivers, Bob Seger, Bobb B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans, Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers, Bobby Helms, Boney M, Brenda Lee, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, Carla Thomas, Cheyenne Jackson, Chuck Berry, Clarence Carter, Clyde McPhatter, Cowboy Timmy, CyHi the Prince, Darlene Love, David Bowie, Devo, Dolly Parton, Donny Hathaway, Dusty Springfield, Eagles, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Erasure, Eurythmics, Fishbone, Fountains of Wayne, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Jackson 5, James Brown, Jane Krakowski, John Denver, John Lennon, José Feliciano, Judy Garland, Kanye West, Kirsty MacColl, Kurtis Blow, Lady Gaga, Los Del Rio, Lou Rawls, Luther Vandross, Madonna, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, Mel Blanc, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Miss Piggy, Monty Python, My Chemical Romance, Nat King Cole, No Doubt, Oasis, Otis Redding, Patton Oswalt, Pearl Jam, Pet Shop Boys, Pretenders, Prince, Ramones, Red Peters, Ricky Martin, Roy Orbison, Rufus Wainwright, Run-D.M.C., Sarah Silverman, Shonen Knife, Simon & Garfunkel, Smokey Robinson, Space Cowboy, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Spongebob Squarepants, Stevie Wonder, Teyana Taylor, The Beach Boys, The Chipmunks, The Crystals, The Drifters, The Emotions, The Impressions, The Kinks, The Magnetic Fields, The Miracles, The Penguins, The Pogues, The Roches, The Ronettes, The Staple Singers, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Waitresses, The Weather Girls, Thurl Ravenscroft, Tom Petty, Wham!, Whitney Houston, Wild Man Fischer, Willie Nelson, Yoko Ono
In 1979, Giorgio Moroder, famous mostly for his production work on Donna Summer records, composed the score for the film American Gigolo. He asked Stevie Nicks to sing the movie’s theme song, for which Moroder wrote the music, but she had to decline for contractual reasons. He next turned to Deborah Harry of Blondie.
Harry write the lyrics to the song that became “Call Me,” the second #1 single for her band. Of her experience with Moroder, she told Billboard “He’s very nice to work with, very easy, (but) I don’t think he has a lot of patience with people who fool around or don’t take what they do seriously. I think he’s very serious about what he does and he’s intense and he’s a perfectionist and he’s very talented, so I think that people who are less talented or less concentrated bore him quickly…you really have to pay attention.”
Said Moroder of working with Blondie, “There were always fights. I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit.”
Moroder did end up working with Deborah Harry again years later on another soundtrack song, producing “Rush Rush” from Scarface, and in 2004 remixed Blondie’s single “Good Boys.”
Tunes du Jour’s Throwback Thursday playlist this week spotlights the best of 1980, kicking off with Blondie’s “Call Me.”
Tagged as AC/DC, Barbra Streisand, Blondie, Bob Marley & The Wailers, David Bowie, Deborah Harry, Devo, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, John Lennon, Joy Division, KC & the Sunshine Band, Kurtis Blow, Lipps Inc., Michael Jackson, Olivia Newton-John, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Queen, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Teri DeSario, The Spinners, Throwback Thursday
The Story Of Eric Clapton And Layla
In the latter half of the 1960s, Eric Clapton and George Harrison developed a close friendship. Clapton also developed a crush on Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. The two started having an affair, but Pattie didn’t want to leave her husband.
Clapton wrote a song about his feelings for Pattie. He called the song “Layla,” after a title character in the book The Story of Layla and Majnun. The book told of a man, Majnun, who was madly in love with a woman, Layla, but was forbidden to marry her. His longing for her drove him mad.
Clapton’s band Derek and the Dominos released “Layla” in 1971. Pattie and Eric started living together in 1974. They wed in 1979. George Harrison, along with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, played at the wedding. Clapton left Pattie for another woman in 1985.
Today Eric Clapton turns 71. Here are twenty tracks that feature the musician.
Tagged as Aretha Franklin, Blind Faith, Cream, Derek & The Dominos, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, John Lennon, Kate Bush, Mary J. Blige, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, The Yardbirds
It’s Max Martin’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!
As a songwriter, Max Martin has a credit on 21 number one singles on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. Only Paul McCartney and John Lennon have more. He has had 60 top tens as a writer. On top of that, he has had a hand in producing a slew of hits. Some of them are good.
Today, Max Martin turns 45 years old. Friday is dance day at Tunes du Jour. Our playlist consists of twenty songs Max Martin had a hand in writing and/or producing. Some of them are good.
Tagged as Ace of Base, Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Carly Rae Jepsen, Celine Dion, Cyndi Lauper, Demi Lovato, Ellie Goulding, Iggy Azalea, It's Friday and I Need To Dance!, Jessie J, John Lennon, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Kelly Clarkson, Nicki Minaj, NSYNC, P!nk, Paul McCartney, Robyn, Taio Cruz, The Weeknd, Usher
Blondie’s hit single “Heart of Glass” was written by band members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein and had the working title of “The Disco Song.” Drummer Clem Burke said his part was inspired by the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”
Said Harry “When we did ‘Heart of Glass’ it wasn’t too cool in our social set to play disco. But we did it because we wanted to be uncool,” with the band’s keyboardist Jimmy Destri adding “We used to do ‘Heart of Glass’ to upset people.”
The song was included on Blondie’s Parallel Lines LP “as a novelty item to put more diversity into the album,” per Stein. The novelty song became the group’s first charted single and first #1, in 1979. Its success prompted John Lennon to send Ringo Starr a postcard advising to write songs like “Heart of Glass.”
Today’s Throwback Thursday playlist spotlights twenty of the best tracks from 1979, kicking off with Blondie’s upsetting disco novelty.
Tagged as Anita Ward, Bee Gees, Blondie, Chris Norman, Commodores, Deborah Harry, Donna Summer, Elvis Costello, Gloria Gaynor, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Olivia Newton-John, Peaches & Herb, Pointer Sisters, Ringo Starr, Squeeze, Suzi Quatro, The Buggles, The Clash, The Doobie Brothers, The Knack, The Police, Throwback Thursday, Village People, XTC
On March 28, 1958, 19-year-old Eddie Cochran recorded a song he co-wrote with his manager, Jerry Capeheart, called “Summertime Blues.” It was intended to be the b-side of a single whose a-side, “Love Again,” was written by 17-year-old Sharon Steely, who soon became Cochran’s girlfriend. Liberty Records released the 45 with “Summertime Blues” as the a-side. Five months after he recorded it, Cochran had his first U.S. top ten single. In the fall of 1958, the record became a hit in England.
Besides singing and co-writing the song, Cochran produced it. His talents didn’t stop there. He could play piano, drums, bass and guitar, the latter of which he played on records by two dozen other acts.
Cochran’s popularity overseas led to a hugely successful tour of England in the spring of 1960, culminating on April 16 with a performance at the Hippodrome Theater in Bristol. On his way to the airport after the show, Cochran got into a cab with Steely, who was now his fiancée, his tour manager, Patrick Thompkins, and fellow performer Gene Vincent. The taxi driver was speeding on a dark and winding street. The car blew a tire and the driver lost control of the vehicle, crashing it into a lamppost. Cochran put himself over his fiancée to protect her and ended up being thrown from the car. Suffering a severe head injury, he was brought to the hospital. The following afternoon he was pronounced dead. He was just 21 years old.
Eddie Cochran’s time with us was far too short, but his legacy lives on. “Summertime Blues” is an undeniable rock and roll classic, covered by many artists of different genres, including The Who, Alan Jackson, Blue Cheer, The Beach Boys, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Olivia Newton-John. Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” was later recorded by Sex Pistols, and his “Twenty Flight Rock” was played by a teenage Paul McCartney at his audition for a teenage John Lennon to let McCartney join Lennon’s band, The Quarreymen.
Today is Throwback Thursday, and Tunes du Jour revisits some of the hits of 1958, kicking off with Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues.”
Tagged as Alan Jackson, Blue Cheer, Bobby Day, Bobby Freeman, Buddy Holly, Champs, Chuck Berry, Connie Francis, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, John Lennon, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Olivia Newton-John, Paul McCartney, Peggy Lee, Royal Teens, Sex Pistols, The Beach Boys, The Big Bopper, The Chipmunks, The Chordettes, The Coasters, The Everly Brothers, The Monotones, The Rays, The Who, Throwback Thursday
It’s Ini Kamoze’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!
I’m reading NLP: The Essential Guide to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, subtitled Creating the Person You Want to Be, by Tom Hoobyar and Tom Dotz with Susan Sanders. The book teaches one how to think, as opposed to what to think.
Of the many exercises in the book is one the authors call “Creating a Well-Formed Outcome.” You list things you want and answer six questions related to each want. Within those six questions is an exploration of “meta-outcomes.” To explore the meta-outcomes, one must keep asking what will happen if I achieve this goal.
For example, one of my goals is to have a leaner physique. Using this exercise, I say “When I am leaner, I’m more confident. When I am more confident, more guys will be attracted to me. If more guys are attracted to me, I’ll date more often. If I date more often, I’ll end up with a boyfriend. If I have a boyfriend, I’ll have someone with whom to watch movies, dance, and share other activities I enjoy. If I do more activities I enjoy, I’ll be “in the flow” more often. If I am in the flow more often, my happiness will increase.
Another goal I have is to work with more clients. If I work with more clients, I’ll make more money. If I have more money, I can partake more often in the activities I enjoy. If I partake more often in the activities I enjoy, I’ll be in the flow more often. If I am in the flow more often, my happiness will increase.
Now you try it. What is a goal you have? Keep asking yourself what will happen if you achieve each part. If you don’t end with me being happier, you’re doing it wrong. Start over!
Something that makes me happy is dancing. Friday is dance day at Tunes du Jour. Today happens to be the birthday of John Lennon. As he never hit the Billboard dance charts, we’ll kick off this week’s party with someone else whose birthday is today, Ini Kamoze. More accurately, today is the 58th birthday of Cecil Campbell, who later changed his name to Ini Kamoze. Here are twenty songs you can hotstep to.
Tagged as Cerrone, Change, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Eddy Grant, Evelyn "Champagne" King, First Choice, Ini Kamoze, Instant Funk, It's Friday and I Need To Dance!, John Lennon, Loleatta Holloway, Madness, Major Lazer, Malcolm McLaren, Musical Youth, Musique, Nina Sky, People's Choice, Peter Brown, Ricky Blaze, S.O.S. Band, Taana Gardner, Teena Marie, Third World
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Bizarre News
Girlfriend: 'Miami Zombie' may have had voodoo spell that made him chew off a man's face
By Nadege Green, Miami Herald
Published May 31 2012
Updated May 31 2012
On the Saturday morning before he would make headlines for chewing off a man's face — before he would come to be known tragically as the "Miami Zombie" — Rudy Eugene held his Bible and kissed his girlfriend goodbye.
Eugene's on-again, off-again girlfriend said he woke her up at 5:30 a.m. to say he was going to meet with a "homeboy." She said she found it strange he was rummaging the closet so early in morning. He didn't name the friend or say where he was going.
He planted a kiss on her lips and said, "I love you."
Shortly after, he left the central Broward apartment he shared with her.
"I told him be safe and I love you too. When he walked out the door I closed it, locked it and went back to sleep," said the girlfriend, who spoke to the Miami Herald on Wednesday but asked that her name not be disclosed. She said that she thought it unusual that he was leaving the house so early, but didn't press him on it.
An hour after he left, Eugene called her cellphone. "He called me and told me his car broke down. He said, 'I'll be home, but I'm going to be a little late.' Then he said, 'I'm going to call you right back.' " That was the last time Eugene's girlfriend heard from him.
Around noon Saturday, she said she felt uneasy. She got into her car to search for Eugene, thinking he might still be stranded somewhere. She drove through North Miami and Miami Gardens, familiar neighborhoods Eugene frequented to visit with friends and family.
"I was worried. I couldn't do anything. I just kept calling the phone," she said. "I left messages saying, 'Rudy, call me, I'm really worried.' "
She said Eugene never told her where he was going that morning, and she was surprised to hear reports that he'd been in South Beach in the hours before he attacked a homeless man, Ronald Poppo.
As a matter of fact, she said, the previous day he told her he didn't want to go to South Beach because of the heavy police presence for Urban Beach Week. Eugene, who had been arrested in the past for possession of marijuana, told her he didn't want to get arrested.
By Saturday evening she still had not heard from the man she calls "my baby, my heart." She turned on the TV to watch the late-night news and heard an unreal story: A nude man near the Miami Herald building pounced on a homeless man, chewing off his face. The man with pieces of flesh hanging from his teeth was shot dead by police.
"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, that's crazy,' she said. "I didn't know that it was Rudy."
All day Sunday she placed phone calls to friends asking if they'd seen Eugene and again she searched North Dade streets for her boyfriend.
At 11 a.m. Monday she got the call from a member of Eugene's family.
The caller shouted terrible news into the phone: "Rudy's dead, Rudy's dead."
"I immediately started to scream,'' she said. "I don't know when I hung up the phone, I was hysterical."
But it was not until the afternoon, when she left her home to grieve with the rest of Eugene's family in North Miami Beach, that she heard even worse news: The man everyone was calling the Miami Zombie was her boyfriend.
Her reaction: Utter disbelief. "That's not Rudy, that's not Rudy," she remembered saying aloud in shock.
"I'll never be the same," she said.
The man being depicted by the media as a "face eater" or a "monster" is not the man she knew, she said. He smoked marijuana often, though had recently said he wanted to quit, but he didn't use stronger recreational drugs and even refused to take over-the-counter medication for simple ailments like headaches, she said. He was sweet and well-mannered, she said.
Eugene's girlfriend has her own theory on what happened that day. She believes Eugene was drugged unknowingly. The only other explanation, she said, was supernatural — that someone put a voodoo curse on him. The girlfriend, who unlike Eugene is not Haitian, said she has never believed in voodoo, until now.
"I don't know how else to explain this," she said.
She and Eugene met in 2007. While in traffic on a Miami street, Eugene pulled up next to her car and motioned for her to roll down her window.
She did. "I thought he was cute. I shouted out my number to him and he called me right then. We clicked immediately."
Their five-year relationship hit rocky points over the years, and they would separate for months at a time, then reunite again. She said their problems were mostly "communication issues."
She said Eugene worked at a car wash and wanted to own his own business someday.
During their time together, she said, Eugene would sit on the bed or on the couch in the evenings with her to read from his Bible. He carried it with him just about everywhere he went, she said, and often cited verses to friends and family.
"If someone was lost or didn't know God, he would tell them about him,'' she said. "He was a believer of God."
She cries often, she said. Eugene's clothes and shoes are still in her closet.
"Something happened out of the ordinary that day. I don't want him to be labeled the 'Miami Zombie,' " she said. "He was a person. I don't want him to go down like that."
He was never violent around her, she said.
But according to police records, Eugene became violent at least once in his past and was arrested on battery charges. In 2004, he threatened his mother and smashed furniture during a domestic dispute, according to records from the North Miami Beach Police Department.
The police report says Eugene "took a fighting stand, balled his hands into a fist" and threatened one of the officers who responded.
Police had to use a Taser to subdue him. "Thank God you're here, he would have killed me," Eugene's mother, Ruth Charles, told officers, the police report says. She told the officers that before they arrived, her son had told her, "I'll put a gun to your head and kill you."
On Wednesday, Charles said that despite the incident, she and her son had a warm relationship.
"I'm his first love … he's a nice kid … he was not a delinquent," she told Miami Herald news partner CBS-4 at her Miami Gardens home.
Charles told the station she was speaking up for the first time to defend her dead son.
"Everybody says that he was a zombie, but I know he's not a zombie; he's my son," she said.
She said the man who ate another human being's face was just not the son she knew.
"I don't know what they injected in him to turn him into the person who did what he did," she said, making the motion of someone putting a syringe into the crook of her arm.
A friend of Eugene's since they were teenagers told the Herald on Wednesday that Eugene had been troubled in recent years.
Joe Aurelus said Eugene told him he wanted to stop smoking pot, and that friends were texting Eugene Bible verses.
"I was just with him two weeks ago,"' he said. They were at a friend's house watching a movie and Eugene had a Bible in his hand.
"He was going through a lot with his family," Aurelus said, and jumping from job to job.
"Rudy was battling the devil."
Miami Herald staff writers Elinor J. Brecher and Scott Hiaasen contributed to this report.
Ginormica is about 6-years-old is an excellent swimmer.
Florida mother arrested after filming daughter licking tongue depressor
Asked why she recorded the video, the woman said, "I was just being silly with my kids."
Rattlesnake, uranium, whiskey found during traffic stop
Police said they don't know why the uranium was in the vehicle or how it was obtained.
9 deer at famed park in Japan die after eating plastic bags
The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation says nine of the 14 deer that have died since March had plastic in their stomachs.
Video: Fearless dog chases bear from neighbor’s yard
Riley’s owner, Alan Tlusty, says his dog always chases the bear whenever he sees him in the yard.
Watch: Could T-Rex race become the new Midsummer Classic?
More than two-dozen people in inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex costumes stumbled their way along a Washington race track. And it was fantastic.
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“Hardened policemen were nearly moved to tears as they conducted a preliminary examination of the ravaged body and carried it away in a little bundle.” It was a four month old baby-girl violated and murdered. The place of occurrence was Madhya Pradesh in 2018.
The little girl is one among the hundreds of thousands in the apparently never-ending series who are lost in the hands of the beasts among humans. Only a few fight back, but they are too few and the rest are buried underneath cruelty- indifference-even hatred of also humans who are variously placed in the corridors and rungs of power. These latter may be the police-military, the strong-arm criminals, socially powerful rich, even MLAs, ministers or their accomplices, or anybody in administration- even judiciary. And many times more are the hapless girls, mothers, even centenarian mother who are never reported suffer from life-long torment, if not murdered.
There may be thousand and one ways that make life hell for women of any age. It starts from the generally talked about rapes and gang-rapes that is sexual violence, acid attack, forced sex slavery, forced labour, dowry murders, domestic servitude, forced begging, forced drug peddling, forced prostitution, child pornography, female foeticide, female infanticide, humiliation and torture for girl child birth, torture for nil child birth, deaths from unsafe abortions, pressure for male child birth, least education for girls, honour killings, child bride, child marriage, greater exploitation of women workers. What more horror our daughters and mothers are to face? Is it a civilized society we live in?
A few palpable statistics are given below. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) states that in 2015, as many as 7,634 women died in the country due to dowry harassment. Either they were burnt alive or forced to commit suicide over dowry demand. For crimes against women overall, pending cases increased from 1,081,756 to 1,204,786. The horror of Kathua and Unnao rapes have once against brought into focus the safety of women in India, and especially that of children. Looking back at the latest data available, in 2016, India recorded 106 rapes a day and four out of every ten victims were minors. According to the NCRB, between 2014 and 2015 alone, the number of honour killings in India leapt by 798 per cent. States such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are leading in such extra-judicial killings. In a recent report it has been observed that in 2017 about 6, 00,000 infanticide have been perpetrated. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has acknowledged that illegal abortions still outnumber legal abortions. According to the Population Research Institute, at least 12,771,043 sex-selective abortions had taken place in India between 2000 and 2014. Human trafficking is on the rise and it is more “horrific” than ever, a United Nations agency found. In a new report on human trafficking, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the global trend has increased steadily since 2010 around the world. Women and girls are especially vulnerable, making up 70 per cent of detected victims worldwide. India, among a few countries can claim distinction in holding high rank in human trafficking in recent times. These are but a few statistics, the tip of a massive iceberg.
The point is why is it so? Why has there been such a spurt of atrocities against women particularly during the recent past. The data presented above speak of the trends between the years 2014 and 2016 or later. One cannot miss that during this period the country has been under the rule of the BJP led by the prime minister Narendra Modi. And one of the most favourite slogans of this government has been Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao (educate girls, save girls). And this is the condition how the girls are being saved. Not only that, in cases like Kathua and Unnao, among the accused, there were leaders- activists- associates of the BJP, even a BJP MLA. Coolly and calmly, they were not only not apprehended, even the party brought out procession in support of the accused to create pressure upon the administration that it does not take steps against them. BJP candidate Shobha Chauhan from Sojat seat in Pali district of Rajasthan openly promised voters that police will not interfere in child marriages if she wins. She was highly applauded by the assembled BJP workers. Is it then not a case of sheer hypocrisy?
But why is it that the BJP does not feel the least compunction at this exposure of the reality? Here it may not be irrelevant to bring back a piece of history. In the days of the renaissance, the democratic revolution, the bourgeoisie led for bringing the change in society issued the call for individual liberty and freedom, which also implied equality of man and woman. So call for women’s liberation from abject patriarchal domination of the feudal society was an important issue at that time. But the capitalist society that was established in the process remained still a society based on exploitation and discrimination, not only in economic fields, but also in social-cultural fields and every-where. So patriarchal domination or misogynist attitude towards women persisted in the society along with exploitation of both toiling men and women in the hands of the capitalists, the owners, the rich. To add fuel to fire, in our country the democratic revolution was left in a half-baked, truncated manner. With independence, a sovereign capitalist country was established politically. But in the cultural-social –ethical fields the task of democratization remained unfulfilled. The past legacies not only remained, they gradually raised their heads, as the Indian capitalism as an inalienable part of the most decadent world capitalism assumed a moribund reactionary shape with each passing day. The governments which take up the charge of governance of the country, merely act as the political manager set to keep this exploitative, discriminatory decadent capitalist rule running. The BJP, as the trusted representative of the Indian monopolists, have proven in all aspects of social-political-economic activities, that they are efficient subservient agents of the ruling capitalist class. Hence all their pro-people slogans and gestures are mere jumlas (rhetoric), as their president has himself admitted with respect to their electoral pledges. And this is the reason why on one side, they call out Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao, on the other side they do not hesitate to stage demonstration to hammer out that the accused in the gang-rape of a poor child, is really innocent. It is for the people to note and judge this hypocritical face of the BJP, which once claimed to be a value-based party and the task is to organize themselves to develop strong movements against it.
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GUJARAT ASSEMBLY ELECTION : SUCI(C) calls for ending 22 year long BJP rule of fear, hunger and corruption
The Great November Revolution : Even after hundred years a fiery inspiration to struggle for a society free from exploitation
Why noble scientific ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought can only show the path of emancipation
Bicentennial birth anniversary of Great Karl Marx
“Secularism in no way means that government will lend its support equally to all religious faith. But to the credit of the Congress and the pseudo-communists and socialists a peculiar conception of secularism has developed in our country which implies equal encouragement for all religious faith. Under such circumstances, what else can we expect except whipping up of religious fanaticism ?” ~SHIBDAS GHOSHSource: A Scientific Approach to Our Educational-Cultural Problems, p.6
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Tags: celebrity smiles braces orthodontic treatment
Mayim Bialik has spent a good part of her life in front of TV cameras: first as the child star of the hit comedy series Blossom, and more recently as Sheldon Cooper’s love interest — a nerdy neuroscientist — on The Big Bang Theory. (In between, she actually earned a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA…but that’s another story.) As a child, Bialik had a serious overbite — but with all her time on camera, braces were just not an option.
“I never had braces,” she recently told Dear Doctor – Dentistry & Oral Health magazine. “I was on TV at the time, and there weren’t a lot of creative solutions for kids who were on TV.” Instead, her orthodontist managed to straighten her teeth using retainers and headgear worn only at night.
Today, there are several virtually invisible options available to fix orthodontic issues — and you don’t have to be a child star to take advantage of them. In fact, both children and adults can benefit from these unobtrusive appliances.
Tooth colored braces are just like traditional metal braces, with one big difference: The brackets attached to teeth are made from a ceramic material that blends in with the natural color of teeth. All that’s visible is the thin archwire that runs horizontally across the teeth — and from a distance it’s hard to notice. Celebs like Tom Cruise and Faith Hill opted for this type of appliance.
Clear aligners are custom-made plastic trays that fit over the teeth. Each one, worn for about two weeks, moves the teeth just a bit; after several months, you’ll see a big change for the better in your smile. Best of all, clear aligners are virtually impossible to notice while you’re wearing them — which you’ll need to do for 22 hours each day. But you can remove them to eat, or for special occasions. Zac Efron and Katherine Heigl, among others, chose to wear clear aligners.
Lingual braces really are invisible. That’s because they go behind your teeth (on the tongue side), where they can’t be seen; otherwise they are similar to traditional metal braces. Lingual braces are placed on teeth differently, and wearing them often takes some getting used to at first. But those trade-offs are worth it for plenty of people. Which celebs wore lingual braces? Rumor has it that the list includes some top models, a well-known pop singer, and at least one British royal.
So what’s the best way to straighten your teeth and keep the orthodontic appliances unnoticeable? Just ask us! We’d be happy to help you choose the option that’s just right for you. You’ll get an individualized evaluation, a solution that fits your lifestyle — and a great-looking smile!
For more information about hard-to-see (or truly invisible) orthodontics, please contact our office or schedule a consultation. You can read more in the Dear Doctor magazine articles “Orthodontics for the Older Adult” and “Clear Aligners for Teenagers.”
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Court refuses to make Pande, Tandon accused in Gulbarg case for now
AHMEDABAD: A special trial court hearing the Gulbarg Society massacre case on Tuesday refused to entertain the application filed by the victim-witnesses demanding implication of four cops in the case, including former police commissioner P C Pande.
Designated judge, B J Dhandha refused to pass any order in connection with arraignment of Pande along with JCP M K Tandon, then DCP P B Gondia and first investigating officer ACP S S Chudasama on charges of dereliction of duty and destruction of evidence. The court did not pass any order on the ground that the Supreme Court was seized with the matter after the SIT's report. The SC has asked the amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran to look into the matter whether the evidence calls for making a case against Tandon and other officials.
Not finding it proper to take a call on the application by the trial court at this juncture, the designated judge observed, "It is against judicial discipline to pass any order by this court by relying upon the documentary evidence of phone calls of police officers and to discuss the matter about whether four police officers may be arraigned as accused or not..."
The victims had sought arraignment of these cops first at the stage of recording evidence, but the presiding officer then, B UJoshi kept his decision pending in this regard till the stage of final arguments. Final arguments began last year, but the proceeding could not be done after the judge was transferred. This application was heard finally by the new judge, who has again concluded that this is not the stage, where this decision can be taken. "At this stage, no order is passed in this application.
The victims may submit arguments about this application at the time of final argument," the order reads. During the hearing of this application, SIT expressed its view about the role of these four cops. "They have done their job considering the situation of the day, as per satisfaction of themselves. We cannot conclude and criticize the decision right or wrong on hypothetically surmises..." Sixty-nine persons were killed in Gulbarg Society on February 28, 2002, and 67 persons are being tried for the offence.
Posted by Law office of Satish Swami at 11:58 PM 0 comments
HC notice to govt over TET
HMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday issued notice to the state government asking them to explain why social science subject is not included in the teachers' eligibility test (TET), which is mandatory before recruitment of primary teachers and vidhya sahayaks. National Council for Teachers' Education (NCTE) last year made it mandatory for all aspiring primary teachers to clear an entrance test.
Accordingly, the state government came up with resolution for conducting the test. The TET is scheduled on June 12, and the last date for filling up the forms is June 2. On Tuesday, three aspirants approached the high court claiming that they could not submit online form, as social science subject is not available as an option. They are graduates in that subject.
Their inability to fill up the form would automatically result in their disqualification. Hence authorities should be directed to stall the examination and consider them as candidates by including social science as a subject, they requested. Justice J B Pardiwala has asked the authorities, including the director of primary education, secretary of state examination board and the state education department secretary, to file a reply by Thursday, when further proceeding is kept on this petition.
n addition, even BA/BEd with Urdu language as a subject was not in eligibility criteria for recruitment. Some of the aspirants approached the department on Monday and were assured of positive action by the officials.
Judge gets jail in graft case
AHMEDABAD: A judicial officer was awarded jail term of two years on Monday. A rural court on the Mirzapur campus found Premji Gohil guilty on charges of corruption and having disproportionate assets to his known sources of income.
Gohil, who was serving as judicial magistrate first class in a Pardi court in south Gujarat in 2002, was accused of corrupt practices by local lawyers. Upon receiving complaints, the Gujarat high court vigilance department initiated an inquiry against the magistrate.
During the inquiry, the judicial officer was found in possession of many properties which according to Gohil were given to him as gifts. He even showed various gift agreements to justify his possession over different properties. However, the department was not convinced with his documents and lodged a criminal complaint against him in 2005.
A trial then commenced before additional sessions judge V K Vyas against three persons. Gohil`s wife, Shobhna, and his brother-in-law, Pradeep Makwana are also facing abetment charges. Public prosecutor G H Majmudar argued that Gohil was a judicial officer and well versed with law, yet he chose to disobey law of the land and indulged in corrupt practices. He also argued that the gift agreements put forth by Gohil were forged documents.
After hearing examination of 31 witnesses and perusal of 42 documents, the court held Gohil guilty and sentenced him to two years` imprisonment. The court, however, acquitted the two others.
Posted by Law office of Satish Swami at 5:56 AM 0 comments
Govt. asks departments to set up RTI cells before July end
To streamline disposal of applications and bring in more transparency, the Central government has directed all ministries, departments and public sector units to set up an exclusive “RTI cell”.
It has decided to give a one time grant of up to Rs. 50,000 for developing necessary infrastructure and purchasing equipment like computers for speedy disposal of pleas under the Right to Information Act.
“Experience of past five years has shown that there is a need to expand the scope of the Central Point so as to deal with the RTI related issues effectively,” a circular issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.
“It is recommended that Ministries/Departments may set up RTI Cells to streamline the receipt and disposal of RTI applications...Ministries/Departments may also avail of a one-time grant of up to Rs. 50,000 for procuring a computer along with a printer and scanner facility for RTI Cells under the Centrally Sponsored Plan Scheme ‘improving transparency and accountability through effective Implementation of RTI’ being implemented by this department,” it said.
Government has set a deadline of July 31 for setting up of RTI cell.
Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
Supreme Court grants bail to Binayak’s associate Guha
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Piyush Guha, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment along with civil rights activist Binayak Sen in a sedition case.
The vacation bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad suspended the sentence of life imprisonment and directed Mr. Guha’s release on bail.
The bench also directed Mr. Guha to furnish a bail bond of Rs 2 lakh and two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each.
Mr. Guha, a Kolkata-based businessman, was convicted along with Mr. Sen and Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal for colluding with Maoists to establish a network to fight the state. They were awarded life imprisonment.
He then challenged his conviction in the Chhattisgarh High Court which refused to grant him bail in the case.
The apex court had on May 24 issued notice to the state government and had asked it to file its response by today.
Challenging the order of the Chhattisgarh High Court, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Mr. Guha, had pleaded with the court to grant bail saying he has already spent four years in jail.
He had also pointed out that the apex court recently granted bail to Mr. Sen.
The apex court had granted bail to 61-year-old Sen on April 15 while questioning his conviction and life sentence for sedition, saying he could be a sympathiser of Naxalites and nothing beyond that.
“No case of sedition is made out,” the apex court had said. “He may be a sympathiser (of Naxalites) but it did not make him guilty of sedition.
“The worst can be said that he was found in possession of general documents (relating to Naxal activities) but how can it be said that such possession would attract the charge of sedition? How can you level the charge of sedition?” the bench had asked.
The conviction and life imprisonment of Mr. Sen, along with Mr. Guha and Mr. Sanyal, had led to outrage in many quarters, including international human rights bodies which had sought government’s permission to observe the court proceedings in the case.
Court notice to gutka-makers for using plastic pouches
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to gutka manufacturers on an application alleging that even after the ban order restraining them from using plastic material in package sachets they were flouting the law and were still using plastic pouches.
A vacation Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad issued notice on the application filed by advocate Abani Kumar Sahu, who alleged that almost all the companies — Pan Parag, RMD Gutka, Dilbag Gutka, Rajashree Gutka, Rajdarabar Gutka — were flouting the order. The Bench posted the matter for final hearing on July 6.
The application said: “Even long after the cut-off date of March 1, fixed by the Supreme Court, all the gutka and pan masala manufacturers are using plastic material in package sachets to sell such product to public. It is a deliberate and ingenious flouting of the law on their part.”
Deceptive concealment
Mr. Sahu said: “Many gutka and pan masala companies continue to use regular plastic material within the outward paper packaging material to deceptively conceal the usage of such plastic material and convey a misleading picture of superficial and seemingly visible external compliance with the Supreme Court's order.”
He said that such violations could not have occurred without the active collusion or tacit connivance of the officials of the enforcement machinery of the government. He sought a direction to restrain these companies from using plastic material in their packaging sachets.
Dowry case: SC rejects bail plea of Chiranjeevi's son-in-law
The Supreme Court today dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of G R Sirish Bharadwaj, estranged younger son-in-law of Praja Rajyam president and Telegu mega star Chiranjeevi, facing a dowry harassment case.
A vacation Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and Chandramauli Prasad, rejecting the plea of Sirish's counsel that bail be granted as the two families were seeking an amicable settlement, asked the accused to surrender before the court concerned in Hyderabad.
Srija, youngest daughter of Chirajneevi, married Shirish in 2007 amidst high drama against the wishes of her family, so much so that the couple rushed to the Delhi High Court and obtained police protection. The couple also held a press conference to denounce Chiranjeevi's alleged attempt to break the marriage.
However, four years down the line, the marriage turned out to be a disaster with Srija filing a complaint of dowry harassment against Shirish and his mother.
Rights activist's detention criticised
The detention of human rights activist Gautam Navlakha at the Srinagar International airport on Saturday has been criticised even as the Jammu and Kashmir government says his entry will pose a “danger” to peace and tranquillity.
Mr. Navlakha, who has been visiting Kashmir regularly to highlight alleged human rights abuses, was to have attended a book release function on that day. He was served with an order by the Budgam district Magistrate stating that his entry had been banned under Section 144.
Since there was no flight back to Delhi in the evening he spent the night at the Humhama police station. He was sent back on Sunday.
Angana Chatterji, U.S.-based convener of the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK), criticised the detention of Mr. Navlakha, a member of IPTK, and said such acts targeted and obstructed the work of the Tribunal.
Senior lawyer Zaffar Shah said the government's action was unlawful and unjustified.
District Magistrate (Budgam) Mohammad Rafi defended the decision saying such an action could be taken under Section 144. “It is not only about assembly of four or more people,” he told The Hindu.
Karim Morani put in Tihar jail
He has used every possible legal subterfuge to delay the ultimate"
Karim Morani, Bollywood film producer and an accused in the 2G spectrum scam case, was on Monday arrested and lodged in the Tihar Central Jail after the special court here rejected his bail plea noting that he had used every possible “legal subterfuge to delay the ultimate.”
He becomes the 14th person to be remanded in judicial custody in Tihar Jail in the case — a high-profile list that boasts two Tamil Nadu politicians, three real estate tycoons and two bureaucrats besides six top business executives of various companies, including Reliance ADA Group, Kalaignar TV and DB Realty.
The court had last Monday dismissed his anticipatory bail plea and ordered him to appear the next day or face “coercive process.” On appearing, he moved a plea seeking that a bail bond be accepted under Section 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code to avoid being taken into custody.
Morani, the promoter of Cineyug Films, was chargesheeted on April 25 for his alleged role in transferring Rs.200 crore from Dynamix Realty to Kalaignar TV and issued summons to appear before the court on May 6. But he took recourse to medical grounds to refrain from presenting himself in court until last Tuesday. The CBI had alleged that he received a consideration of Rs.6 crore for participating in the transaction.
Taking note of his delaying tactics, Special Judge O.P. Saini said: “I may reluctantly add that the applicant/accused has used every possible legal subterfuge to delay the ultimate as he has filed seven applications within a span of less than one month.”
“An accused is entitled to avail himself of all legal remedies which may be available to him in law and there can be no objection to this, but the sheer number of applications filed by him, in my humble view, reflects adversely on his conduct indicating that he is interested in deliberately delaying the disposal of the matter by seeking date after date, on one pretext or the other,” Mr. Saini said.
Mr. Saini concluded his 67-page order with a gentle reprimand: “I sincerely hope, considering the nature of the case, he would improve in future and would cooperate in early disposal of the case.”
Allahabad HC scraps land acquisition in Greater Noida
In yet another setback to Mayawati Government in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on Monday quashed acquisition of 170 hectares of land at Gulistan village in Greater Noida for industrial development.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Kashi Nath Pandey on a petition filed by landowners and farmers challenging the government notification for land acquisition issued on September 5, 2007 under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act depriving the aggrieved persons of filing their objections on the ground that the matter was urgent.
The declaration of the acquisition was made on February 27, 2008, about more than five months.
The court rejected the contention that there was any urgency and said the landowners have to be given an opportunity for hearing by filing their objections.
This was the third time that the HC has set aside land acquisition in Greater Noida where the farmers are up in arms against UP government's land acquisition demanding adequate compensation for their land and had clashed with police earlier this month.
On May 12 and May 15, the HC had quashed acquisition of more than 170 hectares in Gautam Budh Nagar district.
UK Council Takes Twitter To Court In California
In a US court, South Tyneside Council has succeeded in forcing Twitter to name a bothersome tweeter
South Tyneside Council has successfully taken Twitter to court in California to force it to reveal the identity of a troublesome user.
The council decided to take action to reveal the identity of a tweeter, aliased Mr Monkey, who has been posting contentious messages. This is a different spin on the methods chosen by the legal team using English law to try to persuade Twitter to name users who transgressed the super injunction ruling awarded to footballer Ryan Giggs.
Twitter Is Subject To California Law
Whether Twitter, as a US-based company, will accede to rulings taken by foreign courts is yet to be seen. However, it appears that South Tyneside’s direct method of using a Californian court has succeed in persuading Twitter to deny the user a right to anonymity.
The council claims it already has been given the identity of the allegedly libellous user but Twitter is keeping tight-lipped about the issue. The messaging company usually resists revealing information about users even though its privacy policy says it will “comply with a law, regulation or legal request”.
The case surrounds councillor Ahmed Khan who is suspected of authoring unfounded allegations against council leaders. He denies the allegation but said he was told by Twitter his account details would be disclosed if a subpoena was granted by a Californian court. He claimed that the move “not only breaches my human rights, but it potentially breaches the human rights of anyone who has ever sent me a message on Twitter”.
The cost to the council of the action has not been disclosed but is believed to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. This could give rise to complaints from local tax payers because the council cannot sue for libel. Any councillors affected would have to take private proceedings at their own cost.
A spokesman for the local authority explained, “The council has a duty of care to protect its employees and as this blog contains damaging claims about council officers, legal action is being taken to identify those responsible.”
Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea against Bhatta Parsaul violence
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking a CBI enquiry into the alleged excesses and violence unleashed by the Uttar Pradesh government on farmers protesting against “forcible” acquisition of land at Bhatta Parsaul.
A Bench of Justices G. S. Singhvi and C. K. Prasad asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court since it had already taken cognisance and was dealing with the issue.
Senior counsel U. U. Lalit, appearing for the petitioner farmers, tried to argue that the matter needs consideration by the apex court as it involved the life and livelihood of thousands of farmers who have been rendered homeless and were facing constant threat to their lives.
The counsel alleged that the matter needs to be probed by the CBI as it was the official machinery including the local police which had allegedly let loose a reign of terror after forcibly acquiring the land under section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act.
Under the said section, the government can dispense with the mandatory proceeding prescribed under other sections of the Act if there was any urgency.
Mr. Lalit argued that there was no urgency and the State government officials had indulged in large scale violence against agitating farmers. He also cited purported statements of eyewitnesses of the police cremating bodies.
However, the arguments failed to convince the Bench which asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court for appropriate remedy.
The Bench also pointed that it would not be proper for the apex court to entertain the petition since various human rights organisations like National Commission for Women and National Commission for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes were also investigating the alleged excesses.
Court issues NBW against actor Sanjay Dutt
A local court here today issued non-bailable warrant against actor Sanjay Dutt for not appearing before it in connection with a violation of model code of conduct case lodged during last Lok Sabha elections.
Judicial Magistrate Krishna Kumar issued the warrant against Dutt after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated summons and a bailable warrant, prosecution officials said here.
A case was lodged against Dutt, who was then national general secretary of Samajwadi Party, in April 2009 for making some controversial remarks while campaigning in favour of the party candidate Arshad Jamal.
Despite repeated summons when the actor did not appeared before the court a bailable warrant was issued on March 26 this year, they said.
The court also issued summon against SP candidate and co-accused in the case Jamal and directed Superintendent of Police and DIG of Azamgarh to serve the same through city inspector.
The court said if report on serving summon was not submitted on the next date of hearing on July 8 action would be taken against the inspector.
CIC to CBI: why have Ambani brothers not been chargesheeted?
In 2006 case relating to alleged masking of international calls as local calls
The Central Information Commission has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to state why it has not chargesheeted the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, in a 2006 case relating to the alleged masking of international calls as local calls.
In July 2010, the CBI chargesheeted Manoj Modi, a top executive of the Mukesh Ambani group, and five others in the call re-routing case. The CBI began investigating the case in 2006 — a year after the Ambani brothers reached a settlement under which Reliance Infocomm went to Mr. Anil Ambani. However, Mr. Modi was drawn into the dragnet because the alleged re-routing happened when the company was under the elder brother. Mr. Modi in fact oversaw the setting up of Reliance Infocomm.
In response to a Right to Information application seeking to know why the CBI had excluded the Ambani brothers from the charge sheet, the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the CBI said the reasons were available on record but could not be disclosed because the information was prohibited under Section 8(1) (h) of the RTI Act.
The CBI argued before the Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi that disclosing the information would impede the process of investigation; indeed that knowing why the Ambani brothers were not being prosecuted would help other accused persons to submit that they too should not be prosecuted. Mr. Gandhi, however, was unimpressed: “The Commission is unable to understand how lack of evidence against a person can be used by another person against whom evidence has in fact been found, leading to filing of charge sheet against the latter.”
Mr. Gandhi ruled that the CBI could not get away by simply invoking exemption but had to clearly establish that disclosure of information would impede prosecution. Quoting a Delhi High Court judgment, he said access to information under Section of the RTI Act was the rule and exemptions under Section 8 the exception: “A rights-based enactment is akin to a welfare measure. [It] should receive a liberal interpretation.”
Further, “The PIO has failed to produce or place reliance on any cogent evidence or material before the Commission on the basis of which she can establish that disclosure of information would impede the prosecution of offenders.”
C.B.I v. KESHUB MAHINDRA [2011] INSC 493 (11 May 2011)
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CURATIVE PETITION (CRL.) NOS. 39-42 OF 2010 IN CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS. 1672-1675 OF 1996
C.B.I. & Ors. ... Petitioner(s)
Keshub Mahindra etc. etc. ...Respondent(s)
O R D E R
S.H. KAPADIA, CJI
1. These curative petitions are filed by Central Bureau of Investigation for recalling the judgment and order dated 13.9.1996 of this Court in Keshub Mahindra vs. State of M.P. (Criminal Appeal Nos. 1672-1675 of 1996 decided on 2 13.9.1996 reported in 1996 (6) SCC 129), on the following premises :
(i) When this Court, by the said judgment dated 13.9.1996 quashed the charges framed against accused Nos. 2 to 5, 7 to 9 and 12 under Sections 304 (Part II), 324, 326 and 429 IPC and directed the trial court to frame charges under Section 304A IPC, this Court had before it adequate material to make out prima facie, an offence chargeable under Section 304 (Part II) IPC. Therefore, this Court committed a serious error in ignoring such material and quashing the charge under Section 304 (Part II) IPC.
(ii) The evidence placed in support of the charge under Section 304A IPC during the trial of the said accused before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal showed prima facie that the said accused had committed offences punishable under Section 304 (Part II) IPC. But for the said judgment of this Court dated 13.9.1996, the learned Magistrate would have, by taking note of the said 3 material, committed the case to the Court of Sessions under Section 323 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short `the Code'). However, in view of categorical finding recorded by this Court, in its binding judgment dated 13.9.1996 that there was no material for a charge under Section 304 (Part II) IPC and consequential quashing of the said charge, with a direction to frame the charge under Section 304A IPC, the learned Magistrate was barred from exercising his judicial power under Section 323 of the Code, even though the Code vested the jurisdiction in him to alter the charge or commit the case to the Court of Sessions as the case may be, on the basis of evidence that came on record during the trial.
(iii) The judgment dated 13.9.1996 therefore resulted in perpetuation of irremediable injustice necessitating filing of the curative petitions seeking recall of the judgment dated 13.9.1996.
2. On the night of December 02, 1984 there was a massive escape of lethal gas from the MIC storage tank at Bhopal plant of the Union Carbide (I) Ltd. (UCIL) into the atmosphere causing the death of 5,295 people leaving 5,68,292 people suffering from different kinds of injuries ranging from permanent total disablement to less serious injuries. On the day following the incident, the SHO, Hanuman Ganj Police Station, suo moto, registered a Crime Case No. 1104 of 1984 under Section 304A IPC. On December 06, 1984 investigation was handed over to the CBI, which investigation stood completed, resulting in filing of charge sheets by the CBI in the Court of C.J.M., Bhopal on December 01, 1987. Since the charge sheets inter alia alleged commission of offence under Sections 304, 324, 326, 429 read with Section 35 of IPC, the case was committed by the C.J.M. to the Sessions Court as Sessions Case No. 237 of 1992 (See : Order dated 30th April, 1992). On 8th April, 1993, the 9th Additional Sessions Judge, Bhopal passed an order framing charges against the accused Nos. 5 to 9 under Sections 304 (Part II), 324, 326 and 429 of 5 IPC and against accused Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 12 under the very same Sections but with the aid of Section 35 of IPC. It may be mentioned that at the time of framing of charge, the Court had before it, accused Nos. 2 to 9 and accused No. 12 (UCIL) whereas accused No. 1 (Warren Anderson) was absconding and the Court was also unable to bring before it the other two companies, UCC and Union Carbide Eastern Inc., accused Nos. 10 and 11.
3. The accused after having unsuccessfully challenged the order framing charge by the Court of Sessions before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, brought the matter to this Court in four separate appeals in which the leading case was Appeal (Cri.) No. 1672 of 1996 filed at the instance of accused No. 2 which stood ultimately disposed of by the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court dated September 13, 1996 in the case of Keshub Mahindra (supra). This Court held that on the material produced by the prosecution before the Trial Court at the stage of framing of charges, no charges could have been framed against the accused under Section 304 (Part 6 II) or under Sections 324, 326, 429 with or without the aid of Section 35 IPC and it accordingly quashed the charges framed by the Sessions Court and directed that on the material led by the prosecution the charge under Section 304A IPC could be made out against accused Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and under the same sections with the aid of Section 35 against accused Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 12. Applications seeking leave to file a review petition being Criminal Misc. Petition Nos. 1713-16 of 1997 in a proposed review petition stood dismissed on March 10, 1997. These applications were filed jointly by Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti (BGPSSS), Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan (BGPMUS) and Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA). The CBI/State of M.P. did not question the said 1996 judgment or filed any review petition under Article 137 of the Constitution and instead proceeded for the next 14 years to prosecute the accused under Sections 304A, 336, 337, 338 read with Section 35 IPC. It is only on 26th April, 2010, after the defence evidence stood concluded and after conclusion of the oral 7 arguments by the Senior Public Prosecutor, that, a petition was filed jointly by BGPSSS and BGPMUS under Section 216 Cr.P.C. for enhancement of the charge to Section 304 (Part II) IPC. This application was not supported by CBI. The said application was rejected by the C.J.M. on the same day. However, this order of the C.J.M. was also never challenged under Section 397/399 or under Section 482 Cr.P.C. Ultimately on June 7, 2010 Criminal Case No. 1104 of 1984 stood disposed of by the C.J.M. vide his judgment convicting accused Nos. 2 to 5, 7 to 9 and 12 under Sections 304A, 336, 337, 338 read with Section 35 IPC and sentencing them to two years' imprisonment. On June 29, 2010 Criminal Appeal No. 369 of 2010 was filed by State of M.P. before the Court of Sessions with a prayer for enhancement of sentences under the existing charges. On the same day the State of M.P. also filed Criminal Revision Application No. 330 of 2010 before the Court of Sessions under Section 397 Cr.P.C., challenging the alleged failure of the C.J.M. to enhance the charges to Section 304 (Part II) in exercise of his jurisdiction under Section 216 Cr.P.C., and 8 to commit the trial of the case to Sessions under Section 323 Cr.P.C. and inter alia praying for a direction to enhance charges and commit. On July 29, 2010 Criminal Appeal No. 487 of 2010 was filed by the CBI before the Court of Sessions for enhancement of sentences under the existing charges. On 23rd August, 2010, CBI filed the criminal revision only after the present curative petitions were filed before this Court on August 2, 2010. All the appeals and revisions remain pending before the Court of Sessions.
4. It is clear to us that in the criminal revisions filed by the CBI and the State of M.P. the legal position is correctly stated. But the curative petitions are based on a plea that is wrong and fallacious. As noted above, one of the main planks of the curative petitions is that even though in course of trial before the Magistrate, additional evidences have come on record that fully warrant the framing of the higher charge (s) and the trial of the accused on those higher charges, as long as the 1996 judgment stands the Sessions Court would feel helpless in framing any higher charges against the accused in the same way as the trial 9 court observed that in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court no court had the power to try the accused for an offence higher than the one under Section 304A of IPC. The assumption is wrong and without any basis. It stems from a complete misapprehension in regard to the binding nature of the 1996 judgment. No decision by any court, this Court not excluded, can be read in a manner as to nullify the express provisions of an Act or the Code and the 1996 judgment never intended to do so. In the 1996 judgment, this Court was at pains to make it absolutely clear that its findings were based on materials gathered in investigation and brought before the Court till that stage. At every place in the judgment where the Court records the finding or makes an observation in regard to the appropriate charge against the accused, it qualifies the finding or the observation by saying "on the materials produced by the prosecution for framing charge". "At this stage", is a kind of a constant refrain in that judgment. The 1996 judgment was rendered at the stage of sections 209/228/240 of the Code and we are completely unable to see how the judgment can be read to say that it removed from the Code sections 323, 216, 386, 397, 10 399, 401 etc. or denuded a competent court of the powers under those provisions. In our view, on the basis of the material on record, it is wrong to assume that the 1996 judgment is a fetter against the proper exercise of powers by a court of competent jurisdiction under the relevant provisions of the Code. If according to the curative petitioner, the learned Magistrate failed to appreciate the correct legal position and misread the decision dated 13.9.1996 as tying his hands from exercising the power under Section 323 or under Section 216 of the Code, it can certainly be corrected by the appellate/revisional court. In fact, the revision petitions though belatedly filed by the State of M.P. and the CBI (which are still pending) have asserted this position in the grounds of revision. Moreover, no ground falling within the parameters of Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra 2002 (4) SCC 388 is made out in the curative petitions. Also, no satisfactory explanation is given to file such curative petitions after about 14 years from 1996 judgment of the Supreme Court. The curative petitions are therefore dismissed.
