pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 97
1.01M
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.909358
| 0.909358
|
2900 4-6-0 GWR Churchward Saint 2902-2989
Power Classification 4P
Introduced 1902 – 1913
Designer Churchward
Company GWR
Weight – Loco 72t 0cwt
Tender 40t 0cwt
Driving Wheels 6ft 8.5ins
Boiler Pressure 225psi superheated
Cylinders Outside – 18.5in x 30in
Tractive Effort 24,395lbf
Valve Gear Stephenson (piston valve)
Between 1897 and 1902 when Churchward was he was formally appointed as the Chief mechanical engineer of the GWR he had in fact been for all practical purposes in charge of the department because of the failing mental health of Dean. This allowed Churward to undertake some experimental work which resulted in the construction of the Kruger and Saint class locomotives.
The Kruger class was introduced in 1899 with two prototypes being built. One design was a 2-6-0 locomotive and the other a 4-6-0 engine. Only one 4-6-0 was built but a further eight 2-6-0 locomotives were completed up to 1903.
Kruger 2-6-0 introduced in 1899
There were many issues with these engines and they had very short lives which varied between three and six years. Although the Kruger was unsuccessful Churchward learnt many lessons including that if engines were to be introduced of far higher efficiency than had been obtained in the past (incorporating long stroke, long valve travel, small piston clearance and higher boiler pressure) then a new basic layout was required. The inside cylinders had to go.
The need to rethink the design resulted in development of the tapered boiler which led to the development of another experimental engine being introduced in 1902.
This locomotive which was to become the forerunner of a long line of 4-6-0 express engines. This was number 100 which in 1912 was named Dean (later William Dean) renumbered 2900 in 1912.
100 William Dean as introduced in 1902
It had a high running plate and large domeless parallel boiler, raised Belpaire firebox and outside cylinders. This was the first GWR locomotive to have outside cylinders. The piston valves were driven by rocking levers actuated by the expansion link of Stephenson valve gear which looked unusual at the time. The parallel boiler was later replaced with a half-cone boiler, then the first superheated half-cone boiler in 1910. Churchward had studied American boiler design, but he was also influenced by continental practice in efficient motion design. A Glehn 4-4-2 compound engine was ordered from Societe Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques for comparison trials on GWR. Churchward insisted the locomotive was purchased so that he could undertake a true comparison with his own locomotives.
Locomotive built specifically for the GWR by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques on the de Glehn principles and delivered in October 1903. This locomotive was numbered 102 and named La France.
The second (number 98) was built with a half-cone boiler and a re-designed valve gear layout and cylinders. The valve dimensions were increased from 6.5inch to 10inch. In 1906 it was re-boilered with a 225psi boiler to correspond with the third prototype. It was named Vanguard in 1907 but soon renamed Ernest Cunard. In 1912 it was renumbered 2998.
98 As built at Swindon in March 1903
The third prototype (number 171) was built as a 4-6-0 in December 1903 but was soon converted to 4-4-2 for the De Glehn trials. It was given the name Albion in 1904 .The boiler pressure was increased to 225psi. Whilst the trials were taking place another nineteen locomotives were ordered which were to be built to a similar design with thirteen built as 4-4-2s and six as 4-6-0s. The superior adhesion of the 4-6-0s set the pattern for the future and 171 was converted back to a 4-6-0 in July 1907 and all the Churchward Atlantics were converted to 4-6-0s in 1912-13. 171 was renumbered 2971 in 1912.
171 Albion as after being converted to 4-4-2
The de Glehn du Bousquet 4-4-2 locomotives of the Nord Railway in France were considered by many to be the finest express engines in the world. Their reputation for fast and economical running was such that they were widely copied elsewhere including on the Pennysylvannia Railroad in the USA.
Churchward insisted that a locomotive (102 La France) built on the de Glehn principles be purchased from the Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques so that he could undertake a true comparison between it and his own locomotive – 171 Albion. In a series of trials Albion proved to be as powerful and just as fast as La France and surprisingly slightly more economical in coal consumption. It would have been expected the French compound would have been more fuel efficient than the simple two cylinder Churchward engine. The excellent valve gear of the simple locomotive made it possible to run at 22%-25% whereas the compound on similar work needed about 55%. In addition the compound was more expensive to build and maintain.
Some people thought that the superior performance of the Churchward engine might be because the performance of 102 La France was somehow unrepresentative of that of the class generally. In 1905 Churchward obtained two more French compound engines (103 President and 104 Alliance) which were slightly larger and more powerful than 102 La France. It was found that any improvement in performance was insufficient to justify Churchward changing his ideas although he did adopt features of the bogies from the French locomotives. He also used the French pattern big-end for the inside connecting rod on his four cylinder engines.
The early Churchwardlocomotives were rebuilt from 1903 onwards with new superheated boilers and the remainder were built as such.
Successive batches were named after Ladies, Saints, Courts and names connected with the novels of Sir Walter Scott. They were collectively known as the Saint class.
There were many variants of the class. Some had inside steam pipes, while others had outside steam pipes. Some earlier engines had the raised running plate extended to the back of the cab.
In 1924 2925 Saint Martin was rebuilt with six feet wheels and renumbered 4900 to become the prototype of the 4900 Hall class.
2935 had Caprotti valve gear and it was the only locomotive ever to run on GWR with poppet valve.
In total seventy seven locomotives were built, the first being withdrawn in 1931. 2900 itself was withdrawn in 1932.
It has been claimed that in May 1906 locomotive 2903, which was fresh out of Swindon Works, was taken for a trial run light engine from Swindon to Stoke Gifford. The intention was said to be that after turning the locomotive on the Filton-Patchway triangle to have a “sharp run” back to Swindon. After experiencing signal checks the locomotive was stopped at Chipping Sodbury until a clear line to Wootton Bassett was available. After the restart from Chipping Sodbury down the 1 in 300 from Badminton to Little Somerford some fast running was achieved. Whilst the objective was to demonstrate that a locomotive straight from the works could achieve 100 mph it was purportedly reporting as achieving a top speed of 120 mph. Collett, who was on the footplate at the time was happy that the run demonstrated that 100 mph was possible he thought the 120 mph timings could not be regarded as accurate.
The last surviving Great Western Railway Saint class locomotive (2920 Saint David) was scrapped in 1953, long before the standard gauge steam railway preservation movement got under way.
The class incorporated many revolutionary advances in design and the ‘Saints’ are now acknowledged to have had a profound influence on almost every aspect of subsequent steam locomotive development.
The Belphaire boiler developed by Churchward had no excessive flat surfaces which had plagued earlier versions. The firebox tapered from front to rear, and the barrel from back to front, giving an ample space for the circulation of water and release of steam where it was most needed, around the firebox tupeplate. This type of boiler proved remarkably successful throughout the life of GWR and later Western Region steam. It was equally successful on the LMs onwards, and later on the British Railways standard locomotives. The design is more expensive to produce but proved cheaper in maintenance than other types. It solved the problem of using higher pressures without incurring excessive boiler maintenance costs. On other railways the fear of the level of costs inhibited the use of anything more than 180psi for many years.
Back to GWR
2999 Lady of Legend
Back to New Build
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line939
|
__label__cc
| 0.741621
| 0.258379
|
scenes from a fall afternoon
It's beautiful outside today. I don't feel cold at all. I've been out once, and though I don't really have anywhere else to go, I'm thinking of going there anyway, just to be out, just to be.
Of a sudden, the yellowed leaves are falling so quickly from the tree outside my window that I keep being surprised it has any left. The wind doesn't seem too strong, but it appears to be just right for fomenting this leafalanche.
Buddha is on the sill, trying to watch every single leaf fall. The sheer numbers make this a practical impossibility, and it's transformed him into a creature made of twitch. It's funny to watch, though it's calmed down some since I opened the blind for him - until then, he kept falling off in bursts of panicky flailing. The open blind is allowing Nona to watch the show as well from the comfort of the bed.
Around most of the buildings, the lawns are still bright green and mostly bare of leaves. The grounds crew have been hard at work all day, raking the leaves into piles and then snorking them up with what looks like a cross between a golf cart and an anteater. I imagine they'll be taken somewhere to be made into mulch. It's work for the crew, and I guess I approve of mulch, but there's a bleak tidiness to the ground they leave behind. I prefer looking out on this small cache of untamed autumn, and I wish it were larger, even if it did mean leaves drifting into the foyer. Later in the season I'd wish for their absence, but I figured that's why we have mulching mowers.
10/21/09 09:17 pm (UTC)
Yay kitty leaf adventures!
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line941
|
__label__wiki
| 0.784665
| 0.784665
|
K. Michael Conaway & Michele Bachmann
Compare the voting records of K. Michael Conaway and Michele Bachmann in 2013-14.
K. Michael Conaway
Represented Texas's 11th Congressional District. This was his 5th term in the House. He is a current member of Congress.
Represented Minnesota's 6th Congressional District. This was her 4th term in the House. She left the House in 2015.
K. Michael Conaway and Michele Bachmann are from the same party and agreed on 91 percent of votes in the 113th Congress (2013-14).
But they didn't always agree. Out of 1089 votes in the 113th Congress, they disagreed on 93 votes, including 11 major votes.
Sept. 17, 2014 — McKeon of California Part B Amendment
On Receding from the House Amdts, and Concurring in the Senate Amdt with Amdt
Sept. 30, 2013 — Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the joint resolution (H.J.Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, and waiving a requirement of clause 6(a) of rule XIII with respect to consideration of certain resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules
June 20, 2013 — Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act
Jan. 23, 2013 — To ensure the complete and timely payment of the obligations of the United States Government until May 19, 2013, and for other purposes
Dec. 11, 2014 — Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to H.R. 83, to require the Secretary of the Interior to assemble a team of experts to address the energy needs of the insular areas of the United States and Freely Associated States through the development of energy action plans aimed at promoting access to energy
Passed by a margin of 2 votes.
Dec. 10, 2014 —
Dec. 3, 2014 —
July 16, 2014 — Blackburn of Tennessee First Amendment
July 10, 2014 — Hudson of North Carolina Amendment
July 10, 2014 — Blackburn of Tennessee Amendment No. 22
July 10, 2014 — Quigley of Illinois Amendment
July 10, 2014 — Speier of California Amendment
June 19, 2014 — Fortenberry of Nebraska Amendment
June 11, 2014 — Duncan of Tennessee Amendment
June 11, 2014 — Royce of California Amendment No. 7
June 10, 2014 — Blackburn of Tennessee Amendment No. 1
May 30, 2014 — Bonamici of Oregon Amendment
May 30, 2014 — Blackburn of Tennessee Amendment No. 14
May 22, 2014 — Schiff of California Part A Amendment No. 21
May 21, 2014 — Blumenauer of Oregon Amendment No. 1
April 2, 2014 —
Feb. 10, 2014 —
Jan. 14, 2014 —
Dec. 5, 2013 — Rohrabacher of California Part A Amendment No. 7
Dec. 5, 2013 — Massie of Kentucky Part A Amendment No. 4
Nov. 20, 2013 — Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1900) to provide for the timely consideration of all licenses, permits, and approvals required under Federal law with respect to the sitting, construction, expansion, or operation of any natural gas pipeline projects, and for other purposes
July 24, 2013 — Schiff of California Amendment No. 73
July 24, 2013 — Stockman of Texas Amendment No. 60
July 23, 2013 — Denham of California Amendment No. 47
July 23, 2013 — Garamendi of California Amendment No. 33
July 23, 2013 — Cohen of Tennessee Amendment No. 29
July 10, 2013 — Whitfield of Kentucky Amendment
June 28, 2013 — DeFazio of Oregon Part B Amendment No. 8
June 20, 2013 — Huelskamp of Kansas Part B Amendment No. 101
June 20, 2013 — Radel of Florida Part B Amendment No. 49
June 20, 2013 — Walorski of Indiana Part B Amendment No. 45
June 20, 2013 — Marino of Pennsylvania Part B Amendment No. 26
June 20, 2013 — Brooks of Alabama Part B Amendment No. 18
June 19, 2013 — Royce of California Part B Amendment No. 15
June 19, 2013 — Broun of Georgia Part B Amendment No. 5
June 5, 2013 — Cassidy of Louisiana Amendment No. 1
June 5, 2013 — Garrett of New Jersey Amendment
June 5, 2013 — Heck of Nevada Amendment
June 5, 2013 — Polis of Colorado Amendment
June 4, 2013 — First Broun of Georgia Amendment
April 9, 2013 — To authorize the acquisition and protection of nationally significant battlefields and associated sites of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 under the American Battlefield Protection Program
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line945
|
__label__wiki
| 0.524073
| 0.524073
|
PSU celebrates opening of Pan-African Commons and PIAAA Cultural centers
Postedby Chris May
On Wednesday, Nov. 2, the Cultural Resource Centers held their Grand Opening Celebration for both the new Pan-African Commons and the Pacific Islander, Asian & Asian American Student Center. Students, faculty, staff, administrators and community leaders gathered for a celebration that included speeches and performances from those whose diversity reflects the broad coalition that made the creation of these centers possible.
Among the speakers at the event was Melika Belhaj, one of the student organizers for last year’s “Students of Color Speak Out,” an event which has been credited as the catalyst for the urgency behind the creation of the two new Cultural Resource Centers. Being a student of color as well as working and studying full-time to earn her degree, Belhaj had some advice for students who may be struggling to find time to take advantage of the campus resources, including these new centers.
“Even though I worked full time, and I was going to school full time, I made the time to go to those events because they fed me, they lifted me up,” Belhaj said. “My advice would be to really be cognizant about, as individual students, how do we feel, how am I feeling on a day-to-day basis as I move through school? Does this provide me with some serenity? Does it provide me with some strength? Because that’s what it provided me with, and that’s how I was able to move through the rest of my education.”
Many of the speakers lauded the new centers as physical manifestations of the administration’s commitment to diversity and reiterated the importance of having safe spaces where students could come and simply be themselves. They also emphasized the fact that while these victories are important, there is always further work to be done.
CRC Executive Director Cynthia Gomez discussed the importance of having students involved in this work. “Regardless of who you are, regardless of how you want to get involved, these centers are a great place to go because they’re student-centered organizations,” Gomez said. “We have professional CRC staff to plug students in and help them be successful at whatever it is they want to do.”
Gomez also stressed that these centers are open to everyone and encouraged any student who doesn’t necessarily identify with or represent a particular group but wants to be an ally or to simply better understand their fellow students to visit these centers and be part of the environment and dialogues that take place.
The CRC’s five-year plan also includes a student center for Middle Eastern and Arab students.
Last year, the CRC hosted more than 375 events and had over 64,000 staff, students, faculty and community members visit the centers. Prior to the opening of the two new centers, the CRC included the Multicultural Student Center, the Native American Student and Community Center, and La Casa Latina Student center. The creation of the Pan-African Commons and PIAAA center was announced by President Wim Wiewel late last year, in response to increasing concerns voiced by students about discrimination and the lack of cultural spaces.
Anyone interested in learning more is encouraged to sign up for the CRC’s weekly newsletter, which shares information about upcoming events, as well as available leadership opportunities and ways to get involved in the ongoing process of shaping the missions of these new cultural centers. You can sign up on the Cultural Resource Centers web page or in person at any of the CRC student centers. The Pan-African Commons and PIAAA center are located in Smith Memorial Student Union 236 and 235.
Cynthia Gomez
Pan-African Commons
Having been raised by feral pandas in the remote forests of Chengdu, China has always formed a key part of my identity. After my career as a Hong Kong film producer was derailed by tabloid journalists, I knew I had found the work that would become my life’s purpose. I am passionate about journalism because it allows me to step into worlds I would otherwise never know while channeling my curiosity toward serving and informing the community.
Upcoming international events
Noon Concert Series review: Joe Manis quartet
Sexyvents listings
Postedby John Pinney
On-campus events calendar: May 2–8
Postedby Matthew N. Andrews and Andrew D. Jankowski
Make it rain this fall with PSU general scholarship
Postedby Anamika Vaughan
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line946
|
__label__wiki
| 0.723194
| 0.723194
|
Truly Great
A classic selection of five cheeses designed to make a truly great cheeseboard.
Five cheeses from England and France that have been chosen for their consistent quality and taste.
This collection fits perfectly in one of our stylish medium gift boxes, why not add one to your order for a complete gift experience?
Stilton PDO Pasteurised Cows' Milk, Vegetarian. Stilton cheese has its origins in the early 19th Century when travellers to the Bell Inn in the village of Stilton on the Great North Road found a cheese that was much to their liking. So many people started producing similar cheeses that in 1910 the producers had the foresight to lay down strict controls on where and how it could be made, including that it may only be produced in the three counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Our creamy mellow Stilton will fill the mouth with flavour but not be overpowering. The pleasant herby tang of the blue veining contrasts nicely with the rich creamy character of the paste.
Westcombe Cheddar PDO Unpasteurised Cows' Milk, Traditional. Westcombe Cheddar is one of only three cheeses entitled to the Slow Food designation "Artisan Somerset Cheddar". To qualify for this the cheese must be made in Somerset using unpasteurised milk from the farm's own cows, traditional rennet and be made by hand before being matured for up to 20 months. It is made in Evercreech near Shepton Mallet and has a complex flavour and a more moist texture than some Cheddars.
Berkswell Unpasteurised Sheeps' Milk, Vegetarian. The Fletcher family started making and maturing the cheese on their farm in Warwickshire in the late1980s. As the demand for the cheese has increased so has production but in a very controlled way to assure the superb quality of the cheese. Made in the style of a Pyrenean cheese, This exquisite hard sheep's milk cheese is simultaneously nutty, savoury and fruity.
Camembert de Normandie PDO. Camembert became famous when it was presented to Napoleon III during the World Fair of 1855 but it was thanks to the engineer Ridel, who in 1888 created its now familiar cylindrical wooden box that Camembert was able to travel without problem. The fame of the cheese kept growing and its success encouraging numerous imitations, most of which were not of such high quality. A good Camembert should have a rippled rind with a good coating of white downy mould with some reddish pigmentation in places. The interior should be supple throughout with a creamy white colour and the smell should be earthy and cellary. The taste will fill the mouth and is often quite intense and fruity
Selles Sur Cher PDO, Unpasteurised goats’ milk, traditional, Selles sur Cher is one of France's more recent Appellation Controlee cheeses, being granted this status in 1975 (modified in 1996). It has however been made for centuries by farmers for their families’ consumption. The recipe has been passed from generation to generation as a useful way of using their goats’ milk. Produced in an area south of Blois in the Loire valley, Selles sur Cher is a small disc of cheese with a very fine coating of ash on which grows a fine blue/white mould. The interior of the cheese is fine textured, succulent and velvety. The smell is of walnuts. The lingering flavour is also nutty, slightly sour and salty with a hint of sweetness.
No bundles available for the selected variant. Please select another variant for bundle offers.
Sending a gift?
Open bundle
An error occurred while saving the bundle configuration.
1x Truly Great
1x Small Gift Box
Bundle price: £44.75
Selles Sur Cher
Selles sur Cher is named after the region where it was first commercialised - the Loir-et-Cher. The area of production of the cheese now comprises of a group of regions south of the Loire River where the climate is mild. These are:...
Camembert De Normandie
Camembert was created in 1791 in Normandy. Some sources claim it was invented by Marie Harel who was a farming woman in Camembert, Orne, who helped a fugitive priest who was escaping the "Terror". In return for refuge, he taught her...
There has always been a degree of uncertainty about the evolution of Stilton Cheese, but thanks to extensive research we now have a clearer knowledge of the origins and how Stilton Cheese evolved. Texts from the 19th and 20th Century...
Cheddar - Westcombe
Made by Tom Calver of Westcombe Dairy in the Batcombe Vale of Somerset using the milk from the Friesian cows farmed by his father. This farmhouse cheese making business has been making its renowned cheddar since1890 and now make over...
Made at Ram Hall Farm, a small dairy in Warwickshire. Now Berkswell is totally handmade by a team of six local ladies ably led by Julie. Production initially began in the 1980s by the Fletcher family and has grown over the years; they...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line947
|
__label__cc
| 0.50099
| 0.49901
|
Pears Foundation
The following case studies illustrate the breadth and depth of our partnerships and represent just a small sample of a diverse and varied programme of funding.
Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent
Many funders prefer to pay for something tangible, like a building, so we are delighted and grateful that Pears Foundation has decided to fund a lecturing post. We are confident this investment will have a positive impact beyond those who choose to study with us, but also on all those lives affected in the careers of students who go on, or go back, to leading positions in the charity and philanthropy sector.
Dr Beth Breeze, Director,
Centre for Philanthropy
We hope this post will contribute to a better understanding of the role of private giving in contemporary society, and offer practical ways to help grow an even stronger culture of British philanthropy for the future.
Sir Trevor Pears CMG
Long established in the United States, Philanthropic Studies is a relatively new field of academic study in the UK.
In 2016, Pears Foundation supported the establishment of the UK’s first dedicated university teaching post in the field of philanthropy as part of our efforts to strengthen the field and the voluntary sector in general. The Masters course in Philanthropic Studies, developed by this post, is now an established offer at the University and is open to anyone working in the fields of fundraising and grant-making through a combination of online learning and study days on campus.
Pears Foundation continues to support the Centre for Philanthropy as a leading hub for research, teaching and public engagement, ensuring that its research has practical application and is being used to inform and improve practice. Working in close partnership with the charitable sector, the Centre conducts research on a range of topics including fundraising, major donors, giving across the lifecourse, corporate philanthropy and the relationship between philanthropy and social justice.
Like many of the Foundation’s programmes in higher education, a key aim of our partnership with the Centre for Philanthropy is to strengthen the links between academic study and practitioners in the field. The aim is to educate students who wish to pursue a career in the charitable sector or related fields including the emerging philanthropy advisory sector, practitioners already working in the sector, and individual philanthropists who wish to gain a better understanding of the role of philanthropy and improve the effectiveness of their giving.
Website: kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/
JHub
Imperial War Museums
Girlguiding UK
NHS Trusts: Young Volunteer Programmes
AfriKids
Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism
Integrated Education Fund
OLAM
UK Task Force on issues relating to Arab citizens of Israel
The Trussell Trust Foodbank Network
Pears Program for Global Innovation
National Holocaust Centre and Museum
The Pears Family Charitable Foundation.
This site uses cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. If you agree to our use of cookies, please continue to use our site. Find out more.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line948
|
__label__cc
| 0.660654
| 0.339346
|
Tomorrowland is the Todayland of 2014
Tomorrowland is no longer correctly named, and rumored future changes will make it even less so. While changing the iconic name of the land might be hard, it will be easier for Disney to do than to make entirely new attractions based on the theme of tomorrow.
The main problem with Tomorrowland is that today’s technology is progressing far too quickly for any attraction based on the technology to be relevant for more than a few months after it opens. This has been a problem since its opening.
The Rocket to the Moon opened in 1955 with the park and was already outdated by 1969 when people actually did land on the moon. A 14 year run for an attraction isn’t too shabby. It was replaced by Mission to Mars, and while people haven’t actually made it to Mars, that attraction became Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port.
Looking at a list of attractions that are currently open and some that may be in development makes it clear that Disneyland hasn’t even adopted the idea of looking at the future through the lens of the past. How did visionaries like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells see the future?
What else could you call Tomorrowland? Therein lies the problem. EuroDisney, now Disneyland Paris, used Discoveryland as its alternative. Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland has much of the same problem as Disneyland. Pixarland, OtherMoviePropertiesland, Scifiland… There are few choices that could make any of the Disney fans happy, so maybe everyone just ignores that Tomorrowland has actually become the Todayland of Meet the Robinsons.
What would you rename Tomorrowland?
Go forward to Autopia and the Monorail
Skip to Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Skip to Disneyland Railroad, Space Mountain and Innoventions
Skip to Captain EO and The Starcade
Skip to Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Astro Orbitor
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line951
|
__label__wiki
| 0.954252
| 0.954252
|
Pennews (A.P Politics)
PenNews reviews on ap politics in ap politics there has two main parties play key roll known as telugu desam parti and ysrcp...
ap politics
ap politics:
Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh is the lower house of the state and legislative council of Andhra Pradesh is the upper house. with 58 members. In the Parliament of India, ap politics has 11 seats in the Rajya Sabha, and 25 seats in the Lok Sabha. There are a total of 175 Assembly constituencies in the state. East Godavari district has the most number of constituencies with 19 and Vizianagaram districthas the least with 9 assembly seats. Whereas, the legislative council of the state has 58 seats, which is one-third of total assembly seats. Until 1962, the CPI, along with socialist parties namely Praja Socialist Party and Krishi Lok Party played an important role in the 1950s. In the 1967 state assembly elections, all socialist parties were eliminated and CPI lost opposition party status. The first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy who later served as President of India. In 1983, the ap politics won the state elections and N.T. Rama Rao became the chief minister of the state for the first time. This broke the long time single party monopoly enjoyed by the INC from 1956 until 1982. Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao is the founder of Telugu Desam party and served as the first chief minister from the party. The 1989 elections ended the rule of NTR, with the INC party returning to power with Marri Chenna Reddy at the helm. He was replaced by Janardhan Reddy in 1990, who was replaced by Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy in 1992. N. Chandrababu Naidu held the record for the longest serving chief minister (1995 to 2004). In 1994, Andhra Pradesh gave a mandate to the Telugu Desam Party again, and NTR became the chief minister again. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the son-in-law of NTR, came to power with the backing of a majority of the MLAs. The Telugu Desam Party won both the assembly and Lok Sabha election in 1999 under the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. After 2004 Assembly elections to win Y.S.Raja Shekhar Reddy Ruling very well and his serve to all people of Andhra Pradesh about small information about Y.S.R. Yeduguri Sandinti Rajasekhara Reddy 8 July 1949 – 2 September 2009, popularly known as YSR, was a two-time Chief Minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, serving from 2004 to 2009. Reddy was elected to the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Lok Sabha from the Kadapa constituency for four terms and to the ap politics Assembly for five terms from the Pulivendula constituency. He won every election he contested. In 2003 he undertook a three-month-long paadayaatra, or walking tour of 1475 km during the very hot summer months, across several districts in Andhra Pradesh as a part of his election campaign. He led his party to victory in the following general and assembly elections held in 2004, and did the same in 2009. In ap politics 2009 – 2010 K. Rosaiah and 2010 – 2014 N.Kiran Kumar Reddy. On 2 September 2009, a helicopter carrying Reddy went missing in the Nallamala Forest area. The next morning media reported that the helicopter wreckage had been found on top of Rudrakonda Hill, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Kurnool. The five people aboard were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Over a hundred people were reported to have committed suicide on hearing the news of his death. YSR Congress Party (Telugu: వై యస్ ఆర్ కాంగ్రెస్ పార్టీ) or Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party lit. Youth, Labour and Farmer Congress Party is a regional political party in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India. It was founded by Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of former Andhra Pradesh politics chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy popularly known as YSR in 2011.
Kerala High Court Lifts Life ban on Sreesanth:
Big Relief to cricketerSreesanth the kerala High Court on Monday Lifted the life ban imposed on him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing case. The seamer was charged alongside two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, for spot fixing in IPL-6. Sreesanth was how ever, acquitted in the case in july 2015, the cricketer who has been fighting for justice since his acquittal but BCCI continued to hold out and didn’t lift the life ban imposed on him. In a hearting in March, the High Court sought BCCI’s stand on the plea filed by Sreesanth challenging the life ban. The bowler had then filed a petition challenging the BCCI’s decision not to lift the ban despite being exonerated by the delhi High Court in 2015. The player had argued that not lifting the ban violated his constitutional rights considering BCCI had taken into account the same charges applied on hom by Delhi police for which he was later cleared by the Court.Reviewed by ap news
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line952
|
__label__wiki
| 0.583603
| 0.583603
|
Roads Kill
More than 1.2 million are killed on the world’s roads each year—and that number is increasing rapidly. If nothing is done to reverse this trend, the annual death toll is on course to triple by 2030.
The toll is highest in the developing world. Poor countries account for 50 percent of the world’s road traffic, but 90 percent of the traffic fatalities. Road accidents will soon become the fifth leading cause of death in these countries, leapfrogging past HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other familiar killers, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent Global Burden of Disease study.
Highway fatalities are also a “poverty-inducing problem,” according to Jose Luis Irigoyen, a highway safety expert at the World Bank. “It’s costing on average between 1 and 3 percent of GDP” in low- and middle-income countries, he says, an amount that can offset the billions of dollars in aid money that these countries currently receive.
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a “Decade of Action” on road safety. The goal is to stabilize and eventually reverse the upward trend in road fatalities—saving an estimated 5 million lives during the period. The World Bank and other regional development banks have made road safety a priority, but according to Irigoyen, donor funding lags “very far below” the $24 billion that has been pledged to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
“Roads Kill” is a Pulitzer Center initiative that draws on its extensive global network of journalists to raise the visibility of this growing public health crisis. The entire project, including an interactive map and an ever-expanding roster of reports from around the world, is fully embeddable. We welcome others, including news organizations, to make use of these resources—and to contribute stories of their own.
<Any>ArticleBooksE-booksField NotesAudioInteractivePhotoVideo
August 12, 2013 | Pulitzer Center
Crooked Cops and Decrepit Infrastructure Snarl Manila Traffic
Tom Hundley
No one escapes the hazards and hassles of Manila's horrible highways—not even the president of the country.
Not God's Will: The Fixable Crisis of Traffic Fatalities
Tom Hundley and Dan McCarey
A global overview introduces a series on road safety, one of the world's biggest—and most under-reported—crises.
From HIV/AIDS to malaria and tuberculosis, poor countries endure more than their share of health crises. Now they are stalked by a new nemesis on course to claim even more lives—highway fatalities.
Launched: August 12, 2013
Investigative, Culture, Economy, Education, Public Health, Systems and Safety
Classroom Subjects:
Related Lesson Plans
Telling Science Stories: Data Visualization
The Dangers of Drunk Driving
Roads Kill: The Dangers of Motorcycles
How do you do, Timbuktu?
See more lesson plans
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line955
|
__label__wiki
| 0.579715
| 0.579715
|
Category Archives: social services
Children Linked To Social Services Achieve Two Grades Lower at GCSE
Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services
A new government review suggests that children who have been in contact with a social worker at any time since the age of nine achieve on average two grades lower than their peers in each GCSE subject taken.
The review data puts the number of children in England who have been in contact with social services at 1.6 million.
In a press release issued by the Department for Education on 17th June, Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary said:
“Overall if you’ve needed contact with a social worker at any time since year 5, on average you are going to score 20 grades lower across eight GCSEs… We need to improve the visibility of this group, both in schools and in the system as a whole.”
“We also need to improve our knowledge of what works to support and help these children. We must not lower our expectations for them – for these children it is more important that they can do their very best to make the most of their talents when they’re at school.”
The press release suggests that the link to social services and the lower grades at GCSE for children in care is directly correlated to the assumption that every one of these children are falling behind because they have experienced poverty, abuse and neglect.
The government also makes another clumsy assumption: that those children who have not had contact with social services are all being cared for adequately, and so their grades are not slipping.
If that were the case, there would not be an ongoing number of children being taken into care.
While the report or the data do not appear to have been made public (unless we’ve missed it, so please do let us know), the Education Secretary’s speech which he made at think tank Reform on 17th June, offers some more information.
The reasons for children who have experienced social services falling behind at school are far more complex than the government realises, and the child welfare system has played a significant part in adding further layers of disadvantage by providing third rate care for these children.
The government review offers several other insights including data that suggests that the average classroom has three children who have needed support from social services at some point in the last six years. The review also suggests that disadvantaged children do better in cities than villages.
The report coincides with the government’s announcement that it will put new measures in place to support disadvantaged children in schools. The package includes:
Improving the admissions process so vulnerable children can access a school place as quickly as possible
Mental health training for teachers and social workers
Better information sharing between councils and schools
Tackling causes of domestic abuse, drug and alcohol misuse, mental health, serious violence, and exploitation
Tackling off-rolling, absence and exclusions
Implementing Timpson Review recommendations
The Department for Education also said in its press release that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had narrowed by at least 9.5% since 2011, but does not give a reason for that reduction.
A statement in the release by Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation suggests that the reduction may be down to the Pupil Premium, a grant given by the government to schools in England to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged children.
As you might imagine, the Local Government Association has seized on the report, seeing it as an opportunity to push for more funding for its councils.
Until the government understands the extent of the issues and improves the workforce tasked with looking after these children, no measures put into place will make much of a difference.
Many thanks to Keith for alerting us to this development.
Supreme Court Restores Children’s Right To Sue Councils Who Fail To Protect Them
Posted by Natasha in child abuse, Researching Reform, social services
The Supreme Court has overturned a ruling in the Court of Appeal which prevented children who had been abused from suing alerted local authorities who did nothing to protect them.
This is a very welcome development.
The previous judgment in the Court of Appeal had effectively blocked claims by survivors who were known to be suffering but did not find themselves in full time state care, or subject to a care order of any kind. The ruling affected a significant number of cases and left victims feeling traumatised and sidelined.
The latest decision in the Supreme Court now means that children can sue for negligence where a local authority failed to protect them from harm.
Some quotes from members of the legal team and researchers who worked to help represent the claimants in the case have been published in an article by the Independent.
Peter Garsden, a partner at Simpson Millar, who acted on behalf of children’s charities Article 39 and The Care Leavers’ Association: “This is a groundbreaking decision that has served to clarify the law as far as the duty of care that social workers have towards young people and children who are not necessarily in a care institution, but are known to be at risk.
“This decision affects some of the most vulnerable members of our society and we are delighted that those affected will continue to have access to the justice that they deserve in instances where they are let down by those they have put their faith in.”
Carolyne Willow, director at Article 39: “We are particularly concerned about the continuing scandals of mistreatment in child prisons and local authorities’ failures to take robust, protective action.”
David Graham, national Director of The Care Leavers Association: “We hope the courts will now quickly deal with the backlog of cases from adults who were failed as children.”
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales said they would look at the ruling and “carefully assess any implications for local authorities.”
New Ruling Blocks Abuse Survivors From Suing Councils – Here’s How To Reverse It.
LANDMARK RULING: Foster Children Can Now Sue Local Authorities For Abuse (2017)
“Working with families means collaborating with rather than controlling them.” – New Research
Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Researching Reform, social services, social work
Many social workers and their managers believe so strongly that an authoritarian approach to child protection is right that they not only feel comfortable trying to control families going through child welfare proceedings but also advocate strongly for such practices, according to research published by Dr David Wilkins, a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Cardiff University, Assistant Director of CASCADE, and project lead at the What Works Centre which assists regulatory body Social Work England.
The paper argues for an inclusive form of social work, where families feel empowered and safe. Dr Wilkins explains, “Working in a participatory way with families means, at the least, seeking to collaborate with rather than control or unduly influence them.”
The research, which was published in 2017 in the British Journal of Social Work has been uploaded onto free research site Academia, and was co-produced with Charlotte Whittaker, the curriculum lead at social work training school The Frontline.
Charlotte is responsible for developing the teaching, learning and assessment of a practice model called motivational interviewing (MI), which Psychology Today describes as a practical, empathetic, short-term counselling method which helps people find the internal motivation they need to change their behaviour while taking into account how difficult it is to make life changes. It is this form of counselling that the research paper focuses on.
Dr Wilkins’ research highlights positive social work practices using MI which have made a difference to families’ lives while also pointing out the dangers of trying to control and coerce parents during child protection proceedings. The research also calls for ground-level reform within social work as well as structural reform to make sure that social workers can put children and families at the heart of their practice.
Parents reacted to the research on social media. One mother told Researching Reform:
“My Cafcass officer doesn’t collaborate on any level. She won’t even contact me directly. She does it through my solicitor costing me more money. Having been in a controlling relationship I definitely feel I have stepped straight into another with her.”
It’s incredibly important to point out that we don’t tolerate coercive behaviour in almost any other context – all we need to do is look at current legislation which prohibits people from using controlling behaviour in a relationship to get what they want from each other. We call that kind of conduct abusive because we know it damages adults, and children.
The paper is a must-read for anyone working with families in a child protection setting, and for families too who have either experienced the child welfare system or are going through it at the moment.
The research is also an important reminder that coercion never resolves an issue as families are never fully on board with an idea they haven’t engaged with or feel any agency towards. It traps families inside a cycle which sees them return to the child protection system over and over again.
This kind of control also creates a deep and lasting mistrust of social workers and the sector.
The research makes several interesting observations about social work practice:
“Participatory principles such as collaboration, empathy and the right to self-determination are embedded in many of the codes of ethics that underpin professional social work practice (BASW, 2012; Levin andWeiss-Gal, 2009). Unsurprisingly, almost all the workers we spoke to believed they embodied these principles in their work (or said they aspired to even if they were not always able to achieve them). And yet our analysis of observed practice suggests that many workers find it hard to acknowledge parents’ feelings, to respect their choices or to draw on their expertise. In discussion with these workers, we found that, whilst they could explain what principles such as collaboration and empathy meant in theory, they found it more challenging to describe how they might be shown in practice.”
Dr Wilkins is part of a growing group of social workers who believe that working collaboratively with families is essential to excellent social work practice and that the system is there to serve families and children. Researching Reform agrees with this view.
You can follow David over on Twitter at @David82Wilkins.
Government Plan To Keep Children Out of Care Fails to Target Inadequate Councils
Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services, social work
The government has launched a project which aims to keep children out of the care system. The £84 million initiative will target councils with the highest numbers of children in care across the country, but will not include bids from failing councils.
The project comes at a time when the child protection sector is seeing unprecedented levels of children in care.
Up to twenty councils will receive a share of the £84m set aside for the “Strengthening Families, Protecting Children” project over a period of five years. The project offers three programmes designed to improve the safety and stability of vulnerable children and to reduce the need for families to access services. Selected councils will implement one of the three featured programmes.
Three ‘early adopters’ have already been chosen to test the project and will begin implementing the programmes in the Spring. The selected councils are Darlington, Cambridgeshire and Middlesbrough.
Only councils with an Ofsted rating of ‘requires improvement to be good’ can make bids for the funding and take part in the project, making the project’s aims questionable. The current ratings offered by Ofsted are Oustanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate.
The What Works Centre for children’s social care will evaluate the success of the project sometime after 2024, but as the project will not be allowing councils with an inadequate rating to join the programme, arguably councils in most need of the support, it is unclear what use the evaluation will be in assessing the viability of the programmes in the project.
The Department for Education’s press release offers more detail on the programmes being offered:
Leeds Family Valued: working with the whole family unit and any support network to encourage long term changes at home that keep children safe, working with families rather than imposing measures on them. Independent evaluation of the project’s impact on the target population shows that between 2011 and 2017, Leeds reduced the number of children on children’s services Protection Plans by nearly 50% (974 in 2011 down to 515 in 2017).
Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding: creates teams consisting of mental health practitioners, domestic abuse workers, probation officers and children’s social workers to strengthen the bond between couples, support fathers and male partners to prevent violent behaviour. Evaluation shows this resulted in a 39% reduction in the number of days children spent in care, for cases allocated to the safeguarding team, a 53% drop in in hospital admissions for adults in that family, and a 66% reduction in contact with the police.
North Yorkshire No Wrong Door: creates ‘hubs’ where young people at risk of going into care get targeted support to cope with the multiple issues they face, including lack of accommodation or contact with the police. Independent evaluation showed the programme saw a 38% fall in arrests of individuals involved during the first 18 months of the programme and a 57% reduction in A&E visits.
The launch of the project coincides with the Children Act 1989’s thirtieth anniversary.
The press release can be read here.
The criteria for entry onto the project can be found here.
Ofsted’s Local Authority Children’s Social Care reports can be accessed here.
Many thanks to Michele Simmons for alerting us to this project.
Children’s services not fit for refugees – Top Minister
Senator John Le Fondré, Jersey’s Chief Minister said children’s services on the island were not fit for refugees, after Lord Dubs called on the Island to take in child refugees last week.
At a further meeting on Friday with his Deputy, Le Fondré, said the island’s child welfare services were in a “very poor state” and “not presently in the right position to deal with even [Jersey’s] own children properly.”
He added, ‘It is not just a case of money. It is about getting people in the right place, and giving stability, for example, to the social-worker workforce, so those relationships can carry on in the longer term. That is incredibly important.’
Jersey’s children’s services have been blighted by poor practice and serous failures.
After concerns were raised by the Independent Care Inquiry, Ofsted confirmed last year that it would inspect the island’s social services. Ofsted’s report was damning. The inspection body found that Jersey social services was not prioritising the needs of its children, that children in care on the island were falling far behind their peers at every stage of their education and that structural and cultural problems inside social services were hampering service delivery.
Jersey put together an improvement plan in July 2018 to address the failures highlighted inside Ofsted’s report. Little has been done to action the plan.
Parliamentary Debate On Councils’ Duties To Children
A Labour MP is hosting a debate in the Commons this evening to draw attention to growing confusion around local authorities’ responsibilities towards children.
The debate, which has been brought by Kate Osamor MP, will explore the issues around access to children’s services for families under the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) condition. Families who fall within the NRPF condition are usually migrants in the UK who are unable to access public funds, which means that they cannot access standard benefits and housing assistance.
Osamor says the confusion is causing extreme suffering in the form of acute poverty along with a high risk of homelessness and exploitation for thousands of children.
Although children in the UK are covered by section 17 of the Children Act 1989, which places a duty on local authorities to promote the welfare of all children in need in their local area, the condition is causing confusion among parents and councils. In some instances, Politics Home reports that councils are wilfully refusing these families the support they are entitled to.
Osamor will use this evening’s debate to call on councils to adopt Project 17’s Children’s Charter, which commits local authorities to upholding the rights of children living in families with no recourse to public funds.
The debate will take place in the Commons Main Chamber at around 7pm and is an adjournment debate, which means that no formal question needs to be asked before it can be instated. Adjournment debates take place daily at the end of each day’s sitting in the Commons and usually run for 30 minutes.
Health Body Invites Care Experienced People To Join Committee
Posted by Natasha in Research, Researching Reform, social services
The National Institute For Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is hoping to recruit care experienced individuals to join its Looked-after children and young people Committee.
NICE, which publishes guidelines for health technologies, clinical practice, public sector health workers and social care services, is looking for people aged 16 years and up who have personal experience of using health or care services. The committee has been set up to revise NICE’s guidance on looked-after children and young people, which was last updated in 2015.
There are four positions open for what NICE calls lay members of the committee:
2 care leavers aged between 18-25
1 foster carer
1 young person aged between 16-18 with experience of care
NICE’s website explains that it is looking for people with an understanding of looked-after children and young people and the issues which are important to them. This experience can be gained through personal experience of receiving care, personal experience of leaving care, or as a foster carer within the last 2 years.
The role will involve attending committee meetings, taking part in discussions to shape the guidance, reading committee papers, commenting on documents between meetings and keeping the committee’s work confidential.
Selected members will be required to ensure that the views, experiences and interests of children and young people who use social care services are taken into account by the committee, identify areas of concern for children and young people using social care services and review topic information and draft guidance from a children and young person’s perspective.
Travel expenses are offered at a maximum of £20 per day, with attendance payments set at £150 per full-day meeting (four hours or longer) and £75 per half-day meeting (shorter than four hours). If you are applying for this position, please confirm payment with the team beforehand.
The page featuring the current guidance on looked-after children and young people includes:
The Guidance itself
The History of the Guidance
Full details including application forms, role description and information about the committee and the position can be found here.
Ombudsman Sees Surge In Complaints Over Councils’ Handling Of Child Protection Cases
The latest decisions published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) reveal a surge in parents complaining about the way they and their children have been treated during child protection investigations. The rise in complaints against councils and social workers involved in child protection investigations comes after the ombudsman confirmed that it could not look into matters which have been raised inside the family courts.
The confirmation initially seemed to stem the large influx of complaints related to child protection social workers, however this no longer appears to be the case. Desperate families have started taking their complaints to the LGSCO once more, hoping the watchdog will provide them with the support they have been unable to get elsewhere. Several complaints were set aside as the LGSCO is prevented in law from looking into matters raised and decided in the UK’s family courts, however some complaints relating to child protection cases which didn’t fall into the above category were investigated by the ombudsman.
Of the 59 complaints published this week by the LGSCO, 15 of those involved child protection cases. The majority of complaints focused on alleged failings over education provision, and support for SEN children.
Child Protection Complaints
A mother and father who lodged a complaint against Hampshire County Council were awarded £500 after the local authority cancelled two child protection conference meetings. The parents had taken unpaid leave to attend the meetings, and when a core group meeting was held the parents were not told about it. The social workers also failed to record the meeting. The ombudsman took the view that the failures to notify the parents of the meeting and record the meeting did not cause the parents any injustice, and chose to compensate them only for the cancelled meetings.
Medway council also had its knuckles rapped after it confused a woman’s husband for another man during a child protection investigation. The ombudsman awarded the woman and her husband £1,000 for the distress the error caused.
The remaining 13 complaints involving family court proceedings were set aside by the watchdog.
There were a significant number of complaints about factual errors within social work reports and councils’ record keeping. One such complaint was made against Birmingham City Council. A father, who is referred to in the ombudsman decision as Mr A, alleged that the social worker carrying out a child protection assessment was biased and the report she produced was inaccurate, which in turn affected the outcome of the investigation. The father also said that the council refused his request for a different social worker without giving any explanation for the refusal. (If you would like to change your social worker, our post on ways to approach this is added here).
The ombudsman issued the following reminders over what it cannot investigate:
Matters that have been before a court via the statutory children’s complaints procedure.
Matters currently subjected to legal proceedings.
An event that occurred over 12 months ago (exceptions apply).
Where it is unlikely that the ombudsman would reach a sound, fair, and meaningful decision, or achieve the outcomes desired by the complainant.
Events which happen inside the family courts.
Complaints about social workers who produce reports for the family court and the production and contents of court reports.
For further information on what the LGSCO can and can’t investigate, click here.
Families lodging complaints about botched child protection proceedings have our sympathy.
“I likened it to arriving at the scene of a car crash”.
Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Foster Care, Researching Reform, social services
An independent social worker involved in a case where a council placed a baby into foster care without telling the child’s grandparents, likened the handling of the case to a car crash, as she gave her testimony in court.
Judge Lazarus ordered the judgment to be made public after she criticised the social workers, lawyers and the child’s guardian for serious failures within the child protection investigation. Lazarus joins a growing number of judges raising concerns about problems inside the child welfare sector.
The case involved a baby who had been the subject of a care order by Kent County Council before being born. The mother’s parents did not know about the baby until after he had been born, and were not made aware of the application to have the baby fostered.
The child was sent to live with foster parents and remains with them today, after the judge decided that it would be better for the boy not to be moved as he had formed attachments with the foster parents and was thriving in their care.
The judgment tells us that had the grandmother and her husband put themselves forward as potential carers for their grandson, it would have been most likely that they would have been accepted as Special Guardians for the baby. This is what Judge Lazarus says:
“The local authority, the Social Worker, the Children’s Guardian, and the Independent Social Worker all acknowledge that had she and her husband put themselves forward in those proceedings and been assessed it is highly likely that they would have received a positive assessment as X’s proposed Special Guardians. ”
Judge Lazarus goes on to outline the law around external family members and investigating placement options for vulnerable children:
“42. THE LAW – INVESTIGATION OF FAMILY MEMBERS
a) In the case of Re R [2014] EWCA Civ 1625 the former President Sir James Munby stated: “The Public Law Outline [Public Law Outline FPR 2010, PD12A] stresses the vital importance of such potential carers being identified and assessed, at the latest, as soon as possible after the proceedings have begun ”, albeit “not requiring every stone to be uncovered”.
b) Re R provided clarification of the principles underlying the reminders as to good practice set out in Re BS [2013] EWCA Civ 1146 and the need to pay particular heed to the factors in the relevant welfare checklist in order to approach such applications through the prism of the child’s welfare interests. Those cases provided appropriate reminders of the extreme interference with Article 8 rights that these applications represent, of the rigour and exceptionality required by Re B [2013] UKSC 33 to interfere so drastically with those rights, and of the principles applicable from Y v UK (2012) 55 EHRR 33 emphasising the need to preserve personal relations and ‘rebuild’ families.
c) In order to comply with what has become known as the ‘ Re BS checklist’, namely the properly evidenced and reasoned analysis in care and adoption proceedings by the local authority witnesses which should include illustrating the pros and cons of the realistic options, the Local Authority’s evidence must first identify those realistic options, and must then place particular emphasis on considering the factors in the relevant welfare checklist.
d) The factors set out in the welfare checklist in section 1(4) Adoption and Children Act 1989 must be considered on an application for a placement order and to dispense with a parent’s consent under section 52, and specifically at section 1(4)(f) requires consideration of the welfare of the child throughout their life in regard to the child’s relationship with other family members, their ability to meet the child’s needs, and their views and wishes and feelings regarding the child.
e) Relevant duties of the Local Authority are set out in the Children Act 1989, at section 17 in particular, that:
(1) It shall be the general duty of every local authority (in addition to the other duties imposed on them by this Part)—
(a) to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and
(b) so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families, by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.
f) And at section 22C:
(1) This section applies where a local authority are looking after a child (“C”). …
(5) If the local authority are unable to make arrangements under subsection (2), they must place C in the placement which is, in their opinion, the most appropriate placement available.
(6) In subsection (5) “ placement ” means—
(a) placement with an individual who is a relative, friend or other person connected with C and who is also a local authority foster parent ;…”.
Questions remain as to why the council failed to follow the law, and removed the newborn to put him in a foster placement. The case is likely to arouse suspicion amongst families and activists inside the child protection sector, who have long argued that councils are abusing fostering and adoption placements for financial gain. The fostering sector in the UK is currently worth £1.7 billion, and appears to be thriving despite austerity driven budget cuts and pre Brexit uncertainty. A sharp rise in the number of children being removed from parents in the UK with no clear indication as to what factors are causing these removals, is also deeply concerning.
Judge Lazarus chose to put the independent social worker’s quote at the top of her judgment, saying that she felt it summarised the key issues in the case perfectly. This is the quote in full:
“ I likened it to arriving at the scene of a car crash, and wondered what one could do about it. This situation should never have arisen. It’s caused huge tension, including within any recommendation, and I’ve tried to keep X at the centre of it. ”
You can read the judgment on BAILII, which is particularly useful as it outlines the law and guidance in several important areas connected to cases like this one.
This is not the first time Judge Lazarus has spoken about the treatment of vulnerable children and families. Last month, she expressed outrage over the lack of secure accommodation for children at risk of exploitation by gangs, during a hearing involving a 16 year old boy.
New Study Highlights Britain’s ‘Cold Hearted’ Social Workers
A new study published in the UK by Family Rights Group, suggests that cruel treatment of families by social workers is not only common but also affects the likelihood of positive outcomes in cases. The research concludes that social care can and should incorporate humane social work practices, even when the system is under pressure.
The report, “Stepping up, stepping down”, was co-authored by professors Kate Morris (University of Sheffield), Brid Featherstone (University of Huddersfield), and Katie Hill (University of Nottingham) and Dr Mike Ward (Open University).
The researchers collaborated with 20 families as part of the Your Family, Your Voice Alliance, which the report says is a national initiative seeking to “develop humane evidence-informed policies and practices”.
The report includes the views of 27 adults and 10 children. Over 80% of the families interviewed have been involved with welfare services for more than five years.
The study highlights inhumane and cruel encounters families experience inside the social work sector, and offers some heartbreaking stories shared by service users:
‘She saw me sobbing in reception and she walked past me twice and then said there were nothing wrong’ I said to the social worker I wasn’t prepared to leave because XXX was being sick, he was alone and somebody needed to be with him. But it seemed that nobody wanted to listen to what we had to say …It was horrible. All I wanted to do was hug him and I couldn’t hug him, I had to sort of hold him here because he was covered in sick; his clothes were covered in sick. It was crusted where they had not changed his clothes.”