5. Nothing stated above shall be construed as expression of any view or opinion on the merits of the matters pending before the learned Sessions Judge, Bhopal.
.................................CJI
(S. H. Kapadia) ...................................J.
(Altamas Kabir) ...................................J.
(R.V. Raveendran) ...................................J.
(B. Sudershan Reddy) ...................................J.
Posted by Law office of Satish Swami at 10:50 AM 0 comments
APM TERMINALS B.V. v. UNION OF INDIA & ANR. [2011] INSC 492 (11 May 2011)
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NO.4270 OF 2011 (Arising out of S.L.P.(C)No.13893 of 2010)
APM TERMINALS B.V. ... APPELLANT WITH T.C.(CIVIL) NOS.36-37 OF 2010
V/s
UNION OF INDIA
ALTAMAS KABIR, J.
1. Leave granted in SLP(C)No.13893 of 2010, which is being heard along with Transferred Case (Civil) 2 Nos.36-37 of 2010. While the appeal has been filed by APM Terminals B.V. against the decision of the High Court, dismissing its writ petition, challenging the decision of the Board of Trustees for the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to exclude the appellant from participating in the tender process for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal at the Bombay Port through public-private partnership, the transfer petitions have been filed by PSA Sical Terminals Ltd. for transfer of Writ Petition Nos.19851 and 19384 of 2010 pending before the Madras High Court, to this Court. As the questions involved in the writ petitions pending before the Madras High Court were the same as those raised in the appeal filed by APM Terminals B.V., we had directed the transfer petitions to be heard along with SLP(C)No.13893 of 2010, out of which the present appeal arises. 3
2. In the appeal, the appellant has challenged the validity and propriety of the decision taken by the Board of Trustees of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, hereinafter referred to as the "JNPT", to exclude the appellant from participating in the tender process for the Fourth Container Terminal under the JNPT, through public-private partnership, and praying for quashing of the said decision with leave to the appellant to participate in the tender process in accordance with the policy indicated in Circular No. PD-12013/2/2005-JNPT dated 26th September, 2007, issued by the Union of India. The further prayer of the appellant was to read the provisions of the said Circular into the Licence Agreement dated 10th August, 2004, executed between the appellant and JNPT, and, consequently, to release the appellant from the restrictions contained in Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement and/or to treat the same as not binding on the appellant. Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement 4 which was executed by the Board of Trustees, JNPT, in favour of the appellant, provides as follows :
"8.31 The Licensee acknowledges and agrees that it shall forego the right to bid for either directly or indirectly, including being a Management Contractor through any associate company, whether such company is registered in India or any other country, or any company in which the Licensee has a shareholding for the Additional Facilities or existing facilities during the term of this Agreement. The Licensee also agrees that in the event of it or its parent company taking over/acquiring/amalgamating/merging with the licensee or the parent company to whom the Additional Facilities are awarded it shall be obliged to divest its stake in one of the two licenses to a third entity not linked to the Licensee within 6 months from the date of such change in control failing which it shall be deemed to be a Licensee Event of Default. The Licensee also agrees that in the event of it or its parent company being taken over/acquired/amalgamated/merged by another licensee operating container facilities at JNPT it shall be obliged to divest the License to a third entity not linked to the Licensee within 6 months from the date of such change in control failing which it shall be deemed to be a Licensee Event of Default. The Licensee acknowledges, agrees and accepts the above as essence of this Agreement and the Licence granted to the Licensee." 5
3. Before the High Court, on behalf of the appellant Company, it was claimed that on account of subsequent resolutions adopted by the Board of Trustees of JNPT, which had the effect of altering the policy with regard to entrustment of operational facilities at the port to provide competition and to prevent monopolies, the provisions of Clause 8.31 would have to be reconsidered in the light of the changed circumstances. Before proceeding any further it will be worthwhile to briefly indicate the background in which the present lis has arisen.
4. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Bulk Terminal was commissioned on 26th May, 1989, and was designed to handle goods imported in bulk, such as fertilizers, fertilizer raw materials and food grains, with the help of mechanized bulk-handling facilities. With the passage of time, the Central Government found it difficult to maintain the Bulk Terminal and 6 decided to convert the Bulk Terminal into a Container Terminal and to remodel the same on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Basis on licence for a period of 30 years. Since 1996, it has been the policy of the Central Government to permit participation/investment by the private sector in utilizing the assets of the Port, construction and creation of additional assets, lease of equipment, pilotage, cargo handling, etc. In fact, guidelines had been issued from time to time by the Ministry of Surface Transport which was to be followed by the Major Ports for private sector participation. In pursuance of such policy, the Central Government introduced the process of privatization, subject however, to the regulatory role of the JNPT. Within the regulatory frame-work it was made clear that the Port authorities should ensure that private investment did not result in the creation of private monopolies and that private facilities were available to all users on equal and 7 competitive terms.
5. The appellant is a Company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands. Together with the Container Corporation of India Limited it formed a Joint Venture Company under the name and style of "Gateway Terminals India Pvt. Ltd." registered under the Companies Act, 1956. The said Joint Venture Company, hereinafter referred to as the "GTI", was the successful bidder in the Tender floated by JNPT for development of its existing Bulk Terminal into a Container Terminal. Thereafter, in keeping with the guidelines issued by the Central Government in 1996, which were described as mandatory, the JNPT floated a Tender for the development of a new 600 meter Quay Length Container Terminal at Navi Mumbai and Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, hereinafter referred to as the "NSICT", was the successful bidder in respect of the said Tender. The licence 8 granted to NSICT to operate the first Container Terminal at JNPT culminated in a Build, Operate and Transfer Licence Agreement dated 3rd July, 1997 between JNPT and NSICT which was to subsist for a period of 30 years from the date of the agreement. Clause 2.3 of the said Licence Agreement provides as follows :
"The License will not bar the Licensee from participating in any subsequent bids invited by the Licensor for operation of Container Terminal."
6. Accordingly, NSICT was given liberty to participate in any subsequent bid for operation of the Container Terminal.
7. In 2002, JNPT floated another Tender for the development of the Second Container Terminal at JNPT and invited Requests for Qualification (RFQ) for the construction thereof. In order to prevent monopoly and promote competition, the JNPT subsequently incorporated Clause 1.3 in the Tender 9 documents for the development of the Second Container Terminal, which reads as follows :
"Clause 1.3 : The port is desirous of entrusting the Project of redevelopment of the bulk terminal to a container terminal, on BOT basis, to another licensee other than the existing Private Terminal Operator (Licensee) at JNPT i.e. Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) Limited or their associates, P&O or the associates, interconnected or sister companies or either of them."
8. The net result was that NSICT was precluded from participating in the Tender for the development of the Second Container Terminal at JNPT, despite the express provisions of Clause 2.3 of the Licence Agreement.
9. The said decision of the JNPT was challenged by NSICT and its affiliate, P&O Australia Ports Pvt. Ltd., by way of Writ Petition No.3083 of 2002 in the Bombay High Court. During the hearing of the said writ petition, the Union of India and JNPT took the stand that the 1996 Policy and the 10 guidelines would prevail over Clause 2.3 of the Licence Agreement between the said Respondents and the NSICT. Upholding the decision of the Respondents to exclude P&O Australia Ports Pvt. Ltd. and NSICT from participating in the bid for the development of the Second Container Terminal, the Bombay High Court dismissed the writ petition by its order dated 28th January, 2003. The said decision of the Bombay High Court was challenged before this Court, which declined to interfere with the order of the Bombay High Court. However, the Petitioner's Joint Venture Company, GTI Pvt. Ltd., was permitted to bid in the Tender for the development of the Second Container Terminal at JNPT. On completion of the bidding process, the work of development of the Second Container Terminal was awarded to GTI for a term of 30 years from the date of the Licence Agreement which also contained Clause 8.31, extracted hereinabove. In fact, before the Bombay High Court, JNPT had taken 11 a stand that Clause 8.31 had been subsequently incorporated in the Licence Agreement in view of the guidelines promulgated in 1996, which were then in force.
10. In the meanwhile, on or about 26th September, 2007, a decision was taken by the Union of India to alter the 1996 policy and a Circular No.PD- 12013/2/2005-JNPT, was issued indicating that the JNPT should proceed to invite global competitive bidding for an independent "Stand Alone" Container Terminal to expand the Container towards North of JNPT by 330 meters, which was designated as the Third Container Terminal. It also clarified the eligibility of existing private container terminal operators at JNPT to compete and bid for any project. In the said Circular dated 26th September, 2007, it was, inter alia, indicated as follows :
"In the instant case while JNPT is in the process of undertaking the bidding for the development of the 330 metre extension of 12 container berth towards North of NSICT project as a stand alone project on BOT basis (330 metre extension project) there are two different private BOT operators operating container terminals in JN Port. As a rational and logical consequence of the stand taken earlier it has been decided that the successful bidder of the previous container terminal on BOT basis (Maersk A/S - CONCOR Consortium) and/or their subsidiaries/allied organizations should be excluded from bidding for the 330 metre extension project. This would mean that for the next BOT container terminal in JN Port in future, the successful bidder of the 330 metre extension project would be excluded and so on.
It has also been decided that the above convention shall be followed in all Ports in its true spirit with a view to avoid monopoly and promote competition till such time a formal Policy is finalized and notified."
11. As a result of the above, neither the appellant nor its affiliates and/or subsidiaries/allied organizations were permitted to participate in the bid for the Stand Alone Container Terminal. Thereafter, in the year 2000, the JNPT floated yet another Tender for development of the Third 13 Container Terminal at JNPT, inviting Requests for Qualification for selection of a developer for the development of the said terminal in which it was categorically mentioned as follows:
"JNPT is desirous of entrusting this project to a Licensee other than Maersk A/S-Concor Consortium and/or their subsidiaries/allied organizations including GTIPL."
12. The explanation given for the insertion of the said clause was to implement the Circular dated 26th September, 2007. GTI's plea to allow it to participate in the bid was rejected. The appellant was, therefore, subsequently barred from participating in the Tender process for the development of the Third Container Terminal at JNPT. NSICT was, however, allowed to participate in the said Tender process for the development of the Third Container Terminal at the JNPT UN, but such Tender has not yet been finalized.
13. In the meantime, on 2nd March, 2009, JNPT floated Tender No. PD/N-14th CT/C-60/2009 and issued a global invitation of a Request for Qualification for development of the Fourth Container Terminal at JNPT. The said Tender contained the following clause.
"The successful bidder/consortium members and/or their subsidiaries/allied organiza- tions in the project for the development of a Stand Alone Container Handling Facility with a key length of 330 meters towards North at JNPT was to be excluded from the bidding in respect of Fourth Container Terminal either as a single applicant or as a consortium."
14. On a plain understanding of the above mentioned clause, neither the appellant nor its associate companies/allied organizations and/or consortium of GTI was precluded from participating in the said Tender for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal and raising its bid therein. The appellant, thereupon, along with its letter dated 5th March, 2009, addressed to the JNPT, forwarded a 15 Demand Draft for Rs.10,000/- towards purchase of the RFQ document for participation in the bidding process for the Fourth Container Terminal. The appellant was provided with a copy of the RFQ documents, wherein, in Clause 2.2.1(e), it was categorically stipulated as follows :
"2.2.1(e) To avoid private monopoly and to promote competition, the successful bidder/consortium members and/or their subsidiaries/allied organization in th project for the "Development of a stand alone contasiner handling facility with a quay length of 330-m towards North at NJPT" shall be excluded from the bidding for DEVELOPMENT OF FOURTH CONTAINER TERMINAL either as a single applicant or as a consortium. Further, for the next BOT container terminal in JN Port in future, the successful bidder/consortium members in the DEVELOMENT OF FOURTH CONTAINER TERMINAL Project would be excluded and so on."
15. Even at this stage, JNPT did not preclude the appellant from participating in the said tender in respect of the Fourth Container Terminal at JNPT. The appellant was, thereafter, invited to 16 participate in the process for grant of licence for the Fourth Container Terminal. However, to the surprise of the appellant, on 29th June, 2009, the appellant was informed that GTI and/or its associates/allied organizations had been disqualified from bidding for the Fourth Container Terminal in view of Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement. As indicated hereinbefore, it was after such decision that the appellant, who was worried about the rights and entitlements arising out of the said Circular, filed Writ Petition No.1551 of 2008 before the Bombay High Court on 29th July, 2009. The said Writ Petition was listed before the Bombay High Court on 25th August, 2009, which dismissed the same on 10th March, 2010, relying solely on the provisions of Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement, which disqualified the appellant from participating in the Tender process relating to the Third Container Terminal. 17
16. It is the said order of the High Court which has been challenged in this appeal.
17. Appearing for the appellant, Mr. F.S. Nariman, Senior Advocate, submitted that JNPT had awarded NSICT, owned by P&O Ports, the licence for the development of the First Container Terminal at JNPT. Pursuant thereto, JNPT had entered into a Licence Agreement dated 3rd July, 1997, with NSICT, wherein Clause 2.3, which provided that the said licence would not bar the licensee from participating in any subsequent bids invited by the licensor for operation of the container terminal, was incorporated. Mr. Nariman submitted that despite the 1996 Policy, which aimed at preventing monopoly and promoting competition, the Licence Agreement dated 3rd July, 1997, permitted NSICT to participate in the subsequent bids invited by the JNPT for operation of the Container Terminal. 18
18. Mr. Nariman submitted that on 26th September, 2007, the Union of India issued Circular No. PD-12013/2/2005-JNPT to JNPT indicating that it should invite global competitive bidding for an independent, Stand Alone Container Terminal involving a 330 meter extension of container berth towards the North of JNPT. The said Circular clarified that existing private Container Terminal Operators in JNPT would also be entitled to bid for any project but the JNPT was required to ensure that private investment did not result in the creation of private monopoly and that private facilities were available to all users on equal and competitive terms. Paragraph 5 of the 2007 Policy clearly provided that the successful bidder of the previous Container Terminal on BOT basis and/or their subsidiaries/allied organizations, should be excluded from bidding for the 330 meter extension project. The immediate fall-out of the same would mean that for the next BOT Container Terminal in JN 19 Port in future, the successful bidder of the 330 meter extension project would be excluded and so on. What was also emphatically stated in paragraph 6 is that it had also been decided that the aforesaid guideline should be followed in all Ports in its true spirit with a view to avoiding monopoly and promoting competition, till such time a formal policy was finalized and notified. The 2007 Policy, therefore, provided that MAERSK S/T CONCOR Consortium and/or their subsidiary/allied organizations would be excluded from bidding for the Third Container Terminal and the successful bidder of the Third Container Terminal would be excluded from bidding for the next project and so on. Hence, a successful bidder would be ineligible to bid for the next but one subsequent tender after the immediate one awarded to it.
19. Mr. Nariman submitted that in accordance with the guidelines contained in the 2007 Policy, the 20 appellant was specifically barred from participating in the tender process for the development of the Third Container Terminal at JNPT. NSICT who was the successful bidder for the first container was allowed to participate in the tender process for the development of the Third Container Terminal at JNPT, though the said tender is yet to be finalised.
20. Certain problems arose when on 2nd March, 2009, JNPT floated Tender No. PPD/M-1/4TH CT/C-60/2009 and issued a global invitation for Request for Qualification for development of the Fourth Container Terminal at JNPT, which contained a clause to the effect that the successful bidder/consortium members and/or their subsidiaries/allied organizations in the project for the development of a "Stand Alone Container handling facility with a Quay length of 330 meter towards North at JNPT should be excluded from the 21 bidding for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal either as a single applicant or as a Consortium.
21. Mr. Nariman submitted that the Request for Qualification excludes only the successful bidder for the Third Container Terminal (which is yet to be awarded) from bidding at the tender for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal. Consequently, the appellant and/or its Associate Company/allied organizations and/or consortium of GTI were not precluded from participating in the tender for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal having been precluded from bidding for the "Stand Alone" Container Terminal, in accordance with the 2007 Policy. It was at this stage that JNPT wrote to the appellant on 29th June, 2009, indicating that it has been decided not to allow GTI Pvt. Ltd. and/or its 22 associates to participate in the bidding for the Fourth Container Terminal. Mr. Nariman further submitted that inspite of the decision in NSICT's case, wherein the Union of India had relied on the 1996 Policy, it subsequently changed its stand on the strength of the 2007 Policy indicating that having regard to Clause 8.31 of the Agreement the appellant was barred from bidding for the Fourth Container Terminal.
22. It was submitted that the stand of JNPT was clearly wrong, arbitrary and discriminatory. It was further submitted that the apprehension of the JNPT in regard to creation of monopoly was erroneous and unrealistic since monopoly means the power to determine one's own prices. In the case of Ports, the prices for various Port Services are determined by the Tariff Authority for the Major Ports (TAMP) and periodically operators are required to submit 23 their proposed prices to TAMP and cannot charge more than the TAMP approved prices for any of their services. It was urged that without the power to fix one's own price, the question of monopoly did not arise.
23. Mr. Nariman submitted that the problem has arisen on account of the fact that the tender for the Third Container Terminal is yet to be finalised, and, in the meantime the tender for the Fourth Container Terminal was floated. Consequently, the Fourth tender was treated by the concerned Respondents to be the tender for the Third Container Terminal which meant that the appellant Company stood disqualified from participating in the said tender also, since under the 2007 Policy it could only participate in the next but one subsequent tender after the one awarded to it, thereby suffering double prejudice on account of no fault on its part. Mr. Nariman 24 submitted that to debar the appellant Company from participating in both the Third as well as the Fourth Container Terminals was not justified and it should be allowed to participate in the Fourth tender in accordance with Clause 2.3 of its Licence Agreement. Furthermore, if the stand taken on behalf of the Respondent was to be accepted, despite the supersession of the 1996 Policy by the 2007 Policy, the appellant would also be barred from participating in future tenders for 30 years by virtue of Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement, which would only have the effect of reducing the extent of competition which is, in fact, the object of the 2007 Policy of the Union of India.
24. Mr. Nariman also contended that Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement had been imposed upon the appellant based on the principles of public policy and keeping in mind the then prevailing Policy of the Government of India, i.e., the 1996 Policy and 25 not out of the free will of the parties. In any event, Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement would have to be read with the 2007 Policy and could not be read in isolation.
25. Mr. Nariman urged that when the tender for the Second Container Terminal was floated by the Respondent No.2, it relied heavily on the 1996 Policy to prevent NSICT from bidding at the said tender. When NSICT challenged the said decision by filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, the Respondents successfully urged before the Court in the said Writ Petition that the 1996 Policy would prevail over Clause 2.3 of the NSICT contract. On the other hand, as stated hereinbefore, in Writ Petition No.1551 of 2009 filed by the appellant, the Respondents took a contrary stand by contending that Clause 8.31 of the Licence Agreement would prevail over the 2007 Policy. 26
26. Mr. Nariman lastly contended that by allowing the appellant to raise the technical bid and to participate in the pre-bid meeting for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal, the Respondents had given the appellant cause for legitimate expectation of being eligible to bid for and be awarded the contract. Mr. Nariman submitted that the Respondents had acted in a manner engineered to preclude the appellant from participating in the tender for the development of the Fourth Container Terminal at JNPT.
27. Appearing for the Petitioner, PSA Sical Terminals Ltd., in Transferred Case Nos.36-37 of 2010, learned Senior Counsel, Ms. Nalini Chidambaram urged that, although, there was a good deal of similarity in the issues raised in the Special Leave Petition filed by APM Terminals B.V. and the Transferred Cases filed by PSA Sical Terminals Ltd., the substantial question in the 27 Transferred cases was whether a contractual right could be superseded by a general policy decision under Section 111 of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, without any legislation. In other words, in the facts of this case, could the Petitioner with whom a Licence Agreement had been signed on 15th July, 1998, by the Respondent No.2, Tuticorin Port Trust, with the previous sanction of the Central Government under Section 42(3) of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, be prevented from participating in the tender for additional facilities in the Tuticorin Port, by virtue of a policy decision taken in the teeth of the provisions of the Licence Agreement which vested the Licensee with the right to participate in future tenders.
28. Ms. Chidambaram urged that after the policy of liberalization adopted by the Central Government, the Port Trusts permitted private operators to operate Container Terminals on a Build, Operate and 28 Transfer basis, through a process of tender. PSA Sical participated in the Tender invited by the Tuticorin Port Trust in 1997 for operating the Seventh Berth at Tuticorin, which was the First Container Terminal and was granted licence to operate the said Berth for 30 years. During the subsistence of the guidelines issued by the Government of India on 28th October, 1996, the Tuticorin Port Trust entered into a Licence Agreement with the Petitioner on 15th July, 1998, to operate the Seventh berth and specifically granting a right to the Petitioner to participate in any subsequent bids invited by the said Trust for operation of additional facilities in the same port under Clauses 2.3 and 6.2.3 of the Licence Agreement. For the sake of convenience, the said two clauses in the Licence Agreement are reproduced hereinbelow :
"2.3 License Period 29 The Licence Period shall be for the period of 30 years (including the time taken for the erection of container handling equipments at the Container Terminal) commencing from the Date of Award of License.
The license will not bar the licensee from participating in any subsequent bids invited by the licensor for development, designing, engineering, constructing, equipping, maintaining and operating any berth or related facility at the port".
"6.2.3 The Licensor agrees that it shall not commission additional berths for handling containers until the traffic potential does not appear to exceed 90% of the maximum volume 1, 25,000 TEUs. Provided however that the Licensor shall always consider future expansions of the container berths to reasonably match the market demands and allow the Licensee to participate in its operation without any discrimination. This condition shall be applicable only within the port limits of the Licensor as notified under Indian Ports Act, 1908 and Major Port Trusts Act, 1963."
29. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that it would, therefore, be evident from the above clauses that notwithstanding the 1996 guidelines, while 30 executing the Licence Agreement, the Tuticorin Port Trust consciously granted the Petitioner a specific right to bid in Tenders for future development in the same port and did not consider that the same would result in the creation of a private monopoly.
30. It was submitted that at about the same time, the issue relating to the disqualification of Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), which was operating the Container Terminal at the JNPT and its Associate or interconnected or sister companies, including P&O Ports, from participating in the bid for the re-development of the Bulk Terminal into a Container Terminal at JNPT was taken up for consideration by the Bombay High Court. In the said matter, the JNPT took the stand that since P&O Ports was controlling 48% of the Container traffic in India and was operating the existing private Container Terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Chennai, a policy 31 decision had been taken by the Port Trusts of the JNPT to debar an existing operator from bidding for the next Container Terminal with the object of avoiding concentration of control in one party and to increase competition and efficiency in the public interest. The said proposal was forwarded to the Central Government which approved the same vide its letter dated 11th November, 2002.
31. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that since P&O Ports and its associates were controlling 48% of the Container business in India, the Bombay High Court upheld the policy of the Central Government aimed at preventing monopolisation of the container business in India by a private party. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that the appeal filed by P&O Ports before this Court was also dismissed, with this Court upholding the comprehensive guidelines that were issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Surface Transport on 26th October, 1996. 32 Ms. Chidambaram, however, urged that the P&O Ports' case was decided on facts which were specific to P&O Ports and could not, therefore, be treated as a precedent for the Petitioner's case. However, the question as to whether a policy decision could supersede the contractual right was not considered by the Bombay High Court or by this Court.
32. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that on 31st May, 2005, the Tuticorin Port Trust invited Tenders for development of Berth No.8 into a Container Terminal and permitted the Petitioner to participate in the tender process. The tender process remained incomplete for over four years and in 2007 a draft policy was formulated to promote inter port and intra port competition in which it was stipulated as follows :- "Wherever the second terminal is to be set up at the same major port, or first terminal in an adjacent major port e.g. JN Port and Mumbai, Chennai and Ennore Ports, the existing terminal operator would be 33 excluded to ensure competition. If there are a minimum of two private operators in any major port, no restriction would be placed on the existing operators to bid for the subsequent terminal, subject to the condition that a single private operator will not be allowed to operate more than two terminals at the same Major Port including terminals at adjacent major port."
33. Further to the aforesaid approved policy, the Government of India wrote to the Tuticorin Port Trust that it had been decided to debar the existing operator, the Petitioner herein, who was operating the first Private Terminal, from the bidding process for the second Container Terminal at Tuticorin Port in line with the aforesaid policy decision. The Petitioner was, therefore, denied permission from further participation in the tender for the 8th Berth on account of the aforesaid policy, notwithstanding the specific provision in the Licence Agreement permitting the Petitioner to participate in subsequent Tenders. 34
34. The Petitioner challenged the aforesaid decision denying permission to the Petitioner from participating in the bid for the 8th Berth in Writ Petition No.9746 of 2009. The learned Single Judge dismissed the Writ Petition relying on the decision in the P&O Ports case. In the Writ Appeal No.996 of 2009 filed by the Petitioner against the decision of the learned Single Judge of the Madras High Court, it was submitted on behalf of the Union of India that the need for having a second Private Container Terminal had been reassessed and that it had been decided to scrap the project at the RFP stage itself. The Petitioner's writ appeal was, therefore, dismissed as infructuous.
35. Subsequently, the Union of India issued a new policy guideline under Section 111 of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, on 2nd August, 2010, and immediately thereafter on 4th August, 2010, the Tuticorin Port Trust floated re-tender for the 8th 35 Berth and restrained the Petitioner from participating therein in keeping with the new policy guidelines. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that the 2010 Policy provided that if there was one private Container/Berth Operator in a Port for a specific cargo, the Operator of that Berth or his Associates would not be allowed to bid for the next Terminal/Berth for handling the same cargo in the same Port. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that the Petitioner was informed of the said decision of the Tuticorin Port Trust by its letter dated 21st August, 2010.
36. Aggrieved by the aforesaid decision to debar the Petitioner from participating in the bidding process for the 8th Berth/Container Terminal, the Petitioner filed Writ Petition Nos.19384 of 2010 and 19851 of 2010, inter alia, for a direction upon the Respondents to permit the Petitioner to participate in the bid process for the development 36 of the 8th Berth at Tuticorin Port as a Container Terminal and for a further direction upon the authorities of the Tuticorin Port Trust to provide the Request for Qualification documents and to quash the decision not to provide the same.
37. In the background of the aforesaid facts, Ms. Chidambaram contended that a right given to a contractor could be nullified only by a legislation specifically indicating that the agreement stood nullified and not by a general policy decision. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that while the 1996 Policy categorically indicated that the Port should ensure that private investment did not result in the creation of private monopolies, in the Licence Agreement with the petitioner Clauses 2.3 and 6.2.3 were included giving the Petitioner a right to participate in the bid for additional Container Terminals in the same Port. 37
38. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that a draft Policy was prepared by the Central Government on 10th February, 2005, to promote inter port and intra port competition, but the said Policy was never notified and remained a draft. However, based on the draft Policy, the Tuticorin Port Trust invited tenders for the 8th Berth/Container Terminal at Tuticorin and allowed the Petitioner to participate in the tender process for about 3 years until it suddenly took a unilateral decision to debar the Petitioner from the bidding process on the strength of a communication received from the Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, dated 22nd May, 2009. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that in between the aforesaid decision by which the Petitioner was debarred from participating in the bidding for the 8th Berth/Container Terminal at Tuticorin, the Vizag Port on 5th June, 2008, took a decision to shortlist the existing BOT Operators while recording that the same should not be taken as a precedent. 38
39. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that it was unreasonable on the part of the Respondents to debar the Petitioner from participating in the 8th Berth/Container Terminal without formalising a formal policy with regard to the intention of promoting competition and avoiding monopoly. It was also urged that P&O Ports, which had earlier been debarred from participating in the bidding for the Second Container Terminal at the JNPT, was allowed to participate in the bid for the Third Container Terminal, although the P&O Ports and its Associates were controlling 48% of the Container Terminal business in India and by allowing it to participate in the Third Tender, the Central Government was, in fact, going back on its desire to eliminate monopoly by private Operators within the Indian Ports.
40. Ms. Chidambaram urged that it would be apparent from the changing policies adopted by the Central 39 Government that they were made to suit a particular situation and possibly a particular tenderer. It was submitted that even though the First Respondent was entitled to change its policies from time to time, such changes had to be informed by reason, which was absent in the instant case. Ms. Chidambaram added that the decision in the P&O Ports' case could not be taken to be a precedent as far as the Petitioner, PSA Sical Terminals Ltd., was concerned, since P&O Ports was not a party to the Licence Agreement at JNP and had no contractual right to bid for the Second Container Terminal there. Although, NSICT had such a right in view of Clause 2.3 of its Licence Agreement to bid for Container Terminal No.7, it did not assert its right and the same was not also considered in the judgment delivered by the High Court.
41. In support of her submissions, Ms. Chidambaram first referred to the decision of this Court in 40 State Electricity Board [(1986) 2 SCC 431], wherein the High Court had quashed the decision of the Rajasthan Electricity Board to charge uniform tariff despite the prevailing concessional rates granted to a consumer under an agreement, upon holding that only a legislative amendment could override a contractual right by specifically overriding the contractual terms. Ms. Chidambaram also referred to the decision of this Court in PTC Commission [(2010) 4 SCC 603], wherein, in the context of determination of tariff under the Electricity Act, 2003, this Court held that the making of a Regulation under Section 178 of the Act became necessary because a Regulation made under Section 178 had the effect of interfering with and overriding the existing contractual relationship between the regulated entities. This Court held that a Regulation under Section 178 is in the 41 nature of subordinate legislation which could even override the existing contracts, including Power Purchase Agreements, which had to be aligned with a Regulation under Section 178 and could not have been done only on the basis of an order of the Central Commission.
42. Ms. Chidambaram reiterated that while the Central Government was entitled to alter its policies regarding participation of candidates in the bid process for the Second Container Terminal at the Tuticorin Port, such alteration would have to be informed by reason and not on the whims of the authorities, which is so apparent in the facts of the present case. Accordingly, in the absence of a formal policy regarding the participation of candidates in the bid process for the Second Container Terminal of the Tuticorin Port Trust and, in particular, the Petitioner, which was covered by Clause 2.3 of the Licence Agreement, the Petitioner 42 could not have been barred from participating in the tender process for being awarded the contract for the Second Container Terminal at Tuticorin Port. Ms. Chidambaram submitted that the decision of the Tuticorin Port Trust Authorities to debar the Petitioner from participating in the tender process suffered from the view of Wadnesbury unreasonableness and was liable to be quashed.
43. The learned Solicitor General, Mr. Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Union of India in both the matters, submitted that the case of the appellant, APM Terminals B.V., and that of the Petitioner, PSA Sical Terminals Ltd., stand on a similar footing, despite Ms. Chidambaram's efforts to prove otherwise. The learned Solicitor General submitted that the same policy decisions taken by the Central Government in regard to private participation in the development and operation of Container Terminals in the Major Indian Ports 43 governed both the cases, though at different ports. The learned Solicitor General submitted that on 26th October, 1996, the Union of India issued guidelines for all Major Port Trusts regarding private sector participation in the major ports. In the preamble of the said guidelines it was indicated that in order to improve efficiency, productivity and quality of service, as well as to bring in competitiveness in port service, it had been decided to throw open the port sector to private sector participation. It was, however, made clear in Clause 4 of the policy statement that ports would have to ensure that private investment did not result in the creation of private monopolies and that private facilities were available to all users on equal and competitive terms.
44. Pursuant to the said policy decision, the JNPT decided to convert the Bulk Terminal which had been commissioned on 26th May, 1989, and had been 44 designed to handle imported fertilizers, fertilizer raw materials and food grains through mechanized bulk handling facilities, into a Container Terminal on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis on licence for a period of 30 years. Tenders were invited and, ultimately, NSICT proved successful and was granted such licence by the JNPT for the First Container Terminal. The learned Solicitor General submitted that at the said point of time, Clause 2.3 was included in the Licence Agreement which provided that the Licence Agreement to NSICT would not prevent it from participating in any subsequent bid invited by JNPT for operation of Container Terminals. However, in order to give effect to its policy decision to prevent private monopolisation, the JNPT floated another Tender on 28th October, 2002, for construction of a Second Container Terminal in which Clause 1.3 of the Tender documents provided that JNPT was desirous of entrusting the project to another Licensee other 45 than the existing Licensee at JNPT or its associates and interconnected or sister companies. The learned Solicitor General submitted that in the said process, GTI, a Joint Venture Company of APM Terminals and CONCOR proved to be the successful bidder.
45. Mr. Subramaniam also indicated that Clause 1.3, referred to hereinabove, was challenged by NSICT in Writ Petition No.3083 of 2002, before the Bombay High Court which dismissed the same and upheld the decision to exclude NSICT. The said decision of the Bombay High Court was also upheld by this Court.
46. The learned Solicitor General submitted that in the agreement entered into with GTI it was specifically mentioned in Clause 8.3 that the Licensee would forego the right to bid for, either directly or indirectly, the additional facilities or existing facilities, during the term of the 46 agreement. It was submitted that certain other conditions were also stipulated in the said clause which were aimed at preventing private monopolisation of the facilities of the port.
47. The learned Solicitor General submitted that in keeping with its aforesaid policy decision, while allowing the JNPT to invite Global Tenders for a "Stand Alone" project, the Central Government reminded JNPT of the Government policy formulated in October, 1996, to ensure that private investment did not create private monopolies. It was also clarified that the policy adopted to exclude the existing container operator from the tender for the next container, would continue till such time a formal policy was finalised and notified. It was submitted that in the light of such decision, a Global invitation was issued by JNPT on 2nd March, 2009, for development of the Fourth Container Terminal at JNPT, and those who had been permitted 47 to participate for the Third Container Berths were excluded. The learned Solicitor General submitted that it was only a question of fortuitous circumstances which resulted in the tender for the Third Container Terminal remaining unfinalised. Since GTI had been granted licence for the Second Container Terminal, it was only in keeping with the policy decision of the Respondents that the appellant, APM Terminals B.V., was barred from participating in the Tender for the Third Container Terminal and was allowed to participate in the bid for the Fourth Container Terminal. If the Tender process for the Third Container Terminal had been concluded, the present situation would not have arisen. It is only because of the fact that the Tender for the Third Container Terminal could not be concluded that the Tender for the Fourth Container Terminal was treated to be the Tender for the Third Container Terminal and as a result, the appellant stood disqualified. 48
48. The learned Solicitor General submitted that the Central Government was only following its decision to ensure healthy competition and to prevent the concentration of control of the Major Port Trusts in the hands of the private sector which could result in unintended discrimination, since the private operators had been given the right to give priority berthing to their own ships and other ships could be serviced on a `First come First served' basis.
49. Countering the submissions made by Mr. Nariman and Ms. Chidambaram regarding the doctrine of legitimate expectation and the right of the Government to alter its policy, the learned Solicitor General referred to the decision of this India & Ors. [(1999) 4 SCC 727], wherein, it was held that a change in policy could defeat a substantive legitimate expectation if it could be 49 justified on Wednesbury reasonableness. The learned Solicitor General, therefore, submitted that the decision taken by the Government to prevent private monopoly in the handling of port activities was fully justified and could have an overriding effect over contractual terms arrived at by the Government with a private party.
50. On behalf of the JNPT, it was submitted by Mr. Vikas Singh, learned Senior Advocate, that the challenge thrown to the order passed by the Bombay High Court, upholding the decision of JNPT to exclude the appellant from participating in any Tender for development of the port facilities for a period of 30 years from the date of signing of the agreement, was fully justified. Mr. Vikas Singh submitted that in view of Clause 8.3.1 of the Agreement entered into between JNPT and the appellant, it was not open to the appellant to resile from the same. Furthermore, global tenders 50 had been invited for the construction of the Fourth Container facility on 2nd March, 2009 and as per the said agreement, the appellant remained ineligible to participate in the said Tender also. Mr. Vikas Singh submitted that it is no doubt true that originally the appellant was provided with RFQ documents, but subsequently it was informed that in view of Clause 8.3.1 in its Agreement dated 10th August, 2004, it was not entitled to participate in the tender process for the Fourth Container facility.
51. While adopting the submissions made by the learned Solicitor General, Mr. Vikas Singh also submitted that since the Tender for the Third Container facility had not been proceeded with, the Tender for the Fourth Container Terminal would be treated to be the Tender for the Third Container Terminal from which the appellant and its 51 associates stood excluded on account of the existing policy dated 26th September, 2007.
52. Mr. Vikas Singh submitted that while deciding the Writ Petition filed by NSICT, neither the Bombay High Court nor this Court had the benefit of the subsequent Constitution Bench decision of this Regulatory Commission [(2010) 4 SCC 603], in which this court had held that "regulatory intervention into the existing contracts across-the-board could have been done only by making Regulations under Section 178 and not by passing an Order under Section 79(1)(j) of the 2003 Act". Mr. Vikas Singh submitted that the appeal filed by APM Terminals B.V. was without merit and was liable to be dismissed.
53. We have carefully considered the submissions made on behalf of the respective parties and are ad idem with the learned Solicitor General that the 52 appeals and the Transferred Cases raise the same issue and the only difference between the two is that the appellant had not referred to or sought the benefit of Clause 2.3 of its agreement, which permitted it to participate in future tenders in relation to development work within the port area, while in the petitioner's case the same formed the main plank of its claim. In substance, the question that we are faced with is whether despite the contractual right vested in the appellant as well as in the petitioner in the Transferred cases to participate in future tender processes for developmental work within the port area, such right could be taken away and/or curtailed by a unilateral policy decision of the Central Government. The further question in the case of the appellant is whether having been debarred from participating in the bid for the Third Container Terminal in JNPT, it could also be excluded from the bidding process of the Fourth Container 53 Terminal.
54. Both the Bombay High Court as well as this Court have held that in public interest it was open to the Government to alter its policies in order to subserve the common good and that contractual rights would have to give way to the greater public interest, which in this case was to prevent the creation of private monopolies in the management of port facilities in the Major Ports in the country, as this could have far-reaching and disastrous consequences as far as shipping in such ports was concerned. As already indicated hereinabove, the policy decision of 26th October, 1996, made provision for privatisation and also gave private operators the right to give priority berthing to their own ships. The said decision had the potential of substantially disrupting the schedule of other ships intending to use the port facilities and could discourage foreign ships from coming to 54 Indian Ports and thereby disturb the very pattern of the shipping trade in India.
55. While disposing of Writ Petition No.8083 of 2002, filed by P&O Australia Ports Pty. Limited against the Board of Trustees of JNPT, the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court examined the question raised herein at length. It found that the appellants were handling container terminals in Karachi and Sri Lanka and also at JNP and Chennai, thereby exercising control over 48% of the container traffic in India. The High Court held that the two existing terminals at JNP and Chennai are the biggest container terminals in the country and if the appellant and the petitioner in the Transferred Cases were permitted to operate the new container terminals also, they would have virtual monopoly of the container traffic in the entire country which would not be in the public interest. 55
56. The High Court also took note of the fact that certain shipping agents and their associates had expressed concern regarding the increased tariff charged by the appellant at its container terminals at JNP and the possibility of a monopoly being created by it in the country. The High Court took note of the fact that port authorities all over the world had woken up to the possibility of private monopolies controlling the use of port facilities in such a manner so as to benefit their own ships to the detriment of world-wide shipping as a whole. The High Court took note of the fact that P&O Ports itself had been excluded from bidding for the Third Container Terminal in the Port of Melbourne on the ground that it would give the said operator a position of dominance which was to be avoided in the interest of the shipping industry at large. Two other examples of Port Klang in Malaysia and Bhabange Port in Thailand, were also taken note of by the Bombay High Court where different 56 independent operators were appointed to promote competition.
57. It is precisely for such reason that it had become necessary for the Central Government to alter its policy decision regarding entrusting control of the container terminals in the major ports of India in a manner so as to eliminate monopolisation and to encourage competition. The decision of the High Court was duly endorsed by this Court in SLP(C)No.7488 of 2003 and it was observed that the High Court had rightly dismissed the writ petition.
58. Insofar as the decision taken by the Central Government to alter its policy regarding the grant of licence for operating the container terminals in the Major Ports in India as against the contractual right embodied in the form of Clause 2.3 in the agreements executed or entered into between the Central Government and the appellant and the 57 petitioner in the Transferred Cases, is concerned, the said controversy is no longer valid in regard to the appellant, since such point had not been taken on its behalf in the writ petition before the Bombay High Court. However, the same has been taken as a specific point on behalf of the petitioner in the Transferred Cases as far as the Tenders for the Second Container Terminal at the Tuticorin Port are concerned. The said question has to be considered in the light of Article 14 of the Constitution and the greater public interest as against the contractual right of the individual.
59. The provisions of Clause 2.3 in the Agreements signed between the Tuticorin Port Trust and PSA Sical cannot be read in isolation of the other provisions in the agreement which prevented the Licensee from bidding for other work within the port area during the period of the licence. In fact, in our view, the change in policy to prevent 58 private mobilization has been held to be justified by the Bombay High Court as well as this Court. In the absence of any arbitrariness in effecting such change in policy and keeping in mind the larger public interest, we are of the view, that the Central Government was within its powers to strike a balance with regard to the control of the port facilities so that the same did not come to be concentrated in the hands of one private group or consortium which would be in a dominant position to control not only the rights of tariff, but also the entry of ships, not belonging to such group, into the Major Ports and thereby give an undue advantage to its own ships over other shipping agencies.
60. Normally, the Courts do not interfere with policy decisions of the Government unless they are arbitrary or offend any of the provisions of the Constitution. In the present cases, the adoption of such a course would, in our view, be apposite.
61. It has been the consistent view of this Court that a change in policy by the Government can have an overriding effect over private treaties between the Government and a private party, if the same was in the general public interest and provided such change in policy was guided by reason. Several decisions have been cited by the parties in this regard in the context of preventing private manopolisation of port activities to an extent where such private player would assume a dominant position which would enable them to control not only the berthing of ships but the tariff for use of the port facilities. In both the cases under consideration, the same set of entrepreneurs are interested in gaining control over the different container terminals to the exclusion of other players. The Central Government in its Ministry of Shipping and Transport, therefore, took a decision not to permit licensees who have been granted a licence for running one of the container terminal 60 berths from participating in the bid process for the immediate next container terminal, with the intention of promoting healthy competition for the benefit of the shipping industry and the ports in India as well. The decision to alter its policy is based on sound reasoning and the Central Government has taken such decision for the benefit of the consumers as a whole. The changed policy would also have the effect of preventing cartelisation and dominant status, which could inevitably affect the ultimate pricing of consumer goods within the country. As was held in Shimnit Utsch India Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and Ors. [(2010) 6 SCC 303], the Government was entitled to change its policies with changing circumstances and only on grounds of change a policy does not stand vitiated. 61
62. It was further held that Government has the discretion to adopt a different policy, alter or change its policy to make it more effective. The only qualifying condition is that such change in policy must be free from arbitrariness, irrationality, bias and malice and must be in conformity with the principle of Wednesbury reasonableness. Although, it has been urged by Ms. Chidambaram that such change in policy could be effected only by way of legislation, such a submission, if accepted, could stultify the powers of the Central Government to alter its policies with changing circumstances for the benefit of the public at large. It is not as if the right of a licensee to bid for a further container terminal berth has been excluded for the entire period of the Licence Agreement but in order to ensure proper competition and participation by all intending tenderers, the said policy has also been altered to 62 enable such licensees to bid for the next but one tender as and when invited.
63. However, as far as the appellant is concerned, it is because of certain fortuitous circumstances that it came to be excluded from the tender process for the Fourth Container Terminal. If the tender process for the Third Container Terminal had been concluded, the various complications could have been avoided since under the revised policy, the appellant was entitled to participate in the alternate bids. The appellant having been excluded from one bid on the basis of an existing policy, cannot be debarred from participating in the next bid, by taking recourse to a different yardstick. Such a course of action would be contrary to public policy. Accordingly, the authorities of the JNPT shall allow the appellant to continue to participate in the tender process for the Fourth Container Terminal and the decision to the contrary 63 conveyed to the appellant on 29th June, 2009, is quashed.
64. As far as PSA Sical Terminals Ltd. is concerned, Ms. Chidambaram's submission as to the applicability of the doctrine of legitimate expectation is at best an expectation if there are cogent grounds to deny the same. The said doctrine has been explained by this Court in Sethi Auto [(2009) 1 SCC 180], and it was held that the appellant in the said case had certain expectations which were duly considered and favourable recommendations had also been made, but the final decision-making authority considered the matter when the policy had undergone a change and the cases of the appellants therein did not meet the new criteria for allotment laid down in the new policy. It was also observed that the concept of legitimate expectation has no role to play where 64 State action is based on public policy and in the public interest, unless the action taken amounted to an abuse of power.
65. As we have indicated earlier, the Central Government was within its powers to adopt a policy to prevent the port facilities from being concentrated in the hands of one private group or consortium which could have complete control over the use of the facilities of the ports to the detriment of the shipping industry as a whole. The decision taken by the Tuticorin Port Trust Authorities to exclude PSA Sical Terminals Ltd. from bidding for the 8th Berth Container Terminal cannot, therefore, be said to be arbitrary or unreasonable so as to warrant interference. In fact, the position of PSA Sical Terminals Ltd. is no different from that of A.P.M. Terminals B.V. which had been excluded from the bid for the Third Container Terminal at JNPT.
66. In the aforesaid circumstances, the appeal filed by APM Terminals BV is allowed and the decision of the Bombay High Court is set aside. However, we are also of the view that the decision of the Madras High Court does not call for any interference and the Transfer Cases filed by PSA Sical Terminals Limited are accordingly dismissed, but without any order as to costs.
66. All interim orders are vacated.
......................................................J.
(ALTAMAS KABIR) ......................................................J.
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Jock Given
Jock Given teaches, researches and writes about media and communications law, policy, business and history. He previously worked as Director of the Communications Law Centre, Policy Advisor at the Australian Film Commission and Director, Legislation and Industry Economics in the federal Department of Transport and Communications.
He writes regularly for Swinburne University’s Inside Story and has published academic work in journals like Australian Journalism Review, Telecommunications Policy, the Journal of Information Policy, Business History, Media History and Studies in Australasian Cinema. His radio documentaries ‘Crawfords: Television for the People’ and ‘Empire State: Ernest Fisk and the World Wide Wireless’ were first broadcast by ABC Radio National’s Hindsight program in 2014 and 2012. Current and recent research projects include studies of audiovisual distribution (supported by the ABC and Screen Australia), radiofrequency spectrum management and post-war international telecommunications.
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Kiwa: Pacific Connections
"You too can be a Māori"
“You too can be a Māori”
by Robert Jahnke
Medium: photo engraved acrylic
Size: 12 × 8 × 2 inches (framed)
Reference Code: KX30708
“You too can be a Maori” is a triptych that makes a statement about the globalization of cultural icons. The juxtaposition of British Pop Star, Robbie Williams, Maori Leader, Piri Sciascia (with an Italian surname), and Afro-American Pugilist, Mike Tyson, speaks volumes about the globalization of moko (Maori tattoo) as an icon of trans-global culture. Famous / infamous personalities, as globally accessible icons, are just a mouse-click away on the worldwide web.
In the spirit of Gayatri Spivak’s process of ‘strategic appropriation’, the imprint of moko and ‘tribal tattoo’ is temporarily re-accessioned through cultural posturing that is real and imagined, physical and metaphysical. Simultaneously, a subtext of intellectual and cultural rights, peppered with appropriation, interrogates global access rights to cultural icons as pattern and image mined from the other side of the world.
Robert Jahnke
Te Whanau a Rakairoa o Ngāti Porou
Robert earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design in 1976 and his first-class Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design in 1978, both from Auckland University. In 1980, he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts. He is currently professor and head of the School of Māori Studies/coordinator of Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in Palmerston North and a doctoral candidate there.
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History of Washington
Origins of Washington state
Picture of Washington
Humans have lived in Washington for as long as 11,500 years. The first inhabitants of present-day Washington were descendants of the peoples who crossed the land bridge linking the northeastern part of Asia and North America at the Bering Sea. Archaeologists discovered a rich site in the southeastern part of the state near Palouse Falls, dating to about 10,000 years ago. This dig was filled with human bones, weapons, tools, elk remains, and bone needles.
The Native American population of Washington state belongs to two distinctive regional groups: those who live on the Pacific Coast west of the Cascade Range, and those who live on the Columbia Plateau, east of the range. Different environments and the mountain barrier resulted in two different cultures and lifestyles.
Some of the principal coastal groups include the Quileute, Quinault, Makah, Lummi, Chinook, and Snohomish. Since the area had a relatively mild climate and abundant food sources, the coastal peoples tended to live in permanent cedar houses. These structures, called longhouses, were sometimes about 30 m (100 ft) long and 12 m (40 ft) wide and often housed a number of families. Groups of longhouses were frequently built near the ocean or along a river.
From these locations, Native Americans collected fruits, nuts, and roots, gathered shellfish, and fished for salmon, halibut, and trout. Salmon was a significant part of the coastal people’s diet, and many tribal people honored the fish by holding an annual ceremony for the first salmon catch of the season.
Native Americans developed many ways to catch the fish, including building fishing platforms, stretching nets across streams, and lancing harpoons at the fish. The Quinault and the Quileute, who lived on the coast, hunted fish in dugout cedar canoes. The Makah ventured out to sea to harpoon whales.
The coastal peoples had a rigid class system. Social status was often displayed at a potlatch, a ceremony held in honor of a special event such as a marriage or the birth of a child. Native American chiefs invited people from all around the region to come celebrate. Guests would come for several days to eat and dance. On the final day of the potlatch, chiefs would give gifts to their guest, offering proof of their great wealth.
Some of the principal Native American groups on the east side of the Cascade Mountains include the Okanogan, Spokane, Wenatchee, Yakama, Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Palouse. Although the Native American peoples of the Columbia Plateau had a diet similar to that of their coastal counterparts, they had to work much harder to procure their food. They lived in a harsh climate and had a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Often Native American peoples spent the summer months at fishing sites or in the mountains collecting roots and berries. They carried light, portable structures made of long poles and woven twigs and fibers to their summer camps and spent the cold season on the canyon floors. They built large, well-insulated pithouses that provided protection from the cold and the wind. These pithouses were 1.8 to 2 m (6 to 7 ft) underground, with skins and dirt forming a conical roof supported by poles.
Like the coastal peoples, the Columbia Plateau Native Americans consumed salmon and other fish that swam up the Columbia River. They also hunted deer, elk, bear, and small game. When the Plateau peoples, and in particular the Nez Perce, started to use and breed horses, they were able to travel farther to hunt. Trade among the Native American peoples of present-day Washington was common. Inland and coastal peoples met annually at a place on the Columbia River to the east of the Cascades (the present-day city of The Dalles, Oregon), where they exchanged goods, danced, and had feasts. Native Americans developed a common dialect, which was used when trading with people who spoke different languages. This trade language was loosely based on the Chinook language and had vocabulary from many other regional Native American languages. See also Native Americans of North America. "Washington" © Emmanuel BUCHOT, Encarta, Wikipedia.
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Places of interest in Alaska
Photographic book - USA - 3/03/19
Caribou in Alaska
Alaska is a state where the visitor can watch a mass migration of caribou across the arctic plains, see the tundra blossom overnight into a riot of color, and observe polar bears and walruses in their native habitat. It is the land of the midnight sun and the noontide moon. Few states offer such contrasts as the frozen ice fields and steaming volcanoes, the vast Interior and its towering peaks, the fjords of the Panhandle and the seemingly endless flatlands of the river deltas.
Alaska’s national parks are home to the United States’ tallest mountains and biggest glaciers and some of its most exotic wildlife. Alaska contains a number of the country’s largest national parks, including Wrangell-Saint Elias, Gates of the Arctic, Denali, Lake Clark, Katmai, and Glacier Bay.
Of the 20 highest mountains in the United States, 17 are in Alaska. Mount McKinley, North America’s largest mountain at 6,194 m (20,320 ft), is a defining highlight in Denali National Park and Preserve. The second tallest mountain, Mount Saint Elias (5,489 m/18,008 ft), is located in Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, a park characterized by remote mountains, valleys, and wild rivers, all rich with wildlife.
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is just one of the areas in which visitors can find examples of active geological phenomena. Since it was first seen by British explorer George Vancouver in the 1790s, the wall of ice that shadows Glacier Bay has retreated about 100 km (about 60 mi). Harding Icefield and forested coastal fjords are the highlights of Kenai Fjords National Park.
Spectacular scenery stretches across the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve from the Cook Inlet to the Chigmit Mountains, which include two active volcanoes, Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna. More evidence of Alaska’s natural history can be found at Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, where steam rises from a few active volcanic vents at Katmai National Park and Preserve. In the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, the Aniakchak River cascades through a gash 500 m (1,600 ft) long at the rim of a volcano crater.
Alaska’s national parks
Alaska’s national parks also preserve the state’s rich cultural history. The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is a remnant of the land bridge that once connected Asia with North America, the route the earliest residents took to the continent. Cape Krusenstern National Monument contains archaeological sites that illustrate Eskimo communities dating back some 4,000 years. Sitka National Historical Park commemorates the Battle of Sitka, the only armed conflict between Alaska Natives and Europeans. Relics of the 1898 gold rush are preserved at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.
Several parks embody the state’s nickname The Last Frontier because of their remote locations. They are generally accessible only by chartered planes and recommended only to those adventurers who are confident in their outdoor survival skills. Lying entirely north of the Arctic Circle, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, the northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains, is the second largest national park in the United States. The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are located in the Kobuk Valley National Park. A rich array of Arctic wildlife can be found in this park and the neighboring Noatak National Preserve, including caribou, grizzly and black bear, wolf, and fox. "USA" © Emmanuel BUCHOT, Encarta, Wikipedia
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Royal Lyceum Announces David Greig’s Inaugural Season
May 3, 2016 by News Team Leave a Comment
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh is delighted to announce David Greig’s first season as Artistic Director of Scotland’s largest producing theatre.
David Greig is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning playwright whose recent credits include The Lorax (Old Vic), The Events (Traverse, Scotland and Young Vic), Sam Mendes’ West End hit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dunsinane (Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre of Scotland), and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (National Theatre of Scotland).
David Greig, New Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh says,
“The Lyceum’s 50th Anniversary has been an extraordinary year for the company and the success of Mark Thomson’s final year has allowed me to put together this expansive and ambitious programme for my first season as Artistic Director.
We will be presenting more work with 11 main stage productions, 4 of which are world premieres, and many of the artists involved will be making work with The Lyceum for the very first time.
I’m keen to make new meaningful partnerships, such as our new exciting relationship with the Edinburgh Science Festival and build on existing relationships, such as our involvement with the Edinburgh International Festival, to ensure that we stay at the heart of this fantastic city and truly be a Civic Theatre for the people of Edinburgh and our visitors.
I want to put our citizens centre stage at The Lyceum to share this beautiful space and the amazing experience of making theatre – we need to cast at least 200 members of the public in this year’s season so please come and join us!
I’m also keen that the citizens of Edinburgh have more opportunities to explore and appreciate the splendour of this Victorian building – we will be presenting regular Variety Nights featuring an ever-changing line-up of musicians, poets and theatre-makers.
I’d like us to collaborate more across the UK and the world to share our unique experiences and individual stories. This year Lyceum co-productions will visit Glasgow, Belfast and Newcastle, and our theatre will welcome Malthouse Theatre Melbourne and Black Swan State Theatre Company’s production Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Last year, after a decade of standstill funding The Lyceum received news of public funding cuts of nearly £700,000 from Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council. Not enough to close our doors but enough to significantly narrow our horizons. Thankfully the legacy of the company’s celebrated 50th anniversary and the fantastic appetite of our audiences and supporters have given me a year to be experimental – a one season window of opportunity.
I intend to use it to make the case for a producing theatre in Edinburgh’s capital which is worthy of the city. A Theatre which engages and excites our citizens year round and is capable of taking Edinburgh to the world and bringing a world of theatre to Edinburgh – a Civic Theatre for the capital city of Scotland – The Lyceum. I’m looking forward to working with many talented artists, our fantastic staff, generous sponsors new and old and our partners and funders in Scotland and across the UK, to make this ambition a lasting success for Edinburgh.”
In brief, the shows are as follows:
Wind Resistance – 4 August – 21 August 2016
David Greig’s first production as Artistic Director (as Dramaturg) and the World Premiere of Scottish Singer/Songwriter Karine Polwart’s debut into theatre. This new theatre gig will be performed in a bespoke performance space the Lyceum’s Rehearsal Studio with direction by David’s long-term collaborator, Wils Wilson.
The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil – 14 – 24 September 2016
Joe Douglas’ widely acclaimed Dundee Rep production will mark his debut at The Lyceum and be the first time this iconic political play has been performed on The Lyceum stage since the original production in 1973.
The Suppliant Women – 1 October – 15 October 2016
David Greig’s first play for The Lyceum main stage unites the creative team behind the 2013 international runaway hit The Events – David Greig, Ramin Gray and John Browne will create a new version of this Ancient Greek story about the flight of refugees and human rights that deeply resonates with our world today. One of the oldest surviving plays in existence -this story will be re-imagined with 50 citizens of Edinburgh playing the pivotal role – the “suppliant” women.
Jumpy – 27 October – 12 November 2016
BAFTA multi-award winning actor, Daniela Nardini returns to The Lyceum stage to play the lead role in this deliciously irreverent hit West End comedy of mid-life crisis, teenage rebellion and a mother-daughter relationship in meltdown. Olivier-award winning director Cora Bissett will bring a distinctively Scottish twist to this contemporary tale.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – 26 November – 31 December 2016
The ever Inventive Edinburgh born theatre-maker Anthony Neilson will return to his home town to make a magical Victorian version of this classic family story by Lewis Carroll for Christmas.
Picnic at Hanging Rock – 13 January – 28 January 2017
The Lyceum will welcome its first international mainstage production outside of the Edinburgh Festivals in its 50 year history – hosting the UK premiere ofMalthouse Theatre Melbourne and Black Swan State Theatre Company’sacclaimed production of this haunting, iconic Australian bush tale. Directed by Australian artist Matthew Lutton.
The Winter’s Tale – 9 February – 4 March 2017
Shakespeare’s timeless tale of love, betrayal and magic will be directed by acclaimed artist Max Webster, who recently directed David’s enchanting adaptation of The Lorax. Max will bring a distinctive Scottish flair with a cast of actor-musicians.
Hay Fever – 10 March – 1 April 2017
A new co-production with the Citizens Theatre Glasgow, the Citizens’ award-winning Artistic Director Dominic Hill will direct Noël Coward’s riotous farce charting the unconventional antics of a self-dubbed ‘bohemian’ family of four. Revelation, romance, and outright outlandish behaviour set the tone of this 1920’s dark comedy.
A Number – April 2017
As part of an exciting new partnership with the Edinburgh International Science Festival, renowned Scottish director and playwright Zinnie Harriswill direct Caryl Churchill’s acclaimed sci-fi story about cloning and its consequences. This eerie production will be performed in an intimate ‘in the round’ space created on The Lyceum’s main stage.
Charlie Sonata – 29 April – 13 May 2017
An urban, funny, booze-soaked fairytale about redemption brings together the artistic talents of Scottish playwright Douglas Maxwell and internationally acclaimed director Matthew Lenton for this World Premiere.
Glory on Earth – 20 May – 10 June 2017
David Greig makes his directorial debut at The Lyceum with a new play by Scottish playwright Linda Maclean. Glory on Earth re-imagines the historic meetings between Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox charting the fatal relationship between a charming young queen and an uncompromising old zealot as they battle for the hearts and souls of 16th Century Scotland.
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other – June 2017
The citizens of Edinburgh take centre stage again in the season finale, a large scale production directed by Wils Wilson. Written by Austrian playwrightPeter Handke, in a translation by Meredith Oakes the production will feature a 100 strong, all-Edinburgh cast and a soundtrack of entirely new music.
Additional strands include a series of Sunday Variety Nights to showcase musicians, poets and theatre-makers.
Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: David Grieg, Royal Lyceum, Scotland
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Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand
From TheBookbag
Buy Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Reviewer: John Van der Kiste
Summary: The memoirs of Jo Brand, a former psychiatric nurse who yearned for a showbusiness career and became one of the age's most popular stand-up comedians.
Buy? Maybe Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320 Date: October 2009
Publisher: Headline Review
Born in Hastings in May 1957, after leaving Brunel University with a degree in social sciences, Jo Brand unsuccessfully applied for a research job with Channel 4 on a series about racism, then worked for a time as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital. But the lure of showbiz proved too strong, and stardom in stand-up comedy soon beckoned.
Much of this memoir is about her early life, from a south-east London childhood, schooldays and rebellious adolescence to student and nursing days. There are plenty of amusing anecdotes about the usual brushes with parental authority, often related to staying out too late or going to the wrong places, and being chatted up by less than desirable young (and not so young) men. She emerges as a cheerfully shambolic character, quite philosophical about being asked to leave her job in the civil service, not unrelated to having had too many cheap beers at lunchtime one day and falling asleep and dribbling at her desk afterwards, matter-of-fact about her less than stellar exam results - let's just say the marks D and E were good friends of mine.
A self-confessed unashamed natural scruffbag, she tells us that her room was always a complete tip with overflowing ashtrays, records and CDs scattered everywhere, and old cups with mould in them. (If you're reading this over a hastily-grabbed breakfast or coffee break, I'm sorry). On the subject of dressing, she makes the very valid point that high heels may look elegant, but are useless for running in – and there is many an occasion when a woman may need to be swift on her feet. Her insights into life on the wards, naturally the most serious part of the book, make interesting and sometimes poignant reading.
It's probably fair to say that the majority of people picking up this book will be keen to know what makes her tick as a comic, and how 'the Sea Monster' started out as a stand-up comedian. That is crammed into the last two chapters, beginning with an appearance at a rather sleazy Soho nightclub in the summer of 1986. I get the feeling this is only 'Part One – to be continued', as the last page had finished a little abruptly almost before I knew it.
It's amusing enough, cheerfully self-deprecating and told in the deadpan style that anyone would expect after having seen her on the box. How, she asks in the first chapter after describing a typical appearance onstage at Loughborough University, did she ever get there when she could have been working in a library or pushing a pram around the park?
Although it makes a good light read, it didn't strike me as the funniest comedy memoir I've read. Fans of hers will certainly love it, but I felt there was something a little flat about the whole tone of these pages that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Dawn French's recent title had that kind of effervescent bubbly quality throughout that made it difficult to put down. That same quality, it struck me, somehow tended to be lacking here.
Our thanks to Headline Review for sending a copy to Bookbag.
If you enjoyed this, may we recommend the above-mentioned Dear Fatty by Dawn French, or Dawn French: The Unauthorised Biography by Alison Bowyer.
You can read more book reviews or buy Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand at Amazon.co.uk
You can read more book reviews or buy Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand at Amazon.com.
Like to comment on this review?
Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.
Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Look_Back_in_Hunger_by_Jo_Brand&oldid=139962"
Jo Brand
Reviewed by John Van der Kiste
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Romney and the Rice Card
July 16th, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized
Comments Off on Romney and the Rice Card
With the Republican Convention set to begin on August 27, we are heading toward the final phase of the GOP Veepstakes. Currently, the mainstream media mania is focused on the belief that Romney will play the Rice Card. It won’t happen. The excitement concerns the possibility that playing the Rice Card will enhance support from African-American and female voters. Unfortunately, Condoleezza Rice lacks the degree of charisma one would expect in a Vice-Presidential candidate. Worse yet, the baggage she brings from her testimony before the 9/11 Commission, particularly in response to the questions posed by Richard Ben-Veniste concerning the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing is the most important reason she will not be picked. Her failure to seriously heed the warning, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States” would become a big issue – once again. Her response to Ben-Veniste’s interrogation was asinine:
Commissioner, this was not a warning. This was a historic memo — historical memo prepared by the agency because the president was asking questions about what we knew about the inside.
We often hear pundits recite the Cardinal Rule for Presidential candidates, in selecting their Vice-Presidential nominee, as: “Do No Harm”. In other words: Don’t screw up your campaign by choosing a controversial running mate. If Romney were to play the Rice card, he would append to his own campaign the Bush administration’s failure to heed the warnings about the September 11 attacks. It won’t happen.
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan – who considered the choice of Sarah Palin as “cynical” – recently endorsed Rice as the best candidate:
Consider: A public figure of obvious and nameable accomplishment whose attainments can’t be taken away from her. Washington experience – she wouldn’t be learning on the job. Never ran for office but no political novice. An academic, but not ethereal or abstract. A woman in a year when Republicans aren’t supposed to choose a woman because of what is now called the 2008 experience – so the choice would have a certain boldness. A black woman in a campaign that always threatens to take on a painful racial overlay. A foreign-policy professional acquainted with everyone who’s reigned or been rising the past 20 years.
What is really happening here is that potential candidates from minority groups are being paraded before the public, purely for optics. Last month, it was Marco Rubio and now it’s Condoleezza Rice. It has been important for the Romney camp to convince the voters that it seriously considered putting a minority group member on the ticket before finally deciding on a white man.
At this point, the smart money is on Ohio Senator Rob Portman. Portman is from a battleground state and Romney can be confident that Portman won’t make any stupid moves or inappropriate remarks which could damage the campaign. Romney needs to play it safe and Portman is a safe choice.
Actually, the Rice Card is being played right now. You won’t see it again after August.
9/11 Commission, African-American voters, August 6 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, Bin Laden Determined to Attack, candidates from minority groups, centrist blog, Condoleezza Rice, Do No Harm, female voters, GOP Veepstakes, historical memo, John T Burke Jr, mainstream media, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, not a warning, Ohio Senator, optics, Peggy Noonan, Presidential candidates, Republican Convention, Rice Card, Richard Ben-Veniste, Rob Portman, Romney campaign, Sarah Palin, September 11 attacks, testimony, Vice-Presidential candidate, Wall Street Journal
Goldman Sachs Remains in the Spotlight
March 15th, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized
Comments Off on Goldman Sachs Remains in the Spotlight
Goldman Sachs has become a magnet for bad publicity. Last week, I wrote a piece entitled, “Why Bad Publicity Never Hurts Goldman Sachs”. On March 14, Greg Smith (a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa) summed-up his disgust with the firm’s devolution by writing “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs” for The New York Times. Among the most-frequently quoted reasons for Smith’s departure was this statement:
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail.
In the wake of Greg Smith’s very public resignation from Goldman Sachs, many commentators have begun to speculate that Goldman’s bad behavior may have passed a tipping point. The potential consequences have become a popular subject for speculation. The end of Lloyd Blankfein’s reign as CEO has been the most frequently-expressed prediction. Peter Cohan of Forbes raised the possibility that Goldman’s clients might just decide to take their business elsewhere:
Until a wave of talented people leave Goldman and go work for some other bank, many clients will stick with Goldman and hope for the best. That’s why the biggest threat to Goldman’s survival is that Smith’s departure – and the reasons he publicized so nicely in his Times op-ed – leads to a wider talent exodus.
After all, that loss of talent could erode Goldman’s ability to hold onto clients. And that could give Goldman clients a better alternative. So when Goldman’s board replaces Blankfein, it should appoint a leader who will restore the luster to Goldman’s traditional values.
Goldman’s errant fiduciary behavior became a popular topic in July of 2009, when the Zero Hedge website focused on Goldman’s involvement in high-frequency trading, which raised suspicions that the firm was “front-running” its own customers. It was claimed that when a Goldman customer would send out a limit order, Goldman’s proprietary trading desk would buy the stock first, then resell it to the client at the high limit of the order. (Of course, Goldman denied front-running its clients.) Zero Hedge brought our attention to Goldman’s “GS360” portal. GS360 included a disclaimer which could have been exploited to support an argument that the customer consented to Goldman’s front-running of the customer’s orders. One week later, Matt Taibbi wrote his groundbreaking, tour de force for Rolling Stone about Goldman’s involvement in the events which led to the financial crisis. From that point onward, the “vampire squid” and its predatory business model became popular subjects for advocates of financial reform.
Despite all of the hand-wringing about Goldman’s controversial antics – especially after the April 2010 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing, wherein Goldman’s “Fab Four” testified about selling their customers the Abacus CDO and that “shitty” Timberwolf deal, no effective remedial actions for cleaning-up Wall Street were on the horizon. The Dodd-Frank financial “reform” legislation had become a worthless farce.
Exactly two years ago, publication of the report by bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas, pinpointing causes of the Lehman Brothers collapse, created shockwaves which were limited to the blogosphere. Unfortunately, the mainstream media were not giving that story very much traction. On March 15 of 2010, the Columbia Journalism Review published an essay by Ryan Chittum, decrying the lack of mainstream media attention given to the Lehman scandal. This shining example of Wall Street malefaction should have been an influential factor toward making the financial reform bill significantly more effective than the worthless sham it became.
Greg Smith’s resignation from Goldman Sachs could become the game-changing event, motivating Wall Street’s investment banks to finally change their ways. Matt Taibbi seems to think so:
This always had to be the endgame for reforming Wall Street. It was never going to happen by having the government sweep through and impose a wave of draconian new regulations, although a more vigorous enforcement of existing laws might have helped. Nor could the Occupy protests or even a monster wave of civil lawsuits hope to really change the screw-your-clients, screw-everybody, grab-what-you-can culture of the modern financial services industry.
Real change was always going to have to come from within Wall Street itself, and the surest way for that to happen is for the managers of pension funds and union retirement funds and other institutional investors to see that the Goldmans of the world aren’t just arrogant sleazebags, they’re also not terribly good at managing your money.
These guys have lost the fear of going out of business, because they can’t go out of business. After all, our government won’t let them. Beyond the bailouts, they’re all subsisting daily on massive loads of free cash from the Fed. No one can touch them, and sadly, most of the biggest institutional clients see getting clipped for a few points by Goldman or Chase as the cost of doing business.
The only way to break this cycle, since our government doesn’t seem to want to end its habit of financially supporting fraud-committing, repeat-offending, client-fleecing banks, is for these big “muppet” clients to start taking their business elsewhere.
In the mean time, the rest of us will be keeping our fingers crossed.
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Nasty Cover-Up Gets Exposed
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Ever since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster occurred on that horrible, twentieth day of April 2010, I have been criticizing the cover-up concerning the true extent of this tragedy. Sitting here in my tinfoil hat, I felt frustrated that the mainstream media had been facilitating the obfuscation by British Petroleum and the Obama administration in their joint efforts to conceal an ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Corexit. On July 22 of that year, I wrote a piece entitled, “BP Buys Silence of Expert Witnesses”. On August 26 of 2010, I expressed my cynicism in a piece entitled “Keeping Americans Dumb”:
As time drags on, it is becoming more apparent that both BP and the federal government are deliberately trying to conceal the extent of the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
I got some good news this week when I learned that the mainstream media are finally beginning to acknowledge the extent of this cover-up. While reading an essay by Gerri Miller for Forbes, I learned about a new documentary concerning the untold story of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster: The Big Fix.
Once my enthusiasm was sparked, I began reading all I could find about this new documentary, which was co-produced by Peter Fonda. The Guardian (at its Environment Blog) provided this useful analysis of the movie:
The Big Fix, by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, re-opens some of the most persistent questions about last year’s oil spill. How BP was able to exert so much control over the crisis as it unfolded? What were the long-term health consequences of using a toxic chemical, Corexit, to break up the oil and drive it underwater?
Rebecca Tickell herself had a serious reaction to the chemical after being out on the open water – and as it turned out so did the doctor she consulted in an Alabama beach town. She still has health problems.
Josh Tickell, who grew up in Louisiana, said the Obama administration’s decision to allow the use of Corexit, which is banned in Britain, was the biggest surprise in the making of the film.
“The most shocking thing to me was the disregard with which the people of the Gulf region were dealt,” Tickell said.
“Specifically I think that there was sort of a turn-a-blind-eye attitude towards the spraying of dispersants to clean up the spill. I don’t think anyone wanted to look too deeply at the consequences.”
Gerri Miller’s article for Forbes provided more insight on what the film revealed about the injuries sustained by people in the local shrimping communities:
Dean Blanchard, whose shrimp processing company was once the largest in the U.S., has seen his supply dwindle to “less than 1 percent of the shrimp we produced before. We get shrimp with oil in the gills and shrimp with no eyes. The fish are dead and there are no dolphins swimming around my house.” He knows five people who worked on cleanup crews who have died, and he suffers from sinus and throat problems. Former shrimper Margaret Curole‘s healthy 31-year-old son worked two months on the cleanup and became so sick from dispersant exposure that he lost 52 pounds and is now unable to walk without a cane. “Most of the seafood is dead or toxic. I wouldn’t feed it to my cat,” said her husband Kevin Curole, a fifth-generation shrimper who, like Blanchard, had friends who died from Corexit exposure. “I used to be a surfer but I won’t go in the water anymore,” he said. “The last time I did my eyes and lips were burning.”
EcoWatch warned us that the movie can be emotionally upsetting:
When you watch how the the Gulf residents captured in The Big Fix have been affected by Corexit and the spill, beware, it is both heart wrenching and frightening. When you see Gulf residents driven to tears by this environmental tragedy, you want to cry with them. Rebecca, herself, was seriously sickened by Corexit during their filming in the Gulf.
When you listen to eco-activist, Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of champion of the seas Jacques-Yves Cousteau, state so emotionally in the film, “We’re being lied to,” you realize the truth about the Gulf oil spill is being covered up.
The most informative essay about The Big Fix was written by Jerry Cope for The Huffington Post. The “official trailer” for the film can be seen here.
Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly emphasized how the film hammered away at the mainstream media complicity in the cover-up:
Josh Tickell, a Louisiana native, had two questions he wanted answered when he set out to make his documentary: What were we not told by the media in the days and weeks immediately following the April 2010 British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and what haven’t we been told since the story faded from the news cycle? If The Big Fix had simply tackled those questions, the story uncovered would be maddening: BP’s repeated flaunting of safety codes; their blatant disregard for the lives of individuals and communities devastated by the spill; collusion among the U.S. government (from local to the White House), the media, and BP to hide the damage and avoid holding anyone accountable. The film’s scope is staggering, including its detailed outlining of BP’s origins and fingerprints across decades of unrest in Iran. By doing smart, covert reporting that shames our news media, by interviewing uncensored journalists, by speaking with locals whose health has been destroyed, and by interviewing scientists who haven’t been bought by BP (many have, as the film illustrates), Fix stretches into a mandatory-viewing critique of widespread government corruption, with one of the film’s talking heads remarking, “I don’t have any long-term hope for us [as a country] unless we find a way to control campaign financing.” And yes, the Koch brothers are major players in the fuckery.
The theme of regulatory capture played a role in Anthony Kaufman’s critique of The Big Fix for The Wall Street Journal’s “online magazine” – Speakeasy:
Tickell says that U.S. politicians, both in the Democratic and Republican parties, are too closely tied to the oil and gas industries to regulate them effectively. “Even if these people come in with good intentions, and what to do good for their community, in order to achieve that level of leadership, they have to seek money from oil and gas,” he says.
While the film promises to take a crack at BP, Tickell says the company is more held up as a “universal example, in the way that resource extraction companies have a certain set of operating paradigms which have lead us to a situation where we have Gulf oil spills and tar sands.”
I felt that my conspiracy theory concerning this tragedy was validated after reading a review of the movie in AZGreen Magazine:
The Big Fix makes clear that the Deepwater Horizon disaster is far from over. Filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell (makers of groundbreaking films Fuel and Freedom) courageously shine the spotlight on serious aspects of the BP oil spill that were never addressed by mainstream media. Central to the story is the corporate deception that guided both media coverage and political action on the environmental damage (and ongoing human health consequences) caused by long-term exposure to Corexit, the highly toxic dispersant that was spewed into the Gulf of Mexico by millions of gallons. The Big Fix drills deeply beyond media reports to demystify the massive corporate cover-up surrounding the Gulf oil spill, and BP’s egregious disregard for human and environmental health. The film exposes collusion of oil producers, chemical manufacturers, politicians and their campaign funders that resulted in excessive use of Corexit to mask the significance of the oil, and thereby reduce the penalties paid by BP.
Reading all of this makes me wonder what happened to the people, who were discussed in my July 2010 posting, “NOAA Uses Human Canaries to Test Gulf Fish”.
The movie received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, as it did in its initial screenings in the United States. Once audiences have a deeper look at the venal nature of the Obama Administration, it will be interesting to watch for any impact on the President’s approval ratings.
Alabama, Anthony Kaufman, AZGreen Magazine, BP, Britain, British Petroleum, campaign finance reform, Cannes Film Festival, corporate deception, cover-up, Dean Blanchard, Deepwater Horizon, Democrats, dispersants, EcoWatch, Environment Blog, environmental damage, Ernest Hardy, expert witnesses, Federal Government, film, Forbes, gas industry, Gerri Miller, government corruption, Gulf fish, Gulf of Corexit, Gulf of Mexico, health, health consequences, Huffington Post, human canaries, Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jerry Cope, John T Burke Jr, Josh Tickell, journalists, Keeping Americans Dumb, Kevin Curole, Koch brothers, LA Weekly, Louisiana, mainstream media, Margaret Curole, media coverage, movie, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, news media, NOAA, Obama Administration, oil, oil and gas, oil industry, oil spill, Peter Fonda, politicians, President Obama, Presidential approval ratings, Rebecca Tickell, regulatory capture, Republicans, Scientists, shrimp, shrimping, Speakeasy, tar sands, The Big Fix, The Guardian, toxic chemical, toxic fish, Wall Street Journal, White House
Doing Fine Without A Demand
October 3rd, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized
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Back on September 8, when I wrote about the plans for an “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration, I expressed my surprise that the ultimate goal of the occupation was deliberately left open. Since that time, there has been a good deal of criticism concerning a failure of the movement to focus on a particular demand. Many observers (including myself) believed that the lack of a single goal would doom the effort to failure. As it turned out, the only drawback of that strategy was that it got the campaign off to a slow start. When forced to acknowledge that the occupation was taking place after the arrest of 80 demonstrators on September 25, the corporate-controlled media made a point of emphasizing that there were only “a couple hundred” people participating in the protest. After over 700 protesters were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday, it became obvious that the mainstream media had been understating the number of participants involved in this effort.
Despite the transparent media efforts to under-report this event, there was one conspiracy allegation that fell apart. Many protesters claimed that the New York police “set up” the Brooklyn Bridge marchers, by directing them from the pedestrian walkway onto the vehicular traffic lanes. Natasha Lennard of the City Room blog at The New York Times – who ended up getting arrested with the Brooklyn Bridge protesters – debunked the claims of entrapment:
The Internet was filled with pointed suggestions that officers from the New York Police Department led protesters onto the road as a trap to perform mass arrests; indeed, some video footage seems to show officers leading protesters onto the “illegal” section of the bridge. From what I saw, however, a couple of dozen marchers made the decision to move off the sidewalk into the road at the bridge’s entrance to chants of “off the sidewalks, into the streets.”
This breakaway group quickly gained support of surrounding marchers, numbers of whom jumped over barricades on the sidewalk’s edge to stream into the road, until hundreds of people eventually covered the passageway usually intended for a steady flow of traffic.
As the Occupy Wall Street movement spawned similar protests around the nation, critics continued to bemoan the absence of a clear-cut message – many of whom offered their own suggestions. These remarks by Nicholas Kristof were typical of the criticisms expressed since the occupation began:
Where the movement falters is in its demands: It doesn’t really have any. The participants pursue causes that are sometimes quixotic – like the protester who calls for removing Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill because of his brutality to American Indians.
On the other hand, the lack of a specific goal seems to be having the same “Rorschach effect” exploited by Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign. The avoidance of a narrow agenda appears to be attracting a broader range of participants from across the political spectrum, who are now joining the protest.
Tina Susman of the Los Angeles Times discussed the views of some who emphasized keeping the message vague or simply sticking with no unified message at all:
Michael T. Heaney, a University of Michigan political science professor who has studied social protest movements, said such groups often bump up against pressure to become more focused and to either build or join institutions that can support them.
“What you’re talking about is a degree of buying into a political system,” Heaney said. “But the more you use tactics that we recognize as getting you influence, the more you buy into the system, and the more you buy into the system, the more you open yourself up to compromise.”
In Occupy Wall Street’s case, Heaney said demands could be as vague as simply calling for financial bailout programs to apply to individuals rather than banks.
Most of those in Zuccotti Park, though, don’t see the need for a change in tactics. At least not yet.
“There isn’t a consolidated message, and I don’t think there needs to be,” said Andrew Lynn, 34, who drove the three hours from his home in Troy, N.Y., to help the demonstrators’ media team.
So far, Occupy Wall Street seems to be doing just fine without a unified message. As Andrew Grossman reported for The Wall Street Journal, the protest doesn’t appear to be losing any steam:
Meanwhile, the encampment in Zuccotti Park showed no signs of ending, despite falling temperature and a night of rain. Shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, a few hundred people huddled under tarps and sleeping bags filled the windswept plaza. Once the sun rose, more joined: Members of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents nearly 38,000 workers in the city’s bus and subway systems, marched in to cheers.
Protesters distributed a newspaper – “The Occupied Wall Street Journal” – that they printed using money raised online.
Its lead story began: “What is occurring on Wall Street right now is remarkable. For over two weeks, in the great cathedral of capitalism, the dispossessed have liberated territory from the financial overlords and their police army.”
At this point, it appears as though the activists participating in the Occupy Wall Street effort should stick with their unrestricted focus. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
2008 campaign, absence of a particular demand, Andrew Grossman, Andrew Lynn, arrest of 80 demonstrators, Barack Obama, Brooklyn Bridge, capitalism, City Room, corporate-controlled media, entrapment, John T Burke Jr, Los Angeles Times, mainstream media, marchers, Michael T Heaney, Natasha Lennard, New York Police Department, New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, Occupy Wall Street, political science, Rorschach effect, The Occupied Wall Street Journal, Tina Susman, Transport Workers Union, University of Michigan, Wall Street Journal, Zuccotti Park
August 22nd, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized
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Support for President Obama’s re-election bid is in disarray. His sinking poll numbers have left many Democrats hoping for a miracle (i.e. some degree of economic recovery before November of 2012). A significant component of the party’s progressive bloc is looking for a challenger to step forward – as can be seen at the StopHoping.org website. One of the bloggers at Corrente – Hugh – recently had a good laugh at those who were anticipating a possible Primary challenge to Obama from former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold. Here is some of what Hugh had to say:
The point is that Feingold could have been, and should have been, if he were legit, a focus for progressive organizing. But he wasn’t. . . . Feingold could have been the voice of opposition to Bush and his policies, but the silence from the Wisconsin Senator’s office was deafening. He could have played the same role opposing Obama’s right wing corporatist agenda. He did not. Indeed he lost his Senate seat largely because of his failure to distance himself from Obama.
There are other reasons to dislike Feingold and question his progressive credentials. He voted for John Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He voted for Obamacare. And he is a deficit hawk.
Many left-leaning commentators have been offering suggestions to the President as to what actions he should be taking – as well as what message he should be delivering. Experience has demonstrated that Obama never pays attention to well-intentioned, sensible advice. How many times has Robert Reich written a roadmap for the President to use toward saving the economy as well as Obama’s own Presidency – only to be ignored? As the campaign drags on, try to keep count of how many commentaries are written under the theme: “What Obama Needs to Say and Do Right Now”. Rest assured that he won’t say or do any of it.
Meanwhile, Republican voters are currently flocking to the standard-bearer du jour, Texas Governor Rick Perry. Alexander Cockburn of CounterPunch wrote a great essay about Perry’s unmatched political instincts and the challenges ahead for both parties in the upcoming Presidential race:
The obvious question is whether Perry, having won the right, can clamber back along the kook branch towards something vaguely resembling the solid timber of sanity, to capture the necessary independents and disillusioned folk who bet on Obama in 2008. Hard to say. Perry is pretty far out on the limb. Reagan, with the strenuous help of the press, managed the crawl back in 1980, amid widespread disappointment and disgust with Jimmy Carter. Disappointment and disgust with Barack Obama? The president has slithered down in the most recent polls, and now is just above the 50 per cent disapproval rating. There are still around 30 million Americans without work, or enough work. There’s the endlessly cited observation that no president presiding over more than a 7 per cent jobless rate can hope for a second term.
The progressive sector is already rallying the Obama vote by pounding out the unsurprising message that Perry is a shil and errand boy for corporate America, Amazing! Imagine that a conservative Texas Republican would end up in that corner, arm in arm with Barack Obama, messenger of hope and change, also shil and errand boy for corporate America, starting with the nuclear industry, the arms sector, the ag/pesticide complex and moving on through Wall Street and the Fed, and equipped with truly noxious beliefs about fiscal discipline, the merits of compromise. He’s a far more dangerous man to have in the Oval Office than Perry. We need a polarizer to awaken the left from its unending, unbreakable infatuation with our current president, despite all the horrors he has perpetrated and presided over, most significantly the impending onslaught on Social Security and Medicare.
Any Republican who wants to maintain a viable candidacy will be forced to start taking some hard swings at Rick Perry. Jon Huntsman has already started to do so. Michele Bachmann might not, if she wants a shot at becoming Perry’s running mate. It won’t matter what Ron Paul says … because the mainstream media are pretending as though he doesn’t exist. If you haven’t seen it yet, Jon Stewart ran a superb piece, exhibiting how all of the major news outlets – including Fox – were apparently reading from the same script after Congressman Paul came within 100 votes of beating Michele Bachmann in the Iowa Straw Poll. Watching those reports could have led one to believe that Ron Paul had dropped out of the race. On August 17, Tara Sartor of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism provided this analysis of how the television news organizations squelched Ron Paul’s near-victory in Iowa:
In a further attempt to gauge the post-straw poll attention to Paul’s campaign, PEJ also used the Snapstream server’s closed captioning capability to assess the candidates’ television coverage in the first few days after that balloting.
The sample included the three network Sunday morning panel shows on August 14, the morning and evening network news programs on August 15 and four hours of prime-time cable and one hour of daytime from each of the three major cable news networks on August 15.
According to that analysis, Paul was mentioned just 29 times. By comparison, Perry was mentioned 371 times, Bachmann was mentioned 274 times, and Romney was mentioned 183 times.
I hope that the anti-Paul conspiracy helps to energize those voters who had been ambivalent about supporting the “other Texan” in the race.
At some point, the progressive Democrats are going to be faced with the ugly reality that they don’t have a candidate in the 2012 Presidential campaign. As has been the case with Ron Paul and his supporters – the Left will be left out.
1980, 2012 election, ag/pesticide complex, Alexander Cockburn, anti-Paul conspiracy, approval rating, arms industry, Barack Obama, closed captioning, compromise, Congressman Paul, Corporate America, corporatism, Corrente, CounterPunch, Democrats, economic recovery, economy, Federal Reserve, fiscal discipline, Fox News, Governor Rick Perry, Hugh, Iowa Straw Poll, Jimmy Carter, jobless rate, John T Burke Jr, Jon Huntsman, Jon Stewart, Left Out, mainstream media, major news outlets, Medicare, Michele Bachmann, nuclear industry, Oval Office, Pew Research Center, political polarization, political television coverage, poll results, President, President Obama, progressive Democrats, progressives, Project for Excellence in Journalism, Republican voters, Republicans, Robert Reich, Ron Paul, Ronald Reagan, Russ Feingold, Snapstream, Social Security, StopHoping org, Tara Sartor, Texas, unemployment, Wall Street, Wisconsin
John Ashcroft Was Right
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Many commentators have expressed surprise about the extensive criticism directed against President Obama by liberals. During the new President’s third month in office, I pointed out how he had become the “Disappointer-In-Chief” – when he began to elicit groans from the likes of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. President Obama has continued on that trajectory ever since. More recently, Obama’s mishandling of the economic crisis resulted in a great cover story for New York Magazine by Frank Rich, entitled, “Obama’s Original Sin”. Although Frank Rich may have been a bit restrained in his criticism of Obama, Marshall Auerback didn’t pull any punches in an essay he wrote for the New Economic Perspectives website entitled, “Barack Obama: America’s First Tea Party President”:
Cutting public spending at this juncture is the last thing the US government should be doing. Yet this President is pushing for the largest possible cuts that he can on the Federal government debt. He is out-Hoovering the GOP on this issue. He is providing “leadership” of the sort which is infuriating his base, but should endear him to the Tea Party. This is “the big thing” for Barack Obama, as opposed to maximizing the potential of his fellow Americans by seeking to eliminate the scourge of unemployment. Instead, his big idea is to become the president who did what George Bush could not, or did not, dare to do: cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. What more could the Tea Party possibly want?
Glenn Greenwald of Salon has been a persistent critic of President Obama for quite a while. Back in September of 2010, I referenced one of Glenn Greenwald’s exceptive essays about Obama with this thought:
Glenn Greenwald devoted some space from his Salon piece to illustrate how President Obama seems to be continuing the agenda of President Bush. I was reminded of the quote from former Attorney General John Ashcroft in an article written by Jane Mayer for The New Yorker. When discussing how he expected the Obama Presidency would differ from the Presidency of his former boss, George W. Bush, Ashcroft said:
“How will he be different? The main difference is going to be that he spells his name ‘O-b-a-m-a,’ not ‘B-u-s-h.’ ”
John Ashcroft’s prescient remark could not have been more accurate. Who else could have foreseen that the Obama Presidency would eventually be correlated with that of President George W. Bush? Although it may have seemed like a preposterous notion at the time, it’s now beginning to make more sense, thanks to a very interesting piece I read at the Truthdig website entitled, “If McCain Had Won” by Fred Branfman. Branfman began with a list of “catastrophes” we would have seen from a McCain administration, followed by this comment:
Nothing reveals the true state of American politics today more, however, than the fact that Democratic President Barack Obama has undertaken all of these actions and, even more significantly, left the Democratic Party far weaker than it would have been had McCain been elected.
More important, the sentence immediately following that remark deserves special attention because it forms the crux of Branfman’s analysis:
Few issues are more important than seeing behind the screen of a myth-making mass media, and understanding what this demonstrates about how power in America really works – and what needs to be done to change it.
From there, Branfman went on to explain how and why McCain would have made the same decisions and enacted the same policies as Obama. Beyond that, Branfman explained why Obama ended up doing things exactly as McCain would have:
Furious debate rages among Obama’s Democratic critics today on why he has largely governed on the big issues as John McCain would have done. Some believe he retains his principles but has been forced to compromise by political realities. Others are convinced he was a manipulative politico who lacked any real convictions in the first place.
But there is a far more likely – and disturbing – possibility. Based on those who knew him and his books, there is little reason to doubt that the pre-presidential Obama was a college professor-type who shared the belief system of his liberalish set …
Upon taking office, however, Obama – whatever his belief system at that point – found that he was unable to accomplish these goals for one basic reason: The president of the United States is far less powerful than media myth portrays. Domestic power really is in the hands of economic elites and their lobbyists, and foreign policy really is controlled by U.S. executive branch national security managers and a “military-industrial complex.”
The ugly truth strikes again! The seemingly “all-powerful” President of the United States is nothing more than a tool of the plutocracy. It doesn’t matter whether the White House is occupied by a Democrat or a Republican – the policies (domestic, foreign, economic, etc.) will always be the same – because the people calling the shots are always the same plutocrats who control those “too big to fail” banks, the military industry and big pharma. As Branfman put it:
. . . anyone who becomes president has little choice but to serve the institutional interests of a profoundly amoral and violent executive branch and the corporations behind them.
Perhaps in response to the oft-cited criticism that “if you’re not part of the solution – you’re part of the problem”, Fred Branfman has offered us a proposal that could send us on the way to changing this intolerable status quo:
But however important the 2012 election, far more energy needs to be devoted to building mass organizations that challenge elite power and develop the kinds of policies – including massive investment in a “clean energy economic revolution,” a carbon tax and other tough measures to stave off climate change, regulating and breaking up the financial sector, cost-effective entitlements like single-payer health insurance, and public financing of primary and general elections – which alone can save America and its democracy in the painful decade to come.
Wait a minute! Didn’t Obama already promise us all of that stuff?
Perhaps the only way to achieve those goals is by voting for Independent political candidates, who are not beholden to the Republi-cratic Corporatist Party or its financiers. When the mainstream media go out of their way to pretend as though a particular candidate does not exist – you might want to give serious consideration to voting for that person. When the media try to “disappear” a candidate by “hiding” that person “in plain sight”, they could be inadvertently providing the best type of endorsement imaginable.
The same level of energy that brought Obama to the White House could be used to bring us our first Independent President. All we need is a candidate.
American politics, Attorney General, Barack Obama, Barack Obama - Americas First Tea Party President, Big Pharma, candidate, carbon tax, clean energy, climate change, corporations, Democrat, Democratic base, Democratic critics of Obama, Democratic Party, Disappointer-In-Chief, economic crisis, economic elites, elite power, entitlements, executive branch, Federal government debt, financial sector, foreign policy, Frank Rich, Fred Branfman, George Bush, George W Bush, Glenn Greenwald, GOP, government spending, Herbert Hoover, If McCain Had Won, Independent political candidates, Independent President, Jane Mayer, John Ashcroft, John Ashcroft Was Right, John T Burke Jr, Keith Olbermann, liberals, lobbyists, mainstream media, Marshall Auerback, McCain administration, media myth, Medicaid, Medicare, military-industrial complex, myth-making mass media, national security managers, New Economic Perspectives, New York Magazine, Obama Presidency, Obamas Original Sin, plutocracy, President Bush, President Obama, public financing of elections, public spending, Rachel Maddow, Republi-cratic Corporatist Party, Republican, Salon, single-payer health insurance, Social Security, Tea Party, The New Yorker, too-big-to-fail banks, Truthdig, unemployment, White House
Federal Reserve Bailout Records Provoke Limited Outrage
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On December 3, 2009 I wrote a piece entitled, “The Legacy of Mark Pittman”. Mark Pittman was the reporter at Bloomberg News whose work was responsible for the lawsuit, brought under the Freedom of Information Act, against the Federal Reserve, seeking disclosure of the identities of those financial firms benefiting from the Fed’s eleven emergency lending programs.
The suit, Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York) resulted in a ruling in August of 2009 by Judge Loretta Preska, who rejected the Fed’s defense that disclosure would adversely affect the ability of those institutions (which sought loans at the Fed’s discount window) to compete for business. The suit also sought disclosure of the amounts loaned to those institutions as well as the assets put up as collateral under the Fed’s eleven lending programs, created in response to the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve appealed Judge Preska’s decision, taking the matter before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Fed’s appeal was based on Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, which exempts trade secrets and confidential business information from mandatory disclosure. The Second Circuit affirmed Judge Preska’s decision on the basis that the records sought were neither trade secrets nor confidential business information because Bloomberg requested only records generated by the Fed concerning loans that were actually made, rather than applications or confidential information provided by persons, firms or other organizations in attempt to obtain loans. Although the Fed did not attempt to appeal the Second Circuit’s decision to the United States Supreme Court, a petition was filed with the Supreme Court by Clearing House Association LLC, a coalition of banks that received bailout funds. The petition was denied by the Supreme Court on March 21.
Bob Ivry of Bloomberg News had this to say about the documents produced by the Fed as a result of the suit:
The 29,000 pages of documents, which the Fed released in pdf format on a CD-ROM, revealed that foreign banks accounted for at least 70 percent of the Fed’s lending at its October, 2008 peak of $110.7 billion. Arab Banking Corp., a lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the window in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.
As government officials and news reporters continue to review the documents, a restrained degree of outrage is developing. Ron Paul is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. He is also a longtime adversary of the Federal Reserve, and author of the book, End The Fed. A recent report by Peter Barnes of FoxBusiness.com said this about Congressman Paul:
. . . he plans to hold hearings in May on disclosures that the Fed made billions — perhaps trillions — in secret emergency loans to almost every major bank in the U.S. and overseas during the financial crisis.
“I am, even with all my cynicism, still shocked at the amount this is and of course shocked, but not completely surprised, [that] much [of] this money went to help foreign banks,” said Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), . . . “I don’t have [any] plan [for] legislation … It will take awhile to dissect that out, to find out exactly who benefitted and why.”
In light of the fact that Congressman Paul is considering another run for the Presidency, we can expect some exciting hearings starring Ben Bernanke.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont became an unlikely ally of Ron Paul in their battle to include an “Audit the Fed” provision in the financial reform bill. Senator Sanders was among the many Americans who were stunned to learn that Arab Banking Corporation used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the Fed during the 18 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The infuriating factoid in this scenario is apparent in the following passage from the Bloomberg report by Bob Ivry and Donal Griffin:
The bank, then 29 percent-owned by the Libyan state, had aggregate borrowings in that period of $35 billion — while the largest single loan amount outstanding was $1.2 billion in July 2009, according to Fed data released yesterday. In October 2008, when lending to financial institutions by the central bank’s so- called discount window peaked at $111 billion, Arab Banking took repeated loans totaling more than $2 billion.
Ivry and Griffin provided this reaction from Bernie Sanders:
“It is incomprehensible to me that while creditworthy small businesses in Vermont and throughout the country could not receive affordable loans, the Federal Reserve was providing tens of billions of dollars in credit to a bank that is substantially owned by the Central Bank of Libya,” Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, wrote in a letter to Fed and U.S. officials.
The best critique of the Fed’s bailout antics came from Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi. He began his report this way:
After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the “official” budget in size – a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.
As Matt Taibbi began discussing what the documents produced by the Fed revealed, he shared this reaction from a staffer, tasked to review the records for Senator Sanders:
“Our jaws are literally dropping as we’re reading this,” says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “Every one of these transactions is outrageous.”
In case you are wondering just how “outrageous” these transactions were, Mr. Taibbi provided an outrageously entertaining chronicle of a venture named “Waterfall TALF Opportunity”, whose principal investors were Christy Mack and Susan Karches. Susan Karches is the widow of Peter Karches, former president of Morgan Stanley’s investment banking operations. Christy Mack is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Matt Taibbi described Christy Mack as “thin, blond and rich – a sort of still-awake Sunny von Bulow with hobbies”. Here is how he described Waterfall TALF:
The technical name of the program that Mack and Karches took advantage of is TALF, short for Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility. But the federal aid they received actually falls under a broader category of bailout initiatives, designed and perfected by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, called “giving already stinking rich people gobs of money for no fucking reason at all.” If you want to learn how the shadow budget works, follow along. This is what welfare for the rich looks like.
The venture would have been more aptly-named, “TALF Exploitation Windfall Opportunity”. Think about it: the Mack-Karches entity was contrived for the specific purpose of cashing-in on a bailout program, which was ostensibly created for the purpose of preventing a consumer credit freeze.
I was anticipating that the documents withheld by the Federal Reserve were being suppressed because – if the public ever saw them – they would provoke an uncontrollable degree of public outrage. So far, the amount of attention these revelations have received from the mainstream media has been surprisingly minimal. When one compares the massive amounts squandered by the Fed on Crony Corporate Welfare Queens such as Christy Mack and Susan Karches ($220 million loaned at a fraction of a percentage point) along with the multibillion-dollar giveaways (e.g. $13 billion to Goldman Sachs by way of Maiden Lane III) the fighting over items in the 2012 budget seems trivial.
The Fed’s defense of its lending to foreign banks was explained on the New York Fed’s spiffy new Liberty Street blog:
Discount window lending to U.S. branches of foreign banks and dollar funding by branches to parent banks helped to mitigate the economic impact of the crisis in the United States and abroad by containing financial market disruptions, supporting loan availability for companies, and maintaining foreign investment flows into U.S. companies and assets.
Without the backstop liquidity provided by the discount window, foreign banks that faced large and fluctuating demand for dollar funding would have further driven up the level and volatility of money market interest rates, including the critical federal funds rate, the Eurodollar rate, and Libor (the London interbank offered rate). Higher rates and volatility would have increased distress for U.S. financial firms and U.S. businesses that depend on money market funding. These pressures would have been reflected in higher interest rates and reduced bank lending, bank credit lines, and commercial paper in the United States. Moreover, further volatility in dollar funding markets could have disrupted the Federal Reserve’s ability to implement monetary policy, which requires stabilizing the federal funds rate at the policy target set by the Federal Open Market Committee.