“I don’t feel like she had any time for us at all. I didn’t feel like she wanted to listen, she had made her mind up before she had even got here. I think the thing is, because XXX’s dad has got a history of drug use and prison, she formed an opinion before she met me. I have never taken drugs and have never been in prison. What happened was she came into the meeting, a child in need meeting at school, and me and (my partner) had an argument. She sat there and said, “I was driving here today in the car and I was thinking, ‘shall I put this on child protection or shall I just kick it out? No, I think I will put it on child protection’ “. That is exactly how she said it, in front of all the other people. I thought, ‘How can you make that judgement on one…?’ She met me once. Then she has made a judgement coming to work in her car. That put me off her straight away.”
“They released her sedated after midnight without letting anyone know, she got attacked trying to get home, staggering around with the tablets and we didn’t know.”
The families who took part in the study were selected from the following services:
A Post-adoption support project
A Family Intervention Project focused on families with multiple problems including antisocial behaviour
Three Local Authority (LA) Children’s Services working with highly vulnerable children and families
A service working with sexual exploitation and abuse
A support group for survivors of domestic abuse and their children
A national advice and advocacy service for families whose children were involved with children’s services
Two self-help organisations involving families with multiple needs.
There were five key findings from the report:
Services were multiple but scarce, fragmented and siloed
Constant reminders that resources were scarce produced barriers between families and social services, making positive engagement much harder
Not enough time spent with families and too many delays combined to create feelings of abandonment, resentment and misunderstandings
Interpersonal skills are deeply valued by families
Families are often left out of service design, and had negative experiences when complaining about poor service.
The report also offers five key messages from these findings:
Fragmented services leave families feeling demeaned, and need to be streamlined
Develop everyday practices that acknowledge poverty and the impact that has on family life and work with families to try to address their financial and economic needs
Demonstrate respect for families through good timekeeping and where timeliness is difficult, recognise that can also be the case for families
Utilise the knowledge of families to inform professional development and to support the development of humane practice
Involve families in thinking about the commissioning of services , and use the expertise of families who have experience of the child welfare system to develop and evaluate the services.
We are heartened by this latest research and thrilled to see this thinking entering the mainstream. Kudos to the authors.
Family Experiences In Photos, From Stepping Up, Stepping Down Report, October 2018.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line963
|
__label__cc
| 0.733474
| 0.266526
|
Save the Children's Child Protection Initiative and The Education Global Initiative - July 2011 Newsletter
Log in to add to library
This month’s issue of the Child Protection Initiative (CPI) Newsletter is produced jointly with the Education Global Initiative and focuses specifically on Violence Free Schools. It includes an interview with a school student in Durres, Albania, who speaks out on violence in schools and the expert opinion contributed by Mr. Kishore Singh, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. Also included is Save the Children's Policy Paper on violence against children in and around school, which provides recommendations for action by both Save the Children and the children themselves.
View and Download
Karlsson, LenaBermingham, Desmond
pdf, 8p.
Europe and North Asia
Corporal punishment Legislation UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Bullying Child abuse Policy Schools Violence against children Children's rights Education
Briefs, Fact Sheets and Brochures
Save the Children's CPI Newsletter - June 2011
Save the Children's CPI Newsletter- March 2011
Save the Children's CPI Newsletter, December 2011
Save the Children CPI Newsletter - October 2012
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line965
|
__label__cc
| 0.622791
| 0.377209
|
Concert & dinner
16.07.2019 Tue
No Tickets Available
19.07.2019 Fri
20.07.2019 Sat
22.07.2019 Mon
— Full Schedule
Basilicas and Catacombs
Visit two of Rome’s most important basilicas – those of St John Lateran and of St Mary Major – learn more about the Holy Stairs and discover the ancient Roman Catacombs.
After meeting up with your guide – and equipped with your earphones to hear the explanations more clearly – you will first visit the ‘Archbasilica of the Most Holy Saviour and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist at the Lateran’, more commonly known as the Basilica of St John Lateran, which is also the cathedral of Rome and the episcopal see of the bishop of Rome (the Pope). This is Rome’s most important papal basilica (the others being St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls and the Basilica of St Mary Major) and it is the oldest and most important in Western Christendom, where popes resided for ten centuries. First built in the 4th century, it was almost completely rebuilt by Borromini in the 17th century, though the main facade is the work of Galilei in the 18th century. The latter followed the style of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, resulting in the basilica’s current Baroque style. The magnificent interior is characterised by its breath-taking decorations, sculptures, marble and mosaics.
After this, you will make your way to the Scala Santa (Holy Stairs), located in front of the basilica. Made of marble (with a wooden protective casing), there are 24 steps in total. It is believed that these were brought from the Holy Land by St Helen, and that they are the steps that Jesus ascended at Pilot’s palace when he was condemned. In 1980, together with the Basilica of St John Lateran, the Holy Stairs were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Your guide will give you detailed information about the construction and history of the Stairs as you contemplate them.
From here, you will go on to the Basilica of St Mary Major, another of the four papal basilicas and the largest basilica in Rome to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For a time, it was a papal residence and the tombs of some past popes can indeed be found here. Also declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980, this 5th century basilica now features diverse architectural styles, ranging from the Early Christian to the Baroque. In terms of its exterior, particular highlights are the front and rear facades, the high medieval bell tower and its Baroque domes; the interior is characterised by the quality and abundance of its mosaics and impressive side chapels.
To conclude this tour, the bus will take you on to the famous Roman Catacombs – the ancient underground cemetery and once a hiding place for persecuted Christians – which are situated beneath one of Ancient Rome’s most important roads, the Via Appia. The majority of the catacombs date from the 2nd to 5th centuries and contain the tombs of Christians, martyrs and even of some popes. The catacombs represent an awe-inspiring preservation of antiquity, where we would advise you to stay close to your group so as to ensure that you do not get lost as your guide leads you through its labyrinthine passages.
Meeting point: at your hotel (if it is in Rome’s center), or at 95 Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Gray Line Rome Office / I Love Rome Office, in front of the Grand Hotel), 15 minutes before the start of the tour
Finishing point: in the centre of Rome
The tour includes the entrance ticket to the two basilicas and to the catacombs.
Short trousers and sleeveless shirts are not permitted within the basilicas.
image The Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore / Carrani Tours
Rome Opera Tickets for your personal 'grand tour' of the Eternal City. Why not arrange a night at the opera with tickets for the Teatro Costanzi (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma) or an enchanting 'opera under the stars' at the Terme di Caracalla? Then, for a truly immersive experience, treat yourself to a wonderful classical concert amidst Rome's cultural treasures.
Contact us & Feedback
A&A Tickets Online. Some rights reserved
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line971
|
__label__cc
| 0.502551
| 0.497449
|
Feeding the Minds of Our Future
Shaya Barnett Foundation is committed to providing culinary education and resources to high school students. Through hands-on curriculum, students are able to gain the real-world skills necessary to gain experience and employment in the ever-growing culinary and hospitality industry.
As a struggling student in high school, Alon Shaya wasn’t sure about his future. Noticed and encouraged by Donna Barnett, his home economics teacher, he began to nourish his passion for cooking. Donna helped Alon obtain his first kitchen job washing dishes and eventually mentored Alon on the scholarship process to attend the Culinary Institute of America. Donna, now recently retired from 25 years of teaching, mentored over 6,000 students in her classroom. Alon won the James Beard Foundation Award in 2015 for Best Chef, South.
Kitchen Equipment Sourcing
The Foundation has partnered with Edna Karr High School in New Orleans to help provide support in the form of lesson plans and cooking equipment.
The Foundation has raised enough money to acquire the equipment needed to outfit the classroom with the tools and materials for a successful school year. Equipment included everything from wooden spoons and electric mixers, to induction burners.
Guest Demonstrations & Speaker Series
Throughout the school year, Alon, restaurant team members, and other New Orleans restauranteurs lead lessons for students. The students love the hands-on time with chef Alon and have benefitted from the experiences they have gained in the kitchen.
Teachers and instructors also benefit by gaining an insider’s viewpoint on educating and motivating students from an industry standpoint. The speakers vary in focus and every demonstration emphasizes a skill set taught in the curriculum.
The Foundation brings together resources from our diverse New Orleans community to strengthen the emerging student culinary arts and hospitality industry. By organizing field trips and guest speakers/lectures at Edna Karr High School, the Foundation is able to support and expand on its existing Pro Start culinary arts curriculum.
In September, Houston was heavily impacted by Hurricane Harvey, and many in the service industry were affected. The Foundation partnered with vendors to host a Beans & Rice fundraiser that contributed $24,000 towards rebuilding efforts.
Alon Shaya
Alon Shaya really loves food. He loves cooking it, being around it, learning about it, and teaching others about it. Born in Israel and raised in Philadelphia, Alon now calls New Orleans his home. In 2016, Alon joined forces with Donna Barnett, his high school home economics teacher, to start the Shaya Barnett Foundation. He is a recipient of the “Youth Advocate Award” from Liberty’s Kitchen, and was honored by InspireNOLA Schools for his work with Edna Karr Charter High School.
In 2017, Alon and his wife Emily formed Pomegranate Hospitality to create a space where meaningful, lasting relationships are created, community engagement prospers, and cultural differences are celebrated. Pomegranate Hospitality hopes to foster opportunities for colleagues, partners and friends in a comfortable environment, helping all involved to achieve their personal and professional goals. They opened Saba in New Orleans in May of 2018 and Safta in Denver in August 2018.
Alon has been nominated for five James Beard Awards. He has been named “Best Chef, South” in 2015, and won “Best New Restaurant” in 2016. He was named one of the “50 People Who Are Changing the South” by Southern Living magazine in 2015, and one of the “50 Most Influential Jews in America” by The Forward.
Donna Barnett
For 27 years Donna Barnett taught the culinary arts to high school students in suburban Philadelphia. Her excellence as an educator, entrepreneur, and as a mentor is made manifest through the awards she has received from her peers in education and the community, and the accolades and accomplishments of her students. In addition to teaching and mentoring James Beard Award-winning chef Alon Shaya, Donna also guided chef Ari Weiswasser, winner of The People’s Best New Chef for California, Food & Wine.
Since her retirement from teaching, Donna has focused on partnering with her former student Alon Shaya to develop a comprehensive culinary curriculum for high schools and helping students pursue their passion for careers in the food industry through the Shaya Barnett Foundation.
Donna holds a Cordon Bleu Certification in Culinary Arts, a Masters of Science in Health Education/Nutrition Marketing, and a Masters of Science in Health Economics Education.
shayabarnettfoundation@gmail.com
Donations are being accepted to make purchases of cooking equipment and other items needed for culinary education programs in high schools.
© Copyright 2017 Shaya Barnett Foundation | All Rights Reserved
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line978
|
__label__wiki
| 0.76542
| 0.76542
|
Mercedes-Benz Amazingly Finds Two Very Rare Classic Cars
Re-found Treasures
The 24th Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance – an annual charity automotive event in the US – back in March, is a magical place to hear about the illustrious histories of incredible cars, and the “twin" 1954 300SL Gullwings that the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center displayed was no exception. The vehicles bear successive chassis numbers, and No. 43 is a hero to the Jacksonville, Florida car show.
“We found this right up the road in Jacksonville," says Constantin von Kageneck from the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California, motioning to a grey model parked on the fairway at the The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. “The second owner bought it used and it didn’t have a spare wheel, so he went to a local dealer, Platt Motors, and its tag is still on that rim. This car’s been in Jacksonville its whole life."
Provenance of a classic
It was originally purchased by a lawyer for the Winn-Dixie corporation, who also founded the local Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), and took it for some racing fun before selling it to his mechanic, who also raced it. It was purchased in 1957 by a naval pilot stationed in Jacksonville, who later went to law school in Gainesville. He was getting ready to paint it, hence the primer gray you see here, and had taken parts off. (Indeed, a bag of rusty bits and trim are visible in the trunk.) And then, in 1965, everything just stopped and that’s the last time anyone saw it. “We know that because he was in the process of re-dyeing the seats and the newspaper on the back of one of the cushions is from 1965," says von Kageneck.
Amelia Island Concours founder Bill Warner had seen the car ages ago when he was 16 and informed Mercedes-Benz about it. The company ended up purchasing it in 2018 for just under US$1 million (RM4.1 million), according to von Kageneck. Gone was the original medium blue hue and the Classic Center gang found plenty of rat nests in the car, but many original touches remained, including the gooseneck shifter (something only the first 50 or so 300SLs featured), fading grey leather seats, the wheels and the “Englebert Competition" tires, and the drivetrain. On the odometer, 35,308 miles (or 56,822 kilometres) are shown.
Its brother, No. 44, was a factory refresh done at the behest of the customer. The 300SL was originally delivered in fire-engine red paint with a white leather interior, but the new buyer believed the white cabin would be too hard to keep clean. He opted for a natural tan leather interior (with a matching luggage set) with a Mercedes Blue exterior. “The engine was on the dyno last Tuesday, and we power-tested it and put it in the car. It was just finished," says von Kageneck, adding they don’t test it for the actual amount of power, though he believes it to be “a bit under the 240 hp (179kW) they used to advertise."
As for the barn find No. 43, it’s headed to the Essen auction in Northern Germany in a few weeks, and if the person who buys it wants it restored, it’ll head to the Classic Center in Stuttgart. “The cost of restoration would be in excess of US$800,000 (about RM3.3 million), and it’s hard to say what the car could get at auction. Unrestored cars are almost doing better than restored cars now," von Kageneck says. “Either way, today is the cheapest day to restore your car," he grins. “Tomorrow it will only be more expensive."
By: Sean Evans
You Can Probably Look But Can't Buy This Ferrari Monza
The Mercedes-AMG C 63 S mixes thrills with gratification
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class Cabriolet
Mercedes-Benz examines the future of mobility with the Concept EQ
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line983
|
__label__wiki
| 0.778214
| 0.778214
|
Archive for population crisis
The population control advocate behind Planned Parenthood’s transition to abortion
Posted in Abortion History, Alan F. Guttmacher, Forced Population Control, Forced Sterilization, Guttmacher, Illegal abortion, Lader, Planned Parenthood History with tags Abortion, abortion history, Abortion II, Abortion kills the life, Alan F. Guttmacher, American Eugenics Society, Black Genocide, black militants, black racism, coercion, Force, Fred Jaffe, Guttmacher, Human Betterment Foundation, Illegal Abortion, Larry Lader, Margaret Sanger, Mary S. Calderone, Planned Parenthood History, Planned Parenthood Pamphlet, Planned Parenthood uses Blacks, population crisis, population growth, PPFA, special affiliate, United Nations on April 19, 2018 by saynsumthn
By Carole Novielli | From Live Action News
This article is part two in a series on the history of Planned Parenthood. Read part one here.
Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s focus was eugenic sterilization and birth control, rather than decriminalizing abortion. But it wasn’t a female eugenics crusader who rolled out the abortion agenda of Planned Parenthood — that came from Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, a physician and past vice-president of the American Eugenics Society who was already steeped in abortion prior to his election as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1962. Guttmacher worked with Mary S. Calderone, who joined Planned Parenthood’s staff in 1953 as its medical director, a post she held until 1964. Years earlier, Guttmacher had vowed to work to decriminalize abortion, eventually persuading the PPFA board to commit the procedures.
PPFA president Alan F Guttmacher speaks about abortion, 1965
Planned Parenthood was initially reluctant to perform abortions — that is, until Guttmacher came on the scene. Before making millions committing abortions, Planned Parenthood admitted that abortion takes human life. A Planned Parenthood pamphlet from 1952 reads, “Abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.”
Another pamphlet from Planned Parenthood Federation of America also describes abortion as a procedure that “kills life after it has begun” and one which is “dangerous” to a woman’s “life and health.”
In the early 1960s, abortion enthusiasts like Larry Lader bemoaned Planned Parenthood’s lack of involvement with abortion, noting in his book, “Abortion II,” that “Abortion never became a feminist plank in the United States among the suffragettes or depression radicals. It was ignored, even boycotted by Planned Parenthood women in those days.”
Lader notes in his book, “Ideas Triumphant” how, other than the National Organization for Women (NOW), few groups were willing to support abortion: “In medicine, only the American Public Health Association (APHA) had taken a stand…. The huge network of Planned Parenthood Federation clinics remained on the sidelines except for its outspoken medical committee under Dr. Alan Guttmacher.”
Lawrence Lader, abortion crusader
Lader expounds further in his book, “Abortion II,” writing, “Planned Parenthood, with hundreds of chapters and clinics throughout the country, had been a particular disappointment. Legalized abortion, I insisted from the start, was the logical measure for contraception and an essential form of birth control. Under the leadership of Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the medical committee of Planned Parenthood-World Population proposed the ‘abolition of existing statutes and criminal laws regarding abortion’ in 1968. After this plank was approved by the members in 1969, Planned Parenthood chapters soon started abortion referrals, and even clinics, as an ‘integral part of medical care.’”
Guttmacher was an avid eugenicist, who joined others of his day in voicing a concern about rising population growth. In spite of national calls for coercion to slow down the rate of population growth, Guttmacher instead advocated the decriminalization of abortion as an effort that he felt would accomplish the same result. But, although Guttmacher had learned how to finesse the rhetoric, he did not discount the use of coercion altogether. In 1966, Guttmacher compared the world population with the threat of nuclear war, telling the Washington Post that governments may have to act officially to limit families. “It may be taken out of the voluntary category,” Guttmacher said.
Guttmacher abortion coercion possible
Population concerns drove public policy
In Michael W. Perry’s compilation of one of Sanger’s works with others of her period, “The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic,” Perry writes of Alan Guttmacher, “In 1962, Alan Guttmacher, former vice president of the American Eugenics Association, assumed the presidency of Planned Parenthood. Soon, a ‘population bomb’ hysteria… was driving public policy. In 1969, a medical news magazine revealed what was really going on when it quoted Guttmacher, warning that if ‘voluntary means’ did not achieve the desired goals, ‘Each country will have to decide its own form of coercion and determine when and how it should be employed. At present, the means available are compulsory sterilization and compulsory abortion.’”
“That’s what [Margaret] Sanger intended to do with birth control…. So, why should it be surprising that Guttmacher felt the same?” Perry added.
This 1968 interview with Alan Guttmacher and a member of the clergy, which, according to Ball State University, originated from WLBC-TV and was (possibly) a part of a segment titled, “Week in Review,” demonstrates the concern the PPFA president had about the so-called “population crisis.” Guttmacher began the interview by defining Planned Parenthood as a “movement which tries to make each child a wanted child born to responsible parents….”
In the interview, Alan Guttmacher, addressed the issue of population growth:
“Now, I think everyone is conscious of the fact that in some areas of the world there is explosive type of population increase, unsupportable, in that it is outdistancing food, it retards economic development… and, what we are attempting to do, of course, is to encourage countries to curtail the rate of growth.”
https://youtu.be/G1pwA6onfR0
He added this about the threat of a global “population crisis:”
Now, I’ve been in this a really long time and I am encouraged because, we have governments becoming deeply involved. Each year, one or more – many governments make population control part of national policy.
In 1969, after seeking government funding for “family planning” specifically for “low income Americans,” Guttmacher responded to criticism from some that population growth could be reduced by “voluntary methods” rather than government coercion. “I do not share their despair,” he stated. “The appropriate response, in my view, is to mobilize rapidly a total, coordinated U.S. program by government, in collaboration with voluntary health services, in an all-out maximum effort to demonstrate what voluntary fertility control can accomplish in a free society.”
A year later, in 1970, Guttmacher, told Boston Magazine that the United Nations should be the organization the United States used to carry out population control programs worldwide. Guttmacher explained his reasoning:
If you’re going to curb population, it’s extremely important not to have it done by the dammed Yankees, but by the UN. Because the thing is, then it’s not considered genocide. If the United States goes to the black man or the yellow man and says slow down your reproduction rate, we’re immediately suspected of having ulterior motives to keep the white man dominant in the world. If you can send in a colorful UN force, you’ve got much better leverage.
The fact is that Guttmacher understood that coercive means of population control would not be well received, especially by members of the Black community. The eugenics movement, of which he was a part, had come under criticism after the Nazis’ implemented their eugenic “final solution” for a “pure race” — something many believe originated with American eugenics leaders.
“So even though the plan [of coercion] may be desirable and would make us a stronger nation, a less polluted nation, I feel it would be strategically unwise at this time,” the former Planned Parenthood president told Lee McCall, a reporter for the Sarasota Herald Tribune in 1966.
Guttmacher Compulsory Birth Control 1970
The push for taxpayer-funded birth control for the poor and minorities
Guttmacher, who also founded Planned Parenthood’s research arm and “special affiliate,” the Guttmacher Institute, then proposed a blueprint to force taxpayers to pay for birth control access for the poor, as Live Action News detailed previously.
The plan was highly criticized by the Black community, which saw the move as a means of racist Black genocide. “Among other things, this policy has brought the Planned Parenthood Federation under attack from black militants who see ‘family planning’ as a euphemism for race genocide,” the NYT reported at that time. So, a 1966 internal memo from Alan Guttmacher and Fred Jaffe outlined a new “community relations program” for winning over the Black community by “form[ing] a liaison between Planned Parenthood and minority organizations.” The plan, according to Planned Parenthood, was to emphasize that “all people have the opportunity to make their own choices,” rather than, as the memo states, “exhortation telling them how many children they should have.”
Image from 1940’s Birth control pamphlet published by Planned Parenthood
In its 1969 article entitled, “Dr. Guttmacher is the Evangelist of Birth Control,” the New York Times was forced to acknowledge that many leaders sitting on Planned Parenthood’s board were in favor of coercive measures of population control. While painting the picture of an agency which was pushing birth control on the “ghetto” rather than the “middle-class” who were having more than the optimal amount of children, the paper noted that a “sizable” number of Planned Parenthood’s board was made up of “preponderantly white and well-to-do” people. They then quoted a Planned Parenthood board member who admitted the racist attitude of the organization when he stated, “What it all comes down to is that we want the poor to stop breeding while we retain our freedom to have large families. It’s strictly a class point of view.”
Guttmacher and Sanger were both (as eugenicists) concerned that the world population was a threat, but, Guttmacher, much savvier than Sanger, chose to couch his agenda as a “right.” He even told the paper that they were not trying to take away anyone’s rights, but trying to “show ghetto families how to space their children and avoid having children they don’t want.”
“Admittedly Guttmacher is buying time,” writes the New York Times in that 1969 report. “He thinks the voluntary movement should set a deadline of 1980. If world population growth has not dropped below 1.5 percent by then, he says, ‘we’ll have to get tough.’”
Guttmacher on coercive population control New York Times
Whatever Guttmacher meant by getting “tough” never materialized, because he believed decriminalizing abortion was the solution and noted this in a 1970 interview where he stated:
If we could get the abortion law liberalized, most of the 750,000 unwanted pregnancies would not lead to babies – rejected children, battered baby syndrome and illegal abortions.
Proposing the availability of “unlimited abortion” to curb population growth
And, in that same year, Guttmacher admitted to a 1970 Cornell Symposium, (according to an April 7, 1970, article published by the Cedar Rapids Gazette), that although he did not know when life began, he believed that “unlimited abortion” was the only way to reduce population growth, saying, “There is no question that the most effective way of reducing population growth is by unlimited abortion.”
According to researcher and author Mary Meehan, “Guttmacher undoubtedly believed that [abortion] helped women; in fact, he had referred patients to an illegal abortionist as early as 1941. Yet he also had other motives, indicated by his service as vice president and board member of the American Eugenics Society.”
The Case for Legalized Abortion Now, edited by Alan F Guttmacher
In 1967, Guttmacher edited a book on legalizing abortion, where he admitted, “Today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers from a fatal illness such as cancer or leukemia, and, if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save, life.” Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino agrees with this, stating that there is never a valid medical reason for abortion:
Guttmacher became Chief of Obstetrics at Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital in 1942, eventually creating a staff committee of five to make decisions about abortion. Like Sanger, Guttmacher allegedly watched a woman die from an illegal abortion while serving as an intern in Baltimore. He later wrote of other women, “In a short period I witnessed three deaths from illegal abortions: a 16-year old with a multiperforated uterus, a mother of four who died of sepsis rejecting another child, and a patient in early menopause who fatally misinterpreted amenorrhea.”
Alan Guttmacher 1973 (Image credit: WGBH)
For years, Guttmacher referred women to physicians for illegal abortion procedures. He once wrotehow an illegal abortionist, nicknamed Dr. T, showed him the abortion technique. “His technique was to pack one inch gauze strips into the cervix and lower uterine segment the night before he was to evacuate the conceptus,” Guttmacher wrote. “After 12 hours of packing, the cervix was wide open, and he was able to empty the uterus with an ovum forceps, followed by currettage without anesthesia. In advanced pregnancies he inserted intrauterine bougies, held in place by a vaginal pack until strong contractions commenced, which not infrequently took several days.”
“These early medical experiences with the unavailability of abortions in reputable hospitals and the incidence of illegal abortions convinced me that permitting abortion only ‘to preserve the life of the mother’ was undesirable and unenforceable…. My sentiment was that as long as the law was as restrictive as it was, doctors should not breach it, but work to change the law – a position which I forthrightly espoused in the classroom,” Guttmacher stated.
Dr. T later attended a 1950’s Abortion in the United States conference sponsored by PPFA, which focused on abortion. PPFA leader Mary Calderone writes, “Those very concerned with the problem of abortion will be full of gratitude for this report; gratitude to the P.P.F.A. for convening the conference and for the frankness of the thirty-eight participants, who comprised eminent gynaecologists, psychiatrists and a few social workers. The highlight of the proceedings was an M.D.’s testimony as a convicted (but not imprisoned) abortionist. The chairman stated that Dr. T. was his valued friend, known for nearly three decades, and described him as ‘an extremely competent abortionist … who some years ago fell into disagreement with the law and is no longer in practice”.’”
The PPFA group heard from abortion advocates worldwide, and in the end, Calderone indicates that there was no clarion call to push for abortion reform.
In his book, “Babies by Choice or by Chance,” published in 1959, Guttmacher allegedly deplored “the performance of abortion on virtual demand.” But Guttmacher also noted how he had learned from experience how hospitals were “allowed to interpret and administer the abortion law of their respective states without supervision or interference from either the police, the courts or medical agencies.”
Babies by Choice or By Chance, by Alan F Guttmcher
In 1952, Guttmacher had relocated from Baltimore to New York, where he became the first Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, which had already been approving and performing abortions. “I was told that if a private patient was denied abortion in another institution, she frequently sought abortion at Mt. Sinai because of its well-known, relatively liberal policy,” Guttmacher claimed.
Alan Guttmacher appointed head of obstetrics at Mount Sinai Hospital (Image New York Times June 27,1952)
By 1962, Guttmacher was at the helm of Planned Parenthood and he was positioned to put his dream of decriminalizing abortion into action. That same year, as chairman of the medical and scientific committee of the Human Betterment Foundation, Guttmacher called the existing abortion laws “archaic” and “idiotic.”
Guttmacher named president of Planned Parenthood, 1967 (Image: New York Times)
“The idea that the fetus has a sacred right to survive from the moment of fertilization is a Judeo Christian creation,” he said according to a May 2, 1962, Poughkeepsie Miscellany News report.
Alan Guttmacher calls 1960 abortion laws archaic
“I believe that a new abortion statute for New York and each of the other states is needed…. I think it is high time that a commission of physicians, lawyers, judges, sociologists, and religionists convened in an attempt to wrestle with the problem realistically…. The only way progress can be made is through an aroused citizenry. What we need in the United States is a uniform abortion law,” Guttmacher wrote in “Babies by Choice.”
A few years later, during a 1965 “Abortion and the Law” BBC program, Guttmacher, then president of PPFA, put forth the infamous “health” exception for abortion, stating (36:20):
Now, the law as you know is simply to preserve the life of the mother. This is wholly inadequate.
Number one, I’d preserve the life or health of the mother. And, as you know, health could be interpreted quite broadly and I think it should be. In 1960, the World Health Organization gave us splendid definition of health. They said health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being. Not simply the absence of illness and disease.
Second, I feel that abortion should be done, when competent medical opinion feels that there’s strong likelihood of the current [inaudible] to result in the malformed or abnormal child. I think whenever pregnancy is the result of proved rape, incest, or the impregnation of a child of sixteen or less, with or without the consent, that we have legal grounds for interrupting this pregnancy.
Interestingly, this language comes directly from the 1959 American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code on abortion. In our next report in this series, we will learn Guttmacher’s connection to that organization and detail what led up to Planned Parenthood’s decision to push for the decriminalization of abortion and begin referring for the procedure.
This article is reprinted with permission. The original appeared here at Live Action News.
This was part two in Live Action News’ series on the history of Planned Parenthood’s move to committing abortions. You can read part one ,(1) part three, and part four in additional articles.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line984
|
__label__cc
| 0.627154
| 0.372846
|
Export to EasyBib or RefWorks
Remember to duplicate the indentation, italics or underlined words when copying the required citation.
Jaeger, P. (2016, December). 'tis the season? School Library Connection. Retrieved from http://schoollibraryconnection.com/Home/Display/2141621
Jaeger, Paige. "'Tis the Season?" School Library Connection, December 2016. http://schoollibraryconnection.com/Home/Display/2141621.
Jaeger, Paige. "'Tis the Season?" School Library Connection, December 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Home/Display/2141621.
Citation guidelines follow the conventions of the Modern Language Association (MLA). Although every effort has been made to adhere to MLA rules, minor discrepancies may occur. For more information on how to cite sources using MLA style, consult the MLA Handbook, eighth edition.
Citation guidelines follow conventions outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style, sixteenth edition. Although every effort has been made to adhere to Chicago rules, minor discrepancies may occur. For more information on how to cite sources using the Chicago style, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, sixteenth edition.
Citation guidelines follow the conventions of the American Psychological Association (APA). Although every effort has been made to adhere to APA rules, minor discrepancies may occur. For more information on how to cite sources using APA style, consult the APA's Publication Manual, sixth edition.
Important Note: APA style requires sentence case titles in citations; that is, only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns and acronyms should be capitalized. Since it is impossible for any automated program to correctly distinguish proper nouns from common nouns every time, you should carefully review and correct the above APA title as necessary after copying it to your bibliography.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line985
|
__label__wiki
| 0.522343
| 0.522343
|
Scott Reid M.P.
MP Services
Scott Reid's Publications
Constituency Referenda
Home / NewsNews
Scott Reid is the Member of Parliament for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston. He was first elected in November 2000.
He has previously served as the Shadow Minister (or opposition critic) for Democratic Institutions (2015-2018), Deputy Opposition House Leader (2015-2016), and Deputy Government House Leader (2006-2015).
He also served as the chairman of the subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (2008-2015).
More About Scott >
Please Select May 31, 2019 November 27, 2017 November 9, 2017 November 3, 2017 October 20, 2017 October 16, 2017 June 8, 2017 May 11, 2017 February 16, 2017 February 2, 2017 December 7, 2016 December 2, 2016 November 21, 2016 November 21, 2016 October 14, 2016 September 13, 2016 June 8, 2016 May 19, 2016 May 18, 2016 May 12, 2016 May 10, 2016 May 10, 2016 April 14, 2016 April 13, 2016 March 21, 2016 March 18, 2016 February 10, 2016 January 19, 2016 January 6, 2016 December 10, 2015 December 9, 2015 December 3, 2015 September 4, 2015 June 18, 2015 February 9, 2015 December 17, 2014 September 16, 2014 May 28, 2013 May 28, 2013 April 26, 2013 April 19, 2013 April 5, 2013 December 10, 2012 November 1, 2012 October 5, 2012 September 24, 2012 August 9, 2012 July 11, 2012 June 18, 2012 June 7, 2012 May 17, 2012 March 13, 2012 March 9, 2012 February 27, 2012 February 16, 2012 January 6, 2012 December 16, 2011 December 9, 2011 December 2, 2011 November 25, 2011 November 21, 2011 October 25, 2011 October 21, 2011 March 21, 2011 March 3, 2011 February 4, 2011 February 4, 2011 January 24, 2011 January 14, 2011 December 3, 2010 November 26, 2010 June 4, 2010 May 28, 2010 July 15, 2009 May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009 May 11, 2009 November 26, 2008 June 2, 2008 April 21, 2008 April 6, 2008 March 14, 2008 February 28, 2008 February 15, 2008 January 7, 2008 October 11, 2007 September 28, 2007 June 26, 2007 March 22, 2007 March 19, 2007 February 28, 2007 January 16, 2007 December 12, 2006 December 8, 2006 July 12, 2006 June 5, 2006 May 31, 2006 May 31, 2006 May 3, 2006 December 21, 2005 December 9, 2005 December 9, 2005 December 5, 2005 September 22, 2005 September 1, 2005 August 31, 2005 July 7, 2005 June 28, 2005 June 23, 2005 June 16, 2005 May 18, 2005 May 2, 2005 May 2, 2005 April 22, 2005 April 15, 2005 February 22, 2005 February 8, 2005 February 4, 2005 February 1, 2005 January 15, 2005 December 20, 2004 November 22, 2004 October 25, 2004 October 15, 2004 October 8, 2004 July 22, 2004 June 18, 2004 June 18, 2004 May 13, 2004 April 26, 2004 April 6, 2004 April 2, 2004 March 29, 2004 March 23, 2004 March 13, 2004 February 23, 2004 February 9, 2004 January 15, 2004 September 26, 2003 September 24, 2003 August 18, 2003 July 16, 2003 July 3, 2003 June 11, 2003 May 30, 2003 May 9, 2003 May 2, 2003 May 2, 2003 April 16, 2003 March 21, 2003 March 17, 2003 March 14, 2003 November 28, 2002 November 27, 2002 October 31, 2002 February 7, 2002 June 7, 2001
Statutory Disclosure
Scott Reid Expenditures from April 2016 to March 2017
Local MP Scott Reid wins ‘Best Civic Outreach Effort’ at Parliamentarian of the Year awards
On November 7, local MP Scott Reid (Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston) was awarded “Best Civic Outreach Effort” at the 2017 Maclean’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards.
Winners are selected by a vote among all MPs, conducted by secret ballot. Maclean’s Magazine / L’Actualite oversees the voting.
Reid stated that he believes the reason that other MPs chose him as the best MP at outreach is that he has held nine “constituency referenda” since he was first elected in 2000. The most recent constituency referendum is the mail-in ballot on Bill C-45 (the Government’s proposed law to legalize the recreational use of marijuana). Ballots for this referendum are still being received at Reid’s office, and will determine how Reid votes on this bill.
“After nearly two decades as an MP, I still don’t see any evidence that Canada’s elected representatives are wiser than its citizens. And if the votes of my colleagues are any indication, a lot of other MPs must think the same thing,” Reid says.
As a sign of the credibility that other MPs give to this kind of civic outreach, Reid notes that last year, Liberal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould made the following comment on his constituency referendum on the bill on physician-assisted suicide (Bill C-14), for which she was the responsible minister:
“If I could, Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for the thoughtful nature in which he engaged with his constituents around Bill C-14.”
Reid added, “I hope that the Maclean’s / L’Actualite award is an early sign that my colleagues, of all parties, will from time to time start to give their constituents the final say on proposed new laws, and that constituency referenda can help MPs to push back against the pervasive party discipline on Parliament Hill.”
Office of Scott Reid, M.P,
Scott.Reid@parl.gc.ca
© 2019 Scott Reid MP. All Rights Reserved
Website developed by Creative PLANit
Home About Scott MP Services Contact
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line988
|
__label__wiki
| 0.731058
| 0.731058
|
Exclusive: One Planet Summit showcases Africa’s role against climate change (from Maria Macharia)
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 9, 2019/APO Group/ --
From Maria Macharia
While Africa is responsible for merely 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 65 percent of the continent’s estimated population of 1,3 billion people is considered to be directly impacted by climate change.
It is against the backdrop of this irony that global leaders, entrepreneurs, international organizations, and civil society meet in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday next week to help accelerate focus and attention on climate investments in line with the Paris Agreement objectives.
The stakeholders will meet under the auspices of the One Planet Summit (OPS), which also focuses on promoting renewable energies, fostering resilience and adaptation and protecting biodiversity in the continent.
“OPS, which is in its third edition, is the French initiative to engage states and global ministers to implement climate policies,” said Mr Lõhmus. Nairobi will be the first first regional host of the OPS.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as World Bank Group Interim President Kristalina Georgieva and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, will co-chair the conference, which will be among the highlights will co-chair the conference, which will be among the highlights of the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) running from March 11-15.
Ado Lohmus, a UNEA special envoy, this week confirmed Macron will be in the East African country next week.
“On the 14th, he (Macron) will open the OPS, which will also be meeting here in Kenya alongside UNEA,” Lohmus said in Nairobi this week.
More than 2000 delegates from around the world have registered to attend UNEA-4 and are to be a key part of OPS proceedings.
OPS is one in a series of some climate events this year leading up to the UN 2019 Climate Summit and to the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In December 2018, the World Bank Group announced a major new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, doubling its current 5-year investments to around $200 billion in support for countries to take ambitious climate action.
The new plan significantly boosts support for adaptation and resilience, recognizing mounting climate change impacts on lives and livelihoods, especially in the world’s poorest countries. The plan also represents significantly ramped up ambition from the World Bank Group, sending an important signal to the wider global community to do the same.
Ahead of the OPS, Kenya government officials assured preparations for the OPS were progressing well, with the country having previously held international events of this nature.
Last year, Kenya co-hosted the first-ever global conference on the sustainable blue economy, alongside Canada.
OPS is held following the realization that resources and solutions for renewable energy already exist in Africa but there is a need to speed their financing and mainstream their development.
Judy Wakhungu, Kenya’s Ambassador to France, and French State Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson, recently held meetings to finalise plans for the OPS and UNEA-4.
Macron has previously spoken of his government’s goal to be a strategic partner to Africa in the field of climate change adaptation.
France is the largest financial contributor to the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), alongside Germany and followed by the Council of the European Union.
At the Africa-France Summit held in Mali in 2017, the French president announced that financing for renewable energy in Africa would be increased from €2 billion to €3 billion, implemented by the Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency) over the 2016-2020 period.
“Africa, from the shores of Lake Chad to the Congo Basin, is being hardest hit by the effects of climate change but it can also be at the forefront of solutions. It can succeed where Europe has not always been able to,” Macron prominently said during a state visit to Burkina Faso in late 2017.
This week, the World Bank, a partner for the OPS, stated cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nairobi, could inform global action on climate change.
Nairobi already has a strong private sector presence as the eighth most attractive city in Africa for foreign direct investment, according to the global institution.
“As such, it can share important lessons learned with other cities in the region and around the world. The One Planet Summit provides the perfect space to do just that by actively inviting new partners to collaborate and launch new initiatives,” the World Bank stated.
– CAJ News
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line999
|
__label__cc
| 0.657045
| 0.342955
|
The Next Reel Film Podcast
A Star Is Born (1976) • The Next Reel
April 4th, 2019 •1:10:18
"Your own personal piece of the American dream."
Like the remake before it, Barbra Streisand’s decision to produce and play the lead in her own version of A Star Is Born likely had something to do with ego, but it’s hard to argue that the story is also one with two wonderfully rich characters at the heart of it – characters any actor would likely want to perform. Regardless, Streisand opposite Kris Kristofferson, who was also a big musical talent at the time, seemed like a perfect fit for this version. But it didn’t land quite as strongly for us as the previous two did. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our “A Star Is Born” series with Frank Pierson’s 1976 take on A Star Is Born.
We debate what it is about this version of the story that leads us to find it the weakest of the three iterations thus far. We talk about Streisand and Kristofferson, what they each bring to the role, and how well they work for us. We look at the tone the film takes – very much a 70s feel – and how each of the versions thus far have really found a way to wholly ground themselves in their own period. We look at the songs and discuss how they work for us. And we look at some of the beats that repeat throughout these films and talk about why some don’t work that well here.
It’s an interesting film to discuss in this series because the tone feels so different. It’s not our favorite of the lot, but it certainly provides a lot to talk about, so check it out then tune in to this week’s show. The Next Reel – when the movie ends, our conversation begins.
Join the conversation with movie lovers from around the world on The Next Reel’s Discord channel!
Film Sundries
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon!
Watch this film: iTunes • Amazon • Netflix • YouTube
Original theatrical trailer
Original poster artwork
Flickchart
Yesterday • The Film Board
There have been some great British music biopics in the last year. They tend to garner some criticism for the way that history is manipulated to make …
Autumn Sonata • The Next Reel
Ingrid Bergman had wanted to work with Ingmar Bergman – unrelated – for quite some time, and finally got her chance in her last film. The film came …
Murder on the Orient Express • The Next Reel
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are all aware that the repulsive murder has himself been repulsively and perhaps deservedly murdered. How and why?"
Jonathan • Trailer Rewind
"You and I were happier than any two people ever could have been."
If your birthday is in June, you’re a Gemini. As a special treat for our Gemini …
Stromboli • The Next Reel
"I can’t live like this in this filth!"
When Ingrid Bergman wrote a letter to director Roberto Rossellini about her interest in being in a film of …
Notorious • The Next Reel
"I am married to an American agent."
Hitchcock loved working with Ingrid Bergman. He was a notorious director for wanting everything his own way, but …
Spellbound • The Next Reel
"It’s like looking into a mirror and seeing nothing but the mirror."
Alfred Hitchcock had been working in Hollywood for a while by the time he made …
Gaslight (1944) • The Next Reel
"Are you suggesting this is a knife I hold in my hand?"
Ingrid Bergman took home her first Oscar for her portrayal of a woman who is psychologically …
The Edge of Seventeen • Trailer Rewind
"I had the worst thought: I've got to spend the rest of my life with myself."
Just as the school year is starting to wind down, JJ and Steve take one …
For Whom The Bell Tolls • The Next Reel
"A man fights for what he believes in."
Ernest Hemingway was very involved in getting the adaptation of his 1940 novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” off …
Pokémon Detective Pikachu • The Film Board
"That’s a twist. That’s very twisty."
You may or may not have a connection to the world of the pocket monsters affectionately called Pokémon, but …
Casablanca • The Next Reel
"Play it once, Sam. For old time’s sake. Play it, Sam."
Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca never seemed to be on track to become a classic. It …
Chinese Puzzle • The Next Reel
Cédric Klapisch returned to the world of Xavier, Wendy, Isabelle and Martine with his 2013 film Chinese Puzzle in a story that takes place 10 years after the previous film. Is it a return worth taking? Join us – Pete …
Avengers: Endgame • The Film Board
The teams at Disney have put out specific warnings and requests not to spoil Avengers: Endgame, but you know this thing is the core of what The Film Board is all about! If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t click on …
Russian Dolls • The Next Reel
"How can I write a love story? I know nothing about love. I’m a self-centered egotist."
Cédric Klapisch got a chance to return to the life of Xavier …
L’Auberge Espagnole • The Next Reel
"Life seems simpler for everyone else."
Cédric Klapisch had been making films in France for ten years before he made his little film about a group of study abroad students from all over Europe working to understand each …
The Vanishing of Sidney Hall • Trailer Rewind
"Let’s say you did write a novel. What would it be about?"
Sometimes movies are better than the books they are based on. But are there movies that …
"All you gotta do is trust me."
It took a number of years for this latest remake of A Star Is Born to come to fruition, but it seems like everything worked out the way it was supposed to. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga …
"I thought I was the answer for Norman, but love isn’t strong enough for him.”
By the time 30-year-old Judy Garland was gearing up for her film …
"Remember, Esther: for every dream of yours you make come true, you’ll pay the price in heartbreak."
The story is one that people connect with – a …
I, Tonya • Trailer Rewind
"It was like being abused all over again. Only this time it was by you. All of you. You're all my attackers too."
If you listened to our Green Book Filmboard episode you know that most of us were not happy with the …
Creed II • The Next Reel
"Remember why you’re climbing these steps."
In a franchise so full of sequels, it was inevitable that the success of the spin-quel Creed would be …
Captain Marvel • The Film Board
"I’m not what you think I am"
Attention true believers! The Film Board is a party to the home stretch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase three. It’s wrapping up in two successive months here in 2019. The big one of …
Creed • The Next Reel
"Use the name. It’s yours."
Returning to the Rocky story without Rocky helming might sound like a big misstep, but with the guiding hands of Ryan Coogler, it was a huge success and breathed new life into the nearly …
Rocky Balboa • The Next Reel
"What we’ll be calling on is good, old fashioned, blunt force trauma."
Sixteen years after Rocky V opened, the final final installment of the story …
Rocky V • The Next Reel
"It ain’t all muscle, it’s all heart. Heart and fire."
Sylvester Stallone returned to his beloved Rocky series in 1990, fully intending to close it …
Happy Death Day 2U • The Film Board
"Uh, Who is this crazy white girl?"
Horror abounds for The Film Board in February and this year is no different. We woke up in the same scary month this year with Happy Death Day 2U specially released for the sweetheart …
Rocky IV • The Next Reel
"I must break you."
At the height of the Cold War, it seems fitting that Sylvester Stallone would find incredible success in his Rocky franchise by …
The Bachelors • Trailer Rewind
"It’s practically a universal law that no man has ever looked good in man panties"
Consider yourself warned that J.K. Simmons (and his majestic beard) are going to bring a tear to your eye. This month Steve and JJ take …
Rocky III • The Next Reel
"No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool and I will destroy any man who tries to take what I got."
Three years after the success of Rocky II, …
Rocky II • The Next Reel
"You got the heart, but you ain’t got the tools no more."
Sylvester Stallone’s directorial debut, Paradise Alley, was a flop and the studio didn’t …
Lean on Pete • Trailer Rewind
"Just gotta keep going. This isn’t our home."
A long journey with a horse . . . through brutal environments . . . and encounters with ruthless people . . . no, we’re not talking about Hostiles again. But after taking a …
Rocky • The Next Reel
"All I wanna do is go the distance."
Sylvester Stallone pretty much embodies everything about the character Rocky Balboa that he created for the film Rocky. He’s someone who wanted to go the distance, and may not have …
Glass • The Film Board
“We’re finally being let into the universe”
Happy New Year everyone! The Film Board is respawning for you here this January with Glass from M. Night Shyamalan. Is it a sequel to Unbreakable? Is it a sequel to Split? Or …
Romeo and Juliet • The Next Reel
"Parting is such sweet sorrow."
The works of William Shakespeare have been adapted to the screen more times than any other author, and ‘Romeo and …
Rachel, Rachel • The Next Reel
"We’re all fools. You can’t be part of the human race and not be a fool to somebody."
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward had already been married for a …
Oliver! • The Next Reel
"You raised an artificial spirit in the lad unbecoming to his station in life. This would never have happened if you kept him on gruel."
Film …
The Lion In Winter • The Next Reel
"What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?"
British royalty is full of fascinating tales of power, conspiracies, distrust, and greed. They make …
The Producers (2005) • The Next Reel
"I’m the German Ethel Merman, don’tcha know!?"
Adapting a non-musical into a Broadway musical into a film musical takes a lot of work, but Mel Brooks …
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse • The Film Board
"It always fits eventually."
Here’s a gift for the whole family from The Film Board’s clan to yours - The thugs went out and saw our first official …
"How could this happen? I was so careful! I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast – where did I go right?"
Mel Brooks got his …
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) • The Next Reel
"You really think there’s ‘happy ever after’ for people like us?"
With his successful start as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan thought he’d try his hand …
"Do you play?"
Norman Jewison had worked with Steve McQueen on the film The Cincinnati Kid, so it was natural for him to immediately think of McQueen …
Green Book • The Film Board
"You never win with violence. You only win when you maintain your dignity."
The Film Board spent the holiday weekend giving thanks and watching Green …
Once Upon A Time In America • The Next Reel
"I like the stink of the streets. It makes me feel good."
By the time Sergio Leone got the cameras rolling on what would turn out to be his last …
Hostiles • Trailer Rewind
"I've killed everything that's walked or crawled. If you do it enough, you get used to it."
JJ and Steve are heading out west this month. It's a long and grueling journey, and one of them may not make it to the end. …
Duck You Sucker • The Next Reel
"If it’s a revolution, it’s confusion. Where there’s confusion, a man who knows what he wants stands a good chance of getting it."
Sergio Leone …
Once Upon A Time In The West • The Next Reel
"You don’t sell the dream of a lifetime."
Sergio Leone didn’t want to return to westerns after his Man With No Name trilogy – he already felt like made his western epic and wanted to move on to something else. When …
Day of the Dead • The Next Reel
"Choke on ‘em! Choke on ‘em!"
When George Romero set out to make his final film in his original zombie trilogy, he had to cut his script back quite a …
Dawn of the Dead • The Next Reel
"They’re after the place. They don’t know why, they just remember – remember that they want to be in here."
It took George A. Romero 10 years to get back to the world of zombies that he’d created in 1968, and largely …
Raw • Trailer Rewind
"I'm sure you'll find a solution, honey."
Steve couldn’t ask JJ to stomach this month’s film, so he brought Andy in to chew the fat on this one. Andy …
Night of the Living Dead • The Next Reel
"Kill the brain and you kill the ghoul."
Zombies are commonplace nowadays, but in the mid 60s, they were more connected to voodoo stories. It wasn’t …
First Man • The Next Reel Film Board
“We need to fail down here so we don’t fail up there.”
Buckle up for an intense journey on this one with the Film Board as we examine the story of struggles and successes that adorn the space race and the USA’s historic …
Danger: Diabolik • The Next Reel
"Don’t come near, honey. Molten gold wouldn’t suit your skin."
Creating a movie from a comic book has obviously become a huge way to make money at …
The Detective • The Next Reel
"I believe in live and let live."
Frank Sinatra and his rat pack are found in specific types of films, so seeing him in this dark, realistic detective story seems like a bit of surprise. When you think back to his …
Coogan's Bluff • The Next Reel
"Well, well, well, what have we got here? Buffalo Bill with the fancy hat!"
Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood worked with each other on five films, but before they first started, neither of them had heard of the other. …
Don't Think Twice • Trailer Rewind
"Has anyone out there had a particularly hard day?"
What are you waiting for? Just press play. Don’t stop to think, just say yes and press the button …
Targets • The Next Reel
"My kind of horror isn’t horror anymore."
One of Roger Corman’s claims to fame is that he’s never lost money on a movie, and one of the reasons that …
The Predator • The Film Board
“The data suggests that it tracks its prey, exploits weakness. Seems to enjoy it, like a game.”
The concept from “Predator” has been through a number …
Battle for the Planet of the Apes • The Next Reel
"Ape never kills ape."
Twentieth Century Fox had found great success with their Planet of the Apes franchise, but they also were learning that a …
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes • The Next Reel
"The savage must be shackled in chains. You are that beast, Caesar."
J. Lee Thompson was meant to direct the original Planet of the Apes film but wasn’t able to due to project conflicts. By the time the franchise got …
Escape from the Planet of the Apes • The Next Reel
"I did it because I like chimpanzees best of all apes, and you the best of all chimpanzees."
Twentieth Century Fox had found that cheap sequels could …
The Happytime Murders • The Film Board
“Looks like someone had a real piñata party.”
What the heck is going on?! The Film Board was ROFL when the trailer for The Happytime Murders was released, so we decided to take a flyer and check to see if Melissa …
Beneath the Planet of the Apes • The Next Reel
"May the blessing of the Bomb Almighty and the fellowship of the Holy Fallout descend on us all this day and forevermore."
With the success of the …
Free Fire • Trailer Rewind
"Vern and learn, baby."
JJ and Steve return from their summer break with a big bang. This month they attempt to survive the brutal shootout in Ben Wheatley’s 2016 film Free Fire.
How many rounds does it take to get to …
Planet of the Apes • The Next Reel
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"
Rod Serling discovered the strength of writing science fiction as a way to disguise commentary on society of the day which led to The Twilight Zone. His contributions …
2010: The Year We Make Contact • The Next Reel
"My God, it’s full of stars!"
After reading Arthur C. Clarke’s sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s film, director Peter Hyams was very interested in …
2001: A Space Odyssey • The Next Reel
"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye."
Before 1968, science fiction films were largely genre films that didn’t take themselves too seriously. The general consensus is that the change that …
The Congress • Trailer Rewind
"We want to scan you, all of you, your body, your face, your emotions, your laughter, your tears. We want to own this thing called Robin Wright."