In other words: Failure by the Fed to provide loans to foreign banks would have made quantitative easing impossible. There would have been no POMO auctions. As a result, there would have been no supply of freshly printed-up money to be used by the proprietary trading desks of the primary dealers to ramp-up the stock market for those “late-day rallies”. This process was described as the “POMO effect” in a 2009 paper by Precision Capital Management entitled, “A Grand Unified Theory of Market Manipulation”.
Thanks for the explanation, Mr. Dudley.
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An Army Of Lobbyists For The Middle Class
March 3rd, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized
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Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this week to testify about the Fed’s monetary policy. Scot Kersgaard of The American Independent focused our attention on a five-minute exchange between Colorado Senator Michael Bennett and The Ben Bernank, with an embedded video clip. Senator Bennett asked Bernanke to share his opinions concerning the recommendations made by President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission. Bernanke initially attempted to dodge the question with the disclaimer that the Fed’s authority extends to only monetary policy rather than fiscal policy – such as the work conducted by the deficit commission. If Congressman Ron Paul had been watching the hearing take place, I’m sure he had a good, hard laugh at that statement. Nevertheless, Bernanke couldn’t restrain himself from concurring with the effort to place the cost of Wall Street’s larceny on the backs of middle-class taxpayers.
The chant for “entitlement reform” continues to reverberate throughout the mainstream media as it has for the past year. Last May, economist Dean Baker exposed this latest effort toward upward wealth redistribution:
Emboldened by the fact that none of them have gone to jail for their role in the financial crisis, the Wall Street gang is now gunning for Social Security and Medicare, the country’s most important safety net programs. Led by investment banker Pete Peterson, this crew is spending more than a billion dollars to convince the public that slashing these programs is the only way to protect our children and grandchildren from poverty.
A key propaganda tactic used by the “entitlement reform” crusaders is to characterize Social Security as an “entitlement” even though it is not (as I discussed here). Phil Davis, avowed capitalist and self-described “serial entrepreneur”, wrote a great essay, which refuted the claim that Social Security is “broken” while explaining why it is not an “entitlement”. Unfortunately, there are very few politicians who are willing to step forward to provide the simple explanation that Social Security is not an entitlement. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) recently made a statement to that effect before a senior citizens’ group in East Haven, Connecticut – without really providing an explanation why it is not an entitlement. Susan Feiner wrote a great commentary on the subject last fall for womensenews.org. Here is some of what she said:
Moreover, Social Security is not an entitlement program as it’s paid for entirely by payroll taxes. It is an insurance program, not an entitlement. Not one penny of anyone’s Social Security comes out of the federal government’s general fund.
Social Security is, by law, wholly self-financing. It has no legal authority to borrow, so it never has.
If this incredibly successful and direly needed program hasn’t ever borrowed a dime, why is the president and his hand-picked commissioners putting Social Security cuts (and/or increases in the retirement age) in the same sentence as deficit reduction?
The attempt to mischaracterize Social Security as an “entitlement” is not a “Right vs. Left” dispute — It’s a class warfare issue. There have been commentaries from across the political spectrum emphasizing the same fact: Social Security is not an “entitlement”. The assertion has appeared on the conservative patriotsteaparty.net website, the DailyKos on the Left and in a piece by independent commentator, Marti Oakley.
The battle for “entitlement reform” is just one front in the larger war being waged by Wall Street against the middle class. Kevin Drum discussed this conflict in a recent posting at his Plutocracy Now blog for Mother Jones:
It’s about the loss of a countervailing power robust enough to stand up to the influence of business interests and the rich on equal terms. With that gone, the response to every new crisis and every new change in the economic landscape has inevitably pointed in the same direction. And after three decades, the cumulative effect of all those individual responses is an economy focused almost exclusively on the demands of business and finance. In theory, that’s supposed to produce rapid economic growth that serves us all, and 30 years of free-market evangelism have convinced nearly everyone — even middle-class voters who keep getting the short end of the economic stick — that the policy preferences of the business community are good for everyone. But in practice, the benefits have gone almost entirely to the very wealthy.
One of my favorite commentators, Paul Farrell of MarketWatch made this observation on March 1:
Wall Street’s corrupt banks have lost their moral compass … their insatiable greed has become a deadly virus destroying its host nation … their campaign billions buy senate votes, stop regulators’ actions, manipulate presidential decisions. Wall Street money controls voters, runs America, both parties. Yes, Wall Street is bankrupting America.
Wake up America, listen:
“Our country is bankrupt. It’s not bankrupt in 30 years or five years,” warns economist Larry Kotlikoff, “it’s bankrupt today.”
Economist Peter Morici: “Capitalism is broken, America’s government is two bankrupt political parties bankrupting the country.”
David Stockman, Reagan’s budget director: “If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians” the “tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.”
BusinessWeek recently asked analyst Mary Meeker to run the numbers. How bad is it? America really is bankrupt, with a “net worth of a negative $44 trillion.” Bankrupt.
And it will get worse. Unfortunately, nothing can stop America’s self-destructive Wall Street bankers. They simply do not care that their “doomsday capitalism” is destroying themselves from within, and is bankrupting America too.
On February 21, I quoted a statement made by bond guru Bill Gross of PIMCO, which included this thought:
America requires more than a makeover or a facelift. It needs a heart transplant absent the contagious antibodies of money and finance filtering through the system. It needs a Congress that cannot be bought and sold by lobbyists on K Street, whose pockets in turn are stuffed with corporate and special interest group payola.
That essay by Bill Gross became the subject of an article by Terrence Keeley of Bloomberg News. Mr. Keeley’s reaction to the suggestions made by Bill Gross was this:
To redeem Wall Street’s soul, radical solutions are clearly needed, but advocating the eradication of profit-based markets that have served humanity well on balance without a viable replacement is fanciful. Gross deserves an “A” for intent — but something more practical than a “heart transplant” is required to restore trust and efficacy to our banking system.
But an economy based on something other than profit risks misery and injustice of another sort. The antibodies now needed aren’t those that negate profitability. Rather, they are the ones that bind financial engineering to value creation and advancement of society.
Perhaps the most constructive solution to the problem is my suggestion from February 10: Recruit and employ an army of lobbyists to represent and advance the interests of the middle class on Capitol Hill. Some type of non-partisan, “citizens’ lobby” could be created as an online community. Once its lobbying goals are developed and articulated, an online funding drive would begin. The basic mission would be to defend middle-class taxpayers from the tyranny of the plutocracy that is destroying not just the middle class – but the entire nation. Fight lobbyists with lobbyists!
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No Justice For The Wicked
February 17th, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized
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Although the drumbeat continues, I remain skeptical as to whether any of the criminals responsible for causing the financial crisis will ever be brought to justice. In the weeks before President Obama’s Inauguration, the foremost question on my mind was whether the new administration would take the necessary steps to change the culture of corruption on Wall Street:
As we approach the eve of the Obama Administration’s first day, across America the new President’s supporters have visions of “change we can believe in” dancing in their heads. For some, this change means the long overdue realization of health care reform. For those active in the Democratic campaigns of 2006, “change” means an end to the Iraq war. Many Americans are hoping that the new administration will crack down on the unregulated activities on Wall Street that helped bring about the current economic crisis.
On December 15, Stephen Labaton wrote an article for the New York Times, examining the recent failures of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the environment at the SEC that facilitates such breakdowns.
At that time, I also focused on the point made in a commentary by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn, which appeared in the January 3 New York Times:
It’s not hard to see why the S.E.C. behaves as it does. If you work for the enforcement division of the S.E.C. you probably know in the back of your mind, and in the front too, that if you maintain good relations with Wall Street you might soon be paid huge sums of money to be employed by it.
I concluded that piece with a rhetorical question:
Let’s hope our new President, the Congress and others pay serious attention to what Lewis and Einhorn have said. Cleaning up Wall Street is going to be a dirty job. Will those responsible for accomplishing this task be up to doing it?
By March 23, 2009, it had become obvious that our new President was more concerned about the “welfare” (pun intended) of the Wall Street banks than the well-being of the American economy. I began my posting of that date with this statement:
We the people, who voted for Barack Obama, are about to get ripped off by our favorite Hope dealer.
On August 27 of that year, I wrote another piece expressing my disappointment with how things had (not) progressed. My October 1, 2009 posting focused on the fact that H. David Kotz, Inspector General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, issued two reports, recommending 58 changes to improve the way the agency investigates and enforces violations of securities laws, as a result of the SEC’s failure to investigate the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. The reports exposed a shocking degree of ineptitude at the SEC.
After the release of the report by bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas, pinpointing the causes of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, I lamented the fact that the mainstream media hadn’t shown much concern about the matter, despite the terrible fraud exposed in the report. Nevertheless, by the next day, I was able to highlight some great commentaries on the Valukas Report and I felt optimistic enough to conclude the piece with this thought:
We can only hope that a continued investigation into the Lehman scandal will result in a very bright light directed on those privileged plutocrats who consider themselves above the law.
If only . . .
By the eve of the mid-term elections, I had an answer to the question I had posed on January 5, 2009 as to whether our new President and Congress would be up to the task of cleaning up Wall Street:
One common theme voiced by many critics of the Obama administration has been its lack of interest in prosecuting those responsible for causing the financial crisis. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Attorney General Eric Hold-harmless to initiate any criminal proceedings against such noteworthy individuals as Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo or Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers. On October 23, Frank Rich of The New York Times mentioned both of those individuals while lamenting the administration’s failure to prosecute the “financial crimes that devastated the nation”:
The Obama administration seems not to have a prosecutorial gene. It’s shy about calling a fraud a fraud when it occurs in high finance.
Since Obama has neither aggressively pursued the crash’s con men nor compellingly explained how they gamed the system, he sometimes looks as if he’s fronting for the industry even if he’s not.
The special treatment afforded to the perpetrators of the frauds that helped create the financial crisis wasn’t the only gift to Wall Street from the Democratically-controlled White House, Senate and Congress. The financial “reform” bill was so badly compromised (by the Administration and Senate Democrats, themselves) as it worked its way through the legislative process, that it is now commonly regarded as nothing more than a hoax.
By the close of 2010, I noted that an expanding number of commentators shared my outrage over the likelihood that we would never see any prosecutions result from the crimes that brought about the financial crisis:
Most recently, Matt Taibbi has written another great article for Rolling Stone entitled, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”. It’s nice to know that the drumbeat for justice continues. Taibbi’s essay provided a great history of the crisis, with a particular emphasis on how whistleblowers were ignored, just as Harry Markopolos was ignored when (in May of 2000) he tried to alert the SEC to the fact that Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund was a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Here is a great passage from Matt Taibbi’s essay:
In the past few years, the administration has allocated massive amounts of federal resources to catching wrongdoers — of a certain type. Last year, the government deported 393,000 people, at a cost of $5 billion. Since 2007, felony immigration prosecutions along the Mexican border have surged 77 percent; nonfelony prosecutions by 259 percent. In Ohio last month, a single mother was caught lying about where she lived to put her kids into a better school district; the judge in the case tried to sentence her to 10 days in jail for fraud, declaring that letting her go free would “demean the seriousness” of the offenses.
So there you have it. Illegal immigrants: 393,000. Lying moms: one. Bankers: zero. The math makes sense only because the politics are so obvious. You want to win elections, you bang on the jailable class. You build prisons and fill them with people for selling dime bags and stealing CD players. But for stealing a billion dollars? For fraud that puts a million people into foreclosure? Pass. It’s not a crime. Prison is too harsh. Get them to say they’re sorry, and move on. Oh, wait — let’s not even make them say they’re sorry. That’s too mean; let’s just give them a piece of paper with a government stamp on it, officially clearing them of the need to apologize, and make them pay a fine instead. But don’t make them pay it out of their own pockets, and don’t ask them to give back the money they stole. In fact, let them profit from their collective crimes, to the tune of a record $135 billion in pay and benefits last year. What’s next? Taxpayer-funded massages for every Wall Street executive guilty of fraud?
Wouldn’t it be nice if public opinion meant more to the Obama administration than campaign contributions from Wall Street banksters?
2010, 2010 elections, American economy, Angelo Mozilo, Anton Valukas, Attorney General Eric Hold-harmless, bankers, Barack Obama, Bernie Madoff, Change We Can Believe In, Commentary, con men, Congress, corporate welfare, Countrywide, crime, criminal charges, criminal proceedings, criminals, David Einhorn, Democratic campaign, Dick Fuld, drumbeat for justice, economic crisis, economic policy, Ed Koch, elections, Eric Hold-harmless, Eric Holder, federal resources, financial crimes, financial crisis, financial reform bill, fines, foreclosure, Frank Rich, fraud, great recession, H David Kotz, Harry Markopolos, hedge fund, hoax, Hope dealer, ineptitude, Inspector General, jailable class, justice, lack of accountability, Lehman bankruptcy examiner, Lehman Brothers, Lehman collapse, Lehman scandal, Lewis and Einhorn, mainstream media, Matt Taibbi, Mayor Ed Koch, Michael Lewis, mid-term elections, New York, New York Times, no criminal charges, No Justice For The Wicked, Obama Administration, Obama Inauguration, plutocrats, Politics, Ponzi Scheme, prison, prisons, prosecutions, public opinion, Rolling Stone, SEC, SEC enforcement division, SEC failures, Securities and Exchange Commission, securities laws, Senate Democrats, Stephen Labaton, unregulated Wall Street activities, Valukas report, Wall Street, Wall Street Banks, Wall Street banksters, Wall Street clean-up, Wall Street executive, Well Street culture of corruption, whistleblowers, Why Isnt Wall Street in Jail
More Bad News From The Gulf
December 9th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized
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The never-ending catastrophe caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout receives minimal coverage by the mainstream media. An onslaught of awful news continues to flow out from the Gulf of Corexit, although interested citizens seeking to access that information need to do a little “drilling” of their own find it. As I noted just before November’s mid-term elections, the BP-sponsored, lamestream media seem more than happy with the claim of “mission accomplished” voiced by Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft (the man in charge of the federal response to the disaster) and his top science adviser, Steve Lehmann. Last July, I discussed the rather peculiar and questionable response to the crisis provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I focused on NOAA’s bizarre program of using “human canaries” to perform smell and taste tests on Gulf fish to ascertain the presence of contaminants. No kidding.
Since last summer, I have been keeping up with the Gulf of Corexit tragedy by checking in on Washington’s Blog, which has done a diligent job of keeping the spotlight on everything that has been going on with the cover-up investigation of the events that have transpired both before and after the blowout event. This posting from October 23 provided some links to a number of genuinely scary stories concerning some awful physiological consequences experienced by those who have been immersed in that toxic environment. More recently, Washington’s Blog discussed a proposal by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to “force the good men and women in our armed services” to eat Gulf coast seafood.
While our government persists in contriving grizzly science fair projects involving human consumption of seafood from the Gulf of Corexit, the concerned people at the Florida Oil Spill Law website continue to provide a number of important revelations that will come as quite a surprise to those who have been preoccupied with Christina Aguilera’s divorce. A visit to that site provides links to stories such as this report by Randy Kistner of the Natural Resources Defense Council:
It all started on a warm spring night last May in the fertile fishing grounds near Barataria Bay. BP’s busted undersea well was in its early days of eruption, spewing more than two million gallons of Louisiana crude into the sea each day. Todd and Darla were trawling at night near the Gulf in Four Bayou Pass, trying to capture as many shrimp as they could before the offshore oil finally made its way to the coast. Unknown to Todd and Darla, that night would be the first time the massive oil and chemical dispersant mix began pouring into the Barataria Bay.
Darla remembers what it felt that night after she was doused with water that she believes was full of oil and dispersants. It was like being covered in stinging jellyfish, she says, except there were no jellyfish to be found.
“My husband shook the nets and water went on me. I didn’t have a menstrual period for four months. I had rash, itching irritated skin, something similar to bronchitis which I’ve never had. It lasted for three or four months. Eye irritations, heart pains, heart palpitations, involuntary muscles jumping all over my body, and continuous headaches day and night … all I would get is a about a 15 minute to a 20 minute break from pain relievers that are specifically designed to get rid of headaches, that’s the only break I would get. And I had to eat those 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three to four months … And they want to tell me to eat the seafood? Why don’t they eat the seafood. I’ll go catch them and I’ll throw BP a big old boil … I’m not eating it.”
On November 29, Florida Oil Spill Law provided a link to this video report appearing at the Local 15 TV website:
“Still in shock”: Alabama shrimpers find catch “coated in oil” at area open for fishing — Boat to be decontaminated
Meanwhile, those who rely on the mainstream media for information about the current situation in the Gulf can expect to find reports such as this passage from a December 9 piece appearing in The Miami Herald:
Claims have come from all types of South Florida businesses and residents. They include commercial fishermen, marinas, restaurants, hotels, dive watering holes, real estate agents, waterfront property owners, lobster trap makers, municipalities and even Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Key West.
Some find it hard to believe these claims. After all, the spill occurred hundreds of miles away and not one drop of oil has reached South Florida’s waters, shorelines or beaches.
“It wasn’t the reality. It was the perception that hurt us, and is still affecting us,” said Harold Wheeler, executive director of the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. “Many people think we got the oil — and still have it.”
On the other hand, some find it hard to believe the information they are being fed by the mainstream media, NOAA and other government agencies. Of course, there is never a shortage of people anxious to jump on the bandwagon to file bogus claims in the wake of a disaster. Nevertheless, the concern held by many of us in South Florida is that if there are potentially harmful levels of contaminants presently in the waters off the Florida Keys – it could be a long time before we find out about them.
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Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” Is The No. 1 Song In The Country
The Compton rapper’s “DNA.” single also reached the No. 4 position.
By Ben Dandridge-Lemco
Kendrick Lamar performs at the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival, April 16, 2017. Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE." single has risen to No. 1 on the Hot 100, Billboard reports. The song marks the Compton rapper's second time at the top spot and first as a solo artist.
"HUMBLE." has spent three weeks at the top of the Streaming Songs chart and tallied 67.4 million streams in the week ending April 20, becoming the second-most streamed song on a single week behind Baauer's "Harlem Shake." Kendrick also earned an additional top 10 hit, as "DNA." makes its debut on the chart at No. 4. His DAMN. album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning the biggest sales week for any album in 2017 with 603,000 equivalent album units.
Read Next: Listen to Revenge of the Dreamers III feat. Vince Staples, Kendrick Lamar, more
Elsewhere on the chart, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito" remix, featuring Justin Bieber, comes in at No. 9. The song is the first Spanish language track to reach the Hot 100's top 10 in over 20 years ("Macarena" spent 14 weeks at No. 1 in 1996).
Hip-Hop, Kendrick Lamar
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Veteran Stories
The First World War
The Second World War
Veteran Stories:
Peter Godwin Chance
Peter Chance, 1951.
Peter Chance
Peter Chance on the bridge, HMS Liddesdale, Spring 1942.
Peter Chance's Medals (L-R): 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star; Pacific Star; Defence Medal; Canadian Volunteer Service Medal; War Medal (1939-45); and Medals from Korea War.
Wedding Reception of Peter Chance and his Wife, in Skeena, British Columbia, September 1944.
Listen to this story
"There was a great call when the Japanese landed only 20 miles north of us for us to get back to the ship."
Handley Page Halifax
426 (Thunderbird) Squadron, RCAF…
427 (Lion) Squadron, RCAF
Canadians in South East Asia
In Malaya and Burma
The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Canadian Encyclopedia is your authoritative reference of all things Canadian.
Then after four months of sort of a crash course at Dartmouth, the Naval College, we were all assigned to various ships. And so my pal, Benny Benoit, a Canadian from my class, and I, were sent to a ship called HMS Mauritius, a colony class cruiser lying at anchor in Scapa Flow. So off we went. As soon as I got there, we were assigned to run ships’ boats. Well, both of us had had plenty of experience driving boats of all sizes, and so this was great and we enjoyed that work, albeit it was foul weather and it was cold because it was January. And our ship forayed forth with, sallied forth I should say, with the remainder of the home fleet on two occasions to attempt to find the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau [German battle cruisers], that were reported in a breakout from their home ports. We didn’t manage to meet them and it was just as well because we sure as hell weren’t ready.
However, it wasn’t very long before we were then sent to do convoy duty with liners. And they took us from Scotland to Gibraltar, Gibraltar to the Cape and from the Cape up to Aden and then we turned about and picked up returning ships with prisoners and wounded, to return them to the UK.
Well, this went on for a while and then we were detached from that duty and for several months thereafter, we worked out of Colombo to the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Diego Garcia, Diego Suarez and to the Nicobar Islands and eventually to Singapore. We were there at the dry dock getting our fire main refitted because for some reason, this brand new ship had a fire main that was more like a sieve than a fire main. In any case, whilst we were there, we midshipmen again were sent off on exploration: come, let’s learn a bit more about Malaya duties. We not only flew in the local aircraft and billeted with the local regiment, the [2nd Battalion] Argyll and Sutherlanders, and the Loyal [North] Lancashire Regiment, but we also stooged around the sky in a thing called Vickers Vincent, which were biplanes from the First World War and they were better than that. They were still operational throughout the thirties but they were pretty poor aircraft against the Japanese. And, indeed, all of them were destroyed when the Japanese landed.
We, Benny Benoit and I, were sent to a place called Kelantan Province and the town of Kota Bharu, which means new town in Malay, where we were entertained by the local people there and, indeed, the rubber plantations, of which there were many, were all managed by Scots for Dunlop Rubber. Yeah, and, in fact, on one evening, we had a rehearsal for St. Andrew’s Ball. Don’t forget, it’s hotter than the hobs of hell and steam heat, and the bungalows where other people lived, these overseers, were very nice, raised off the ground to allow air beneath them, to help cooling and also be anti-snake protection.
In any case, as we arrived, everybody was in whites and there was a piper of course, why not, and we were all handed a mickey of Dimple Haig [whiskey] as we crossed the threshold. Well, that was great fun and we all drank and danced wildly. And, believe me, we were drenched because of the vigour of the endeavour. And everybody’s clothes were clinging to them like as though they were naked, especially the ladies, who bobbed up and down, and it was all very startling for young boys like me and my friend, Benny.
Any case, there was a great call when the Japanese landed only 20 miles north of us for us to get back to the ship. But, anyway, we got back and sure enough, it wasn’t very long thereafter that not only had the Japanese landed, but they were bombing Singapore. And so we midshipmen were detailed off in groups of 10 with a midshipman leading, to board police launches and to go out into the Singapore harbour to attack Japanese junks that were lying at anchor. We didn’t realize it at the time, it had been thought that they were, of course, armed and ready to do business. But when, in point of fact, we lobbed some hand grenades into the quarters down below, why we eradicated some Japanese fishermen and found their cargos were Japanese-held ensigns to be given to the, by the conquered nations to the victorious Japanese coming in. And so we were detailed off to get back to our ship, put her back in the water and get her refueled, re-vittled, re-ammunitioned, everything, in 72 hours.
We did it and we slipped out during the night and got around from the south end of Singapore island and raced up the Malacca Strait, blacked out, because our electrics weren’t connected; we couldn’t have fired the guns even if we wanted to. So, eventually, we got back to Trincomalee on the northeast coast of Ceylon and then eventually back to Colombo Christmas and New Years, and then to Durbin and back to the Cape, and home by February of 1942.
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© 2019 The Memory Project, All Rights Reserved.
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Ancestry report for Richard Barham, son of John Barham and Mary Barham [Ivore]
Generation No. 1
1. Richard Barham was the son of (2) John Barham and (3) Mary Barham [Ivore]. He was born 1669 at Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 6th Jun 1669 at St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
2. John Barham He was born c 1630
He married Mary Ivore on 29th Sep 1653 at St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex. She was born c 1630. They had the following children:
i Nicholas who was born 1654 Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 12th Oct 1654 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Mr John Barham
ii John who was born 1656 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 23rd Sep 1656 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Mr John Barham of Butts
iii David who was born 1658 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 4th Nov 1658 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Mr John Barham of Butts
iv Nicholas who was born 1661 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 21st Apr 1661 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Mr John Barham of Butts
v Mary who was born 1663 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 1st Oct 1663 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, daughter of Mr John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
vi William who was born 1666 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 15th Jul 1666 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
vii Thomas who was born 1669 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 6th Jun 1669 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
viii Richard who was born 1669 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 6th Jun 1669 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
ix Henry who was born 1671/72 Butts, Wadhurst, Sussex; christened 7th Jan 1671/72 St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex, son of Mr John Barham & Mary Barham, of Butts
3. Mary Barham [Ivore] She was born c 1630
She married John Barham on 29th Sep 1653 at St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church, Wadhurst, Sussex. He was born c 1630. They had the following children:
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China protests over US warship sighting as trade talks start
In this Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, photo, a woman and children play near an art installation at a shopping mall in Beijing. A U.S. delegation led by deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish arrived in the Chinese capital ahead of trade talks with China. China sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and American officials began talks Monday aimed at ending a bruising tariffs battle between the world’s two biggest economies, as Beijing complained over the sighting of a U.S. warship in what it said were Chinese waters.
It was unclear if the ruckus over the warship might disrupt the working level talks being held at the Chinese Commerce Ministry. The two sides have provided scant information about the discussions.
Both sides have expressed optimism over the potential for progress in settling their tariff fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Yet neither has indicated its stance has changed since a Dec. 1 agreement by Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to postpone further increases.
Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Monday during a routine briefing that Chinese military aircraft and naval vessels were dispatched to identify the U.S. vessel and warn it to leave the area near disputed islands in the South China Sea.
“We have made stern complaints with the U.S.,” Lu said. He said the warship, which he said was the destroyer the USS McCampbell, had violated Chinese and international law, infringed on Chinese sovereignty and undermined peace and stability.
“As for whether this move has any impact to the ongoing China-U.S. trade consultations… to properly resolve existing issues of all kinds between China and the U.S. is good for the two countries and the world,” Lu said
But he added, “The two sides both have responsibility to create necessary and good atmosphere to this end.”
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. side about the Chinese complaint.
The American side in the trade talks is being led by a deputy U.S. trade representative, Jeffrey D. Gerrish, according to the U.S. government. The delegation includes agriculture, energy, commerce, treasury and State Department officials.
The talks went ahead despite tensions over the arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Canada on U.S. charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions against Iran.
Trump imposed tariff increases of up to 25 percent on $250 billion of Chinese imports over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. Beijing responded by imposing penalties on $110 billion of American goods, slowing customs clearance for U.S. companies and suspending issuing licenses in finance and other businesses.
Economists say the 90-day postponement of tariff increases that had been meant to take effect Jan. 1 may be too short to settle the disputes bedeviling U.S.-Chinese relations.
But cooling economic growth in both countries is raising pressure to reach a settlement.
Chinese growth fell to a post-global crisis low of 6.5 percent in the quarter ending in September. Auto sales tumbled 16 percent in November over a year earlier. Weak real estate sales are forcing developers to cut prices.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.4 percent in the third quarter, and unemployment is at a five-decade low. But surveys show consumer confidence is weakening because of concern that growth will slow this year.
Washington, Europe and other trading partners complain Beijing’s tactics violate its market-opening obligations.
The standoff also reflects American anxiety about China’s rise as a potential competitor in telecommunications and other technology. Trump wants Beijing to roll back initiatives intended to create homegrown Chinese leaders in robotics and artificial intelligence.
China’s leaders see such strategies as a path to greater prosperity and global influence and have tried to defuse complaints by emphasizing the country’s potential as a huge consumer market.
They’ve also promised to allow more foreign access to its auto, finance and other industries.
Beijing has tried in vain to recruit France, Germany, South Korea and other governments as allies against Trump, but they have echoed U.S. complaints about Chinese industrial policy and market barriers.
The European Union filed its own challenge in the World Trade Organization in June against Chinese rules that the 28-nation trade bloc said hamper the ability of foreign companies to protect and profit from their own technology.
For their part, Chinese officials are unhappy with U.S. curbs on exports of “dual use” technology with possible military applications. They complain China’s companies are treated unfairly in national security reviews of proposed corporate acquisitions, though almost all deals are approved unchanged.
Some manufacturers that serve the United States have shifted production to other countries to avoid Trump’s tariffs.
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Wanted man ditches three pounds of pot, $10K in Sullivan County
Rain Smith • Aug 23, 2018 at 1:15 PM
The blotter is derived from recent incident reports and central dispatch records of local police agencies.
Kingsport Police Department
— A resident of Stratford Road answered a knock on his door at 3 a.m., according to his account, to find an unknown man with a bandanna covering his face. The stranger forced entry into the home and took the resident’s wallet and cell phone. A second intruder cut the man’s neck and left arm. A detective was called to the scene for further investigation.
— A Ford pickup crashed into a legally parked car on Willow Street, and a witness followed the driver. A block away, the suspect exited his vehicle and ran, but a check of registration identified a suspect. Warrants were to be obtained.
— Police were alerted to a man with a gun seated next to vending machines at an urgent care facility. Police responded and spoke to the suspect, finding he was unarmed. The purported weapon was actually a flip-flop in his pocket.
— A woman drove into the bay of an oil change business on Fort Henry Drive, nearly striking a vehicle that was on a lift. She then exited her vehicle, “mumbled something” and walked to a nearby restaurant. That’s where police found her sitting on a grease disposal, incoherent and unable to keep her balance. Ultimately, she was arrested for DUI, with a blood draw conducted to determine what intoxicants were in her system.
— A man wanted in Kingsport was arrested in Virginia. Six months prior, he had recklessly sped through the parking lot of Buffalo Wild Wings on a motorcycle — while not wearing a helmet — and crashed into a car. He sustained serious injuries and was hospitalized, while lab results later revealed he had alcohol and drugs in his system. This month, a Sullivan County grand jury returned indictments in the case for reckless endangerment and other charges. He is now scheduled for extradition back to Tennessee.
Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office
— When police attempted to serve a warrant at a residence on Barnett Drive, the wanted man jumped on a motorcycle to flee and struck a deputy. The suspect then ditched the bike and ran from the scene, with a subsequent K-9 search by Kingsport police unable to locate him. Officers did find a discarded backpack the suspect had been toting. Its contents: 2.73 pounds of marijuana (vacuum packaged in “large quantities”), $9,647 in cash, a handgun and 22 rounds. Additional warrants were obtained on numerous charges, while the deputy hit by the motorcycle sustained cuts to his legs.
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Apple Censors News Show ‘China Uncensored’ in Hong Kong and Taiwan
Category: Politics Tags: Censorship / China / News
By VISION TIMES, May 13, 2017
Satirical news show China Uncensored says that the Apple TV app store has blocked users from accessing it not only in Mainland China, but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Curated by Chris Chappell, the show was launched on YouTube in 2012, and is currently aired by New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD.TV).
The show mocks the Chinese Communist Party and its authoritarian rule by curating news about crackdowns on dissidents, persecution of religious minorities and state-sponsored hacking activities, and turning them into satirical reporting. Oftentimes, its stories are a mixture of jokes and facts that are built upon the stereotypical image of a totalitarian China.
In a press statement on April 5, 2017, Chris Chappell stressed:
“I totally understand why we’re blocked in Mainland China. We’re clearly disrupting the Communist Party’s harmonious propaganda… but Hong Kong and Taiwan are not supposed to be under Chinese law.”
Although Hong Kong is part of China, under the One Country Two Systems principle, the region has an independent legal system. As for Taiwan, it has been a de-facto self-governed entity since Kuomingtang of the Republic of China was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party and fled to the island in 1949.
In both regions, NTD.TV has reporters covering local news. In March 2017, Apple approved the China Uncensored Apple TV app for availability in most of the world, but removed it from app stores in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Apple‘s legal team said its decision is in accordance with local laws:
“Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where you make them available (if you’re not sure, check with a lawyer). We know this stuff is complicated, but it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws […].
“And of course, apps that solicit, promote, or encourage criminal or clearly reckless behavior will be rejected.
“While your app has been removed from the China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan App Stores, it is still available in the App Stores for the other territories you selected in iTunes Connect.”
Chris Chappell responded with satirical questions in a press statement:
“Is Apple so scared of the Chinese Communist Party that it would censor China Uncensored in Hong Kong and Taiwan, just in case? […] Or is Apple just confused about which places belong to China and this was all an accident? They should probably consult a lawyer, like we’ve done.”
In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on April 3, Chappell urged Apple to unblock the China Uncensored in Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores, and vowed that he was prepared to take both legal and political action:
“…we have retained a public interest attorney who will represent us and is prepared to bring in a major law firm to take legal action, although we would prefer to resolve this matter quickly and without lawyers.
“If necessary, we are also prepared to discuss this issue with U.S. federal regulators, who, while having no jurisdiction over Hong Kong or Taiwan, are nonetheless concerned with Apple’s business operations in general as Apple moves competitively into the television industry.”
Since 2013, Apple has started taking down apps — including banned books and circumvention tools — from its China iTunes store in order to comply with local laws. In June 2016, China tightened its control over mobile applications with the introduction of Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Application Information Service.
These regulations outlaw applications that spread rumors and information deemed harmful to national security. In January 2017, The New York Times was taken down from the Apple iTunes Store because of such provisions. However, the newspaper’s app remains available in the Hong Kong and Taiwan versions of the store.
In the letter to Cook, Chappell stressed that while he is aware of the restrictions in China, the management of Apple’s Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores should be different:
“No doubt, China Uncensored likely falls under some of Mainland China’s dubious legal categories such as:
Undermining national unity
Spreading rumors
Disrupting social order”
There is no point in disputing your app store decision with respect to mainland China… but Hong Kong and Taiwan are not ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. They are regions that operate under independent legal systems.
China Uncensored launched a petition on April 4 urging its viewers and supporters to tell Apple to “uncensor” the China Uncensored app from its Hong Kong and Taiwan app stores. As at the time of this story’s publication, more than 9,522 people had signed.
This article by Oiwan Lam originally appeared on Global Voices.
[Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.]
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The Secret of the Fern
Trails of Freedom > Articles > The Secret of the Fern
Tough Mudder 2010: The Ultimate Hike
Swimming with Manta Rays
Posted on October 25, 2010 in Articles
Upon brief examination, ferns would seem to differ little from most of the plants with which we are familiar. They grow in soil, they have stems and stalks, they produce green leaves; just a regular old plant, right?
But I’m going to ask you re-consider that assumption for a moment to ponder the following question: when have you ever seen a flower on the many varieties of fern that, as hikers, you’ve surely encountered throughout your journeys? I’ll give you a minute to search your memory…
The simple fact of the matter is that ferns don’t produce flowers, at all… a characteristic which distinguishes them from the dominant forms of plant life in the world today. The ordinary plants with which we are most familiar all develop flowers of one form or another. These flowers are basically the sex organs of the plant which are fertilized by pollen in order to produce seeds. Indeed, seeds are what we generally think of as the obvious vehicle by which plants reproduce.
But if ferns don’t produce flowers, and thus don’t produce seeds, how can they possibly persist? The answer to this paradox lies in a vehicle of reproduction which we have become accustomed to associate with an entirely different form of life: mushrooms. Mushrooms don’t produce seeds either, but they too don’t seem to have a problem persisting or spreading their species over large areas of their environment.
Ferns, like mushrooms, produce spores… incredibly tiny reproductive vessels that, unlike seeds, do not contain an embryo. Spores are released from ferns in incredibly large numbers and are generally released into the air in the hopes that they will travel elsewhere to establish new colonies in untapped terrain.
While it may seem strange, this method of reproduction has served ferns rather well over the course of prehistory. There was a time, roughly 300 million years ago, when ferns “ruled the world”, so to speak. They were the most dominant form of leafy vegetation in existence at that time, with some species growing as tall as 100 feet and producing stalks that could measure as much as 5 feet in circumference.
As climate change re-shaped the Earth’s environment, however, many ferns species began to die out and that’s when flowering plants had their opportunity to take center stage. Not only did they take center stage, but over millions of years, they practically stole the show.
Nonetheless, ferns could hardly be called “rare” these days, even if they lost their dominant role to flowering plants millions of years ago. And perhaps this is because their strategy of producing spores, rather than seeds, offers them a few unique opportunities that flowering plants are content to due without.
Seeds are typically much larger than fern spores, which are nearly invisible to the naked eye. The bulk of a seed is comprised of two things: an embryo and a generous supply of food that can be called upon to aid the growth of seedlings. Spores, on the other hand, contain little or no stored food whatsoever. For this very reason, spores can be incredibly light, able to travel enormous distances upon little more than a light, persistent breeze. When Mount Saint Helens erupted, destroying most of the surrounding plant life, a fern native to Japan was amongst the first to re-colonize the area!
On one hand, flowering plants can try their luck in a wide range of environments. Seeds have enough stored fuel to give seedlings a fighting chance even in less than perfect conditions. On the other hand, seeds don’t travel very easily by their lonesome. That’s the reason that all manner of clever means of distribution are employed… clingy burrs, shells resistant to digestive systems, helicopter-like pods that can fly on the wind, or airy seeds covered with tiny filaments that may float long distances before being deposited.
Spores produced by ferns don’t usually need to employ such complex means of distribution. Instead, the minute spores are produced by the millions and allowed to drift away with minimal help from animals or evolved aerodynamics. This simplicity comes with a price, however… spores lack the built-in food sources utilized by seeds. Because of this, truly ideal conditions are required for a spore to flourish, and the striking numbers in which spores are produced by ferns is a reflection of the crap shoot undertaken when sending these colonizers out into the world without supplies.
But spores can persist much longer in harsh or uninviting conditions than seeds, which have a comparatively limited range of viability. Fern spores can literally wait around for the right conditions to come to them, and so even though many spores ultimately strike out in the search for suitable habitat, others are rewarded for their patience.
While ferns may no longer be the “top dog” of the plant world, they have secured an enormously successful niche for themselves that is likely to see them persisting for millions and millions of years to come. Flowering plants, though incredibly efficient in their own right, cannot entirely out-compete the fern’s unique ability to distribute such mass quantities of small, hardy colonists.
The next time you happen upon some ferns along the trail, take a moment to appreciate the intriguing means by which these ancient organisms have persisted throughout the history of life on Earth. Modern ferns are living and reproducing in much the same way that their ancestors did a couple hundred million years ago… long before anything even remotely like a mammal, much less a human, could be found in the world.
Tags:ferns, plants, spores
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Stirring Up Ocean Floor Can Boost Fish Populations
Thread: Stirring Up Ocean Floor Can Boost Fish Populations
http://www.insidescience.org/content...pulations/1385
Fishing technique known as trawling can sometimes be productive.
Originally published:
Sep 9 2013 - 2:00pm
Amanda Alvarez, ISNS Contributor
(ISNS) -- High-intensity raking of the seabed, called trawling, is a very effective fishing method that can inflict significant collateral damage on sea life. However, it can sometimes help fish populations to grow, scientists have found.
In a study appropriately titled "When does fishing lead to more fish?" Dutch scientists pinpointed the circumstances under which destructive trawling can actually stimulate fish numbers and lead to greater catches.
As industry professionals and activists seek sustainable solutions for dwindling fish populations and legislators in the European Union debate regulations that would ban deep-sea trawling, this research could inform the management of seafood production.
According to fishermen's lore, trawling can actually foster conditions that are better for fish. Michel Kaiser, a professor of marine conservation ecology at Bangor University in the U.K., calls this an ecological cultivation effect.
"It was fishermen's hypothesis-setting that stimulated this piece of science," said Kaiser, who wasn't part of the study but has investigated the effects of trawling for more than 20 years. "Trawling can remove competing species, and fishermen observed this in coastal locations with natural seabed disturbances."
Bottom trawling is conducted in areas like the North Sea and off the coast of Newfoundland, from shallow areas along the continental shelf to depths of more than 200 meters (about 650 feet). Twenty-three percent of the world's fish catch comes from bottom trawling, according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimate. Trawling targets flatfish species like yellowtail flounder, sole, and plaice, which feed on bottom-dwelling worms.
Daniel van Denderen, a fisheries researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and his colleagues found that to really understand the impacts of trawling, the indirect food web interactions between fish and their prey need to be better studied. Their paper was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The new research put the fisherman's wisdom to the test by modeling the effects of trawling on the numbers of fish and their prey – larger seabed invertebrates like crabs or shrimp that may have hard shells, and soft-bodied worms and mollusks. The circumstances under which the trawling cultivation effect holds true and fish numbers increase depend crucially on these prey and their resilience to trawling. Larger non-fish species can be caught or crushed by the trawling process, while smaller ones may coast through the nets. The prey species that are more resistant to the effects of trawling – those that are soft-bodied, smaller, and able to reproduce more quickly – can proliferate, leading to more "fish food" and a jump in fish numbers. The mathematical model, which uses simplified ocean ecosystem dynamics to simulate prey and fish growth rates in response to various trawling intensities, explains how these factors can sometimes positively interact to boost fish yield.
"There may be a positive relationship between trawling and fish biomass," explained van Denderen, "but only at very limited trawling intensities." The sweet spot, where more frequent trawling leads to more fish, depends on the resistant prey species also being more energetically profitable for the fish – that is, preferable and tastier. This may not always be the case, said van Denderen; it depends on proximity to the coast, water depth, and the ocean floor ecosystem.
"How resistant and susceptible benthos [bottom-dwelling invertebrate prey species] interact and are eaten by fish is really important for understanding the impacts of trawling," he said. "The different responses of fish and benthos in our model could lead to more optimal management of systems being trawled."
In reality, van Denderen expects that a broader range of species, including ones not included in the model, may be sensitive to trawling, though some may be resilient and conversely benefit from trawling. Scientists need to develop a better understanding of the sea areas where this occurs, he said.
"We need to think about the impact of trawling on a case-by-case basis," said Kaiser. "This model can help us decide how best to harvest fish from a particular environment and ensure that we don't use inappropriate techniques that would reduce the potential production of food."
For example, certain fishing zones could benefit from trawling to cultivate prey species and maximize fish yield. On the other hand, "you can completely remove a habitat with trawling. We don't want to give the idea that you should find a sponge reef and turn it into a worm bed with trawling. The model is relevant to areas that are already modified by trawling," said Kaiser.
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Tactical Failure of Turkish Policy on Mavi Marmara Crises
Published by Huffington Post UK Blog, 3 September 2011
No matter what angle one looks at, it is undeniable that Turkey has every right to continue to demand an apology for the killing of her citizens, just as every country in the world would and should do in such an incident. Yet, Turkey has committed a tactical mistake in the process of achieving an apology.
With hindsight, it is clear that the build up to the killing of Turkish citizens on board the doomed boat is not that black and white. Before the boat sailed, both Turkey and Israel could have found a way of stopping or handling it, but both parties failed to do so and allowed things to reach to their nadir.
While vast majority of the people on the boat were peace activists, there was a small group of mujahiddeen-wannabes ready to 'retaliate'. The Israeli forces not only failed dramatically in the operational sense, but their wrong approach of trying to stop the boat triggered retaliation and not surprisingly use of brutal military force.
Israel had a brief window of opportunity to stop escalation of the issue. It could have been enough to state that operation went wrong and that its sorry for loss of life but still insist that the boats should not have been there, which would have defused the situation. AKP had no chance but to stand boldly against Israel and demand an apology as the entire Turkish public demanded so. Both parties were then engulfed in copying each other in harsher and bolder stands with growing myopia of the implications of their mimetic bravado for the entire Middle East.
Turkey could have made an apology from Israel a lot more possible if the AKP government has not included the lifting of Gaza blockade to its three fold demand from Israel, two of which asked for apology and reparations for the murdered citizens. However, the issue of Gaza and the issue of dead citizens are not inherently linked. It would have been so if those murdered were Palestinian dwellers of Gaza who were killed during an attempt to bring banned supplies to Gaza.
While Turkey might have a stand on Gaza and over all Israel-Palestine issues, by combining it with its rightful demand for an apology for its citizens, it undermined its own cause. The Gaza blockade emerged from Israel's policy, backed by all of the major stakeholders, to isolate and weaken Hamas. Thus, a demand for the lifting of blockade bumps into a much more complicated and long term tension involving many powerful stakeholders and Israeli public.
Unwittingly, Turkey has made the loss of its citizens a political tool for a larger policy on Israel. This only caused the hardened voices in Israel to mute others that see friendship with Turkey to be too important to loose. That is why even though the UN report clearly states the military failures and serious human rights abuses committed by Israel, it's dubious claims on the legality of the blockade was seen as a victory and a reason to never apologize to Turkey. In contrast, Egypt was able to get a quick and swift apology from Israel for the killing of its troops.
In diplomacy, one has to develop a game plan for the desired achievement. Turkey seems to have miscalculated and gambled far more than would have been possible to achieve. As for Israel, it once again found joy in being singled out by the world and loosing one more friend in such a critical conjuncture without ever realizing the long term costs of a temporary sense of pride and martyrdom.
So the winner stands alone now; a discredited UN commissioned report and its politically charged writers, unsuccessful outcomes of the Turkish gamble, delusional arrogance of Israeli foreign ministry under the Netanyahu government. The dead are still dead, their families are still mourning and sadly, many more will join their ranks.
Tags: Middle East
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"Insidious" Writer Leigh Whannell to Direct "Insidious: Chapter 3"
Posted: May 12th, 2014 by WorstPreviews.com Staff
James Wan had lots of success with horror films, such as "Saw," "The Conjuring" and "Insidious." All three became franchises, but the director recently announced that he's done with horror and is currently working on "Fast and Furious 7."
With "Insidious" becoming the most profitable film of 2011 by grossing $97 million on a budget of $1.5 million, and the sequel $162 million on a budget of $5 million, it's no surprise that a third installment is in the works. But who will direct?
Now comes word from Wan that "Insidious" writer and actor Leigh Whannell will take over the franchise and will direct "Insidious: Chapter 3," which is already set to hit theaters on April 3rd, 2015. Wan, meanwhile, will stay on as a producer.
Source: Focus Features, James Wan
cress writes:
on May 12th, 2014 at 7:00:09 AM
The first was decent until they went into "the Further", or whatever they called the astral plane, and became very dumb quickly. The sequel was absolutely terrible.
Tanman32123 writes:
Agreed^ But I wouldn't call the sequel Terrible. More simply 'bad' to me
on May 12th, 2014 at 10:44:07 AM
happy birthday tanman!
on May 12th, 2014 at 5:20:29 PM
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Max Rockatansky Junior writes:
This series (and many others like it) make PT Barnum a f*cking legend .... " There's a sucker born every minute ... "
Just like Dark8/D9rk's mum.
Situs Judi poker ace
on January 3rd, 2018 at 12:39:05 AM
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About Williamston, SC
Nestled in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the scenic Upstate, Williamston is a thriving area with industrial, commercial, and tourist activity. Its proximity to the I-85 business corridor and metropolitan areas make it a great place to live, work and play. Williamston is only 15 minutes from Greenville or Anderson, two hours to Atlanta or Charlotte, and four hours to sun at the beach or snow in the mountains. Fun is always in season with a climate that boasts 248 days of sunshine, 49 inches of precipitation, and a comfortable average temperature of 64 degrees. Indeed, Williamston is a pleasant place to spend a day, a week, or a lifetime.
Water, sewer, and trash pickup can be set up by coming to the Municipal Center. Reservations for shelters in Mineral Spring Park or meeting rooms in the Center can be made by visiting the Municipal Center. The Municipal Center is located at 12 West Main St and the phone number is 864-847-7473. Setup, termination, or payment for services must be done in person and not by phone.
The Williamston of the 21st century is known as a growing bedroom community with easy access to metropolitan areas, a moderate cost of living, and traditional family values. There are fine people, great schools, wonderful neighborhoods with few of the worries of a big city and the modern world. Come to Williamston for The Springwater Festival or Christmas in the Park — or come to stay.
Williamston Municipal Center
The Williamston Municipal Center was originally constructed by WPA labor in 1939 as Williamston High School. Then in 1953, the building became Williamston Elementary School when Palmetto High School was built. It became Williamston Primary School in 1972 when Palmetto Middle School was formed.
In 1983 the remaining primary students were moved to the new Palmetto Primary School. At that time, the building was purchased by the Town of Williamston.
Area: 3.668 sq miles (9.5 km²)
Upstate SC Information Hub
Check out the full listing of community events and festivals happening across the region by clicking the button below.
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‹‹ A Musical Interlude: Kissing In The Dark (Memphis Minnie)
Eight US civilians killed in suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan ››
Mary Jackson
"I didn't know what day it was when you walked into the room," rasped Rod Stewart some time in the Seventies. Perhaps he was in the Phillipines, Alaska or Samoa.
It's New Year's Eve tomorrow. In the meantime (geddit?) here are some Quite Interesting facts about the International Date Line:
The Philippines, as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, long had its most important communication with Acapulco in Mexico, and was accordingly placed on the east side of the date line, despite being at the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. 00:01 Tuesday in London was 17:21 Monday in Acapulco and about 08:05 Monday in Manila. During the 1840s, trade interests turned to China, the Dutch East Indies and adjacent areas, and the Philippines was changed to the west side of the date line. Monday, 30 December 1844 (ending up as a 365-day year, despite being a leap year) was followed by Wednesday, 1 January 1845.
Until 1867, Alaska began Russia's day, with the date line following the partially defined border between Russian Alaska and British North America, including the colony of British Columbia. The day before the purchase by the United States took effect, it was Friday, 6 October 1867, in the Julian calendar (used by Russia at the time), which would have been 18 October in the Gregorian calendar. The time in New Archangel would have been 12:00 when it was 12:02, Thursday, 17 October, at the future site of Whitehorse, Yukon, and 12:49, 17 October, at the future site of Vancouver, British Columbia. With the transfer of governance, the date line was shifted (moving Alaska back a day), and the calendar was changed (moving Alaska ahead 12 days), and being effective at midnight the calendar moved ahead one day as well, for a net change of 11 days. Friday, 6 October, was followed by Friday, 18 October (not Saturday, 7 October).
Samoa changed in 1892, eight years following the international conference that would result in de facto development of the Date Line. The king was persuaded by American traders to adopt the American date, being three hours behind California, to replace the former Asian date, being four hours ahead of Japan. The change was made at the end of the day on Monday, 4 July 1892, so there were 367 days (1892 being a leap year), including two occurrences of Monday, 4 July.
The central Pacific Republic of Kiribati introduced a change of date for its eastern half on 1 January 1995, from time zones −11 and −10 to +13 and +14. Before this, the country was divided by the date line. This meant that the date line in effect moved eastwards to go around this country. As a British colony, Kiribati was centered in the Gilbert Islands, just west of the old date line. Upon independence in 1979, the new republic acquired the Phoenix and Line Islands from the United States and the country found itself straddling the date line. Government offices on opposite sides of the line could only communicate by radio or telephone on the four days of the week when both sides experienced weekdays simultaneously. A consequence of this time zone revision was that Kiribati, by virtue of its easternmost possession, the uninhabited Caroline Atoll at 150°25′ west, started the year 2000 on its territory before any other country on earth, a feature which the Kiribati government capitalized upon as a potential tourist draw. But Ariel and Berger comment that the international community has not taken this date line adjustment very seriously, noting that most world atlases still ignore this Kiribati dateline shift and they continue to represent the International Date as a straight line in the Kiribati area.[1
Suppose the Biltmore Clock, often referenced at this site, had been in Kiribati. What then?
Posted on 12/30/2009 3:47 PM by Mary Jackson
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Addressing Malfeasance: Republican Ravalli County versus Democratic Missoula County
February 19, 2014 in civil rights, Common Sense, Crime, Missoula, Missoula County Commissioners, Montana, Montana Democrats
Lizard has had two posts now calling out local democrats – Thanks for Nothing, Democrats and Rape Culture, Missoula Democrats, and Criminalizing Poverty – on their lack of acting with principles most often associated with the Democratic Party.
Lizard points out in his first post that the overwhelmingly progressive city council (yeah, they run as nonpartisans but we all know they’re democrats) are working to criminalize homelessness. He points out that the Board of County Commissioners (all democrats) is suing the feds, saying they’ve no jurisdiction over our county attorney, the illustrious Fred Van Valkenburg, and then Liz points out that oVan Valkenburg – a democrat, himself – chose to not only ignore a county initiative that decriminalized marijuana, but that he actually notched up prosecutions of possession!
A comment from former Poverello Director and State Representative Ellie Hill (HD94 – Missoula) takes us to Lizard’s second post where he takes on former Missoula Police Chief Mark Muir’s recent editorial in support of Van Valkenburg and Missoula County’s lawsuit against the feds. Now, admittedly Muir’s politics are unknown since he wasn’t an elected official – but he is standing not only in support of the very Tea Partyesque lawsuit, he’s also referring to the USDOJ as “ultra-liberal.” Liz then continues on to call out Ms. Hill’s apparent change in positions on her advocacy for the homeless, citing quotes by Hill in Missoulian reporter Keila Szpaller’s blog, Missoula Red Tape.
For good measure, Lizard closes out his post with reference to former US Representative Pat Williams’ ‘knucklehead” comment about rapists at the University of Montana, finely documented by the truly lustrous architect of words, Patrick Duganz.
Yes, it’s hard to find what many might refer to as “true progressives” or “good democrats” here in Missoula these days. Wagons are circled, that’s for sure. That “speak no ill” rule certainly applies in state democrat politics.
A few days ago a friend pointed out to me that Ravalli County – a conservative Tea Party bastion – sure knows how to address incompetence, even when it involves what is an elected office. That person was right. With unproven allegations of malfeasance, Ravalli Board of County Commissioners had County Treasurer Valerie Stamey escorted from the building by the county sheriff. They then hired an outside audit firm, brought in a interim treasurer and also a retired judge to independently oversee the investigation. Stamey remains on paid leave as the investigation continues.
Compare that to Missoula County Board of County Commissioners. With serious allegations made by the USDOJ who have quite clearly said that County Attorney Van Valkenburg has “put women’s safety at risk,” Van Valkenenburg apparently still has access to his office! There are not only allegations of violations of state and federal law, there is significant documentation by the USDOJ that civil rights were violated – that’s the kind of stuff that exposes the county to millions of dollars in lawsuits.
Instead, the county steams forward not by addressing the allegations, but on the hope of a now disgraced county attorney who thinks that the feds don’t have jurisdiction over civil rights violations.
This situation is no longer about who has jurisdiction over who – it’s over who violated civil rights and who is going to continue to maintain the status quo.
With documented allegations of civil rights violations and the failure of the Board of County Commissioners to act, it’s not going to be just Fred Van Valkenburg and Missoula County’s name on the lawsuits that have an easy in to being filed. His enablers will also be on the hook, should they fail to act.
And – dare I suggest – that may include the State of Montana, since there are documented allegations of state law in that 20 page document also. I’ve only heard crickets out of Helena, so far.
Missoula was worried about the cost of implementing the USDOJ’s recommendations? They might start to think about those civil rights lawsuits. That stuff can be real real expensive.
Look – Van Valkenburg poked at the dragon. The dragon bit back in a big way. In doing so, the dragon shined a big light on civil rights violations. If anyone things things are going to get easier, they’re dreaming.
Not only that – Van Valkenburg can’t defend himself or the county from these allegations. Consider that. Van Valkenburg had to hire outside council to sue the feds…he and the county sure can’t defend themselves against the civil rights violations that are now on their way down the pike.
Greg Strandberg
That’s some pretty good analysis here over the last 2 days. In regard to the attorney, I think the slow wheels are turning and we’ll see some action on this soon. At least I hope so.
I think the county commissioners need their own attorney, free from any conflict regarding Van Valkenburg.
I also don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. It will happen, eventually, out of necessity – but until then, they’re going to continue to fund his pipedream of a lawsuit against the feds.
Poking that dragon more and more.
if the county commissioners continue to support Fred in embarrassing Missoula by stubbornly refusing to cooperate with the DOJ in their mission to improve prosecution of rape and sex assaults and treatment of victims, it is their political funeral.
Fred is already dead in the eyes of the majority of the voters of Missoula
Rep. Ellie Hill
I haven’t changed my position on the homeless and I am sort of offended by the suggestion.
I do NOT support the current panhandling ordinances and neither do many of my Democratic colleagues. Yes, Councilwoman Copple knows this. Yes, I also still support Councilwoman Copple. In fact, I think she has been a phenomenal voice for economic development on the City Council. I do not demand my elected officials march lockstep.
And, I’m certainly not taking my toys and jumping into Lyn Helegaard’s sandbox over it.
No, I have not been shouting from the mountain tops regarding my opposition to the panhandling ordinances (this round anyway)– and this is deliberate– out of deference to my former employer, the Poverello Center, and the sensitive relationships surrounding the capital campaign for the new building. The support from United Way and the Missoula Downtown Association is critical and I deeply respect everyone involved in that effort. If anyone should understand that, I think “lizard” could cut some folks some slack on how long and how hard SO MANY people have worked towards seeing that to fruition.
There is zero doubt those ordinances criminalize constitutionally protected behavior and they are contrary to the very notion of being a Missoulian. The ACLU was correct from the beginning and I wrote every single member of the city council and told them that before the first vote and before the federal courts in Idaho confirmed it.
That said, I am proud to be a Missoula County Democrat and a Montana Democrat.
“Progressive”, “blue dog”, “libertarian-leaning”, “the New party”, “labor”, “green”; it seems that whoever we are, and whoever it is circling these wagons, I guess we don’t pass 4 and 20 muster anymore unless we load our pistols and start shooting inward. Well, count this former b’birder out then.
I don’t expect my elected officials to march lock step Elle – if I did, I wouldn’t bother voting. And I, too take offense – at the suggestion I’ve jumped over to Lyn Helegaard’s sandbox.
Politicians here need to grow some thicker skin or get off the stage. The idea here that any criticism is some sort of personal attack and an attack on all is not only ludicrous, but non-productive. This isn’t who said what about who – it’s about who voted how on what.
Is Liz to stand by as an advocate for homeless and keep his mouth shut about shitty ordinances because they’re all democrats that put it in place? With regards to the whole rape scandal, I’ve listened and read as people everywhere but here in Montana assume that the players are all Republicans. Talk about partisan assumptions.
Liz isn’t alone in his criticism of Dems and neither am I. But the incest with elected and the party elite isn’t, I’m afraid, letting ya’all see it. So be it. No one’s predicting any gains for state dems this year – but yeah – it’s all our fault.
Look inward my friend. I’ve always supported you, and that’s the truth. The shame is, the party hasn’t always supported you. City level, state level – they’ve thrown you under the bus more than once. If you can live with that, that’s your choice. For me, I’ll still call those hypocrites out and you won’t find me smiling and making pleasantries with those who’ll choose party over friendships.
Well, in the words of one of my favorite Montana Republicans, Duane Ankney from Colstrip:
“They come out and said they were going to bury me in this election,” “I said, ‘Well, get your shovels, boys.’”
I think you know me, jhwygirl, I’m loyal to the end, stubborn, but loyal. Let’s grab one at the Union Club in a few weeks. I want to run a bill idea past you, re: wild land urban interface.
Talk soon. Cheers.
lizard19
I have and will continue to use discretion in my approach to discussing matters of importance facing Missoula, so there’s the slack.
“…I guess we don’t pass 4 and 20 muster anymore unless we load our pistols and start shooting inward. Well, count this former b’birder out then.”
What then, take your marbles and go home?
Banishment for Lizard if he fails to “cut some folks some slack?” Obama used this technique effectively to marginalize progressive black activists prior to the 2012 election. Slack, however, is seldom rewarded.
Have other viable alternatives been seriously considered? Shooting the messenger has been SOP by both parties for far too long.
And the silver lining is a “wildland urban interface bill?” No more bulldozers, please?
Lizard, keep up the good work. Endless pressure endlessly applied.
Geoff Badenoch
Issues like this are terribly complex. The easy part is to line up with those who say anyone who is sexually assaulted is entitled to a respectful, honest and sensitive investigation of the assault. If we imagine the victim as a family member or loved one it becomes even easier. That’s where I line up.
At the same time, we have a system of justice that protects the rights of the accused, a value I hope everyone agrees is necessary to our liberty. We don’t always get it right in either side of an allegation of sexual assault, although we should never stop aiming to bat a thousand in our attempt to be sensitive to victims AND faithfully protect the rights of the accused. I am not convinced or satisfied we can ever stop trying to do better at this.
On top of this, though, comes the federal Department of Justice into Missoula County and concludes in its investigation that our elected County Attorney has operated the department in such a way as to less than faithfully serve the needs of victims and deliver justice on their behalf. If true, that is terribly disturbing. But the DOJ findings have not been tested in an arena of advocacy that will require their evidence to be examined in a judicial proceeding. Now that will happen.
Why is that important? First, because federal interference in local affairs involving an elected official is serious business. It should not occur lightly. It is so serious that it should be tested. Many people–far from being a Tea Partier/anti-government types–who are not given to dismissive two word assessments like “government overreach” understand the gravity of federal involvement in local law enforcement.
Second, the people of Missoula County deserve to know through a judicial examination whether the DOJ report has any merit. If, through a test of the judicial system, Fred VanValkenberg is found wanting in the management of the County Attorney’s office, I hope he will do the right thing and resign.
I am willing and happy, though, to have my tax dollars spent resolving this question in a court of law with the best legal minds at it. I am willing to recall Fred’s years of service to Missoula County and the State of Montana as a legislator and have his work examined by trial.
You make some good points. Well said!
Fred is relying on “prosecutorial discretion” in his case questioning the feds right to investigate him. That and his belief that no county attorney has ever been investigated.
I can’t verify whether he’s correct on that, and I’m sure not taking is word for it. I have, though, perused the USDOJ civil rights division’s website, and there sure are a whole hell of a lot of examples of the USDOJ investigating state AG offices, police, sheriff’s – the list goes on. As for the first issue – now think about it – he’s arguing that it’s his choice to prosecute rape and the feds should stay the hell out of it.
And here you are Geoff – one of many, I’ll add, so nothing personal here – cheering on the question of federal jurisdiction. That issue is very separate (and not any part) of any determination of whether he is “wanting in the management of the County Attorney’s Office.”
I do believe that the issue of his management of the County Attorney’s Office has been pretty thoroughly, in fact, exposed in the USDOJ report. “Boys will be boys,” being said to the mother of a 5-year old rape victim? Bible passages read to another? Rapists that confess, yet his office returning forms to the Missoula PD that say “insufficient evidence”?
His management has been pretty poor, imo – even if you want to frame the USDOJ work on Fred’s addressing of just sexual assaults as anecdotal.
“Prosecutorial discretion” is NOT choosing not to prosecute a rapist that confesses. That is a civil rights violation. Equal Protection. The 14th Amendment. Something which the USDOJ most certainly does have jurisdiction over.
These issues are indeed complex I hear plenty of people melding together a whole bunch of them. Freddy’s case is about USDOJ authority to investigate him – whether they are meddling in the local affairs of prosecutorial discretion.
It’s important as this community hopefully moves forward in discussion that all issues are kept tucked in their rightful sectors.
not really so complex geoff….. Fred is dragging Missoula through the mud to prove a point and to placate a very fragile ego….
the business community and the taxpayers of Missoula are to suck it up for the sake of some legal fine points? let some other county fight the DOJ
enrollment is declining at U of M which hurts business….
tourism is suffering…..
the very image of Missoula is at stake here….
women victims are coming out with horror stories about how they are treated by Fred and his staff….
rapists confess and there is no prosecution….
a child rape victim’s mother is told that “Boys will be Boys” by a member of Fred’s staff…..
and we should support Fred’s refusal to cooperate with DOJ recommendations to improve prosecution and to treat victims with basic human rights…..
my mother was right. there is a point when too much thinking produces bad solutions. she called them educated idiots.
I am not one of those. i use common sense most of the time.
and common sense dictates that splashing national coverage with the lead that Missoula refuses to improve our prosecution of rape and sex assaults and treatment of victims as DOJ suggests sends the world a very bad message.
I have talked to mothers and fathers who are pulling their daughters out of U of M over the last dorm room rape from Monday night.
but if you are ok with the loss of tourism and the declining enrollment to prove a fine legal point for Fred then go ahead.
I just hope that you are aware that the majority of Missoulians are not with you and Fred on this.
also, I hope that U of M is ok with the result of this bad publicity. one thing is for certain. the ratio of women to men is declining rapidly.
i know my grand daughters aren’t going anywhere near U of M
if this lawsuit goes forward.
Wow, another great response that gets to the heart of a lot of this. Who says this site was going downhill?
the site has gone downhill from the peak of activity. if you look at the list of contributors only a few remain active, which is understandable. it’s easy to get burned out writing relevant content for free during spare time, and the back and forth of commenting has, at times, been extremely toxic.
blogging overall has also seen a decline. we’ve had local blogs come and go, and the diversity of Montana blogs right now is diminished. notably there are no good conservative blogs around anymore, and the Democrat blogs just do their partisan thing, which is useful when it comes to tracking the crazies on the extreme right, but not so useful when it comes to applying their alleged principles to their own team.
Problembear, if you think Fred Van Valkenberg has a “very fragile ego” he is protecting, it makes me wonder if you know Fred Van Valkenberg. Whatever is motivating his actions, my sense of Fred is that it is not due to a fragile ego.
This incident as it has unfolded has required discernment and a dogged pursuit of the truth. I simply don’t believe that the DOJ report, unchallenged and unanswered can be the gold standard of truth. I have yet to be told about the evidence and have yet to see it cross-examined. What was said? What was heard? We have all had enough experience being misunderstood to see that suspending our judgment pending examination of the DOJ’s allegations is worthy.
Yes, Missoula’s and the University’s reputations have been sullied by the allegations played out in our courtrooms and out newspapers. One case, where the accused was the UM star quarterback resulted in an acquittal, in other words, not guilty. So, a not guilty person, because of his notoriety as a UM star athelete, was dragged through the headlines for a year or so, causing what the world sees as a stain on our community. That’s terrible.
Was he really guilty though? Did he really do it and just get off because of crafty lawyers or weak-minded judges and jurors? Here’s the hard truth: if he was innocent, Missoula got a bad rap and we can hold our heads high and suck it up until the world forgets. On the other hand, if he did it, and got away with it leaving his victim unfairly shamed and discredited, it clearly demonstrates why prosecutors–even with a case they are ready to take to trial–are so often reluctant to do so. The loss is not only theirs, but the victim is doubly violated.
Is there something to be learned from that? Sure. The pursuit of the Truth, as noble and necessary as it is, is not a journey with a certain, immediate destination. Deeper examination of the facts is all that takes us away from judgment by innuendo, unsupported allegation and humbuggery. Rather than sweep the DOJ findings away dismissively, I say give them a thorough going over and then act on what comes up.
Geoff-
The mayor of Bozeman agrees with most of Montana on this-
quoted from http://www.bozeman-magpie.com/perspective-full- article.php?article_id=1158
“My thoughts after time passed became more reflective. I certainly understand how public life can be risky, where making mistakes or even ‘business as usual’ attitudes can lure me into overlooking a problem. But the best way of dealing with great risk is to enthusiastically endorse a way forward.
“So you’ve seen the MUS (Montana University System) cooperating fully and adopting the recommendations—even if we weren’t in “consensus” about the details of the reports or even if we agreed every recommendation is a good idea. Furthermore, the City of Missoula agreed to move forward with the DOJ. Again, it is not about 100% agreement with findings. It is about getting much better in our attitudes and procedures dealing with sexual assault, fully implementing Title IX, and moving forward in our duties to protect and serve.
“The first step to making progress is to stop excusing the past and just admit we have a problem. And if one of our critical partners, like Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, won’t take that step, we don’t make progress. The system breaks down, and the community of Montana can’t move forward.
“When the issues needing progress are the safety of women on our campuses, and the civil rights of victims, and the safety of the daughters of Montanans attending UM and Missoula College, I’m not willing to accept anything but rapid, immediate, effective progress. As a Regent of the Montana University System, the words of the DOJ report speak directly to my duties and obligations to the women attending and working on the Missoula campuses. In fact, the whole state has a stake in the safety of the women on the campuses in Missoula County. We have a stake in the success of one of our proudest institutions—The University of Montana—and in the reputation of “The Garden City.” It’s time to stop fighting over the past and instead look to how we all work together to restore those reputations and, more importantly, send the message that Missoula and The University of Montana are great, welcoming, safe places for women.”
Also, our own Mayor and current police chief-
From yesterday’s Missoulian…. http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/doj-decision-has-made-missoula-better/article_518445a8-9b02-11e3-8581-001a4bcf887a.html
It’s close to a year since the city of Missoula entered into an agreement with the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and we’re the better for it.
In the wake of continuing conflict between the DOJ and the Missoula County Attorneys Office and a recent (Feb. 18) opinion piece by Missoula’s former police chief, we think it’s important to remind the public we serve where the city of Missoula stands when it comes to the safety of women in our community.
We’re more responsive and sensitive to the needs of victims of sexual assault, we’re operating under better policies and procedures, we are better trained, we are cooperating better with our partners in law enforcement, the criminal justice system and the community, we’re reorganizing our staff and remodeling our facilities to better serve victims and we’re opening ourselves to external review in an effort to ensure that we’re always improving and that we’re accountable to the citizens we serve.
Since May, when we finalized our agreement with the Civil Rights Division, our team has worked tirelessly to meet the letter and spirit of that agreement, which calls for a victim-centered approach to investigating sexual assault.
Here’s what’s different today from a year ago:
• Nearly every one of Missoula’s police officers has received extensive training in sexual-assault response from a widely respected trainer using nationally recognized best practices. Our officers have been joined by the staff of the University of Montana’s Office of Public Safety, the county attorney and members of his staff.
• We have updated our policies and procedures around sexual-assault cases, ensuring that we’re communicating more frequently and thoughtfully with victims, more assertively following up with suspects and turning over the best possible investigations to prosecutors, then following up with their charging decision and documenting those decisions. The city of Missoula, University of Montana and Missoula County Attorney’s Office have agreements in place designed to enhance interagency cooperation with regard to sexual assault.
• Each of our sexual-assault cases is reviewed by an independent, community-based team responsible for holding us accountable to our policies and practices. We make changes in policy, procedure and personnel based on these reviews.
• Soon, we’ll participate in our first annual community audit of our response that will assess how we, the University of Montana and the Missoula County Attorney’s Office are collaborating to address sexual assault, “with a focus on enhancing victim safety, support and participation in the law-enforcement process.”
Today, the women and men of the Missoula Police Department are working diligently every day to ensure that we’re taking care of victims of sexual assault better than any other city in America. We’re not grudgingly operating under an agreement with the federal government, but operating in the best interests of the community we’re sworn to protect and serve.
Mike Brady is the city of Missoula’s police chief and John Engen is Missoula’s mayor.
And Geoff. You are right. I don’t know Fred Van Valkenburg. I don’t have a membership to Missoula Country Club.
I do however know that the louder a dog barks, the smaller he becomes…..
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FILE - In this April 30, 2019 file photo Sterling Van Wagenen, left, pleads guilty during his initial appearance in American Fork, Utah. Wagenen, who co-founded the Sundance Film Festival and produced a movie whose lead actress won an Oscar in the mid-1980s has been sentenced on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, to at least six years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a child. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune, via AP, Pool, File)
Filmmaker sentenced again in second sexual abuse case
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Jury member Elle Fanning poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
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CANNES, France (AP) — Elle Fanning says she's been transformed by her experience as the youngest juror ever at the Cannes Film Festival. The 21-year-old actress said Saturday after the festival's closing ceremony that she will never forget her time as a juror and she didn't want it to be over...
Director Bong Joon-ho poses with the Palme d'Or award for the film 'Parasite' during a photo call following the awards ceremony at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 25, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Bong d'Or: Korean director wins Cannes' top prize
CANNES, France (AP) — South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's raucous social satire "Parasite," about a poor family of hustlers who find jobs with a wealthy family, won the Cannes Film Festival's top award, the Palme d'Or, on Saturday. The win for "Parasite" marks the first Korean film to ever win the...
Director Bong Joon-ho poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Parasite' at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
The Latest: Bong Joon-ho's satire "Parasite" wins Palme d'Or
CANNES, France (AP) — The Latest on the Cannes Film Festival (all times local): 8:25 p.m. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's social satire "Parasite," about a poor family of hustlers who find jobs with a wealthy family, has won the Cannes Film Festival's top award, the Palme d'Or. The win for "...
Director Quentin Tarantino poses for photographers with the Palm Dog collar award for the the dog Brandy that appeared in his film 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Quentin Tarantino wins top dog award at Cannes Film Festival
CANNES, France (AP) — Whether or not Quentin Tarantino wins the Palme d'Or this year, at least he's not coming home without a trophy. The director of the Cannes Film Festival entry "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" scooped up the top prize at the Palm Dog Awards. The awards are handed out...
Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and Brad Pitt pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
With Brad and Leo, Tarantino debuts a fairy tale in Cannes
CANNES, France (AP) — Twenty-five years after premiering "Pulp Fiction" in Cannes, Quentin Tarantino returned to the French film festival with neither great vengeance nor furious anger but a gentler fairy tale about 1960s Los Angeles. "Once Upon a Time In ... Hollywood" made its much-anticipated...
Intepreter Massoumeh Lahidji, centre, translates an interview with director Pedro Almodovar, left, and Associated Press film writer Jake Coyle, right at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In Cannes, making sure cinema isn't lost in translation
CANNES, France (AP) — On one afternoon at the Cannes Film Festival last year, Massoumeh Lahidji could be seen on a rooftop terrace interpreting Farsi into English for the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, and an hour later sitting on a stage with Martin Scorsese translating the famously verbose...
Director Robert Eggers, from left, actors Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson pose for portrait photographs for the film 'The Lighthouse' at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 19, 2019. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
'The Lighthouse,' with Robert Pattinson, illuminates Cannes
CANNES, France (AP) — Robert Eggers' "The Lighthouse," starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as turn-of-the-century lighthouse keepers, kicked up a storm Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival with a wave-making, madhouse period tale that seemingly washed ashore from another era. "The Lighthouse...
This image released by Cinetic Marketing shows a scene from the film "The Climb," starring Michael Covino and Kyle Marvin. (Cinetic Marketing via AP)
On two wheels, 'The Climb' rides through Cannes as a hit
CANNES, France (AP) — Some stars and directors come to the Cannes Film Festival by boat, others by private jet. Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin pretty much cycled their way into Cannes. Covino's "The Climb," in which he and Marvin star as lifelong friends, opens on a French mountain. One of...
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Home /Nicaraguan Man Dies While In Border Patrol Custody In Arizona
Nicaraguan Man Dies While In Border Patrol Custody In Arizona
A Nicaraguan man who was in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody died early Friday morning, the agency reported.
The 52-year-old man was among 36 people from Central America who surrendered to Border Patrol agents west of Sasabe, Arizona, according to a CBP statement. Immigration officials were processing the group at a facility in Tuscon.
CBP said the man fell into “medical distress” and was rushed to the hospital. Efforts by emergency responders and CBP agents to revive him were unsuccessful, the statement said.
The agency did not provide the man’s name.
“The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are saddened to report that a 52-year-old man from Nicaragua was pronounced deceased early this morning after he was rushed to the hospital,” the agency said. “Our condolences are with his family.”
“CBP is committed to the health, safety and humane treatment of those in our custody.”
NO. You’re not. These deaths wouldn’t be occurring if that were the case. How many more need to die for us to react as a nation? https://t.co/iBPmvzFSEu
— RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) July 5, 2019
The man’s death comes six days after another migrant, a man from Honduras, died while in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas. ICE officials found the Honduran man, 30-year-old Yimi Alexis Balderramons-Torres, unresponsive in his detention cell on Sunday. He was taken to a Houston hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
So far, 12 migrants have died in the custody of U.S. immigration officials, according to a tally by CNN.
Earlier Friday, President Donald Trump defended worsening conditions at U.S. detention centers near the border while speaking to reporters outside of the White House.
“I think the Border Patrol has done an incredible job,” Trump said.
The president also boasted about the overcrowded migrant detention centers, which have been at the center of several damning watchdog reports, and the agents who run them.
“I’ve seen some of those places, and they’re run beautifully. They’re clean, they’re good, they do a great job,” Trump said.
Charlie Riedel/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A portion of the border barrier at Nogales, Arizona.
A report released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General detailed dirty, crowded and inhumane conditions at detention centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Included in the report was a photo taken at a detention center in Fort Brown Station in South Texas showing 88 men crowded into a room with a maximum capacity of 41. One man held a sign that read: “HELP 40 Days Here.” Another photo showed men, women and children crowded in a cage at a detention center in McAllen, Texas.
The inspector general’s office released a report in May describing conditions that left detainees in soiled clothing for weeks.
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New Jersey becoming a hot spot for filmmakers
By Darla Miles
PATERSON, New Jersey (WABC) -- New Jersey might not be the new Hollywood, but it's certainly getting a lot of attention by filmmakers.
Many studios are using the Garden State as a backdrop to upcoming films.
The latest is Steven Spielberg's remake of "West Side Story," but there's also the new "Sopranos" prequel and several new Netflix shows.
The trend is not only putting New Jersey on the map, but it's also bringing in big bucks for local communities.
Military transport vehicles and street signs in Polish are classic images from World War II. But a closer look at one movie set, and you'll see Paterson City Hall in the background.
"Paterson has become a hub for the film industry," Mayor Andre Sayegh said. "You've had the city transformed into Warsaw, Poland; London, England; and Zagreb, Croatia for three different sets."
Over the last year, TV and movie sets -- and even actors in full costume -- have been popping up all around town.
Productions like "The Hunt," "The Plot Against America" starring Winona Ryder, and the new "West Side Story" are all on location in Paterson.
"This did not exist this time last year," Sayegh said. "I believe it's because of our beautiful bones in Paterson. We have the architecture, so you can essentially re-create anything."
Last fall, Governor Phil Murphy reinstated tax credits for the film industry, 30 percent of the total production budget. And on top of that, the city sweetens the pot with highly competitive location fees.
"There are benefits, long-term benefits, because other films are going to come and they're going to start investing in the local economy," Sayegh said. "And then here's the multiplier effect. You got crews. They get hungry."
And that's exactly what happened when the sopranos prequel was shooting a scene on Ellison Street, across from Gionvanni Pizzeria, in April.
"All of them (came)," owner Giovanni Kiyan said. "The whole crew."
In fact, Mayor Sayegh says "The Hunt" generated $40,000 for downtown businesses.
"It obviously enhances our image," he said. "It raises our profile. And people can brag about Paterson."
* More New Jersey news
arts & entertainmentpatersonentertainmentmovies
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October 5, 2014 November 1, 2016 - by ACME Admin - Leave a Comment
This is a description of the 20 competition categories in the Uganda National Journalism Awards 2017.
Individual or shared byline entries can be made for all categories. Editorial managers and members of the public may also nominate a journalist for an award.
If you need further clarification on the awards, please write to awards [at] acme-ug [dot] org, subject line: Uganda National Journalism Awards 2017.
Agriculture reporting
This award will recognize the best agriculture writing or production in Uganda. Entries must have farming practice, agriculture policy, trends, research, innovation or trade at their core. Broader themes of hunger, nutrition, climate change and environment may be accepted if the entries demonstrate their link and impact on the agriculture sector.
Arts and culture journalism
The award for this category recognizes articles or broadcasts that provide excellent context and background to artistic critique and offer nuances and provocative insights into the arts and culture sector. Judges will acknowledge stories that are informed by in-depth knowledge of the historical, political and aesthetic forces that shape arts and culture in Uganda.
Business, economic and financial reporting
This award will be given to a business, economic or financial news story that demonstrates excellence, creativity and journalistic merit.
This award honors work that best features and presents data journalism on print, broadcast or digital. The award will focus on the effectiveness of the data to tell a story, how well the data are presented to users, the journalistic impact and relevance of the data, and the design and functionality of the data presentation.
This award will be granted to an entry that displays visual commentary featuring art, argument and humor. The editorial cartoons must have appeared in a Ugandan print or online magazine or newspaper.
Each cartoonist is allowed to submit one entry consisting of three separate editorial cartoons. The entry will be judged on this show of work. Each entry should be accompanied by a short explanation of the story and how it developed. Details should include the story’s chronology and circumstances affecting its gathering and presentation.
This award will be given to the story that makes an exceptional contribution to public awareness and understanding of education issues in Uganda.
Energy, oil, gas and mineral resources
This award will be given to excellent reporting that enhances understanding of Uganda’s energy and natural resources sector. The subject may be on any form of energy—oil, gas, nuclear, water, solar, mineral resources, etc.
Environment reporting
This award will be given to a story that makes an exceptional contribution to public awareness and understanding of environmental issues. The report or series represents not just exceptional journalism, but also reporting with the potential to bring constructive change.
Explanatory reporting
This award is for exemplary in-depth analysis and clear presentation of complex issues. Entries should explain a relevant, meaningful and multifaceted subject to audiences through clear storytelling and presentation. Entries will be judged on the quality of journalism, creative and appropriate uses of media.
The award will be granted to the feature treatment of any human interest, lifestyle or news topic. Entries can be profiles, interviews, news features, trend stories or narrative stories.
Health reporting
The winning entry to this award will be judged on the excellence in covering a wide range of issues including public health, medical research, the business of health care, disease and health ethics.
This award recognizes excellence in reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, matters of importance to the audience. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish maters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. The reporting must not be based on an investigation made by someone else. It is permissible to use excerpts from official records and investigations, but only incidentally and not as primary proof of the investigative conclusion.
Justice, law and order
Judging of this award will be based on reporting that shows an in-depth knowledge of the full range of issues in Uganda’s justice system and use a journalist’s contacts to bring readers the full story. The award-winning journalist will go the beyond the crime statistics and tell the story of the victims of crime.
Multimedia journalism
The award for this category will be presented to a journalist who makes the best use of new media/multimedia technology in their coverage of a single feature story or special project series. To qualify, a journalist must demonstrate the use of no less than three distinct tools in storytelling. Attention will be given to the creative use of new media and how well it contributes to the reader’s in-depth understanding of the issue.
Multimedia components might include (but are not limited to) graphics, photo galleries, video or interactive elements. Time stamps should be visible on these entries. URLs should be provided.
National news reporting
This award will be granted to a distinguished reporting on national affairs with significant impact on Uganda. Two separated prizes for broadcast and print entries will be granted.
The photojournalism award will be given to a photographer who displays excellence and creativity in the visual presentation of a breaking news, a feature or a subject of human interest with journalistic merit. The photos must have been first published or broadcast by Ugandan media. A photographer may submit a one photograph for a single story or no more than four photographs for a story series or feature.
Political reporting
This award will go to a journalist whose coverage helps develop a unique understanding of politics, key players and the political process. Judges will look for reporting that is particularly innovative, issue-focused and informs audiences about their democratic and political choices.
Local reporting
This prize will recognize the work of reporters based outside of Kampala who provide a clear understanding of events, issues and politics of importance to their town, districts or regions. It honors reporters who demonstrate excellence and versatility in covering local issues from a local angle.
This award will go to a journalist whose coverage explores new avenues and finds a new direction in reporting sports. It will also recognize a journalist who brings sporting occasions or sporting events to life with the quality of reporting and/or who produces agenda-setting news on subjects of great general interest.
Call for entries – Uganda National Journalism Awards, 2015
Uganda National Journalism Awards 2016 – The journey begins
Previous Article Phone app to outsmart corruption
Next Article Entry rules and submission guidelines
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Canterbury Cathedral, Dover Castle, and White Cliffs
Enjoy a day tour by mini-coach to the county of Kent, known traditionally as the Garden of England. Stop to visit historic Canterbury Cathedral, see the famous White Cliffs of Dover and take a tour of Dover Castle, the largest castle in the country.
Visit historic Canterbury Cathedral
See the famous White Cliffs of Dover
Learn about the history of Dover Castle, the largest castle in England
On this full-day excursion from London, your first stop will be the historic cathedral city of Canterbury. There’s plenty to see in Canterbury, including the Cathedral, St. Martin’s Church and St. Augustine’s Abbey. Pilgrims have made their way to Canterbury Cathedral since the Middle Ages, and it remains popular today with visitors from around the world.
You’ll travel on to the coast to see the White Cliffs of Dover, one of the country’s most spectacular natural features. An icon of Britain, the White Cliffs have been a sign of hope and freedom for centuries. Take a walk along the clifftops and look out over the busy English Channel. On a clear day you’ll be able to see across to France.
Just a short drive up the road from the White Cliffs of Dover is Dover Castle, one of the largest castles in the country, strategically placed at the shortest crossing point to continental Europe.
The castle has played a prominent role in Britain’s history, and dates back to the Iron Age. A Roman lighthouse and Anglo-Saxon church still stand within the grounds. Admission to the castle is included in the tour and you’ll also have some free time to explore the grounds.
Visit to the White Cliffs of Dover
Admission to Dover Castle
Visit to Canterbury and admission to Canterbury Cathedral
Round-trip transportation by luxury coach
Services of a tour manager
Not suitable for
London Bridge, at 09:00 am, outside tube station entrance on Tooley Street by bus stop S.
From US$ 112.15 per person
White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury: Day-Trip from London
From London: Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral & Dover
Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Dover, and Greenwich
From US$ 131.49
See all reviews Couples Family Group of friends
Anderson Tours
Barcelona Day Trips
Budapest Cruises & Water Tours
Bordeaux Wine Tasting & Winery Tours
Amsterdam Day Trips
Amsterdam City Cards
Edinburgh Harry Potter Tours
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TBL: S2 E1 – J.…
Jul12019
“SHOP LOCAL!” is a big deal for my wife and I. As business owners, we understand the importance of supporting as many locally-owned businesses as possible. Thus, we’re always on the lookout for great Kansas City companies and brands. So, when Lauren asked me, “hey, did you see that new distillery opening up in the East Bottoms?,” I had to check it out. What a find! Not only is J. Rieger & Co. opening a new distillery, they have renovated an old building which used to be a bottling facility for The Heim Brewery! How neat is that?
After following J. Rieger & Co. on Instagram, I started to learn a little about the history of company. Originally founded in 1887, the whisky brand was forced to shut down due to prohibition in 1919. Nearly a century later, the brand has been resurrected and history is being restored to the Kansas City area via their incredible new distillery.
Take a listen as I interview Ryan Maybee, one of the co-founders of the company, to hear the fascinating story of J. Rieger & Co.!
Make a date to visit their new facility which opens July 12th, 2019! https://www.facebook.com/events/1146824242190800/
J. Rieger & Co. Instagram (@jriegerco)
J. Rieger & Co. on Facebook
J. Rieger & Co. website
EPISODE RECAP:
The history of J. Rieger & Co., where it started, how it was resurrected nearly 100 . years later.
The incredible story of how a descendent of Jacob Rieger, original founder of the company, became involved in helping rebuild the brand
Details of the new J. Rieger and Co. distillery in the East Bottom district of Kansas City, MO
The history of the East Bottoms district, Electric Park and the old Heim Brewery bottling facility which is now the J. Rieger & Co. distillery
PreviousPrevious post:TBL: 030 – Developing a customer relationship process in a service-based businessNextNext post:TBL: S2 E2 – The importance of business efficiency to your bottom line and how to measure it
TBL: 030 – Developing a customer relationship process in a service-based business
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Please welcome Dr. Ajay Antony to the...
Please welcome Dr. Ajay Antony to the Department!
Dr. Antony joined us on July 1, 2016, as an Assistant Professor for the Division of Chronic Pain. He comes to us from our very own department where he served as Chief Resident and completed his internship and fellowship in Pain Medicine. Dr. Antony was awarded the Michael E. Mahla Outstanding Resident of the Year Award, Best Resident for Outstanding Dedication and Service to the Department, and Outstanding Resident Teacher Award. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Integrative Biology at “the Gator Nation” and earned his MD at St. George University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. He is certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Basic Cardiac Life Support and is a member of many professional academic societies such as the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and many more. Dr. Antony has given many lectures and has presented his research at the International Meeting of the American Thoracic Society, not to mention having published articles abstracts. We are excited to have such an accomplished doctor joining us and we ask you to help us welcome him as a faculty member to the department and university!
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Photo Platform Everpix Adds Image Recognition Feature
With two children under the age of 5, I’ve got a massive amount of digital photos and absolutely no time to sort through thousands of images. That’s where Everpix comes in. The photo platform syncs unlimited, full-resolution photos to the cloud and categorizes each image. Along with a Web interface, the service’s iOS app has been updated today with some new features. Probably the biggest new addition is the Explore feature. By using a proprietary algorithm, Everpix recognizes and sorts photos on a content level – like babies, landscapes, pets, cars, food, and more. Version 1.5 of the app also brings improved AirPlay support for users streaming photos to an Apple TV. Along with the update, Everpix has introduced a freemium tier. Everpix Free will offer unlimited storage of 12 months worth of full-resolution photos for no charge. Everpix is a universal app designed for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad/iPad mini. It can be downloaded in the App Store now for free. Regular subscriptions can be purchased for $49 per year or $4.99 per month. Users can print any of their photos at any one of more than 8,000 Walgreen’s locations across the United States. Images can also be easily shared with family and friends via email. I’ve been an Everpix user for a few months, and can highly recommend the service. While I was at first wary of the subscription fees, its nice to have all of my precious memories stored and sorted in the cloud. And the iOS app does a very nice job of displaying all of your images. If you're looking for other Photo Sharing Apps, take a look at our AppList.
Everpix
33cube, Inc.
YouTube Update Adds The AirPlay-Like Ability To Stream Videos
DIAL: Netflix And Google To Take On Apple's AirPlay With New Second-Screen Protocol
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AQSQID: 007203150
Site Name: Jpn Site 007203150
Location: None, None
Reporting: False, Located: False
Current AQI: None
None None, None: None, None
Date Observed (UTC)
NOY
NO2Y
AQI/500
July 15, 2019, 3 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 15, 2019, noon N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 15, 2019, 11 a.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 15, 2019, 9 a.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 15, 2019, midnight N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 14, 2019, 11 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, 11 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, 9 p.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, noon N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, 11 a.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, 9 a.m. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
July 9, 2019, midnight N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Data from airnow.gov
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« Somalia to Thailand, the same story of Pak-Afghan Terrorism
Pakistani army: Taliban holding town hostage : Latest from Buner »
The Death and Resurrection of Osama bin Laden, The Faliure of Pak, Afghan And US Governments.
Bin Laden’s voice was detected regularly until [14 December 2001] by intelligence operatives monitoring radio transmissions in Tora Bora, according to the Pentagon [details]. Since then, nothing has been heard from the al-Qa’eda leader and President Bush has hinted in private that bin Laden’s silence could mean he has been killed. [Telegraph, 12/28/2001]
Osama bin Laden:
A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama’s gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama’s ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival?[New York Times. July 11, 2002]Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years. According to Le Figaro, last year [2000] he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan. [Guardian]Peter Bergen: Bin Laden has aged ‘enormously’
This is a man who was clearly not well. I mean, as you see from these pictures here, he’s really, by December [2001] he’s looking pretty terrible.
Bin Laden December 27, 2001 video
Healthy bin Laden
But by December, of course, that tape that was aired then, he’s barely moving the left side of his body. So he’s clearly got diabetes. He has low blood pressure. He’s got a wound in his foot. He’s apparently got dialysis … for kidney problems. [CNN]
The [December 27, 2001 video] was dismissed by the Bush administration … as sick propaganda possibly designed to mask the fact the al-Qa’eda leader was already dead. “He could have made the video and then ordered that it be released in the event of his death,” said one White House aide. [Telegraph]
Pakistan’s Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead
Pakistan’s president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.
[A Bush administration official] said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and “it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout.” [CNN]
Renal dialysis — talking about hemodialysis — is something that really is reserved for patients in end-stage renal failure. That means their kidneys have just completely shut down. The most common cause of something like that would be something like diabetes and hypertension. Once that’s happened, if you’re separated from your dialysis machine — and incidentally, dialysis machines require electricity, they’re going to require clean water, they’re going to require a sterile setting — infection is a huge risk with that. If you don’t have all those things and a functioning dialysis machine, it’s unlikely that you’d survive beyond several days or a week at the most. [CNN]
Karzai: bin Laden ‘probably’ dead
Osama bin Laden is “probably” dead, but former Taliban leader Mullah Omar is alive, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said. [CNN]
FBI: Bin Laden ‘probably’ dead
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is “probably” dead. [BBC]
Magazine runs what it calls bin Laden’s will
The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arab news magazine said a purported will it published Saturday was written late last year [2001] by Osama bin Laden, and shows “he’s dying or he’s going to die soon.” [CNN]
Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. “The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Usama alive or dead,” the source said. [FOX News]
Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper:
al-Wafd, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Vol 15 No 4633
News of Bin Laden’s Death and Funeral 10 days ago
A prominent official in the Afghan Taleban movement announced yesterday the death of Osama bin Laden, the chief of al-Qa’da organization, stating that binLaden suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death. [Welfare State]
Osama bin who?
Israel does not view bin Laden as a threat. [Janes]
Israeli intelligence: Bin Laden is dead, heir has been chosen
Israeli sources said Israel and the United States assess that Bin Laden probably died in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan in December. They said the emergence of new messages by Bin Laden are probably fabrications, Middle East Newsline reported. [World Tribune]
[See also The Fake bin Laden Audio Tape]
[See also Benazir Bhutto says Osama is dead.]
Officials, friends can’t confirm Bin Laden death report
POSTED: 11:12 a.m. EDT, September 24, 2006
Story HighlightsStory Highlights
• France’s Chirac, U.S. intelligence downplay report that bin Laden is dead
• Report’s source is leaked French defense ministry documents
• Saudi source tells CNN bin Laden is ill with a water-borne disease
• Bin Laden’s brother-in-law says he has heard no report of al Qaeda leader’s death
PARIS, France (CNN) — A report that Osama bin Laden is dead has set off a flurry of denials from U.S., French and Pakistani officials, who say the newspaper report citing French intelligence cannot be independently confirmed.
A Saudi intelligence official, however, told CNN on Saturday that the al Qaeda leader is suffering from a waterborne illness. There have been credible reports that the most wanted man in the world is ill, but there is no intelligence indicating he is dead, the source said.
L’Est Republicain, citing a September 21 French foreign intelligence document, reported that Saudi officials had received confirmation that bin Laden died August 23 of typhoid fever in Pakistan. (Watch what intelligence information reveals about bin Laden’s condition — 1:59
“We believe this reporting to be unsubstantiated,” a U.S. intelligence official said.
Other U.S. intelligence officials concurred, and White House spokesman Blair Jones said, “We have no confirmation of that report.” (Watch a former CIA director explain how this report could be confirmed –3:34)
A senior White House official with access to intelligence reports added that he has made several calls to senior government officials and could not verify the report.
Across the Atlantic, French President Jacques Chirac said the report was “in no way confirmed” and that he was initiating an investigation into who leaked the confidential document to L’Est Republicain. (Watch French reporter sticking to his story — 1:51)
“I was rather surprised to see that a confidential note from the [General Directorate for External Security] was published, and I have asked the minister of defense to start an investigation immediately and to reach whatever conclusions are necessary,” Chirac said after trade talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Compiegne, France.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friend, family weigh in.
Bin Laden’s brother-in-law, Jamal Khalifa, who was the al Qaeda leader’s best friend when they were university students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told CNN that he has heard no report of bin Laden’s death. The Saudi-based businessman has been married to bin Laden’s sister, Shaikha, since 1986.
Khaled Batarfi, a managing editor at the Saudi newspaper Al Madina and who was close friends with bin Laden when they were teenagers, said he remains in touch with bin Laden’s immediate family in Jeddah. Family members said Saturday they had heard nothing to confirm the report, Batarfi told CNN.
Despite the fervent denials, journalist Laid Sammari, who wrote the article, said in a telephone interview that he was confident the classified document was authentic. His article states that Saudi secret service agents on September 4 received reports of bin Laden’s death.
Saudi officials plan to make an official announcement after they confirm the burial site for the al Qaeda leader, Sammari said.
In Pakistan, officials said Saturday that they had no confirmation of bin Laden’s death. On Friday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf confirmed President Bush’s earlier statement that the hunt for bin Laden is still on.
Al Qaeda was behind the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. The U.S. State Department is offering a $25 million reward for information leading directly to bin Laden’s arrest or conviction, according to the FBI.
The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association are offering an additional $2 million reward.
Bin Laden’s most recent public message came June 30, when an audio recording was posted on an Islamic Web site. He stated that Abu Hamza al-Muhajer had replaced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike earlier in June.
The CIA confirmed the voice on the tape was bin Laden’s.
The al Qaeda leader’s most recent videotaped statement was aired October 29, 2004, on Al-Jazeera.
CNN’s Katie Turner, Pam Benson, Peter Bergen, Elise Labott and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.
Pakistan’s President says Osama bin Laden could be dead
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has raised the prospect that Osama bin Laden could be dead after he said that intelligence officials could find “no trace” of the al-Qaeda chief.
By Dean Nelson and Emal Khan in Peshawar
Last Updated: 6:25AM BST 28 Apr 2009
An image from 1998 shows Osama Bin Laden speaking to selected reporters in the mountains of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan Photo: AP
He said that neither his own advisers in Pakistan nor US intelligence agencies had detected any trace of the al-Qaeda leader since Al Jazeera television broadcast an audio recording of his voice in March.
But even then, unlike on previous occasions the authenticity of the voice purporting to be bin Laden was not confirmed by the CIA.
There have been regular reports of bin Laden’s ill health, notably speculation about his kidneys failing. Mr Zardari said his own advisers believed there was substance to the rumours.
“The question is whether he is alive or dead. There is no trace of him,” he said.
“There is no news. They obviously feel that he does not exist any more but that’s not confirmed.”
Mr Zardari’s predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, similarly suggested that the Saudi terror chief could be dead. But US officials have repeatedly stated that bin Laden could yet be hiding in the mountainous region straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Mr Zardari’s comments came as he sought to reassure the international community that it need not worry over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had voiced her fears that they could fall into Taliban hands if the Pakistani government failed to halt the militants’ advance throughout its North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Militants were last week repelled from their positions in Buner, just 60 miles from the capital Islamabad.
Her remarks followed earlier claims to a US Congressional committee that Pakistan was “abdicating to the Taliban” by making peace deals in places like the Swat Valley, where ministers had agreed to introduce Sharia law in exchange for an end to a militant insurgency.
That latest deal is unravelling after the Pakistan army killed 46 Taliban fighters in the space of two days, including two senior commanders in Malakand’s Lower Dir district, in a series of helicopter gunship strikes.
They were called in after the NWFP government said the Taliban had broken the truce deal by pushing beyond the Swat Valley to neighbouring districts like Buner and Lower Dir.
A Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, last night warned his fighters would attack government forces throughout the district if the government did not immediately halt its offensive.
No Confirmation about Laden’s Death
Updated: Monday, April 27, 2009, 16:05|| IrishTimes.com|| Last updated on April 29, 2009, 18:15 by Agencies.||
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari said today that the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.
Mr Zardari said US officials had told him that they had no trace of the al-Qaeda leader, although they habitually say he is most likely in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s own intelligence agencies had no confirmation of Bin Laden’s status either, Mr Zardari said.
“There is no news,” the president said. “They obviously feel that he does not exist anymore but that’s not confirmed, we can’t confirm that.”
Al Jazeera aired excerpts of an audio recording in March in which the speaker’s voice sounded like earlier messages from Bin Laden, who has eluded all efforts to catch him since al-Qaeda carried out the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden’s 52nd birthday was on March 10th. He is known to suffer from ill-health.
There have been reports that he had died of natural causes in the past, but they have never been corroborated, and security analysts believe intelligence agencies monitoring jihadi websites on the internet would have picked up some chatter. nReuters .
It is difficult to say, whether Osama is dead or alive. Whether he is a good friend of Obama, Karzai, Musarraf or Muslim mass being endangered by the isolation threat out of an Islamist terrorism. But a fun realms that Osama generally prefers breakfast with Zardari, lunch with Karzai and dinner with Obama. And only Allah knows where Osama sleeps at night.
But the reality runs that Ghost Osama is more dangerous than Osama live Laden. Laden is still the prime inspiration of all Islamist terror forces.
Tags: Fake Death of Osama bin Laden, Faliure of Pak-Afghan-US Govts, Is Laden dead or alive?
This entry was posted on April 30, 2009 at 5:27 am and is filed under Osama bin Laden, Talibans in Pakistan, Terrorism, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Aliens Futuristic
The US government made a pact with Aliens for otherworldly technology
There are numerous Ufologists who claim that extraterrestrial beings have worked with our government for years. This theory, which has been seriously ridiculed by many, might actually be true since numerous scientists and governmental official have come forward suggesting that there is more to alien life on Earth than previously believed.