Just before the summer break, Steve and JJ take a trippy ride to The …
Ocean's 8 • The Next Reel
"A Him gets noticed. A Her gets ignored. And for once, we’d like to be ignored."
Steven Soderbergh never wanted to return to the helm for the Ocean’s franchise, but he was more than happy to get behind any future films, …
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom • The Film Board
“They’re alive. Just like me.”
Volcanoes, clones, and lizards oh my! Let’s all get Jurassic with it this month as we venture back to join the …
Ocean's Thirteen • The Next Reel
"There’s a code amongst guys that shook Sinatra’s hand!"
Even though Ocean’s Twelve was financially successful, it was largely disliked by audiences …
Ocean's Twelve • The Next Reel
"I mean Danny, it was one job that we did together so I don’t know where this whole, like, proprietary stance comes from. It seems a little …
The Sound of Music • Speakeasy with Producer Catherine Hand
"You brought music back into the house. I’d… forgotten."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to talk about. …
Ocean's Eleven (2001) • The Next Reel
"It’ll be nice working with proper villains again."
The decision to remake Ocean’s 11 with an ensemble cast of stars led to an incredible amount of turnover as stars became attached then had to bail out because of other …
Ocean's 11 • The Next Reel
"You’re just in time for the jokes."
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. were a part of what people called ‘The Rat Pack,’ a group of …
Solo: A Star Wars Story • The Film Board
“I might be the only person who knows what you really are.”
Ready for an Easter Egg hunt? Yes, it’s actually Memorial Day but Solo hit theaters this …
Predestination • The Next Reel
"We were born into this job."
Time travel stories come in all shapes and sizes – some are more focused on the fun and entertainment. Others use the conceit to allow for explorations of themes and ideas. Robert A. …
Interstellar • The Next Reel
"We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now, we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt."
Christopher Nolan …
Triple 9 • Trailer Rewind
"There is no limit to what desperate men will do when pushed."
We call the Filmboard a gang of thugs, but we’ve got nothing on the crew from Triple …
About Time • The Next Reel
"All the time travel in the world can’t make someone love you."
If anyone has a handle on clever stories and quirky characters in romantic comedy dramas, it’s writer-director Richard Curtis. Whether it’s Four Weddings …
Timecrimes • The Next Reel
"Right now, there are three of me. You’re going to help me get rid of the other two."
After receiving an Oscar nomination for his short film 7:35 de la mañana, Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo went to work using his …
Giant • The Next Reel
"Who gets a hold of this much land unless they took it off someone else?"
Looking at the characters James Dean played in his three leading roles, …
Felony • Trailer Rewind
"There’s a boy and he’s on the road and he’s had a - he’s fallen off his bike."
As Joel Edgerton is starting to become a familiar face for American …
Rebel Without A Cause • The Next Reel
"You’re tearing me apart!"
Possibly James Dean’s most iconic role, Rebel Without a Cause hit theaters in the fall of 1955 – less than a month after …
Beirut • The Film Board
“2000 years of revenge, vendetta, murder. Welcome to Beirut”
Last week the U.S. and its allies once again fired missiles on Syria in a response to recent chemical weapons attacks in the country. On Friday, April 13th, …
East of Eden • The Next Reel
"Someday, he’s gonna know who his real son is!"
James Dean was the lead in only three films released in 1955 and 1956. He died tragically in a car crash on September 30th, 1955, only ever getting to see one of his three …
All That Jazz • Speakeasy with DP Nic Sadler
"I think we just lost the family audience."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to talk about. In this …
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance • The Next Reel
"There’s no such thing as a perfect person."
After the box office failure of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the box office success of Oldboy, Park Chan-Wook wanted to continue with the themes he’d been exploring of …
Ready Player One • The Film Board
"It’s the only place that feels like I mean anything."
Have you heard Steven Spielberg is rumored to be directing another Indiana Jones movie? (2020) It’s technically been “announced,” and the amazement that many people …
Oldboy • The Next Reel
"I’m a sort of scholar, and my field of study is you."
After the box office failure of his previous film, Park Chan-Wook worked hard with his next …
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance • The Next Reel
"I’m not just any ordinary person."
Park Chan-Wook never set out to make a trilogy. His ‘vengeance trilogy,’ in fact, only was later dubbed that by international critics who felt the three films were connected through …
Cuban Fury • Trailer Rewind
"Once I put those shoes on, I never wanted to take them off."
It’s time to put on your rubber-soled salsa shoes and hit the floor with JJ and Steve. …
Detroit • The Next Reel
"Everybody isn’t thieves and murderers."
It seems that after finding such success making films about real world situations in _The Hurt Locker_and Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal …
Local Hero • Speakeasy with Re-recording Mixer Andy Nelson
"I’m watching the sky, sir, and it’s doing some amazing things!"
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to …
Point Break • The Next Reel
"It’s a state of mind."
Kathryn Bigelow already showed everyone that she could handle action in her films with projects like Near Dark and Blue Steel …
Near Dark • The Next Reel
"Normal folks, they don’t spit out bullets when you shoot ‘em, no sir!"
When trying to figure out a way to stand out for her first solo directorial …
Anomalisa • Trailer Rewind
"Sometimes there's no lesson. That's a lesson in itself."
Call the maid for turn down service, because this month JJ and Steve take on a movie that takes place in a hotel room. JJ and Steve spend time with Charlie …
Funny Girl • The Next Reel
"Hello, gorgeous."
Watching Funny Girl now, you would never guess that it was Barbra Streisand’s film debut. Sure, she originated the role on …
Black Panther • The Next Reel Film Board
"What happens now determines what happens to the rest of the world"
The Marvel Madness continues this month with Black Panther and it brings some …
Thoroughly Modern Millie • The Next Reel
"Men say it’s criminal what women’ll do. What they’re forgetting is this is 1922."
By 1967, Julie Andrews was at the top of her game. Since Mary …
The Young Girls of Rochefort • The Next Reel
"Paris is small for a great passion like yours."
Jacques Demy already had great success with his 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg when he stepped up to direct The Young Girls of Rochefort. Continuing his same …
Mary Poppins • The Next Reel
"I feel what’s to happen all happened before."
Anyone who watched 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks knows what a difficult time Walt Disney had getting the …
A Good Day to Die Hard • The Next Reel
"Do you know what I hate about the Americans? Everything. Especially cowboys."
With the surprise success of the fourth entry into the “Die Hard” …
Burnt • Trailer Rewind
"People eat because they are hungry; I want to make food that makes people stop eating."
To start off a new year of Trailer Rewind Steve and JJ sit down for a meal with John Wells’ 2015 film Burnt. This was Pete's pick …
Live Free or Die Hard • The Next Reel
"You’re a Timex watch in a digital age."
Making a sequel is always a challenge, but making the fourth film in a franchise after a twelve-year hiatus seems like a recipe for disaster. Luckily, the team behind Live Free …
Dunkirk • Speakeasy with DP Toby Oliver
"We let you all down, didn’t we?"
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to talk about. In this month’s …
Die Hard With a Vengeance • The Next Reel
"Simon says."
When Jonathan Hensleigh’s spec script ‘Simon Says’ was bought by Twentieth Century Fox to be turned into a Die Hard sequel, he was thrilled. After all, his deal with Warner Bros. to turn it into a Lethal …
Molly's Game • The Next Reel Film Board
"You don’t want to break the law when you’re breaking the law."
Happy New Year! We’re bringing you an early episode of The Film Board as a late …
Die Hard 2 • The Next Reel
"We are just up to our neck in terrorists again, John!"
Joel Silver was never a producer to shy away from giving the audience more of what they wanted. For the sequel to his 1988 action hit Die Hard, he tapped into …
Die Hard • The Next Reel
"Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho."
‘Tis the holiday season, and what better way to kick it off than with everybody’s favorite Christmas action …
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest • The Next Reel
"I’m a survivor, as you should know by now."
Stieg Larsson had plans to write an entire series of Millennium novels, but unfortunately died having …
Star Wars: The Last Jedi • The Film Board
"I need someone to show me my place in all this."
We did it! We got to Star Wars #8 without our own Starkiller of a planet disintegrating - and what a fantastic reward we have in store for you when all of the usual …
The Girl Who Played with Fire • The Next Reel
"Hello, Papa."
Stieg Larsson’s second novel in the Millennium trilogy, “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” saw the continuation of the story of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomqvist while they try to stop a sex trafficking …
Comscore's Paul Degarabedian • Behind the Sites
As part of our ongoing series on the people behind the sites and services that serve the film-loving community, today we’re talking to Paul …
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo • The Next Reel
"Whatever it is that you’ve been through, you don’t have to tell me. I’m just glad you’re here."
With the international success of Stieg Larsson’s novel “Men Who Hate Women” and its sequels, it was inevitable that a …
Faults • Trailer Rewind
"In the end there is a 50% chance you will have your daughter back."
It’s the last Trailer Rewind of 2017, and this time it's personal. When they decided to watch Andy’s trailer pick from our Syriana episode on February …
Labyrinth • The Next Reel
"Turn back, Sarah. Turn back before it’s too late!"
After working on The Dark Crystal together, Jim Henson and Brian Froud wanted to do another …
Treknology: The Science of Star Trek with Dr. Ethan Siegel • Shorts
What’s this? More Trek? We can’t get enough of it! This week, Ethan Siegel joins Pete to talk about the science of Star Trek, talking through those …
Wild Tales • The Next Reel
"I’m submitting a complaint, exercising my rights as a citizen. That makes me a criminal?"
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on …
The Secret in Their Eyes • The Next Reel
"Memories are all we end up with."
Anyone who has seen a Ricardo Darín film knows he has very expressive eyes. The actors in the 2009 film El Secreto de Sus Ojos, or The Secret in Their Eyes, had to have more than just …
Murder on the Orient Express • The Film Board
"Use the little grey cells of the mind - and you will know!"
Thank you for supporting The Next Reel Film Podcast on Patreon! — https://patreon.com/thenextreel
The literary adaptation sub-faction of Film Board thugs …
Son of the Bride • The Next Reel
"When nothing can be worse than what happened, you feel powerful."
Juan José Campanella had developed a career bouncing back and forth between the …
Nine Queens • The Next Reel
"Of course I can buy it, but I can also not buy it as everybody else would do if they could."
Ricardo Darín was pretty much born into acting. Coming …
Star Trek Beyond • The Next Reel
"This is where the frontier pushes back."
With JJ Abrams busy working on that other space franchise, the new Trek film needed a new director. And who better to bring on board than Justin Lin, the man who rejuvenated the …
Star Trek Into Darkness • The Next Reel
"My name is Khan."
When Paramount asked JJ Abrams and his team behind the 2009 Star Trek reboot to get started on a …
Miss Sloane • Trailer Rewind
”A senator’s priority isn’t representing the people, it’s keeping his ass in office."
This month JJ and Steve are tasked …
Star Trek • The Next Reel
"Your father was the captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mother’s and yours. I …
Blade Runner 2049 • The Film Board
"I did your job once. I was good at it."
The Film Board Gathers! This week on the show, we’re gearing up to hunt some …
Star Trek: Nemesis • The Next Reel
"I’m afraid you won’t survive to witness the victory of the echo over the voice."
Star Trek: Insurrection was a success …
Star Trek: Insurrection • The Next Reel
”How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?"
With the success of Star Trek: First Contact, a more action-oriented Star Trek film, the team behind it wanted their next film to be lighter in tone and …
Kingsman: The Golden Circle • The Film Board
"Something made it through."
The Film Board gathers! This week we’re choosing sides with the Kingsman and the Statesmen …
Star Trek: First Contact • The Next Reel
"The line must be drawn here!"
The introduction of the Borg as an antagonist on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” gave the …
Little Sister • Trailer Rewind
"Look at you girl. All grown up like a librarian or something."
This month JJ and Steve are dealing with family drama in Zach Clark’s 2016 film Little Sister.
With a mix of nuns, GWAR, drug-laced muffins, and parenting …
Star Trek: Generations • The Next Reel
"Who am I to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?"
After seven successful seasons of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” it was time for their …
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country • The Next Reel
"We will not be the instigators of full scale war on the eve of universal peace!"
Even though “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was entering its fifth …
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier • The Next Reel
"I don’t want my pain taken away! I need my pain!"
Leonard Nimoy had directed two Star Trek films so naturally, William Shatner wanted to give it a go. He even had a great concept for a story – the crew of the …
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home • The Next Reel
"Who would send a probe hundreds of light years to talk to a whale?"
With the success of their pair of Star Trek films under their belt, director …
Experimenter • Trailer Rewind
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."
This month JJ and Steve learn a lesson in obedience with 2015’s Experimenter. Peter Sarsgaard takes us through the career of Stanley Milgram, and …
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock • The Next Reel
"My God, Bones, what have I done?"
Because of the critical and financial success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Paramount quickly put plans into action for part three, telling Harve Bennett to get them a script as …
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan • The Next Reel
"You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been, and always shall be, yours."
The ‘failure’ of the first Star Trek film put Paramount in the frame of mind where they needed to do a few things if they …
The Dark Tower • The Film Board
Stephen King’s opus inspired the movie and The Film Board gathers here to throw out a bunch of thoughts on it. There will be talk about the source material for this story and what needed to …
Star Trek: The Motion Picture • The Next Reel
"The creator has not answered."
It wasn’t until syndication that Paramount realized that it had a property they could continue milking in Gene …
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets • The Film Board
"The whole universe is after us."
The Film Boards drops out of Exospace this month to experience the other-dimensional adventure of Valerian and the …
Hunt for the Wilderpeople — Trailer Rewind
“You know, sometimes in life it seems like there's no way out. Like a sheep trapped in a maze designed by wolves.“
This month, JJ and Steve are off …
"Prepare to feel the wrath of the League of Evil Exes!"
After making Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright signed on to direct the adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” but …
Return of the Living Dead — No, No, Wait! Hear Me Out!
"The important question is, where do they get all the skeletons with perfect teeth?"
Tommy Handsome is back with his take on Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 zombie romp, The Return of the Living Dead. And before you hang up the …
Kundun
"He dared to be born right on the border with China."
Regardless of whether you are a Buddhist or not, the story of Tenzin Gyatso is an interesting one that certainly provides drama that can draw you in. Born as the …
The History of Future Folk — Trailer Rewind
"Hondo!"
This month, Steve digs through the archives to revisit The History of Future Folk, a quirky indie that punches well above its weight. Yes, …
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
"I’m keeping him."
Steven Spielberg didn’t have a sense that his little, personal alien film was going to blow up like it did when he was making it. …
The Mummy — The Next Reel Film Board
"We recognize, examine, contain, destroy."
THE FILM BOARD GATHERS! This month we all got wrapped up in the first film release for the “Dark Universe.” Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe give us an entry into a new world of …
"We’re gonna show everybody that he’s the fastest horse in the world."
Francis Ford Coppola’s successes in the 70s put him in a place where he was …
"Nothing but witches and wizards ahead."
Hayao Miyazaki did not attend the Oscars to pick up his Academy Award for Best Animated Film for Spirited Away because he was protesting the Iraq War. When it came time to make …
"If I hear one little complaint out of you, you’ll be joining your parents in the pigpen!"
Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 film Spirited Away shot to the top …
Alien: Covenant — The Film Board
"One wrong note eventually ruins the entire symphony."
The Film Board Gathers! This month we’ve hit the Feel-a-Round Cineplex for Ridley Scott’s latest entry to the Alien Cinematic Universe: Alien: Covenant. The film …
"When you’re going to kill a god, let someone else do the dirty work."
Hayao Miyazaki has always had a strong relationship with nature that he’s portrayed in a number of his films, but nowhere has it grown as dark as it …
"Happiness is in your hands."
The role of advertising in politics is constantly evolving. From radio to TV to the internet and now to specifically …
Silver Linings Playbook — Speakeasy with guest composer Harry Gregson-Williams
“I can’t apologize. I’m not going to apologize for this. You know what I will do? I will apologize on behalf of Ernest Hemingway because that’s who’s …
"I’ll talk to them. I have a position now."
Pablo Larraín was born when Pinochet was already in power but the military coup that brought Pinochet to power always fascinated him, largely because it wasn’t something that …
The Circle — The Next Reel Film Board
"Knowing is good, but knowing everything is better."
The Film Board Gathers and we’re pulling everyone much much too close into “The Circle.” The …
Tony Manero
"Once the film is out of fashion, you think they’ll still follow you? No way."
Pablo Larraín didn’t intend to direct three films that took place …
Colonia — Trailer Rewind
“Anyone can torture, but to break a person without harming physically, that's an art."
We’re keeping with The Next Reel 2017 theme of “Let’s Scare JJ.” Prisoners tortured in secret underground tunnels! A power-crazed …
Certain Women
"I just knew if I didn’t start driving, I wasn’t gonna see you again."
Kelly Reichardt’s most recent film, last year’s Certain Women, is a bit of a departure for her in that it’s a film consisting of three separate …
Meek's Cutoff
"Is he ignorant or is he just plain evil?"
The story of the real Meek’s Cutoff is an interesting and tragic tale in the early days of the Oregon …
"Don’t be a nuisance. We don’t need that."
Kelly Reichardt has been called a minimalist film director, and if you’re comparing her to someone like Michael Bay or Steven Spielberg or the Hughes brothers, that certainly …
"Stay on the path."
Right from the start, it was clear that Albert and Allen Hughes knew how to put films together. Whether paying homage to filmmakers they admire or playing with their own showy techniques, they know …
"No man amongst you is fit to judge the mighty art that I have wrought."
The Hughes brothers hadn’t really had a big hit by the time they were offered to direct the adaptation of Alan Moore’s and Eddie Campbell’s …
Menace II Society
"Being a black man in America isn’t easy. The hunt is on and you’re the prey."
When 20-year-old twin brothers Albert and Allen Hughes directed their …
The Emigrants
"The situation in Sweden must be real bad as even lice have begun to emigrate to America."
It’s time for our first 2017 Listener’s Choice episode! Pony Prize winner Finn Frode, who’s from Norway but living in Sweden, …
Logan — The Next Reel Film Board
"Don’t be what they make you to be"
Back to Back Film Board weeks! We couldn’t let this one go by - Marvel comics movies are continuing to find their …
"There are many things you have not seen."
Zhang Yimou has done serious dramas. He’s done big wuxia action films, but he hasn’t had a success in a …
Get Out — The Next Reel Film Board
“Here it is: My boy Chris has been missing for two days.”
The Film Board Gathers! This month, in a departure from the heady intensity of the Oscars line-up, our Gang of Thugs takes on a thriller written and directed by …
The Lobster — Trailer Rewind
“A wolf and a penguin could never live together, nor could a camel and a hippopotamus. That would be absurd."
In a world where being a couple is a …
"How swift your sword must be."
Zhang Yimou had always wanted to direct an action film, and after years of working on the script, he finally had his chance with his ambitious visual feast, 2002’s Hero. Shot all over …
"Light the lanterns at the fourth house!"
Despite the bans on some of his earlier films like Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern in his home country of China, Zhang Yimou had exploded onto the world stage with these …
Ju Dou
"If they knew, they’d kill us."
The eighties were a period of turmoil and transition for the Chinese film industry. Other forms of entertainment were …
"You helped bring Lili to life, but she was always there."
The Danish Girl certainly took a long time getting to the big screen. The script went through dozens of iterations after David Ebershoff’s book was first was …
"I never even heard of a tranny church lady."
Felicity Huffman received many accolades for her incredible performance in TransAmerica, but an Oscar …
Split — The Next Reel Film Board
"He’s on the move."
DON’T LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE FILM BOARD until you see Split! Here at The Next Reel, we always mention how WE SPOIL MOVIES and this month we’ve taken on twistmaster M. Night Shyamalan’s newest …
"I can spot the fluttering of a beaded lash from three hundred paces."
Terence Stamp had played some pretty tough characters in his career – Billy Budd, General Zod – so it was a big surprise to many to see him play a …
"When you think of garbage, think of Akeem!"
Eddie Murphy was riding high through the 80s. John Landis, on the other hand, had had a string of flops, …
Groundhog Day with Guest Jim Jermanok — The Next Reel Speakeasy
"You couldn’t plan a day like this."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring …
"You’re not gonna fall for the banana in the tail pipe?"
Eddie Murphy proved his big screen comedy prowess with Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places but the studio was still concerned about him helming a movie by himself. …
"When I was growing up, if we wanted a jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub."
Eddie Murphy may have been a name on “Saturday Night Live” but he wasn’t a film star. Luckily, when John Landis wanted to cast him as Billy Ray …
Black Christmas
"Agnes, it’s me – Billy!"
Bob Clark may be best known for directing his Christmas classic, 1983’s A Christmas Story, but many people don’t know that he got his start in horror like so many other filmmakers, and that one …
Rogue One — The Next Reel Film Board
"I'm one with the Force. The Force is with me."
Look at this- The Film Board is back with a thuggish gathering of galactic implications. Last year doesn’t totally count as long ago nor far, far away for a new star wars …
The Godfather Part III
"Now that you’re so respectable, I think you’re more dangerous than you ever were."
It was billed the most anticipated film of the decade, yet …
101 Dalmatians — The Next Reel Speakeasy with The Bancroft Brothers
"Such perfectly beautiful coats!"
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is our ongoing series in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one …
The Godfather Part II
"Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."
While The Godfather, Part II didn’t perform nearly as well as its predecessor at the box office, …
"Blood’s a big expense."
It was never a movie that was meant to be as big as it became. Robert Evans, Paramount head at the time, thought it would be …
The Two Faces of January — Trailer Rewind
". . . another victim of the cruel tricks gods play on men”
It’s back to 2014 again for JJ and Steve as they dig into The Two Faces of January, Andy’s pick from February 2014. Adapted from the novel by Patricia …
"I didn’t forget your breakfast. I didn’t bring you breakfast because you didn’t eat your din-din!"
The animosity between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford almost seems the stuff of legend. Looking back from today, it’s …
"Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night."
Bette Davis was on a streak of flops and just lost her contract with Warner Bros. when …
"Don’t let’s ask for the moon, we have the stars!"
Irving Rapper’s 1942 film Now, Voyager may have met with mixed reviews but it certainly found its audience, showing that people were thrilled with the on-screen pairing …
The Film Board Presents: Doctor Strange
"Forget everything that you think you know"
The Film Board gathers! The Marvel Cinematic Universe has returned so we've brought together a merry band of thugs to spoil the next episode of the massive comic book soap …
The Little Foxes
"You must hate me very much."
Bette Davis was never one to shy away from roles, except perhaps from those that weren’t meaty enough. And she found a …
The Philadelphia Story — Speakeasy with Guest Steve Miner
"The prettiest sight in this fine, pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along …
"Be Afraid. Be very afraid."
There are certain people that are drawn to a movie because of reports about early screenings where audience members had to leave the theatre because the gore made them physically sick. …
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back — The Next Reel Film Board
"You’re right – the numbers don’t add up."
The Film Board is all out of Breath! Our faithful thugs have all been sprinting from house to car to …
"You don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little."
When Seabiscuit raced in the 30s, he drew more news than Roosevelt or …
Odd Thomas — Trailer Rewind
"I may see dead people, but, by God, I do something about it."
Mining book series for films is an all to frequent occurrence. Some are able to …
"They won’t understand why we do it. They won’t understand it’s about the men next to you. That’s all it is."
There is a political side to military …
Shorts: Josie and the Pussycats — No, No, Wait! Hear Me Out!
"Du Jour means teamwork!"
You know the feeling. You have a ridiculous internal affair with a movie. You’ve seen it a dozen times. You laugh at all …
"The whole town is over the moon."
Every story has many facets, but often the big story hides some of the smaller facets. The Australian film The Dish
Speakeasy: "Apocalypse Now" with guest cinematographer Paul Cameron
"You’re an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an …
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
"I’ll say a prayer for you. A little prayer."
Antoine Fuqua has talked about how much a fan he is of both westerns and of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai. Knowing that, it’s frustrating to see that his …
"From way up here, you all look like little ants!"
Time heals all wounds, but the rift between Jeffrey Katzenberg and Disney may not apply. When Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney’s film division, left Disney after a …
The Film Board Presents: Snowden
"Terrorism is just an excuse"
The Film Board Gathers undercover of darkness through compromised microphones and remotely accessed computer screens to discuss a dramatic reconstruction of the deconstruction of the …
¡Three Amigos!
"They called us scum-sucking pigs! Us!"
It was the movie that had ‘hit’ written all over it. Three of the funniest actors starred together for the first time: Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. One of the top …
Speakeasy: "Heat" with Guest Cinematographer Jayson Crothers
"All I am is what I’m going after."
"We deal in lead, friend."
The Magnificent Seven is a breeze to watch. It’s fun. It has that clean vibe of early Hollywood westerns. Plus it’s based …
"Once more, we survive."
When you think of Akira Kurosawa, it’s easy to connect him to great samurai films like Ran, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. What’s surprising, however, is that he …
"How are we defining ‘contained?’"
While working on The Informer! with Steven Soderbergh, screenwriter Scott Z. Burns was inspired by a scene with …
The Film Board Presents: War Dogs
"That sounds illegal."
The Film Board Gathers - celebrating the Dog Days of summer with a slick new film from the team that created the Hangover’s …
"Either the blindness spread the panic or the panic spread the blindness."
When Fernando Meirelles showed his 2008 film Blindness to José Saramago, the author of the original book upon which it was based, Saramago loved …
"Very odd what happens in a world without children’s voices."
It’s unfortunate that Alfonso Cuarón’s film Children of Men never found the audience it deserved, at least theatrically. Sure, it has been hailed as one of …
Speakeasy: "Fat City" with guest Sam Levy
"How’d you like to wake up in the morning and be him?"
"You can’t stop the signal."
Most people involved in making Joss Whedon’s 2005 film Serenity acknowledge that it was a near miracle that they got to …
The Film Board Presents: Jason Bourne
"Use SQL to corrupt the databases."
The Film Board Gathers! This month, we’ve got thugs being thugs as the Bourne Quilogy moves into its latest …
"You have to love its simplicity. It’s one billionth our size and it’s beating us."
After making Das Boot, Wolfgang Peterson came to Hollywood and …
Cake — Trailer Rewind
"Tell me a story where everything works out in the end for the evil witch."
Steve and JJ are going to have their pain killer laden cake and spoil it for you too. This was Pete’s trailer pick from January 2, 2015. Pete …
"We’re not dealing with the flu virus here."
George A. Romero made The Crazies just a few years after making his breakout film Night of the Living …
Shorts: The Scores of John Carpenter
It was a dark and stormy . . . actually, it was a sunny June Sunday evening when Andy and Steve decided to celebrate the joys of fatherhood with John …
"It should’ve been left up to the scientists! It’s a colossal mistake! Tell the President I said so!"
Michael Crichton’s space disease thriller hit …
Creativity — Three of a Kind with Steve Sarmento
Whether you’re a creative person, or someone who cringes at the thought of art, you’re going to find something to enjoy about this month’s three of a kind. The creative process gets dissected to look at the heart of Bob …
The Omega Man
"You are discarded. You are the refuse of the past."
Richard Matheson’s 1954 vampire horror novel “I Am Legend” helped influence the zombie genre (it was the inspiration for the ‘68 George Romero film “Night of the …
Never Let Me Go — The Next Reel Speakeasy
"You have to know who you are and what you are. It’s the only way you’ll lead decent lives."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of …
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
"Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!"
Stanley Kubrick didn’t do comedy often which is a shame because “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” is arguably one of the …
"Would’ve been a quiet night, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!"
Stop-motion animation has been a part of film since nearly the …
Mr. Nobody — Trailer Rewind
"Why am I me and not somebody else?"
Are you ready to rewind time with this month’s trailer rewind? JJ and Steve tackle Mr. Nobody, Pete’s trailer pick from November 2013. They discuss this film’s long road to a U.S …
"I’m going to cause such a terrible stink in this Third Reich of theirs that thousands of troops that could well be employed at the front will be …
The Film Board Presents: Now You See Me 2
"Are you listening, horsemen? You will get what's coming to you. In ways you can't expect."
The Film Board Gathers! This month, The Four Horsemen return to continue the magical crusade to right societal wrongs through …
Ministry of Fear
"We’ve been patriotically slaving for three years to help a spy ring!"
“Ministry of Fear” was Fritz Lang’s third film of four anti-Nazi movies that he made, but it feels less anti-Nazi and more just straight up …
Terminator 2: Judgment Day — The Next Reel Speakeasy with Costume Designer Sarah Trost
"Hasta la vista, baby."
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their favorite movies to talk about. In this month’s episode, costume …
Man Hunt
"Good heavens, man, I never intended to shoot. I merely wanted to find out if it were possible."
1941 was an interesting time for the US as the country started the year off as a passive, neutral observer of what Germany …
The Nice Guys — Trailer Rewind
"So you're telling me you made a porno where the plot is the point?"
A trailer rewind for a film that’s still in theaters!?! What’s going on? We finish up our Andy trailer pick trilogy and add a bonus episode to the …
"Just you wait, it won’t be long. / The man in black will soon be here / With his cleaver’s blade so true. / He’ll make mincemeat out of you!"
When “M,” Fritz Lang’s first sound film, opened in 1931, it was clear that …
Comet — Trailer Rewind
"See? This is why I hate time. I can't enjoy my sesame chicken because of that."
This month’s Trailer Rewind is Andy’s pick from our Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore episode in December 2014. Justin and Steve look at …
"You still don’t seem to know what I am capable of!"
Fritz Lang’s 1928 silent spy thriller “Spies” rarely gets brought up when people mention Lang and his filmography. Dwarfed by arguably two of his best made on either …
Shorts: Mindbenders with JJ & Tommy Handsome
The Next Reel was born out of “Movies We Like” and in this new TNR Short JJ and Tommy Handsome talk about one of our favorite movie gimmicks, tricks, twists, archetypes or whatever you want to call it — it includes all …
"Isn’t it worth the loss of a hand to have created the man of the future, the Machine-Man—?!”
Fritz Lang’s sci-fi classic has really been through the wringer since it’s premiere in 1927. After having been cut nearly in …
The Film Board Presents: Captain America: Civil War
"If we can't accept limitations, we're no better than the bad guys."
The Film Board Gathers! This month, #TeamNextReel take on #TeamCap and #TeamIronMan for the title in this hero on hero on decidedly-non-hero battle …
"This was, like, two corpses in three hours. I mean, am I crazy? That’s unusual, right?"
Shane Black was gone from the scene for a decade before his return as not just writer but also director with 2005’s “Kiss Kiss …
Snatch — The Next Reel Speakeasy with Sound Designer Michael B. Koff
"Is that a tea cozy on his head?"
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is an ongoing series of ours in whichwe invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of theirfavorite movies to talk about. In this month’s episode, …
"Name’s Charly, by the way. You’re gonna love me."
When New Line Cinema bought Shane Black’s spec script “The Long Kiss Goodnight” in 1994 for $4 million, it created a new record for the selling price of spec scripts …
Three of a Kind with Steve Sarmento — Who Are You?
This month we get to meet Truman, Teddy, and Rhoda, three people who, to put it simply, have issues they need to deal with. You may think you know yourself and what you are or aren’t capable of, but you’re probably …
"Be prepared, son. That’s my motto. Be prepared."
When Shane Black was paid $1.75 million for his spec script “The Last Boy Scout,” it was the most any screenwriter had been paid for their script up to that point. It …
The Silent Partner — TNR Speakeasy with Guest Craig Anderson
“If you decide you’re not going to be reasonable, then one night when you come home, you’ll find me on the inside waiting for you, and that’ll be the night you’ll wish you’d never been born.”
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy …
"You ever met anybody you didn’t kill?"
Shortly after graduating from UCLA, Shane Black sold his first screenplay to Warner Bros. to the tune of …
The Film Board Presents: Demolition
"I found this upsetting because I was very hungry and also my wife had died ten minutes earlier. Maybe I should start from the beginning."
The Film …
"They were the footprints… of a gigantic hound!"
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce became synonymous with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson after appearing …
"Give a boy a sense of humor and a sense of proportion and he’ll stand up to anything."
Robert Donat defied the odds and beat both Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart for the Best Actor Oscar in the 1939 Academy Awards with …
The Film Board Presents: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
"We know better now, don't we? Devils don't come from hell beneath us. They come from the sky."
The Film Board gathers! This month, the gang of thugs comes together to take on the latest in Zack Snyder’s DC Comics …
"Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!"
Victor Fleming didn’t just direct two movies in 1939, he directed two of what many consider to be the greatest films made – ”Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of …
Shorts: Trailer Rewind — Young Ones
"I never saw this land when it was green."
Today we bring you a new TNR Short: Trailer Rewind. Justin and Steve took on the task of watching Young …
"We’re the victims of a foul disease called social prejudice, my child."
When John Ford decided to helm “Stagecoach” in 1939, he hadn’t done a …
Shorts: Three of a Kind with Steve Sarmento — Ambition
This month’s three of a kind takes on music, magic, and a great meal. Amadeus, The Prestige, and Big Night are three films that explore characters with a single-minded focus that drives them toward success but at a …
“We women are so much more sensible. When we tire of ourselves, we change the way we do our hair or hire a new cook or decorate the house. I suppose …
Shorts: Behind the Sites with Matthew Buchanan of Letterboxd.com
As part of our ongoing series on the people behind the sites and services that serve the film-loving community, today we’re talking to Matthew Buchanan, co-founder of Letterboxd.com. Letterboxd has become an …
“You’re upside down, sir.”
It’s time for another Listener’s Choice episode! This time, 2015 Pony Prize winner Ben Lott gets to select and he chose Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?” Join us – …
Speakeasy with Dee Wallace: Room
“When I was small, I only knew small things, but now I’m five – I know everything!”
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is a new ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and bring along one of their …
“When you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”
“The Departed,” Martin Scorsese’s 2006 remake of “Infernal Affairs,” is the film he finally won his Oscar for. It’s a strong crime film and is definitely a …
Shorts: Behind the Scenes on Filmumentaries with Jamie Benning
As a part of our series on the movie sites we love, today we’re talking about one of our favorite movie projects. Jamie Benning has become, through great effort and time, custodian to the behind the scenes media of our …
“I’ve chosen to be the good guy.”
“Infernal Affairs” may have won seven out of the sixteen Hong Kong Film Awards it was nominated for in 2002, including beating Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” as Best Film, but the majority of …
Shorts: Three of a Kind with Steve Sarmento — Guardians
The three family action films, Legend of the Guardians, Rise of the Guardians, and Guardians of the Galaxy, aren’t just for kids. These movies give parents the opportunity to discuss the difference between heroes and …
“If you’re looking for sterling character, you’re in the wrong place.”
In the early 80s, Peter Hyams was trying to get a western made. Unfortunately for him, no studio was interested in the genre right then; as far as …
The Film Board Presents: Hail, Caesar!
The Film Board Gathers! The Coen Brothers are back, this time channeling the spirit of old Hollywood. Josh Brolin plays Eddie …
“People’ve gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it, maybe because down deep, they don’t care – they just don’t care.”
“High Noon” is often cited as one of the greatest westerns ever …
Speakeasy with Matthew Gratzner: Casino Royale
“I would ask you if you could remain emotionally detached, but I don’t think that’s your problem. Is it, Bond?”
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is a new …
The Finest Hours
“In the coast guard they say you go out, they don’t say you gotta come back.”
The Film Board Gathers! This month we’ve come together to take on Craig Gillespie’s story of a heroic Coast Guard rescue at sea, “The Finest …
“Behold, the mighty hunter.”
Lee Tamahori’s first foray in Hollywood, ‘Mulholland Falls,’ didn’t fare all that well. Luckily, his follow-up with …
Shorts: Nathan Chase & Jeremy Thompson from Flickchart.com
As a part of our series on the movie sites we love, you’d probably guess that we couldn’t go very far without talking to Nathan Chase and Jeremy …
“The good news is you’re fired.”
David Mamet won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 with his play “Glengarry Glen Ross.” The play really exemplified …
Shorts: Three of a Kind with Steve Sarmento
From Sutter and Aimee in James Ponsoldt’s, The Spectacular Now, to Joe, Patrick, and Biaggio in Jordan Vogt-Roberts’, The Kings of Summer, to Greg …
“He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how …
Shorts: Get your Trailer Fix on Trailer.Town with founders Joel Farris & Alex Carvalho
“So much of the time, we’re just lost.”
David Mamet wrote screenplays for several years before he jumped into the director’s seat, and while some of them still distinctly sound like Mamet’s writing, others really don’t. …
Speakeasy with Abraham Benrubi: My Favorite Year
“I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star!”
The Next Reel’s Speakeasy is a new ongoing series of ours in which we invite an industry guest to join us and, instead of bringing their favorite cocktail, we have them bring along …
“I’ve got a feeling beneath those jeans, there’s something wonderful just waiting to get out.”
Happy New Year! Goodbye 2015, hello 2016. And what …
“They might even replace the dog as the family pet.”
‘Tis the holiday season, which means it’s time for another Next Reel Christmas movie, and how …
The Film Board Presents: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
“Droid, please.”
The Film Board Gathers! This month the gang of thugs takes on the seventh film in the Star Wars saga, this from reboot master, J. J. Abrams. Does he bring his magic rebootinator to set every day to …
Shorts: An Interview with DC Barns & J Trent Adams — Star Wars: A Force for Change
Last year, DC Barns entered his name in a contest to join the cast and crew of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios in London. He and …
The Next Reel's 2016 Announcement Extravaganza!
Hey folks! Please listen to this episode! We tried to keep it short, but we need to tell you about a few things you'll be seeing come January 2016 …
“Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes, or perhaps you don’t want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the Earth, …
“Razzle dazzle!”
Harold Ramis made his big screen debut acting in Ivan Reitman’s 1981 military comedy “Stripes,” which he also co-wrote for Reitman, …
“So I got that going for me, which is nice.”
With a background at Second City and National Lampoon, comedy was right up Harold Ramis’ alley, and …
The Boring Flickchart Re-Ranking
“Don’t think badly of me. I only want her near me.”
It’s time for another Listener’s Choice episode, and boy, do we have a doozy this week. Listener Diego Luis Contreras López wanted us to talk about a film from Spain …
The Wind Rises
With the 2013 release of “The Wind Rises,” his eleventh feature film, Hayao Miyazaki retired from making his beautiful animated films. Animation fans …
With the creation of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki and the other filmmakers involved had created a place where they could create the films they …
The Film Board Presents: SPECTRE
The Film Board Gathers! … around a long mysterious table high in a castle above the clouds to take on the biggest issues of the day — certainly the biggest at the box office right now: Sam Mendes’ latest entry in the …
The Castle of Cagliostro
Hayao Miyazaki began his career with television and it was the show “Lupin III” that gave him the chance to direct both for the small screen as well as for the big screen with the second story about Lupin the Third in …
Children of the Corn
“He wants you too, Malachai!"
Stephen King may not like the film version of ’Children of the Corn,’ but considering it spawned 7 sequels and a remake, we’d like to think that he’s at least making a decent profit on his …
“Don’t be frightened. It was only the wind, my dear."
Thus far, our series to celebrate Halloween — the Naughty Children series — hasn’t really been that scary. “The Bad Seed” is labeled a crime/drama/horror but comes …
Village of the Damned
“Is there no limit to the power of these children?"
John Wyndham’s 1957 novel “The Midwich Cuckoos” is the foundation for Wolf Rilla’s 1960 film …
The Bad Seed
“I thought I seen some mean little gals in my time, but you’re the meanest."
It’s October, which means it’s time for some scares! This year, we’re celebrating with those lovable little children who just are downright …
The Film Board Presents: The Martian
“So… I blew myself up.”
The film board gathers! This month on the show, we’re dropping everything and working together to bring our man Mark Watney home from Mars in Ridley Scott’s latest, “The Martian.” This film, …
“Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe."
Bong Joon-ho’s “Snowpiercer” made waves upon its US release because its distributor decided to give it a limited theatrical release the same day they released it digitally. …
“You’re not even worth the dirt on my son’s toenail."
Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up feature to his massive success “The Host” was about a murder and the …
The Film Board Presents: Everest
“Sit down man, acclimatize.”
The film board gathers! This month the gang of thugs has come together to answer the age-old question that has …
“Is all of your family so dumb all the time?"
Bong Joon-ho’s third film, “The Host," ended up becoming the highest grossing South Korean film of all time straight out of the gate with it playing on a record number of …
Sophie's Choice
“The truth does not make it easier to understand, you know."
When a choice is referred to as a “Sophie’s Choice” most people understand that the …
The French Lieutenant's Woman
“You have planted a dagger in me, and your damned freedom gives you license to twist it in my heart!"
Meryl Streep received her first nomination for …
“I didn’t know it’d happen to me."
Meryl Streep won the first of her three Oscars for her supporting role in Robert Benton’s 1979 film “Kramer vs. …
Interview: Writer Ken Levine on Guilty Pleasures, Volunteers, and TV Legacy
“I’m happy to be able to defend Volunteers, and maybe you can have me back to defend Mannequin Two."
In 237 episodes of The Next Reel and nearly 200 …
“One shot."
Michael Cimino’s 1978 film “The Deer Hunter” is definitely a divisive film, one about which a LOT of people have found plenty of things to say and argue about. Aside from all of that, it’s also the film for …
The Film Board Presents: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
“For a special agent, you’re not having a very special day, are you?"
The latest franchise to get hit with reboot fever is a 60s throw-back with class that’s getting wildly underserved theatrical notice. That’s right, …
“The truth is when reality is staring you in the face and you’re afraid to die, very few of us are heroic."
It’s time for another Listener’s Choice episode, this time with our friends Per Johansson and Gustav Larsed …
Under the Cherry Moon
“Yes, Christopher lived for all women, but he died for one."
Prince has always been a flamboyant and eclectic musician, and with the album and film “Purple Rain,” he found a new art form he enjoyed. And one he won an …
“It’s not that I can’t help these people, it’s just that I don’t want to."
It’s time for some guilty pleasures! Yes, the two of us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — dig up some films that we love but are generally not …
“I thought you had enough of flyers?"
Howard Hawks and Cary Grant had already given the world the hilarious “Bringing Up Baby” in 1938, and lucky for us, they liked working together. They’d work on four more films …
The Film Board Presents: Ant-Man
“I want you to break into a place and steal some stuff."
The Film Board Gathers! This month the gang of thugs comes together for Marvel’s latest, Ant-Man. How does Scott Lang’s mini hero stand in the current Marvel …
The Roaring Twenties
“He used to be a big shot."
James Cagney was getting tired of making gangster films for Warner Bros. by the time he starred in Raoul Walsh’s 1939 …
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
“You’re not a Senator, you’re an honorary stooge."
It’s rare to find a film from 75 years ago that feels relevant still in today’s world, but Frank Capra’s 1939 “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is one of those films. …
"I should hate to see our country endangered by my underwear."
Taking a completely different turn from last week's Civil War epic, "Ninotchka" is a …
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn."
Considering the racially-charged climate of the US right now, it’s oddly perfect timing that we’re starting our 1939 series with “Gone With The Wind,” a film as technically …
“Time for a change."
James Wong Howe shot color films very well, but it was his black-and-white cinematography that he was really known for. He won …
The Film Board Presents: Jurassic World
“The key to a happy life is to accept you are never actually in control.”
The Film Board Gathers! This month, we christen Jurassic World, the latest …
“Match me, Sidney."
James Wong Howe had just won his Oscar for his black-and-white cinematography for “The Rose Tattoo” when the star of the film, Burt Lancaster, hired him to shoot his next picture, “Sweet Smell of …
Kings Row
“Where’s the REST of me?!?!"
“Kings Row” was adapted from a much racier novel from 1940 and had to be sanitized quite a bit because of the Hays Code. They had to leave some pretty big elements out — homosexuality, mercy …
James Wong Howe is often cited as one of the most influential cinematographers there have been. He worked in film from the early days of the silents to the mid-70s when he received his last Oscar nomination for his …
In case you haven’t heard, everybody seems to be talking about “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Whether they’re talking about the silly fan theories about who Tom Hardy really is playing in this film, or the ‘meninist’ groups …
While the first two Mad Max films had so much going for them, it sure seemed like a stumble with the third of the trilogy. But that’s looking at it through today’s eyes because some critics like Roger Ebert sure loved …
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
With the international popularity of “Mad Max,” George Miller was excited to get back into the driver’s seat and continue with his hero as he …
The Film Board Presents: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Film Board Assemble! This month the thugs gather to take on Joss Whedon’s next entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” How does the comic adaptation stand up to the original books? Does …
“They say people don’t believe in heroes anymore. Well, damn them! You and me, Max, we’re going to give them back their heroes!"
George Miller’s film “Mad Max” came out in 1979 in Australia and became a huge success, …
Touch of Evil
Orson Welles never was one who could direct in the Hollywood studio system without a hitch, and his last studio picture he directed, 1958’s “Touch of …
The Film Board Presents: Child 44
Child 44 was supposed to be Oscar bait. Instead, its star-heavy cast is dragging it through opening weekend with a 27% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a deflated box office take. But why? This week, the film …
“Bad news sells best, because good news is no news."
From “Double Indemnity” in 1944 through “The Apartment” in 1960 (maybe even “One, Two, Three” in ’61), Billy Wilder really hit his stride. His films were all over the …
Out of the Past
“You’re like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another."
The two films most often cited as the ultimate representations of film noir are …
Scarlet Street
“I’ve wanted to laugh in your face ever since I first met you. You’re old and ugly and I’m sick of you! Sick! Sick! Sick!"
Fritz Lang may have often …
“That’s life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you."
There are good films noir and there are bad films noir. But rarely do you have a case like 1945’s “Detour,” directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, where …
The Film Board Presents: Insurgent
“It’s time we fight back. "
The Film Board Gathers! This month we take on the latest in the Divergent series, Insurgent! This time around, Tris Prior is battling her nemeses internal and external at the hand of director …
Nobody knew they were making films noir when the genre started in the 40s — it wasn’t until much later when the French dubbed this new run of American films that had a darker bent with snappy dialogue, lots of shadows …
Biopics come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Olivier Dahan’s film “La Vie en Rose” detailing the life of Edith Piaf, one of France’s greatest singers and international stars, is a whirlwind of a film. Unlike biopics …
1997 was a big year for movies, and perhaps that’s because one of the biggest box office sensations — James Cameron’s “Titanic” — was released that …
Next up in our Guess the Connection series: Clint Eastwood’s 2004 boxing drama “Million Dollar Baby."
For those of you who have yet to see “Million …
It’s game time, folks! This current series consists of four films that for all intents and purposes are not related, except for one connection they …
The Film Board Presents: Kingsman: The Secret Service
This is not the movie you think it is. At least, that's the take of our round table of thugs on the Film Board this week as we spoil "Kingsman: The …
We love doing our Listener’s Choice episodes — it’s a great way for our listeners to get us to finally talk about movies about which conversations are long overdue. Cameron Ryan, our 2014 Pony Prize winner, got to pick …
Murder By Death
Neil Simon saw Alec Guinness reading the script for “Star Wars” on the set of “Murder By Death,” and very soon after that, Guinness would be known as …
Alec Guinness's Professor Marcus really meets his match with Katie Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce in Alexander Mackendrick's 1955 Ealing Studios comedy "The Ladykillers," what some call the last great comedy from the …
Ealing Studios comedies, particularly the ones we’ve been talking about, have all had a bit of an anti-establishment feel to them but “The Man in the …
The Film Board Presents: Blackhat
Chris Hemsworth gives his all in Michael Mann’s study of hacking new this week: “Blackhat.” If most computer films have historically failed the computer stuff, the consensus thus far is that Blackhat has delivered where …
Sir Alec Guinness had already proven both his comedic and dramatic prowess by the time he came to Ealing Studios’ “The Lavender Hill Mob” in 1951, a point in his career when he was making two films a year. He’d continue …
Sir Alec Guinness may always be remembered as Obi Wan Kenobi, but his career goes far beyond those three little science fiction films he did late in his career. He worked many times with David Lean. He gave life to the …
The Poseidon Adventure
The end of 2014, the beginning of 2015. Happy New Year, everybody! And what a better way to celebrate than with Ronald Neame’s 1972 disaster classic “The Poseidon Adventure.” Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as …
Happy holidays! It’s time for another Christmas movie pick to celebrate, and we’re jumping back to 1947 to talk about Henry Koster’s “The Bishop’s …
The Film Board Presents: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Peter Jackson is back with another turn at the wheel of Middle Earth. This time, Bilbo and buddies are off to slay the dragon, fight ye olde Gold …
A Very Special Episode: Andy's Kidney
Andy had a kidney removed earlier this week to donate to a friend. Pete took a few minutes to call and check in on his recovery, and see which movies he's been watching all week.
Phew. This film should be required viewing for all high school seniors. It’s brutal and intense, but also honest and powerful in its depiction of …
It’s pretty rare for a film to come along that has such a visceral effect on people when they’re watching it where they faint or throw up because it’s so overwhelming. When “The Exorcist” was released just after …
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Ellen Burstyn won her Oscar for Best Actress for her powerful turn as Alice Hyatt in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” …
Joel and Ethan Coen must have a funny sense of humor, because the idea of making an “adaptation” of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ without having read it just seems like a bad idea when I picture anyone else doing it, but with …
The Film Board Presents: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Katnis and crew are back in part one of their journey against the Capitol. Things are grim, as evidenced by the jumpsuits and rubble, and the crying …
It seems appropriate to the character of the Dude that “The Big Lebowski” took its time finding its audience. Coming fresh on the heels of their first Oscar-winning hit, “Fargo,” the Coen Brothers’ 7th film had a …
Raising Arizona
It’s time for some laughs! Kicking off our series of Coen brother comedies, we jump in with the second film of theirs, “Raising Arizona.” Coming after “Blood Simple,” they certainly went 180 degrees with this wild …
Defending Your Life
It’s time for another Listener’s Choice episode! For this round, listener Jeremy Wickett was chosen and gave us Albert Brooks’ 1991 film “Defending Your Life” to discuss. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we …
Apt Pupil
Bryan Singer’s film “Apt Pupil” was actually the second time the film was under production; the first attempt had several casting issues and when it finally started shooting, ended up running out of funds, killing the …
Rob Reiner could very easily get back to making films like he did in his heyday if he made another Stephen King adaptation. Seriously, “Stand By Me” …
The Film Board Presents: Fury
The film board gathers to fully spoil Brad Pitt’s and David Ayers’ latest World War II Tank-a-palooza, “Fury.” First spoiler: it’s a war film, more …
Perhaps it was because elements of the novella ‘The Body’ were autobiographical that the story has so much heart compared to Stephen King’s previous works. Perhaps it was because there weren’t supernatural elements. Or …
There's something about your first love, and there's something about your first car. Stephen King found an interesting way to tap into that with his novel "Christine," and John Carpenter found an interesting way to …
Back in the 70s and 80s, Stephen King's stories generally had a lot more scares in them, as did their cinematic equivalents. Perhaps that's why David Cronenberg's adaptation of "The Dead Zone" feels a bit out of place — …
The Film Board Presents: The Equalizer
It’s throwback time on The Film Board as we take on Denzel Washington’s latest, The Equalizer. We take on all the various social constructs Denzel and director Antoine Fuqua look to equalize, from guns and home …
There's something truly terrifying about a lovable pet turning on you and attacking. Especially when that pet is a St. Bernard, one of the big dogs …
George A. Romero had already established himself as a master of the horror genre when he and Stephen King created their horror anthology film …
Stephen King may not have been a fan of what Stanley Kubrick did when he turned King’s third novel, “The Shining,” into one of his films, but audiences didn’t seem to mind. King purists still have problems with some of …
There is something interesting about going into a film that's had as many bad reviews as Jason Reitman's "Labor Day" has had, and that has flopped at the box office. Does it taint our own views or make us more critical …
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The last of Leone's 'Man with no name' trilogy is the longest and considered by many to be the best. By the time he made it, he was a much more assured and mature storyteller. And it shows. Join us — Pete Wright and …
Sergio Leone continued building on the mythos that he and Clint Eastwood had created in "A Fistful of Dollars" with the follow-up, "For a Few Dollars …
Spaghetti Westerns didn't completely begin with Sergio Leone's 1964 film "A Fistful of Dollars," but his film certainly set a new bar — and created …
Terry Gilliam has said that 'The Fisher King' and 'Twelve Monkeys' were two of the easiest films for him to make. Perhaps that's because he found the right way to work in the studio system, perhaps it's because he found …
The Film Board Presents: Guardians of the Galaxy
This, good people, is a summer tentpole we can get excited about. Director James Gunn has delivered a funny and frolicking space opera in “Guardians …
The Fisher King
After the financial disaster that was 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,' Terry Gilliam needed a way to prove to the studio brass that he could …
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
After the battle that Terry Gilliam had to endure to release 'Brazil,' it's a shame that his next movie ended up being another debacle. From producer …
Terry Gilliam has always been an ambitious director with wild visions for his films. Sometimes that’s worked out, sometimes it hasn’t. In the case of …
The Film Board Presents: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Waitwaitwait… what?? A summer tentpole that causes us to ask big questions and congratulate smart filmmaking decisions? WHAT? Such is our review of …
Time Bandits
Getting out from under the shadow of Monty Python proved difficult for Terry Gilliam early in his solo career — no one in America would finance any …
Considering how much critics and audiences seem to hate Alex Proyas' 2009 film Knowing, it's surprising that it actually did fairly well at the box office. We don't know if that's proof that people actually like it, but …
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
As someone once said, cult films aren't born, they're chosen. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension failed at the box office, …
It’s time to draw the curtains on our 1981 series with another Louis Malle film, Atlantic City. While technically made in 1979 and released in Canada and France in 1980, this film wasn’t released in the US until April …
The late 70s and early 80s were a great time for Australian cinema. The filmmakers churned out lots of great (and cheap) movies and these movies helped create a resurgence of Australian films on the world cinematic …
The Film Board Presents: Edge of Tomorrow
Tom Cruise is back in Doug Liman’s “Edge of Tomorrow,” tripping through time and trauma on the road to defeat an alien hoard. Here’s the weird thing …
John Landis made a big shift in his filmmaking when we went from comedies like The Kentucky Fried Movie and Animal House to An American Werewolf in …
Michael Mann has spent most of his film career exploring the world of crime and the criminals that inhabit it. Not to mention neon lighting. His feature film debut, Thief, certainly started him on the right track. Join …
Anyone who listens to the show knows that we have a love/hate relationship with Brian De Palma. With his 1981 film Blow Out, he makes one of his strongest films and lands squarely on the side of ‘love’ for us (thank the …
The Film Board Presents: Godzilla
Japan + Nuclear Power Plant + Misunderstood Fear of Technology = GODZILLA! The Film Board gathers to take on this summer romp and the jury is split. …
My Dinner with André
My Dinner With Andre is certainly not an easy film to classify. It certainly is a film that could be considered divisive, but that's really between …
Many films in the early 80s continued the cynicism of the 70s, and that certainly holds true for a number of John Carpenter's films, who has used …
There are great years of cinema like 1999 when the films seem to redefine the direction of the medium. And then there are years that, while maybe not changing the nature of cinema, certainly have a lot of great …
People often talk about the great movie year of 1999, and one of the great films that came out that year is 'The Matrix,' the film that made …
The Film Board Presents: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Film Board Assemble! It’s Captain America and his bestie Winter Soldier this week and Andy Nelson, Pete Wright, Steve Sarmento, and Chadd Stoops …
Trollhunter
One of the interesting things to explore in the usage of found footage style films is how it can be applied to different genres. Okay, so it works better in some genres than others, but it's not a genre in and of …
When making found footage style films, it's important to stick with the conceit — someone is holding the camera and filming events as they happen, …
The J.J. Abrams team jumped into the found footage realm with a fun Godzilla-style monster movie that was kept under strict wraps while filming, to the point where excited audience members actually believed that it …
For many audience members, found footage films are just an opportunity to to film a horror story on the cheap and don't bring anything to the table. There are films, however, that work to use the filmmaking style to …
The Film Board Presents: Divergent
What better way to kick off the spring tentpole season than with the launch of another adaptation of a young adult novel. This time, it’s Veronica …
Tom Hanks and baseball — they go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Aside from always wanting to be an astronaut, Hanks has always been a …
Tom Hanks already won his back-to-back Oscars and with an ensemble film like "Apollo 13," he wasn't a clear choice to get nominated again to make a …
"Forrest Gump" broke all sorts of box office records when it was released in the summer of 1994, which may be why people spent a lot of time digging into what they thought the film was really saying, even if it's not …
In the late 70s and early 80s, Disney Pictures had been getting grief for releasing films that were too adult. When “Splash” came along, they decided …
It's a sad state to consider that Christopher Nolan had to fight to get money to make "Inception" because it wasn't a sequel, based on a comic book, …
The Film Board Presents: The Monuments Men
Might be best to start off a conversation about George Clooney's latest, The Monuments Men, by telling you what this film is not. It's not a comedy. And in spite of its pedigree and subject matter, it's not all that …
When the extended trailer for James Cameron's 1989 undersea scifi spectacular, "The Abyss," was released, detailing everything from the production on …
In 1977, Devil's Tower went from being known as the first National Monument (for those who had actually heard of it) to the iconographic image marking the rendezvous point where the aliens want to meet the humans in …
Wong Kar-Wai's sumptuous film "In the Mood for Love" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 and, while it lost the Palm d'Or, it left an indelible impression on everyone who saw it. A story of a connection …
Richard Dysart — a Special Next Reel Interview
Richard Dysart is one of those faces that you instantly recognize. He's acted on the stage, on the movie screen and on the TV screen most of his life. In his films, he generally played strong supporting characters, …
Pale Rider
"Pale Rider" marks Clint Eastwood's 10th time directing himself in a film, something he went on doing until 2008's "Gran Torino" and something he …
The Film Board Presents: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" is worth exactly what you pay for it. And possibly slightly less. Such is the verdict of The Next Reel Film Board this month as we take on the Kenneth Branagh-helmed thriller. It's the fifth …
Hal Ashby made a number of stand-out films in the 70s, films that looked at human nature in offbeat stories that didn't feel like they came from a …
There have been a good number of films made about the film industry, but few have taken such a dark and surreal look at the Hollywood machine as John …
The Hudsucker Proxy
Happy New Year! To ring in 2014, we wanted to find a tie-in to the new year so landed on 1994's Coen brothers comedy, "The Hudsucker Proxy." Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we delve back into the comedies …
Christmas in Connecticut
It's the holiday season again which means it's time for us — Pete and Andy — to talk about another holiday classic! Join us as we talk about Peter …
It's easy to compare "City of God" to "GoodFellas" — they both have a frenetic filmmaking style, they both revolve around youth growing up in a world …
The Film Board Presents: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Winding his way back and forth across the expanse of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson brings us his second stab at “The Hobbit” with “The Desolation of …
Yi Yi
Even though Edward Yang's final film, "Yi Yi, A One and a Two," was critically acclaimed, it is a long film and requires patience, the right frame of mind when watching, or something similar to really connect with the …
"Run Lola Run" came out during a period when lots of unique and truly fantastic films were opening up in theaters. Luckily for Lola, it was equally …
Rarely does a film truly take you into somebody's head for almost the entire film. Sure, you get POVs here and there in films, but it's a tricky tool …
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo broke onto the international scene with "28 Weeks Later," the sequel to Danny Boyle's film, and has been tied to a number of …
David Mamet's always one to put cons in his films, even when the film is a fight film taking place in the world of mixed martial arts. His 2008 film, "Redbelt," feels like a mash-up of genres — a con film, a fight film, …
The Film Board Presents: Thor: The Dark World
We're headed back to Asgard this week as we gather the Film Board to take on "Thor: The Dark World"! Join Andy Nelson, Pete Wright, Steve Sarmento, …
The Spanish Prisoner
David Mamet has made a name for himself as a playwright, as a screenwriter, as an author, and as a writer/director. His fifth film that he wrote and directed, "The Spanish Prisoner," didn't make many waves when it came …
In 1989, Cameron Crowe made his directorial debut with what many consider to be one of his best films, "Say Anything..." It wasn't one of the top films at the box office that year, but it certainly found its audience …
The Film Board Presents: Gravity
We’re on a trip to space with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in this month’s Film Board review of Cuaron & Son’s astro-tacular, *Gravity*. …
While romantic comedies may be dead in our current day and age, they were alive and well 20 years ago when Norah Ephron’s “Sleepless in Seattle” came out. And what sort of hurdle did they put between the couple to keep …
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Peter Sollett was an indie film director that got his 'big' Hollywood break with 2008's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, a simple, honest sweet …
We continue our Romantic Comedy series with a film that really puts that genre to the test — 2002's About a Boy, directed by Chris and Paul Weitz. Is …
It's October, which must mean it's time for another month of horror, right? Wrong! This month, we're turning the tables on all the Freddies and Jasons and Michaels and will be spending the month talking about romantic …
The Blob (1958)
It was the genius mind of producer Jack Harris who saw potential in combining two popular 50s genres — the horror sci-fi films and the teen …
The Film Board Presents: Prisoners
The next time your young daughter asks you if she can take Joy to your house on the other side of the neighborhood, the correct answer is a resounding "no." Such is the lesson from this week's Film Board subject, Denis …
The World's End
Hellllllloooooooooo! Welcome to episode #100 of The Next Reel, everybody! And what a better way to celebrate than to finish the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy series that we started in March 2012 with our episode on …
At the 2008 Oscars, Joel and Ethan Coen pulled off what only 4 other directors had done before them, walking away that night with 3 wins. The film, …
Joel and Ethan Coen may have won big at Cannes with "Barton Fink," but it wasn't until 1996's "Fargo" was nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, and won Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Original …
Barton Fink
"Barton Fink" was the crowning glory of the Cannes Film Festival when it premiered there in May 1991. Critics heaped their praises on it. But it never really connected with the audience and hence was a box office …
The Film Board Presents: You're Next
Spoiler alert — the crew is as divided on "You're Next" as we have ever been on this show. Director Adam Wingard's home invasion horror romp has been hailed as "clever," "deliciously twisted," and that it "streamlines …
Miller's Crossing
For their third film, the Coen brothers decided to again make something completely different from what they've done before. With "Miller's Crossing," they made a gangster picture that honors conventions of the genre …
Blood Simple
"Blood Simple," released in film festivals in 1984 and theatrically in 1985, found as many detractors as it did fans initially, but no one can argue that it was all that the filmmaking duo of Joel and Ethan Coen needed …
It Happened One Night
In 1934, a little film studio released what they thought would be a minor but fun little film called "It Happened One Night." That film went on to …
Charles Laughton is most known for his larger than life performances in films from the 30s through the 60s, but he did have one chance to direct which came in the form of 1955's The Night of the Hunter, a film he also …
The Film Board Presents: The Wolverine
The Film Board gathers! It's a full house this week as we take on the latest clawed brawler from Marvel, "The Wolverine." The crew agrees: there are …
William Goldman is often credited as the first screenwriter to sell a spec script, meaning he wrote a script without getting paid for it then sold it …
Quentin Tarantino's first script that he wrote turned out to be one he couldn't get made himself. Lucky for us (or unlucky as some Tarantino fans …
Infrequent filmmaker Martin Brest may have directed the box office bombs Gigli and Meet Joe Black, but he also directed the huge critical and commercial successes Beverly Hills Cop and Scent of a Woman. Somewhere in the …
Stanley Kubrick's 3rd film, "The Killing," was a box office bomb due to a poor release plan from United Artists and virtually no marketing. Luckily, the film was critically praised and has grown in stature since its …
After director Ron Howard dropped out from "Inside Man" to instead re-team with Russell Crowe on "Cinderella Man," producer Brian Grazer ended up turning to an unlikely director to make this fun heist film — Spike Lee. …
The Film Board Presents: World War Z
The curse is broken! The Film Board gathers and we finally have a movie that all of us like! It's Brad Pitt against the world's nasty plague problem on the show this week and Steve, Andy, and Pete talk about why you …
Ben Affleck made a smart move when he decided to start directing films. He had made some bad career moves as an actor and was fizzling out. With his 2007 directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone," he proved he had chops — and …
There's something interesting about heist films because, generally, you're rooting for criminals to pull off a heist and criminals usually aren't who …
Woody Allen has made some great films and he's made some stinkers, but he is a man who consistently cranks films out year after year. In 2006, his film "Scoop" happened to have a stage magician in it and, because of …
The Film Board Presents: Now You See Me
It's a Very Special Episode for this month's Film Board gathering. Today on the show, Steve Sarmento and Chadd Stoops join Andy Nelson and Pete Wright to take on the great Next Reel Crossover with Now You See Me — a …
2006 was quite the year for movies about stage magicians, and as our series continues, we've decided to focus solely on the 3 films dealing with …
Right after the amazing success of Batman Begins and right before the brilliance of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan switched gears completely and …
After writing his teleplay for "Marty," it wasn't long before Hollywood asked Paddy Chayefsky to adapt his script for a feature film. And it's a good …
For his original script "The Hospital," Paddy Chayefsky won his second Oscar and created an enemy for himself — the US's medical institution which he was satirizing. But his script, while genius in many ways, veers off …
It's easy for us on this show to talk at great length about Sidney Lumet's 1976 film "Network" as it's one of our all-time favorites. Both a scathing indictment of the TV industry and a reality check for people's …
For Clint Eastwood's fifth directorial effort, he returned to one of the genres he's most well-known for — the western — and created an absolute …
Brian De Palma had been making feature films for almost a decade before he made Carrie in 1976, but it was this film that became his first blockbuster and really pushed him to the next level. By making an adaptation of …
The Film Board Presents: 42
The Film Board gathers to take on this weekend's new release, "42". This Jackie Robinson biopic comes with some misgivings, not the least of which comes in writer-director Brian Helgeland's script. The Board is moved …
We're continuing our 1976 series with Martin Scorsese's gritty film Taxi Driver, one of his greatest and arguably most talked about films. Based on a …
Marathon Man
In 1976, John Schlesinger made a film adaptation of William Goldman's novel Marathon Man, and in the process, made everyone afraid to go back to …
We end our Original Science Fiction series with Andrew Niccol's visionary 1997 film set not too far in the future, Gattaca. Join us — Pete Wright and …
Our original science fiction series continues with Duncan Jones' fascinating film debut from 2009, Moon. Made for a low budget, this entry into the science fiction genre showed that you didn't need a $100 million budget …
We continue our Original Science Fiction series with Danny Boyle's 2007 film, Sunshine. It's a film that stands out as a highlight in sci-fi films for its magnificent vision depicting mankind needing to travel to the …
The Film Board Presents: Oz the Great and Powerful
The Film Board gathers to take on Disney's latest trip to the Emerald Kingdom. This week on the show, Steve Sarmento and Tom Metz join Andy and Pete …
With all the franchises, spin-offs and films based on other mediums these days, it seems rare to find original sci-fi films. That inspired us to do a series of original sci-fi films, and we're starting with one of our …
There's something about memories of childhood and baseball that seem to go hand in hand. Perhaps it's the tradition of baseball — it feels as tied …
It's spring training season again, and we're back to discuss more baseball movies! In 2011, Bennett Miller directed Moneyball, a fascinating film — one of our favorites — that details the 2002 season of the Oakland A's, …
Prizzi's Honor
It's Valentine's Day, and what better way to end our current John Huston series than with his 1985 romantic mafia comedy, Prizzi's Honor? Huston was struggling with his health in the 80s but still a vibrant and …
The Film Board Presents: Side Effects
The band is back together! And this month, the illustrious TNR Film Board gathers ranks to take on Steven Soderbergh's "final" film, "Side Effects". Haven't seen it yet? Don't worry, we'll spoil it for you, but it won't …
The Asphalt Jungle
When people list off caper films, it's a long list that comes to mind — Ocean's Eleven, Rififi, The Killing, The Ladykillers, Kelly's Heroes, The Italian Job, The Usual Suspects, even more recently Inception — but the …
In 1948, John Huston managed to crank out two of his most well-known films — The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a masterpiece that received many …
It's a classic (and oft misquoted) line from one of the greatest films of all time, John Huston's classic film from 1948, "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." This week, join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we …
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, this week join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we talk about one of the most unforgettable films in the history of cinema, "The Maltese Falcon." As a part of our periodic and …
Divisive before it even opened, Kathryn Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty depicts, in a very procedural way, the steps it took to find Bin Laden after …
Kathryn Bigelow made a big change in her career direction as a film director when she made 2009's "The Hurt Locker." While it still had the adrenaline action sensibilities she displayed in her prior films, this film was …
Based on a dream James Cameron had in 1985, Strange Days came out in 1995 and strangely took place only 4 years in the future — during the 48 hours leading up to the year 2000. Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, helmed …
Happy holidays, everybody! It's time for our annual holiday episode here on The Next Reel. This year, we — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — are talking …
The Film Board Presents: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit had landed in HFR 3D glory! Join us for this special episode of The Next Reel Film Board as we take on Peter Jackson's latest contribution to Middle Earth. This month's contributors Steve Sarmento and Chadd …
There's something about the wacky sci-fi fantasy eye-gasm The Fifth Element that is very divisive. On one side, it's a bizarre, nonsensical, mess that hardly has a story worth talking about. On the other, it's …
It's the perfect description of the awkward yet touching relationship between a simple 40-something assassin and a wise-beyond-her-years pre-teen girl, and it's at the heart of our next pick in our Luc Besson series, …
We're starting off our Luc Besson series with a film that fascinates us, even if it sometimes devolves into a cartoonish atmosphere. This week, we …
Ryan Gosling plays such a mysterious, quiet character in Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 film, "Drive," that he's never even given a name — he's simply …
One of John Frankenheimer's best films came late in his career — 1998's Ronin. A seemingly simple story about a group of mercenaries who take a job trying to get a mysterious case is twisted around with double-crosses …
It's our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, everyone! That's right, we've been doing the "Movies We Like" podcast for one year now, and what better way to celebrate than with the next in our Great Car Chase series—William Friedkin's …
Steve McQueen was one of the coolest actors out there. He brought amazing performances to the screen time and time again. The Magnificent Seven. …
The Film Board Presents: Cloud Atlas
The Film Board gathers to take on "Cloud Atlas", the epic journey of a whole lot of Toms Hanks and Hallies Berry. Join Andy Nelson, Pete Wright, and …
"Hey, there's something down here."
These aren't words you want to hear when you're stuck on a spelunking trip, particularly when you find out that …
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
"Is everyone there dead?" "Yeah, in the sense that they all sort of fell down, and then... got up and... started eating each other."
Zack Snyder's 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake of George A. Romero's 1978 zombie classic …
"This is what I've seen in the four weeks since infection: people killing people, which is much what I saw in the four weeks before infection and the four weeks before that and before that as far back as I care to …
In 1982, John Carpenter's "The Thing" was released but had a tough time competing against other big sci-fi films released at the same time—E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and Blade Runner. It also was viewed by critics as …
The Film Board Presents: Looper
In spite of schedule complications, the Film Board goes on. This month, Pete and Andy talk Looper staring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis.
"You are young. Life has been kind to you. You will learn."
With these words early on in Tim Burton's 2007 film adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, we instantly get a sense of the dark place …
"You know about icebergs, Dad?" "Do I? I saw an iceberg once. They were hauling it down to Texas for drinking water. They didn't count on there being …
"Pretty soon you be feeling all unnecessary."
In 1991, Richard D. Zanuck and his wife, Lili Fini Zanuck, produced her directorial debut, "Rush," a story of two undercover cops trying to bring down a big drug dealer in a …
Driving Miss Daisy was a perfect story choice for Richard D. Zanuck to produce. Sure, it was difficult to get made but for a film that only cost $7.5 …
"I used to hate the water." "I can't imagine why."
When someone says the word 'jaws' to you, it inevitably conjures up the man-eating great white shark in Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller masterpiece. It's hard to …
After his father fired him from 20th Century Fox and a short stint at Warner Bros., Richard D. Zanuck joined forces with his buddy David Brown from his Fox days and the two joined forces as the independent producing duo …
"Murder's nothing. It's just a simple experience. Murder and rape. Do you know what beauty there is in evil?" It's the start of our Richard D. Zanuck tribute series, ladies and gentlemen, and what better way to begin …
The Next Reel Film Podcast © 2011-2018 RashPixel.FM
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1002
|
__label__wiki
| 0.687826
| 0.687826
|
Tag Archives: Varahamihira
What are Rahu and Ketu?
31/08/2012 Blogs (Articles)Aryabhata, Buddha, calamity, graha, Ketu, Mahabharata, navagraha, planet, Rahu, utpata, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Rahu and Ketu are two astro-mythological terms of Vedic vintage which underwent change and expansion of meaning in 6th century CE.
Contrary to many statements in print and on the internet, the Rgveda does not mention Rahu. In the Rgveda, eclipses of the Sun and the Moon take place when they are swallowed by an asura named Svarbhanu.
The Atharvaveda onwards, the eclipse-causing demon is called Rahu. In the Buddhist Pali literature, the Sun and the Moon successfully appeal to Buddha to rescue them from Rahu.
In the vast Mahabharata text, believed to have been by-and-large frozen in 4th century CE, Rahu is the eclipse-causing demon.
Unlike Rahu which was a proper noun exclusively associated with eclipses, ketu in this period was a common noun denoting a number of related phenomena rather than a particular event. Ketu, in plural stood for comets, meteors and the like. It has even been suggested that at places ketu denotes sunspots.
Astro-mythology changes after Aryabhata (born 476 CE) whose influential text Aryabhatiyam propounds the mathematical theory of eclipses. Note that this is a first for India not the whole world.
According to this theory, eclipses take place when the Moon is at one of the nodes of its orbit. The movement of these nodes can be calculated mathematically so that it now became possible to predict eclipses.
The movable part of the cosmos, what is now recognized as the solar system comprised two class of objects: planets (graha) and calamities (utpata)Since the planets could be mathematically described, they represented cosmic order and were source of comfort.
In contrast, objects like comets appeared from nowhere without warning and thus cause of concern.
Aryabhata’s work transferred eclipses from the category of utpata to that of the grahas.Since eclipses could be mathematically predicted, the two lunar nodes were designated grahas. Since they were not real, they were called shadow planets.
Varahamihira names these shadow planets. The ascending node was called Rahu and the descending node Ketu. Note that since the two nodes are 180 degrees apart, naming one would have been sufficient. But both were included so that the number of planets could be fixed at nine, considered to be a powerful and mysterious number.
While, for Rahu it was a re-definition of his old role, for Ketu it was a new assignment. It continued to be used in the old sense of comets, meteors, etc.
To sum up, when we seek to interpret the terms Rahu and Ketu in the old literature, we must first check what the time period is. Before 6th century, Rahu and Ketu are NOT planets. Rahu is a demon and Ketu a comet or a meteor. Beginning with 6th century CE, Rahu and Ketu become planets. In addition Ketu, continues to denote a comet or a meteor
Rahu and Ketu in mythological and “astronomological” contexts
13/08/2010 Blogs (Articles)Aryabhata, Atharvaveda, Buddha, comets, eclipse, graha, Ketu, Mahabharata, meteors, mythology, Rahu, Rigveda, Sardulakaranavadana, scriptures, Svabhanu, utpata, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Indian Journal of History of Science, Vol, 45, no.2, June 2010, pp. 287-297
Rahu and Katu were deployed as planetary deities in the sixth century CE immediately after the mathematical theory of eclipses was propounded by Aryabhata. Their literary credentials however go back to early Vedic times. Here our aim is to examine, in a joint mythological and astronomical-astrological (“astronomological”) context, how the textual meanings of Rahu and Ketu have evolved with time. There are clear stages in their evolutionary histories, which must be borne in mind while interpreting early references.
The legend of Rahu shows signs of internal development. Successor to the Rgvedic Svarbhanu, Rahu as eclipse-causing demon was reduced to a body-less head so that the swallowed sun or moon had an escape route. Rahu’s identification with the lunar ascending node represents an attempt to connect new scientific developments with traditional beliefs. Ketu, in contrast, was a dictionary word used to denote a variety of related phenomenon especially comets. The promotion of the head-less body as a demon represents expansion of mythology in the light of new scientific developments. Ketu was now given an additional entirely new role, creating avoidable confusion. Significantly, Ketu’s iconography represents efforts at reconciling its two disparate roles.
Key words: mathematical theory of eclipses, astrology, Vedic mythology, planetary deities, Buddhist mythology, astronomical omens, ritual
Ancient Indian perception of the moving cosmic environment two millennia ago was bipolar. Orbits of the seven geocentric planets (graha) by virtue of their predictability represented cosmic order, while phenomena like meteors, comets and eclipses which did not fit into any pattern were classified as utpata, portent or calamity. This world view is preserved in a Buddhist Sanskrit text, Sardulakarnavadana, the legend contained in which is known to have been translated in an abridged form into Chinese in 265 CE (Vaidya 199,p.xi) . As the 5th century CE came to a close, the status of eclipses was modified.
Mathematical theory of eclipses was propounded in India in 499CE by Aryabhata (born 476 CE) in his influential Siddhantic treatise simply known as Aryabhatiyam (See Ohashi 2009 for a recent review). According to this theory, solar and lunar eclipses occur when the moon is at either of its orbital nodes. These theoretical points move in a direction opposite to that of the planets and complete an orbit in the rather short period of 18.6 years. This development was immediately taken note of in astrological literature, which classified the two nodes as planets, implying that they were now amenable to mathematics. Since they were hypothetical they were dubbed shadow planets. The 6th century CE text Brihajjataka (2.2-3) by Varahamihira (died 587 CE) includes Rahu and Ketu in the list of planets, and even gives their synonyms: Tamas, Agu and Asura for Rahu; and Shikhi for Ketu (Rao 1986, p.76), which however never gained currency. The two nodes are 180 degrees apart so that specifying one fixes the other. It would thus have sufficed to include just one of them. Both were listed no doubt to bring the planetary number up to nine which was considered sacred.
If new words had been coined to designate the two nodes, matter would have rested there. But both Rahu and Ketu are terms of Vedic vintage. The term Rahu had previously been used as a proper noun and exclusively in connection with eclipse so that its deployment represents an attempt at integrating new scientific developments with ancient tradition. On the other hand Ketu was merely a common noun employed variously but never in association with eclipse. Here then was an old term which was given an entirely new identity, representing expansion of mythology in the light of new scientific developments.
It is not uncommon to see even earlier references to Rahu and Ketu being interpreted in terms of their later status. This is unfortunate, because it distorts the history of the evolution of “astronomological” thought. The new coinage is advisedly used in preference to the extant terms astronomical and astrological to avoid backdating the present differentiation into earlier times when they would have been essentially seen as one. Our aim is to investigate how the textual meanings of the terms Rahu and Ketu have evolved with time. We must keep in mind some notable features of the available source material. Most texts remained open for a long time and were contributed to by generations of authors. There is no reason to expect or demand internal self- consistency from them. The texts were often composed in metrical poetry and were meant for a select audience. Very often the meaning assigned to a particular word depends on the context in which it is used.
An important source of information on ancient India is the Mahabharata which was expanded over a long period of time to include matter that went beyond the description of the Bharata battle which it had originally set out to describe. The astronomical content of the Mahabharata is consistent with Vedic astronomy in that it marks sky positions with the help of bright stars or star groups known as naksatra. The Mahabharata is not familiar with the twelve zodiacal signs which make their appearance in post-Mauryan India in about the first century BCE at Baudha Gaya where they are depicted on the railing pillars (Kane 1975, p. 598). Given the size and the nature of the contents of the Mahabharata it is reasonable to assume that if zodiacal signs had been introduced into India when the Mahabharata text was still open they would have found their way into it. We thus conclude that the Mahabharata text had been closed by about 1st century BCE (Kochhar 2000, p.56). This is an important datum. At one place the Mahabharata (Vanaparva 188. 87-88) does say that “when the moon, the sun and Jupiter in Tisya come together in one rasi, krta age will begin”. The term rasi is used here in the general sense of a portion of sky, not in the precise sense of a zodiacal sign.
The Mahabharata does not make any reference to the week days either. There is no unanimity on the epoch when they were introduced into India. Varahamihira, already referred to, in his other works , Pancasiddhantika and Brihatsamhita, mentions week days while quoting authorities who had lived much earlier . From this it has been inferred that week days were introduced into India in the first century CE(Kane 1975, pp. 680-1). A more plausible case has been built by Markel (1991) to suggest that the week made its appearance in India only in forth century CE.
Vedic Rahu and Ketu
The Rgveda does not know of Rahu. Rgveda (5.40:5-9) describes how Svarbhanu, son of an asura, pierced the sun “through and through with darkness”. The eclipse caused great distress among observers: “All creatures looked like one who is bewildered, who knoweth not the place where he is standing”. The sun himself appealed to Atri: “Let not the oppressor with this dread, through anger, swallow me up, for I am thine, O Atri”. In response, “By his fourth sacred prayer Atri discovered Surya concealed in gloom that stayed his function”. “The Brahmana Atri, as he set the press-stones, serving the Gods with praise and adoration, established in the heavens the eye of Surya, and caused Svarbhanu’s magic arts to vanish. The Atris found the Sun again, him whom Svarbhanu of the brood of Asuras had pierced with gloom. This none besides had the power to do.” (Griffith 1896, p. 255) .The Atris were prominent contributors to the Rgveda. The whole of the fifth mandala is authored by them. The passage quoted above is mentioned and embellished at a number of places in the Vedic literature :Tandya Brahmana (4.5.2; 4.6.13; 6.6.8; 14.11. 14-15; 23.16.2), Gopatha Brahmana (8.19), Satapatha Brahmana (5.3.2.2), and Sankhayana Brahmana (24.3) ( Dikshit 1896, Vol.1, p.58; Kane 1975, pp. 241-242). What the Atris probably did was to chant mantras while the eclipse lasted. The Rgvedic description is significant. An eclipse was seen as the demon’s work in disrupting the cosmic order. Propitiation was needed to restore that order.
Dikshit (1896, Vol. 1, p. 57) while translating a passage from the Rgveda renders Svarbhanu as Rahu and goes on to give its meaning as the lunar ascending node. Similarly Kane (1975, p.569), while discussing a reference in the Maitrayani Upanisad, equates Rahu and Ketu with the ascending and descending node respectively. Svarbhanu’s career as an asura did not last long. It is not clear when and how Svarbhanu made way for Rahu, who appears for the first time, and as the sun’s enemy, in Atharvaveda (19, 9-10). Chandogya Upanisad (8.13) makes an interesting analogy: The “soul that has acquired true knowledge is said to shake off the body after casting off all evil” like “the moon becoming free from the mouth of Rahu” (Kane 1975, p.569).The Pali Buddhist sources refer to the moon and the sun freeing themselves from the clutches of Rahu by invoking Buddha’s name (Candima Sutta, Samyutta-nikaya 2.9; Suriya Sutta, Samyutta-nikaya 2.10).
Mahabharata (Bhismaparva 13.39-45) uses both Svarbhanu and Rahu as interchangeable names. Rahu is a graha, 12000 yojanas in diameter, bigger than both the moon (11000 yojanas) and the sun (10000 yojanas). Rahu had to be bigger than the sun and the moon so that it could grab them. Note that the term graha here carries the sense of a grabber and not that of a body in orbit. In course of time, the name Svarbhanu came to be de-stigmatized so much so that a son of Lord Krsna was given the name (Mani 1975, p. 778).
Atharvaveda (13.16-24) employs Ketu to mean ray of light. These nine verses are taken from Rgveda (1.50.1-9) in the same order and more or less in the same form. They are also found “in one or more other Vedic texts” (Whitney 1905, Vol.2, p.722). More typically Ketu meant combination of fire and smoke. The Atharvaveda passage (19.9.10) quoted above refers to Dhumaketu as an epithet of mrtyu [death]. It either means a comet or literally as “smoke-bannered” to the smoke rising from a funeral pyre (Whitney 1905,Vol. 2, p. 914). Atharvaveda (11.10.1-2, 7) uses Ketu in the plural, as arunah ketavah [ruddy Ketus]. Here the reference seems to be to comets or meteors. Varahamihira’s Brihatsamhita, composed in 6th century CE but containing much older material, quotes a still earlier astronomer Garga on a class of 77 comets, called Aruna, which are dark red in colour (Bhat 1981,Vol. 1, p.138).
Puranic Rahu and Ketu
If the demon Rahu devours the sun or the moon to cause an eclipse, how do they become visible again? The answer is provided by the well – known story samudramanthana (churning of ocean), described in Mahabharata, Visnupurana and elsewhere. In the story, the demon Rahu’s head is chopped off, which survives. It is the Rahu head which causes an eclipse. Since the rest of the body is missing, there is an escape route for the sun and the moon. Note that the name Rahu now belonged to the body-less head. The head-less body would remain unclaimed, till the 6th century CE; see below. Brhatsammhita (5:1-3) while narrating this story also refers to a prevalent alternative belief that Rahu is of a serpentine form with only the head and the tail. The ancient Iranian text Bundahishn talks of goshir, an eclipse-causing serpent. It is not clear whether Varahamihira is referring to the Iranian legend or an un-recorded Indian one. Al Biruni writing in the 11th century reserves the name Rahu for the dragon’s head and calls the tail Ketu (Sachau 1888, Vol. 2, p.234).There were some half-hearted attempts to relate eclipses to predictable phenomena. Thus it was speculated that an eclipse took place when five planets get together (Brihatsamhita 5.17)
Mahabharata (Adiparva 65. 11-12, 31) names Kasyapa as the father and Simhika as the mother of Rahu, who is at times designated Simihkeya after her. His three other real brothers are also mentioned, their given names, Sucandra, Candraharta and Candrapramardana, all being associated with moon. Kasyapa from another wife Danu had 34 named sons including one called Ketuman (not Ketu).Curiously the names Surya, Candramas and Svarbhanu figure in the list (Adiparva 65.22-26).These 34 demons are thus Rahu’s half brothers. This naming is an exrecise in meaningless creativity. This association may have an astronomical basis which does not seem to have been noted before. Varahamihira in his Brihatsamhita (3.7; 11.22) mentions a class of 33 comets known as Tamaskilakas (dark shafts), called children of Rahu. They were noticed by the 11th century astronomer and chronicler Al-Biruni also. Described as black, and shaped like a crow or a beheaded man or a sword, or bow and arrow, they are always in the neighbourhood of the sun and the moon. It is likely that this category include sunspots (Bhat 1981, pp.25-26). An ancient authority quoted by Varahamihira on Tamaskilaka is Garga, who figures in Mahabharata also as an astronomer and advisor ( Mani 1975, p. 280). He may well have been responsible for constructing a myth about 34 half-brothers of Rahu out of the description of Tamaskilakas. It is noteworthy that from independent considerations Garga has been place at about 100 BCE (Kane 1975, p.681), the epoch we have assigned to the closure of the Mahabharata.
Inverted astronomy in Mahabharata
The Mahabharata talks about the prevalent astronomical knowledge albeit often in an inverted manner. It will be useful to inspect the context in which these references were made.
When the two rival armies stood confronting each other, and the Bharata war looked imminent, last ditch efforts were made to avert it by appealing to the ineffectual king Dhrtarastra whose villainous sons were widely held responsible for bringing things to such a pass. To convey the enormity of the sense of impending genocide, the king was told that in anticipation of the war the natural order had already broken down. The effect was heightened by the fact that the so-called eye witness account was brought to the sightless king by his own biological father. The revered Ved Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra (Bhismaparva 3.46) as follows.
“Cows are giving birth to asses; and elephants to dogs. Sons are enjoying sexual pleasures with their mothers. Idols of gods are laughing, vomiting blood, feeling sad, and falling off their pedestals on their own. Animals are being born with three horns, four eyes, five feet, two urinary organs, and two tails. Women are giving simultaneous birth to four –five girls, who immediately start singing, dancing and laughing. Trees are flowering out of season. Lotus and water-lily are blossoming on tree tops. Even koel, peacock and parrot are making fearsome sounds. There is a downpour of blood and bones from the sky.”
The imagined weirdness of the world in anticipation of the fratricidal war was extended to the skies as well. “Arundhati well known for her devotion to her husband Vasistha has left him behind. [The reference here seems to be the star pair in Ursa Major rather than to individuals.] Dawn and the dusk look like as if they are on fire. Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra that he could not make out the difference between day and night, because the sun, moon and the stars all were burning bright throughout. This is a fearsome sign. Although it was the Kartika full moon night, the moon was not visible; its luster had given way to fire.
It is in this background that even the more-reasonable sounding descriptions of celestial phenomenon should be seen. A recurring theme is the reference at various places in the Mahabharata to Rahu, as if the occurrence of an eclipse was at par with holocaust on earth. “Rahu has seized the sun” (Bhismaparva 3.11). “Rahu is approaching the sun” (Bhismaparva 141.10).”Rahu swallowed the sun most untimely” (Salyaparva 55.10). “Rahu eclipsed the sun and the moon simultaneously” (Asvamedhaparva 76. 15, 16, 18). Meteors (ulka) and earthquakes are also similarly invoked. As part of the celestial foreboding it is stated that a very dangerous Dhumaketu has overcome the naksatra Pusya. This will bring destruction to both sides. (This ill-omen appears in the 4th century CE Buddhist text Sardulakarnavadana as well; see below).
Continuing, his listing of ill omens, Ved Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra that the sveta graha (white planet) has transgressed Citra, while the parusa graha (harsh planet) has established itself between Citra and Svati (Bhismaparva 3.11, 16). The translators have exercised their own discretion in rendering these terms. Sveta graha has been left untranslated (Sathe et al. 1985, p.39) or equated with Ketu (Ganguli 1884-1896, Book 6, p.12). Parusa graha has been identified with Rahu by one translator ( Ganguli 1884-1896, Book 6, p.12) and with Ketu by ANOTHER (Sathe et al. 1985, p.39).. The arbitrariness is obvious. As we have argued it would be anachronistic to associate Rahu and Ketu with a planet in pre-Varahamihira times.
Greek astronomical elements made their documented appearance in India in 149 CE when a Greek astro-text was translated into Sanskrit by Yavanesvara. It was versified in 269CE by Sphujidhvaja under the title Yavanajataka (Pingree, p. 1959). The versification was a significant development, because it signifies assimilation of Greco-Babylonian elements into Indian tradition. And yet, Vedic astronomical tradition remained extant even after the introduction of Yavana texts, as can be seen from passages in Sardulakarnavadana, already referred to. “Irrespective of the naksatra, when the sun or the moon is seized by Rahu, the king along with his subjects comes to pain.” “Irrespective of the naksatra when Ketu enters the moon, the neighbouring enemy king gets the upper hand.” “When Dhumaketu establishes itself in the Pusya naksatra, then defeat in enemy’s assault from all four directions is guaranteed” (Vaidya 1999, p. 374, couplets 462,463, 466). As we have already noted, Dhumaketu in Pusya as a bad omen is mentioned in the Mahabharata also. It is significant that Ketu and Dhumaketu are listed separately and along with Rahu under utpata.
Once the mathematical theory of eclipse was propounded, Rahu ceased to be an utpata; its predictability however did not remove the fear associated with it. On the other hand, Ketu as comet continued to be an utpata. Brihatsamhita assigns separate chapters to a discussion on eclipses under the heading Rahu and on comets under Ketu. Brihatsamhita does not mention Ketu in the context of eclipse. As mentioned earlier, it is Varahamihira’s other text Brihajjataka which twins Ketu with Rahu as the eclipse-causing shadow planets, introducing the concept of navagraha. Ketu was now given a brand new identity; the torso which had been lying lifeless after the detachment of the Rahu head was now resurrected and named Ketu.
We have argued that inclusion of the demon Rahu in the list of mathematically tractable planets took place after 499CE. Support for this conclusion comes from iconographic data. The “ first surviving depiction of Rahu occurs in a relief of the ‘Churning of the Ocean’ carved over the façade of the doorway of cave-temple number nineteen at Udayagiri in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, which can be dated to ca. A.D.430-450. Earliest known representations of Rahu as a member of the planetary deities are those on two stone lintels, 100cm by 20cm, originally from the villages of Nachna and Kuthara in the Panna district in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, most likely sculpted during the reign of the Uccakalpa king Jayanatha (r. ca. A.D.490-510)” ( Markel 1990, pp.11-13). If the assigned dates are correct, it is remarkable that Rahu’s planetization occurred within a decade of Aryabhata’s theory. Ketu as a planetary deity appears in about 600 CE or a little later, in Uttar Pradesh. In the eastern state of Orissa, Ketu was not counted in until the tenth century, which thus had only eight grahas till then (Markel 1990, p.21). One wonders whether it was from Orissa that Rahu as Yahu travelled to Burma as one of the eight nats (spirits).
Astronomical literature employs the term Rahu in connection with eclipse but in a number of ways. Aryabhata does not use either Rahu or Ketu; he and following him many others refer to a node as pata. Brahmagupta (b.598CE) in his long career displays signs of intellectual evolution. Taking a position contrary to Aryabhata, he in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, prepared in 628 CE, expresses his faith in the demon Rahu as the cause of eclipse . Al Biruni noted this (Sachau 1888,Vol. 2, p.110). His later text, Khandakhadyaka (665 CE), however, calculates eclipses in a matter-of-fact way employing the technical term pata and without naming Rahu or Ketu (Chatterjee 1970, pp. 80-85).
The 689 CE astronomical handbook Karanaratna by Devacarya (Shukla 1979) uses Rahu to denote the eclipse shadow (2.2) as well as the ascending node (e.g.1.15). Significantly, at one place (1.13) the latter is called Rahumukha (Rahu head). A tersely written basic astronomical text will have no reason to mention Ketu. As comet, meteor or the like Ketu lay outside the scope of theory while as descending node it would be redundant once the ascending node Rahu or pata was mentioned.
In later Iranian (and Arabic) mythology the ascending node Rahu and the descending node Ketu become the head and the tail of the dragon Al –Djawzahr. Ketu as comet is not forgotten; he figures as al-Kayd (Hartner 1965). Rahu and Ketu as part of mathematical astronomy were introduced into China during the Tang dynasty (618-907CE), but with modified meaning. While Rahu was retained in the sense of the lunar ascending node, Ketu was used as a designation for lunar apogee (Niu 1995)
The imagery and iconography of Rahu and Ketu have evolved over time, with the latter having been more difficult to conceptualize. While Rahu has been well-defined since the days of the samudramanthana story, Ketu had in the sixth century CE the eclipse role thrust upon him in addition to the cometary ( and not the other way round as Neugebauer (1957, p.211) suggests).
The tradition of eclipse calculation has continued uninterrupted till relatively recent times. A copper plate inscription tells us about the grant of a village by the Kalachuri king Ratnadeva II to an astronomer , Jagannatha by name, for correctly predicting the lunar eclipse of 1128CE. He knew two Siddhantas and succeeded where other astronomers in the court failed. Hence the reward ( Mirashi 1933-34,p.161).Seven centuries later, a Pondicherry-based traditional astronomer calculated for the benefit of John Warren the lunar eclipse of 1825 May 31-June 1, with the help of shells, placed on the ground, and from tables memorized “by means of certain artificial words and syllables”. The results were remarkably accurate for the time. There was an error of +4 minutes for the beginning, -23 minutes for the middle and -52 minutes for the end (Neugebauer 1983, p.436). Traditional almanacs still use old algorithms for their planetary position calculations, but have taken to using modern methods for calculating eclipses as a concession to the greater time consciousness of the present times.
To sum up, the terms Rahu and Ketu have been continuously in use since the early Vedic times, but their meaning has not remained static. Rahu was an eclipse-causing demon whose name was confined to the severed head in the samudramanthana story. In the sixth century CE, Rahu was identified with the ascending node of lunar orbit and designated the eighth planet.
From the earliest time till the sixth century CE, Ketu was not a proper noun but a dictionary word used to denote phenomena like comets and meteors. This meaning continued later as well. But in the sixth century CE, Ketu was made into a proper noun by identifying it with the descending node of the lunar orbit and designating it the ninth planet. The headless body of the demon left behind from the samudramanthana days was retrospectively named Ketu. This evolutionary sequence needs to be kept in mind while interpreting textual references. More specifically, identification of Rahu or Ketu with a planet in a text prior to Varahamihira would be an exercise in anachronism.
I thank Yukio Ohashi, K.T.S. Sarao, B.V. Subbarayappa, K. Ramaubramaniam and Michio Yano for help and useful conversations.
(To help place an author’s work in context, date of original publication is cited in the text. For convenience, date of translation or reprint, mostly facsimile, is added.)
Bhat, M. Ramakrishna (1981) Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Chatterjee, Bina (1970) The Khandakhadyaka of Brahmagupta with the commentary of Bhattotpla, Vol. I. ( Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Dikshit, Sankar Balakrishna (1896) History of Indian Astronomy (English translation by R.V. Vaidya, Pt I,1968; Pt II, 1981. New Delhi: India Meteorological Department).
Ganguli, Kisari Mohan (1884-1896) Mahabharata of Krishna-Dvaipayana Vyasa ( on-line)
Griffith, Ralph T. H. (1896 ) The Hymns of the Rgveda ( Reprint, Delhi : Motilal Banarasidass, 1973).
Hartner, W. (1965) “ Al-Djawzahar”. In :Encyclopedia of Islam,Vol.2 ( Leiden: Brill), pp.501-502.
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. (1975) History of Dharmasastra, Vol. 5 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute).
Kochhar, Rajesh (2000) The Vedic People (Hyderabad: Orient Longman).
Mani, Vettam (1975) Puranic Encyclopaedia (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Ohashi, Yukio (2009) “The mathematical and observational astronomy in traditional India”. In: Science in India, Vol. 13, Pt.8 (ed. J.V. Narlikar) (New Delhi: Viva Books), pp 1-88.
Markel, Stephen (1991) “The genesis of the Indian planetary deities”. East and West, Vol. 41. pp. 173-188)
Markel, Stephen (1990): “The Imagery and Iconographic Development of the Indian Planetary Deities Rahu and Ketu”. South Asian Studies, 6:9-26.
Mirashi, V.V. (1933-34) Epigraphia India, Vol. XXII, 159-165.
Neugebauer, Otto (1957) “Notes on Al-Kaid”. J. Amer. Oriental Soc., 77, 211-215.
Neugebauer, Otto (1983) Astronomy and History : Selected Essays ( New York : Springer-Verlag).
Rao , Bangalore Suryanarain (1986) Varahamihira’s Brihat Jataka ( Delhi : Motilal Banarasidass, Reprint 2008).
Sachau, Edward C. (1888) AlBeruni’s India, ( 2 vols reprinted as one , Delhi : Atlantic Publishers)
Sathe, Shriram: Deshmukh, Vijaya; and Joshi Prabhakar ( 1983) Bhartiya Yuddha: Astronomical References ( Pune : Shri Babasaheb Apte Smarak Samiti).
Shukla, Kripa Shankar (1979) Karana-Ratna of Devacarya ( Lucknow : Lucknow University).
Vaidya, P. K. (ed.) (1999) Divyavadana ( Darbhanga: Mithila Institute).
Whitney, William Dwight (1905) Atharva-veda-samhita, 2 vols. (Cambridge, USA: Harvard University).
Yano, Michio (2003)”Calendars, astronomy and astrology” .Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (ed.:Cavin Flood)( Oxford: Blackwell)
Aryabhata reinstalled
16/08/2009 Blogs (Articles)"Hindu" astronomy, Ancient India, Aryabhata, Aryabhatiyam, Bhaskara, bhramarikaPatna, Brahmagupta, eclipse, oral tradition, patliputra, planetary orbits, Prthudhaka, Siddhantic astronomy, Skandapurana, Taregna, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Aryabhata (born AD 476) is the founder of Siddhantic astronomy which focused on developing mathematical algorithms for calculating planetary orbits and for predicting lunar and solar eclipses. His concise text, composed in AD 499 and known simply as Aryabhatiyam ( Aryabhata’s), influenced all subsequent work on the subject. From Aryabhata’s time till that of Kepler’s laws, Siddhantic astronomers were probably the only ones in the world who could calculate eclipses with any degree of accuracy.
Very little is known about Aryabhata himself. This is so because of the inherent limitations of the oral tradition. Astronomical texts were composed in terse metrical poetry, which was memorized and transmitted from one generation to the next by word of mouth. What was not considered worth preserving for the moment was lost for ever. It is thus not possible to construct a connected account of ancient astronomy or for that matter of any aspect of ancient India.
Internet has given birth to a flourishing industry of concocting details about Aryabhata and others and giving such details wide currency. By attributing to Aryabhata what he did not do , we would be belittling what he actually did.
Here is some authentic information on Aryabhata arranged in question- and- answer form.
Q1. What do we know about Aryabhata, the person?
A. First note that his name is spelt with a single t and not two. He was born in AD 476 and composed his work Aryabhatiyam in AD 499. This we learn from the book itself. The year of his death is not known.
Aryabhata says that he “ sets forth here the knowledge honoured at Kusumpura”. This has been interpreted to mean that Kusumpura was his work place. It has been identified with Patliputra which in turn has been equated with modern Patna.
This is all what we know about Aryabhata from him. Some additional information comes from his commentators ( e.g. the earliest, Bhaskara I ( AD 629)), who declared that Aryabhata hailed from a place , or district, called As’maka. It has not been possible to identify Asmaka. Legend prevails that Aryabhata hailed from Kerala. There is no basis for this. It is a well known fact that Aryabhata’s work was followed and improved upon in Kerala. Attempts to place Asmaka in Kerala may simply be manifestation of a desire to give physical basis to this intellectual relationship.
Bhaskara I also calls Aryabhata Kulapa. By a long shot this has been interpreted to mean that he was the vice-chancellor of Nalanda University! Kulapa could simply mean founder of a school, which Aryabhata certainly was.
The press coverage of 22 July 2009 total solar eclipse claimed that Aryabhata maintained an observatory at Taregna near Patna. This is an instance of history driven by tourism.
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, has erected a statue of Aryabhata to keep company with Galileo, Newton and Einstein. Bare-chested, stocky Aryabhata wearing a sacred thread is of course a figment of imagination. We have no way whatever of knowing what Aryabhata looked like.
Q2. Did Aryabhata believe in the spin of the earth?
A. He certainly did. But the whole thing should not be blown out of proportion.
We do not sense the spin of the earth under our feet. Instead the whole celestial sphere seems to be going around the earth. This indeed was the prevalent world view. Aryabhata boldly asserted that the earth was not static but spun on its axis.
He was severely criticized for this by friends and foes alike. His own follower Varahamihira died AD 587) believed that the earth was static. The otherwise brilliant mathematician astronomer Brahmagupta ( ) severely castigated Aryabhata for believing in the spin of the earth. Such was the onslaught of mainstream criticism that even followers of Aryabhata’s own school retreated. They rather ineffectually changed a word in the Aryabhatiyam text to argue that Aryabhata indeed considered the earth to be static.
If the scientific tradition had been based on written-down prose rather than on oral metrical poetry, Aryabhata’s reasons why he believed the earth spun would have been on record, and might have been considered convincing by later generations.
While today we give credit to Aryabhata for this, we should keep in mind that we know of Aryabhata’s belief in the spin of the earth not from his work or that of his followers but from the charge sheet maintained against him by his opponents. ( Just as we know about many nationalist heroes from the criminal complaint against them recorded by the colonial government.)
It is noteworthy that only a handful of later Indian astronomers believed that the earth rotated on its axis : Prthudaka (AD 860) and Makkibhatta ( AD 1377). Significantly , a religious text , Skandapurana (1.1.31.71) , following Aryabhata, describes the earth as a bhramarika ( spinning top).
It should be borne in mind that belief in spin of the earth or otherwise was not relevant for Siddhantic calculations. Brahmagupta did not believe in in it . But that does not mean that he was any the lesser astronomer. Aryabhata himself , like everybody else, maintained that the sun revolved around the earth. As far as kinematics is concerned it matters not who goes around whom.
Aryabhata believed that the earth was all water south of equator ( Gola 12) and that it expanded in size by one yojana during a day of Brahma and contracted during a night( Gola 8).