Philip Schneider was a man who is believed to have come forward with highly classified information. He was a geologist and structural engineer of the Government of the United States and was involved in the construction of deep underground military bases in the United States with the Army Corps of Engineers.He was one of three people to survive the 1979 fire fight between the large Greys and US intelligence and military forces at Dulce underground base. At Dulce, Schneider maintained, “gray” humanoid extraterrestrials worked side by side with American technicians. In 1979, a misunderstanding arose. In the ensuing shootout, 66 Secret Service, FBI and Black Berets were killed along with an unspecified number of “grays”.
Philip Schneider’s father, Oscar Schneider was a medical advisor to the US Navy. During the last two years of his life, Phil Schneider gave over 30 lectures to a variety of audiences around the world talking about highly classified information of the government involving alien technology, alien weapons, experiments and pacts between governments worldwide and aliens.
Many people remained skeptical about what Schneider had brought forward and much of his life was seriously questioned by people worldwide. He was ridiculed by many, but there were many who believed that what Schneider was telling was the absolute truth, something that no one dared to talk about.
Mysteriously in 1996, Schneider was found dead in his apartment. Authorities said it was a suicide, but many people believe that Schneider was killed because he had leaked extremely classified information to the public.
In 1954, former President Dwight Eisenhower, made a pact with three species of aliens, Schneider said at a conference in 1995. n exchange for alien technology, Eisenhower allegedly gave permission for the aliens to abduct a limited number human beings to perform numerous experiments on Earth and in space.
Schneider said that many of the thousands people who have gone missing around the world, may have been taken by aliens. He said there are nine races of aliens who see the human race as “a bag of food.”
According to Schneider, the technology that aliens gave us as part of this exchange includes a type of metal that is almost indestructible. Schneider showed the audience what he said was a piece of this metal.It is made of niobium, an element that we have in the periodic table, and Marinite, a strange element which is not found on Earth.
But there were other technological utilities that aliens gave to humans thanks to the pacts. The government was able to develop a spy satellite with help of aliens that can detect a penny on the floor of your kitchen according to Schneider. This spy-satellite uses some sort of infrared technology with a resolution factor of 99.99961.
But this pact was broken by the aliens since they have abducted way more aliens than agreed. According to Schneider, since the pact was broken there have been tensions among alien races and humans.
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AMBASSADORS 2018/19
MEET THE ALPINA WATCHES WINTER AMBASSADORS
All Alpina “family” members – the “Alpinists” – are united by a common aim. They seek performance and progress when facing a challenge in extremely demanding environments. They successfully accomplish their missions by applying the “Alpinist” principles:
We only associate with friends and partners that – like us – truly share, live and work according to these principles, and we hope that any person who adheres to them, and wishes to promote them, will one day decide to wear an Alpina watch, thereby becoming an “Alpinist”.
That our Ambassadors are Alpine skiers, snowboarders, free riders, ice-skaters, divers, adventurers, or skipper, they all share our values, care about the Outdoor environment and best represent the Alpinist attitude!
Take a moment to learn more about them and follow them along their different worldwide competitions, events or adventures.
Luca spent his first years in Crans-Montana where he discovered skiing and where he became a member of the ski club “Les Barzettes (Randogne)”. At the age of 4, his family moved to the region of Berne, but continued to go to Crans-Montana to perfect his skills. Even though he loved playing soccer, Luca realized his passion for skiing was far bigger. He is now a National athlete for the Swiss Ski Team. During his first performance in the 2013 Junior World Championships, he took the podium celebrating with an amazing 2nd place. In 2014 he won the National Championships in Saint Moritz in 2014. In 2017, he won the Gold Medal in the World Championships in Saint Moritz in the Super Combination category.
www.luca-aerni.ch
aerniluca
lucaaerni
Seastrong Horological Smartwatch (ref. AL-282LBB4V6)
CHARLOTTE CHABLE
Charlotte started skiing at the age of two on the slopes of Villars and then began her career at the Ski Club before joining the NLZ’s Team. Her specialty is slalom skiing which has always been a passion for her and she enjoys the rush that this sport offers. Today Charlotte is a National athlete and a proud member of the Swiss-Ski Federation in the hopes of becoming one of the best skiers in the world. She started competing in the Junior World Championships in 2015 where she reached an impressive 4th place and most recently, she made 9th place in the 2015 World Cup in Aspen, USA. After another difficult injury in 2016, and a long rehabilitation, Charlotte is eager to get back her top-level in FIS WorldCup.
www.charlottechable.ch
chablecharlotte
charlottechable
Ladies Horological Smartwatch (ref. AL-281BS3V6)
JIM DE PAOLI
Born and raised in Geneva in Switzerland. After completing his studies, Jim consecrated the great Majority of his time practicing his sport, hundreds of hours of training spent in sports halls or ice rinks. After 9 years of racing, He participates in over 35 races and he’s more than motivated to repeat for a new season. The Ice Cross Downhill sport made its debut in January 2001 in Stockholm. With their ice skates, the athletes hurtle down the icy slopes, strewn with obstacles of all kinds, with the only goal being to be first on the finish line. This sport is a symbiosis between Skicross and ice skating. The races are held throughout Europe and North America.
jimdepaoli
YANN SCUSSEL
Yann Scussel, is born in 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland. He quickly became passionate about sports, including water sports such as swimming and water polo, which he practiced at a high level for years. Water has become its element; even some days he is more under water than outside! With his parents, he also had the chance to travel, which gave him the taste of adventure, exploration and nature. Diving is a way for Yann to explore incredible sites and meet fascinating animals. In 2018, he participated to a project in Fiji Islands within the Shark Conservation Project (SCP). Despite his young age, this young adventurer of modern times aims to be able to explore the world and carry out projects that have never been attempted before. Inspired by adventurers like Mike Horn, Yann trains hard every day to prepare for his future “extreme” projects and realize his dreams.
yann_scussel
ROBIN BUFFET
Robin Buffet alias Bobby (his nickname) was born in Annecy. The young alpine skier of La Clusaz won the 2016 European Slalom Cup. Robin is not one of those born in a large family of competitors. He led his way alone, by perseverance and hard work. Passionate about winter sports and speed, he is also extremely calm and thoughtful.
buffetrobin
@buffetrobin
robinbuffet
JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC CHAPUIS
Born in the Belleville Valley in 1989, this young man has Ski Cross in his blood. This is the story of a skier, born into a Franco-Swiss family with a strong background in skiing. “As a child, he was already a leader with a strong character. He was sensitive, gifted and a bit cheeky at school” according to one of his trainers from Val Thorens. “We knew he would become a great skier, although at the time we thought it would be in Alpine skiing”. In 2009, at the age of 20, he switched from Alpine skiing to Ski Cross, and in no time was a convert. World Ski Cross Champion 2014, Gold medalist at the Olympic Games in Sotchi, Jean-Fred finished 2nd in the World Ski Cross Championship last winter, and he is ready this winter to go back to his Top-leader position.
www.jeanfred-chapuis.fr
ChapuisJF
jfchapuis
Startimer Pilot Quartz Big Date Chronograph (ref. AL-372BMLY4FBS6)
AURÉLIEN DUCROZ
Skier/Skipper, Aurélien makes us discover his passion and shares with us the thrill of the extreme through his challenge Latitude Neige/Longitude Mer. Originally from Chamonix, Aurélien is a 35 years old, father of two children and a descendant of a family of mountain guides, a ski instructor, so needless to say that the mountain and the ski are part of his genetic inheritance! His passion for freeride skiing led him to the top: two world championship titles and four victories at Verbier’s Xtreme, the iconic side of the World Freeride Championship final. For the past two years, he has produced Cham’lines, a web series displaying freeride lines in the Chamonix Valley. He also travels the earth and films extraordinary places, mixing his two passions! On top of that, Aurelien is a great ocean race sailor. He took part to Transat Jacques Vabre 2017 on an IMOCA monohul and competed 3 times on Tour de France a la Voile winning a 4th place overall in 2016.
www.aurelienducroz.com
Aurelien-Ducroz
@aurelienducroz
aurelienducroz
Seastrong Horological Smartwatch (ref. AL-282LBO4V6)
TRISTAN DUGERDIL
Coming from Morzine-France, Tristan started the sport by practicing ice hockey and skiing in competition until the age of 14. Then, he devoted himself entirely to the Hockey by evolving in the Junior Team of Geneva-Servette. He practises in parallel various sports such as mountain biking, freestyle skiing, skateboarding…
His Ice Cross Downhill career began in Lausanne in 2013 after achieving the best time in Swiss national selections. He is now part of the World Top 5 of the discipline.
With a degree in Mechanical Design in his pocket, he now devotes himself entirely to his athletic career to win in the world’s skating elite.
TristanDugerdil
ENAK GAVAGGIO
French alpine skier, skier-cross, snowboarder, free rider, base jumper and surfer, Enak Gavaggio simply loves anything which enables him to slide.
Born on May 4th, 1976, Enak is known and appreciated both by his peers – for his carrier results and strong personality – and by the younger generation for his Rancho WebShow series. Nowadays a famous and influent face in the French Mountain Industry, he is the only one who is so admired by any kind of winter sports athlete.
Enak started to ski at 8 years old and his career’s hit list could make most people blush: 7 skier-cross medals at the X-Games, 5x skier-cross WORLD CUP WINNER, 5 medals at the World Championship, and a 4th and 5th place at the Freeride World Tour Championship. His professional career as athlete will end in 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Since 2014, Enak has played the well-known role of “Rancho”, a staggered vintage character in a skiing universe themed web show.
enakgavaggio
NELLY MOENNE-LOCCOZ
Nelly was introduced to the world of alpine skiing at the age of 3, by her father, a ski instructor. Since her very first races in 2000, her parents have been very supportive throughout her career. She quickly grew a passion for snowboarding and swapped her skis for a snowboard. In research of new sensations, snowboard cross became her official discipline. Nelly practices her sport rigorously within the French National Team, in an atmosphere she calls “funformance”, in her words, a happy medium between fun and performance. It’s not surprising once you get to know her outgoing personality. She is part of today’s top world female elite of snowboard cross. As an engaged and dedicated personality, Nelly is committed to reaching podiums. Her innate physical and tactical qualities quickly propelled her to the top of the rankings. Three times Olympic Games participant in 2010, 2014 and 2018, vice-world Champion in 2011 and 2015, Nelly made a sensational season in 2015 by claiming the famous crystal globe in her discipline. Last 2017-2018 season, Nelly finished #3 in the FIS Worldcup Snowboardcross ranking.
moenneloccoz.nelly
@NMoenneloccoz
nellymoenneloccoz
VICTOR MUFFAT-JEANDET
Victor Muffat-Jeandet (born 5 March 1989) is a French World Cup alpine ski racer.
Born in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie in France, Muffat-Jeandet made his World Cup debut in February 2009 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. He achieved his first podium in 2015, a runner-up finish in a super combined at Wengen, Switzerland. He also participated at the 2013 World Championships and 2015 World Championships. 2018 offered him his first participation to the Olympic Games in PyeongChang, where he earned his first medal, a Bronze, in the Alpine combined. He also made his first place in World Cup’s combined in Wengen. Rigorous, perseverant and perfectionist, he likes the work well done. He is highly demanding with himself and these requirements are bearing fruits season after season.
www.victormuffatjeandet.com
victor.muffatjeandet1
@vmuffatjeandet
vmuffatjeandet
ALPINER 4 AUTOMATIC (ref. AL-525NS5AQ6)
NASTASIA NOENS
Nastasia Noens, born September 12, 1988 in Nice, is a French alpine skier, specialized in the slalom discipline. Bronze medalist in slalom at the 2008 World Junior Championships, she has climbed twice on a World Cup slalom podium with a third place in Flachau in January 2011 and Bormio in January 2014, the only French rider to achieve this performance since 2010, finally she took part in the Olympic Games of 2010. Nastasia evolves almost permanently in the Top 30 in Slalom discipline and prepared really hard last Summer in order to achieve more regularly the Top 10 of the Best Slalom skiers of the WorldCup.
nastasianoens
@nastasianoens
Ladies Horological Smartwatch (ref. AL-281WY3V4)
IRENE CURTONI
Born in 1985, in Echirolles, France, Irene started skiing at a young age with her father. Ever since she dreamed of being a Ski Champion. Dreams do come true. Irene started her World cup carrier in 2007 and since then, she regularly performed every season in the Top 10 ranking of Slalom and Giant Slalom races. About to start her 12th consecutive years on the FIS World cup circuit, Irene is still strongly driven by passion and perseverance. Her adventurous competitive nature brings Alpina’s DNA to life and highlights her commitment to training hard daily in order to reach the 1st place in major competitions. Next, to her strong athletic performance, the charming skier is also well known for her outgoing personality. She embodies the brand’s emblematic Alpine spirit.
irenecurtoni
LUCA DE ALIPRANDINI
Luca is an Italian World Cup Alpine ski racer. Born in Cles in Italy, Luca joined in 2008 the team of Torino and won the gold medal at the Italian Junior Championship, which enabled him to join the Italian National Team. In 2009, he graduated from Sportoberschule Malles and became part of the Fiamme Gialle (the sport section of the Italian force). At this time, he could turn his passion into a real job. In 2011, he started his first world cup race. Three years later, Luca participated to the Olympic Games in Sochi and scored the best Italian result with its eleventh place. Luca De Aliprandini is a great skier that trains a lot to be part of the best world skier in the world.
www.lucadealiprandini.com
luca.dealiprandini
@dealiprandini
lucadealiprandini
MIKE GOULIAN
Aviation has been part of Alpina’s DNA for almost a century. In 1921, Alpina became a renowned supplier of time instruments for military pilots and air forces so it’s only natural to welcome Michael Goulian as part of the Alpina aviation family. Michael Goulian is one of the most experienced and determined contenders for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, and since his first race in 2004 the American has accumulated career highlights including a memorable win at the iconic stop of Budapest, Hungary. Before beginning his racing career, Goulian earned the US National Unlimited Aerobatics Championship and the National Advanced Aerobatics Championship, and he continues to be a popular performer of aerial demonstrations. Goulian is one of just seven pilots ever to earn the triple crown of industry honors for airshow flying: the Art School Memorial Award, the Bill Barber Award and the ICAS Sword of Excellence. Goulian further holds the distinction of being an honorary member of the legendary US Navy Blue Angels. Based in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, the team flies the number 99 Edge 540.
www.mikegoulian.com
GoulianAerosports
@mikegoulian
mike_goulian
Pictures / Credits
Agence Zoom / Chamonix / Christophe Pallot / Dom Daher / Eric Gachet / Freeride World Tour – J. Bernard / Joerg Mitter / Morgane Raylat / Pantaphoto / Stéf Candé / Valentin Bonadei
ABOUT ALPINA
OUR ALPINISTS
We only associate with partners that – like us – truly share, live and work according to these principles, and we hope that any person who adheres to them, and whishes to promote them, will one day decide to wear an Alpina watch, thereby becoming an “Alpinist”.
THE ORIGINAL SWISS SPORT WATCH
ALPINE SPORTS WATCH MANUFACTURING – SINCE 1883
Alpina, famous for its red triangle signature, is a fine watchmaking manufacture based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Founded in 1883, Alpina’s watchmaking history spans more than 130 years. A true pioneer of the Swiss watchmaking industry, Alpina has been the source of numerous patents and innovative calibers. Alpina invented the concept of the Swiss sport watch, as we know it today, with the birth of its legendary Alpina 4 in 1938. Today, Alpina is one of the very few Swiss watch companies, which develops, produces and assembles its movements entirely in-house. Alpina proposes five in-house calibers: the AL-980 Tourbillon; the AL-718 World Timer; the AL-950 Automatic Regulator; the AL-710 Automatic Small Date, and, most recently, the AL-760 Flyback Chronograph, featuring the patented “Direct Flyback” technology.
Faithful to its long tradition of innovation, in 2015 Alpina introduced the first connected Swiss Made Horological Smartwatch, thereby creating a new watch category in the Swiss watch industry. Alpina’s mission is to design and engineer luxury sport watches that operate with the greatest precision and reliability possible in the most demanding sporting environments, like the Alps.
alpinawatches.com
#alpinawatches
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Method Acting 101
There was a time when “committed” actors swore by method acting for really nailing roles, really living in the skin of the characters they portrayed. It’s a technique wherein the actor aims for total emotional identification with the part, and once they’re in the zone, they don’t leave it. They don’t break character when the director yells cut. If the character is angry and volatile, the actor will be angry and volatile for the whole 4 months. If the character is needy and vulnerable, then so will be the actor. You can understand why it’s difficult to work with such an actor – it must feel like working with a toddler, one who doesn’t take naps and won’t be sent to time out.
Lots of actors have taking method acting so far it makes my eyes roll around in their sockets but it was Jared Leto’s method approach to the Joker in Suicide Squad that led
Angelica Jade Bastien of The Atlantic to declare “Method acting is over.” Thanks to its overuse in Oscar-baity screeners by those actively seeking accolades, the method has lost its appeal, but Leto’s over-the-top zeal revealed the “technique” as more marketing tool than anything else and the prestige is all but gone. Jared Leto sent his fellow costars screwy gifts of used condoms, dead pigs, and live rats, apparently because he felt that’s the kind of thoughtful gesture the Joker would make, or at least that it would play well as an anecdote on Jimmy Kimmell. He also watched footage of brutal crimes online because apparently pretending to be a bad person isn’t enough, one must actually become reprehensible.
Going “method” is really just a new way for an actor to show off; it makes the creation of a character more visible and signals to the Academy “I’d like my Oscar now.” This identity branding is indulged by Hollywood but often divisive if not downright disruptive on set.
Practiced by Hollywood heavyweights like Paul Newman, Montgomery Clift, Dustin Hoffman, and Jack Nicholson, method acting was revolutionary in its time, and idealized in the performances of Marlon Brando. James Franco recently wrote that “Brando’s performances revolutionized American acting precisely because he didn’t seem to be ‘performing,’ in the sense that he wasn’t putting something on as much as he was being.” But Brando never took it to the extremes that we see today.
Leonardo DiCaprio has used method acting to rebrand himself as a “serious actor” after being mistaken for a hearthrob in his early career. His recent Oscar campaign for The Revenant emphasized the grueling ordeal he went through, including eating bison liver (despite being vegetarian), risking hypothermia by striding into freezing rivers, and sleeping in an animal carcass. But doesn’t this sound more like an episode of Fear Factor? Isn’t acting really about pretending? The Revenant isn’t a documentary about frontiersmen. I’m sure it would have played just as well had he shot the scene in a lukewarm stream instead. CGI in some breath clouds and it’s all the same to me.
Christian Bale seems to be a practitioner of the method in order to add machismo to his work. “I have a very sissy job, where I go to work and get my hair done, and people do my makeup, and I go and say lines and people spoil me rotten. This is just not something to be quite as proud of as many people would have you believe.” So Bale counters this by really losing himself in a role. For The Machinist, he lost 70lbs and got down to a very unhealthy 120 (on a 6′ frame), and then turned around and gained 100lbs to play Batman just 4 months later.He went on to stay in Bruce Wayne’s American accent not just for the duration of the filming, but for all the press as well.
Shia LaBeouf went 4 months without washing on the set of Fury, where he played a soldier in the trenches (this got him banished to a bed and breakfast far away from the hotel where the other cast and crew stayed). He also cut his own face with a knife, and pulled his own tooth. His co-star, Brad Pitt, non-Method, injects roles with his natural charisma rather than stunts and overly-studied contrivances. Whose performances do you prefer?
Daniel Day-Lewis may be the most over-the-top Method actor of his time. While filming My Left Foot, he refused to get out of his wheelchair, forcing crew to carry him around, and spoon-feed him dinner. He lived in the wild while shooting Last of the Mohicans, and ate only what he shot himself. He insisted that everyone address him as “Mr President” on the set of Lincoln, and forbade people from speaking to him unless it was in language (and accents) from the time period. He refused a winter coat on the set of Gangs of New York, and when he inevitably caught pneumonia, he refused “modern day” medical treatment.
DeNiro got a real cab license while filming Taxi Driver, and picked up fares around NYC between takes. Pacino made an actual citizen’s arrest while filming Serpico. Adrien Brody starved himself and sold his apartment to feel “lost” while playing a Holocaust survivor in The Pianist. If you’re getting the feeling that this so-called Method is about ego more than art, you’re not alone. And I wonder if you’re seeing the other pattern here…that all the names on this list are men.
There are plenty of Method actresses as well: Marilyn Monroe, Ellyn Burstyne, and Jane Fonda all studied the technique. They just never adopted the crazy stunts. Gena Rowlands is probably the best Method actor you’ll ever come across, but she does it without resorting to tricks. Sadly, when we hear a woman is “immersed” in a role, it almost always means she’s altered her physical appearance. So it’s pretty obvious that not only is method acting obnoxious and ridiculous, it’s also pretty sexist. But what else is new?
This entry was posted in Behind the Scenes and tagged Christian Bale, Daniel Day-Lewis, discussion, jared leto, Leonardo DiCaprio, Shia LaBeouf on January 6, 2017 by Jay.
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22 thoughts on “Method Acting 101”
gumusdis.com January 6, 2017 at 1:14 pm
Wonderful post and movies I like especially fury and suicide squad.
Widdershins January 6, 2017 at 1:48 pm
Another name for narcissistic wanking!
Henry Chamberlain January 6, 2017 at 3:09 pm
I did not know that Shia pulled out one of his teeth for the sake of his role in a movie. Who is going to notice or care about such demented dedication? Between Shia and Brad Pitt, I might not choose either one. I would definitely go with Paul Dano. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.
BroadBlogs January 6, 2017 at 5:11 pm
Wow! Christian Bale’s method acting is freaking scary. A little sanity, please!
Liz A. January 6, 2017 at 7:30 pm
I get the trying of things to get a feel for the role, but then there is going too far. Moderation is key. But some people are going to go to extremes no matter what.
ninvoid99 January 6, 2017 at 8:05 pm
Method acting used to be cool as I like it when people Christian Bale and Charlize Theron would do something to create something that is real whereas Jared Leto just makes it uncool. It is just now a method for vanity where it’s not about the performance but rather “look at me, I can act” bullshit.
Christopher January 6, 2017 at 10:02 pm
Even for some of the earlier actors method acting seems unnecessary. Coppola did screen tests with Brando for The Godfather and Brando slipped into the character of Don Corleone with just a few moments preparation and shoe polish in his hair.
Robert DeNiro did incredible preparation for Bloody Mama–he even corrected the speech coach’s accent–but had trouble in a scene where he drives a car because he didn’t know how to drive.
And then there’s the story I’ve heard that on the set of Marathon Man Dustin Hoffman said “This role is killing me” and Olivier said, “Why don’t you try acting?”
And I just saw the picture of Olivier…never mind!
fragglerocking January 7, 2017 at 6:44 am
It all sounds a bit bonkers and unnecessary. Must be really annoying for the proper actors in the movie. Brad Pitt acted his socks off in Fury I thought. Shia The Buf didn’t impress me as much.
Brittani January 7, 2017 at 7:59 am
Great post. Method acting it mostly ridiculous to me, but there are some cases where it works. Robert DeNiro driving a cab? Fine. Living alone for a month to feel isolated, sure. But when your method acting starts affecting other people, that’s when you’re going overboard. I remember during the Lincoln press tour, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was talking about how Daniel Day-Lewis wrote him a letter as Abraham Lincoln and had studied his handwriting, I thought the interviewer was going to burst out laughing. If I were an actor or crew member, I’m not sure I’d want to work with someone who was going to be full on method to the point of never leaving character and possibly disrupting others.
Jay Post author January 7, 2017 at 5:01 pm
Yes, I heard Sally Field saying he would always text her in character, and demand she reply back in proper old English, and he even signed the texts “A” – but hello – texting wasn’t exactly period!!! It’s idiotic.
Harlon January 7, 2017 at 2:06 pm
I always thought that it was a great quote contrasting two great actors when Sir Lawrence Olivier said to Dusting Hoffman during the filming of The Marathon Man – ‘Why don’t you try acting dear boy?’ So I really enjoyed this posting about acting styles and I think you also made a very astute observation that there is a double standing for Method Acting between men and women, over time for women it really has evolved more so into their appearance. Even if you may be assholes, it’s nice to read stuff from someone who gets into movies as much as I do. If I worked behind the snack counter, I’d supersize your combo snack and not charge you extra. 🙂 Harlon
That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me all week!!!
J. January 7, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Wait, Leto and method acting for the part of Joker? How did I miss that? Anyhoo, I think my favourite method acting story is Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. For those not familiar with that one, apparently he spent a year walking around as Jim, then folks had to refer to him as Jim, and it’s said that after filming had wrapped up he was still in Jim mode. Apparently he needed therapy! I don’t know how true it is, or how much of it has been exaggerated, but that’s a whole different level of method acting, eh?
Yeah, I read a lot about him doing that role. As a counsellor I suppose I get uncomfortable thinking about anyone getting that obsessive about it. Seems unhealthy, and I think you need better boundaries not just between work and not work, but between self and not self!
Hazzieandsof January 9, 2017 at 1:17 pm
I feel a bit better knowing I’m not the only one that thought some method acting was a bit over the top but didn’t even stop to think about it being mostly men. Thanks for the perspective.
Jay Post author January 23, 2017 at 1:37 pm
It’s just gotten ridiculous and there’s so much bravado in it.
Lloyd Marken January 10, 2017 at 10:26 am
I’m all for method acting to a point. De Niro boxed for Raging Bull, Bale did great work in Rescue Dawn and looks the part in The Fighter and American Hustle. I get his motivation and revel in the physical transformations. Day Lewis too I’m a huge fan of and think the work pays off on screen. I think it would be nice if more actresses were recognised for method acting. Naomi Watts for example worked with a nurse for Eastern Promises but that tends to get forgotten next to what Viggo Mortensen did in the same film. I think a lot of it as passed off as routine research or training but actually I think more preparation work done by actresses should get recognised. Gene Hackman once said to young actors ‘Whatever you need to get into that moment you do.” Old hands like James Garner were of the school of thought ‘show up, know your lines and hit your mark’ show clearly that acting does not need to be laborious to be great and natural. Yet short of annoying others or endangering yourself I’m all for it if it works for you. For example Day Lewis refusing modern medical treatment is stupid. Not leaving his wheelchair during the shooting of My Left Foot while annoying I can see the benefit of. Just another opinion brought to you nobody in particular. 🙂
Jeff the Chef January 12, 2017 at 10:18 pm
All of this leaves me wonder how Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal prepared for Brokeback.
Ashley Lily Scarlett January 24, 2017 at 2:07 am
I think this is interesting. It seems to me to be a matter of degrees. Some immersion would be research and presumably the acting would be better for it, but walking around ‘being’ The Joker? I’m glad I wasn’t there!
littlefish4 February 28, 2017 at 7:35 pm
Very interesting read 🙂
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Leftists Fear Some Success Stories, Cheer Others
In Opinion on September 25, 2012 at 10:08 am
The commentary from the left about Mitt Romney’s financial success and tax rate causes me to wonder: How do they really feel about success in America?
Dear Leftists,
Is Mitt Romney’s version of success acceptable to you? After a comfortable childhood and an Ivy League education, he spent 25 years building wealth for himself, his family, and his partners. He supported and created business enterprises that employ thousands, enabling them to buy food, clothes, housing, medicine and education for their families. He has given exceedingly generously to the Mormon Church and other charities. He is 65, wealthy and running for the presidency at a point in his life at which most men would prefer to coast to the finish line.
Or, is Barack Obama’s life a better version of successful? He and Michelle, we’re told, paid off their student loans just 8 years ago, so he was not financially successful before he made his way up the political ladder. Now he’s the President of the United States, after serving in the Illinois state senate and briefly in the US Senate. He has made millions from two autobiographical memoirs (yes, two, already – he turned 51 this summer) and assuredly will make millions more when he is relieved of his duty as commander in chief of the US military.
Or, let’s take Bill and Hillary Clinton; maybe you admire their version of success. Their combined resumé contains Ivy League law school degrees, a law firm partnership (after her husband was elected governor), a stint as a congressional committee lawyer, three terms as the governor of Arkansas, two as the President of the United States, one and 1/2 terms in the US Senate, the title First Lady of the US, and four years as Secretary of State. Sometime between her ‘First Lady-ship” and her service in the Senate, she made millions from a book deal. After his presidency, Mr. Clinton cashed-in big with book deals and on the lecture circuit. The couple are in their mid-60s and reportedly has a net worth in excess of $100,000,000, and they can’t seem to grow tired of being political celebrities.
Or, maybe your version of success is Sheldon Adelson’s humble beginnings followed by enormous self-made wealth. Mr. Adelson was born in 1933 to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who lived in a Boston suburb. After selling toiletries, he opened a charter bus business. Later he created billions of dollars of wealth for himself and numerous investment partners in the convention and casino businesses that employ thousands of people who support their families with the paychecks they earn from those businesses. He’s 78 years old, has donated 100s of millions of dollars to various charities and recently has spent some of his fortune to express his views about certain political matters, i.e. to exercise his First Amendment rights.
So, we have a couple of guys who made loads of money in the private sector contrasted with a couple other guys (+ one wife each) who, we’re told, decided to forego big-money careers and pursue a life of “public service” (a.k.a. exercising power over other people’s lives) and then, upon reaching the pinnacle of that version of career success, turn their rolodex and access to power into a money machine that lines their pockets while they produce nothing but noise and hot air.
The American left praises and reveres the public-service version of success. They treat the other version with suspicion and disdain and constantly insinuate that, where there’s private success, there’s likely much malfeasant activity.
Want to know how a person’s mind works? Notice what they fear and what they cheer.
What do you fear/cheer?
I say “Three Cheers for what the Leftists’ Fear!”
And, Cheers!
« Before The movie of the year September 24, 2012
AfterDon’t Apologize for ME Anymore, Mr. Obama September 26, 2012 »
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Schedule (NEW)
Related Bios Chris Bartley Paul Bennett Mike Callahan Brian Chabot Michael DeSavage Rusty Eggen Cherise Galasso Whitney Goldstein Pam Griffin Dana Harmon Shawn McAvey Ann McCarron Meredith Merchant Lisa Moreau Larry Noble Greg Poole Jason Steele Wendy Walsh Danielle Parenteau Ken Lacey Leisha Alcia
Steph Riley-Schafer
Email: sschafer@wpi.edu
Year: Sixth Season
Previous College: Temple '07
2016 NSCAA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year | 2016 NEWMAC Coach of the Year
Steph Riley-Schafer, who touts five winning seasons and NEWMAC tournament appearances, brings a 55-28-14 (.639) record into her sixth season at the helm of the Engineers in 2018.
Kristen McCrea repeated as an All-NEWMAC first teamer and United Soccer Coaches All-Region selection to go along with a CoSIDA Academic All-District nod in 2017. Gabi Hoops, Sophie Gomarlo and Karina Larson were also recognized by the conference head coaches. As a team, Women's Soccer boasted a program-record 13 NEWMAC Academic All-Conference honorees.
The 2016 season featured a number of program firsts culminating with their first NEWMAC Championship, NCAA tournament appearance and NSCAA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year honors. The 16-2-3 club boasted the best single-season winning percentage (.833) while being the first to host any round of the conference tournament, as well as the semifinals and finals following a 8-1-1 conference schedule. The Engineers traveled to Geneva, NY and played a double overtime draw with Trinity (CT), who advanced via penalty kicks.
Individually, Gabi Hoops was named as the first-ever NEWMAC Defensive Player of the Year while Kristen McCrea was tabbed as the second in program history to garner NEWMAC Rookie of the Year honors and Schafer was selected by her peers as the NEWMAC Coach of the Year. Susannah Gray joined McCrea on the All-NEWMAC first team.
The 2015 season (11-5-3, 5-3-2 NEWMAC) was successful on the field and off with Emily Doherty racking up a number of All-America honors, including a pair of academic accolades from CoSIDA and the NSCAA. The team also bested Springfield for the first time in program history. Doherty was an All-NEWMAC first teamer while Gray was a second team honoree for the second consective year.
In 2014, the team went 8-7-4 overall, with a conference record of 5-2-3 making it to the NEWMAC quarterfinals for the second year in-a-row. With the success of 2014 campaign the team posted back-to-back winning seasons for only the third time in program history and first time since 2003-04.
In her first season at WPI, Schafer posted a 10-7-2 record (4-5-1 NEWMAC) which qualified the Crimson and Gray for the NEWMAC tournament for the first time since 2010. Megan Forti was the lone WPI All-NEWMAC representative with a first team nod.
Prior to Riley-Schafer coming to WPI she was the top assistant at Division I Wagner College. She was heavily involved with the Seahawks in designing and implementing practice and training sessions as well as in recruiting. Riley-Schafer also took an active role in academic monitoring, scheduling, team travel and fundraising. Prior to her time at Wagner, she spent three seasons as an assistant at Curry College where she helped the Colonels reached the CCC Tournament in 2008 and 2010.
Riley-Schafer also spent five seasons with the Boston Breakers serving as the Senior Team Coordinator, Equipment Manager, Team Manager and Director of Operations over those five seasons. Among her many duties, Riley-Schafer managed player personnel, coordinated practice and game schedules, organized team travel and oversaw the host family program that places 20+ athletes in rent-free housing.
A native of the Philadelphia area, Riley-Schafer played collegiately at Division I Temple University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in sports and recreation management with a minor in business. In 2013, she graduated from Wagner with her master's in secondary education with a social studies concentration.
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DREAM CHILDREN, THE
October 27, 2013 Renee Pimentel
A haunting and provocative film about Steven Evans, a troubled TV personality who struggles to find meaning in his life in the face of the superficial world he has created. When his long-time partner hurls him headfirst into fatherhood, Steven’s initial reluctance is gradually replaced with love, as he discovers in his new family a bond stronger than any he has experienced before. But the return of an unexpected visitor triggers off a series of events that thrusts Steven and his family into a vortex of loneliness, self-destruction and grief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z60PXx-t_a4
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Reinforcing Nuclear-Test-Ban With Security Council Resolution
Viewpoint by Shervin Taheran*
This article appears in cooperation with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), as part of the initiative ‘Youth for CTBTO’. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the CTBTO. - Editor
WASHINGTON. D.C. (IDN) - Following mass protests against Soviet nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan on August 29, 1991, the Kremlin was forced to close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where over 460 nuclear tests were conducted, and declare a moratorium on nuclear testing. This, in turn, opened the way for the United States to halt testing and for negotiations on a global, verifiable Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which were concluded in 1996.
August 29 is now recognized by the United Nations as the International Day against Nuclear Tests to raise awareness about the devastating health and environmental effects of the over 2,000 nuclear tests since 1945, the value of a global ban on all nuclear testing to curb the development of new types of nuclear weapons, and the pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Two decades later, nuclear testing is taboo. Only one state, North Korea still threatens to conduct nuclear tests.
But the door to the possible resumption of nuclear testing remains open because the CTBT still has not entered into force. Although 183 states have signed and 164 have ratified the treaty, there are still eight key states that need to ratify it to trigger the treaty’s formal entry into force.
The longer the CTBT’s entry into force is delayed, the higher the odds that one or more states will try to conduct a nuclear test explosion, openly or in secret, which would trigger a new round of nuclear testing and arms racing.
At the biannual Article XIV Conference of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in 2015 to encourage the early entry into force of the CTBT, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister and Co-Chair of the conference Erlan Idrissov declared that “business as usual” would not do. He emphasized that after nearly 20 years of this treaty, creative and “more aggressive” approaches were necessary to stimulate action by key holdout states – China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and the United States.
Now, ahead of the September UN Security Council meeting and the 20th anniversary of the opening for signature of the CTBT on September 24, we have that opportunity.
The United States and other UN Security Council member states are considering a resolution designed to reinforce the global norm against nuclear testing and stigmatize those who continue to test, as well as call for continued support for the International Monitoring System, which is designed to detect and deter prohibited nuclear test explosions.
Also under consideration is a statement from the permanent five (P5) members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – that would declare that a nuclear test explosion would defeat “the object and purpose” of the CTBT.
Contrary to some reports, neither the resolution nor the statement will impose any new legally binding limitation. All signatories to the CTBT are bound by customary international law not to take actions that would defeat the purpose of the treaty, which is clearly to bar nuclear test explosions.
Nevertheless, this high-level reaffirmation of national commitments in support of the CTBT and the global norm against nuclear testing is an important insurance policy against renewed nuclear testing pending the formal entry into force of the CTBT.
By reaffirming the value of the CTBT and support for the de facto global nuclear test moratorium, the resolution can also provide a strong impetus for the eight holdout states to ratify and accelerate entry into force.
In the Middle East, for example, ratification of the CTBT by Egypt, Israel, and Iran would build confidence in a troubled region and contribute to the realization of the elusive goal of a Middle East zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
India and Pakistan, each of which have declared unilateral national nuclear testing moratoria, should also welcome the resolution and actively consider joining the international nuclear nonproliferation mainstream by signing the CTBT.
Russia, which has signed and ratified the treaty, should welcome the resolution and a P5 joint statement against nuclear testing as a reaffirmation of their position and a lever on moving the United States and China to finally ratify the treaty.
Finally, the resolution, without naming North Korea’s specifically, would reinforce the international community’s push for Pyongyang to end to nuclear testing, which could allow it to perfect smaller nuclear warheads that could be delivered on ballistic missiles.
The resolution will also help bolster support for the maintenance and operation of the CTBTO's global network of more than 300 monitoring stations, which verifies compliance with the treaty.
Today, the International Monitoring System is over 90% complete. The CTBT has successfully carried out two on-site inspection exercises to demonstrate one of the most invasive verification measures allowed by the CTBT, which will only be available when the treaty enters into force.
However, there is still much more to be done to improve the test monitoring system. For example, Iran has yet to begin sending its data from its International monitoring stations to CTBTO's International Data Centre. This action would be a key confidence-building step towards its eventual ratification of the treaty. Pakistan and India could begin building their monitoring stations so they can begin to provide data useful to detect and deter nuclear tests.
The UN Security Council resolution could also guard against the possibility of erosion of support for the CTBTO, which would adversely affect the maintenance and effective operation of the IMS and IDC. Dr. Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the CTBTO, has stated numerous times that he fears states will suffer from “treaty fatigue".
“My issue is the risk that the longer the entry into force of the CTBT is, the more risk we have with regard to treaty fatigue that could lead to people saying, ‘Why are we investing in something if we don’t know when the treaty will come into force?’ That’s the biggest risk for this treaty,” he said in an IDN-INPS interview in February.
The proposed UN Security Council resolution on nuclear testing and the test ban is a win-win for the international community. It will help refocus international attention on the value of the CTBT, the importance of the de facto test moratorium, and recommit states to continue to support the CTBTO’s international monitoring regime.
*Shervin Taheran is the Program Associate with the Washington-based Arms Control Association and Project for the CTBT (www.projectforthectbt.org) and is also a member of the CTBTO Youth Initiative. [IDN-InDepthNews – 26 August 2016]
Photo: Kazakhstan citizens gather to demand a nuclear test ban at the Soviet nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk in August 1989. UN Photo/MB
IDN is flagship of the International Press Syndicate.
IDN-INPS UN Bureau
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National Geographic : 1936 Dec
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE fields. Twelve nuggets of more than 1,000 ounces each were unearthed there. The fa mous Ballarat nugget, the "Welcome," was 2,217 ounces. The "Welcome Stranger" was even larger, and was worth more than $50,000. Greatest of all Australia's nug gets, however, was the "Holtermann," found in New South Wales, which weighed 630 pounds! In 1850 Australia had a population of only 406,356 people; within nine years it had grown to more than a million! Mel bourne in that time grew from a tiny town on the banks of the Yarra into a metropolis of the Southern Hemisphere. Nor did the gold discoveries end with New South Wales and Victoria. One by one fields were developed in Queensland. Not until 1882, however, did miners find that old Mount Morgan, almost at Rock hampton's back door, was "a mountain of copper capped with gold." Among the stories that cluster around this mine, which has yielded fabulous returns, is that it was originally purchased from a grazier for about five dollars! Western Australia, last to unlock her wealth, turned out to be a Croesus. Cool gardie and Kalgoorlie became famous throughout the mining world. What changes came to the sparsely populated State when Bayley and Ford camped by chance at a native well at Cool gardie! There they picked up a little nug get that led to their collecting $300 worth of gold between breakfast and lunch, then later to stumbling onto the fabulous reef that paid out millions! DISCOVERY OF THE "GOLDEN MILE" Loss of their horses caused two miners, Flannigan and Hannan, temporarily to take their eyes off far horizons for a little time one June day in 1893, and thus came the discovery of the famous "Golden Mile" of Kalgoorlie, where they had camped two days waiting for water teams. While most of the prodigious bulk of gold of earlier years was won by pick and shovel from surface workings, the main yields today are from deep shafts and the treating of poorer-grade ores. In the Bendigo district shafts have been sunk to more than 4,600 feet. In Kal goorlie I saw men gouging out the rocks with explosives and air drills at the 3,850 foot level. A few years ago Australia's gold mines were in serious decline, but with the recent soaring prices many are taking a new lease on life. In 1934 the gold yield, because of increased prices, was valued at nearly half the amount that was produced in 1903, when production reached the record amount of 3,830,000 ounces. With renewed energy "swagmen" are again wandering over sun-scorched wastes, prospecting for new El Dorados. Kal goorlie is again showing renewed prosper ity, although on a much more ordered scale than in the good old days when the un savory "Devil's Acre" supported 15 "pubs." For there is still much gold in the old Golden Mile, especially at the present premium gold commands in world markets. Along with the new ore that is being brought to the surface, the mines are also re-treating the dumps that are heaped in mountainous piles from the early roasting methods, as improved flotation processes redeem sufficient quantities of gold to make the operation profitable. Every waste, how ever, has to be reduced to the minimum. "We're trapping more and more of the gold carried off with the sulphur fumes," said one engineer as we looked up at the pungent haze that drifted away from the stack of one of the mines. "But even with our present condensers, about 400 dol lars' worth unfortunately goes up the flue every day!" How different is the present Kalgoorlie from what it was when "Paddy" Hannan chased his horses and picked up gold peb bles from the ground! For gold has built a town and brought a railway. On one of the main corners is a statue of Paddy sitting on a rock with his pick by his side and a canteen in his hand (page 744). His own canteen was often empty, for water in this desert land was scarcer than gold. But turn a valve and water spurts from the bronze replica; its source is more than 300 miles away! The Mundaring Weir, entrapping water in the mountains near Perth, and the pipe line through which it is pumped by means of eight stations to supply the desert town and mines, is one of the remarkable achievements accomplished in Australia's quest of gold. Of necessity, mines use it with great economy, as water bills run high. "In the wintertime we recover about 50 or 55 percent of the water from the opera tions and put it to use again; in the sum- 742
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Christa Hodapp
By Leah Bayens
Photos by Mark Cornelison
Philosophy doctoral candidate Christa Hodapp is sorting out an issue most people superficially acknowledge before returning to business as usual: humans are animals.
“The traditional, neo-Lockean claim is that you’re fundamentally a person, which is a rational, thinking being, and you happen to be related to an animal in some way,” Hodapp explained. Thus, many people imagine that personhood separates us from the likes of dogs, horses, and ants. In the process, they also tend to place humans on a higher rung than our nonhuman counterparts.
Hodapp, however, refuses to split nature and mind in this way. Instead, her dissertation, Personal Identity and the Biological View of Human Persistence, foregrounds the notion that human beings are not simply related to animals; they are, in fact, “not separate from the animal in any way. They are identical to that animal,” she has argued. As such, our chief classification is human animal.
This biological viewpoint is difficult for some people to swallow. “Even to place human beings on the spectrum in a very obvious way [with animals] tends to be disturbing to people.” She notes that some critics find the human animal identification “degrading because they claim that this places humans on the same ontological level as a cockroach.” Far from claiming humans and roaches are of exactly the same ilk, Hodapp nonetheless underscores the importance of understanding ourselves as animals first. To do otherwise is to miss an opportunity to take full account of the properties with which we can talk about human beings.
Given the thorny nature of her project, it is clear Hodapp does not shy away from controversy easily. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Gender and Women’s Studies prepared her for just this sort of prickly conversation. In fact, the identity issues she wrangled with while researching performative and social aspects of gender at Denison University as an undergraduate and at Florida Atlantic University as a graduate student led her to the deeper, ontological status problems she currently theorizes.
First developing an expertise in the nature and reality of gender, Hodapp ultimately began to see these qualities as “a concern with a philosophy of human nature.” She became interested in “dealing, in a very rigorous way, with the fundamental, ontological status of human beings.” Now, after having earned a second master’s degree before embarking on her doctorate in philosophy at UK, she strives to get at the root of how we theorize being human animals.
In the process, Hodapp has determined an especially controversial application of her theory, one that deals with knotty bioethical issues like the status of fetuses and of people in persistent vegetative states.
She compellingly moves from the animal concept to stage of life issues. First, she posits that person is a phase in the life of the human animal, just as athlete, infant, or student are terms we use to describe ourselves at certain stages. A human animal doesn’t need to be identified as a person at all times because we do not always have the capacity for cognition and rational thought throughout our lives.
In this way, person “denotes some kind of ability of a human animal that it has at a specific time” rather than the defining ontological category. By the same token, we can classify ourselves as being in multiple phases simultaneously, such as person, student, athlete, a status strand Hodapp currently claims by virtue of her roles as philosophy scholar and rugby player.
In phases that do not involve the qualities we associate with personhood (i.e., cognition), we have the freedom to talk about the human being in more exact ways. Thus, Hodapp’s work holds important implications for “the ways we talk about issues in biomedical ethics and applied ethics, particularly in terms of the fetus problem and persistent vegetative state issues.” Though she is not establishing a system of ethics with Personal Identity and the Biological View, Hodapp is beginning to provide a language with which biomedical ethicists can name “the entity we’re dealing with in a metaphysically clear way.”
These kinds of heady concepts constitute the bulk of Hodapp’s research as well as teaching: “In ethics classes, I tell students, ‘You should be worried about [these issues] because not everyone has the same religious, cultural or social backgrounds as you, so we need to find reasons why people should be moral - above and beyond social factions.’”
In an effort to pique students’ interest in philosophical conundrums, she encourages them to figure out how concepts apply to a range of issues. Classes often start from pop culture references and proceed to parallel instances involving deeper race, class, gender, and spiritual matters. In lower division courses, Hodapp aims to show students that “philosophical issues are the issues they really do care about; they just haven’t conceptualized them in that way.” When they “start assessing their everyday experiences from a different viewpoint,” Hodapp feels she’s doing her best work in the classroom.
Some of her best scholarly work is the result of relationships she developed with peers and professors in graduate courses. “When I first got here, I didn’t have a philosophy background, and there have been some really key older graduate students who took very good care of me,” she said. Likewise, philosophy professors proved available, helpful and interested in her work, particularly her dissertation advisor, Brandon Look.
“I can send him work whenever I have it, and he never is opposed to reading it, meeting with me, giving me notes, and being really constructively critical.” Hodapp recognizes Look and committee member Anita Superson as having been instrumental in strengthening her capacity as a job candidate and philosopher, making sure that she does more than just finish a dissertation and graduate.
Like her mentors, Hodapp wants to change the terms of how we conduct “business as usual.” She’s starting by encouraging each of us to embrace our membership in the Kingdom Animalia. In so doing, we begin “reordering the bias we have toward identifying ourselves as animals,” and ultimately, we “clarify the status of beings.” The implications of Hodapp’s proposal are far reaching. From biomedical ethics to gender roles to our essential identities, her project expands the ways we talk and think about being human.
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Archive for the 'Cedric Poline' Category
Pioline Wins in London’s Albert Hall.
Categories: Cedric Poline and Pete Sampras
Tags: Blackrock Masters, Poline
Cedric Pioline came from a match point down today to overhaul Greg Rusedski and win his first ever BlackRock Masters Tennis trophy. A packed Royal Albert Hall crowd watched enthralled as the Frenchman took three Tie-Break sets to overcome his dogged opponent in 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 11-9 (Champions’ Tie Break) in one hour and 45 minutes.
In a match that saw Pioline and Rusedski hit a total of 22 aces, there was little to choose between the two men in the first set. In the end the decisive moment came when Pioline double-faulted in the Tie-Break to hand the set to his opponent. The second set was equally nail-biting as both men held serve with ease to take it to a second Tie-Break. This time though the momentum swung quickly the way of the Frenchman, as Rusedski double-faulted at 2-2 offering Pioline a mini-break and the chance to level up the match at one set all. It was a chance that he duly took and in the deciding Champions’ Tie-Break it was the Frenchman who played the more aggressive tennis when it mattered. Facing a match point at 8-9 down, the 39-year-old Pioline aced his way out of trouble and went on to take the following two points, clinching the match with a scorching forehand winner down the line.
“I took my chances and it worked,” said Pioline. “It was really close and it came down to a few points and I think at the end maybe I just returned a little bit better than him.”
Rusedski was disappointed not to convert his chances today, but admitted he had lost to the better player on the day.
“I was just one or two points short,” he said. “I had one match point in the second set tie break but Cedric played great and I think he’s a deserving champion.
For Pioline, today’s win was the perfect way to round off one of his favourite tournaments of the year. He reached the final by beating Pete Sampras for the first time in his career, a taste of revenge for his loss in the Wimbledon final some years ago.
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The BalikBayani Blog
Weaving stories, building identity
Bernard Badion: Sharing Experiences Through Film
Posted by Heidi Carreon on July 18, 2016 July 18, 2016
There is a lot of talk these days about diversity in Hollywood and the rest of the film industry. The hashtag #oscarssowhite, for instance, encouraged many fans and industry workers to discuss the lack of diversity in film. Filipino-American filmmaker Bernard Badion recognizes this and “can pretty much count” the other Filipinos who worked around Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. But he also adds that being in the film industry is difficult for everyone trying to get their foot in the door.
“This is a hard business and if you want to make a living doing it, no matter what it’s going to be hard,” Bernard says. Because of this, he advises all people aspiring to the film industry to work hard at their craft, whether it be writing, directing or filming.
“If you keep going, you’ll get better…I know I’m not Aaron Sorkin, but if I keep writing it’s kind of impossible to not be good at it.”