As Thoreau put it , “ A man is wise with the wisdom of his age only and ignorant with its ignorance”.
Q3. Did Aryabhata believe in heliocentrism?
A. As discussed above , no , he did not. WE take heliocentrism for granted. In its time, it had profound philosophical implications that went beyond planetary theory.Impact of heliocentrism on human thinking should not be under-estimated.
Q4. Did Aryabhata invent zero?
A. No, zero had been known long before that.
Q5.Is Aryabhata the founder of the eclipse theory?
A. No. He is probably the first one to apply it in India. Such theories were already known in Greece and China
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1004
|
__label__wiki
| 0.886665
| 0.886665
|
Category Archives: Father Laurence Soper
Fugitive Catholic priest at centre of five-year manhunt arrested in Britain over historic sex abuse
22 AUGUST 2016 • 1:04AM
From the Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/22/fugitive-catholic-priest-at-centre-of-five-year-manhunt-arrested/
Father Lawrence Soper has been arrested on suspicion of nine counts of historic sexual assaults CREDIT: MET POLICE
A Catholic priest who skipped bail five years ago has been arrested on suspicion of nine counts of historic sexual assaults.
Father Laurence Soper, 72, the former abbot of Ealing Abbey, was wanted on a European Arrest Warrant over allegations of child abuse.
The accusations date back to when he taught at St Benedict’s School, a private independent Catholic school which is part of Ealing Abbey in west London.
In March 2011, Fr Soper was believed to have been living in a monastery in Rome and was due to return to London to answer bail but he failed to show up, sparking an international search.
After spending five years living as a fugitive, he was arrested in Kosovo in May.
However, attempts to bring him back the UK to face charges were thwarted when a Kosovan judge blocked the extradition order on the basis that his alleged crimes have expired in Kosovo, which has a 30-year statute of limitation.
On Sunday night, Scotland Yard announced that Fr Soper was arrested as he arrived back in the UK at Luton Airport from Kosovo.
A spokesman said he was “arrested on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986”.
In 2011, Lord Carlile of Berriew stripped monks of control at St Benedict’s School, which offered a “heartfelt apology for past failures”.
The peer said he hoped his decision to take powers away from Ealing Abbey would “set a template” for other schools.
In his inquiry into the sexual abuse, Lord Carlile outlined a catalogue of failures by the abbey to intervene as allegations of abuses came to light.
“I have come to the firm conclusion … that the form of governance of St Benedict’s School is wholly outdated and demonstrably unacceptable,” he wrote.
“The abbot himself has accepted that it is ‘opaque to outsiders’.”
The report added: “In a school where there has been abuse, mostly – but not exclusively – as a result of the activities of the monastic community, any semblance of a conflict of interest, of lack of independent scrutiny, must be removed.”
Posted in Child Sex Abuse, Christianity, Christians, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Father Laurence Soper, Pedophile, Pedophile Priests, Perverted Priests, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse, Uncategorized
Tags: Catholic Ealing Abbey in London, child abuse, child molestation, child rape, child rapists, child sex abuse, clergy abuse, crimes against children, Ealing Abbey, Father Laurence Soper, pedophile, pedophile priests, priest abuse, priest pedophilles, priest rape, priest sex abuse, religion, roman catholic church, Roman Catholic Church Child Rape Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse, Roman Catholic Church Child Sex Abuse Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophile Cover up Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophile Coverup Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophile Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophiles, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Coverups, Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, roman catholic church sex scandal, roman catholic clergy, roman catholics, St Benedict's School
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1005
|
__label__wiki
| 0.627816
| 0.627816
|
Media Double Standard On Pope Francis & Clerics v. UK Pols/Celebs & Bill Cosby ?
Views of Jerry Slevin, a Harvard and Catholic “schooled” retired international lawyer
From the Link: http://christiancatholicism.com/media-double-standard-on-pope-francis-clerics-v-uk-polscelebs-bill-cosby/
Reuters’ respected editor, John Lloyd, who is also a La Repubblica of Rome columnist and an Oxford journalism scholar, candidly observed about the Vatican’s recent Synod huddle: ” … these ageing men did — and still do — have a serious sex scandal within their ranks – one which they have, in the main, dealt with badly.” Fair enough, but are journalists now doing much better, “in the main”, in covering Pope Francis’ failure after 20 months to take decisive action to curtail the clerical sex abuse scandal? No, with only rare exceptions.
CNN is a prime example. It appears, in effect, still to be giving Pope Francis and UK clerics a continuing pass on Vatican controlled secretive investigations, while pressing for an independent and transparent UK investigation of sex abuse allegations involving UK political leaders and celebrities.
A double standard, no? Do UK politicians’ opposition parties have more media clout than Pope Francis’ disorganized opposition that evidently is too often overwhelmed by Pope Francis’ media machine and his seeming support from opportunistic multi-billionaire media magnates in the UK/Australia/USA/Latin America and elsewhere? It appears so.
Pope Francis is clearly running out of time, as he seemingly is only going through some public relations motions on curtailing priest sex abuse. He must now either act decisively and transparently or he can expect to face more governmental investigations that he will most likely be unable to control. He no longer enjoys the support of major international powers that have protected the Vatican for centuries.
I discuss in detail Pope Francis’ dire overall predicament in my recent analysis also included below under “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” . My analysis relies heavily on my study of the work of Fr. Hans Kung. He is a leading world authority on Catholic theology, history and interreligious dialogue, a former mentor to Cardinal Walter Kasper (Pope Francis’ preferred theologian), and an occasional confidante to world leaders, including the former longtime UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Fr. Kung has over a five year period generously given me by constant example and occasional e-mail some encouragement, including with respect to my recent analysis. Of course, I am an international lawyer, not a professional scholar, and Fr. Kung is not responsible for my judgments.
I have also benefited from the courageous work of Fr. Charles Curran, a worldwide authority on moral theology. Fr. Curran, like Hans Kung, also felt the Vatican’s inquisitorial whip for thinking freely and openly. Fr. Curran significantly has just boldly called on Pope Francis to admit that the Vatican has made mistakes in the area of its sexual morality teachings.
Who present the bigger threat to those vulnerable to sex abusers — a limited number of celebrities and politicians or an indeterminate number of potential predators from among 4,000+ bishops and 400,000+ priests. Catholic clerics mainly are unaccountable to any independent and transparent oversight. They also have literally unlimited access to vulnerable victims. And, sadly, they have already shown a disproportionate tendency to abuse, no? Why the disparate journalistic treatment? It makes no sense.
Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the world renowned no-nonsense UK/Australian international human rights lawyer, unexpectedly in a recent Christiane Amanpour CNN interview, seriously undercut CNN’s seemingly papal “star power” exception. Robertson boldly, in effect, called for a massive UK national investigation of all sexual abusers, in both church and state institutions, like the extraordinary one currently underway in Australia. This call by a prominent international lawyer on a prime international cable network for a UK national investigation is a major event. His call, in principle, applies to the USA as well. Perhaps, more US lawyers also will now call on President Obama to act as well.
Another bold Australian human rights advocate, Aletha Blayse, had already similarly called on President Obama to do likewise with a comparable national investigation commission in the US modeled on the Australian Royal Commission. The need for a US national investigation commission appears even greater than the UK’s need.
Indeed, even former US President Jimmy Carter is getting on the expanding bandwagon. As reported by the National Catholic Reporter, he recently addressed by video, the Call To Action at a large convention of Catholic seeking change. Carter, a prominent evangelical Christian, in surprisingly direct and prophetic words, told the Catholic attendees that they faced “a church that models our society in marginalizing many of its women, its people of color and, in fact, all those who question any interpretation by male leaders of Jesus’ mission.” Carter added: “I urge you to give witness to the possibilities that society will change. You are agents of that change. And I stand with you in the valued struggle to move our faith, our country and our planet forward … “. Does Carter have President Obama’s ear on these matters? He may.
As to evident journalistic double standards, CNN in an important segment on sexual abuse looked at the fundamental subject of equal justice under the law, in the context of a “Tale of Two Cities” — Rome/Vatican versus London/Philadelphia, as shown here:
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/11/19/star-power-bewitches-those-vulnerable-to-abuse-says-human-rights-lawyer/
CNN’s segment involves implicitly two interrelated questions: (1) whether alleged sex abusers should receive special treatment if they are famous and powerful, and (2) should the independence of the related criminal investigation vary if it is conducted in Rome at the Vatican as opposed to places like London or Philadelphia? CNN, in effect, answered “No” to the first question, yet made an exception for Pope Francis’ investigation of accused clerical sex abusers, and skipped past the second question, which, of course, should have also been asked squarely and answered “No”.
Occasioned by unfolding multiple sex abuse allegations involving several political leaders, celebrities and Catholic clerics, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour raised the hot topic of “star power” — whether the famous and powerful were beyond independent investigation and above laws that cover sexual abuse that apply to everyday people.
Amanpour referred to the escalating tsunami of allegations of sex abuse involving men ranging from celebrities like TV’s most famous “father figure”, Bill Cosby, to UK political leaders and celebrities and to worldwide Catholic clerics who have preyed on innocent victims, mostly children. Her informed guest was Geoffrey Robertson, QC.
Robertson has written a classic and fair case study of the Vatican’s conduct in the priest abuse scandal, “The Case of the Popes: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse” (2010). He may also have personal insights here as well, as he describes his wife as having been “once a Catholic”.
When Amanapour, who reportedly had been instructed as a child at a UK convent school, gratuitously and revealingly volunteered that Pope Francis wanted to address priest child abuse, Robertson seemingly snickered and interjected, “He hasn’t yet”. This lead Amanpour to amend her statement about Francis quickly to: “He {Pope Francis} says he will, we’ll see and we’ll have to hold him accountable”. She did not reveal how Pope Francis would be held by CNN or anyone else to account if he fails to address the abuse scandal independently and transparently, as he and his predecessors have mostly failed to address it effectively for over a century or more. No one has held a pope accountable for anything significant during that time.
Amanpour, a mother, to her credit, directly asked Robertson what specifically needs to be done in the future to protect those most vulnerable. He replied significantly and pointedly: “I would think the Australian experience of a Royal Commission, which has got total powers to reveal what’s gone wrong and to make recommendations, that’s a very good start,” He added, “Here {UK} we haven’t got started.”
Robertson, in the short interview, did not have the opportunity to elaborate on the subject of the extent to which a UK commission should investigate the Vatican’s conduct, as the Australian commission is trying to do. Pope Francis is currently trying, as his predecessors had, in effect, to investigate and judge his own bishops and priests secretively, clearly neither an independent nor transparent process like the Australian Royal Commission or even the standard UK, Australian or US criminal process.
As it stands now, alleged clerical sex abusers enjoy favorable treatment from a conflicted Vatican process. This cannot, and in my judgment as an international lawyer, will not stand much longer, for the reasons I discuss under “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” below. Famous performers, powerful politicians and protected priests should, under modern jurisprudence, be subject to the same basic laws and comparable criminal procedures as the people whose lives are destroyed by their crimes. That is referred to worldwide as equal justice under the law for all.
Of course, from Robertson’s statements in his book, his considerable experience and simple logic, he would have to concur, I submit, that priests, bishops and even popes, should not be entitled to legal exemptions or special treatment when charged with serious crimes, especially against children. Even US Presidents Nixon and Clinton were not above the law.
Both Amanpour and Robertson also focused on the UK’s Home Secretary’s widely reported difficulties finding an chief investigator who satisfied the public’s desire for an independent and transparent sex abuse investigation. What is worth observing here is how the media, even a highly regarded and experienced TV commentator like CNN’s Amanpour, just accepted at face value the pope’s statement he would investigate, without even trying to consider discussing how to assess whether it would be an independent and transparent investigation. Given the Vatican’s poor record to date, it seems unacceptable to rely so much on Vatican’s bald statements. Pope Francis surprisingly still seems to get a free media pass after 20 months as pope, with little to show on curtailing clerical child abuse. That will not continue indefinitely, for the reasons as I discuss below under “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces”.
Robertson’s clear call on CNN for a broad national Australian style investigation commission is, as mentioned, a major development. Hopefully, he will be personally involved, given his fine record and unusual ability. Indeed, after his considerable work on famous legal cases involving, for example, holding Chilean ex-president General Pinochet to account, to defending WikiLeak’s Julian Assange, Robertson has some star power of his own.
Indeed, Robertson’s chambers’ own “star power ” has just been greatly enhanced by the marriage of actor/activist, George Clooney to Robertson’s able colleague, Alam Alamuddin, who earlier practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell, where I also earlier practiced.
Who knows? Perhaps, George Clooney, a strong advocate for Africa’s poor and for gay rights worldwide, might even decide to add his own considerable star power to secure protection for more children by calling for full accountability under the law for Catholic clerics of all ranks.
Raised reportedly a traditional Irish American Catholic family, Clooney would likely be knowledgeable about the Vatican’s shameful record on protecting children and its anti-contraception and anti-marriage equality crusades.
These crusades have added to the miseries of many Africans, among others. including many children. Now that Pope Francis has appointed conservative South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier as one of the four leaders of Francis’ Final Synod for next October, Clooney’s advocacy here could be especially important for desperate Africans and others.
As “star power” sex abuse scandals are being revealed continually in the UK, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently and significantly said: “We are at an early stage of a reckoning with our past that is on a scale and gravity that just a few months ago might have seemed unimaginable and almost too horrific to contemplate. The task is to peel back the layers of deception that appear to have happened in the past.”
It seem clear that major “star power” sex abuse investigations in the UK are only in their infancy, which should concern Pope Francis. It is unclear whether the recent alleged sex scandals involving, among other matters, exploiting their position of power, that led to the resignations of two of the UK’s Catholic Church’s highest officials, Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien and the UK’s Bishop Kieran Conry, will be included in any UK public investigation. Given their key national positions, they should be included. They would likely be if Geoffrey Robertson’s call for a national commission is heeded.
As to Pope Francis’ new “papal protector of children”, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes, please see the recent detailed, and documented, information, from Anne Barrett Doyle, the excellent researcher at BishopAccountabillity.org, on Cardinal O’Malley’s poor history on child abuse prevention efforts, described in her “Six Ways Cardinal Sean O’Malley Has Mishandled the Abuse Crisis” at:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/OMalley_Fact_Sheet.htm
To date, after a well publicized announcement almost a year ago, O’Malley has mainly had only a few photo ops with Pope Francis and some perfunctory meetings of his inchoate priest child abuse commission, usually timed to deflect negative publicity from UN committee condemnations of the Vatican’s priest child abuse cover-ups and the like. Now in his CBS interview, O’Malley has indicated he will visit the Vatican every two months apparently to check in for the latest photo ops, presumably when he attends the more important Council of Cardinals meetings. It appears the abuse commission will be run by Fr. Robert Oliver, who learned the ropes early as a canon lawyer under Boston’s infamous Cardinal Law. It seems O’Malley will in the interim communicate with Oliver by FAX ! Are children any safer now? Please!
A year after first announcing this commission, O’Malley amazingly stated on 60 Minutes that the go-slow commission was working on some “protocols”, which his subsequent statements seem to suggest will focus more on protecting bishops than children. And CBS did not press him on the commission’s inexplicable and unacceptable organizational delays. It appears to be another instance of a media “pass” for the Vatican.
It seems quite clear that Pope Francis is intentionally pursuing effective child protection reform measures very slowly and almost secretly with this new advisory committee (A) headed by Cardinal Law’s successor, Cardinal O’Malley, who is experienced with “handling” abuse investigations confidentially and slowly, and (B) assisted now, as top assistant, by Cardinals Law’s, O’Malley’s and Mueller’s predictable and pliable longtime canon lawyer, Fr. Robert Oliver.
Twelve years after the Boston Globe Catholic priest child abuse revelations and almost 30 years after Father Thomas Doyle’s abuse report to Cardinals Law, Levada, Bevilacqua, Laghi, et al. and Pope John Paul II, for O’Malley to say on CBS we are looking into “protocols” is a farce. And he seems to have gotten away with it!
Moreover, the Boston Globe has recently reported, based on legal documents the Globe examined, that Pope Francis’ choice to replace Fr. Oliver as the Vatican’s top prosecutor of clerics accused of child abuse, a prominent American Jesuit, was himself one of several Catholic officials who allowed a notorious abusive priest to remain in ministry for years after learning of his long history of sexual abuses. Fr. Robert Geisinger, named in September as the Vatican’s “promoter of justice,’’ was the second-highest-ranking official among the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when leaders were facing multiple abuse complaints against the Rev. Donald J. McGuire..
But, the Globe reported, the Jesuits failed to notify police or take effective steps to prevent McGuire from continuing to molest minors. Documents examined by the Globe show that Geisinger had detailed knowledge of the complaints against McGuire as early as 1995 and advised officials in Chicago on how to discipline McGuire as late as August 2002. McGuire was finally convicted in 2006 by a Wisconsin jury of molesting two boys who had notified civil authorities. He was also convicted on federal charges in 2008 and is serving a 25-year-prison sentence.
The Globe also reported: “It’s astonishing that, for such a high-profile, sensitive position, the Vatican wouldn’t want someone whose background is unassailable, in the sense that there shouldn’t even be questions raised,” Philip F. Lawler, the editor of Catholic World News, said of Geisinger.
Yes, it is astonishing that this Jesuit, with questionable credentials, has joined Fr. Oliver, Cardinal Law’s former canon lawyer, as Pope Francis’ two man priest abuse response team. After a year and a half as pope, is this the best Pope Francis can do to curtail the worst scandal facing the Catholic Church since the Reformation? That seems impossible to conceive. Pope Francis needs to address this scandal effectively now while he still has time.
It would seem more appropriate that Fr. Geisinger and Fr. Oliver be subjects of Vatican investigations, rather than to be the investigators!
I have to wonder, as an international lawyer, if O’Malley, Oliver and Geisinger, all presumably US citizens, were picked to work on the latest papal public relations ploys to “do little or nothing” to really curtail clerical abuse also because the US has not ratified the International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty. Since the ex-pope had already been a subject of a complaint filed with the ICC, it must have occurred to the Vatican and its lawyers that whomever handles these matters can expect to face a further complaint at the ICC, a very serious matter. It might be more difficult to prosecute them under the ICC Treaty as US citizens if they had returned to the USA when the ICC prosecutor finally pursues the Vatican again, as I am confident as an international lawyer she will.
For the current “big picture” on the Vatican’s continuing failures here, please see the recent report by Fr. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., the world’s leading expert on curtailing priest child sexual abuse, at:
http://christiancatholicism.com/how-survivors-have-changed-history-by-thomas-p-doyle-o-p/
Pope Francis seems, for over a year and a half now, to have made as his highest priority, protecting Catholic cardinals and bishops from prosecution, especially related to allegations of child abuse and/or related cover-ups, and of financial corruption, (A) by easing out, quietly and with minimal recriminations, controversial hierarchs by comfortable retirements, demotions or transfers (O’Brien, Brady, Conry, Tebartz-van Elst (Bling Bishop), Liveries, Burke, Rigali, even Wesolowski so far, et al.), and (B) by trying to co-opt completely all independent government investigations of hierarchs with Vatican controlled and secretive proceedings (especially Archbishop Wesolowski), that conveniently also protect against disclosures about other hierarchs that may have been implicated.
The USA situation seems equally bleak as the UK situation for the Vatican. Minneapolis whistleblower and former top diocesan official, Jennifer Haselberger, is reporting on her blog some unusual current Vatican attention possibly to Archbishop Nienstedt’s status and seeking diocesean bankruptcy protection. Meanwhile, Minneapolis media are also currently reporting about child porn video evidence that allegedly may have been destroyed, with a Vatican official’s involvement, by Obama’s Chief of Staff’s brother, Fr, Kevin McDonough. Child porn, and related evidence destruction, appear to involve Federal crimes as well as state crimes, which raise sensitive issues for Obama’s US Justice Department and his new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, a no-nonsense prosecutor.
See : http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/282595041.html
Who knows what is really going on with Obama, but if concerned citizens don’t demand much more Federal law enforcement involvement, including a national commission investigation as openers, like the one that Geoffrey Robertson just called for in the UK and Aletha Blayse has called for in the USA, the USA is likely missing the one “fix” that could really make a long term difference, as the civil litigation process enters its fourth decade, with some good results but not enough.
It is unclear what impact the investigation of the brother of President Obama’s Chief of Staff has had on Obama’s apparent failure to step up here with a national commission, but it is troubling, to me at least. And of course, the media as far as I know has not raised the matter with the White House, as I think they should. Again, the Vatican seems to benefit here from another media pass.
Please see also my related remarks at:
http://christiancatholicism.com/popes-child-abuse-commission-crawls-while-his-family-synod-slips/
http://christiancatholicism.com/crisis-pope-francis-and-the-synod-face-a-mess-in-the-house-of-cards/
Incidentally, Pope Francis thanked Fr. Hans Kung for sending him his important new book on how to reform of the Catholic Church, “Can We Save the Catholic Church” (2013). Here is an excerpt from his book:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/07/save-the-catholic-church-_n_4740030.html
For more, see:
http://amzn.com/0007522029
Hans Kung, a Swiss priest, has for over a half century been a world recognized Catholic scholar, a best selling author on church history and theology and even an occasional adviser to top political leaders. As mentioned, Pope Francis’ preferred theologian, Cardinal Walter Kasper, served as a younger scholar as an assistant to Fr. Kung at Tuebingen University, Germany’s foremost theological faculty.
Hans Kung has for more than a half century engaged with, or influenced, several popes, including his former university colleague, Joseph Ratzinger (ex-Pope Benedict XVI), as well as John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II and even during his student years at the Jesuits’ Gregorian University in Rome, Pope Pius XII. Cardinals and bishops have sought his advice, at least as early as his time serving as a key theological expert with Joseph Ratzinger and Jesuit Karl Rahner at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Fr. Kung has for decades offered to many interested Catholics worldwide, including Cardinals Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and Kasper, his own well articulated and scholarly supported alternative vision to that of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
For Hans Kung’s full warning to the effect that letting the ex-Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, stick around the Vatican would be a real mistake, please see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/hans-kung-pope-benedict-will-be-a-shadow-pope_n_2781248.html
For Charles Curran’s important, informative and insightful new call for Pope Francis to acknowledge the the Vatican has made some mistakes, at least in the are of sexual morality, please :
http://ncronline.org//news/accountability/some-kind-gradualism-curran-says-papacy-should-admit-some-its-teachings-are
For former US President Carter’s address to Call To Action, a large Catholic reform group, supporting a reform agenda for the Catholic Church, please see:
http://ncronline.org/news/censured-priest-carter-support-cta
For Australian human rights activist, Aletha Blayse’s recent call on President Obama, to set up a US national presidential commission to investigate institutional child abuse, like the Australian Royal Commission, please see:
http://christiancatholicism.com/post-elections-obama-kids-the-catholic-church-the-salvation-army-et-al-child-abuse-war-and-the-need-for-a-national-commission-of-inquiry-into-child-abuse-by-aletha-blayse/
My remarks, “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces”, follows:
A Ray of Hope In A Crisis of Trust — A Holy Mess: Pope Francis says Catholics should “create a mess” to help him promote changes in the Catholic Church. The Catholic majority are pleased for now; although many are skeptical. Some see a bright ray of hope shining through the crisis of trust triggered by Church scandals. Others think the window of opportunity for hopeful light from Pope Francis will close soon if he is not prophetic and transparent. Indeed, some even think the Vatican’s current “holy mess” will be its final mess.
Yet, Francis has so far offered few indications about concrete changes he really wants. Many Church leaders seem fearful of any changes. Yet, many Catholics and others are finally pressing for permanent changes. They have by now seen Vatican misconduct up close and too often. They now also understand better that many of the Vatican’s frequently ambiguous, if not vague, basic biblical and historical sources supporting papal power have too often been overplayed, if not misused, in encyclicals and a Catechism, to justify supreme papal power . Significantly, these permanent changes, that the Catholic majority seeks in good conscience and good faith, may differ ultimately from what many in the Vatican now want. As the “infallible Supreme Pontiff” for millions of Catholics, Pope Francis has the best papal opportunity in many years, if not centuries, to fix the broken Catholic Church. This may also be the final papal opportunity to clean up the “holy mess”. Time will soon tell.
This crisis has led to one papal resignation already. Pope Francis appears for many reasons to be the Vatican’s best and last chance to lead on initiating overdue Church changes. Pressures beyond Vatican control can be expected to compel more severe changes if Francis fails to act effectively and transparently. This has already begun to happen with respect to Vatican finances, as a result of the continuing European governmental investigations of multiple misdeeds involving both the Vatican Bank and the Vatican’s own significant portfolio assets. Prospects for criminal prosecutions of Catholic Church officials have seemingly caused the Vatican to focus on overdue reforms in ways that earlier financial penalties and shameful publicity had rarely done before. As with corporate criminal executives worldwide, prosecution risk is generally a uniquely effective deterrent to future crimes by senior leaders.
Almost 150 years ago, facing a similar crisis, Pope Pius IX refused to initiate overdue changes to his arbitrary and ineffective leadership of his Kingdom of the Papal States in central Italy. His key misguided “fix” was to push to be declared “infallible” in July 1870. Two months later, he militarily lost the Kingdom completely to Italian nationalists. Traditional papal protectors like France and Austria-Hungary stood by and passively watched, unwilling to support further papal mismanagement and capriciousness. Will Pope Francis make a similar mistake like Pius IX did by misjudging his precarious position?
The Vatican no longer even has comparable powerful protectors. It is mostly on its own now in the international political arena, like Pius XI’s Vatican was by 1870. Popes since 1870 have counter culturally tried secretively to rule mainly as “semi-divine infallible” absolute monarchs with tightly controlled subordinate bishops worldwide in an increasingly democratic world now linked by an open Internet and an 24/7 worldwide free media. The Vatican is running out of time to adjust to current reality and may be forced to do so soon.
Building governmental pressures indicate currently that if the Vatican does not adopt key changes voluntarily and soon, the Vatican can be expected to be compelled to change involuntarily. This has recently already happened repeatedly, for example, in the financial area. Another recent example of increasing governmental pressure is the Australian national investigation into child abuse in religious organizations. It has already led to the Vatican changing both internal policies, and key leadership in Australia, including Cardinal George Pell, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Papal Nuncio, following a massive effort by government investigators. Similar investigations can be expected in other countries as well.
The Vatican likely will be unable to contain much longer the cumulative and growing pressure, both internal and external, for change. Well publicized Vatican scandals continue to proliferate before a steadily skeptical world audience that is unconvinced either by the Vatican’s limited efforts so far or by its many public relations diversions. Many Catholics and others are becoming more impatient about protecting innocent victims of continuing Vatican scandals and misguided policies — including millions of poor women, children, couples, divorced persons and gay folks. The building governmental pressures indicate increasingly that the Vatican can change voluntarily or, as has already repeatedly happened in the financial area generally and in the child protection area in Australia, the Vatican will be compelled to change involuntarily.
Significantly, the Vatican no longer benefits from the powerful international protection that had enabled the Vatican to avoid overdue changes for centuries. In the current world of democracies and a free press and Internet, the secretive Vatican is vulnerable. Neither the Vatican’s high priced consultants, lawyers and lobbyists, nor the Vatican’s opportunistic financial elite allies, who seek Vatican backing to protect the income inequality status quo that benefits them so disproportionately, are hardly comparable substitutes for the earlier military backing of the Holy Roman Emperor and other powers. These powers had effectively protected the Vatican for centuries from demands for change. No more.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis’ Synod strategy has pulled back the curtain on the Vatican’s fallible and incoherent management structure and helped explain why ex-Pope Benedict had no real choice but to resign. In our 24/7 media world, as the Church’s scandal and mismanagement dominoes fall, a further domino effect will likely take over beyond the Vatican’s power to control it. Fear of this effect has likely contributed to provoking some of the strong opposition that Pope Francis is facing among many in the Church’s leadership.
Pope Francis acts at times like a radicalized realist. He is pressing forward relentlessly on a novel path to change. When necessary, he is even bypassing or sidelining fearful and entrenched opponents and factions. His opponents often overlook the many risks that presently exist in the Vatican’s vulnerable predicament. Pope Francis is evidently well aware of these risks. At times, some of his opponents prefer “to play their fruitless fiddles while Rome burns”.
And of course, money is usually lurking in these factions’ approaches to changes. For example, the German and US bishops seem to have basically different approaches to changes like permitting communion for divorced and remarried Catholics. German bishops depend mainly on a per capita government subsidy, presently totally more than $6 billion a year, that pays the bishops more if more Catholics remain on the government registry; hence the German bishops’ inclusive approach to divorced and remarried Catholics and their families. US bishops, on the other hand, depend significantly on fewer major donors who reward the bishops’ ability to draw out fundamentalists to vote for low-tax right wing US political candidates. These fundamentalists oppose most changes, especially those relating to traditional marriage. Not surprisingly, US bishops tend to oppose changes to traditional marriage sacramental rules. As with understanding approaches to other changes, sometimes it pays to follow the money.
Significantly, the Catholic majority intuitively understands that these risks generated by the present crisis, especially from building governmental pressures on the Vatican, have paradoxically also generated an unprecedented opportunity to restore the Church to an earlier condition — to a Church that Jesus’ first disciples would have recognized as completely consistent with Jesus’ Gospel message of love of God and of neighbors, even of enemies. This will be a welcoming Church again that satisfies the needs of both conservative and progressive Catholics.
Well publicized Catholic Church scandals have triggered a unique situation — both an unprecedented crisis and an unexpected opportunity. This crisis (A) erodes Catholic trust in light of the longstanding gap between the Vatican’s words and deeds, (B) invites outside governmental intervention at a time when the Vatican lacks powerful international protectors like it had for centuries, and (C) underscores the urgent need for key changes in Church structure and doctrine. The crisis has also contributed, as indicated, to one pope’s unanticipated resignation and to the replacement pope’s unpredictable revolution.
Before his 80th birthday in barely two years, Pope Francis can successfully seize the opportunity, follow his conscience and apply his unique status, forceful temperament and popular appeal. Most importantly, he can declare “infallibly” key changes. By then, he will have received new input from his two advisory Synods of Bishops. He has already been enlightened by his valuable almost two years of experience as pope. He now also is unhampered by his prior pastoral positions and unfettered by his earlier ideological constraints as an obedient cardinal, bishop and Jesuit. If Francis fails to act effectively soon, the consequences will likely be quite negative for the leadership of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis can accomplish much if he wants to and finds the wisdom and courage to do so. Equally important, it seems unlikely any of his successors will get a more propitious opportunity in the foreseeable future to adopt long overdue changes. It may be now or never for Pope Francis and the Vatican.
Any needed changes that Pope Francis leaves uncompleted, whether by choice or circumstances, Catholics can then push to complete soon thereafter, with or without Vatican support. Catholics can be expected to do so, given the current Catholic majority’s momentum and mounting democratic governmental pressures. The Catholic majority can expect help in effecting these changes from powerful forces, outside the Church structure, that are now pressing harder for key Vatican changes, like greater accountability and transparency.
The Making of the Unique Present Crisis: The Catholic Church is in the throes of its worst crisis since the Reformation. Vatican leaders in the 16th Century, aided by powerful outside military protectors, had mainly evaded making overdue structural changes, and their successors also managed with outside protection to avoid such changes mostly during the four centuries since.
Nevertheless, Church changes are badly needed now and the Vatican no longer has any dominant outside protectors willing to help it avoid the changes. The changes cannot be deferred much longer if the Vatican wants to avoid both further Church decline and splintering into competing factions and constant interference from outside governments. Pope Francis’ confident and bold approach, and the Vatican’s evident need to avoid further negative repercussions from the current crisis, are both generating some hope now, as well as creating what appears to be the best opportunity since the Reformation for the worldwide Catholic majority to press the Vatican successfully for key overdue changes.
According to Augustine: “God judged it better to bring good out of evil, than to suffer no evil to exist.” Catholics are now pondering whether God will soon bring some good changes out of this evil crisis, likely with some help from either Pope Francis or the worldwide Catholic majority or some international investigators or some combination of all three.
There are now hopeful indications (A) that the Catholic Church may restore some of its management structure to its earliest consensual, bottom up and distributed form, from its current coercive, top down and hierarchical form, and (B) that some questionable traditional Church teachings may change to fit mercifully the actual lived experience of sincere Catholics and to conform honestly to current biblical, historical and scientific scholarship, all with or without the Vatican’s affirmative assistance.
The scandals underlying the crisis have deeply discouraged millions of concerned Catholics, yet many of them now also see a new ray of hope. This hope springs less from Pope Francis’ skillful public relations efforts than from the likelihood that the present crisis will necessarily help accelerate Church changes. Moreover, some of these changes are ones that the usually silent Catholic majority can and likely will play a key role in bringing about. This would be a refreshing change in itself for the Catholic majority, a change from only being able to react passively to misguided top down Vatican decisions dictated by a celibate, aging, conflicted and self perpetuating all male leadership.
It appears likely now that the Pope Francis will soon make, or be induced by outside pressures to make, major structural and other changes — changes that the Vatican had been able to resist making for centuries under earlier better positioned popes. Powerful governmental, legal and media forces are now pressing from the outside for changes, whether the presently weakened Vatican wants changes or not.
While Pope Francis mostly can only play the bad cards that ex-Pope Benedict dealt him, he can use both his papal authority over bishops and the Catholic majority and this mounting outside pressure, enhanced by the power of his personal popularity and his strong will, to help convince his entrenched Vatican opposition that voluntary Church changes are more in their interest than the otherwise inevitable involuntary changes could be expected to be.
Paradoxically, these anticipated changes can also help restore the Catholic Church to one that is much closer, in essential structure and compassionate spirit, than the current Church is to the Church that Jesus’ earliest disciples, including prominently some women, left behind for over three centuries.
Pope Francis has brought fresh hopes after centuries of papal evasions. Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, by 1520 had sought similar changes to an earlier Vatican bureaucracy then slithering through major scandals. Only military protection initially from the Holy Roman Emperor ultimately saved, for another 350 years until 1870, the Vatican’s centuries old Kingdom of the Papal States from many of the religious wars, internal divisions and radical reforms that followed Luther’s revolt. But Vatican scandals and structural shortcomings continued mostly as unresolved problems.
The usually well positioned papacy generally remained unchanged structurally after the Reformation until the popes’ imperial protectors faded by 1870 and then finally disappeared in the First World War. This was almost 1,600 years after the powerful Roman Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century first sought, often in practice by threats and bribes, to redirect the early Catholic Church leadership to become part of his imperial bureaucracy. Constantine’s and his successor’s imperial designs still infuse the current Vatican’s coercive and top down leadership structure.
In 1870, Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) lost his last major monarchical protector due to the Franco-Prussian War. Pius IX then, without a strong outside protector, promptly lost the Kingdom of the Papal States finally on September 20, 1870 to a direct military assault on the Vatican by Italian nationalists. Both the Vatican and the Italians suffered fatalities. Two months prior to this assault, Pius IX had desperately tried to offset some of the projected negative effects of the Vatican’s expected military and political defeats. He sought to salvage some papal prestige on July 18, 1870, by being declared infallible at the First Vatican Council (Vatican I) that then soon ended prematurely due mainly to the military risks.
A new era of “semi-divine Supreme Pontiffs” thus began in 1870 and still continues under Pope Francis today, as he presses to solidify, at least temporarily, his extensive power over the Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia, as well as over the world’s bishops.
The powerful prestige of infallibility has been the keystone of papal power from 1870 until now. Papal infallibility, ironically, has also been the tragic papal flaw. Concerns for preserving a claim to being infallible have, it seems, prevented politically insecure popes from making long overdue changes out of fear of appearing to be fallible and, yes, a mere mortal.
This almost obsessive papal concern has been quite evident, for example, in the continuing papal opposition to contraception, mainly based on outdated natural law philosophy and medieval physiology, despite the overwhelming contrary witness in good conscience of the Catholic majority, and the latest strong and contrary evidence from natural science and modern philosophy.
Incidentally, the Vatican’s opposition to family planning seems to be a “win win” proposition for the Catholic leadership and a “lose lose” situation for couples. especially with other children, who cannot afford more children financially or emotionally. From the Vatican’s perspective, if Catholic babies survive and thrive, they can then become potential future Church donors and docile voters to enhance the Vatican’s position in bargains with desperate vote seeking political forces. If the babies do not thrive, they become their parents’ or society’s problems, not the Vatican’s to be sure.
Nevertheless, the Vatican’s strong pro-pregnancy opposition to contraception is unlikely to generate at current birthrates enough new Catholic babies to offset the Church’s escalating exodus among the practicing Catholic majority. This ongoing net decline in practicing Catholics is further eroding the Vatican’s already declining political influence and financial resources.
Ironically, the more that recent popes press their opposition to positive ongoing human advances like pharmaceutical contraception, that enable couples, especially poor women, to plan their families, the less infallible they appear to be to more Catholics. The present crisis, exacerbated by the disarray among the pope and some cardinals and bishops exhibited at the recent Vatican Synod that ironically had been intended to curtail part of this crisis, also has put unsustainable additional weight on the already weak claim to papal infallibility.
For almost 150 years until now, popes have been shrewdly able, despite the loss by 1870 of their actual Kingdom in central Italy, to maneuver politically, diplomatically and financially to retain some of their international influence, operational independence, considerable wealth and legal immunity, free of international laws and foreign restraints. Are the Vatican’s unique international status and contrived legal immunity claim both now about to collapse in the present crisis? Yes, it appears that the Vatican’s unique status and legal immunity are both likely facing collapse soon enough, no matter what Pope Francis now does.
Many of the problems Luther initially noted in 1517 remained unresolved even after Vatican I in 1870, and still remain unresolved. These include Luther’s issues with the Vatican’s top down, coercive and unaccountable Renaissance structure and with recent popes’ historically and biblically questionable, if not idolatrous, claim of unaccountable absolute papal power. Vatican I was terminated abruptly and prematurely due mainly to the military risks, before the relationship of bishops and the Catholic majority to the newly proclaimed infallible popes could be addressed fully. Pius XI and many of his successors, through Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013), have at times used this uncompleted and unexpected result for almost 150 years to extend papal power over bishops and the Catholic majority.
These continuing problems remain after (A) unsuccessful Vatican efforts prior to 1945 to seek favorable and special political arrangements with powerful leaders, such as with the Fascist dictators of Italy, Germany and Spain, (B) numerous Vatican efforts since 1945 to solidify in many countries favorable arrangements with various powerful political, financial and media elites, and (C) significant and still uncompleted and frustrated reform efforts from 1962 to 1965 at the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II).
Most significantly, there are no longer any Holy Roman Emperors, or any other powerful monarchs, dictators or even democratically elected leaders, who appear willing to save the Vatican from facing the international legal and political consequences of its seeming sins and harmful policies. On the contrary, outside governments are already currently and forcefully pressing the Vatican firmly on its financial misconduct. Moreover, these outside forces are now also pressing hard, including through UN committees and national investigation commissions, on other Vatican misconduct, including facilitating priest child abuse.
The current crisis paradoxically presents all Catholics worldwide with an unprecedented, even hopeful, opportunity to resolve longstanding problems, some that even predate Luther. Whether the Vatican will on its own initiative seize this opportunity positively or will imprudently wait, like Pius IX did in 1870, (A) to be invaded, now by Italian, Australian and other government investigators and prosecutors, and (B) to be forced to accept the latest geopolitical reality, remains to be seen.
Catholics believe that God providentially guides their Church in mysterious ways. Some even wonder if God is not using this crisis as an opening for Church structural reforms overdue for centuries. Catholics increasingly are losing trust in their top leadership and want effective changes now. Many Catholics are curtailing their donations or just leaving the Church. Others are remaining nominally, but opting out of many Church rituals and doctrines for themselves and their children. And many younger Catholics are at best just indifferent about participation in a seemingly out of touch organization run, in effect from all appearances, as an all male absolute monarchy for the benefit of a few.
The well publicized Church scandals include clerical sexual misconduct and widespread child abuse, as well as financial corruption and excesses — some longstanding and pervasive. As mentioned above, this crisis paradoxically may offer Catholics some hope and the best opportunity since the Reformation to restore the Church to the consensual, bottom up and distributed management structure that Jesus’ first disciples, prominently including women, originally left behind for centuries.
Catholics overwhelmingly want leaders they can trust, which essentially means leaders who are accountable, not absolute, and who act transparently, not secretively. Given the Catholic Church’s pervasive worldwide influence and its universal potential as a strong public force, and counterweight to non-religious leaders, for either good or evil, the issue of how the Catholic Church is structured matters to all the world’s citizens, and to their political leaders as well.
Governments worldwide are responding more actively to citizen complaints and media pressure about these Church scandals by investigating and prosecuting clerical crimes being revealed. Catholics elect and influence their political leaders, who in turn can influence Church leaders, who currently remain completely free of any democratic oversight by the Catholic majority.
At present, the pope is still the last word on almost all matters concerning the Church and its leadership and laws, even on matters that impact the overall society like access to contraception and protection of children. The pope, as Supreme Pontiff, is purportedly accountable to nobody else, which is at the heart of the present crisis. Making sure no man is above the law is the modern antidote to the ailment of modern popes who seek to be, and to operate as, Supreme Pontiff without accountability.
Citizens worldwide can be expected steadily and increasingly to encourage their political leaders to press the Vatican for major Church structural reforms, especially by these leaders enacting and enforcing vigorously civil laws against Catholic leaders who commit crimes. This legal process, especially prosecutions of alleged crimes, will very likely, if not inevitably, lead to the outside imposition of Church structural reforms in the near term if the Vatican fails to adopt the reforms on its own initiative.
Continually hard pressed Vatican leaders really have no alternative, as earlier European absolute monarchs in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere painfully learned, other than to submit to independent oversight by the Catholic majority.
Meanwhile, the Vatican is risking the division of the Church into numerous splinter cults and the incarceration of some of its leaders for crimes related to the sexual and financial scandals, as the Catholic hierarchy wastes precious time at Synods debating arcane theological topics like graduality.
This crisis for the “99.99% Catholic faithful majority” appears to be mainly about TRUST. For many of them, it is mostly about losing trust in the “0.01% Catholic leadership minority”, given the leadership’s frequently flawed and unaccountable management and the scandalous and repetitive misbehavior of too many of them.
By contrast, the crisis for the leadership minority appears to be mainly about SURVIVAL. For many cardinals, bishops and priests, this crisis seems too often to be largely about trying to save at all costs the current top down and coercive Church structure that has supported and rewarded many of them so handsomely.
The present crisis has already led to unintended negative consequences — even to unprecedented and growing challenges to worldwide Catholicism, including: (A) a leadership challenge, to the Pope’s ethical authority and doctrinal infallibility as the “last word”; (B) a political challenge, to the Vatican’s modern immunity from outside governmental oversight and to its opportunistic support of plutocratic political promoters;(C) a financial challenge, to the Vatican’s long term financial viability and to its self interested arrangements with selective financial, oil and media moguls; and (D) a competitive challenge, to the Catholic Church’s prospects in its continuing competition with other Christian and world religions, especially Islam, and even with non-religious secularism.
These accelerating challenges surely have influenced, if not at times dictated, the Vatican’s recent tactics, and even its public style on many issues. This historically is almost a new papal experience, since modern popes mostly had operated secretly as near absolute monarchs for centuries. It is becoming increasingly evident, however, that popular popes alone are insufficient to resolve the crisis — the Vatican can no longer defer confronting these challenges fully, honestly, transparently and promptly, even if they would rather defer them as recent popes often have. Both internal Church political factions, and external governmental legal forces, are increasingly pressing for greater papal accountability, sooner rather than later. Deferral is no longer a viable papal alternative.
Jesus left a short, simple and revolutionary oral message of “Good News” about a caring and trustworthy God. Jesus, it appears, thought this message could be passed on by word of mouth by his usually uneducated disciples. 2,000 years later the oral message has been buried seemingly under millions of written words by thousands of scribes that have obscured Jesus’ direct simplicity, often to advance the personal agenda of those overseeing the scribes with their countless and opportunistic “explications” of what Jesus really meant.
Was Jesus naive or foolish? And is his originally oral message essentially that simple? Even a quick perusal of the New Testament indicates Jesus’ core message is simple and direct, especially when stripped of some of the heavily philosophical and selectively imposed explications in Latin and Greek. This often stultifying and self serving explication process was most recently illustrated amply by the Catechism of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Will the Vatican now finally begin to try to remove the self serving papal gloss and counterproductive clerical crust that have for many centuries obscured Jesus’ radical and revolutionary Good News — to trust in a caring God and to love one’s neighbors, even enemies, as oneself? Or will the the Catholic leadership minority once again futilely try to contain the current crisis within its latest hierarchical structure?
Will the Church leadership minority now restore its management structure to the early Church’s consensual and distributed network of bishops accountable to the faithful majority from the current coercive, top down and unaccountable model? And will the leadership minority now restore its general Church-state policy to Jesus’ earliest approach of peaceful coexistence with political leaders and prophetic witness for the poor and disadvantaged from the current Vatican approach that seeks opportunistic financial, legal and other leadership preferences in exchange for papal political support?
Hopefully, the coercive and top down Vatican will finally soon restore, or be required to restore, some meaningful consensual and bottom up power to the Catholic faithful majority. Anything less will merely be at best a temporary glue on a crumbling structure. 500 years after Luther had been more than enough time to fix the structure, but the Vatican has failed, and is continuing to fail, to do so. It will continue to fail unless and until it submits to effective and transparent oversight by the Catholic majority, as almost all other absolute monarchies in history have already learned, often the hard way following violent revolutions.
A consensual and bottom up Church management approach had been a common norm in the Church that Jesus’ disciples, including women, left behind for the first three centuries. That was before the decisive top down takeover, in effect, of the Church hierarchy that began under the powerful Roman Emperor Constantine and his imperial successors. Constantine’s top down and coercive Fourth Century legacy has survived in Rome in key respects, and still fundamentally overshadows Vatican decision making and operations. This must and will change, perhaps much sooner than the Vatican presently anticipates.
As indicated with Pius IX’s underestimation of Italian nationalists, and Pius XI’s and Pius XII’s overestimation of Mussolini’s and Hitler’s protections, whatever else infallibility encompasses, international politics is evidently excluded. Time will soon tell if the current Vatican leaders are any wiser than their modern predecessors were.
Millions of disrespected couples, women, children, divorced and gay persons and other innocent and marginalized victims of the Vatican’s current unchristian policies deserve the initiation of positive Church changes, as soon as practicable. Moreover, the beneficial worldwide potential for Jesus’ simple message of loving God and one’s neighbor, including enemies, needs to be freed of the blinders and constraints that too many popes have opportunistically and selectively imposed on it for centuries. Not only were modern popes “Prisoners of the Vatican” unnecessarily. So was Jesus.
It is important in my judgment that citizens of the world, especially Catholics, weigh in now strongly and often, and try to influence the potential Vatican outcomes. Since the Vatican operates mostly secretively and often covers its real objectives with frequent and well funded media diversions, I have at times tried to draw my best inferences and projected what seemed to me to be likely outcomes, in light of the evidence available to me and my long legal experience. Some, of course, will object, but this appears necessary to assess the actions of an organization that still too often is shown to be dissembling considerably.
My approach is intended to assist concerned readers in acting timely and proactively to advance structural and other reforms, and not just reacting defensively, after the fact, to papal faits accomplis. It is the Church of all Catholics, including the 99.99% faithful majority, and not just of the 0,01% leadership minority, and all need to weigh in now as their situations permit.
The present crisis presents major risks for the Catholic Church’s leadership minority. Providentially, it also presents an unprecedented opportunity for the Catholic majority to recover their Church from the clerical clique that centuries ago hijacked Jesus’ message. By recovering their Church, Catholics can then re-direct it and unleash the full potential of Jesus’ simple message of love of God and neighbor to a world that at times seems eager to hear that needed message of hope and peace.
The Current Unprecedented Situation:A free media in a steadily more accountable world is pulling back the Vatican’s dark curtain letting all see the scandals, up close and personal. Luther, as mentioned above, had complained loudly about similar scandals as early as 1517. Yet, it took 500 years for the many misdeeds of Pope Alexander VI and other Renaissance clerics to be featured in several “Borgia TV Series”. Today, the latest “Secrets of the Vatican” are widely reported almost simultaneously, as in a recent PBS documentary by that name covering several current Vatican scandals.
Moreover, Renaissance popes were protected by a powerful Holy Roman Emperor whose last successor lost power a century ago. Politically and militarily, popes since the end of the Second World War in 1945 have been dependent for protection and support mainly on Western democratically elected leaders.
Even now after 1700 years, however, Constantine’s Fourth Century legacy of an imperial top down and coercive leadership structure remains influential in Rome, centuries after most of the world had rejected unaccountable monarchs. European monarchical protection of the Vatican diminished after 1850 and disappeared completely by 1918, replaced soon thereafter with de facto alliances with Fascist dictators in Italy and Germany and Spain until Italy and Germany’s defeat by 1945.
As late as 1903, significantly, the Austria-Hungary Emperor reportedly vetoed a top contender in a papal election leading to the election of Pope Pius X. That was the last election prior to the start of World War I, in which the Austria Hungary Empire was dismembered, in effect, ending imperial veto power in papal elections. That veto power, however, had sometimes worked positively to restrain elections of some less dependable papal candidates.
The defeat of the Fascist powers by 1945 has contributed to popes subsequently having almost to scramble opportunistically at times to make arrangements on a local basis with many countries for political protection and financial advantage for the Vatican and its bishops and priests. These papal arrangements have often been negotiated with local dictators and wealthy elites, as well as with some democratically elected leaders seeking local papal political support as opportunities arose in particular countries, most noticeably Pope John Paul II’s close ties with US President Ronald Reagan and his right wing Republican successors, including President George W. Bush.
Popes Benedict XVI and Pope Francis continued to maintain close ties with right wing US Republicans and continue to provide them with political support through the US bishops and otherwise. This is reportedly already underway for the 2016 US presidential election. Popes tend to be more pragmatic than ideological when under considerable pressures as in the present crisis.
With the unrelenting spotlight that the 24/7 modern media now shines, the timeless “philosopher king” leadership question of Plato’s Republic now arises in Rome publicly and dramatically: Can any man, even a popular pope, be trusted honestly to face a major crisis of trust like the Vatican is facing, and to set important policies for over a billion people, unless he is truly accountable to others and also decides key issues transparently?
Given the current pope’s age, the further question arises, are his successors also to be trusted without accountability? What have Catholics learned from the sordid history of bad popes, as well as from the revelations of current scandals that seem at times to be as sordid as the earlier scandals? Given the present crisis, the Vatican’s procedures and processes, now and in the future, in evaluating and adopting reforms are almost as important as the potential substantive reforms themselves.
Pope Francis had little choice, it appears, but to try to contain this crisis of trust, after suddenly, in the midst of this crisis, unexpectedly succeeding the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. Francis’ Synods of Bishops strategy, his ongoing sophisticated and well funded media campaign, and his efforts to shore up favorable arrangements with some powerful world leaders of government, finance and media, all appear to be key parts of his strategy to contain this crisis.
The Vatican under the current pope and his successor surely must soon either “lead and act”, or they will most likely be compelled, by internal and external pressure, to “follow and react”. Neither this present crisis of trust, nor the resulting challenges, can be avoided much longer to any significant extent.
Some Relevant Recent History: The Vatican under Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) had aligned itself in the Second World War (1939-1945) with the once seemingly invincible, but losing Fascist dictators, Hitler and Mussolini and their “neutral” ally, Franco. Pius XII had been born into a Roman family that had been immersed earlier in the monarchical Papal States. He served for almost two decades under the autocratic Pope Pius XI (1921-1939). A top down coercive leadership must have seemed natural to Pius XII.
Nevertheless, it had become increasingly clear by Mussolini’s removal in July 1943 that Western autocratic structures were losing to Western democratic structures and that major Catholic Church reforms were sorely needed, if not inevitable. By September 1943, Pius XII was endorsing modern biblical scholarship, which eventually planted the seeds that undermine some papal claims as Supreme Pontiff.
Pius XII’s less well born immediate successor, Pope John XXIII (1958-1963), an experienced diplomat and church historian, knew change was inevitable in the postwar situation populated by powerful Western democracies and decided boldly in early 1959, after only a short time as pope, that major Church reforms were badly needed and even overdue. This was clearly evident, especially after the defeat of the Vatican’s powerful European allies, Italy and Germany, and the takeover by 1950 of Eastern European Catholic countries like Poland, Hungary, Croatia and the Baltic States, by the Soviets.
John XXIII must have also understood that as an “infallible pope” that he could ultimately control the key outcomes of the Second Vatican Council (1962- 1965), or “Vatican II”. He called for the Council in 1959 less than a decade after Pius XII had in 1950 exercised the ultimate papal “infallibility power” in declaring Mary’s Assumption. That dramatic papal exercise appears to have been a desperate attempt to flex his “semi-divine infallibility” power after suffering the defeat of his Fascist allies and in the face at the time of the rise of Soviet power under Stalin.
So John XXIII could risk letting the 2,500 plus Vatican II bishops talk with some freedom at Vatican II. As Pope, he would still have the last say. Pope Francis seems to have a similar understanding that he has the last word no matter what his current Synods may decide or however the Synod bishops may vote. For modern popes since the 1870′s declaration of papal infallibility, councils like Vatican II and Synods of Bishops are ultimately only advisory. This positions Francis to act decisively on Synod Bishops’ advice and otherwise.
Unfortunately, John XXIII died in 1963 before he could implement many essential reforms as he may have planned to do. John had served in key diplomatic posts directly under two autocratic popes, Pius XI and Pius XII. These popes had enjoyed until 1945 powerful Fascist protection and support. John XXIII evidently understood well that the days of unaccountable autocratic popes protected by conservative European monarchs or Fascist dictators were over, especially with the postwar expansion of democratically accountable governments in many Catholic countries, including Italy and Germany.
John XXIII in January 1959 had suddenly, unexpectedly and almost haphazardly announced publicly his reform intentions and initiated the preparation for the massive 2,500 plus bishops’ Second Vatican Council. His old friend, Paul VI, who was an experienced Vatican bureaucrat and his successor, reportedly thought in 1959 that John was stirring up a “hornets’ nest”. Similarly, Pope Francis appears intentionally now to be “creating a mess” with his unusual Synods. Undeterred, however, by John XXIII’s unexpected boldness and realizing that a retrenchment opportunity had been presented by John’s death early in the Council’s proceedings, the Vatican’s “hornets” reacted, specifically some of its entrenched bureaucrats like powerful Cardinal Ottaviani (1890-1979), and their preferred choices of subsequent Curial accommodating Popes, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
These Vatican bureaucrats like Ottaviani and their successors, in effect, sidelined several key Vatican II era reforms for a half century with their “reform of the reform”, generally, a rhetorical euphemism for obstruction. These sidelined reforms included those relating to papal power sharing, married priests, contraception and even priest child abuse.
These and other inevitable reforms can no longer be sidelined by the Vatican without risking dire consequences, given the escalating internal and external pressures at present on the Vatican. Maintaining, at times, the almost medieval Vatican status quo is no longer a papal option, as it may earlier have been for Pope Francis’ predecessors.
This current crisis is now forcing the Vatican to try harder (A) to defend its exclusive doctrinal authority, (B) to maximize its wealth and solidify its allies among powerful national elites, and (C) to counter its religious competitors, as it tries try to survive reasonably intact.
After a half century of frequent papal resistance and Vatican bureaucratic diversions that thwarted key elements of John XXIII’s and Vatican II’s reform approach, Pope Francis appears to be seeking to resume some of what John XXIII had tried to initiate. But Francis may not be doing enough, soon enough, as he approaches his eightieth birthday in two years.
Many Catholics’ mistrust has now even led some of the Catholic 99.99% publicly to question the Vatican’s selective interpretation and application of Jesus’ simple Gospel message of love of God and neighbor. The Vatican’s opportunistic approach to the Gospels had earlier been at least widely tolerated, if not accepted by many Catholics. Now even at the initial Vatican Synod of the Family in October 2014, a significant number of bishops selected by prior conservative popes even voted against several traditional Vatican positions. Such episcopal independence had been scarce since 1980 under the prior two popes.
The Vatican dam has burst under the pressure of the current scandals and the the floods being released will not likely by contained by anything short of a return to the consensual, bottom up approach that prevailed in the Church and that Jesus’ disciples, including some women, left behind for over three centuries. The current coercive and top down papal management structure is not likely to contain the floods much longer, without major reforms, including especially power sharing with an independent Catholic majority. Cardinals and bishops who resist this pressure will likely be swept away by the flood of reforms, as happened with Cardinal Raymond Burke even before Pope Francis strengthened his authority to remove bishops.
Strategic Alternatives and Assumptions: Any serious and objective assessment of this current Church crisis must consider at the outset several key questions. How is Pope Francis, after almost two years as pope, addressing this current crisis, as well as the related challenges to the Pope’s moral leadership and doctrinal authority, to the Vatican’s political and financial positions, and to the Catholic Church’s competitive advantage that this crisis has dramatically and unexpectedly provoked? What are Francis’ strategic options to resolve the crisis and which strategy has he selected? Is his selected strategy based on valid assumptions and truthful analysis? What are the likely outcomes from this crisis for the Vatican?
The Expanding Crisis and Interplay of Related Challenges: The current Catholic Church crisis, and the four challenges the crisis has provoked, have been occasioned by almost unending scandals These scandals involve priest child abuse, bishop misconduct and financial corruption. The yet uncontrolled scandals have caused the ongoing crisis, while the insatiable 24/7 media cycle and the Internet are accelerating it non-stop.
The scandal fallout is even leading many Catholics to question the previously accepted assumption that “The Holy Father knows best.” Basic questions now arise about infallible papal authority, as well as the Vatican’s hierarchical structure and unquestioned control of biblical and moral theology, especially regarding sexual and gender matters.
Pope Francis indicated as the new pope at the World Youth Congress in July 2013 that he wanted a “mess” to stimulate change, and now he has one he helped create. He cannot now avoid confronting and attempting to defuse the expanding crisis, since it has unleashed unstoppable international legal and political responses. Previously, modern popes could discuss some pressing issues, while also deferring other important issues, and then sit on or even avoid the implications of these discussions, even for a half century as with some of the key issues discussed in the 1960′s during the Second Vatican Council period, such as married priests, power sharing among bishops and contraception.
No more! With the pressure from the current crisis increasing, the Vatican can no longer just table these issues, and must address them now, along with additional significant issues, like (A) holding bishops accountable to the 99.9% faithful majority, (B) ordaining women priests, (C) celebrating gay marriages, (D) welcoming divorced and remarried Catholics at Mass, and (E) protecting children.
These scandals in today’s wide open media world have created unprecedented reputational, political, financial and competitive risks and also generated related challenges for the Vatican. One pope has already resigned under pressure, the first to do so in almost 600 years. Many tough questions, rarely asked earlier, are now proliferating rapidly and are being raised constantly and publicly. The days of popes on pedestals are over permanently, notwithstanding the rapid acceleration of Pope Francis’ new pope saint making spree as part of his crisis response.
Will Pope Francis be next to resign under similar pressure? Who will succeed him? How many Vatican officials are now being investigated by outside government prosecutors? Could the Vatican financially go broke, as over a dozen US dioceses and religious orders already have, under the weight of rising scandal related legal costs and declining donations and subsidies? Will even more Catholics now leave the Church seeking greener pastures and truer shepherds?
Until recently, the Vatican’s decades’ old strategy aimed simultaneously and defensively at protection and preservation. Protecting, as the Vatican’s highest priority, its top leaders from governmental legal accountability, has meant employing media management tactics with help, it appears from billionaire media masters and seeking opportunistic arrangements with powerful political leaders and wealthy financial barons.
Preserving Vatican wealth and membership statistics, both to maximize its eroding income worldwide and to reverse declining Catholic birth and retention rates in key countries, has meant continuing to pursue a “pro billionaire” fundraising approach and a “pro-pregnancy” population policy. This population policy had been earlier declared in Pope Pius XI’s 1930 anti-birth control papal encyclical occasioned by both the rising threat of atheistic Soviet communism against a declining Western European birthrate and the military ambitions of Pius XI’s key protector, Mussolini. Today, the Vatican’s pro-baby policy appears directed at the Vatican’s near obsession with the threat of radical Islam and Muslims’ high birth rate.
The Vatican’s defensive instruments of power currently include (A) endlessly quoting in Vatican public relations releases from Jesus’ appealing message of brotherly love, while avoiding the message too often in actual Vatican actions, (B) constantly fronting a smiling “semi-divine infallible pope”, preferably hugging babies, (C) shrewdly managing a self interested, obedient and self perpetuating hierarchy, (D) carefully applying its significant worldwide wealth advantage, and (E) tightly controlling its considerable political influence in key countries, like the USA and Germany.
The major current Church challenges, on top of the present scandal crisis, are:
(A) A leadership challenge — diminishing papal authority and declining adherents, as millions of older Catholics are leaving the Church, many due the Vatican’s rigid sexual policies and its mismanagement of the scandals, while many younger Catholics are similarly disaffected and are increasingly marrying in non-Church ceremonies, are having and baptizing fewer Catholic babies, and are even avoiding or deferring the early introduction of their children to the Church’s formative indoctrination process associated with First Communion/First Confession;
(B) A political challenge — to the Vatican’s modern immunity from outside governmental oversight and to the Vatican’s opportunistic arrangements with plutocratic political promoters ;
(C) A financial challenge — declining personal donations and governmental subsidies while facing unending legal expenses and litigation penalties — fewer Catholics are donating, while billions in scandal related expenses are still being incurred, as more dioceses go broke and bankrupt and more Churches and schools are closed and sold off; and
(D) A competitive challenge — increasing competition from other faiths and from secularism, ranging from Christian pentecostals, to Islamic converts, to the growing category of “nones”, unaffiliated with any faith group.
Many of the world’s billion Catholics worry increasingly about the future of their scandal infected Church. While many millions still support the Catholic Church devoutly, millions of others, including women, children, poor couples, divorced and remarried, gay folks and even non-Catholics, suffer under Vatican policies that often seem unchristian and unnecessary.
Pope Francis must currently confront this crisis and these challenges. He needs a comprehensive strategy to do so. His individual actions cannot really be assessed adequately or intelligently, except in the context of his overall strategy.
Strategic Alternatives Presently Available to the Vatican: Pope Francis has given many Catholics new hope for a Church cure, for positive changes and for overdue reforms. Recent developments make clear that major changes for the papal monarchy are underway and that more are coming. When and how the newest changes may come surely raise complicated questions that demand responses, even if “final answers” are yet unavailable.
Some Catholic Church changes may come voluntarily and others involuntarily, but come soon they will to the current papal monarchy, as they long ago came to other European monarchies. Depending on the specific change, either voluntary consensus among many Catholics or involuntary coercion from outside governments (as has already occurred in the financial area), or both, are driving these changes relentlessly. As a Catholic, I hope the changes come voluntarily. As an international lawyer, I expect the major changes will come involuntarily in any event, if needed voluntary changes are not implemented soon.
Of course. the Church’s future options necessarily depend on, and are limited by, its present situation, as influenced by its unique history and traditions. Pope Francis cannot start afresh. He also faces considerable opposition from many sides. In some respects, Pope Francis’ situation today is like that of Pope Pius IX, who lost his large Papal States’ kingdom a century and a half ago to outside Italian governmental forces. Pius XI tried to recover some lost power by being “declared infallible” at the 1870 First Vatican Council. That move, however, may have created more problems for the Church than it solved.
Pope Francis appears similarly desperately to be trying, with recent papal saint making spectacles and his Synods of Bishops, to make changes to try to head off some of the likely changes he may anticipate being imposed on the Church by escalating outside government pressure. His fine tuning the rules recently on his power to remove bishops suggests he does not plan on endless debates with the likes of Cardinal Burke.
Moreover, Pope Francis must try to follow Jesus’ message closely if he wants to succeed. But traditions about Jesus, especially the all important “Good News” of the four Gospels, have been interpreted in different ways, prophetically, theologically and even politically, by earlier Catholic leaders and thinkers. These influential leaders and thinkers and their specific interpretations have generally dominated Church dogma and practice over much of its 2,000 year history, often in unpredictable ways at times with unanticipated consequences.
For much of this long period, popes benefited from considerable protection from powerful monarchs, and at times even tyrants. But this has generally no longer been the case since the end of Fascist hegemony in Germany and Italy by 1945. Since then, the Vatican has had to nimbly weave its web of political protection by trading Vatican support on an ad hoc opportunistic basis for national arrangements. These alliances ranged from close ties since the 1980′s with elected US Republican leaders to alliances with military dictators in Latin America and Africa.
Importantly, the Bible, including the Catholic New Testament, has a complex and complicated origin and multiple textual, linguistic, and cultural sources. It is now well known by scholars that the Bible is no straightforward guidebook on many modern problems. Early Church history also is poorly documented, quite diverse and easily manipulated by selective sourcing and quotations.
Indeed, millions of words have been written by modern biblical and church history scholars. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has frequently been greater rather than less uncertainty about some important aspects of Jesus’ reported words and deeds and about some of his “clear mandates”, than had sometimes been assumed as beyond question by earlier popes. “The Tradition is …”, is at times much more complicated than modern popes have sometimes suggested in their encyclicals and the Catechism.
The Vatican’s Current Strategy and Strategic Assumptions: Modern popes, including Francis, in their key dogmatic and moral pronouncements and proclaimed pastoral policies and practices, rely on many assumptions, occasionally unstated ones, sometimes selectively derived from preferred “in house” Catholic scholarship on scripture, history and theology. There are several assumptions in essential areas that are less certain than at times presented by self interested Vatican officials and their opportunistic apologists.
These assumptions are a major part of the foundation for the Vatican’s claims about the Church’s (A) origins and sources, including some key New Testament mandates, (B) structure, leadership and management, and (C) dogma and practice. On closer inspection, these assumptions are more doubtful than modern popes, including Pope Francis, have at times indicated and the propositions popes construct on these assumptions are often more uncertain than not.
By acknowledging these uncertainties now, some “unchangeable” dogmas and practices at variance with the lived experiences and informed consciences of hundreds of millions of Catholics can, and will be, changed voluntarily or involuntarily by the Vatican, to conform truthfully and honestly to Catholics’ current knowledge of, and daily experience, with reality. These truthful acknowledgements are often, as well, an essential prerequisite for the Vatican to survive the crisis and challenges it must face to survive.
The Vatican can no longer avoid addressing the current relentless questioning of some of its key assumptions, given the growth in the Catholic scholarship community beyond Vatican control, as well as the 24/7 media coverage and Internet revelations that at times undercut Vatican positions. And future papal pronouncements, without ample underlying independent scholarly support, are hardly going to influence many Catholics for long. The Vatican can no longer address modern day “Galileos” solely by placing them under house arrest.
Acknowledging honestly the uncertainty of the Vatican’s assumptions is fundamentally important, and also provides additional reasons to hope that positive changes in Church structure and doctrines are likely in the near term. If, as Jesus reportedly said, the truth makes us free, it is mandatory that the Church’s options for change henceforth be pursued based honestly on truthful assumptions, and not opportunistically on “selective truths”, as at times still occurs and has also occurred in the past.
Pope Francis had as a young Jesuit provincial in Argentina direct experience with the outside government power of a military dictatorship. He understands well that the Vatican he inherited from the ex-Pope was and remains in several areas, especially priest child abuse, on a collision course with outside governments armed with a coercive rule of international law. Longtime Vatican players, that had been accustomed until recently to living in a Vatican bubble in an Italy run by a seemingly billionaire swinger, do not yet seem to understand, as Francis appears to, that the days of “The Holy Father says … ” are over. Francis appears to know that either the Vatican reforms itself now or it risks being forced soon to reform, with the chaos and divisions that forced reforms would likely entail.
These assumptions, in varying degrees, have shaped much of the Catholic Church’s present. They will also influence significantly its future, no matter what Pope Francis decides to do. Understanding better these often unstated assumptions creates hopeful opportunities for adopting long overdue positive reforms by eliminating non-essential and questionable “certainties” that at times have been impediments to needed changes.
The overarching Vatican “framework” at present, based on current Vatican assumptions, appears to be mainly that (A) Jesus endorsed popes as supreme papal monarchs, (B) who are accountable only to God, (C) who uniquely interpret infallibly matters of “faith and morals”, including New Testament moral themes, and (D) who appoint as unaccountable bishops superior men, exclusively, (E) to implement and enforce unchangeable dogmas and practices mandated by popes. The Vatican currently, in effect, requires a billion plus Catholics to operate within this framework as well. This framework does not stand up well to close scholarly scrutiny.
Complicating Pope Francis’ difficult tasks are many opportunists, including several very wealthy and powerful Church donors, who appear to be seeking, for their own personal agendas, to exploit the considerable “spiritual power” possessed by the modern papacy and to benefit from the political prestige and financial assets that popes control. For more than the last three quarters of the Catholic Church’s 2,000 year history, popes have at times been important “players”, sometimes a major player, in the international political economy; hence, the age old objective of wealthy donors to influence both papal decision making and wealth management.
These opportunistic donors at times rely implicitly and selectively on several present weak papal assumptions, as do many in the Catholic hierarchy of cardinals and bishops. Of course, some of these Catholic religious leaders, with over 1,500 year years of accumulated political and economic traditions behind them, often also share some of their wealthy donors’ primary goals of maximizing their personal wealth, while also minimizing their individual accountability.
Neither Pope Francis, nor any of his potential successors, can make many of the needed positive changes, without at a minimum revising key elements of his weak assumptions. Pope Francis and his successors, of course, may be unwilling voluntarily to make these revisions. That may matter significantly for the 0.01% minority leadership who may then not survive. It may not matter much, however, to the 99.9% faithful majority, who may still get to see these reforms imposed on the leadership majority by outside governments.
The current likelihood is that Francis or his successor will, nevertheless, be compelled soon enough to make many of these changes, by pressure from outside governments accountable to their constituents, many of whom are Catholic. This is not the 1960′s, with the Second Vatican Council, when a collusive Vatican bureaucracy and their selected popes can stymie for a half century needed reforms agreed to by almost all of the world’s bishops at the Council.
European governments are already beginning to apply considerable pressure in the financial area with mandated reforms for the Vatican Bank and the Vatican’s own asset management operation. This pressure has included so far a Vatican Bank asset seizure, a Vatican City credit card facility freeze and criminal investigations, even an arrest of a key Vatican financial official by the Italian government. The Vatican has been, in effect, required to hire some of the world’s most influential and expensive financial and banking consultants, lawyers and auditors and that may still not be enough to keep all Vatican officials out of prosecutors’ reach.
123. While Francis bobs and weaves and seeks political allies like anti-gay American fundamentalists, Catholics need to cover their bets by continuing to press their leaders, including President Obama to act. Papal promises of change are no longer a safe bet without concrete papal actions fulfilling the promises. Insufficient papal action to date suggests a need for more caution and prudence, and less cheerleading and wishful thinking.
Posted in Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt, Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, Bishop Kieran Thomas Conry, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Cardinal Bernard Law, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Cardinal Ludwig Mueller, Cardinal Patrick O'Malley, Cardinal Pio Laghi, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Cardinal William Levada, Child Sex Abuse, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Father Donald J. McGuire, Father Robert Geisinger, Hans Kung, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope Pius XII, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse
Tags: Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt, Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, Australian human rights activist Aletha Blayse, Australian Royal Commission, “Six Ways Cardinal Sean O’Malley Has Mishandled the Abuse Crisis”, “The Case of the Popes: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse” (2010), Bill Cosby, Bill Donohue, Bill Donohue. William A Donohue. William Donohue. Catholic League, Bishop Kieran Thomas Conry, Boston Globe, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Cardinal Bernard Law, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Cardinal Ludwig Mueller, Cardinal Pio Laghi, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Cardinal Seán Brady, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Cardinal Walter Kasper, Cardinal William Levada, Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s when leaders were facing multiple abuse complaints, child abuse, child molestation, child rape, child rapists, child sex abuse, clergy abuse, CNN, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Council of Cardinals, coverup in roman catholic church, Coverup of sex abuse by Roman Catholic Church, crimes against children, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Father Donald J. McGuire, Father Robert Geisinger, Father Thomas Doyle, Fr. Charles Curran, Fr. Hans Kung, Fr. Robert Oliver, Fr. Thomas P. Doyle, Geoffrey Robertson QC, George Clooney, Hans Kung, Irish American Catholic family, National Catholic Reporter, O.P., OK Prime Minister Tony Blair, pedophile priests, pope benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Pope Pope Pius XII, President Barack Obama, President Jimmy Carter, priest abuse, priest pedophilles, priest rape, priest sex abuse, religion, roman catholic church, Roman Catholic Church Child Rape Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophile Coverup Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophile Scandal, Roman Catholic Church Pedophiles, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Coverups, roman catholic church sex scandal, roman catholic clergy, roman catholics, Second Vatican Council, The Vatican, victims of rape
Sex Abuse Scandal: Did Archbishop Ratzinger Help Shield Perpetrator from Prosecution?
By Dietmar Hipp, Frank Hornig, Conny Neumann, Sven Röbel and Peter Wensierski
From the link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/sex-abuse-scandal-did-archbishop-ratzinger-help-shield-perpetrator-from-prosecution-a-684970.html
After long delays, the Catholic Church finally appears to be taking responsibility for sexual abuse cases. But it is an uncomfortable process. The pope even failed to take the problem of child abuse seriously when he was the archbishop of Munich.
Peter H. simply cannot understand why allegations are being made against him now — especially after all these years. “Why me of all people?” the priest asked during a phone conversation with his friend, the mayor of Garching, a town near his own, Bad Tölz, in Bavaria.
Yes, why him of all people? Especially when there are so many priests who have committed sins against children, and so many who have been treated leniently by the church. Back in 1980, even Joseph Ratzinger — then the archbishop of Munich, and now Pope Benedict XVI — had played a role in the decision to handle Peter H.’s pedophiliac infractions internally. No police, no state prosecutor, no trial. Therapy and brotherly love would bring this sinner back to the fold.
Events that linked Ratzinger and Peter H. decades ago are now causing their paths to cross once again. Last week, one of these two men, Peter H., was suspended from the priesthood, while the other, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a pastoral letter on clerical sexual abuse. The pope now wants to clear up these cases and aid the victims.
Is this a long-awaited turning point?
Finally, after much too much hesitation, there is now movement in the church — at the lower level with Peter H. and at the higher level with the pope and the German Bishops’ Conference. For the first time since the sex scandal erupted, church officials have indicated that they intend to tackle the problem seriously. In Bavaria, the Catholic Church now intends to report all such cases immediately to the authorities. “We all have to deal with the consequences of utter evil in the world and in the Church,” says the current archbishop of Munich, Reinhard Marx. “This boil must be lanced. Everything must come out,” his colleague in Bamberg, Ludwig Schick, adds. And the Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, who has been engaged by the Bishops’ Conference to handle abuse cases, openly criticizes the institutions of the Church, admitting that “there have been cover-ups in a wide range of cases.”
Political Reaction May Lead to Official Enquiry
Politicians are also reacting. The German state of Hesse wants to make it mandatory for public and private schools to report all suspected cases of abuse and plans to launch a special investigation into all 33 boarding schools located in the state. Bavaria is calling for preventative therapy to be offered to any teachers or clergymen with pedophilic tendencies. And the German federal government has finally reached a decision on who will attend roundtable talks on the issue and what will be on the agenda. On Wednesday, the government plans to announce the appointment of an independent commissioner in Berlin to investigate the abuse cases across the country.
This collective toughening of attitudes is the result of weeks of mounting pressure. Germany’s dioceses have been flooded with complaints and one of the first church officials entrusted with investigating cases of clerical misconduct has already resigned because he could not handle the work. Benno Grimm, from the diocese of Limburg, which covers territory in the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as the city of Frankfurt, said that he could no longer cope with the number of allegations and reports and that the accounts of abuse were getting under his skin.
Public prosecutors also have their work cut out for them. Up until now, they have had few opportunities to prosecute because the statute of limitations has usually expired for the alleged crimes. But investigations are currently being conducted into at least 14 clergymen on suspicions of sexual abuse. This figure emerged after a SPIEGEL survey of all 24 public prosecutors in Germany. Nine refused to comment. In addition, 11 secular teachers and tutors are being investigated, including three former educators at the prestigious Odenwald boarding school.
At the same time, many Germans are leaving the Catholic Church, especially in the Catholic stronghold of Bavaria, where the faithful have been shocked by scandals surrounding the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys’ choir and the monastery school in Ettal as well as the reportedly lenient treatment of the pedophile priest, Peter H., by the pope’s own former archbishopric in Munich. Officials in the cities of Regensburg and Munich report that, for the first half of March, the number of people leaving the church is nearly double when compared to the same period in February. (Editor’s note: In Germany, church taxes are collected by the government and members of the Catholic and Protestant churches register with the local authorities.)
People are unnerved because, for a long time, no one was able to credibly assure them that everything possible was being done to ensure that youth groups and schools were safe from sexual abuse. And their skepticism is understandable: The case of Peter H. is a prime example of how well the church’s system to protect abusers works.
Young Priest Made ‘Indecent Advances’
As a young chaplain in the diocese of Essen in 1979, H. forced an 11-year-old to engage in oral sex after a camp retreat. He reportedly had the boy drink alcohol before assaulting him. There were at least three more victims in Essen but their parents reportedly decided not to press charges to avoid putting their children through the ordeal. Instead they complained to H.’s immediate superior, the parish priest of St. Andreas. That priest’s handwritten report to the head of church personnel and the vicar general of the diocese of Essen states that H. had made “indecent advances” toward the children during his work in the parish.
Church officials in Essen decided not to press charges and instead arranged for their brother to enter into therapy in Munich. In the letter of transfer, written to the Bavarian diocese that Ratzinger then led, there was a clear admission that the priest had sexually assaulted children in his former parish. Munich was not left in the dark about what kind of problem was on its way to them, the diocese of Essen said last week.
The Diocesan Council, chaired by Archbishop Ratzinger, dealt with the case in Munich on Jan. 15, 1980. According to the minutes of the meeting, “Point 5d” on the agenda saw the council discussing Peter H., who had requested “accommodation and support in a Munich parsonage for a while.” The request also stated that “Chaplain H. will undergo psychological therapeutic treatment.”
Ratzinger Knew Police Hadn’t Been Informed
A policeman’s son, Ratzinger was well aware that no one had notified the police and that everything had been handled by the Church internally. Neither he nor his diocese reported the case to the authorities. Instead, a brief, succinct statement concerning the chaplain’s application was entered into the minutes: “The request is granted.”
Barely two weeks later, H. had been assigned to pastoral duties again. Ratzinger allegedly knew nothing of this. But his office did receive a note from his vicar-general at the time, Gerhard Gruber, concerning the chaplain’s placement in the Catholic parish of St. Johannes Evangelist in Munich. Did Ratzinger overlook the memo? Gruber now says that he alone was responsible.
In the town of Grafing near Munich, H. again sexually abused several pupils. In 1986, a local court in Ebersberg in Bavaria handed out an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a 4,000 deutsche mark fine to H. He was also convicted of distributing pornographic materials.
Priest ‘Always Kissed Children on the Mouth’
Church officials then simply transferred the pedophile from Grafing to Garching — but apparently without informing the parish there of his history. Once again, children at his new place of work complained that their priest always kissed them on the mouth — a practice they found disgusting. Mothers complained to the parish council, but nothing happened. In 2008, the first of his victims in Essen came forward: Wilfried Fesselmann, 41, was 11 at the time of the alleged abuse. The priest was transferred again, this time to his current place of residence in the town of Bad Tölz. Once again no warning was issued to the new parish, where the priest was able to conduct church services with the young people of the area. And it was not until last week that H. was finally suspended from priestly service.
And that is precisely the focus of the current discussion. What responsibility do people with knowledge of what has been done bear? And what about the perpetrators’ superiors? How could they enable pedophile priests to continue working in the Church? And what has the current pope done during his career in the Church to combat a sex problem that he is well aware of?
It was not only in Munich, but also later in Rome that Ratzinger missed countless opportunities to vigorously tackle the issue. For over 23 years — until his election as pope — he headed the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, meaning that he was also responsible for dealing with reports of sexual abuse. From 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger exercised this power from a fortress-like palace in the Vatican, where he passed through heavy iron-studded gates every morning and every evening. Above the gates, the walls are still emblazoned with the coat of arms of the Holy Office, also known as the Inquisition, which held Galileo Galilei under arrest here and sentenced Giordano Bruno to death as a heretic.
For decades, Ratzinger accepted the fact that little attention was paid to the problem of sexual abuse. Instead he focused on reprimanding Latin American church activists who advocated liberation theology, a movement that defines the teachings of Jesus Christ differently, as well as feuding with controversial critics of the Catholic Church such as Eugen Drewermann and Hans Küng. His rare public statements during this period were dedicated to pet topics like “faith and reason.”
A Parallel World of Murky Legality
It wasn’t until 2001, after a sexual abuse scandal had rocked the Catholic Church in the US, that Cardinal Ratzinger took action. He decreed that the local churches now had to report all such suspected cases to his offices of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome — but under strict secrecy.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna currently serves as the church’s Promoter of Justice, making him, in effect, the Vatican’s internal prosecutor. Between 2001 and 2010, he investigated over 3,000 accusations lodged against members of the clergy who had allegedly violated their vows of celibacy.
In dealing with such cases, Church officials operate in a parallel world of murky legality. Clergymen play the roles of judge and prosecutor, files are kept secret and witnesses are questioned, but never informed of the purpose of the interrogation.
In 300 cases, the defendants were found guilty and given the mandatory maximum penalty: dismissal from the clergy. In another 300 cases, the defendants anticipated that they would be thrown out of the church and preempted this by asking to be dismissed. This group includes priests who had been caught with pornographic images of children. And around 1,800 priests only received a relatively mild punishment due to their advanced age: They were banned from performing the sacrament.
No Complaint, No Plaintiff, No Judge
All the while, state prosecutors remained relatively powerless to counter the church’s leniency — mainly because they know nothing about the offenses committed. When there is no plaintiff, there is no judge. As long as church officials do not file official complaints and succeed in persuading the victims’ families not to report offenses to the authorities, then the Catholic Church can continue to act within its own realm, and beyond the reach of secular laws. Up until now, nobody from the outside world has been able to do anything about it.
So far, there are no known cases in which bishops or vicar generals have been prosecuted for protecting pedophile subordinates or because they allowed them to continue to work with young people — as in the case with the priest Peter H.
Nevertheless, as the policies of the official body of the Protestant Church in Germany (the Evangelical Church of Germany, or EKD) clearly demonstrate, it is actually possible to crack down on sexual offenders in the clergy. “As soon as initial suspicions arise,” says EKD spokesman Reinhard Mawick, “they are reported to the police so the state prosecutor can investigate.”
The Evangelical Church of Westphalia, for example, has had a 64-page manual with instructions on how to deal with sexual assault for some time now. These guidelines provide detailed information on how to recognize perpetrators and it also lists possibilities for best supporting victims. The Church has to take “active and clear steps to prevent sexual assault,” it says in the publication.
In response to a request from SPIEGEL, the EKD has checked how many cases of abuse have come to light. Results have come in from nine of the 22 district churches across Germany. Over the past 10 years, there have been exactly 11 cases within those churches — and only one had to do with pedophilia. Any clergymen or deacons involved were removed from the service of the church.
Translated from the German by Paul Cohen
Posted in Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Child Sex Abuse, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict XVI, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse
Tags: Archbishop of Bamberg Germany Ludwig Schick, Archbishop of Munich Reinhard Marx, Bishop of Trier Stephan Ackermann, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Cardinal Ratzinger, catholic church, Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Diocese of Essen, Diocese of Germany, Diocese of Limburg Benno Grimm, EKD spokesman Reinhard Mawick, Eugen Drewermann, Evangelical Church of Germany, Evangelical Church of Westphalia, German Bishops' Conference, German State of Hesse, Hans Kung, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, Odenwald boarding school, pope, pope benedict, pope benedict XVI, Promoter of Justice Monsignor Charles Scicluna, Protestant Church in Germany, Regensburger Domspatzen boys' choir, roman catholic church, Roman Catholic Diocese of Bavaria, St. Andreas, St. Johannes Evangelist in Munich, The Diocean Council, Vicar General Gerhard Gruber, Wilfried Fesselmann
8 Ugly Sins of the Catholic Church
If pedophile payouts weren’t enough to convince you the Catholic leadership is often anything but moral, take a look at some of their other sins.
Did the Catholic Bishops wince last week when their leader, anti-contraception Cardinal Timothy Dolan, was exposed for paying pedophiles to disappear? One can only hope. After all, these are men who claim to speak for God. They have direct access to the White House, where they regularly weigh in on issues ranging from military policy to bioethics, and they expect us all to listen – not because of relevant expertise or elected standing, but because of their moral authority.
If pedophile payouts weren’t enough to convince you that this “moral” authority is often anything but moral, take a look at some of their other sins against compassion and basic decency.
1. Excommunicating doctors and nuns for saving lives. In 2009, a 27-year-old mom, pregnant with her fifth child, was rushed to a Phoenix hospital, St. Josephs, where her doctors said she would almost certainly die unless her pregnancy was aborted immediately. The nun in charge approved the emergency procedure, and the woman survived. The local bishop promptly excommunicated the nun. “There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child. But — and this is the Catholic perspective — you can’t do evil to bring about good. The end does not justify the means,” said Rev. John Ehrich, the medical ethics director for the Diocese of Phoenix.
How far are the Church authorities willing to take this “moral” logic? In Brazil last year, with Vatican backing, the Church excommunicated a mother and doctor for saving the life of a 9-year-old rape victim who was pregnant with twins. (At four months pregnant, the girl weighed 80 pounds.) Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, said “life must always be protected.” Perhaps Mr. Batista Re can explain the Vatican’s 1,500-year tradition of “just war.”
2. Protecting even non-Catholic sex-offenders against child victims. As we have seen, the moral priorities of the bishops are laid naked when they decide who to excommunicate and who not. The doctor and the mother of the pregnant 9-year-old got the boot for approving an abortion, but not the stepfather who had sexually assaulted the child, probably over a period of years. A similar contrast can be seen between the case of the Phoenix nun and hundreds of pedophile priests who were allowed to remain Catholic even after they finally were identified and removed from the Church payrolls.
It gets worse. In New York, a bill that would give child molestation victims more time to file charges has been blocked seven times by the Catholic hierarchy led by none other than Cardinal Dolan. Why? “We feel this is terribly unjust, we feel it singles out the church, and it would be devastating for the life of the church.” In other words, regardless of whether the abuse really happened or what the consequences were for victims, what matters is how much additional lawsuits might cost the Church. Isn’t that the ends justifying the means?
3. Using churches to organize gay haters. When the Washington State legislature approved marriage equality this spring, fundamentalist Christians across the state organized to reverse the legislation. Even though three quarters of American Catholics think that gay marriage or civil unions should be legal, Archbishop Peter Sartain jumped to the front of the pack, decreeing that Western Washington parishes under his “moral authority” should gather signatures for an anti-equality initiative. To their credit, a number of priests refused, and a group called Catholics for Marriage Equality is raising money for ads. In contrast to the Catholic League, which has made the degrading argument that sex between priests and adolescent boys is consensual homosexuality, lay Catholics appear to know the difference.
4. Lying about contraceptives to poor Africans. Of all the mortal sins committed by the men of the cloth, the most devastatingly lethal in the last 30 years has been the Catholic hierarchy’s outspoken opposition to condom use in Africa. In 2003, the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family publicly lied about the efficacy of condoms in preventing both pregnancy and HIV: “The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom.” The archbishop of Nairobi told people that condoms were spreading HIV. Some priests told parishioners that condoms were impregnated with the virus.
The motivation for such flagrant falsehoods? The Church has practiced competitive pro-natalism for centuries, but lately anti-contraceptive edicts have been ignored by most educated European and American Catholics, and Italy has the second lowest birthrate in the Western World, at 1.3 per woman. The bishops see this as a “catastrophe” and are looking to Africa as “a reservoir of life for the Church.” They wrap their opposition to contraception in lofty moral language such as that offered by Pope John Paul II: It seems profoundly damaging to the dignity of the human being, and for this reason morally illicit, to support a prevention of AIDS that is based on a recourse to means and remedies that violate an authentically human sense of sexuality. As late as 2009, John Paul’s successor, Benedict, continued to tell poor African Catholics that condoms were “wrong” and even suggested that they were making the epidemic worse. With god-knows –how-many lives lost and children orphaned, he finally softened his stance in 2010.
5. Obstructing patient access to accurate information and services in secular hospitals. In rural Arizona near the Mexican border, women delivering babies by cesarean section were refused tubal ligations because their independent hospital was negotiating a merger with a healthcare network run by Catholics. Worse, when a woman arrived at the same hospital in the middle of a miscarriage and need a surgical abortion to complete the process, she was forced to travel by ambulance to Tucson, 80 miles away, risking hemorrhage on the way. All over the U.S. secular and Catholic-run health systems are merging, and patients are quietly losing the right to make medical decisions based on the best scientific information available and the dictates of their own conscience.
Even when the Catholic-owned hospital is a small part of the merger, administrators insist that Catholic directives apply to the system as a whole. These directives prohibit not only abortions but also contraceptives, vasectomies and tubal ligations, some kinds of fertility treatment, and compliance with end-of-life patient directives. Ectopic pregnancies cannot be handled in keeping with the medical standard of care. As biotechnologies and treatments relevant to the beginning and end of life advance, we can expect the list to grow longer. Patients cannot trust that they will be told other options are available elsewhere.
One of the bitter ironies here is that even wholly “Catholic” hospitals and charities are staffed primarily by non-Catholics and largely provide services to people of other faiths or of none, paid for with tax dollars. In healthcare much of the money flows from Medicare and Medicaid. In 2010, non-medical affiliates of Catholic Charities received 62 percent of annual revenue from the taxpayers – nearly $2.9 billion. Only 3 percent came from church donations, with the remainder coming from investments, program fees, community donations and in-kind contributions. And yet all of those dollars get directed according to the dictates of bishop conscience rather than individual conscience.
6. Slapping down nuns. Catholic charities and hospitals are at some competitive advantage in part because of hard-working nuns, many of whom have skills and responsibilities that exceed their compensation. The bishops are the Catholic Church’s 1 percent; the nuns are managers and service workers –and many have taken the kind of poverty vows that America’s 1 percent is trying to impose on the rest. Because many nuns live in the real world, where suffering and morality are complex, they often make care-based decisions and take nuanced positions on moral questions that the Council of Bishops resolves by appealing to dogma and authority.
In April, the Vatican decided to remind the nuns who’s on top. Rome issued an 8-page assessment accusing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious of disagreeing with the bishops and of “radical feminism.” It appears that their labors on behalf of poor, vulnerable people had distracted them from a more Christian priority: controlling other people’s sex lives—oh, and standing up against the ordination of women. The Archbishop assigned by the Vatican to rein in unruly American nuns is none other than Peter Sartain of Seattle, the same moral authority who has declared a holy crusade against gay marriage.
7. Bullying girl scouts. Unlike the Boy Scouts, who recently earned media and public attention by booting out a gay den-mother, the Girl Scouts have been stubbornly inclusive and focused on preparing girls for leadership. For example, last year a Colorado troop included a trans-gender 7-year-old. That’s a problem for the Bishops, and since up to a quarter of American Girl Scouts are Catholic kids with troops housed in churches, they see it as their problem. To make matters worse, the American Girl Scouts refused to leave their international umbrella, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, which has stated that young women “need an environment where they can freely and openly discuss issues of sex and sexuality.” The World Association would appear to believe the data that girls who can’t manage their sexuality and fertility are more likely to end up in poverty than leadership positions.
Then again, maybe that’s what the church hierarchy is after. According to an article last month at the Huffington Post, “The new inquiry will be conducted by the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. It will look into the Scouts’ ‘possible problematic relationships with other organizations’ and various ‘problematic’ program materials, according to a letter sent by the committee chairman, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne, Ind., to his fellow bishops.” We’re talking about an organization run by women for girls facing an all-male inquisition. In today’s Catholic church, leadership still requires a y chromosome.
8. Purging popular and scholarly interfaith bridge builders. Lest some reader assert that the sins of the Bishops are all a consequence of sexual repression – some contorted pursuit of sexual purity that degrades both sex and compassion—it is important to note that the current cohort of Church authorities are as obsessed with doctrinal purity as sexual purity. It would take me many paragraphs to describe their tireless pursuit of purity as well as retired Anglican bishop, John Shelby Spong, does in one:
Hans Kung, probably the best read theologian of the 20th century, was removed from his position as a Catholic theologian at Tubingen because his mind could not be twisted into the medieval concepts required by his church. This action was carried out by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who at that time under Pope John Paul II held the office that in another time gave us the Inquisition. Matthew Fox, one of the most popular retreat and meditation leaders and an environmental activist, was then silenced by the same Cardinal Ratzinger. Professor Charles Curran, one of America’s best known ethicists, was removed from his tenured professorship at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., also by the same Cardinal Ratzinger. Father Leonardo Boff, the best known Latin American liberation theologian, was forced to renounce his ordination in order to continue his work for justice among the poor of Latin America by the same Cardinal Ratzinger. Next we learn that the Vatican, now headed by Cardinal Ratzinger under his new name Pope Benedict XVI, has ordered the removal of a book from all Catholic schools and universities written by a popular female theologian at Fordham University, Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson. Now the nuns are to be investigated. Conformity trumps truth in every direction.
The Catholic tradition defines deadly or “cardinal” sins as those from which all other sins derive. In addition to lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth and envy, the traditional seven include pride and greed, which, to my mind, drive much of the appalling behavior in this list. If an attempt to assert autocratic control over the spiritual and physical lives of lay people isn’t pride, I don’t know what is. And if a willingness to silence child victims to protect church assets isn’t greed, I don’t know what greed is. The BBC’s revelation last month of money laundering in the Vatican Bank pales by comparison.
To me, ultimately, the sins of the Catholic bishops are “deadly sins” because they kill people, whether pregnant mothers or depressed gay teens or African families, or simply desperate people who are forced into greater desperation by “moral” priorities that distract from real questions of well-being and harm.
What the Bishops will have to account for when they meet their maker, none of us can say. For some American Catholics, the process of holding them to account has already started. The Women Religious have pushed back against the condescending “assessment” issued by the Vatican. Small groups of lay Catholics have rallied to their support. Picketers meet monthly outside Sartain’s cathedral to protest his stance against equality. The Franciscan brothers issued a statement of solidarity with the nuns, many of whom have remained solidly focused on economic justice instead of sexual transgressions.
Given the arrogant cruelty of Church leaders, criticism to date has been remarkably tempered. As the Bishops flash their moral authority in the White House and media and pulpit, clothed in white robes and draped in crimson, they should be glad they aren’t eyeball to eyeball with Jesus himself. As the writer of Matthew tells it, he called out the corrupt religious leaders of his day in no uncertain terms: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of Wisdom Commons. She is the author of “Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light” and “Deas and Other Imaginings.” Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.
Posted in Bill Donohue, Bishop Dolan, Bishop Timothy Dolan, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic League, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Child Sex Abuse, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Hans Kung, His Unholiness The Papal Bullshitter Pope Benedict, Homosexuality, James Salt, Joseph Ratzinger, Pedophile, Pedophile Priests, Perverted Priests, Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Ratzinger, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse, Roman Catholic Church teachings on homosexuality, Vatican, William A Donohue
Tags: African Catholics, American Catholics, Archbishop Peter Sartain, Bill Donohue, Boy Scouts, Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities, Catholic League, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Catholic University, Catholics for Marriage Equality, child, child abuse, child molestation, child molesters, child rape, child rapists, child sex, child sex abuse, child sexual abuse, children, Committee on Laity, crimes against children, Family Life and Youth, Father Leonardo Boff, Fordham University, Girl Scouts, Hans Kung, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Marriage, pedophile, pedophile payouts, pedophile priests, pedophille, pedophilles, pedopile priests, Pontifical Commission for Latin America, pope benedict, pope benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, priest pedophile, priest pedophilles, Professor Charles Curran, rape priest pedophiles, Ratzinger, religion, Rev. John Ehrich, roman catholic, roman catholic church, roman catholic church sex scandal, roman catholic clergy, roman catholics, sexual assault of a child, sexual battery of a child, Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, The Vatican, Valerie Tarico, vatican, Vatican Bank, Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, William A Donohue, William Donohue, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
Ratzinger’s Responsibility by By Hans Küng
Hans Küng (born March 19, 1928, in Sursee, Canton of Lucerne) is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos). Küng is “a Catholic priest in good standing”,[1] but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology. He had to leave the Catholic faculty, but remained at the University of Tübingen as a professor of ecumenical theology, serving as an emeritus professor since 1996. Although Küng is not officially allowed to teach Catholic theology, neither his bishop nor the Holy See have revoked his priestly faculties.
Ratzinger’s Responsibility
‘Scandalous wrongs cannot be glossed over, we need a change of attitude’
By Hans Küng
After Archbishop Robert Zollitsch’s recent papal audience, he spoke of Pope Benedict’s “great shock” and “profound agitation” over the many cases of abuse which are coming to light. Zollitsch, archbishop of Freiburg, Germany, and the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, asked pardon of the victims and spoke again about the measures that have already been taken or will soon be taken. But neither he nor the pope have addressed the real question that can no longer be put aside.
According to the latest Emnid-poll, only 10 percent of those interviewed in Germany believe that the church is doing enough in dealing with this scandal; on the contrary, 86 percent charge the church’s leadership with insufficient willingness to come to grips with the problem. The bishops’ denial that there is any connection between the celibacy rule and the abuse problem can only confirm their criticism.
1st Question: Why does the pope continue to assert that what he calls “holy” celibacy is a “precious gift”, thus ignoring the biblical teaching that explicitly permits and even encourages marriage for all office holders in the Church? Celibacy is not “holy”; it is not even “fortunate”; it is “unfortunate”, for it excludes many perfectly good candidates from the priesthood and forces numerous priests out of their office, simply because they want to marry. The rule of celibacy is not a truth of faith, but a church law going back to the 11th Century; it should have been abolished already in the 16th Century, when it was trenchantly criticized by the Reformers.
Honesty demands that the pope, at the very least, promise to rethink this rule — something the vast majority of the clergy and laity have wanted for a long time now. Both Alois Glück, the president of the Central Committee of the German Catholics and Hans-Jochen Jaschke, auxiliary bishop of Hamburg, have called for a less uptight attitude towards sexuality and for the coexistence of celibate and married priests in the church
2nd Question: Is it true, as Archbishop Zollitsch insists, that “all the experts” agree that abuse of minors by clergymen and the celibacy rule have nothing to do with each other? How can he claim to know the opinions of “all the experts”? In fact, there are numerous psychotherapists and psychoanalysts who see a connection here. The celibacy law obliges the priest to abstain from all forms of sexual activity, though their sexual impulses remain virulent, and thus the danger exists that these impulses might be shifted into a taboo zone and compensated for in abnormal ways.
Honesty demands that we take the correlation between abuse and celibacy seriously. The American psychotherapist Richard Sipe has clearly demonstrated, on the basis of a 25 year study published in 2004 under the title Knowledge of sexual activity and abuse within the clerical system of the Roman Catholic church, that the celibate way of life can indeed reinforce pedophile tendencies, especially when the socialization leading to it, i.e. adolescence and young adulthood spent in minor and major seminary cut off from the normal experiences of their peer groups, is taken into account. In his study, Sipe found retarded psycho-sexual development occurring more frequently in celibate clerics than in the average population. And often, such deficits in psychological development and sexual tendencies only become evident after ordination.
3rd Question: Instead of merely asking pardon of the victims of abuse, should not the bishops at last admit their own share of blame? For decades, they have not only tabooed the celibacy issue but also systematically covered up cases of abuse with the mantle of strictest secrecy, doing little more than re-assigning the perpetrators to new ministries. In a statement of March 16, Bishop Ackermann of Trier, special delegate of the German Bischops’ Conference for sexual abuse cases, publically acknowledged the existence of such a cover-up, but characteristically he put the blame not on the church as institution, but rather on the individual perpetrators and the false considerations of their superiors. Protection of their priests and the reputation of the church was evidently more important to the bishops than protection of minors. Thus, there is an important difference between the individual cases of abuse surfacing in schools outside the Catholic church and the systematic and correspondingly more frequent cases of abuse within the Catholic church, where, now as before, an uptight, rigoristic sexual morality prevails, that finds its culmination in the law of celibacy.
Honesty demands that the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference should have clearly and definitively announced, that, in the future, the hierarchy will cease to deal with cases of criminal acts committed by those in the service of the church by circumventing the state system of justice. Can it be that the hierarchy here in Germany will only wake up when it is confronted with demands for reparation payments in terms of millions of dollars? In the United States, the Catholic church had to pay some $1.3 billion alone in 2006; in Ireland, the government helped the religious orders set up a compensation fund with a ruinous sum of $2.8 billion. Such sums say much more about the dimensions of the problem than the pooh-poohing statistics about the small percentage of celibate clergy among the general population of abusers.
4th Question: Is it not time for Pope Benedict XVI himself to acknowledge his share of responsibility, instead of whining about a campaign against his person? No other person in the Church has had to deal with so many cases of abuse crossing his desk. Here some reminders:
In his eight years as a professor of theology in Regensburg, in close contact with his brother Georg, the capellmeister of the Regensburger Domspatzen, Ratzinger can hardly have been ignorant about what went on in the choir and its boarding–school. This was much more than an occasional slap in the face, there are charges of serious physical violence and even sexual abuse.
In his five years as Archbishop of Munich, repeated cases of sexual abuse at least by one priest transferred to his Archdiocese have come to light. His loyal Vicar General, my classmate Gerhard Gruber, has taken full responsibility for the handling of this case, but that is hardly an excuse for the Archbishop, who is ultimately responsible for the administration of his diocese.
In his 24 years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, from around the world, all cases of grave sexual offences by clerics had to be reported, under strictest secrecy (“secretum pontificum”), to his curial office, which was exclusively responsible for dealing with them. Ratzinger himself, in a letter on “grave sexual crimes” addressed to all the bishops under the date of 18 May, 2001, warned the bishops, under threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to observe “papal secrecy” in such cases.
In his five years as Pope, Benedict XVI has done nothing to change this practice with all its fateful consequences.
Support independent Catholic journalis
Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce his own “mea culpa”. As Bishop Tebartz van Elst of Limburg, in a radio address on March 14, put it: “Scandalous wrongs cannot be glossed over or tolerated, we need a change of attitude that makes room for the truth. Conversion and repentance begin when guilt is openly admitted, when contrition1 is expressed in deeds and manifested as such, when responsibility is taken, and the chance for a new beginning is seized upon.”
Posted in Bill Donohue, Bishop John McCormack, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic League, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Child Sex Abuse, Christianity, Christians, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Hans Kung, Homosexuality, James Salt, Pedophile, Pedophile Priests, Perverted Priests, Pope Benedict, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse, Roman Catholic Church teachings on homosexuality, St Thomas Moore Parish Durham NH, Uncategorized, William A Donohue
Tags: abuse, bishops, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, child abuse, child porn, child pornography, child rape, child rapists, child sex abuse, christ, christianity, christians, church, clergy abuse, crimes against children, Hans Kung, jesus christ, pedophile, pedophile priests, pedophille, pedophilles, perverted priests, pope, pope abuse, pope benedict, priest abuse, priest pedophilles, priest rape, priest sex abuse, priests, rape, rapists, religion, roman catholic church, roman catholic church sex scandal, roman catholics, sex abuse, victims of rape
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1006
|
__label__wiki
| 0.988114
| 0.988114
|
Ricky Skaggs Rides Hot Pickin' From Rural Poverty to the Country Hall Of Fame
Billboard article
7/18/2018 by Tom Roland
Ricky Skaggs is celebrating his 64th birthday today in a slightly different atmosphere than he has ever observed it before, knowing that sometime this fall the Country Music Association will officially induct him into the Country Music Hall of Fame, placing his bronzed visage alongside plaques of some of his mentors, including Bill Monroe, Emmylou Harris and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs.