But before he was working on films in Los Angeles, Bernard was tricking his elementary school teachers in Sunnyvale. The first in his family to be American-born, Bernard recalls that he was “spitting Tagalog like crazy” when he was younger, but he could speak English fluently. Yet, Bernard pretended to not know English at six years old as a joke to his teachers. They placed him in a program at his school that taught English to students who spoke another language at home.
“They notified my mother and she told me, ‘They think you don’t know what you’re talking about,’” Bernard laughs a little in our phone conversation, “After a year they figured out that I could actually speak English.”
Even so, Bernard stayed in the program until sixth grade because he was able to get out of class for an hour. Being a “English Second Language” student, however, had lasting effects. Bernard’s mother kept him from speaking Tagalog at home so he would be a better English speaker. As such, his Tagalog is at an elementary level.
“I feel like I’m an idiot when I’m in the Philippines…my cousins speak to me in English,” Bernard says, “But Tagalog is still in my head somewhere, just as long as I have someone to speak to me.”
Even though Bernard lost his fluency in Tagalog, he kept his connection to Filipino culture through Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Filipino club during his undergrad years. His interest in technology and background in high school broadcast journalism led him to making videos for the club to promote their culture night show.
Producing promotional videos encouraged Bernard to make films with his friends in the Filipino club. He made a rom-com film his senior year, and there was large crowd at its screening; it was even covered by the student newspaper. The confidence Bernard gained from the screening and the support from his friends in the Filipino club encouraged him to pursue a career in film.
“I didn’t know who those people where [at the screening]. But I was in the [Filipino] club and I made things and the response was positive.” Bernard says, “And it was really where it started.”
Bernard worked in various shows and projects in the industry, and got his Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing and Producing Television from Loyola Marymount University. Two of his more recent films, I Won’t Miss You and Sounds We Have No Letters For, have been screened around California and feature Filipino leads. Although Bernard doesn’t nessecarily write to cast Filipino actors, “if it fits, I’ll go after them.”
“If I don’t cast them, it’s kind of like, who will?” Bernard asks.
Even though it’s a tough industry, Bernard doesn’t see himself doing anything else, and believes that film can do much for the Fil-Am community. Good films, according to Bernard, can affect even viewers who are having a bad day. Through that same vein, films can be used to empower viewers or to help them learn about other cultures.
It’s for this reason he tries to connect with and support other Fil-Ams working in film, because many Fil-Ams opt for high-salary jobs. Bernard stays in the industry “because I’m not trained for anything else.” But he also creates films because he hopes that they would resonate with people, especially Fil-Ams.
“It’s good to have more stories from people who look like you and have the same experiences as you,” Bernard says, “I feel like it’s important.”
If you want to see Bernard’s work for yourself, Sounds We Have No Letters For will be screening in Little Tokyo this Thursday, July 28. See more details here.
american borncommunityculturediasporadiversityentertainmentfil-amFilipino-Americanfilmnarrativessecond generationstory telling
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2019-06-21 17:31 books blog
High Weirdness | The MIT Press
High Weirdness is the first book in a very long time that's given me the feeling of discovering a secret truth—a set of corridors through the maze of consciousness, existence, anomaly, and synchronicity. It's the sense of complete novelty yet utter familiarity, like suddenly remembering a dream that you've been having every night and then forgetting. Davis is describing, perhaps even retrieving, the strange attractor driving the visionary seventies. It's a sensibility all but lost to the utilitarian, conformist predictability of the digital age. Yet it's also precisely the terrifying and awesome novelty we need to recover if we're going to preserve the uniquely human ability to embrace paradox, celebrate ambiguity, and laugh at death. Don't be afraid. It's just the weird.
author of Team Human and Present Shock
2019-05-25 15:35 nature blog
Karl Blossfeldt’s Urformen der Kunst (1928) – The Public Domain Review
From 1898, and for the next three decades, Blossfeldt taught design at Berlin’s School of the Museum of Decorative Arts. It was here, using a homemade pinhole camera with custom magnifying lenses, that he first began to take his remarkable photographs, for the purpose of teaching his students about the patterns and designs found in natural forms. Through the technology of photography Blossfeldt was able to reveal to his students details difficult to see by the naked eye.
Gallery: Weegee’s New York City Crime Scene Photos
Earlier this year, he pulled it out for a look. The prints had, over the years, curled up into a tight roll, and he had to slide them apart from one end. That’s when he noticed that most of them bore a photographer’s stamp on the back: PHOTO BY A. FELLIG.
Why 'Slaughterhouse-Five' Resonates 50 Years Later - The Atlantic
Fifty years have passed since the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s the same age as me. And the older I get, and the more lumps fall off my brain, the more I find that rereading is the thing. Build your own little cockeyed canon and then bear down on it; get to know it, forward and backward; get to know it well. So I don’t know how many times I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five. Three? Four? It never gets old, is the point. It never wanes in energy. This book is in no way the blossom of a flower. Slaughterhouse-Five is more in the nature of a superpower that the mutant author had to teach himself to master—and then could use, at full strength, only once.
2019-03-13 21:45 history books blog
A Brief History Of The White Horse Tavern, NYC's Legendary Literary Watering Hole: Gothamist
In the mid-20th century, literary luminaries including James Baldwin and Anaïs Nin frequented the watering hole, and Jack Kerouac was a particularly unruly patron. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation notes that Kerouac was ejected from the bar so many times that someone took it upon themselves to carve “JACK GO HOME!” on a bathroom stall. Legend has it that the idea for the Village Voice (RIP) was born over drinks at the bar, known colloquially as "The Horse." And most famously, the White Horse is where Welsh poet Dylan Thomas swilled his final drinks before his death; his portrait still hangs by his usual seat.
Is This the Greatest Photo in Jazz History? - The New York Times
A friend gave Bob Parent a tip: be at the Open Door on West 3rd Street on Sunday.
Mr. Parent, a photographer with a knack for showing up at the right time and place, didn’t need much encouragement. He arrived at the jazz club early in the evening of Sept. 13, 1953. It was unseasonably cool for late summer. The New York Times front page detailed the marriage of Senator John F. Kennedy and the glamorous Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, R.I. The Brooklyn Dodgers had just clinched the pennant in Milwaukee.
Tomi Ungerer, Brash Illustrator for Young and Older, Dies at 87 - The New York Times
“Americans cannot accept that a children’s-book author should do erotic work or erotic satire,” he told The New York Times in 2008, when some of his children’s books began to be republished in the United States and Britain. “Even in New York it just wasn’t acceptable.”
Jonas Mekas, ‘Godfather’ of American Avant-Garde Film, Is Dead at 96 - The New York Times
“I can’t understand why people prefer the grossness and banality of a Hollywood or a European Art movie, as against the illuminations and ecstasies of an Avant-garde Film,” Mr. Mekas wrote in an essay in The New York Times in 1969. “The Hollywood film deals with gross, simplified realities, banalized feelings, ideas, thoughts. The Avant-garde Film deals with the subtler nuances of experience, emotions, ideas, perceptions — it illuminates them — it deals with things that make you finer.
“I do not understand,” he continued, “by what logic the public, film critics and educators choose to spend thousands of hours of their lives with second-rate art, while at the same time making fun of the Avant-garde Film.”
'Sonic attack' on US embassy in Havana could have been crickets, say scientists | World news | The Guardian
But a fresh analysis of the audio recording has revealed what scientists in the UK and the US now believe is the true source of the piercing din: it is the song of the Indies short-tailed cricket, known formally as Anurogryllus celerinictus.
“The recording is definitively a cricket that belongs to the same group,” said Fernando Montealegre-Zapata, a professor of sensory biology at the University of Lincoln. “The call of this Caribbean species is about 7 kHz, and is delivered at an unusually high rate, which gives humans the sensation of a continuous sharp trill.”
The ‘Godfather of Animated Cinema’ Makes More Than Just Movies - The New York Times
The movie he was working on at the time, “Castle of Otranto,” came under greater scrutiny, and censors demanded he make many changes. Mr. Svankmajer refused and as a result was banned from filmmaking. He could not finish his movie until 1979 when the prohibition was lifted.
“I never was a political artist,” Mr. Svankmajer said “but I am an engaged artist, because Surrealism was always an engaged art. The idea of Surrealism is to change the world — that’s Marx — and to transform life — that’s Rimbaud,” he added, referring to the 19th century French poet.
Mixtape: Métron Records – Masahiro Takahashi - Visual Melt
I think it’s important for me to keep my own pace by creating music as if I’m slowly tending a miniature garden after coming home from my day job. However, I’m not sure if my music is defined as ambient music. For now, I feel soothed when I listen to or make music that is quiet and calming or takes me to some faraway place.
2018-12-14 09:04 mind blog
Bertrand Russell's Advice For How (Not) to Grow Old: "Make Your Interests Gradually Wider and More Impersonal" | Open Culture
The best way to overcome it [the fear of death]—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
We Are Drowning in a Devolved World: An Open Letter from Devo - Noisey
Forty-eight years ago, on May 4, 1970, as a member of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), I was front and centre being fired on by my fellow Americans in the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University, as we peacefully protested President Nixon’s expansion of the cancerously unpopular Vietnam War into Cambodia without an act of Congress. I was lucky and dodged the bullet, both literally and figuratively, but four students were killed, and nine more were seriously wounded by the armed, mostly teenaged, National Guard troops. Two of the four students killed, Alison Krause and Jeffery Miller, were close acquaintances of mine.
2018-12-05 17:55 space blog
Falling in Love With the Dark - Nautilus - Pocket
For roughly the past two decades, at least two-thirds of the U.S. population have not been able to see the Milky Way at all, and it will get worse before it gets better. The dawn of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is expected to significantly lower costs and spur consumption. In addition, LED lighting produces light with a bluer cast, which is more effectively scattered by the atmosphere. “This has the potential to be the nail in the coffin for seeing stars in most communities,” Nordgren tells me.
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Now browsing in: BIOGRAPHY General biographies Serving The Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain
Arts & entertainment bi... General biographies Memoirs Sport biographies True stories
by Goldberg, Danny Paperback / softback, pages
Drawing on Danny's own memories of Kurt, files which previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends and former bandmates, Serving the Servant sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, Serving the Servant is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought - one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn't alive until after Kurt's death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that have come before.
It's So Easy (and Other Lies)
by: McKagan, Duff
'It's So Easy (and Other Lies)' is the explosive autobiography of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver bass guitarist Duff McKagan.
by: Domino, Christophe
A detailed study of Francis Bacon - the man and the artist - looking at his influence on 20th-century art and providing a fascinating insight into his childhood, influences, intentions, methods and sources. This book presents his work in six...
by: Nietzsche, Friedrich
In late 1888, only weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche (1844-1900) set out to compose his autobiography, and 'Ecce Homo' remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written.
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Upcoming Events and Shows
A Talent for Murder
A Talent For Murder is an original play written by Katie Welch when she was in high school.
“The students at Riverton High School is getting ready for the annual school Talent Show. Everyone is so excited, until someone murdered last year’s winner Amanda during the Talent Show. The audience will be the detectives and try to figure out who killed last year’s winner in “A Talent for Murder.”
The audience will have a chance to solve the case and win the prize. There will be interaction between the cast (who are still alive) and the audience during intermission. In your playbill, there will be a paper. You write your name and the character’s name of who you think the murder is. If you are correct and your name is pulled out of the basket, you will win the prize.
Copyright © 2019. Broadway Everyday Star Theater
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Tag: Indiana high school basketball
“All for Lebanon!”: A Retrospective of the 1917 Indiana High School Basketball Championship Season
In 1917, basketball was only twenty-five years old. Indiana high school basketball was a bit younger than that, and the state tournament was only in its seventh year (its sixth under Indiana High School Athletic Association control). Hoosier Hysteria was quickly taking root, as year after year more high school teams entered sectional tournaments with dreams of hardwood glory. Basketball in Lebanon began a bit later than other communities, but it quickly became a favorite sport of the town’s teenage boys. The school team’s reputation and skill-level improved year after year and culminated in a state title in 1912. Many influential figures in basketball’s development in the state walked the halls of Lebanon High School in the 1910s. The following narrative provides an overview of some of those people, and their accomplishments that culminated in Lebanon winning a second state basketball title in 1917.
Lebanon High School’s coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert was among the best Indiana high school coaches in the nineteen-teens. He came to Lebanon after their first state championship, and started coaching in the fall of 1912. He won 79% of his games in four seasons on the bench. His teams were perennial title contenders. Perhaps the best team that he coached at Lebanon was the 1914 squad, which due to an unfortunate draw in the state tournament played six games in a little over twenty-four hours before succumbing to fatigue and the well-rested, Homer Stonebraker-led, Wingate team, which won the 1914 crown. In 1915, Thorntown’s team surprised Coach Lambert’s squad in the sectional, and went on to win the 1915 title. Lambert and his boys reclaimed the sectional in 1916, but suffered a narrow, and disappointing defeat to Martinsville in the second round of the state tournament.
Lebanon coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert. Photo from Lebanon High School yearbook, The Cedars, 1915. Accessed via Ancestry.com
Lebanon projected to return most of its team the following season, including two impressive underclassmen who were first and third on the team in scoring. Unfortunately, Coach Lambert would not return for a fifth season. In the summer of 1916, he became the head basketball coach at Purdue University where he would go on to a hall-of-fame career, and positively influence generations of players, including John Wooden. Lebanon’s high school administrators hired Wabash College graduate Alva R. Staggs to replace Lambert, and teach English. However, Lambert’s coaching in the years before had honed athletic skills, developed high basketball IQs, and created a winning culture in his high school charges, and set the stage for Staggs’ successful season.
THE REGULAR SEASON
Due to injuries and eligibility issues, the 1916-17 Lebanon squad did not start the season as anticipated. Three year letterman and team captain Frank “Doc” Little, who played back guard, would miss most of his senior season due to a hip injury. Gerald Gardner, who the Indianapolis News described as “evasive as a mosquito,” had been a third team all-tournament player in ’16 after accounting for 42% of Lebanon’s points. Yet, academic eligibility issues erased most of the forward’s junior season.
Don White, floor guard, led the team in scoring with 11.4 ppg during the regular and post season. His scoring accounted for 30% of the team’s offense. Photo from Lebanon High School yearbook, The Cedars, 1917. Accessed at Ralph W. Stark Heritage Center, Lebanon Public Library.
Even with these personnel losses, the Lebanon coach and players adapted. Staggs cycled through six different starting line-ups in the first ten games of the season. The two constants in the line-up were floor guard Don White and back guard Clyde Grater. White, a junior, was the team’s leading scorer as a sophomore and would retain the honor for the rest of his high school career. Grater, a sophomore, was in his first year on the varsity. At 5’ 8½” in height, he was much shorter than the prototypical back guard who was at this time the tallest and heaviest player on the team. Despite his average stature, Grater played the defensively-obsessed role very well. Other players who started for Lebanon in the early part of the season were George White (Don’s older brother), Charles “Dutch” Frank, Bob Ball, Harry “Peck” DeVol (the Whites’ first cousin), and Fred “Cat” Adam (the second-leading scorer from the previous season).
Lebanon rolled through the first half of the season. They compiled an 9-0 record against Veedersburg, Advance, Rockville, Washington, New Richmond (twice), Thorntown, Lafayette Jefferson, and Martinsville. The squad averaged ten points better than their opponents during this span. The game against defending state champ Lafayette Jeff was such an anticipated early season event that a Jeff physics teacher sent in-game updates via wireless to an amateur radio operator in Lebanon. The Lebanon receiver subsequently relayed updates of the game to local businesses via telephone.
Clyde Grater, defensive ace. Photo from Lebanon High School yearbook, The Cedars, 1918. Accessed at Ralph W. Stark Heritage Center, Lebanon Public Library.
After the triumph over Jeff, a few cracks appeared in the quality of the team’s play. A revenge-hungry New Richmond team played a physically rough game in which Lebanon escaped with a five point lead. In the next game, Lebanon had to go into overtime to defeat Martinsville by a last second field goal. They returned home to play Advance, and the wheels fell off. The up-start Boone County rival shellacked Lebanon, 28-6. A week later Lebanon lost to another Boone County team in Thorntown, 30-20.
Although on a two-game losing streak, the “Black and Gold” had a 9-2 record and a favorable schedule ahead against Frankfort (twice), Crawfordsville (twice), an away game against Rochester, and home games against Jeff, Washington, Martinsville, and Bedford. Over the final ten games, Coach Staggs settled on a regular line-up of DeVol and Adam at forwards, Ball at center, and White and Grater in the back court. With this line-up, Staggs fielded a trio of his best scorers. White was the team’s most consistent scorer all season with ten points per game. Ball and Adam disappointed over the first ten games with averages of less than three points. However, once inserted into the starting line-up the duo averaged ten points a piece over the final 10 games. With five games left in the season, “Doc” Little and Gerald Gardner returned to the team. Their immediate contributions were minimal, but they bolstered the bench of a booming Lebanon team. Over the final nine games, the Lebanon cagers routed their opponents by over 26 points a game. On the season, the team compiled an 18-2 record, with an offensive average of 33.15 points a game, and a defensive average of 17.9 points against.
THE SECTIONAL TOURNEY
Fred “Cat” Adam, forward/center, averaged 7.5 ppg as a junior in ’17. Photo from Lebanon High School yearbook, The Cedars, 1917. Accessed at Ralph W. Stark Heritage Center, Lebanon Public Library.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association selected Lebanon as a district host for a sectional tournament, which was held on March 9 and 10, 1917. The townsfolk welcomed squads and fans from Boone, Carroll, and Clinton counties, including: Advance, Bringhurst, Burlington, Colfax, Cutler, Delphi, Flora, Frankfort, Jamestown, Kirklin, Thorntown, and Zionsville. Don White and company had little trouble with their first two sectional opponents, Cutler and Delphi, and defeated the Carroll County teams by an average margin of victory of 59 points.
Their next challenger, Thorntown, would present a much tougher match-up. The friendly rivals had split their regular season series. Thorntown also had the advantage of having three players and a coach from their championship season in 1915. The scores were close throughout the sectional game. Thorntown held a 10-9 lead at intermission. This was only the third time all season that Lebanon trailed at half time, and they lost on the previous two occasions. Don White determined to not let it happen again. He came out white hot in the second half with seven unanswered points. His scoring whipped the fans into a frenzy. Thorntown was down seven with a quarter to play. They clawed back, and cut Lebanon’s lead to three, but a series of miscues including two missed free throws sealed the fate of the Sugar Creek Township team.
Prognosticators picked the sectional final between Lebanon and Advance to be another tough contest, especially after Advance’s surprise victory over Lebanon at mid-season. However, Advance lost their star player to injury in the semi-final. To compound matters for Advance, Lebanon’s bench depth allowed Coach Staggs to flex his line-up to rest his regular starters and give “Doc” Little and Gardner some additional playing time. In the final, White’s 17 points almost outscored Advance single-handedly as Lebanon powered past Advance, 37-18.
THE STATE FINALS
On March 16, twenty sectional winners convened at Indiana University to vie for the state title. Lebanon played three uncompetitive contests in the early rounds to advance to the finals. They sank Trafalgar in their first contest, 34-14. In the quarterfinals, the Lebanonites left Kendallville tilting at windmills, 43-8. In the semis, the Boone County boys sent Martinsville packing, 36-12.
The final pitted Lebanon against the speedy Gary Emerson team. The majority of the crowd of 4,000 rallied behind the underdogs from Gary at the start. Yet the crowd grew silent as Lebanon built a 25-15 lead by half time. The Steel City team went on a run in the second half to make it a three point game. With the score at 25-22, Lebanon surged ahead with a 9-4 run to ice the game, 34-26. White and Adam tied for team highs with ten points a piece.
With the win, Lebanon won its second state championship. White was a consensus all-state tournament first team member. Adam, Little, and DeVol appeared on various all-tournament lists either on the first or second teams.
1917 Indiana basketball champion team from Lebanon. Photo from Lebanon High School yearbook, The Cedars, 1917. Accessed at Ralph W. Stark Heritage Center, Lebanon Public Library.
Coach Staggs left Lebanon after the school year to accept a job at Anderson High School. Little, DeVol, and Frank would join mid-season graduate George White in the ranks of Lebanon alumni. Bob Ball although technically a junior would leave high school and enter DePauw University, depriving the team of its second leading scorer. Yet the core of White, Grater, and Adam would return for the 1917-18 season. Under the tutelage of a new coach, Glenn Curtis, and a younger cast of supporting characters they would win the state tournament again, and join the historical annals with Wingate as back-to-back state champions.
After graduating in 1918, Don White reunited with his old coach, Ward Lambert, and continued his athletic career at Purdue. He was second in the Big Ten in scoring as a sophomore, and led the conference in scoring as a junior while also leading the university to the conference title in 1921. After college, White entered the coaching ranks where he had a thirty-five year career at Washington University (St. Louis), the University of Connecticut, and Rutgers. He even coached Thailand’s Olympic team in 1956.
After high school, Adam and Grater teamed together again at Wabash College where they were multi-sport athletes, and fixtures in the basketball line-up. After graduation they both became high school teachers and coaches.
Learn more about Lebanon High School basketball history with a presentation by IHB Director Chandler Lighty at the Lebanon Public Library. The talk takes place Monday, March 20, 2017 from 6-8 p.m. and includes a special viewing of an LHS 1967 basketball film.
Author S. Chandler LightyPosted on March 16, 2017 March 17, 2017 Categories 20th century, Boone County, Sports HistoryTags 1917 state basketball championship, Alva Staggs, basketball, Clyde Grater, Don White, Fred Adam, Fred Cat Adam, Homer Stonebraker, Hoosier Hysteria, IHSAA state basketball champs, Indiana basketball tournament, Indiana high school basketball, Indiana high school champions, John Wooden, Lebanon, Lebanon High School, Piggy Lambert, Purdue University basketball, Thorntown basketball, Ward Lambert
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Tag: Miami County
The Indelible Ross Lockridges
Ross Lockridge Sr. and Jr. camping, photographed by three-year-old Ernest (son of Sr.) in the summer of 1942, image courtesy of Evansville.edu.
Ross Lockridge Sr. and Jr. left an indelible mark on Indiana history through traditional history publications and fictional depiction. However, the father and son have yet to be cemented in the annals of state history. We hope to contribute to that reversal.
The senior Lockridge was born in Miami County, Indiana in 1877 and went on to graduate from Indiana University in 1900. He married and returned to his north central Hoosier home. He became the principal of Peru High School, and later earned a law degree from IU in 1907. Not long after, he moved to Fort Wayne and worked as employment manager and welfare director at Wayne Knitting Mills. He also served three years as executive secretary of the Citizen League of Indiana, which lobbied for a new state constitution and advocated for women’s suffrage.
Wayne Knitting Mills, 1910, courtesy of History Center Notes & Queries.
While in Fort Wayne, Lockridge Sr. helped organize the Allen County Fort Wayne Historical Society. During this time his reputation grew as a writer of pioneer Indiana history. According to Larry Lockridge, his grandfather, Ross Sr.,”developed his own brand of ‘Historic Site Recital,’ combing public speaking, drama, and local history.” Between 1937 and 1950, Lockridge Sr. served as a director of IU Foundation’s Hoosier Historic Memorial Activities Agency. Some of his published works include: George Rogers Clark (1927), A. Lincoln (1930), LaSalle (1931), The Old Fauntleroy Home (1939), and Labyrinth (1941), Theodore F. Thieme (1942). His The Story of Indiana (1951) was primarily used as a text in Indiana at the junior high school level.
The historian also wrote about Johnny Appleseed, the Underground Railroad, and Indiana’s trails, rivers, and canals. Another extended work, which continues to aid transportation history researchers, is Historic Hoosier Roadside Sites, commissioned in 1938 by the Indiana State Highway Association. He worked tirelessly to mark the state’s landscape with monuments and markers, preserve records, and execute historical pageants. His clear and concise writing style has added to Hoosier’s knowledge of their past.
The Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, IN), March, 23, 1936, courtesy of Newspapers.com.
According to Larry Lockridge, his grandfather “didn’t exactly whitewash history,” but he “certainly edited it. He attempted to bind people to their own local history through heroic narrative.” After the tragic drowning of Ross Sr.’s 5-year-old son, Bruce, in Fort Wayne, his dedication to historical work intensified. Larry contends:
“Preaching history as resurrection of the worthy dead was his idealistic, nonmetaphysical challenge to time and mortality, grounded in the tragedies of his own life and the pettiness of the contemporary scene.”
Ross Jr. assisted his father with historical projects, but according to Larry was “not his father’s puppet at such performances” and “never approached his father’s ease of performance and lack of self-consciousness.”
Ross Jr. was born in Bloomington, Indiana and moved to Fort Wayne. When he was 9-years-old the family returned to Bloomington and his literary dreams took root.
According to an Indiana Public Media article (IPM), Junior attended Indiana University, where he was known as “A+ Lockridge,” graduating with the highest GPA ever awarded by the school (4.33). Scarlet fever precluded his plan to join IU’s English Department, leaving him bedridden for eight months. He was later accepted as at doctoral student at Harvard University, where he began his famed novel.
Raintree County cover, courtesy of Goodreads // Ross Lockridge Jr. signing copies of Raintree County in Indiana, courtesy of Altered Book Arts.
According to an Altered Books Arts article, he withdrew from his studies and taught at a nearby college, so he could focus on his literary magnum opus. The IPM article reports that he studied abroad in Europe in 1934, where he “first had the vision of writing a novel that would draw upon the would-be literary heritage of his maternal grandfather, a schoolteacher and poet who had lived in Indiana’s Henry County.” This evolved into the character of John Shawnessy, who after losing his wife went on to fight in the Civil War, attempted to write the Great American Novel, and ended up in the fictional Raintree County.
Photo of a raintree planted in honor of Ross Jr. behind the Lockridge house, image courtesy Larry Lockridge, accessed IPM.
Although Johnny had his successes, the character flashed back in memory wondering about the country’s future. He is influenced by several cultural concepts, one of which is to find the legendary Rain Tree, supposedly planted somewhere in the Raintree County by the celebrated Johnny Appleseed, who is buried in Allen County. The tree Lockridge sought to feature is based on a real Golden Rain Tree, which blooms in the summer with subtle yellow flowers that drop like a raining of yellow pollen dust.
In addition to Allen County, Monroe County is represented in the book. Larry noted, “We have county fairs and patriotic programs and outdoor sex and footraces and weddings and temperance dramas and rough talk . . . all of this he picked up in the culture of Bloomington” (IPM). Ross Jr.’s wife, Vernice, did the final typing of the novel, an 18 month endeavor and, unlike many writers, her husband gave her full credit for her help in constructing the 1060-page novel.
Altered Books Arts summarizes the novel’s themes, stating:
“In the course of its thousand pages philosophy, religion, sex, and history all flow together in a narrative that spans 40 years, recollected in a single day. In some ways it is an Indiana Ulysses, though Lockridge said that whereas Joyce wished to make the simple obscured, he wished to make the obscure simple. When it came out Thomas Wolfe and Walt Whitman were frequently cited for comparison, but it seems closer to in technique and feeling to the panoramic narrative of John Dos Passos’ U.S.A.“
Ross Lockridge Jr. by river, image courtesy of Larry Lockridge, accessed IPM.
Ross Jr.’s labor of love was met with much anticipation from his publisher, Houghton Mifflin. However, in order to win MGM’s high-profile contest for best new literary work, an award of $150,000, he was pressured to revise and cut several sections from his masterpiece. His likely selection as Book of the Month club winner, meant that he had to make many more extensive cuts. He conceded reluctantly and worked tirelessly to trim it for publication. His publisher Dorothy Hillyer wrote “Ross was quite capable of fussing eighteen hours a day over that manuscript. He was in love with it, almost sexually.” (He ended up cutting out a 356-page dream sequence, which is retained at Bloomington’s Lilly Library).
These compromises, the killing of his darlings, so to speak, and the completion of his life’s work plunged him into a deep depression. Despite generally rave reviews about the novel and winning MGM’s literary award, Lockridge’s depression worsened and he returned to Bloomington. His son regarded this as a mistake, “not because of Bloomington’s particular atmosphere but because it felt to him as if he had come full circle. . . . It was the symmetry of fate that he was returning home to die.”
Larry noted that his father began exhibiting bizarre behavior, inspecting knives in the kitchen and opening and closing cupboards, claiming he was “looking for a way out.” Public backlash about the book’s sexuality and irreverence, especially by his Bloomington neighbors, made him doubt the quality of his work and worsened his fragile state. (According to IPM, the publication of his neighbor Alfred Kinsey‘s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male promoted Lockridge to quip “It seems Mr. Kinsey and I have succeeded in making Bloomington the sex center of the universe”).
The cover of Mary Jane Ward’s autobiographical novel about her own struggles with mental illness, image courtesy of IPM.
Ross Jr.’s father hoped to combat his son’s malaise with recitation, the memorization of the Declaration of Independence, hearkening back to their old historical endeavors. Ross Jr. reluctantly entertained his mother’s Christian Science ministrations, but remained in a debilitated state. Ross Jr. was not alone in his distress; his cousin Mary Jane Ward suffered from mental illness, which she depicted in her successful autobiographical novel The Snake Pit.
Witnessing her husband’s ongoing suffering, Vernice convinced him to seek treatment at Indianapolis’s Methodist Hospital, where he underwent electroshock convulsive therapy and insulin-induced coma. Further distressed and embarrassed by the procedures, he gave staff the impression he had recovered and was released.
According to Larry, his father tried to write a second novel, a “thinly disguised autobiography, from Fort Wayne days to the present.” He had planned to begin the story with his young brother’s tragic death and,
“the tranquil Avenue of Elms, Creighton Avenue in Fort Wayne, whose backdrop was the Great War. It is in this city that his brother Bruce drowns, that his house catches fire, that there is a great strike at the mill, that he falls in love with Alicia Carpenter, that he decides to become a writer, and that through ‘the brutality of fate’ his personality is set by the age of ten.”
He was never able to finish a second novel. On March 6, 1948, the day after Raintree County was declared a number one best seller, Ross Lockridge, Jr. took his own life at age 33 in Bloomington. Unable to locate her husband, Vernice went out to their garage. There she discovered his limp body in the running car, a vacuum cleaner hose piping exhaust into the car. The death of the new literary star stunned the nation, attracting over 2,000 to his funeral and prompting an obituary on the front page of the New York Times.
Movie poster, courtesy of Imdb.com.
In 1957, MGM produced a big screen depiction of Raintree County, featuring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Eva Marie Saint.
Weeks after the death, Vernice found a note written by her husband, stating “‘Dearest, Have gone for early morning walk to clear head. Love, Ross.” On the back side he wrote:
“The purpose of Raintree County is to present life in its many-sided variety with idealism triumphant. An irreverent character in a book does not mean an irreverent book. In any event it is an old and good rule that every reader is entitled to his own opinion of a book.”
Surviving the death of a second son, Ross Sr. passed away a few years later in 1952.
Henry County plaque, courtesy of IU Press Typepad.
Learn more about the remarkable Lockridges with Larry Lockridge’s 1994 Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr., author of Rain Tree County.
Author Tom CastaldiPosted on September 2, 2016 September 6, 2016 Categories 20th century, Allen County, Cultural history, Literature, Monroe County, UncategorizedTags Alfred Kinsey, Allen County Fort Wayne Historical Society, Bloomington, Citizens League of Indiana, Elizabeth Taylor, Fort Wayne, Henry County, Historic Hoosier Roadside Sites, historical marker, History, Hoosier Historic Memorial Activities Agency, Houghton Mifflin, Indiana, Indiana University, John Shawnessy, Larry Lockridge, MGM, Miami County, Montgomery Clift, novel, Peru High School, Raintree County, Ross Lockridge Jr., Ross Lockridge Sr., suicide, The Snake Pit, Vernice Lockridge, Wayne Knitting Mills
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Phishing Protection vs Privacy in Firefox and Chrome
February 05, 2017 by Thomas Leplus in Computer Security
A decade ago when anti-phishing mechanisms started to be added to web browsers, I remember disabling these features immediately thinking sarcastically: "Great, now every site that I visit will be sent to a third-party for validation. Thank you but no thank you!" I thought that the privacy trade off was not worth the price and that I was better off simply being careful about the site I visit and the links I click.
You could say that I was arrogant but in those days, phishing attacks were not very sophisticated and fairly easy to detect. In particular they were usually not targeted. I was living in France at the time and since most phishing campaigns were aimed at Americans, it was obvious to me that the US Internal Revenue Service did not really owed me any money or that I did not need to reset my Bank Of America password since I did not have any account there!
However things have changed since then. Phishing attacks have become cleverer, leveraging the trove of information stolen from Yahoo!, LinkedIn, DropBox and many other widely used online services. Spear phishing attacks against high value targets are becoming frequent. And I now live in the US, meaning that I fall right into the target audience of scammers. Wonderful!
So I've decided to see what I could do be about it. My first idea was to revisit the anti-phishing options in Firefox. How does it work? Here is what this Firefox support page has to says:
There are two times when Firefox will communicate with Mozilla’s partners while using Phishing and Malware Protection for sites. The first is during the regular updates to the lists of reporting phishing and malware sites. No information about you or the sites you visit is communicated during list updates. The second is in the event that you encounter a reported phishing or malware site. Before blocking the site, Firefox will request a double-check to ensure that the reported site has not been removed from the list since your last update. This request does not include the address of the visited site, it only contains partial information derived from the address.
Using a locally downloaded list is a great start but it leaves a few open questions. Certainly Firefox cannot refresh the entire list of phishing and malware URLs regularly, there must be millions of entries in that list by now and it is probably growing at an exponential rate. Is it why they need to "double-check" online, to query a more up-to-date or comprehensive list? But then are we back to square one where the "partners" get the URLs of at least some of the sites you visit? And who are those partners anyway? The first clue to the answer of these questions is at the end of Firefox's page: "The Google Policy Privacy explains how Google handles collected data." That seems to indicate that Google is somehow involved in this. And this is confirmed further down the page when it says: "To request removal from the list of reported phishing sites, use this form provided by Google." Now we are going somewhere. Firefox is using the same mechanism as Chrome, known as "Google Safe Browsing". The service's API documentation explains how it works pretty well but an even better summary can be found in this Chromium Blog post. I am going to try to summarize it even further. When anti-phishing is enabled, the browser downloads from Google a list of 32-bit hashes of normalized URLs for know phishing sites. 32-bit is not enough to prevent collisions with legitimate sites URLs but it is enough to be downloaded regularly without requiring a lot of bandwidth or storage. Also it is enough to avoid the need for an online check for the vast majority of pages that you visit.
However, when a visited page's 32-bit hash has a match in the list, your browser cannot be certain that it is one of the URLs flagged by Google due to the hash collision risk explained before. So what the browser does is that it sends the 32-bit hash to the Safe Browsing server which returns the 256-bit hashes of the bad URLs. If 256-bit hash of the URL that you were about to visit matches one of the 256-bit hashes received, the browser can pop a warning confidently since the risks of collisions with 256 bits is dramatically reduced, not to say inexistent. Of course you have given some information to Google, 32 bits of information to be precise, but what does that amount to? 32 bits represent about 4.3 billion possible values. It is hard to know for certain how many pages are in Google's index but this site claims that there were around 30 trillion indexed pages in 2014 and that the number back then was almost doubling every two years. So now that we are starting 2017, it gives us a rough estimate of more than 10,000 pages per 32-bit hash. Of course not all these pages have an equal probability to be the one that you are visiting, and Google could probably significantly reduce the number of candidates by using the rest of the information it knows about you (location, language etc.). But my point is that they do a fairly good attempt to anonymize your private data in this instance. In the end it is up to you to decide if you want to trust this browser feature or not. But given that the alternative is being exposed to phishing attacks, I personally chose to re-enable this feature to defend myself against a risk that I know exist, rather than preventing a privacy violation that could exist.
Short URL for this post: https://lepl.us/r
February 05, 2017 /Thomas Leplus
Firefox, Chrome, Google, privacy, phishing, spear phishing, malware, spam
iPhone apps are not magically secure
July 15, 2011 by Thomas Leplus in Computer Security, Software
I have been wondering about the iPhone apps security for a long time. Most apps are connected to some sort of web service but are they using SSL? We spent so much time educating users to check the security icon in their web browser and now the iPhone comes out and nobody cares anymore! That bugs me so I decided to find out.
LinkedIn, Squarespace, Tumblr, iOS, iPad, iPhone, network, password, privacy, security
Computer Security, Software
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Business Groups Say Cuomo’s Prevailing Wage Plan a ‘Death Sentence’ for Development
Jan 17, 2019 | Announcements
By Samantha Christmann Published 5:00 a.m. January 17, 2019 The Buffalo News
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wants to change the state’s prevailing wage mandate, expanding its requirements to include contractors doing work on projects receiving state funds. But critics said the change could raise construction labor costs by an estimated 20 percent and put a damper on development.
The prevailing wage in Western New York is set by the State Department of Labor. It varies by job position and location, but usually mirrors the pay scale in collective bargaining agreements negotiated by trade unions.
Contractors are already required to pay the prevailing wage on public works projects. But Cuomo said in his State of the State address Tuesday that he wants to expand the public works definition to include private-sector projects assisted by tax breaks from industrial development agencies.
The Buffalo-Niagara Partnership was among 18 business groups that sent a letter to the governor last March asking him not to expand the prevailing wage requirements. Calling the mandate “already flawed and miscalculated,” it said the change would hurt smaller community-based projects that are driven by private dollars. Those projects break even at their current wage rates and increasing costs would “make many of them financially unfeasible,” the groups said.
“For most projects, such a drastic increase in total project cost dwarfs the incentives and economic benefits bestowed,” the letter said.
The letter pointed to a report from the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank, which compared the prevailing wage to the regional medians of occupational wages for all non-residential building construction workers, including those paid union scale. It found the prevailing wage increased construction labor costs by 20 percent in the Buffalo region.
Unshackle Upstate, a business advocacy group, said the prevailing wage expansion would “severely weaken our economy and hurt taxpayers.”
“The proposal to apply prevailing wage to all projects that receive state funding is a death sentence for upstate economic development initiatives. Under this mandate, efforts to fix our crumbling infrastructure would be far too expensive to pursue,” the group said in a statement.
The National Federation of Independent Business, a small business association, said expanding the mandate would harm small businesses.
“NFIB and our members remain concerned that some proposed employer mandates contained in the Governor’s address appear to embrace a flawed, one-size-fits-all regulatory model that severely limits the autonomy and flexibility small businesses need to attract talent and remain competitive,” Greg Biryla, the group’s New York State director, said in a statement.
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President Trump’s Proposal to Eliminate Federal Support for Certain K-12 Programs Would Hurt Economically Disadvantaged Students in Every Part of California
Education · April 18, 2017 · By Jonathan Kaplan
The underlying data for this post are available for download. Download the Supporting Effective Instruction (SEI) grants funding by congressional district or by K-12 school district. Special thanks to Budget Center Senior Policy Analyst Sara Kimberlin for her assistance in preparing these data sets.
As we blogged about recently, President Trump’s budget blueprint for federal “discretionary” spending proposes significant cuts to a range of key public systems and services. While this so-called “skinny budget” lacks important details, it calls for eliminating two K-12 education programs and, by doing so, would reduce the funding available to every California school district as well as to many community-based organizations across the state. California is estimated to receive more than $365 million for these two programs in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2017, which began October 1, 2016: $252 million for Supporting Effective Instruction (SEI) State Grants (also known as “Title II, Part A” funds), which aim in part to increase the number of educators and advance their quality and effectiveness; and $114 million for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which supports before- and after-school as well as summer school programs. Although these two federal funding streams represent just a fraction of the $74.5 billion overall that is budgeted for K-12 education in California in 2016-17 (the state fiscal year that began July 1, 2016), their elimination would disproportionately affect students from low-income families because dollars for these programs are targeted to these learners.
A closer look at the SEI State Grants helps show why. Federal funding for SEI grants provides California with more dollars than does any other federal K-12 program aside from grants for special education and Title I funds, which support students from low-income families. SEI grants are provided to states based on a formula weighted toward the number of students living in poverty. As a result, nearly half (47 percent) of Title II, Part A dollars in 2015-16 were allocated to the highest-poverty districts in the nation, according to a US Department of Education (USDOE) survey. What’s more, changes to the allocation of SEI dollars, made by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, will increase the proportion of funds provided for children in poverty starting in FFY 2018. This all means that the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate the SEI grants would cut funding specifically intended to help students most in need.
The USDOE survey also shows that more than one-third (35 percent) of school districts use SEI dollars to hire teachers and reduce class sizes. This strongly suggests that the Trump administration’s proposal would eliminate funds that help mitigate California’s worsening teacher shortage crisis — a shortage that disproportionately affects school districts with large shares of students from low-income families. And the fact that, nationwide, nearly half (45 percent) of teachers paid with SEI dollars to reduce class sizes are in the highest-poverty districts means that disadvantaged students are likely to be hurt substantially by ending the SEI grants.
Recent reports indicate that certain areas of the state — including the San Joaquin Valley — have been hit especially hard by the state’s teacher shortage. And underqualified teachers are employed at a higher rate than the statewide average in many parts of the state that receive the most SEI grant funding. Elimination of the SEI grants would reduce funding for K-12 schools in every California congressional district, but some districts and certain areas of the state would lose more than others (see maps below). For example:
Among congressional districts that are in the “top third” (the top 18 of all 53 California congressional districts) in terms of losing the most SEI dollars, half are in the San Joaquin Valley or other inland parts of the state. In addition to these nine districts — 1 (R-LaMalfa), 3 (D-Garamendi), 8 (R-Cook), 9 (D-McNerney), 16 (D-Costa), 21 (R-Valadao), 22 (R-Nunes), 23 (R-McCarthy), and 51 (D-Vargas) — eight congressional districts in the Los Angeles area and one in San Diego would lose the most SEI dollars.
Among the one-third of congressional districts that would lose the least SEI dollars, nearly half are in the Bay Area, the Sacramento Valley, or further up the northern California coast. In addition to these eight districts — 2 (D-Huffman), 7 (D-Bera), 11 (D-DeSaulnier), 12 (D-Pelosi), 14 (D-Speier), 15 (D-Swalwell), 17 (D-Khanna), 18 (D-Eshoo) — 10 congressional districts located in the Los Angeles region or further down the southern California coast would lose the least SEI dollars.
Download SEI grants funding by California congressional district.
Download SEI grants funding by California K-12 school district.
Although President Trump’s budget blueprint provides only limited details, it does point toward his overall approach to funding K-12 education. That approach includes depriving public schools of federal dollars that can be used to reduce class sizes throughout California. Eliminating funding for these programs will make it even harder for California schools to address growing teacher shortages — and in a cruel irony, cuts to federal funding would be the greatest in many of the same areas of the state where the impact of these shortages are felt the most.
— Jonathan Kaplan
Summer Financial Aid: A Tool for Boosting Low-Income Students’ Graduation Rates
Trump Administration Proposal to Shrink the Poverty Line Means More Hardship for Californians
Key Investments for Low-Income Californians in 2019-20 Budget Bill, CalEITC Still Unresolved
California College Students Are Increasingly Experiencing Mental Health Issues and Need Improved Support
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Alberta legislature begins session under NDP, and everyone is watching the money
Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
Premier Rachel Notley, right, and her caucus applaud following the swearing-in ceremony in the house of the Alberta Legislature June 1, 2015. Dan Riedlhuber / The Edmonton Journal
Alberta’s Opposition Wildrose party is urging Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP not launch its new era Monday by spending billions of dollars with little explanation.
The first session of the legislature under Notley’s team will run for the next couple of weeks and focus on an interim supply bill to keep the money taps flowing in Alberta until the NDP can bring in a full budget in the fall.
Wildrose finance critic Derek Fildebrandt said the bill will be, in effect, a “mini-budget” to cover about half-a-year’s payments for a budget already well over $40 billion in spending.
“You can’t be pulling this money from thin air,” said Fildebrandt.
“We need a big picture of the finances with the details to see if the numbers actually add up.”
The original budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year was introduced, but never passed, by the former Progressive Conservative government before the Tories were defeated in the May 5 election.
Notley won a majority government on a platform that promised a radically different budget. It included a hike to corporate income taxes, more spending for health and education and a rollback of proposed PC hikes to taxes and user fees.
She said Finance Minister Joe Ceci and his staff will be working through the summer to bring in a revised budget in the fall to match those promises.
In the meantime, said Notley, it’s not realistic for the Wildrose to expect a line-by-line breakdown in spending by a government that was sworn in a less than three weeks ago.
“When we introduce (the bill) there will be some detail about the changes that we are proposing to make, and there will be a lot of opportunity to debate it then and much more in the fall,” said Notley.
The session begins with a speech from the throne Monday by Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell outlining the goals and plans of Notley’s new government.
The NDP has promised to introduce several other bills during the session but will not reveal details until Monday.
Government House Leader Brian Mason, in an interview, would only say the flagship session legislation, known as Bill 1, “will have to do with changes to fulfil a small part of our platform for democratic reform.”
Mason would not confirm or deny Bill 1 would focus on banning corporate and union donations to political parties, as promised in the election campaign.
Ceci, in an interview, would not confirm or deny that legislation to hike the corporate income tax to 12 per cent from 10 per cent, as promised in the election, will be part of the session.
Ceci would only say, “We’re going to put in place some instruments that will help us smooth out our revenue situation so that we’re not relying on oil and gas revenues and royalties.”
The session will also be the first test for Notley’s government on questions in the chamber from its own backbenchers.
Notley, and other opposition leaders, criticized the former Tory government for using such questions not to hold the government to account, as per their intended historical purpose, but rather as scripted “puffballs” to spotlight government achievements.
Mason said he expects the NDP backbenchers, technically not part of the government, will ask what they want of the cabinet ministers.
“I don’t anticipate that (puffballs) will happen,” said Mason.
He said he expects some of the new NDP backbenchers will want to have the questions written down for convenience, but said, “that doesn’t mean it’s written for them.”
10:00ET 14-06-15
Notley excited over Monday's 'historic' throne speech NDP pledge to end carbon capture projects easier said than done
Opinion: Setting the record straight on LNG from B.C.
Bryan Cox: LNG projects in B.C. will have at least half or less the emissions intensity of other LNG projects in the world.
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B.C. introduces law to require cars, trucks sold by 2040 be zero emission
Zero-emission vehicles are part of the B.C. government's $902 million CleanBC program.
VICTORIA — All light-duty cars and trucks sold in British Columbia would have to be zero-emission by 2040 under legislation tabled Wednesday.
Energy Minister Michelle Mungall says the Zero Emission Vehicles Act aims to fight climate change by phasing out gas-powered vehicles.
She says the legislation would set target dates of 10 per cent zero-emission sales by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040.
The legislation would apply to new vehicles for sale or lease.
Mungall says zero-emission vehicles are part of the government's $902 million CleanBC program to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 based on 2007 pollution levels.
She says the CleanBC plan includes incentives for zero-emission vehicle purchases up to $5,000 on a new battery electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and up to $6,000 for a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.
“British Columbians are eager to make the switch to zero-emission vehicles,” said Mungall in the legislature. “We have the highest per capita adoption of zero emission vehicles in Canada, with over 17,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road, averaging four per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales in 2018.”
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XC_CM_LosAngelesPremiereOfWarnerBros.PicturesHorribleBosses2_Jennifer Aniston_A015.JPG
HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA - NOVEMBER 20: Actress Jennifer Aniston arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures' 'Horrible Bosses 2' held at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 20, 2014 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by Xavier Collin/Celebrity Monitor)
USA, United States, United States Of America, California, CA, Los Angeles, Los Angeles - California, Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills - California, Event, Red Carpet, Arts Culture and Entertainment, Red Carpet Event, Editorial, Arrival, Attending, Celebrities, Arts, Culture, Entertainment, Premiere, Film Premiere, Movie Premiere, Screening, Full Length, Headshot, Posing, Portrait, Smiling, Eye Contact, Fashion, Looking At Camera, 2014, Los Angeles Premiere, Horrible Bosses 2, Horrible Bosses 2 - 2014 Film, Horrible Bosses 2 - Film, Horrible Bosses 2 - Movie, People, Movie, Film, City Of Los Angeles, Film Industry, Film Screening, Special Screening, Special, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros., Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Mann Chinese Theatre, Chinese Theatre, TCL Chinese Theatre, TCL, Jennifer Aniston, Actress, One Person, Female, Black, White, Skirt, Black Skirt, White Top, Cleavage, Blond Hair, Blonde Hair, Hair Part, Makeup, Lipstick, Earrings, Jewelry, Closed Toe, Closed Toe Shoes, Shoes, Jennifer Joanna Aniston, American, Filmmaker, Businesswoman, 45 years old, Caucasian
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May 2, 2018 By clearlakedev Comments are Off
CLEARLAKE CAPITAL-BACKED PERFORCE ADDS ENTERPRISE-GRADE SOURCE CODE ANALYSIS TO ITS PORTFOLIO WITH ACQUISITION OF PRQA
PRQA’s Static Code Analyzers improve code quality and security for enterprise development teams enabling faster time to market
Minneapolis, Minn. – May 2, 2018 – Perforce Software (“Perforce”), a global provider of solutions to enterprise teams requiring productivity, visibility and scale during all phases of the technology development lifecycle, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with its affiliates, “Clearlake”), today announced the acquisition of UK-based Programming Research Ltd. (“PRQA”), a leading provider of sophisticated, enterprise-grade static code analysis. The acquisition expands the Perforce portfolio of solutions by adding PRQA’s family of Static Code Analyzers that assess software reliability, security and compliance while reducing development time.
Growth through acquisition is an integral part of Perforce’s business strategy to develop a comprehensive portfolio of leading enterprise scale software solutions for technology developers and development operations (“DevOps”) teams. The acquisition of PRQA represents Perforce’s fourth successful acquisition in the past two years, and its first under Clearlake’s new ownership, which was announced in early January 2018.
“With this latest acquisition we continue delivering on our strategy to offer more solutions and capabilities that improve DevOps pipeline performance for enterprise development teams,” said Janet Dryer, Perforce CEO. “PRQA is a great match with Perforce as we both serve large global teams striving to deliver their solutions faster and with higher quality.”
PRQA solutions are widely adopted by organizations whose products need to perform securely and reliably in mission critical and safety critical environments, such as automotive, aerospace, medical and other demanding industries. Customers realize faster time-to-market due to the technology’s scale and accuracy in automated inspection of source code for high risk code and non-conformance to standards.
“We are excited to support the Perforce management team as they continue to execute on its buy-and-build strategy,” added Prashant Mehrotra, Partner of Clearlake. “With this strategic acquisition of PRQA, Perforce now offers solutions for enterprise customers to address security and quality early in the software development lifecycle, enabling better continuous integration and continuous delivery.”
“PRQA have been at the forefront of code quality management for over 30 years. We have some of the world’s top experts in code analysis at PRQA, and our products help our customers develop high-quality code more reliably and at a faster pace. By joining forces with Perforce we will be able to expand the reach of this great technology and deliver business value to a much bigger audience worldwide,” said Paul Blundell, PRQA CEO.
ABOUT PERFORCE
Perforce is a leading provider of enterprise scale software solutions to technology developers and development operations (“DevOps”) teams requiring productivity, visibility and scale during all phases of the development lifecycle. Enterprises across the globe rely on its agile planning and ALM tools, developer collaboration, static code analysis, version control and repository management solutions as the foundation for successful DevOps at scale. Perforce is trusted by the world’s most innovative brands, including NVIDIA, Pixar, Scania, Ubisoft, and VMware. Perforce has offices in Minneapolis, MN, Alameda, CA, Mason, OH, Boston, MA, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Germany, India, and Australia, and sales partners around the globe. For more information, please visit www.perforce.com.
ABOUT CLEARLAKE CAPITAL
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a leading private investment firm founded in 2006. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.® The firm’s core target sectors are industrials and energy; software and technology-enabled services; and consumer. Clearlake has managed approximately $7 billion of institutional capital since inception and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 100 investments. More information is available at www.clearlake.com.
Colleen Kulhanek
Perforce Software
Ph: +1 612-517-2069
ckulhanek@perforce.com
UK/EMEA
Maxine Ambrose
Ambrose Communications
perforce@ambrosecomms.co.uk
BLICKSILVER PUBLIC RELATIONS, INC.
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118 U.S. Mayors Endorse 100% Renewable Energy Goals
ClearWorld is committed to providing renewable energy solutions for a healthier, greener planet, starting at a grassroots level. By raising awareness in the local community about these issues, we can all do our part to make our cities more environmentally conscious and eco-friendly places to live.
100% Clean Energy
Innovation starts with inspiration. ClearWorld applauds The Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative. “It makes sense for mayors across the country to work together,” said San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “Because when we talk about the future of our planet, we’re talking about the future of our communities.”
The analysis of National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Energy Information Administration data comes before the start of the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami Beach, from June 23-26, where members will consider a resolution that would establish support for the goal of 100 percent clean, renewable energy in cities nationwide.
In addition, the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign and the co-chairs of Mayors for 100% Clean Energy announced Friday that 118 mayors across the country have endorsed a goal of powering their communities with 100 percent clean, renewable energy such as wind and solar.
The Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative is co-chaired by Mayor Philip Levine of Miami Beach, Mayor Jackie Biskupski of Salt Lake City, Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego and Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina. Benjamin is also a vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“It’s up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation. It’s not merely an option now; it’s imperative,” said Mayor Benjamin. “Cities and mayors can lead the transition away from fossil fuels to 100 percent clean and renewable energy.”
Mayoral endorsements of 100 percent renewable energy had led to ambitious action in municipalities across the U.S. The mayors of St. Petersburg, Florida and Abita Springs, Louisiana issued proclamations which endorsed a goal of transitioning to 100 percent clean and renewable energy, followed by the formal adoption of a community-wide goal establishing 100 percent clean, renewable energy as the target for city energy planning.
“In San Diego, we brought business and environmental groups together to advance a goal of 100 percent renewable energy,” said Mayor Faulconer. “It makes sense for mayors across the country to work together because when we talk about the future of our planet, we’re talking about the future of our communities.”
Salt Lake City released its Climate Positive 2040 plan which detailed the specific steps and policies the city will pursue with Rocky Mountain Power to achieve the goal of 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2032.
Thirty-six cities across the U.S. have committed to transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. This growing list of cities most recently includes Columbia, South Carolina, which this week unanimously voted to transition entirely to clean, renewable energy by 2036. Other cities including Los Angeles and Denver are studying pathways to 100 percent clean energy.
“We can’t ignore climate change because climate change is not ignoring us,” said Mayor Biskupski. “Cities must adapt to cope with the threats of climate change, and that’s also why we must take action to mitigate them. Salt Lake City has set the ambitious but achievable goals of generating 100 percent of the community’s electricity supply from renewable energy by 2032, followed by an 80 percent reduction in community greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. We are taking action to achieve these goals and I am honored to join mayors from across our nation to lead the transition to clean, renewable energy.”
Transitioning all 1,400+ U.S. Conference of Mayors member-cities to 100 percent renewable electricity will significantly reduce electric sector carbon pollution
August 3, 2018 ClearWorld, Climate Change, Outdoor Lighting, Outdoor solar lights, renewable energy, Smart City, solar lamps, solar LED, solar LED Lighting, Solar led lights, Solar LED Retrofit, Solar Light, Solar Lighting Solution, solar lighting system, Solar Lights Outdoor, Solar Outdoor Lighting, Solar Powered Led Lights, Solar Security Light, Solar Street light ClearWorld, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy
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While I can’t remember where I first heard the story of the Pied Piper, it was very likely from my Aunt Edna or Grandpa Albert. Let me remind you of the story which, as best as I can determine, was written by Robert Browning, the English Poet. The tiny town of Hamelin was seized by a seemingly uncontrollable infestation of rats. The rat plague was so bad that it threatened the health of the entire town. Widespread panic consumed the village. Then, taking a page from a future western movie, a stranger comes to town and claims that he can rid the town of the infestation.
The stranger told the Mayor and the Chamber of Commerce that he could clear the city of rats for only a thousand guilders ($600,000 US Dollars in today’s money). The town leaders were ecstatic at this opportunity. The stranger immediately began to walk down the main street, and rats emerged by the thousands and followed him hypnotically as he piped a tune. In fact, every single rat in the village followed as he marched them to the river where they drowned. The people of the village paraded and celebrated their now rat-free town! The mayor, with an abysmal 39% approval rating and a reputation as a rascal, refused to honor their verbal agreement when the Pied Piper showed up at the city hall for his payment. “Surely you knew that we spoke in jest when we agreed to pay the sum of a thousand guilders.”
“A thousand you promised, a thousand you’ll give,” said the Piper… “What is done is done, my man,” said the Mayor. “It cannot be undone. The rats are gone, you see.” “Aye, but I can pipe again,” said the Piper.
Then he went back into the street and began to pipe a new tune. But this time instead of rats, it was the village children who marched out of their homes to follow him. Down they went to the mountain which had opened for them to pass inside, and then closed again.
When we ran for Congress, some of us promised to our voters that we would work with the other side to get things done for the American people. Unfortunately, we allowed ideology and party loyalty to inspire us to break our promise. We were unwilling to “pay the piper.” Because of our refusal to pay, we are slowly participating in a history changing race to the bottom. It doesn’t seem to trouble us that the word civility sounds like something from our distant past. We should use our precious time in Congress more wisely and ensure future generations that a great nation will still exist.
Wouldn’t it be great if each of us embraced the words of my all-time favorite poet, Robert Frost?
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
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Main Facts and Life Hacks
Facts and Life HacksBuzz
South African celebrities who died in 2017 and 2018
7 months ago 11302 views by Julie Kwach
Everybody dies, but it is important to remember that the dead live in our memories. Last year, the South African entertainment industry lost a significant number of stars. Below is a list of South African celebrities who died in 2017 and 2018.
Death leaves wounds that could last a lifetime, more so if the person was close to you. Unfortunately, at some point, we all go through the same path. So, rather than mourn forever, we can choose to celebrate the lives of those who have gone before us.
READ ALSO: South African celebrities who died in 2018. Stars we've lost this year
Celebrities who died in 2017
Last year, several stars across the world passed away. Some of the notable names include Della Reese (actor, Touched by an Angel), Hugh Hefner (founder of Playboy magazine) and David Rockefeller (Rockefeller family). Here in South Africa, we lost musicians, actors, TV hosts, entrepreneurs among others.
South African actors and actresses who died in 2017
The film industry lost some top talents and legends in 2017. Below are some of the Mzansi actors who died in 2017.
Joe Mafela
Joe was a South African actor whose career began at the age of 22. He was also a musician, producer, and movie writer. He had roles in several South African television series, soaps, and movies. His breakthrough came from his role as Sdumo in the comedy series 'Sgudi 'Snaysi which was in Zulu. He went on to produce television programs under his production company Penguin Films and sometimes cast himself for roles in them. The veteran South African actor passed away after a car accident on the 18th of March. The Joe Mafela accident scene was on M1 North next to a construction zone.
Jabu Kubheka
Famous for his role as Gunman in the SABC1 drama series Yizo Yizo, Jabu Kubheka was a South African actor who starred in various television programs. The actor had roles in many televisions series including the SABC 1 drama Zone 14, A Place Called Home, Jacobs Cross, and Skhumba. He also had featured in various soaps including Generations, Zabalaza and Gold Diggers. Jabu was found dead in his home in June 2017.
Mandla Hlatshwayo
Mandla was a South African actor known for his role as Siphiwe Phosa in the hit TV series Generations. The actor's breakthrough came after his starring role in SABC's Soul City 2. He was also a DJ going by the name DJ Mandla, and he released his first album in 2006 known as Jozi Nights Volume 1. Mandla was fatally shot in May 2017, during a robbery outside Meli pub in Soweto as reported by BBC on the 15th May.
Iko Mash
Iko was a South African stylist, makeup artist, and actor who died after a long battle with cancer on the 21st of July, 2017. He was well known in celebrity circles for his styling prowess, and he played a transgender make up artist on television series Rhythm city.
7de Laan actor dies
Greg Melvill-Smith, famous for his role in 7de Laan, as well as in Isidingo, died in 2016. Therefore, he was not in Isidingo June 2017. He died in the hospital while battling a serious illness. He is not the only 7de Laan cast member who has died as two others passed away recently. Shareen Swart, a producer and actress on the show died on October 29, 2018 after a long battle with cancer.
Below is a list of South African actresses who died in 2017
Michelle Molatlou
Michelle was a former beauty queen who went on to be a television show host and actress. She hosted the magazine show Mamepe on SABC 2 and acted in various television productions including In the name of love, Kgalelo Pelo and Generations; Legacy. Michelle succumbed to cervical cancer at the National Hospital in Bloemfontein. She died on the 19th December 2017 surrounded by friends and family.
Mary Makgatho
Mary was a veteran actress who was best known for her roles in Generations, Yizo Yizo, and most recently Ekasi: Our Stories. She died after developing complications from injuries resulting from a fall.
Other South African celebrities who died in 2017
Raymond Chikapa Enock Phiri
Raymond, popularly known as Ray Phiri, was a South African jazz and fusion artist famous for his role in Graceland. The musician died on the 12th July, 2017, aged 70 after a two-month battle with lung cancer.
Lindani Bekwa
Lindani was a popular South African Radio personality. He started his career at Weneme FM as an intern in 1995 where he gained respect and admiration from people. He later worked at SABC radio before resigning to become the Mercantile Hospital spokesperson in 2004. He rejoined Weneme FM in 2006 and continued where he left off. The Lindani Bekwa death announcement brought sorrow to his fans and South Africa in general. His friends eulogized him as a dreamer who worked hard to make his dreams come true and who loved what he did. The radio host died in March 2017 after a long illness which kept him in and out of the hospital.
Matlakala Ramathoka
Popular gospel singer Matlakala Ramathoka died aged 43 in March 2017 after complaining of flu and chest pains. The singer was part of the Matlakala and the Comforters and the Musole Tumelo groups. She is famous for songs such as Dintwa Ditekising, Kgalemela Lefatshe, and Madi Matsogong. The singer had just completed recording her album Emanuel at the time of her death. Matlakala dead or alive will forever remain a memorable part of the South African gospel industry.
Thandi Klaasen
The legendary jazz musician Thandi Klaasen died on the 15th of January, 2017. Media outlets report that she was battling pancreatic cancer which is believed to be the cause of her death.
Dumisani Masilela
The Rhythm City actor was shot dead after a hijacking in Tembisa. He was rushed to hospital but died while undergoing surgery. The 29-year-old actor had recently got married. His wife was devastated by his death as their marriage had only lasted a few months according to family spokesperson Mpumi Phillips.
South African celebrities who died recently
Although the year 2018 is not yet over, South Africa has already suffered significant losses. Celebrity deaths today are on the rise due to the increasing number of diseases and the cancer menace. Here is a list of celebrities recently deceased.
Winnie Mandela
Mama Winnie's death came as a shock to many as she had been pictured earlier at her granddaughter's Good Friday celebration. Veteran anti-apartheid activist passed away on April 2, 2018, after a battle with an illness. Winnie inspired a generation of African women, many of whom honored her by wearing black and using the hashtag AllBlackWothADoek.
Sandy Mokwena
Actor Sandy Mokwena, who is known for playing Bra Eddie on eTVs Scandal, passed away on on Wednesday the 25th of January, 2018 due to natural causes. The actor also had roles in several television productions. His death shocked his family as it came after a short illness. On that day, it was reported that the South African actor died aged 68.
Hugh Masekela
The death of Hugh Masekela gave a huge blow to the South African jazz industry. Famously known as the father of South African Jazz, Hugh was a trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer, and composer. He is famous for hit songs such as Soweto Blues and Bring Him Back Home. The musician died due to prostate cancer on the 23rd of January, 2018.
Chris Matshaba
The radio personality succumbed to cancer on the 11th of February, 2018 just six months before his 40th birthday. Kabelo Mosito, the family spokesman, told Tshisa Live that the actor continued to smile despite his battle.
David Phetoe
Generations actor dies aged 85 was the breaking news on the 1st day of February this year. David was a veteran actor best known for his role as Paul Moroka on popular soap, Generations. Eugene Phetoe, his son, said in an interview that the actor had been ill and was in the hospital when he died on the afternoon of the 1st of February, 2018.
Jabulani Tsambo
Popularly known by his hip-hop name, Hip Hop Pantasula, HHP died on October 24th, 2018. The rapper was found dead in his Johannesburg home earlier in the day. His friend and rapper Khuli Chana said that HHP's death came as a shock to his friends and family. It was an unbelievable sadness.
Khanyi Mbau dies?
Well, fortunately, Khanyi Mbau, is not dead. The 32-year-old actress suffered a scare during cosmetic surgery in 2017 but did not die. She currently plays Dinekile aka Lady Die on SABC1 soap Uzalo.
READ ALSO: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: the dark side of the legend revealed
Death is the ultimate ending for all human beings. The South African celebrities who died in 2017 and 2018 probably did not see it coming. It is, therefore, important to honor the loved ones while they are still alive.
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Act now or forever play global catch up on clean technology: Report
Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, listen to introductions as they announce a $700 million investment over the next five years to grow Canada's clean technology industry in Montreal on January 18, 2018. Canada's share of the fastest growing industry in the world has been shrinking over the last decade -- and a new report says it's time to step it up or miss out on a trillion-dollar opportunity. The Ottawa-based Smart Prosperity Institute report -- to be released today in Vancouver at the Globe Forum Leadership Summit for Sustainable Business -- says clean technology will be a $2.2-trillion industry worldwide by 2022, with an estimated $3.6 trillion of investment up for grabs globally between now and 2030.Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Mia Rabson
PMN Business
OTTAWA — Canada’s share of the fastest growing industry in the world has been shrinking over the last decade — and a new report says it’s time to step it up or miss out on a trillion-dollar opportunity.
The Ottawa-based Smart Prosperity Institute report — to be released today in Vancouver at the Globe Forum Leadership Summit for Sustainable Business — says clean technology will be a $2.2-trillion industry worldwide by 2022, with an estimated $3.6 trillion of investment up for grabs globally between now and 2030.
However, Canada’s market share in the global clean tech industry has fallen 12 per cent in the last decade, and will continue to contract without a solid, long-term commitment to growing the industry, said institute co-chair Stewart Elgie, a professor of law and economics at the University of Ottawa.
“Clean innovation is the big global economic prize in the next decade that leading nations are pursuing around the world,” Elgie said. “If Canada wants to win that race, we’ve got to raise our game.”
However, the Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change lays out a number of policies that will compel more clean tech innovation in Canada, he said, including a price on pollution with a carbon price, to be in place across Canada by the start of next year, as well as a promised national clean fuels strategy, better energy efficiency standards and limits on greenhouse gases like methane.
There also needs to be significant government funding available to help get good Canadian ideas through the development stage and to market. Canada does well at coming up with ideas and making them work, Elgie said, but it’s not so good at commercializing those ideas and scaling up production, often because of a lack of available capital.
The private sector is often still leery about clean technology, because it’s all very new.
“The truth of it is every major commercial technology of the last century has involved significant public investment and public support,” Elgie said. “Every one — even the oilsands, which has had billions of dollars in public investment before it ultimately became commercially viable and the private sector ran with it.”
Last year, Canada jumped three spots to number four on the Global Clean Tech Innovation Index, a measure of where the best clean technology ideas are expected to come from in the next decade. But if Canada can’t provide the financial help to get those good ideas out, it will miss out on huge opportunities, he warned.
Of course, not everybody sees the Liberal government’s policies — particularly the carbon price — as helpful.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, new Ontario counterpart Doug Ford and Jason Kenney, leader of Alberta’s United Conservatives, have all promised to cancel or roll back carbon pricing if elected. They call carbon pricing a tax that will make Canada uncompetitive, particularly up against a U.S. that doesn’t have a similar burden.
Kenney, for one, has called it a “massive tax on everything” and “a massive wealth distribution scheme requiring a massive bureaucracy to administer.”
The report says encouraging clean innovation requires government both pushing and pulling industry along. That means setting standards that encourage the new technologies, such as a promised renewable fuels standard, aimed at encouraging ways to ensure fuel consumers like cars and furnaces produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
— follow @mrabson on Twitter
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Snow and Ice: 19 Departments of North and East on Orange Alert
2nd March 2018 2nd March 2018 spanner44Leave a Comment on Snow and Ice: 19 Departments of North and East on Orange Alert
As the situation improves in the south of France, Meteo France has place 19 departments in the North and east on orange alert for snow and ice storms
Snow and ice storm on Friday 2 March to the north and east of France while the situation has improved in the Southeast and especially the Herault .
19 departments were on orange alert this Friday at 6am. The west of the Hauts-de-France suffered in the middle of the night “some weak and scattered freezing precipitation,” according to Meteo France.
BFMTV: Neige et verglas: 19 départements toujours en vigilance orange https://t.co/E6N0mEaD9G pic.twitter.com/5wy47E7m6B
— STEPHANE POLVENT (@stefrossiyellow) March 2, 2018
The rains “will remain weak” but “freezing”, warns the meteorological service.
In the South, the trend was clearly improving with a spectacular warmth.
Motorists evacuated from A75 and A9
Thursday, in the middle of the afternoon, all the passengers of vehicles blocked since the day before in Herault on the A75 and A9 motorways, around Montpellier, had been evacuated: they were able to take again the road in the majority of the cases . Others were taken care of by coaches and taken to an operations center of Vinci Autoroutes. Crossing points had been opened to allow vehicles to pass on the central reservation of the highway and to travel in the other direction.
The A9 was reopened to all vehicles in both directions of traffic, announced in the evening Smart Bison.
On the A750 motorway, which connects Montpellier to the A75 (Béziers-Clermont-Ferrand), traffic was also restored in the early evening.
However, nearly 240 people were to be accommodated in the night from Thursday to Friday in the four facilities made available for the castaways of the road by the City of Montpellier.
At 9.30am Thursday, nearly 2,000 cars and their passengers were still blocked on these highways after spending the night. On the social networks, motorists exasperated by the situation tweeted: “Is it normal and that the only people who come to take news and offer food are motorists? We are stuck in the same place since 3.30pm! Do you realise? ”
In the department, about 2000 other “shipwrecked” were rescued in the evening of Wednesday and overnight and hosted in various centers, the majority of which were emptying Thursday night.
“Some users were stuck in their vehicle more than ten hours, said Mahamadou Diarra, cabinet director of the prefect of Herault to AFP. We can not minimize the distress with which some have passed.
“However,” he continued, “we must bear in mind the quite exceptional character of the snowy episode we are going through, since for thirty years the Hérault had never experienced such an episode and did not had never been placed on red alert for snow. This exceeded the forecasts that were forwarded to us “.
For a spokesman for Vinci, the situation was compounded by “the irresponsible attitude of heavyweights who pledged on the A9 Wednesday despite the ban, without winter equipment.”
“When several snow removal vehicles intervened, some heavy trucks tried to sneak up and found themselves in the way, hindering snow removal and the services. So indeed, we had a lack of civility on the part of some truck drivers, “added Diarra.
The prefect decided to maintain the Hérault truck traffic ban until further notice, with the exception of heavy goods vehicles traveling the A75 north to Millau or Clermont-Ferrand.
In Montpellier, which experienced up to 30 cm of snow, “the network of roads again became progressively feasible on the main axes but with difficult traffic conditions,” according to the city. All establishments receiving the public were closed. Air traffic, interrupted since Wednesday noon, has gradually resumed at midday.
According to Enedis, the number of households deprived of electricity by bad weather was declining. At 18:00 on Thursday, the cuts still involved 1200 homes in the Herault, 1300 in the Gard, 1800 in the Alpes-Maritimes.
In the rest of Europe, Ireland and Great Britain suffered the cold and snow on Thursday, which has so far caused the death of some 60 people.
Tagged France Hauts-de-France Meteo France Orange Alert Snow and Ice Weather
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Published on CHCOC (https://chcoc.gov)
Home > Pay-Related Legislative Changes in the National Defense Authorization Act, FY 2014
Pay-Related Legislative Changes in the National Defense Authorization Act, FY 2014
CPM 2014-04
MEMORANDUM FOR:
Heads Of Executive Departments And Agencies
Katherine Archuleta Director
This is to inform you of three legislative extensions affecting Federal employee pay and certain benefits. The changes resulting from the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014 (Public Law 113-66, December 26, 2013) (“the Act”) are summarized below.
Section 611 – Reserve Income Replacement Program
Section 611(8) amends 37 U.S.C. 910(g) to extend the expiration date for the Reserve Income Replacement Program from December 31, 2013, to December 31, 2014.
The Reserve Income Replacement Program is administered by the Department of Defense (DOD) and provides income replacement payments for certain reserve component members experiencing extended and frequent mobilization for active duty service. (This amendment does not affect the reservist differential authority under 5 U.S.C. 5538, which is a separate program for Federal employees. A Federal employee who is entitled to a reservist differential may not receive payments under 37 U.S.C. 910 for the same period. Additional information on reservist differential is found at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/#url=Reservist-Differential.)
Section 1101 – 1-Year Extension of Authority to Waive Pay Limitations for Certain Federal Civilian Employees Working Overseas
Effective January 1, 2014, section 1101 extends to calendar year 2014 the authority provided in section 1101 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417, October 14, 2008), as amended, for the head of an agency to waive the normally applicable premium pay cap established in 5 U.S.C. 5547. This waiver authority in 2014 applies to certain civilian employees who perform qualifying work while in an overseas location that (1) is in the area of responsibility of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) or (2) was formerly in the CENTCOM area of responsibility but has been moved to the area of responsibility of the Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). Based on the operation of current law, the annual limitation on basic pay and premium pay allowed under the waiver authority in calendar year 2014 will increase to $233,000 which is the annual salary rate for the Vice President in 2014 under 3 U.S.C. 104.
Section 1101(d) of Public Law 110-417 continues to provide the Director of OPM with the discretion to issue regulations for this waiver authority. OPM does not currently plan to issue regulations. However, each agency should establish policies for using this waiver authority if it has covered employees. To ensure agencies apply this discretionary authority consistently, we have developed the attached summary of key elements agencies should include in their policies implementing the waiver authority. The attached summary includes additional information on employee coverage, approval criteria, and special instructions on applying the waiver authority to employees working in Iraq.
Section 1102 – 1-Year Extension of Discretionary Authority to Grant Allowances, Benefits, and Gratuities to Personnel on Official Duty in a Combat Zone
Section 1102 amends section 1603(a)(2) of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006 (Public Law 109-234, June 15, 2006), as added by section 1102 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2009 (Public Law 110-417, October 14, 2008) and amended by section 1112 of the NDAA for FY 2012 (Public Law 112-81, December 31, 2011) and section 1104 of the NDAA for FY 2013 (Public Law 112-239, January 2, 2013). Section 1102 grants the head of an agency the discretionary authority until the end of fiscal year 2015 (i.e., September 30, 2015), to provide an individual employed by, or assigned or detailed to, such agency, allowances, benefits, and gratuities comparable to those provided by the Secretary of State to members of the Foreign Service under section 413 and chapter 9 of title I of the Foreign Service Act of 1980. The employee must be on official duty in Pakistan or a combat zone, as defined by section 112(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
Agency headquarters-level human resources offices may contact OPM at pay-leave-policy@opm.gov. Employees should contact their agency human resources office for further information on this memo.
cc: Chief Human Capital Officers
Human Resources Directors
2014_Legislative_Changes_Attachment.pdf
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John Deere Classic: Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa To Attack TPC Deere Run
Filed Under:Collin Morikawa, John Deere Classic, Mark Immelman, Norm Elrod, TPC Deere Run, Viktor Hovland
(CBS Chicago/CBS Local) — The PGA Tour rolls into TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois for the 2019 John Deere Classic. It’s the last stop before The Open Championship, the season’s fourth and final major. While many of the Tour’s biggest names chose to rest this week (or play in the Scottish Open), some of the game’s rising stars will tee it up. This is, after all, a PGA Tour event, with a $6 million purse and the usual allotment of FedExCup points. Also up for grabs is a berth in the upcoming major. As 2013 winner Jordan Spieth can attest to, a major invite can change the course of a career.
While Spieth didn’t make the trip to Silvis, Illinois, the field does feature multiple past winners. Among them are 2018 champion Michael Kim, who set a tournament record of 257 en route to his first ever PGA Tour win. He’ll look to defend his title against past champions — and current contenders — like Ryan Moore (2016), Brian Harman (2014) and Zach Johnson (2012). Jonathan Byrd (2007) and John Senden (2006) will also attempt to relive past glories.
>>WATCH: The John Deere Classic Live Stream
The stage is also set for the new generation of rising stars, including Michael Wolff, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland. Wolff secured his first PGA Tour win at the 3M Open last week with a long eagle putt on the final hole. Morikawa, who lipped out on his eagle putt, had to settle for birdie and a second-place tie. Hovland has been sniffing around the top 10 since the U.S. Open a month ago, but is still hasn’t found it.
“They’re favorites and they’re dark horses, because of their current stature in the game,” as CBS Sports golf analyst Mark Immelman recently observed of the young trio. “These guys showed their skill over the last few weeks,” he went on. “I feel like they’re fresh. I feel like they’re energetic. I feel like they’re full of confidence.”
That enthusiasm, combined with efficient shot-making, can lead to low scores at TPC Deere Run. Kim showed that last year with his course record 257 (an astounding 27-under par), beating Steve Stricker’s 2010 score by one stroke. Bryson DeChambeau’s 266 (18-under) finish in 2017 was the course’s highest winning mark in over a decade, so it will take a low score to win again this week.
TPC Deere Run confers certain advantages upon players. “A number of the holes bend from left to right,” Immelman notes. “It favors a golfer who can move the ball in that direction.” The greens are generally soft and receptive, and the rough isn’t overly punitive. “It’s a really good design,” even if it tends to yield lots of birdies.
>>READ: John Deere Classic: TPC Deere Run ‘A Good, Straight-Forward Golf Course’
TPC Deere Run offers a few challenges as well, with elevation changes and demanding fairways. The par-4 15th, named ‘Coaltown’ (every hole has a name), is one of the courses more challenging. It measures a tight 456 yards to a thin green flanked by sand and trees. Following that is the par-3 16th hole (‘Mother Earth’) at a comparatively short 153 yards. But it’s green is situated on a rocky bluff, guarded by large bunkers and a 40-foot drop to the Rock River.
Still, as Immelman sums up, “if you can hit the ball a long way and peel it from left to right, you can take advantage.” TPC Deere Run is full of birdie opportunities. “You have to get out there with the mindset of putting the ball in play off the tee, going ahead and attacking some of the get-able hole locations. And then you have to make putts, it’s a simple as that.”
In the week before The Open Championship, with many of the game’s top-ranked players already over in Europe, the John Deere Classic sports a field led by hungry unknowns. And the list of favorites reflect that.
Viktor Hovland (18-1)
Hovland has yet to finish in the top 10 in any of his PGA Tour events, but it’s only a matter of time before that changes. The 21-year-old turned pro just after his T12 finish at the U.S. Open (as the low amateur), and has since managed a T54 at the Travelers Championship and a T13 at both the Rocket Mortgage Classic and 3M Open. Hovland has shown the ability to hit fairways and greens in his limited Tour history. His accuracy and distance will help keep him on the leaderboard at the John Deere.
Collin Morikawa (20-1)
The 22-year-old is coming off a T2 finish at the 3M Open — earning him a special temporary PGA Tour membership though the end of the season — and had a chance to win it at the end. Morikawa has a slightly longer history than Hovland, with a T14 at the Canadian Open his best prior finish. He’s a solid ball-striker, with a maturity and comfort level beyond his years.
Sungjae Im (20-1)
At 62nd in the world, Sungjae Im is among the more highly ranked players in the tournament. He continues a busy season, which has seen just three weeks off since January. The results are starting to show, with a seventh place at the Canadian Open, T4 at the Valspar Championship, T3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and T7 at the Phoenix Open. He’s already shown flashes of his dominance on the Web.com Tour last year, and this could be the week he gets that first PGA Tour win.
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Campus and Town68
Community and Extension3
Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)[remove]117
Morris Building, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)27
SAS Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)26
Broughton Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)5
D. H. Hill, Jr. Library, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)5
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You searched for: Buildings Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.) Remove constraint Buildings: Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
Aerial view of Carter Stadium on dedication day
Carter Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Carter-Finley Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
Fake body placed in construction rubble as prank
Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
North Carolina State College tailback Roland Eveland from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posing with football at Riddick Stadium.
1911 Building, Riddick Field, and shops
1911 Building, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Field, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
4-H King and Queen of Health with their court
Abandoned press box at Riddick Stadium
Aerial shot of N. C. State and Duke football game
Riddick Field House, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
Aerial view of Central Campus
Broughton Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), D. H. Hill, Jr. Library, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Ricks Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
Aerial view of North Carolina State College, looking north toward Riddick Stadium
Aerial view of North Carolina State College, looking southwest toward Memorial Tower and Riddick Stadium
NC State University Memorial Belltower (Raleigh, N.C.), Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
Aerial view of Riddick Stadium during North Carolina State College football game against Duke, September 28, 1946
Aerial view of Riddick Stadium during State-Carolina game
Aerial view of Riddick Stadium, North Carolina State College
Aerial view showing Riddick Stadium parking lot and vicinity, North Carolina State University
Riddick Stadium, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.), Tompkins Hall, NC State University (Raleigh, N.C.)
ASTP marching to class
Commencement, 1956
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Deployed Dad Gives Son The Surprise Of A Lifetime During Taekwondo Practice
Audrey Conklin Reporter
A deployed father of six gave his youngest son, Luca, the surprise of a lifetime Monday.
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Rob Cesternino, who had been serving a 10-month deployment with the Tennessee National Guard in Kuwait, Jordan, and southern Syria since May of 2018, arranged to surprise his nine-year-old son four days before he was expected home, WSMV News reports. Cesternino says he’s talked to Luca every two weeks since being deployed.
At Luca’s taekwondo practice session Monday night, the nine-year-old was told he would be sparring with three different instructors while blindfolded. What he didn’t know was that while he was sparring with the third instructor, his dad would jump in and take the instructor’s place.
When Cesternino entered the match, Luca continued to punch in the direction of his dad until Cesternino spoke and the realization suddenly came to him. In the video, Luca rips off his blindfold and throws his arms around Cesternino.
“You were such a big boy when I was gone. I’m so proud of you,” Cesternino told Luca, according to WSMV. “We don’t give enough thought to how tough it is on the families we leave behind.”
Cesternino’s five other children are older and live away from home. His oldest daughter’s enlistment in the U.S. Air Force ends in May.
Rob and Luca Cesternino/ YouTube/ Lebanon Democrat
“She’s coming back home,” Cesternino said in a video by Lebanon Democrat. “She’s going to school in Knoxville [to] finish her degree.” Cesternino went on to explain that his daughter works in diagnostic imagery, or radiology, at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He also has a son who was in the Coast Guard and a son who was in the Navy.
“We’re a military family,” he continued. “My family has served every single generation dating back to WWI. It’s just expected in my family. I tell people the military’s a family business . . . . It’s just expected that you wear the uniform of your country. Again, you don’t have to make it a career. My oldest son wasn’t into picking up a rifle, so he joined the Coast Guard, and he learned to clean up oil spills. The service — it’s important.”
Tags : military families united states military us army viral video
Audrey Conklin
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Once again, on ‘environmental catastrophism’: A reply to Sam Gindin.
Ian Angus says ‘environmental catastrophism’ is a red herring. The real issue is whether socialists should give high priority to resisting capitalism’s war on the planet.
by Ian Angus
Last year in Monthly Review, I debated Eddie Yuen, an anarchist who believes it is a mistake for radicals to focus on telling the truth about the global environmental crisis, because “awareness of climate crisis does not necessarily lead to increased political engagement.” Not only can such awareness lead to apathy, he wrote, but “environmental catastrophism is very likely to be mobilized by economic and national elites to reinforce existing inequalities and expand enclosures, commodification, and militarization.”[1]
I never expected to hear similar arguments from a Marxist, much less one I respect as much as Sam Gindin, a long time leader of the labor movement in Canada who is now an adjunct professor at York University and co-author of the Deutscher-prize winning book The Making of Global Capitalism.
But Gindin has indeed made a very similar argument, in a recent Jacobin article, “Unmaking Global Capitalism,” and in a subsequent exchange with Vancouver ecosocialist Brad Hornick in Rabble.[2]
In his Jacobin article, Gindin issues a particularly strong warning against “environmental catastrophism,” which he characterizes as “declarations that the end of the planet is only decades away if capitalism isn’t radically changed now.” He also calls such declarations “fearmongering,” and “crisis-mongering as a mechanism for overcoming popular passivity.”
Challenged by Hornick to answer, “Is there or is there not a crisis?” Gindin replies, “If it is clear the world is going to end in 20 years, we should say so” – but then he immediately warns again that we should not “purposely exaggerate the possible timing of that end in the false hope that this will help mobilize people.”
Like Yuen, Gindin warns that “environmental catastrophism … may just reinforce a sense that we are doomed and can’t really do anything about it … [or] encourage people to jump aboard illusory market-based ‘solutions’.”
In my Monthly Review articles, I showed that there is simply no evidence for, and a wealth of evidence against, the claim that talking about environmental crises causes apathy or strengthens the right. Rather than repeat those arguments, I want to raise three questions about the supposed problem of “environmental catastrophism,” which Gindin evidently believes is a real problem in the left today.
1. Does anyone on the left actually claim that the end
of the world is 20 years (or even a few decades) away?
Ecosocialists and other environmental activists frequently discuss projections made by scientists about how long current CO2 emission levels can continue without causing tipping points between, as the noted British climate scientist Kevin Anderson puts it, dangerous climate change and extremely dangerous climate change. The fight to build a better world will become much more difficult if such thresholds are crossed, so it is important for us to know when they may occur, and what their physical and social impacts might be.
But to my knowledge no one – literally no one – says the world will end if we don’t radically change capitalism by then.
We’ve come to expect such misrepresentation from right-wing climate change deniers – the people who invented the label “environmental catastrophism” as an insult – but not from serious radical scholars.
2. Is anyone on the left purposely exaggerating
the crisis in order to overcome mass passivity?
As we’ve seen, some on the left argue that the public can’t handle the truth about the environmental crisis. They say we should temper our message lest we frighten people into apathy or conservatism.
Most ecosocialists and other green lefts take exactly the opposite approach. The social and ecological revolution we envisage requires decisive action by a knowledgeable majority, so it is our duty to get the facts out to the broadest possible audience. As the great socialist ecologist Barry Commoner wrote: “I have chosen to speak out about the scientific evidence of the origins of the environmental crisis; the alternative courses of action that might resolve it; and the right of the public – rather than propagandists or scientists – to make that choice. This was my duty to science, to the people whom science must serve, and to the survival of a civilized society.”[3]
We tell the truth as best we can, but climate change is a complex subject, so we may not always do this as well as we should. If Sam Gindin disagrees with what we write, I hope he will tell us how to improve.
But there is no justification for impugning the motives of radicals who are seriously trying to translate scientific findings into popular articles and action programs.
3. Should the fight against climate change
be a priority for socialists today?
This is the most important question. For many on the right and a few on the left, accusations of “climate catastrophism” are code for “climate change isn’t very important.” I hope that isn’t Gindin’s view, but his articles are not clear.
The closest thing to a mass environmental movement in North America today is the fight against the extraction, transportation and use of fossil fuels. Across the United States, anti-fracking protests have mushroomed, and the fossil fuel divestiture campaign has won significant support on many campuses. In Canada, campaigns against pipelines and tar sands exploitation have mobilized tens of thousands in meetings, rallies and marches, won legal decisions and a municipal referendum, and have helped many to better understand the anti-environmental nature of the profit system. These campaigns are explicitly connected to a host of critical social issues, including internal colonialism and indigenous rights, public health, food and water safety – and, of course, to global warming.
So I’m surprised that Gindin doesn’t say one word about those campaigns, let alone urge socialists to take part. Instead, he tells us to “frame the issue of the environment” by linking it a list of progressive concerns that he oddly calls “a broader struggle,” although none of them is currently the focus of any significant movement at all.
Movements such as the fight against pipelines, fracking, and tar sands are responding to a global process that, as John Bellamy Foster recently wrote, “is progressively erasing previous distinctions between workplace exploitation and environmental degradation – as capitalism universally undermines all real-material conditions of production.”[4] Rather than trying to reframe these movements to fit a socialist-business-as-usual mold, socialists should celebrate and build them – and learn from them.
It is only by building actual movements for concrete objectives like stopping pipelines and fracking and coal mining that millions of people can come to understand the need for broad social change – and it is only by participating in such movements that socialists can develop and promote a credible program for 21st century socialism. If we believe that we have exclusive possession of the revealed word – or if we act as if we do – we will be irrelevant to the real movement, which will develop in directions and ways that we cannot predict.
Although he says that “we face a grave environmental crisis,” Gindin doesn’t seem to agree that in our time every serious socialist must be an active environmentalist – that socialists must be ecosocialists. Indeed he seems to counterpose socialism and environmental activism, asserting that what he calls “permanent protest” is a distraction that “replaces the politics of transformative change.”
If the environmental crisis is as serious as the best science says, then a “politics of transformative change” that doesn’t place a high priority on resisting capitalism’s war on the planet will be unable to carry through any serious change at all.
There is much in Sam Gindin’s articles that I agree with, and I’m pleased that he is participating in the ongoing discussion on how to challenge capitalism in a time when the organized left is weak. I’m disappointed that he appears not to grasp the significance of the global environmental crisis for socialist politics and strategy. I hope he now understands that “environmental catastrophism” is a red herring that doesn’t contribute to serious discussion within the left.
Above all, because I respect his many contributions to struggles for social justice, I look forward to seeing him on the front lines of this battle as well.
Ian Angus is editor of the ecosocialist journal Climate & Capitalism, and co-author of Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis (Haymarket, 2011)
[1] Ian Angus, “The myth of ‘environmental catastrophism’” Monthly Review, September 2013; Eddie Yuen, “Reply to The myth of ‘environmental catastrophism’” Monthly Review, December, 2013; Ian Angus, “A reply to Eddie Yuen.” Monthly Review, December, 2013.
[2] Sam Gindin, “Unmaking global capitalism” Jacobin, June 2014; Brad Hornick, “On the environmental question, Sam Gindin has got in wrong” Rabble, July 3, 2014; Sam Gindin, “Reply to Hornick: If only…” Rabble, July 4, 2014. All three articles have been republished in The Bullet.
[3] Barry Commoner. “Reply to Ehrlich and Holdren.” Environment, April 1972.
[4] John Bellamy Foster. “The Epochal Crisis” Monthly Review, October 2013
The real environmental problem is catastrophe, not ‘catastrophism’
Environmental catastrophism: Sam Gindin responds
On environment, Sam Gindin gets it wrong
Again and again, capitalism fouls things up
Posted in Capitalism, Ecosocialism, Featured, Movement Building
Ian Angus, Sam Gindin
Trying to make environmentalism = population control
4 Responses to Once again, on ‘environmental catastrophism’: A reply to Sam Gindin.
Douglas Williams July 15, 2014 at 12:42 pm #
This article made me newly-aware of an insidious aspect of all the left-liberal sites that pop up on my FaceBook page. THEY are the “environmental catastrophists” in question. They function as lefty muck-raking yellow journalism while posing for the uninitiated as “The Left.” Each attempts to out-do the other in dire prediction, provoking anger while offering no solution. The overall effect may be an intended paralysis: Life will End Tomorrow and the Forces Causing it are Unstoppable, so Let’s Give Up. Fact is, the real left is socialist, not liberal, and the catastrophists function as straw men for the right to knock down. Thanks, Ian, for clarifying the role of the real i.e. socialist left.
Peter Gose July 16, 2014 at 8:21 pm #
The ironic thing about Gindin’s position is that he constantly emphasizes our need to be realistic about the left’s current weakness. Surely this is almost as much of a downer as being realistic about the severity of the environmental crisis. But it’s okay to dwell on the former but not the latter. Go figure.
John Sharkey July 22, 2014 at 12:49 pm #
One thing us ecosocialists and other assorted environmentalists have to stop doing is claiming that capitalism is destroying the planet. That is ‘catastrophism,’not to mention carelessness or perhaps just human arrogance.
According to the science (see J Hanson) there have been five major planetary die off events going back to the ‘beginning’. None of them destroyed the planet. It took some time, but life always came back just fine.
During our anthroprogenic (human induced climate change moment) epoch we may well do serious damage to this thin thin layer of habitable biosphere we call ‘nature’. It can all be wiped out, including of course us, and the planet will still go on its merry way and be none the worse off.
The climate science is pretty solid on what is causing climate change and on the possible consequences unless we do something about it pretty quick. As we know scientists in general and climate scientist in particular (the ones not working for the petroleum industry) tend to be quite conservative about their work. They’re not know to make exaggerated claims about their research.
So let’s remember that capitalism can do serious damage to us and the environment…but it will not destroy the planet.
John Barkdull August 29, 2014 at 12:29 pm #
I realize this article was posted some time ago and thus my comment may be untimely. However, when Ian claims that no one asserts that the end of the world is nigh, it might help to clarify what we mean by the end. No, the planet per se won’t be destroyed, and it’s quite likely that no matter what humans do the insects and microbes, among others, will find a way to survive. Few would dispute this. However, the assertion that human existence is threatened is quite common, including from an author Ian cites, JB Foster. For most of us, the end of the human species is close enough to count as the end of the world. It would certainly count as a catastrophe, especially when one ponders the probable violence and disruption that would accompany the process of population reduction from more than 7 billion to zero. I suspect that Gindin and others have in mind something like that (or maybe the end of civilization as we know it) rather than the physical extinction of life on the planet. So their objection is to rhetoric that suggests human extinction is threatened within decades, which is a claim not absent among climate activists.
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Associated Press Announces Chinese New Year Celebrations in Las Vegas
By CNY in the Desert | Uncategorized | No Comments
While Asian tourists visit Las Vegas throughout the year, the period surrounding the lunar new year holiday is a particularly popular time for leisure travel, especially among China’s growing middle class. “They want to leave their homes and go travel during holidays,” said Jan-Ie Low, who is helping to organize the Chinese New Year in the Desert festival in partnership with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Fremont Street Experience. She said that according to tradition, if you travel during the new year holiday, “it’s a sign that you’re going to be doing this the whole year.”
For the complete Washington Post article please click HERE.
LVCVA Announces Las Vegas Spring Festival in Downtown LV
The Las Vegas Spring Festival: Chinese New Year in the Desert will host a series of Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultural celebrations Feb. 8 – 10 throughout the Fremont Street Experience (FSE), a five-block entertainment complex located in historic downtown Las Vegas, which features Viva Vision.
For the complete Press Release, please go to: http://www.lvcva.com/article/las-vegas-celebrates-chinese-new-year/881/
Fremont Street Experience Announces Las Spring Festival 2013
Celebrate the Year of the Water Snake with Chinese New Year Festivities at Fremont Street Experience
Second Annual Chinese New Year in the Desert to Take Place in Downtown Las Vegas Feb. 8-10
LAS VEGAS – Jan. 21, 2013 – Celebrate the Year of the Water Snake as Fremont Street Experience, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and Golden Catalyst present the second annual Chinese New Year in the Desert festival in Downtown Las Vegas from Feb. 8 – 10. Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is known as “Spring Festival” in China, “Tet New Year” in Vietnamese and “Seol-lal” in Korean.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman will kick-off the three-day festival during the opening ceremonies which will feature a live authentic dragon dance by the Las Vegas Lohan School of Shaolin. Throughout the weekend guests will also experience live International Cultural Performances; taste authentic dishes from around the world in the International Vendor Village; watch contestants compete for the chance to be crowned Miss Asian American Pacific Islander USA which will include a Macy*s Fashion Show, Talent Show and interview segment; view stunning parade floats in the McDonald’s Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade; and create their own lantern to display on Fremont Street Experience to commemorate the Lunar Lantern Festival.
“Last year we hosted the first-ever Chinese New Year festival in Downtown Las Vegas which was a great success,” said Jeff Victor, president of Fremont Street Experience. “We are excited to once again host this important holiday and encourage everyone to come downtown for a fun-filled weekend to usher in the Year of the Snake and wish wealth, health and good fortune to all.”
“Chinese New Year in the Desert will be a three-day cultural party with several new marquee events, making Downtown Las Vegas truly one of the best places for everyone to come together and ring in the Year of the Water Snake,” said Jan-Ie Low, of Golden Catalyst.
“Las Vegas is excited to usher in Chinese New Year with a variety of cultural amenities, attractions and celebrations,” said Michael Goldsmith, vice president of international sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “China is an important market for the destination as it is our number one source of international travel from Asia.”
Opening Ceremonies – Friday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. on the 3rd Street Stage
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman will help usher in the new year by participating in the Opening Ceremonies and ribbon cutting on Friday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. on the 3rd Street Stage (next to the D, Four Queens and Fremont). The new year will be greeted with a live authentic dragon dance performed by the Las Vegas Lohan School of Shaolin complete with virtual firecrackers on Viva Vision (the largest video screen in the world measuring 1,500 feet long and suspended 90 feet above the street), an eye painting ceremony and performers dressed in elaborate costumes.
International Vendor Village and Cultural Performances
Throughout the three-day festival, guests will be taken on a journey around the world as they experience performances from several Asian entertainers on the 3rd Street Stage and visit the International Vendor Village, located on 3rd Street North between Fremont Street and Stewart Avenue, to taste the international flavors from renown food vendors. The International Vendor Village and Cultural Performances will take place on Friday, Feb. 8 from 5-10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9 and 10 from noon-9 p.m.
To commemorate the Lunar Lantern Festival, which officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations, primary grade students of Clark County School District will be constructing paper lanterns marked with their “wish” for 2013. The lanterns will then be on display throughout Fremont Street Experience during the Chinese New Year in the Desert festival. Additionally, guests and passersby are invited to stop in at a booth located near the 3rd Street Stage to build their own lantern to display on Fremont Street Experience. The Lunar Lantern Festival is sponsored by St. Jude’s Women’s Auxiliary Group.
Miss Asian American Pacific Islander USA Pageant
Throughout the three-day event, several women will compete in the Miss Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) USA Pageant. Contestants will participate in the Macy*s Fashion Show, modeling the latest cutting edge Spring fashion lines from Macy*s, a Talent Show emceed by Ian Ziering from Beverly Hills 90210, and interview segment for the chance to be crowned Miss AAPI USA. The winner will receive a combination of cash and gift prizes with a retail value of $10,000. The First Runner-Up and Second Runner-Up will receive a combination of cash and gift prizes with a retail value of $5,000 and $2,500 respectively.
The schedule for the Miss Asian American Pacific Islander Pageant is as follows:
*** All events take place on the 3rd Street Stage.
Friday, Feb. 8
8 p.m. – Introduction of Miss AAPI USA Contestants
9 p.m. – Macy*s Fashion Show
Saturday, Feb. 9
8 p.m. – Talent Show: Miss AAPI USA Contestants
8 p.m. – Interview and Crowning of Miss AAPI USA Contestants
Heart Walk Benefitting the American Heart Association
On Saturday, Feb. 9 thousands of walkers from all over the valley will step out to support the American Heart Association during the Heart Walk. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. at the 3rd Street Stage with the walk taking place from 8:30-10:30 a.m.
McDonald’s Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade
On Sunday, Feb. 10 local businesses and organizations will come together to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year during the McDonald’s Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade. Parade participants will showcase their talent and creativity with the most extravagant floats in vibrant colors to commemorate the rich history of the most important holiday of the Asian community. Starting at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Gass Avenue and 4th Street, the McDonald’s Las Vegas Spring Festival Parade will travel up 4th Street through Fremont Street Experience and end at the intersection of 4th Street and Ogden Avenue.
For a detailed entertainment schedule go to www.cnyinthedesert.com. All entertainment is free and open to the public.
About Fremont Street Experience
Fremont Street Experience is a five-block entertainment complex located in historic downtown Las Vegas. Fremont Street Experience features Viva Vision, the world’s largest video screen which is 1,500 feet long, 90 feet wide and suspended 90 feet above the pedestrian mall. Viva Vision features nightly spectacular light and sounds shows with 12.5 million LED lights and a 550,000-watt sound system. Fremont Street Experience is a one-of-a-kind venue which includes free nightly concerts and entertainment on three stages. With direct pedestrian access to 10 casinos, more than 60 restaurants and specialty retail kiosks, Fremont Street Experience attracts over 17 million annual visitors. Fremont Street Experience can be found online at www.vegasexperience.com.
Rachel Diehl
Preferred Public Relations
Rachel@preferredpublicrelations.com
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