"I was doing something the other day and I thought, 'Hall of Fame, CMA, are you kidding?' " he says. "You know, it's a nice title, but gosh, it shouldn't change any of us. I'm still taking out the garbage and everything like that."
Skaggs enters the Hall in a unique position: a master of two genres. After Monroe's death in 1996, Skaggs recommitted himself to bluegrass, using his masterful pickin' ability to carry on the acoustic traditions set forth by Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Ralph Stanley, for whom he worked as a teenage member of The Clinch Mountain Boys in the 1970s.
But between that first run as a 'grasser and his efforts over the last two decades -- mostly with his own band, Kentucky Thunder -- there was an impressive, maybe even unlikely, detour into mainstream country where Skaggs successfully injected spiky mountain harmony into the genre during the Urban Cowboy era. It was a period when pop-tinged songs and even disco-associated Linn drums were the rule of the day, making Skaggs' triumphs then a bit of an anomaly.
Chalk that success up to sheer naivete. After touring with Stanley and a couple of his own bands, Skaggs joined Harris' Hot Band as a replacement for Rodney Crowell in 1977, working with her as she veered from country/rock toward the 'grass inflections of her Roses in the Snow album. So even though the format was slanted toward mass-appeal music at the time, Skaggs innocently chipped at the genre's flanks with covers of Flatt & Scruggs' "Don't Get Above Your Raisin'," Webb Pierce's "I Don't Care" and Monroe's "Uncle Pen."
"I honestly thought that everybody would love country and bluegrass like I did," he reflects.
He joined Reba McEntire and George Strait to form a trio of young artists who bucked the predominant trend and helped keep trad country alive in the early 1980s. While McEntire and Strait eased into their icon status, Skaggs rocketed in those early years, joining the Opry and winning two CMA awards in 1982 and claiming the CMA's entertainer of the year in 1985.
Skaggs managed the feat by balancing old-timey ideals -- lightnin' licks on mandolin, his rural-based lead voice and complex Stanley Brothers-influenced harmonies -- with clean production and then-modern country tones.
The idea, he says, was to make traditional country music that was fitting for radio but still stir it up a bit with the banjo, mandolin and fiddle while keeping pedal steel guitar and electric guitar solos prominent, not to mention finding good songs that had good harmonies. "I just had a sixth sense that something really, really different and really good could happen."
He went after it with a workaholic frenzy, developed in the lean atmosphere of Cordell, Ky., an Appalachian hole in the wall just 25 miles north of Loretta Lynn's birthplace in East Kentucky.
"Have you ever been to Ricky's house?" Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young asked rhetorically when Skaggs' induction was announced in March. "It's amazing that he got out of there."
Talent helped. The prodigious Skaggs made his syndicated TV debut at the tender age of 6. His father, Hobert Skaggs, meanwhile provided a model for American pride, gritting through excruciating pain for years after a debilitating injury. "My dad had hurt his back really bad at that nuclear, atomic-energy plant over there in western Kentucky," recalls Skaggs. "As hard as it was for him to do much of anything -- he busted two vertebrae -- he just pushed through pain and he worked, because he knew he had responsibility. He didn't expect the government, or anybody, to take care of him."
Skaggs reached his own workaholic height in 1988 and 1989, simultaneously producing Dolly Parton's White Limozeen album and recording his own Kentucky Thunder. He has continued to stay fresh through occasional outside collaborations, recording a bluegrass-influenced album with Bruce Hornsby, teaming with Jack White's Raconteurs and Ashley Monroe on a CMA-nominated version of "Old Enough" and co-producing Hillary Scott & The Scott Family's Christian album Love Remains.
In the meantime, Skaggs is experiencing a little rebirth with some members of the younger generation. CMA CEO Sarah Trahern saw that firsthand when she watched the response to his CMA Music Festival performance at Nissan Stadium in June.
"People were singing along to 'Highway 40 Blues' that were probably not even born when it came out [in 1983]," she says. "That speaks to the generational interest, whether they learned something from their parents or they just hear it in their vernacular."
After years of playing bluegrass almost exclusively, Skaggs is doing a bit more of a balancing act between bluegrass and country as this fall's induction approaches. Thus, Nashvillians can expect a little of both when he plays a Bluegrass at the Ryman show on July 26. The concert will likely be a fair summation of the legacy that girds his coming induction in the Country Hall, just blocks away from that Ryman stage.
"It's still soaking in slowly," he says of the achievement. "I'm not making a big, big deal out of it, but it is a big deal."
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/country/8466066/ricky-skaggs-country-music-hall-fame
launch the
email list!
All Contents © 2012 Skaggs Family Records | Privacy Policy
Site by Futureshirts.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1010
|
__label__cc
| 0.715927
| 0.284073
|
Regulatory & Policy
LAW Climate Change Law and Policy: From California to the Federal Government
Clean Tech: Business Fundamentals and Public Policy
Natural Resources Law and Policy
Clean Energy Project Development and Finance
Creating New Legal Tools to Address the Environmental Impacts of Energy Projects
Dispute Resolution in International Economic Law
Policy Practicum: China's Solar Industry and its Global Implications
Microeconomics (PUBLPOL 301A)
Sustainability as Market Strategy
Ethics, Science, and Technology
Business Models for Sustainable Energy
Environmental Innovation, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship
[ Regulatory & Policy ] Environmental Law: Clean Tech
[ Regulatory & Policy ] as a Related Elective for those interested in Energy : Energy and climate change issues are growing in importance and are beginning to affect every area of environmental law. They present growing opportunities with non-profit firms and government agencies and they are also a growth area for private law firms. This course considers cutting edge changes in climate change law and policy that are occurring in California. Students considering a career in environmental law may wan to take one or more courses focusing on energy and climate change issues.
(Same as EARTHSYS 233/133). This class explores California's groundbreaking developments in climate change law and policy, and the way in which many of those policies are now being translated into federal law. It covers several California climate laws: the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB 375), the Clean Cars and Trucks Bill (AB 1493), the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Standard (SB 1368), as well as complementary and subsidiary regulations such as the Renewable Portfolio Standard, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, and energy efficiency and decoupling. In December 2009, California adopted its "scoping plan" for achieving its ambitious and unprecedented economy-wide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and this course will discuss the up-to-date implementation of that plan. Many of California's efforts are now getting play on the federal stage. After years of legal battles, California is likely to get its clean cars waiver under the Clean Air Act, which will mean that more than half of the nation's cars will conform to California's standard. President Obama has asked Congress to send him a climate bill, and has planned for revenue from a cap-and-trade program in his 2012 budget. Congress is poised to adopt a version of California's landmark SB 375. This course covers all the latest federal developments and their implications.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1012
|
__label__cc
| 0.745608
| 0.254392
|
The Vice President
Secretary to the President
Office Of Chief Minister
Presidential Cabinet
Presidential Speeches
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio Concludes State Visit to Rwanda, Compares Notes with President Paul Kagame
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio Celebrates with Rwandans on Liberation Day July 4
President Julius Maada Bio Addresses Blockchain Conference, talks about Africa’s Opportunity to Lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
President Julius Maada Bio Visits Industrial Hub that Supports Innovation and Agro-based SMEs in Uganda
Sierra Leone, Uganda discuss and agree on ways to improve relations
President Julius Maada Bio explains Sierra Leone’s Human Capital Development agenda to ECOWAS, takes a position on regional security and a single currency
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio urges actions on ECOWAS’s forensic Audit Report
British High Commissioner Bids Farewell to President Dr Julius Maada Bio in Freetown
President Dr Julius Maada Bio Engages National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone’s Vice President Launches Anniversary Magazine of New Direction Government
Press Releases & Speeches
Keynote Address by His Excellency, Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Africa Blockchain Conference - Kampala, Uganda - 3 July 2019
Statement by His Excellency, Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, at the Investors Conference on the Tender Process for the Proposed Lungi Bridge - 19 June 2019
Statement delivered by His Excellency Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Launch of the Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Foundation, Freetown - 16 June 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Regional Maritime University, Ghana - 15 June 2019
Keynote Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra the Republic of Leone, at the UK-Sierra Leone Trade and Investment Forum - London, 6 June 2019
Final Communique - National Dialogue on Democratic Consolidation for Peace and National Cohesion in Sierra Leone Bintumani III. Freetown - 23-25 May 2019
Keynote Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Consultative Dialogue Conference (Bintumani III). Freetown, Bintumani Conference Centre, 23 May 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, on the Occasion of the State Opening of Parliament
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on the Occasion of the 58th Independence Anniversary, Freetown - 27 April 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on the occasion of the Official Commissioning of the Sengbe Pieh Memorial Bridge in Freetown - 25 April 2019
Keynote Address by His Excellency, Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Chancellor of Njala University at the 2019 Congregation Ceremony -13 April 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, In Response to the Welcome Statement in Abu-Dhabi - 21 March 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Annual Council Meeting of WAEC, Freetown, Sierra Leone - 19 March 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Conference of the West African College of Nursing and Midwifery in Freetown, Sierra Leone - 19 March 2019
Government of Sierra Leone - Building an Architecture for Peace Green Paper on the Proposed Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion – March 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Opening Ceremony of the Africa Development Forum, Casablanca, Morocco - 14 March 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Thursday 7 March 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on the occasion of the International Womens Day - Freetown, 8 March 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the DEPAC Meeting, State House - 26 February 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Annual Convocation and Award of Degrees, Freetown - 16 February 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Minister of Defence, and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Freetown - 18 February 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Official Commissioning of 30 Garbage Collection Trucks, State House, Freetown - 15 February 2019
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on the Declaration of Rape and Sexual Violence as Public Emergency, Freetown - 7 February 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the Annual Conference of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Bo, Sierra Leone Friday 8 February 2019
PRESS RELEASE President Julius Maada Bio Departs for 32nd African Union Summit 8 February 2019
Address by Her Excellency Madam Fatima Bio, First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on the Commemoration of World Cancer Day, Freetown, Sierra Leone - 4 February 2019
Keynote Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone on the Commemoration of World Cancer Day, Freetown, Sierra Leone - 4 February 20
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, at the launch of the Commissions of Inquiry in Freetown - 29 January 2019
Response by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone to Papal Nuncio to Sierra Leone, Archbishop Dagobertio Campos Salas - 17 January 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of The Republic of Sierra Leone on the Launch of Core Textbooks, Teaching & Learning Materials for the Free Quality Education - 9 January 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, on New Year’s Day – 1 January 2019
Address by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone on New Year’s Day – 1 January 2019
Press Release - His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio Appoints Honourable Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards, JA, As Chief Justice of the Republic of Sierra Leone – 19 December 2018
Closing Remarks by His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio, at the Ministerial Meeting of The African Union Committee of Ten on United Nations Reforms, Freetown - 15 December 2018
Opening Remarks by His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio, at the Ministerial Meeting of the African Union Committee of Ten on United Nations Reforms, Freetown - 14 December 2018
Remarks by His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio on the Occasion of the Launch of the Flagship Programme of the First Lady - Handsoff Our Girls - 14 December 2018
Address by His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio on the Commemoration of International Anti-Corruption Day – 8 December 2018
Address By His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio on the Occasion of the Inaugural Media Cocktail, Radisson Blu, Aberdeen – 5 December 2018
Press Release - Government of Sierra Leone commits to Human Capital Development with “Innovation in Government Incubator”
Address By His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio on the Occasion of the Official Launch of the Ring Road Project – Hill Station to Regent, 14 November 2018
President Bio visits UK-funded ISAT facility - A Joint Press Statement from Office of the Press Secretary and British High Commission in Freetown – 15 November 2018
Address By His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio on the Occasion of the Official Launch of the Second Juba Bridge Project - 14 November 2018
Joint Press Release - Sierra Leone and the European Union Reinforce Political Relations
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone on the Occasion of the Inauguration of the Court of the University of Sierra Leone - 9 October 2018
Statement by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York – 27 September 2018
President Bio Departs for United Nations General Assembly in New York-USA 23 Sept 2018
Statement by HE President Julius Maada Bio on the Launching of the Free Education 20-08-18
Appointments On Diplomatic Mission on 19th July 2018
Presidential Appointment on 13th July 2018
Announcement Application fee
Update on Governance Transition Team Report, 09 July 2018
Report of the Governance Transition Team, 25 June 2018
Restructuring Of Boards (26th June 2018)
New AAC Commisioner appointed by President Bio on 20th June 2018
New AG appointed by President Bio
Press Secretary on New AG
Presidential Appointment on 29th MAY 2018
PRESS RELEASE ON 28TH MAY, 2018
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio Concludes State Visit to Rwanda, Compares Notes with President Paul Kagame July 5, 2019
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio Celebrates with Rwandans on Liberation Day July 4 July 4, 2019
Keynote Address by His Excellency, Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Africa Blockchain Conference – Kampala, Uganda – 3 July 2019 July 3, 2019
President Julius Maada Bio Addresses Blockchain Conference, talks about Africa’s Opportunity to Lead in the Fourth Industrial Revolution July 3, 2019
President Julius Maada Bio Visits Industrial Hub that Supports Innovation and Agro-based SMEs in Uganda July 2, 2019
Address: State Avenue, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Contact Numbers: +232(76)277001 / +232(88)269282/ +232(76)758764
Email: info@statehouse.gov.sl
"I commit my new government to deliver 12 years of quality #education by 2030. I'm making this commitment to action… https://t.co/G8MR6CLKNY
- Wednesday May 9 - 7:41am
President Speeches
Copyright © 2018. The Republic of Sierra Leone State House | Website maintained by State House Media and Communications Unit
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1021
|
__label__wiki
| 0.942663
| 0.942663
|
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Last names beginning with S
Sheppard, Katherine Wilson
Story: Sheppard, Katherine Wilson
Related biographies
Page 1: Biography
Kate Sheppard
Kate Sheppard, about 1905
National Council of Women, Christchurch, 1896
Suffragist, social reformer, writer
This biography, written by Tessa K. Malcolm, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 1993, and updated in May, 2013.
Catherine Wilson Malcolm was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, probably on 10 March 1847, the daughter of Scots parents Jemima Crawford Souter and her husband, Andrew Wilson Malcolm, a clerk. She was called Catherine after her grandmother, but preferred to use the names Katherine or Kate. Her early childhood years were spent in London, Nairn in Scotland, and Dublin. A child of outstanding intellectual ability, she was well educated and her later writings reflect an extensive knowledge of the sciences, arts and the law. Her strong religious education and her adherence to religious principle and Christian socialism is attributed to the influence of an uncle, who was minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Nairn.
Her father died in 1862, and in 1868 her mother brought Katherine and her two brothers and a sister as saloon passengers to New Zealand; they arrived on the Matoaka at Lyttelton in February 1869. The family settled in Christchurch, where Katherine's sister, Marie Beath, was living. At Christchurch on 21 July 1871, Katherine, at the age of 24, married Walter Allen Sheppard, a grocer and general merchant. Their only son, Douglas, was born at Christchurch on 8 October 1880. During the early years of her marriage Katherine Sheppard was an active member of the Trinity Congregational Church, giving her time to church visiting, Bible classes and fund-raising. She became secretary of the Ladies Association, and was also involved with other members of her family in temperance work.
In 1885 Mary Leavitt, an evangelist delegate from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the United States of America, commenced her mission in New Zealand and Kate Sheppard became a founding member of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union. It was quickly realised by the union that proposed social and legislative reforms concerning temperance and the welfare of women and children would be more effectively carried out if women possessed the right to vote and the right to representation in Parliament. In 1887 franchise departments were formed within the local unions and Sheppard was appointed national superintendent of the franchise and legislation department.
In this position she was responsible for co-ordinating and encouraging the local unions: she prepared and distributed pamphlets, wrote letters to the press and stimulated debate within the WCTU, church meetings, and temperance and political societies. An accomplished public speaker and writer, she had a clear, logical intellect, and could also conduct argument without rancour. Kate Sheppard was motivated by humanitarian principles and a strong sense of justice: 'All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome'. Hers was a quietly determined, persuasive and disarmingly feminine voice.
Kate was accompanied on her speaking engagements by her younger sister, Isabella May, who worked with her as superintendent of the literature department of the WCTU. The pamphlets distributed by the union were sent to members of Parliament. The temperance societies, already strongly organised within the community, believed that if women had the vote there would be a national majority in favour of prohibition. The emphasis throughout the campaign, however, was on the right of women to vote; that right had previously been extended to males over 21 years. Women, in being excluded, had been classed with juveniles, lunatics and criminals.
The franchise department of the WCTU took the first of three major petitions to Parliament in 1891. The petition was presented by Sir John Hall, and strongly supported by Alfred Saunders and the premier, John Ballance. It was signed by more than 9,000 women, and the second in 1892 by more than 19,000.
In June 1891 Kate Sheppard inaugurated and began editing a women's page in the Prohibitionist, the national temperance magazine. With the formation of franchise leagues in many centres, and the increasing activity and growth of the WCTU auxiliaries in the smaller centres, the largest petition ever presented to Parliament was collected in 1893 with nearly 32,000 signatures. The small band of 600 women members of the WCTU had successfully roused public opinion to the extent that Parliament could no longer ignore their demands.
The Electoral Act 1893 was passed on 19 September and Kate Sheppard received a telegram from the premier, Richard Seddon, previously her political enemy in the House, conceding victory to the women. The governor, Lord Glasgow, honoured Kate Sheppard as a political leader, by symbolically presenting to her the pen with which the bill granting womanhood suffrage had been signed.
It was ten weeks before the election, and the WCTU set about enrolling women. Kate Sheppard emphasised that the franchise department of the WCTU was anxious for all women of all classes to enrol. Sixty-five per cent of all New Zealand women over 21 voted in the first election. New Zealand had become the first country in which all women exercised the right to vote.
In 1894 Kate Sheppard returned with her husband and son to England where she met other leading feminists and with tireless energy joined in a hectic round of public speaking and debate in support of women's franchise. New life had been infused into the women's suffrage movement in England by the success and encouragement of the New Zealand campaigners. Sheppard attended the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union biennial convention in London in June 1895 as New Zealand's delegate and met that union's president, Frances Willard. Her speeches were reported in British as well as New Zealand newspapers.
While in London Kate Sheppard was requested by the International Council of Women to form a national council of women in New Zealand. On her return to Christchurch she found that the Canterbury Women's Institute had already called a meeting of the franchise leagues and other women's societies, in order to form a federation of women's organisations. It was decided to make this April 1896 meeting the inaugural session of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, and Kate Sheppard was elected president, a position she held for the next three years.
Sheppard's absence had resulted in some disarray among her supporters in the House. A bill to include women's representation in Parliament was thwarted by her two previous stalwarts, Alfred Saunders and Sir John Hall, who wanted a separate chamber for women. Kate Sheppard had never advocated a separationist policy, and the loss of her influence meant, perhaps, that the crucial moment for women's complete political equality was also lost.
The annual conferences of the NCW, often called the 'Women's Parliament', were frequently reported with full coverage by the local daily papers, and the resolutions passed were covered by the national press. These meetings also became an arena for public debate on social issues and affairs of state. In her presidential address at the second session in Christchurch in 1897 Kate Sheppard stated: 'In Wellington is every year assembled a National Council of men, which holds a session lasting several months.…From that Council women are excluded.…Under these circumstances a National Council which largely represents the thinking and working women of the colony (and which, it may be remarked, costs the country nothing) becomes a necessity. I trust the day is not far distant…when the necessity for men's councils and women's councils, as such, will be swept away.'
In 1895 the WCTU began publishing its own newspaper, the White Ribbon, which was then the only paper in New Zealand to be started, owned, edited, managed and published by women. Under the editorship of Kate Sheppard this became the 'Hansard' of both the WCTU and the NCW. Its 16 pages were used to keep the branch unions informed of activities, to co-ordinate and report on organisations affiliated with the NCW and to conduct the ongoing campaign for the creation of a just society within the ideals of Christian socialism. Articles were included on health and rational dress, education, education against alcohol, women's political and legal disabilities, and equal wages for women.
Many of these articles were written by Sheppard. Often published as separate pamphlets, they reveal the coherence of her social philosophy. In lucid prose she discusses the need to make full use of women's suffrage in New Zealand, repeal the Contagious Diseases Act 1869, emphasise the responsibilities of women as citizens, promote economic independence for married women, reform government and reconsider the guardianship of children. It is clear that she regarded the family as the foundation of the state, and believed that the state should therefore serve families. With regard to the position of women in the family, she asked: 'If the mother is dwarfed, repressed, how can the children grow to their full mental and moral stature?' In her view there was 'no greater anomaly than the exaltation by men of the vocation of wife and mother on the one hand, while, on the other, the position is by law stripped of all its attractiveness and dignity, and a wife and mother is regarded not only as a "dependent" on her husband's bounty, but even the children of her own body are regarded as his legal property.' The practical means of ending a wife's economic and legal dependence on her husband was given in the NCW proposal that there should be a law 'attaching a certain just share of the husband's earnings or income' for the wife's separate use, 'payable if she so desires it, into her own account.'
Kate Sheppard translated her political philosophy into practical proposals for reform. These largely followed the Swiss model, and were supported by Alfred Saunders. They included proportional representation, with non-party affiliation; the initiative and referendum, whereby the public would have the right to initiate or veto legislation; and the elective executive, whereby cabinet ministers would be elected by all members of Parliament. The cabinet was to be a consultative body whose members would be persons of moral character, ability and experience who would be concerned to co-operate for the common good. To prevent any individual from dominating excessively, the prime minister was viewed as a chairperson, voted in for a one-year term.
Kate Sheppard's most active years as a political leader for social reform were from 1887 to 1902. During this period she was franchise and legislation superintendent of the WCTU, convener of the economics department of the Canterbury Women's Institute, and from 1896 to 1902 president or vice president of the NCW. After eight strenuous years as editor and contributor to the White Ribbon she resigned at the Dunedin WCTU convention in April 1903, owing to ill health and the pending retirement of her husband, Walter Sheppard, who wished to settle in England. Before she departed in July 1903 to join Walter and son Douglas, who was attending the University of London, she was publicly honoured by the executive of the NCW for her outstanding contribution to the community.
She travelled to England through Canada and the United States where she met Carrie Chapman Catt and other leading feminists. With an improvement in her health she was able to attend some public functions in London where she was in demand as a public speaker. Although she wrote a number of letters to the editors of national newspapers on the debate on women's suffrage, her health again steadily declined and she was unable to attend the International Council of Women's quinquennial meeting in Berlin in 1904. Her paper, however, was read to the 19 national councils represented at the meeting.
After an unsuccessful attempt at a rest cure, Kate Sheppard was advised by her doctors that she would need to spend the winters in the south of France. She chose instead to return to New Zealand and arrived back with her husband in September 1904. In March 1905 Margaret Sievwright, then president of the NCW, died. Although an attempt was made to continue the council's work by electing new officers with Kate Sheppard as president, the council went into recess in 1906. That same year Sheppard declined the office of franchise superintendent of the World's WCTU. She lived quietly, retiring from public speaking, but continued to influence the women's movement through her writing and work with the franchise and legislation department of the New Zealand WCTU, and by acting in an advisory capacity to the White Ribbon. In 1909, at the Toronto quinquennial meeting of the International Council of Women, Kate Sheppard was elected honorary vice president, even though she was unable to attend.
On 29 June 1908 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Kate Sheppard's son, Douglas, married Wilhelmina Sievwright, daughter of her friend and co-worker, Margaret Sievwright. Douglas Sheppard died soon afterwards, on 16 March 1910. Walter Sheppard died in Bath, England, on 24 July 1915.
In 1916 Kate Sheppard, Christina Henderson and Jessie Mackay met with the intention of reconvening the National Council of Women. Personal letters were sent to women in the various centres; local branch councils were formed in the main centres. Kate Sheppard was unable to attend the first conference of the revived council in Wellington in 1919, but her address, written in her capacity as founding president, was read for her. She was made a national life member in 1923.
At Christchurch on 15 August 1925, aged 78, Kate Sheppard married William Sidney Lovell-Smith, a 72-year-old printer and author of Outlines of the women's franchise movement in New Zealand; he died four years later. Her only grandchild, Margaret Isobel Sheppard, died in 1930. Kate Lovell-Smith died at her home at Riccarton, Christchurch, on 13 July 1934, and was buried in Addington cemetery with her mother, a brother and a sister. The Christchurch Times reported her death in simple appreciation: 'A great woman has gone, whose name will remain an inspiration to the daughters of New Zealand while our history endures.'
Post to Facebook Post to Twitter
Print the full story
Next:External links and sources
Tessa K. Malcolm. 'Sheppard, Katherine Wilson', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1993, updated May, 2013. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2s20/sheppard-katherine-wilson (accessed 16 July 2019)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1026
|
__label__wiki
| 0.585639
| 0.585639
|
ImmusanT Expands Platform to Type 1 Diabetes with Investment from JDRF T1D Fund
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – September 11, 2018
ImmusanT, Inc., a clinical stage company that is leveraging its Epitope-Specific Immuno-Therapy™ (ESIT™) platform to translate and deliver first-in-class peptide-based immune therapies to people living with autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has received an investment from the JDRF T1D Fund, a venture philanthropy fund exclusively devoted to finding and funding the best type 1 diabetes (T1D) commercial opportunities. The funding marks the JDRF T1D Fund’s first direct investment in ImmusanT and in peptide immunotherapy, an approach that has the potential to positively alter the immune response involved in multiple autoimmune diseases. Terms of the financing were not disclosed. With the funds, ImmusanT plans to accelerate the translation of insights and clinical experience gained from its celiac disease program to the development of a novel vaccine candidate for T1D. The company’s lead candidate, Nexvax2®, a peptide-based therapeutic vaccine, has demonstrated safety and relevant bioactivity in multiple Phase 1 studies for celiac disease, an-HLA associated disease with many similarities to T1D. “This is an exciting time for ImmusanT as we expand the application of our ESIT platform beyond celiac disease to advance the development of a vaccine for type 1 diabetes, a disease for which there is significant unmet medical need,” said Leslie Williams, Chief Executive Officer of ImmusanT. “With the support of the JDRF T1D Fund, we are optimistic that we have the right resources to advance our technology and positively impact the lives of those living with this debilitating disease.” “We believe ImmusanT’s platform could deliver a transformative therapy for T1D, along with a better understanding of the antigens that are driving this disease,” said Jonathan Behr, Managing Director at the JDRF T1D Fund. “We will support the company beyond our capital investment, collaborating to ensure ImmusanT has the highest chance of success.” To learn more about ImmusanT’s efforts in T1D and its collaboration with the JDRF T1D Fund, visit www.immusant.com/t1d.
About ImmusanT, Inc.
At ImmusanT, we are developing a new class of therapeutic vaccines to change the lives of people living with autoimmune diseases. Our Epitope-Specific Immuno-Therapy™ (ESIT™) platform provides a precision medicine approach to restoring immune tolerance across a range of diseases, including celiac disease and type 1 diabetes. Our lead program, Nexvax2®, is in clinical development with the goal of protecting celiac disease patients against the debilitating effects of gluten. www.ImmusanT.com.
About JDRF T1D Fund
The JDRF T1D Fund (www.t1dfund.org) is a venture philanthropy fund accelerating life-changing solutions to treat, prevent and cure type 1 diabetes (T1D) through catalytic commercial investments. Through its investments in partnership with private capital, including venture capital, corporations and foundations, the T1D Fund seeks to attract the private investment necessary to advance drugs, devices, diagnostics, and vaccines into the hands of those living with T1D. The T1D Fund invests in areas strategically aligned with JDRF, the leading global organization funding T1D research, with an exclusive focus on supporting the best commercial opportunities. The T1D Fund will reinvest any realized gains into new investments to further its mission.
ImmusanT, Inc.
George E. MacDougall
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
george@macbiocom.com
JDRF T1D Fund
Amy Montalto
amontalto@jdrf.org
About the JDRF T1D Fund
Our aim is to create a new investment market aimed at delivering solutions to those living with or at risk of developing T1D. Launched in December 2016, the T1D Fund is a combination of venture capital and philanthropy focused solely on T1D. It’s the first scale, mission-driven venture philanthropy fund focused on commercial investments in companies developing life-saving T1D products. The portfolio consists of therapeutics, devices, vaccines, and diagnostics. We already have made several investments and the list will only continue to grow.
For more information email us at t1dfund@jdrf.org
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1029
|
__label__cc
| 0.658335
| 0.341665
|
Recreational marijuana legalization tied to decline in teens using pot, study says
: July 10, 2019
(CNN) Marijuana use among young people in the United States overall has climbed in recent years, but a new paper suggests that in states where recreational marijuana has been legalized, marijuana use among youth may actually be falling.
Laws that legalized recreational marijuana were associated with an 8% drop in the number of high schoolers who said they used marijuana in the last 30 days, and a 9% drop in the number who said they'd used at least 10 times in the last 30 days, according to the paper published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday.
"Just to be clear we found no effect on teen use following legalization for medical purposes, but evidence of a possible reduction in use following legalization for recreational purposes," said Mark Anderson, an associate professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, who was first author of the paper.
"Because our study is based on more policy variation than prior work, we view our estimates as the most credible to date in the literature," he said.
The paper involved analyzing data, from 1993 to 2017, on about 1.4 million high school students in the United States from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.
The researchers took a close look at self-reported marijuana use in the surveys among the students as well as survey responses in areas where medical or recreational marijuana was legalized.
The researchers examined the responses before and after the marijuana laws were implemented.
The data showed that marijuana use among high schoolers was not statistically associated with medical marijuana laws, but there was a link with recreational marijuana laws.
The paper had some limitations, including that only an association was found in the study -- not a causal relationship -- and more research is needed to determine why this association exists.
"Because many recreational marijuana laws have been passed so recently, we do observe limited post-treatment data for some of these states," Anderson said. "In a few years, it would make sense to update our estimates as more data become available." Read more
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1033
|
__label__wiki
| 0.592928
| 0.592928
|
Jeanie Sluck / Published: July 4, 2019
“The Cliff House” by Rae Ann Thayne
After the death of their mother, Daisy and Beatriz Davenport found a home with their aunt Stella in Cape Sanctuary. They never knew all the dreams that Stella sacrificed to ensure they had everything they’d ever need. Now, with Daisy and Bea grown, it’s time for Stella to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from them, a secret that will change their family forever. Bea thought she’d sown all her wild oats when she got pregnant far too young. The marriage that followed was rocky and destined not to last, but it gave Bea her wonderful daughter, Marisol. Just as she’s beginning to pursue a new love with an old friend, Bea’s ex-husband resurfaces and turns their lives completely upside down. Daisy has always been sensible, rational and financially prudent. She’s never taken a risk in her life, until she meets a man who makes her question everything she thought she knew about life, love and the power of taking chances. Will the sisters find true happiness or will they be destined to a humdrum life?
“Dear Wife” by Kimberly Belle
For nearly a year, Beth has been plotting to leave her abusive husband. This is her one chance at freedom, one that requires a new look, new name and new city. Each part of her plan has to be carefully thought out, because one small slip and her violent husband will find her. A couple hundred miles away, Jeffrey returns home from a work trip to find his wife, Sabine, is missing. Wherever she is, she’s taken almost nothing with her. Her abandoned car is the only trace of her the police have to go on, and all signs point to foul play. The detective on the case will stop at nothing to bring this missing woman home. Where is Sabine? Who is Beth? As Beth’s husband starts piecing together her whereabouts, she’ll have to make a decision about her future that will leave readers breathless
“A Family of Strangers” by Emilie Richards
All her life, Ryan Gracey watched her perfect older sister from afar. Knowing she could never top Wendy’s achievements, she didn’t even try. Instead Ryan forged her own path while her family barely seemed to notice. Now Wendy shares two little girls with her perfect husband, while Ryan mourns the man she lost after a nearly fatal mistake in judgment. The sisters’ choices have taken them in different directions, which is why Ryan is stunned when Wendy calls, begging for her help. There’s been a murder and Wendy believes she’ll be wrongfully accused. While Wendy lies low, Ryan moves back to their hometown to care for the nieces she hardly knows. The sleuthing skills she’s refined as a true-crime podcaster quickly rise to the surface as she digs for answers with the help of an unexpected ally. Yet the trail of clues Wendy’s left behind leads to nothing but questions. Blood may be thicker than water, but what does Ryan owe a sister who becomes more and more a stranger with every revelation? Is Wendy, who always seemed so perfect, just a perfect liar or worse?
“Forever My Hero” by Sharon Sala
Dan Amos lost his wife and son years ago, when they inadvertently got in the way of a death threat meant for him. He’s never had eyes for anyone since, and he doesn’t want to. Now fellow Blessings resident Alice Conroy sparks something inside him. Newly widowed, Alice was disillusioned by marriage and isn’t looking to fall in love anytime soon. Then a tropical storm blazes a path straight for the Georgia coast, and as the town prepares for the worst, Dan opens his heart and his home. The tempest is raging, but Alice and Dan are learning to find shelter in each other
“The Girl He Used to Know” by Tracey Garvis Graves
Annika Rose is an English major at the University of Illinois. Anxious in social situations where she finds most people’s behavior confusing, she’d rather be surrounded by the order and discipline of books or the quiet solitude of playing chess. Jonathan Hoffman joined the chess club and lost his first game and his heart to Annika. He admires her ability to be true to herself, quirks and all, and accepts the challenges involved in pursuing a relationship with her. Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other, finding the confidence and courage within themselves to plan a future together. What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone. Now, 10 years later, fate reunites Annika and Jonathan in Chicago. She’s living the life she wanted as a librarian. He’s a Wall Street whiz, recovering from a divorce and seeking a fresh start. The attraction and strong feelings they once shared are instantly rekindled, but until they confront the fears and anxieties that drove them apart, their second chance will end before it truly begins.
“Glory Road” by Lauren K. Denton
Nearly a decade after her husband’s affair drove her back home, Jessie McBride has the stable life she wants, operating her garden shop, Twig, next door to her house on Glory Road, and keeping up with her teenage daughter and spunky mother. The unexpected arrival of two men makes Jessie question whether she’s really happy with the status quo. When businessman Sumner Tate asks her to arrange flowers for his daughter’s lavish wedding, Jessie finds herself drawn to his continued attention. Then Ben Bradley moves back to the red dirt road, and she feels her heart pulled in directions she never expected. Meanwhile, Jessie’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Evan, is approaching the start of high school and navigating a new world of emotions, particularly as they relate to the new guy who’s moved in just down the road. At the same time, Jessie’s mother, Gus, is suffering increasingly frequent memory lapses and faces a frightening, uncertain future. In one summer, everything will change. These three strong Southern women, the roots they’ve planted on Glory Road will give life to the adventures waiting just around the curve.
“Goodnight Stranger” by Miciah Bay Gault
Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late 20s when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom’s death a decade before. They live together, comfortable yet confined, in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood. When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels a connection to him. Lucas is convinced the man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their baby brother, who died when they were young. Cole knows their mannerisms, their home, the topography of the island, what else could that mean? Though Lydia is doubtful, she can’t deny she is drawn to his magnetism, his energy and his warmth. To discover the truth about Cole, Lydia must finally face her anxiety about leaving the island and summon the strength to challenge Cole’s grip on her family’s past and her brother. A deliciously alluring read, “Goodnight Stranger” is a story of choices and regrets, courage and loneliness, and the ways we hold on to those we love.
“Gravity is the Thing” by Jaclyn Moriarty
Twenty years ago, Abigail Sorenson’s brother Robert went missing one day before her 16th birthday, never to be seen again. That same year, she began receiving scattered chapters in the mail of a self-help manual, the Guidebook, whose anonymous author promised to make her life soar to heights beyond her wildest dreams. The Guidebook’s missives have remained a constant in Abi’s life, an oddly comforting voice through her family’s grief over her brother’s disappearance, a move across continents, the devastating dissolution of her marriage, and the new beginning as a single mother and café owner in Sydney. Now, 20 years after receiving those first pages, Abi is invited to an all-expenses paid weekend retreat to learn “the truth” about the Guidebook. It’s an opportunity too intriguing to refuse. If everything is connected, then surely the twin mysteries of the Guidebook and a missing brother must be linked? Or is it?
“The Woman in the White Kimono” by Ana Johns
Japan, 1957, 17-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community. Naoko has fallen for another man an American sailor and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations. Tori Kovac, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation, one that calls into question everything she understood about him, her family and herself. Setting out to learn the truth behind the letter, Tori’s journey leads her halfway around the world to a remote seaside village in Japan, where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1034
|
__label__wiki
| 0.663239
| 0.663239
|
By trutherator
Herein copied is my email to answer a wrong-headed report in the Sunday Miami Herald, whose central feature were quotes from Juan Barahona. He was helping Mel Zelaya overthrow the Honduran government and Honduran constitutional democracy through a fraudulent vote for a constitutional assembly, and made no secret of it.
Juan Barahona is the guy who walked out of negotiations and is breathing threatenings of warfare because his team was conceding the constitutional convention. Hondurans want to keep their constitutional democracy, thank you very much. When it comes to overthrowing it, they would rather fight than switch, thank you very much.
Ms. Robles,
My wife is from Honduras, at least one of our family is there more days than not. And the article reflects a criminal neglect of the duty of a journalist to portray a fair representation of facts.
Fact #1: 85 percent of Hondurans are fiercely adamant that they will keep their constitutional democracy, represented by the recognition fo the constitutional succession of presidency to Micheletti. And very, very ready to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Fact #2: Mel Zelaya is the real golpista, the coup plotter. He was
..a..already overthrowing the government,
..b..overthrowing the constitutional representative democracy,
..c..was ruling by decree,
..d..nullified the Congress by his actions and inactions, deciding at whim which laws he would obey,
..e..robbed the entire country with his refusal to submit a 2009 budget to Congress,
..f….robbed the poor by stiffing the programs that helped them,
..g…had his hand-picked ruler of the national electric company cut off the entire town of Choluteca to punish them because they did not support his auto-coup fraud (that was the infamous Rixi Moncada),
..h…had plans to send his mob to dissolve the Congress on that day of June 28, try to make the session impossible,
..i…using the pre-counted fraudulent “survey” results ready to go with percentages and everything,
..j…no doubt using the 50 million lempiras cash he had sent his staff to rob by fraud from the Central Bank,
Fact #3: The specific clauses of the Honduran Constitution that support the obligation to force succession in the presidency in the case of constitutional crimes such as Zelaya’s are crystal clear: Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 42, 239, 272, 373, and 374 give every Honduran citizen the duty to oppose and even overthrow any such usurper government as Zelaya’s.
Fact #4: The Congress voted 124-4 to recognize the termination of the presidency of Zelaya.
Fact #5: The Supreme Court validated the succession, that’s 15-0.
Fact #6: The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (or Commission) had already refused to obey his order to execute his illegal unconstitutional referendum, another validation of the clause that automatically terminates the proponent of such a referendum, since the ban on re-election was explicitly declared open.
Fact #7. The Human Rights Obundsman declared that no human rights were violated.
Fact #8. Honduras had a history of presidents who made themselves dictators after getting elected, arranging re-election by hook, crook and fraud, for which reason they made two principles forever inviolate and unchangeable: (1), the republican form of government (also referred to in the document as representative democracy), and (2), the ban on re-election.
Question 1: If 97 percent of the Congress–elected by the same people that elected Zelaya!– and 100 percent of the Supreme Court, and the Electoral Commission, the Fiscal General, ALL agree that the succession was constitutional, then how can so many people claim it was a coup, let alone a “military” coup?
Question 2: If Articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 42, 239, 272, 373, and 374 of the HONDURAN constitution obligate every Honduran citizen to fight against opening re-election of presidents, and says any official who proposes re-election “immediately ceases” in his function, and proposing change to these principles is called “treason”, and after the consensus between two-thirds of the government (Congress and Supreme Court) plus the Fiscal General of the executive, all these agree he is no longer eligible for president, HOW can anybody claim with a straight face that he should be reinstated?
Since the national and international press has not been exactly fair with the facts, this text is also going on my blog, http://www.trutherator.wordpress.org.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1036
|
__label__wiki
| 0.924557
| 0.924557
|
‘New Girl’s’ newest season starts off strong after last year’s lull
The fourth season premiere gives each "New Girl" character equal attention. Via Fox Flash
“New Girl” (2011-present) has offered a promising start to its fourth season. Creating a third season can be a difficult time for shows — often following a great second season, where writers are finally comfortable with their characters and the storyline has picked up steam. Falling face first into this trap, “New Girl” unfortunately became too comfortable in its system and successful second season, and the writers began began to get lazy. Characters became caricatures, storylines were stripped-down and overly basic and cheap relationships were written in. While the third season had its moments (it wasn’t quite as bad as “The Gas Leak Year,” fans’ way of referring to “Community’s” (2009-present) disappointing fourth season), they were simply few and far in between.
This season begins at a wedding, serving as a useful barometer for comparing the different stages of the show. “New Girl” has had three wedding episodes so far. The episode entitled “Wedding” (season one, episode three) is an example of a great episode — the group attends a wedding where their zany antics lead from one comical situation to the next — while still developing the characters. The second wedding episode, “Elaine’s Big Day” (season two, episode 25), is also very memorable, unfortunately, for different reasons. The episode centers around Cece’s (Hannah Simone) wedding to fiancé Shivrang (Satya Bhabha). A finale episode, “Elaine’s big day” tries to do a little too much, ultimately devolving into one large mess and ushering in a similarly chaotic season three.
In the season premiere of season four, “The Last Wedding,” the writers attempt to recapture their past success by sending the cast to yet another couple’s nuptials. This time, the bride and groom-to-be are unknown characters which allows the gang to roam free around the party, unlike at Cece’s wedding. The show even pokes fun at Cece’s wedding episode when Jess begins to throw out all the wedding invitations they’ve kept on their fridge and they come across Cece and Shivrang’s invitation.
For many series, back-to-its-roots episodes often fall flat, emphasizing just how far a show has declined. However, this is not true of “The Last Wedding.” The writers took a gamble, and it paid off. They were able to capture the appeal of the “New Girl’s” critically successful early years and recreate it with now-established characters.
First and foremost, the new season is more daring. The gang decides to end the “summer of sex” with a bang when Schmidt (Max Greenfield) proclaims that no one is going home alone that night. The previous season presented a decline in risqué content, settling for a safer romantic plot. Furthermore, the characters begin to regain their shape as three-dimensional beings — Schmidt especially — and the show was able to step back over the shark it jumped when Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick (Jake Johnson) first started dating. These two characters were able to share a heartfelt moment on the floor of a bathroom stall without delving into the cheesy. In the past season, any heartfelt moment often felt cheap and insincere, yet this is no longer the case. Finally, what made the show so great in its early years was the equal screen time shared by the characters. This was done especially well in this episode, allowing each character his or her fair share and preventing any one character from becoming just a punchline.
The group finds itself in an especially raunchy situation when Schmidt teaches Jess how to use a Tinder-esque app called Dice. While the episode was funny and the writers took more risks, the plot was an example of the show’s faults. Cheap references to current popular culture, in this case Tinder, make the show look like your grandma trying very hard to stay relevant.
Season four takes a step in the right direction for the series’ future. Save for a few bad habits picked up along the way that are carried into this season, the material so far appears hopeful. Those viewers sucked in by the first two seasons and who have soldiered on through season three, many simply by force of habit, may finally be rewarded for their patience.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1038
|
__label__cc
| 0.74455
| 0.25545
|
« Cathedral St Etienne , Saint Brieuc | Chapelle Notre Dame de la Clarté, Perros Guirec! »
St James’s Church at Perros Guirec!
And I am staying right here in lovely Côtes d’Armor dept 22 in my beloved Brittany. A world to discover, the 3rd most visited region of France by the French, just need some of you visitors to discovered it. I like to tell you about another place where I have written before in a general sense but merits a full post of its own.
Therefore, let me tell you a bit more on the église St Jacques or St James’s Church of Perros Guirec in the granite coast!
The Church of Saint-Jacques is located in Perros Guirec in Cotes d’Armor dept 22 in Brittany. In the heart of the city center, it strikes the visitor through its portal ogival adjoining a square granite tower of Ile Grande 14C, surmounted by a dome extended by a pyramidal spire in granite of the Clarté-Ploumanac’h ,17C. Raised on a hill from the end of the 11C, dedicated to Saint-Jacques (St James/Santiago), it sheltered pilgrims from the north en route to Santiago de Compostela. The South Porch 12C offers specially crafted capitals over which runs a frieze of octopuses, the only one of all the Romanesque art listed so far. The Church was enlarged in the 14C,16C, and 20C.
A bit of description and histoy I like
Massive and dark, this St James’ Church is distinguished by its strange capitals carved granite, leading to massive columns of a half-nave opening sideways by a portal to covings. From the original building, it remains the Romanesque nave and the southern porch. The ten pillars of the Romanesque nave , from 11C and 12C, feature capitals carved from Celtic or biblical motifs. In particular, the second pillar represents the arrival of Saint-Guirec in Perros. A gothic nave has come to prolong the Romanesque nave in the 14C. The square tower also dates from this period; the balustrade and the curious pyramid-boom dome are from the 17C. The two transepts were added in the 20C.
Inside, you will be able to discover a beautiful 17C altarpiece comprising nineteen finely shaped statuettes. The Church of St Jacques (St James) also contains a 12C blessed and a 14C grain measure; this measure was used to receive and evaluate grain offerings.The Romanesque nave has ten pillars with carved or carved capitals. The Romanesque nave displays beautiful arcades in full hanger with marquees richly adorned with characters, foliage, animals. A plain ceiling covers the entire Church.
The statuary, the furniture are also worthy of interest. Above the door, in the tympanum, the image of the Christ in glory, wearing a long tunic and raising his hand to bless. Around him, the eagle, symbol of St. John, and the lion, symbol of St. Mark, suggesting that on the lintel remade in the underwork, were once figured the other two evangelists, St. Luke and St. Matthew.
The bell tower, with the curious spire dome which today crowns the top, is raised on the base of the tower only in the 17C. From that same 17C date the baptismal fonts, with their admirable balusters, and, behind the major altar, the Church Saint Jacques (St James) had to grow in the middle of the 20C where new arms were built at the transept and a more spacious sacristy, which opens onto the nave by an old door entourage at a noble pace.
The heavy granite of the baptistery, decorated with 4 roughly carved characters, is from the 12C, from the time of the Romanesque part of the building. Saint John the Baptist, on the wall of the baptismal font is from the 17C. Saint Lawrence, in dalmatic of Deacon, his grill in hand, seems to be from the 16C. St. Catherine, crowned like a queen, is from the same time as St. Lawrence. The Pietà, at the crossroads of the Romanesque part and the Gothic part, unfortunately damaged, dates back to the end of the 16C. Saint Yves, at the same crossroads, is from the 18C, on a Romanesque base of the 12C. Christ in contempt, late 15C or early 16C, near the door of the sacristy, is worth admiring. The Virgin mother, called Notre-Dame du Foyer is from the 17C. Christ on the Cross of the beam of glory is a magnificent sculpture of the late 15C. The Saint James of the altarpiece is from the 17C as the ensemble of which it belongs.
By the way, we noticed the two modern windows of the transept. The one on the left in Saint Yves. At the entrance of the choir and around the baptismal fonts, other modern stained glass windows. The organ was created in 1996-1997. The latter has used as much as possible old techniques and traditional materials such as oak or lead. This was a new organ, the Church of St Jacques had never had an organ.
A bit more on the nice Church Saint Jacques from the tourist office of Perros Guirec.
Tourist office of Perros-Guirec on the Church
There you go another wonderful monument to visit on your rounds in the granite coast , wonderful coastal views and great beaches. Enjoy it
Posted on February 23, 2019 at 18:45 in Bretagne, Europe, France | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1040
|
__label__wiki
| 0.556478
| 0.556478
|
Tag Archive: Dominique Whaley
Prospect Preview: Oklahoma Sooners
Filed under: NFL Draft Prospect Scouting Reports — Leave a comment
From now until the season starts I will be previewing the prospects from Big-12, ACC and Big East teams for the upcoming season. My colleague at NFL Draft Monsters Justin Higdon (follow him on Twitter @afc2nfc) will be covering the SEC, Pac-12 and Big-10 and you will be able to read those posts on NFL Draft Monsters. Check them all out to get ready for the 2013 NFL Draft by identifying the prospects you need to learn about!
First up for me is Oklahoma. They are a popular pick to win the Big-12, but I am not so sure. I don’t trust Landry Jones at quarterback even though he accumulates attractive stats. Not only that, but the Sooners return ONE receiver with any starting experience what-so-ever in college football. They will be completely reliant on young freshman receivers to take the pressure off of him, and we all saw how Jones did when his #1 target Ryan Broyles went down at the end of the 2011 season. They have talent at RB and their offensive line is good, but they lost their top two pass rushers in Frank Alexander and Ronnell Lewis and they don’t return a single defender with 6 or more sacks (their leaders have 5.5, 4.5 and 3.5). They have a very good secondary highlighted by Tony Jefferson and Demontre Hurst, and Tom Wort anchors the defense at middle linebacker, but I am concerned that the Sooners won’t be able to generate a pass rush without blitzing. That will make things more difficult for their secondary, and I don’t know how their run defense will be. Overall, there are a lot of question marks with this Oklahoma team, but they are still being picked to win the Big-12. I can’t go out on that limb, and I think they will end up with 9 or 10 wins. So, without further adieu, here is their prospect preview:
Landry Jones has a lot of work to do if he wants to restore his name as a potential top 5 quarterback come draft time. As of right now, I have a 4th round grade on him.
Landry Jones, QB- Jones has NFL size at 6’4”, 229 pounds and has 37 career starts which is a phenomenal amount of experience for a college quarterback. Last year he was on his way to another statistically impressive season with four games remaining, having totaled 3,349 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions. However, after his top target Ryan Broyles went down with an injury missing the final four games Jones’ production dropped off significantly. He only threw for 1,114 yards in the final four games (after averaging 372 passing yards per game in the first nine, he only averaged 278.5 per game in the final four). On top of that, he threw only ONE touchdown against a less talented Iowa team in Oklahoma’s bowl game and NINE interceptions over that same span. This is as good evidence as any that Jones is a product of the talent around him, not a franchise quarterback that elevates the play of those around him. That four game stretch likely played a huge role in him coming back for his senior season to try to rebuild his draft stock which had tumbled into the 3rd or 4th round. Many draft analysts had him pegged in that area before that, but that four game stretch made it popular to grade him in that mid-round area. Now that he is returning for his senior season he has a realistic chance to leave for the NFL with an incredible 50 career starts, which is just about ideal for a college quarterback prospect. He has the size, and has enough arm talent to play in the NFL. He has good arm strength, though you wouldn’t necessarily know it watching his ball velocity on intermediate throws. He has pretty good accuracy, but the offense he plays in as well as the ability of his receivers help mask some of his accuracy issues. He certainly isn’t as gifted as a pure passer as Sam Bradford was. On top of that, Jones has trouble making plays when his team needs it most, much like I believed Bradford did. He also doesn’t have a lot of pocket poise and makes mistakes when pressured, when good and great quarterbacks make defenses pay in the face of pressure and blitzes from defenses. Jones has an uphill battle to prove to draftniks and scouts alike that he is a better quarterback than he showed in the last four games last season, and to prove that he warrants legitimate top 96 consideration. Gaudy stats won’t be enough, he will need to lead his team to wins with key plays late, make decisive reads and throws under pressure, and work the pocket better and stand tall to deliver throws instead of throwing off his back foot and fading away from pressure. It remains to be seen if he can make the necessary adjustments to force his name back into top 5-10 quarterback conversations, but as of today I am very skeptical.
Dominique Whaley, RB- Whaley is a former walk-on but he burst onto the scene when he surprisingly emerged as the starter for Oklahoma last season. He produced 627 yards and 9 touchdowns in 7 games as well as 15 receptions for 153 yards before his season was cut short due to an ankle injury. He returns for his senior season as the likely starter but will split time with the undersized but explosive Roy Finch and will likely have his goal-line carries stolen by 6’6”, 245 pound quarterback Blake Bell. Whaley’s 40 yard dash time is around 4.55, so not blazing, but if he can overcome injury issues he has the potential to get drafted. He’s no stranger to hard work since he earned his way onto Oklahoma as a walk-on, and that kind of hard work always translates to the next level even if he doesn’t have ideal timed speed.
Roy Finch, RB*- Finch is only a junior and it would be surprising if he declared early, but he is the most explosive back that I am aware of on Oklahoma’s roster so I think he warrants mention. He is only listed at 5’7”, 166 pounds so he is very small and doesn’t have the size or bulk to be a feature back in college or the NFL, but he has an approximate 40 yard dash time of 4.45 and has been productive despite his size. As a sophomore he produced 605 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns on only 111 attempts, plus he totaled 34 receptions for 296 yards as a receiver. He also returned 11 kickoffs for 223 yards. He definitely offers versatility, and his ability to accelerate quickly, stop on a dime, make sharp cuts and make defenders miss in the open field reminds me of Darren Sproles. Sproles’ emergence as one of the most versatile players in the NFL despite his lack of size should only help Finch’s perception if he can demonstrate similar athleticism and versatility. If Trey Franks isn’t brought back (he was suspended indefinitely and Bob Stoops was quoted as saying “we aren’t counting on any of them” referring to Jaz Reynolds, Trey Franks, and Quentin Hayes. When asked if they could be reinstated Stoops only said “we’ll see.”) then Finch could be the primary return man for Oklahoma.
To be honest, I am not sold on Kenny Stills at this point. He has upside, but he’s skinny and I don’t think he is as explosive as advertised.
Kenny Stills, WR*- Stills is the top returning receiver for Landry Jones to throw to this season. The 6’1”, 189 pound receiver was productive last season as he totaled 61 receptions for 849 yards (13.9 ypc) and 8 touchdowns. However, he didn’t total a single touchdown in the last four games when he didn’t have Ryan Broyles opposite him, and I have some questions about his hands, his true explosiveness as a WR as well as his physicality. He has an estimated 40 yard dash time of 4.49 but he just doesn’t look like a burner to me, and he doesn’t look extremely quick in short areas as well. I kind of think he is a product of the offense that he plays in, though he is on the Maxwell watch list, the award given to the best WR in the country. I definitely have some questions about Stills’ ability to translate to the NFL, so I will be interested to see how he does without a #1 target drawing attention away from him, and he won’t have Jaz Reynolds or Trey Franks around to help take pressure off of him.
Trey Millard, FB*- Millard has been touted as the “best fullback I’ve ever had” by OU head coach Bob Stoops, even though he isn’t often on the field as a traditional fullback. He showed up as a reliable blocker for Oklahoma throughout the season and has shown the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield when he is targeted. He’s not a star, but he’s a reliable player. It will be interesting to see if he is involved more in the passing game now that James Hanna has gone on to the NFL.
Lane Johnson, LT- Johnson is a former tight end prospect who is now a senior starting at left tackle for the first time at Oklahoma. He didn’t play in 2010 but started 12 games at right tackle in 2011. He has the size you want in a left tackle at 6’6”, 296 pounds and converted tight end prospects traditionally do pretty well at left tackle thanks to the athleticism it requires to play tight end, so it will be interesting to see how he does at left tackle this year. He looks skinny on film, and could definitely stand to add weight to his frame and it shows when he is bullrushed in pass protection. Shoots off the ball at times, seems to have impressive short area quickness. Shows that he can get out of his stance pretty quickly and get into his kick slide. Doesn’t look like a great drive blocker, but plays with pretty good pad level and seems to mirror well. I don’t see a lot of nastiness and doesn’t always finish blocks, and is a little raw with his technique and footwork but he definitely has the athleticism and foot speed to be a quality blind side protector for Jones this season in my opinion. It will be interesting to see how he does on the left side and if he shows improved technique this year.
Ben Habern, C- Habern enters his senior season with 30 career starts despite missing 6 starts last season due to injury. He is listed at 6’4”, 292 pounds but looks more like 6’3” on film to me. When I have watched him I have never recorded a bad snap, even when I watched his first game back from a forearm injury with a cast on the arm that he snaps with. Shows an ability to anchor and seems to be mobile for a center his size, but can be pushed back when strong defensive lineman gets him on skates. Definitely needs to watch his hand placement when he’s blocking to make sure he doesn’t let his hands wander outside the numbers and draw holding penalties. He doesn’t look like he has very long arms, but he is smart, makes correct blitz pick-ups in pass pro. Seems to be more of a wall-off blocker than a drive blocker. He strikes me as a solid but unspectacular center, and right now is a fringe draftable prospect.
Jamarkus McFarland, DT- McFarland is one of two returning starters on the defensive line for Oklahoma and will need to step up as both Ronnell Lewis and Frank Alexander are gone and they were their best pass rushers. McFarland was solid last season as he started 7 games and totaled 21 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and half a sack. He’s listed at 6’1”, 296 pounds and is currently a fringe draftable prospect. His performance without two proven pass rushers on the outside will be telling for his NFL Draft prospects.
Tom Wort, MLB*- Wort may not be a big linebacker (listed at 6’0”, 229 pounds) but he is tough and seems to be a good leader. He wore Austin Box’s #12 in Oklahoma’s season opener last year and was crying as he came onto the field. He already has 21 career starts in his young career and produced 71 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 2 pass break-ups and 2 interceptions as a sophomore last year. He’s a reliable tackler who is improving in pass coverage, and he’s tough. He’s not big, but he’s effective.
Demontre Hurst has impressive ball skills and he can hit, as you can see from this picture. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Demontre Hurst, CB- Hurst may not be big, he’s only listed at 5’9”, 182 pounds, but he impressed me last season with his ball skills. He enters his senior season with 27 career starts at cornerback and has had 11 pass break-ups and 1 interception each of the last two years while also forcing 4 fumbles over those same two seasons. He has shown me that he is a reliable tackler, has impressive ball skills, is athletic and closes well and can support the run from the cornerback position. He doesn’t have elite height, but he’s a really nice sleeper prospect at corner. Hurst can definitely play.
Aaron Colvin, CB*- Colvin actually finished the season tied for the lead in tackles with Travis Lewis, and as a result is Oklahoma’s leading returning tackler. He also had 6 pass break-ups this season, and figures to move in to the starting position opposite Hurst now that Jamell Fleming has moved on to the NFL. Colvin is taller than Hurst as he is listed at 6’0”, but only weighs 176 pounds. I haven’t seen Colvin play as much as Hurst, so I don’t know as much about his playing style, but I do know he has 9 pass break-ups the past two years, 8 total tackles for loss and a forced fumble. He’s got ability and a surprising amount of experience, having started 13 games in his first two seasons despite quality NFL talent in Jamell Fleming and Hurst above him on the depth chart.
Tony Jefferson, FS*- Jefferson is a player I’ve been high on since I watched him as a freshman and I actually had him on my list of potential break-out players before his sophomore season. He’s versatile as he can line up at safety or at nickel back, he can play man or zone coverage and despite lacking elite size for the safety position (5’10”, 199 pounds) he loves to get involved in run support, he blitzes effectively and he does a great job dropping into coverage. He’s a fluid athlete with good speed, acceleration and ability to close, and one of my favorite draft eligible safeties for the 2013 NFL Draft.
Tress Way, P- I have had my eye on Tress Way since I watched him as a freshman and was blown away by his leg. He’s got a NFL leg without a doubt and it was obvious to me when I saw him two years ago. He is listed at 6’1”, 218 pounds but size and weight aren’t critical measurables for punters. Their hangtime is their key stat, and I was taught that you can hear if a punter has a NFL leg. If he does, the ball will “pop” off his foot like a gun shot. I believe Way has that caliber leg, and not only does he have the leg for distance he had an insane 34 punts downed inside the 20 yard line last season. I can’t find an official ranking list for this stat, but I would have a hard time believing that isn’t near the top which is especially impressive since he only punted 63 times. That means more than half of his punts were downed inside the 20! Punters don’t often get a lot of NFL Draft love, but I think Way has a chance to get drafted if he continues to demonstrate a strong and accurate leg.
I will be previewing Texas next, followed by Oklahoma State. Keep an eye out for them here as well as at NFL Draft Monsters!
Tags: 2013 NFL Draft, Aaron Colvin, Ben Habern, Bob Stoops, C, CB, Demontre Hurst, Dominique Whaley, DT, FS, Jamarkus McFarland, Jaz Reynolds, Kenny Stills, Landry Jones, Lane Johnson, LT, MLB, NFL Draft Monsters, Oklahoma Sooners, P, Prospect Preview Post, QB, RB, Roy Finch, Tom Melton, Tom Wort, Tony Jefferson, Tress Way, Trey Franks, WR
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1043
|
__label__wiki
| 0.766406
| 0.766406
|
These Are The Top 10 Most Charitable Companies In Australia
Posted on: 30th May 2017
Ten companies have recently been recognised for their charitable nature, with up to 65 per cent of their employees at some of the companies regularly donating to charity.
In June 2016, an online campaign was launched, aiming to encourage one million employees to donate to a charity through workplace giving. The campaign was launched by chief executive of the Australian Charities Fund, Jenny Geddes.
“We have always known that workplace giving is a sensible way to give and support charities,” she said. “We launched the one million donors campaign to create an ambitious target for employers.”
Data from 2014 shows 156,000 Australians give money to charities through a workplace intuitive that deducts pre-tax donations from their overall pay packet.
“If we can get to one million donors, that will mean $250 million flowing to the charity sector based on an average donation of $200 per donor per year.”
The new online platform part of the initiative gives employees a chance to track the progress of their charitable donation against other employees from across Australia.
The workplaces that are registered to the online campaign include JB Hi-Fi, SEEK, Collins Foods Group, Flight Centre, BHP Billiton and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
JB Hi-Fi is the top charity giving company in Australia, and matches employee donations dollar for dollar. The company sponsors nine charities including Oxfam, the Fred Hollows Foundation, Redkite, Song Room and animal welfare charities.
JB Hi-Fi chief executive and chairman of the Australian Charities Fund’s employer leadership group, Richard Murray, said his company and employees had given $10 million to charity since 2008.
Following JB Hi-Fi is SEEK, which has 57 per cent of employees involved in workplace giving. SEEK supports The Big Issue and Street, the Cathy Freeman Foundation and The Smith Family.
Flight Centre is the seventh most charitable company, with 30.5 per cent of the companies 10,000 employees involved in workplace giving. Around $1 million for employees and benefactors flow through Flight Centre to charities, of which $800,000 is workplace giving. The donations are matched dollar for dollar by the company.
Flight Centre Foundation general manager, Anita Russell, says all of the charities they give to were chosen with input from their employees.
“Workplace giving is a no-brainer. It is a win for people because it is so easy and they know they are having an impact. It is good for the company and it is a win for our charity partners because they have a consistent flow of money.”
The top ten charitable companies in Australia are, in order; JB Hi-Fi, SEEK, Collins Foods Group, Pacific Equity Partners, Atlassian, Event Hospitality & Entertainment, Flight Centre, BHP Billiton, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Share this feature
$954,174 worth of prizes
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1044
|
__label__wiki
| 0.767728
| 0.767728
|
About TKE
Trade Knowledge Exchange > Commentary > Saana Consulting Interview Series #2: Mr Don Stephenson
Saana Consulting Interview Series #2: Mr Don Stephenson
23rd February 2017
by Stacey Mills
EU-UK Partnerships
UK Partnerships with Non EU Countries
Saana Consulting’s interview series for the TKE offers readers unique, insider-perspectives from top trade negotiators from around the world and sheds light on some of the most pressing questions relating to the UK’s future trade and investment strategy. In this series, our experts share insights and lessons for the UK as it seeks to build the capability to navigate the Brexit process, negotiate a network of global trade agreements around the world, and take up its new role within the WTO. In the second interview of the series, we spoke about Brexit trade negotiation strategies with Mr Don Stephenson, former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the Office of the United Nations and to the World Trade Organization, Chief Trade Negotiator for the Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, and lecturer at Norman Patterson School of International Affairs and the Centre for Trade Policy and Law.
How can the UK Government build its trade negotiation capabilities (quickly)? What sort of training should the new trade negotiators undertake?
The central point I would make is that few of the trade negotiators that I’ve worked with have formal training in trade or negotiation, they tended to learn on the job through experience. My colleague, who was our lead goods negotiator for years, studied Middle Eastern history. The lead negotiator for investment protection agreements studied Zoology. My studies were in Communications and I was the head of trade negotiations for Canada for a time. So I would have to stay that negotiation skills can be transferred.
Most universities have courses in negotiation skills, which, through observation and practice, can be extremely useful. Then I think it’s important to learn from others’ experience and one of the best ways to do that is to bring in experienced negotiators for roundtable workshops and seminars to share insights. Simulated trade negotiations can also be useful in that they can give a bit of a sense of the dynamic of a negotiation and how to recognise tactics. This should be done in groups, including with people from other departments that are or will be involved directly or indirectly in trade negotiations.
In terms of building up a department quickly, I would suggest stealing people. I would steal them from the trade promotion authority because they understand the practical obstacles that importers, exporters and investors face. I’d steal from McKinsey for the same reason. And I’d steal talent from other countries because they will have people who have had experience in trade negotiation or at least trade policy that might find it interesting to gain experience in a new trade department. But again, I would underline the fact that negotiations skills are transferable. Personally, I learned them on the job through experience, observation and practice.
Looking beyond up-skilling negotiators, how can the UK Government build its capabilities and capacities across departments to deal with the demands of Brexit?
On that point, I think it’s really important to build a ‘community of practice’ that reaches outside of the trade department into other departments. You can’t develop trade policy and undertake trade negotiations in isolation from other departments because you need their guidance on what the domestic interests are and you need them to buy into the outcomes of negotiations when they’re complete. The only way to do that is to take a very inclusive approach in terms of trade policy formulation and to have interdepartmental processes where people are actively and continuously involved in the policy discussion. Transparency and inclusiveness are crucial. In Canada, some areas of trade negotiation are led by people from other departments, so someone from the Department of Finance handles financial services and someone from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Department tends to lead on agricultural trade, and so on.
Lateral movement between departments I believe should also be encouraged because it brings different knowledge and experience to the department. Some of the great people in Canada’s trade policy branch have come from the Foreign Service. They are useful not only because they may have had contact with the business community and trade promotion authorities in other countries, but also because they understand international relations and how those things link. Sometimes trade policy is foreign policy. Sometimes trade policy is development policy. And very often it’s social policy. So having the opportunity to have people come in and out of the trade policy department is important.
I like to tell the story of a particular trade policy problem we were having where the Americans had won a case against us in the WTO and so we had to try to negotiate an acceptable outcome. The interdepartmental process was completely dysfunctional. Everybody locked into a policy position and started putting up walls of defence instead of working together. When I joined, I was unnerved by what I had heard about this ‘dysfunctional interdepartmental process’. So I went in and said, “Hi, I’m new. This is how I’ll be working; everything I set up as advice, you’re going to see it first and if I’m not characterising your positions properly you’ll get a chance to correct it. I’m hoping you’ll do the same for me. I think our job is to come to a consensus, but if we can’t, at least I’ll be completely faithful to whatever your position is.” Over the next little while I put that into practice. Surprisingly, the process turned around almost immediately and became a collective exercise in looking for the best option. That open door approach worked because it was transparent and it invited people in—I think it’s a powerful lesson.
Can you elaborate a little more on the idea of a community of practice and how that operates in Canada’s case?
The concept is new in the trade policy space in Ottawa but exists in other fields/professions. Essentially, a community of practice involves the relevant people across the various tiers of government being able to ‘speak the same language’ and be on the same page in terms of the goals, strategies and objectives of trade negotiations. It also involves everyone having a common understanding that difficult decisions will have to be made in the course of a negotiation. So the idea of a community of practice centres on building a sense of team. This can be achieved through undertaking shared training activities or building a consensus around strategies and discussing the objectives of a trade negotiation.
In Canada, every year we do a two and a half day programme at Queen’s University for mid-level trade policy officers from federal and provincial government departments where they look at theory, case studies and do some practical exercises as a group. This year, I think we had roughly 50 participants, 20 of whom were from our provincial governments, and through this programme we try to not only develop skills but also foster relationships.
In your opinion, what would be the best approach for the UK Government to take in terms of industry engagement before, during and after negotiations? How important is it to meaningfully engage with industry?
Before and during the course of the negotiations it’s critically important to consult with the ‘clients of trade policy’, which are mostly your importers, exporters, and investors. And not just at a superficial level but also at a deeper level so you can understand what your specific interests are. Then, when you’re trying to define your objectives for the negotiation and taking your negotiating mandate to Cabinet for approval, you have the confidence that you’ve got the interests right. During the course of the negotiation, as more details start to emerge, you then need to seek advice from the business community about whether the possible compromises available will work.
Before negotiations begin it’s also important to build or at least gage support for the negotiation and the appetite for spending government resources trying to deepen a particular trade relationship. The government has to try to make sure those who will either gain or perhaps bare the cost, are aware and on-balance agreed. Having a balanced public policy discussion around the trade negotiations is key because there will be voices on all sides and you want to avoid having naysayers drown out the voices of those that will gain from an agreement.
At the end of the negotiation, however, things shift fairly dramatically because what you’re trying to do then is get everybody to sign off and voice their agreement that the trade-offs, or the costs and benefits, are acceptable. In Canada, that includes getting our provincial governments to share the burden of defending the agreement together.
At the end of the day though, it’s not only about consulting with the business community. The general public need to be kept informed as best as possible and have an opportunity to express their views. There are also very specific constituencies that need to be consulted including those who represent the defence of the environment, the promotion of labour standards and human rights, as well as the defence of cultural expression.
What are some key lessons the UK can draw from Canada’s experience negotiating CETA?
The first lesson would be—as the UK would know intimately—that the European Commission is a big, heavy machine and negotiating with it will be difficult and slow. That said when it moves, it can move quickly. Pascal Lamy used to refer to the ‘spasms’ in negotiations. That’s sort of how it works.
The second lesson would be that the most difficult negotiation you are ever going to engage in is the one at home before you leave to go do the actual negotiating. Luckily for us we only have ten provinces and two territories but even then at the Cabinet table in Ottawa you were dealing with Ministers with different policy objectives and political views.
The third lesson is that “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” I think you have to try to be prepared for the unexpected because no doubt many unexpected things are going to happen. For that reason you have to continuously work, not just domestically but in your negotiating partner’s country as well, to build positive groundwork for the deal. That being said there are limits to what advocacy efforts you can engage in in somebody else’s country. Nevertheless, there are lots of opportunities to be in discussion with other levels of government, with other branches of the Commission, and with the private sector and civil society groups.
And finally, address issues straight up as they emerge and keep working the relationships throughout the process. I guess that’s what Wallonia taught us.
Following Brexit, the UK is hoping to negotiate trade agreements (most likely simultaneously) with a number of countries. In a practical sense, how does one handle multiple negotiations at once?
Canada is a good example of what happens when you launch a lot of trade negotiations all at the same time. We found ourselves late to the bilateral negotiations game because we have always believed that a rules-based, multilateral trading system produces the most benefits. So we held on to the hope the Doha Round would succeed and jumped into bilateral game late, but when we did we jumped with both feet. Then we were basically negotiating with everybody who might say yes. In the end however, a natural kind of hierarchy arises, so our negotiation with Europe got more attention, more oxygen and more resources than say our negotiation with a less commercially important market. So there’s a natural hierarchy that emerges, not just in the sense of what is viewed as the most important but also what will set the benchmark for how far we’re allowed to go on particular issues in other trade negotiations. For Canada, NAFTA was the template, now the template is more like CETA.
So first of all you have a natural hierarchy of negotiations. Second of all you have a template that everyone is working to with minor adjustments for specific negotiations. Thirdly, you get your negotiators organised. In Canada we use a matrix management approach whereby there are ‘shops’ of subject matter experts across all the areas of a trade agreement including services, rules of origin, and sanitary and phytosanitary rules for agricultural products. These specialised ‘shops’ place one of their experts on the negotiating team for any particular negotiation. If it’s a really big negotiation, then it’s probably the director of that shop that will sit on a negotiating team. If it’s a smaller negotiation, maybe it’s the deputy director or one of the senior offices that participates directly in the negotiation of that chapter of that agreement. It’s a coordinated approach where the whole team feels engaged and it helps avoid people running off willy-nilly causing unfortunate precedents in one negotiation or another. You also benefit from economies of scale. Previously we set up a special trade negotiations office to run a trade negotiation for the regional Canada-US free trade deal and I would council against that approach.
Determining your trade policy strategy is also very important as it sets out the government’s priorities. Fundamentally, like everybody else on the planet, we’re after the big, explosive growth markets in Asia. Then there’s a sort of second tier of still relatively large markets like Indonesia, Turkey and places like that. After that there’s the deals you want to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ so to speak, which normally involve smaller markets where a country might have just done a deal that could hurt some of our exports. We would jump in and see if they were interested in a parallel negotiation with us. And then finally there’s a third category of negotiation that I call ‘keeping up with the Minister’ and that’s where the motive for negotiation is more about foreign policy than it is economic policy. In these circumstances we’re trying to build a friendship or signal support for a country.
So there are different categories of negotiation but in the end the one that’s the biggest, that’s going to set the benchmark, and that has all the political intention goes first. That’s just logic. And it’s easy to keep things coordinated if there is a hierarchy, if there is a template and if you use matrix management.
When the time comes, how can the UK encourage businesses to take advantage of new trade agreements?
A trade negotiator’s biggest fear is knocking themself out for several years trying to get an acceptable deal and then having nothing happen. Simply having an agreement sort of makes the sound of one hand clapping. Governments sound like they’re actually doing the trading and they take the credit like they’re doing the trading themselves, but they don’t. You need businesses and investors to take initiative and take advantage of these agreements. The first step then is to make sure businesses have the necessary information because it’s amazing how many don’t.
It’s not always obvious to people that an agreement has been reached and there are opportunities associated with that. It takes time and effort to disseminate information to the relevant people about what the tariff preferences are for specific products in specific industries but it’s necessary.
My principal advice to exporters is to put boots on the ground. And my advice for the government is to put people inside those foreign markets that can help, particularly the small and medium sized exporters that don’t have the resources. Canada has our Trade Commissioner Service; the UK has one that’s not identical but analogous. So I would say, more boots on the ground is the principal instrument for helping people actually do the trade.
Lastly, post-Brexit, how can the UK leverage its new position in the WTO to help build consensus among WTO Members and drive the WTO’s forward agenda?
My first answer is you need to punch above your weight by being helpful. That could be helpful in terms of consensus building but also by doing your homework and coming up with useful ideas. The process in the WTO is ultimately a competition of ideas, so when there are opposing approaches and conflicting interests, somebody has to figure out another way. If you spend enough quality time proposing and working with people to try to come up with those bridge building ideas, you win the game.
Given the WTO is in a bit of a lull in terms of its forward agenda and people are more active bilaterally and plurilaterally, I think the UK can make itself important. It could do this by actively trying to convene groups around the discussion of new issues, new approaches and the forward agenda to try build some consensus. Perhaps circulating what we call “non-papers,” which are ideas papers that are without prejudice to ones national negotiating position could be useful in this respect.
Of course, the UK should build on the work it’s already doing on the trade and development side—it has a reputation in that area and that will buy you a lot of credit with a large constituency in the WTO because most of the members are developing countries. I believe a key challenge in this area is how you help developing countries build their productive capacity. Trade infrastructure is expensive and there’s no one development ministry that I’m aware of that has enough money to do what needs to be done. So I think the challenge is to engage the private sector effectively. Maybe it requires a DFID inc. kind of model where you find opportunities to help reduce the risk for the private sector to get engaged?
I would also suggest working on trade finance because that’s a big challenge for a lot of developing countries. Or perhaps focusing on implementing the trade facilitation agreement might be a good one? There are a number of issues on the WTO agenda where you could provide expertise and fairly limited amounts of financial assistance.
I like a paper I saw come out of Holland recently called, A world to gain: A New Agenda for Aid, Trade and Investment. It talks about how relationships with developing countries vary at different stages of development. They then breaks down the policy instruments you use during various phases of the transition and have a list of the countries that, for them, fall into each of those categories. This helps them focus and organise themselves around a specific approach, which is refreshing because sometimes it feels like there is no explicit plan in a lot of what the international community is doing in the development space.
About Mr Don Stephenson:
Don Stephenson joined the Canadian federal Public Service in 1981 and served at the Department of Communications as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Minister, Director of the Arts Policy Division, Director of the Cultural Initiatives Program, and as Cultural Policy Adviser to the Minister of Communications. He subsequently served as Director of Executive Services and of Communications at Consumer and Corporate Affairs; as Special Assistant to the Deputy Minister of Industry Canada; as Director General, Economic Policy at Western Economic Diversification; as Director General, Cultural Industries at Heritage Canada; and, from September 2000 to October 2002, as Director General, Trade Policy Bureau II at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Stephenson served as Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Economic and Regional Development Policy, Privy Council Office. In August 2004, he was appointed as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the Office of the United Nations and to the World Trade Organization, in Geneva, where he served for two years as Chairman of the Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations, a central component of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
Mr. Stephenson held the position of Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, from September 2008 until his retirement in September 2011. He continues to serve as Canada’s Chief Negotiator for the Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and lectures at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs and the Centre for Trade Policy and Law.
Mills-Smith
Stacey Mills-Smith is an international trade professional working with TKE Partner, Saana Consulting. Prior to joining Saana in November 2016, Stacey was the Trade Policy and Research Manager for the Export Council of Australia, where she worked on a broad range of issues across trade promotion, trade policy and trade training. Stacey has also previously worked for the Queensland Government and PwC. She holds a BA/BEcon from the University of Queensland and an Msc in Environment and Development from LSE.
Read more by Stacey Mills
Saana Consulting Interview Series #1: Dr Harsha Singh
A recap of the TKE’s inaugural event featuring Pascal Lamy
by Amar Breckenridge
Open Doors to a Canadian Progressive Trade Strategy
by Phil Rourke
info@trade-knowledge.net
©2019 Trade Knowledge Exchange Contact us
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1046
|
__label__wiki
| 0.969793
| 0.969793
|
Broadway Buzz: The Book of Mormon Star Nic Rouleau Reveals the Curse of the Standby and Goes Gaga Over Kelli O’Hara
July 13th, 2012 | By Josh Ferri
Age & Hometown: 25; Los Altos, California
Current Role: A Broadway debut as Mormon missionary Elder Kevin Price, “the smartest, best, most deserving Elder” in the blockbuster musical The Book of Mormon.
Standby Me: Rouleau is the first actor to assume the role of Elder Price after the role’s creator, Tony nominee Andrew Rannells, left the production on June 10. “Obviously, there was a lot of pressure because so many people love Andrew and Josh [Gad],” Rouleau notes. “I love them, too; they're definitely some big shoes to fill.” On the upside, the NYU grad, who joined the company 11 months ago as Rannells’ standby, is enjoying having the role as his own. “I had already done the show 43 times before I started full-time, so I had figured out what ‘my’ show was, but there definitely was a subtle change knowing that now it’s mine," he says. "As a standby, you always deal with the curse of the [Playbill paper] insert: For the first 15 to 20 minutes of the show, you feel like you have to prove something to the audience ’cause they know you’re not the ‘real’ person. It was very nice to walk on to the stage and know that there’s no insert in the program tonight—this is my role.”
Tony Prank Calls: As the new face of The Book of Mormon, Rouleau took center stage in the biggest arena possible: the opening number of the 66th annual Tony Awards, leading his new company in Mormon’s opening number, “Hello.” As he explains, “I only found out about doing the Tonys on Monday of that week. I got a call from our producers, and honestly, I thought that it was a joke. I feel bad for the receptionist who was trying to connect me, because I thought it was a Mormon cast member playing a joke on me.” Soon, however, he was on the line with Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino, “They were like, ‘So, how would you like to perform at the Tony Awards on Sunday night?’ And I could not breathe,” he says earnestly. “I was freaking out. I was like, ‘Of course, of course!’” Who did Rouleau share the news with first? “I was in New Jersey to teach a master class to high school kids, and I was 30 seconds from starting when I got the call,” he recounts. “I had to spill! I told them right at the beginning [of the class], ‘I have secret and you can’t tell anyone…’”
Inner Fanboy: Rouleau caught the stage bug at age eight after appearing as a Lost Boy in a youth theater production of Peter Pan. He followed his dreams across country to NYU and immersed himself in theatergoing, a habit that continues to this day. “I devoted April as the month of theater, and I saw a Wednesday matinee every week for five weeks,” he says, taking advantage of Mormon's weekend matinee schedule. “I’ve always been a fan, and now to be a part of it and know the people I’m going to see is just surreal. I go see Steve Kazee in Once and it’s like, ‘Wait, I’ve met him.’ My 10-year-old self is going crazy!” Asked which Broadway star he admires most, Rouleau quickly names Nice Work If You Can Get It’s Kelli O’Hara. “I saw her in Light in the Piazza seven times,” he says. “She is my absolute number one favorite performer on Broadway. I met her briefly once, but I don’t think she’d remember. She did a concert at Cafe Carlyle while she was pregnant and on leave from South Pacific and I went and saw her in that. I have a bootleg recording of her concert and I listen to it before almost every show [laughs]. I need to meet her somehow!”
Tags: Broadway Buzz
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1051
|
__label__cc
| 0.651667
| 0.348333
|
There is increasing interest in the group of patients who fail to respond to treatment with PDE-5 inhibitors and have low serum testosterone levels. Evidence from placebo-controlled trials in this group of men shows that testosterone treatment added to PDE-5 inhibitors improves erectile function compared to PDE-5 inhibitors alone (Aversa et al 2003; Shabsigh et al 2004).
Additionally, the physiologic processes involving erections begin at the genetic level. Certain genes become activated at critical times to produce proteins vital to sustaining this pathway. Some researchers have focused on identifying particular genes that place men at risk for ED. At present, these studies are limited to animal models, and little success has been reported to date. [4] Nevertheless, this research has given rise to many new treatment targets and a better understanding of the entire process.
Sexual dysfunction and ED become more common as men age. The percentage of complete ED increases from 5% to 15% as age increases from 40 to 70 years. But this does not mean growing older is the end of your sex life. ED can be treated at any age. Also, ED may be more common in Hispanic men and in those with a history of diabetes, obesity, smoking, and hypertension. Research shows that African-American men sought medical care for ED twice the rate of other racial groups.
The prevalence of biochemical testosterone deficiency increases with age. This is partly due to decreasing testosterone levels associated with illness or debility but there is also convincing epidemiological data to show that serum free and total testosterone levels also fall with normal aging (Harman et al 2001; Feldman et al 2002). The symptoms of aging include tiredness, lack of energy, reduced strength, frailty, loss of libido, decreased sexual performance depression and mood change. Men with hypogonadism experience similar symptoms. This raises the question of whether some symptoms of aging could be due to relative androgen deficiency. On the other hand, similarities between normal aging and the symptoms of mild androgen deficiency make the clinical diagnosis of hypogonadism in aging men more challenging.
However, a review of a United Kingdom medical record database found no evidence that the use of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors independently increase the risk for ED. In 71,849 men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the risk of ED was not increased with the use of finasteride or dutasteride only (odds ratio [OR] 0.94), or a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor plus an alpha blocker (OR 0.92) compared with an alpha blocker only. In addition, the risk of ED was not increase in 12 346 men prescribed finasteride 1 mg for alopecia, compared with unexposed men with alopecia (OR 0.95). The risk of ED did increase with longer duration of BPH, regardless of drug exposure. [48]
There is a negative correlation of testosterone levels with plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) (Glueck et al 1993; Phillips 1993), which is a major prothrombotic factor and known to be associated with progression of atherosclerosis, as well as other prothrombotic factors fibrinogen, α2-antiplasmin and factor VII (Bonithon-Kopp et al 1988; Glueck et al 1993; Phillips 1993; De Pergola et al 1997). There is a positive correlation with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) which is one of the major fibrinolytic agents (Glueck et al 1993). Interventional trials have shown a neutral effect of physiological testosterone replacement on the major clotting factors (Smith et al 2005) but supraphysiological androgen administration can produce a temporary mild pro-coagulant effect (Anderson et al 1995).
If you have unstable heart disease of any kind, heart failure or unstable, what we call angina, contraindication to using the medications. All right? So if you’re in an unstable medical state, these medications are not a good idea. Now, there are relative issues. If you may be taking a blood pressure medicine or a medicine for your prostate which dilates your blood vessel a little bit– you know, the typical ones are what we call the alpha blockers– you may have an additive effect from the medication. But for the most part, the medicines are incredibly safe.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is commonly called impotence. It’s a condition in which a man can’t achieve or maintain an erection during sexual performance. Symptoms may also include reduced sexual desire or libido. Your doctor is likely to diagnose you with ED if the condition lasts for more than a few weeks or months. ED affects as many as 30 million men in the United States.
Longitudinal studies in male aging studies have shown that serum testosterone levels decline with age (Harman et al 2001; Feldman et al 2002). Total testosterone levels fall at an average of 1.6% per year whilst free and bioavailable levels fall by 2%–3% per year. The reduction in free and bioavailable testosterone levels is larger because aging is also associated with increases in SHBG levels (Feldman et al 2002). Cross-sectional data supports these trends but has usually shown smaller reductions in testosterone levels with aging (Feldman et al 2002). This is likely to reflect strict entry criteria to cross-sectional studies so that young healthy men are compared to older healthy men. During the course of longitudinal studies some men may develop pathologies which accentuate decreases in testosterone levels.
Knowing about your history of ED will help your health provider learn if your problems are because of your desire for sex, erection function, ejaculation, or orgasm (climax). Some of these questions may seem private or even embarrassing. However, be assured that your doctor is a professional and your honest answers will help find the cause and best treatment for you.
The development of an erection is a complex event involving integration of psychologic, neurologic, endocrine, vascular, and local anatomic systems. Positron emission tomography scanning studies have suggested that sexual arousal is activated in higher cortical centers that then stimulate the medial preoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus.5 These signals ultimately descend through a complex neural network involving the parasympathetic nervous system and eventually activate parasympathetic nerves in the sacral area (S2 to S4).
Vascular damage may result from radiation therapy to the pelvis and prostate in the treatment of prostate cancer. [36] Both the blood vessels and the nerves to the penis may be affected. Radiation damage to the crura of the penis, which are highly susceptible to radiation damage, can induce ED. Data indicate that 50% of men undergoing radiation therapy lose erectile function within 5 years after completing therapy; fortunately, some respond to one of the PDE5 inhibitors.
Overall there is evidence that testosterone treatment increases lean body mass and reduces obesity, particularly visceral obesity, in a variety of populations including aging men. With regard to muscle changes, some studies demonstrate improvements in maximal strength but the results are inconsistent and it has not been demonstrated that these changes lead to clinically important improvements in mobility, endurance or quality of life. Studies are needed to clarify this. Changes in abdominal obesity are particularly important as visceral fat is now recognised as predisposing the metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Early infancy androgen effects are the least understood. In the first weeks of life for male infants, testosterone levels rise. The levels remain in a pubertal range for a few months, but usually reach the barely detectable levels of childhood by 4–7 months of age.[15][16] The function of this rise in humans is unknown. It has been theorized that brain masculinization is occurring since no significant changes have been identified in other parts of the body.[17] The male brain is masculinized by the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen, which crosses the blood–brain barrier and enters the male brain, whereas female fetuses have α-fetoprotein, which binds the estrogen so that female brains are not affected.[18]
Alprostadil (also known as prostaglandin E1 [PGE1]) is the prominent known smooth-muscle dilator of the corpus cavernosum. Its mechanism of action is believed to be the promotion of intracellular accumulation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, thereby causing decreased intracellular accumulation of calcium and resulting smooth muscle relaxation. Alprostadil can be delivered to the erectile tissue either via an intraurethral suppository that is massaged and then absorbed across the corpus spongiosum of the urethra to the corpora cavernosa, or directly injected into the corpora cavernosa. When administered urethrally, doses are substantially higher than when directly injected (typical dosing is 500 mcg to 1 mg intraurethral compared with 2.5 mcg to 20 mcg intracavernosal).
"One of the reasons erectile dysfunction increases with age is that the diseases that lead to it also increase with age," notes Dr. Feloney. Evaluating the causes of erectile dysfunction starts with your doctor taking a good health history and giving you a physical exam. Common medical issues that can lead to erectile dysfunction include diabetes, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, low testosterone, and neurological disease. Talk to your doctor about better managing these health conditions.
5. Medline Plus. US National Library of Medicine. NIH National Institutes of Health. Drugs that may cause impotence (updated 21 Jan 2015). http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004024.htm (accessed Nov 2016). myDr myDr provides comprehensive Australian health and medical information, images and tools covering symptoms, diseases, tests, medicines and treatments, and nutrition and fitness.Related ArticlesImpotence treatmentsIf you have impotence (erectile dysfunction), the treatment your doctor recommends will depend on thErectile dysfunction: visiting your doctorFind out what questions a doctor may ask when discussing erectile dysfunction (ED, or impotenceGum disease linked to erectile dysfunctionAdvanced gum disease (periodontitis) has been linked to an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, wPeyronie's diseasePeyronie’s disease is condition where a band of scar tissue forms in the penis, causing aAdvertisement
Another effect that can limit treatment is polycythemia, which occurs due to various stimulatory effects of testosterone on erythropoiesis (Zitzmann and Nieschlag 2004). Polycythemia is known to produce increased rates of cerebral ischemia and there have been reports of stroke during testosterone induced polycythaemia (Krauss et al 1991). It is necessary to monitor hematocrit during testosterone treatment, and hematocrit greater than 50% should prompt either a reduction of dose if testosterone levels are high or high-normal, or cessation of treatment if levels are low-normal. On the other hand, late onset hypogonadism frequently results in anemia which will then normalize during physiological testosterone replacement.
^ Jump up to: a b Travison TG, Vesper HW, Orwoll E, Wu F, Kaufman JM, Wang Y, Lapauw B, Fiers T, Matsumoto AM, Bhasin S (April 2017). "Harmonized Reference Ranges for Circulating Testosterone Levels in Men of Four Cohort Studies in the United States and Europe". The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 102 (4): 1161–1173. doi:10.1210/jc.2016-2935. PMC 5460736. PMID 28324103.
Topical testosterone, specifically gels, creams and liquids, may transfer to others. Women and children are most at risk of harmful effects from contact with them. You should take care to cover the area and wash your hands well after putting on the medication. Be careful not to let the site with the topical TT touch others because that could transfer the drug.
Epidemiological studies have also assessed links between serum testosterone and non-coronary atherosclerosis. A study of over 1000 people aged 55 years and over found an inverse correlation between serum total and bioavailable testosterone and the amount of aortic atherosclerosis in men, as assessed by radiological methods (Hak et al 2002). Increased intima-media thickness (IMT) is an early sign of atherosclerosis and has also been shown to predict cardiovascular mortality (Murakami et al 2005). Cross-sectional studies have found that testosterone levels are negatively correlated with carotid IMT in independently living men aged 74–93 years (van den Beld et al 2003), diabetic men (Fukui et al 2003) and young obese men (De Pergola et al 2003). A 4-year follow up study of the latter population showed that free testosterone was also inversely correlated with the rate of increase of IMT (Muller et al 2004).
Conditions that may be associated with ED include diabetes, [25, 26, 27] hypertension, [28] , and CAD, as well as neurologic disorders, endocrinopathies, benign prostatic hyperplasia, [29] , sleep apnea [30] , COPD, [31] and depression (see Table 1 below). [32, 33, 34, 35] In fact, almost any disease may affect erectile function by altering the nervous, vascular, or hormonal systems. Various diseases may produce changes in the smooth muscle tissue of the corpora cavernosa or influence the patient’s psychological mood and behavior.
Cavernosography measurement of the vascular pressure in the corpus cavernosum. Saline is infused under pressure into the corpus cavernosum with a butterfly needle, and the flow rate needed to maintain an erection indicates the degree of venous leakage. The leaking veins responsible may be visualized by infusing a mixture of saline and x-ray contrast medium and performing a cavernosogram.[21] In Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), the images are acquired digitally.
Late onset hypogonadism reflects a particular pathophysiology and it may not be appropriate to extrapolate results from studies concerning the effects of testosterone in treating hypogonadism of other etiology to aging males. For this reason, the age of men treated in clinical trials is certainly relevant. Other important factors include patient comorbidities and the preparation and route of testosterone replacement used in the study, which can affect the production of estrogen and dihydrotestosterone, testosterone’s active metabolites
Performance anxiety can be another cause of impotence. If a person wasn’t able to achieve an erection in the past, he may fear he won’t be able to achieve an erection in the future. A person may also find he can’t achieve an erection with a certain partner. Someone with ED related to performance anxiety may be able to have full erections when masturbating or when sleeping, yet he isn’t able to maintain an erection during intercourse.
The other component of that study is that the subjects ate much less saturated fat. Saturated fats are common in meat, butter, and coconut products, and they’re crucial for your body to function. Saturated fats keep the integrity of your cell membranes, and if you limit carbs and/or do Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting, saturated fats become a phenomenal source of energy for your brain.
Erectile dysfunction, also known as ED or impotence, is the inability to attain or maintain an erection of the penis adequate for the sexual satisfaction of both partners. It can be devastating to the self-esteem of a man and of his partner. As many as 30 million American men are afflicted on a continuing basis, and transient episodes affect nearly all adult males. But nearly all men who seek treatment find some measure of relief.
^ David KG, Dingemanse E, Freud JL (May 1935). "Über krystallinisches mannliches Hormon aus Hoden (Testosteron) wirksamer als aus harn oder aus Cholesterin bereitetes Androsteron" [On crystalline male hormone from testicles (testosterone) effective as from urine or from cholesterol]. Hoppe-Seyler's Z Physiol Chem (in German). 233 (5–6): 281–83. doi:10.1515/bchm2.1935.233.5-6.281.
Cross-sectional studies conducted at the time of diagnosis of BPH have failed to show consistent differences in testosterone levels between patients and controls. A prospective study also failed to demonstrate a correlation between testosterone and the development of BPH (Gann et al 1995). Clinical trials have shown that testosterone treatment of hypogonadal men does cause growth of the prostate, but only to the size seen in normal men, and also causes a small increase in prostate specific antigen (PSA) within the normal range (Rhoden and Morgentaler 2005). Despite growth of the prostate a number of studies have failed to detect any adverse effects on symptoms of urinary obstruction or physiological measurements such as flow rates and residual volumes (Snyder et al 1999; Kenny et al 2000, 2001). Despite the lack of evidence linking symptoms of BPH to testosterone treatment, it remains important to monitor for any new or deteriorating problems when commencing patients on testosterone treatment, as the small growth of prostate tissue may adversely affect a certain subset of individuals.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1053
|
__label__cc
| 0.671525
| 0.328475
|
The evolving effectiveness of UK’s monetary policy
Colin Ellis, Haroon Mumtaz, Pawel Zabczyk 06 August 2014
This column reports on empirical evidence showing that monetary policy shocks in the UK had a bigger impact on inflation, equity prices, and the exchange rate during the inflation targeting period. Related changes in the transmission of policy shocks to bond yields point to more efficient management of long run inflation expectations.
Enhancing the transparency of the Bank of England’s Inflation Report
Jack McKeown, Lea Paterson
Macroprudential policy: A survey of UK-based macroeconomists
Angus Armstrong, Francesco Caselli, Jagjit Chadha, Wouter den Haan
Over the past five decades, major industrialised economies underwent deep structural changes. These typically included dramatic shifts in macroeconomic policy and globalisation-induced changes in competition, technological advances, and financial innovation. This raises several concerns for policymakers, including whether the channels through which monetary policy affects the economy have changed over time, and what that might mean for how policy should be conducted.
Accounting for changes in the transmission mechanism
While a number of studies (Boivin and Giannoni 2002, 2006, Gali et al. 2003, Primicieri 2006, Canova and Gambetti 2009, Gambetti and Gali 2009) have analysed the stability of various facets of US monetary policy transmission, no clear consensus has been reached. The arguments in Bernanke et al. (2005) and Hansen and Sargent (1991) suggest that the conflicting evidence may be due to simple empirical models missing data necessary to correctly identify structural shocks. Boivin et al. (2010) additionally claim that the split-sample estimation strategy used in some of the US studies could be another factor responsible for the lack of consensus. This is because such a procedure may fail to allow for sufficiently rich dynamics of changes in the monetary policy transmission mechanism.
Ample evidence of widespread changes in the UK economy (Benati 2004, Mumtaz and Surico 2012) meant that in Ellis et al. (2014) – where we studied the UK transmission mechanism – we had to tackle both of these issues head on. To avoid relying on a limited set of data, we therefore followed Bernanke et al. (2005) and Boivin et al. (2010) and augmented our model with factors extracted from 350 data series. To further allow for the possibility of changes in the way various types of disturbances are transmitted, we additionally extended Bernanke et al. (2005) by allowing for time-varying coefficients in the vector autoregressive (VAR) transition equation and for heteroscedasticity in shocks, capable of accommodating variations in the volatility of the underlying series.
In our study, we identified unanticipated changes (so-called ‘shocks’) in UK’s demand, supply, and monetary policy, with Figure 1 plotting their respective volatilities.
Figure 1. Volatility of identified structural shocks
In terms of historical context, Thatcher’s disinflation – launched in 1979 – and the experiment with monetary targeting (ultimately abandoned in 1985), appear to have coincided with dramatic falls in the volatility of supply shocks. And although the volatility of monetary policy and demand shocks continued to decrease until the end of our sample period, supply shocks do seem to have become temporarily more volatile around the landslide Labour party election victory in 1997, which preceded the granting of operational independence to the Bank of England. Importantly, the fact that all three volatilities appear markedly lower in the 1990s than in the 1970s, serves as another illustration of what is often termed the ‘Great Moderation’.
Enhanced effectiveness of UK’s monetary policy: New evidence
The time-varying impulse responses to monetary policy shocks (normalised to increase the Bank Rate by 100 basis points on impact) reported in Figure 2 provide evidence that prior to 1992, there was hardly any impact on various measures of inflation from policy becoming unexpectedly tighter. Since that time, however, the response of inflation to the same policy tightening has become more negative and persistent. Importantly, the 1992 threshold, which broadly coincides with the introduction of inflation targeting, is not hard-wired into the model, but naturally emerges as one consequence of allowing for time-variation in a flexible fashion.
Figure 2. Impulse response of inflation to a monetary policy shock
Note: The left panels present the time-varying median cumulated impulse response. The three central panels show the average impulse response functions (IRFs) in the pre- and post-1992 periods as well as their difference, while the right panel shows the joint distribution of the cumulated response at the one-year horizon in the pre- and post-1992 periods.
The natural question then is: What do these impulse responses imply about changes in the transmission of monetary policy? To help identify the channels through which the increased efficacy of policy shocks on prices may have occurred, we inspected changes in the corresponding IRFs of asset prices (Figure 3). Using the response of yields on a 10-year government bond as a measure of the responsiveness of inflation expectations to policy, we found that long-term yields clearly responded by more post-1992 (fourth chart in the bottom row of Figure 3), which appears consistent with policy becoming better at exploiting the expectations channel.
Equity prices are important for two channels of monetary policy transmission.
First, as in the classic q theory, lower prices would imply that capital replacement costs are high relative to the market value of firms, with negative implications for investment. Furthermore, lower equity prices push down on the net worth of firms, potentially exacerbating adverse selection and moral hazard problems, and may lead to a decline in lending, spending, and aggregate demand (as discussed in Boivin et al. 2010).
While the FTSE does respond in line with the theory, the upper bound on the median difference is close to zero, suggesting little reason to expect considerably greater impact of policy on demand via either of these channels.
One of the more interesting pieces of evidence on changes in monetary policy transmission can be found in the first row of Figure 3.
On the one hand, expectations can have an important effect on the cost of capital and housing spending, suggesting that house prices should contract by more in response to negative policy shocks after 1992.
On the other hand, demutualisation of many building societies in the 1990s, coupled with new financial produces, may have helped to insulate consumers from the immediate impact of changes in prices.
Our results point to no change in the response of house prices to policy shocks, suggesting that these factors may have had offsetting effects.
Figure 3. Impulse response of asset prices to a monetary policy shock
Note: The left panels present the time-varying median cumulated impulse response. The three central panels show the average impulse response functions in the pre- and post-1992 periods as well as their difference, while the right panel shows the joint distribution of the cumulated response at the one-year horizon in the pre- and post-1992 periods.
In Ellis et al. (2014) we also report the response of real activity to policy shocks. In line with the US-based evidence of Boivin et al. (2010), who report ‘modest’ short-run elasticities, we find that the response of UK’s investment to policy shocks is imprecisely estimated and displays no sign of changes over time. Additionally, and in contrast to the aggregate inflation series, the responses of consumption, industrial production, and real GDP appear relatively similar pre- and post-1992, with the intervals around the IRFs consistent with no time variation.
Implications for policy and conclusion
Both our main result and the way we interpret it are worth putting in context. First, unlike Boivin and Giannoni (2006), we do not augment the analysis by using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model built to match aspects of the VAR-based evidence. While this reduces the risk of contaminating the conclusions through misspecification of either of the two models, it also means that we can only focus on unanticipated changes in monetary policy. Alternatively, we have no direct evidence on potentially very important changes in the systematic component of policy, and we proceed by equating policy surprises with discretionary deviation from some underlying and possibly time-varying policy rule.
Interestingly, the findings we report in Ellis et al. (2014) suggest that the widespread practice of ignoring time-variation doesn’t necessarily lead to wrong conclusions. Specifically, there appears to be little evidence of the transmission of demand or supply shocks changing over time. Crucially, however, this does not appear to be the case for unanticipated changes in monetary policy, suggesting that central bankers do need to take account of how economic relationships change over time, or risk making significant policy errors.
On the whole, our results reinforce the view that credible monetary policy has a clear role to play in anchoring the economy. The fact that since the advent of inflation targeting, unanticipated changes in policy started having a stronger impact on underlying inflationary pressures is particularly encouraging as containing these pressures – rather than short-lived relative price shocks – should be the key focus for policymakers.
As discussed, our findings are consistent with the main impact of UK’s inflation targeting having been transmitted via the anchoring of inflation expectations, which reduced the costs associated with achieving low and stable inflation rates. This anchoring may have been particularly important in recent years, as households have endured the painful reduction in real wages associated with the financial crisis. These tangible benefits suggest that policy should respond very strongly if there are any signs that the credibility of the inflation target is starting to erode.
Benati, L (2004), “Evolving post-World War II U.K. economic performance”, Journal of Money Credit and Banking, vol. 36(4), pp. 691-717.
Bernanke, B, Boivin, J and Eliasz, P S (2005), “Measuring the effects of monetary policy: A factor-augmented vector autoregressive (FAVAR) approach”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 120(1), pp. 387-422.
Boivin, J and Giannoni, M (2002), “Assessing changes in the monetary transmission mechanism: A VAR approach”, Economic Policy Review, (May), pp. 97-111.
Boivin, J and Giannoni, M P (2006), “Has monetary policy become more effective?”, The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 88(3), pp. 445-462.
Boivin, J, Kiley, M T and Mishkin, F S (2010), “How has the monetary transmission mechanism evolved over time?”, in (B.M. Friedman and M.Woodford, eds), Handbook of Monetary Economics, vol.3, pp.369-422, San Diego: Elsevier.
Canova, F and Gambetti, L (2009), “Structural changes in the US economy: Is there a role for monetary policy?”, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, vol. 33(2), pp. 477-490.
Ellis, C, Mumtaz, J and Zabczyk, P (2014), “What lies beneath? A time-varying FAVAR model for the UK transmission mechanism”, Economic Journal, vol.124(576), pp.668-699.
Gambetti, L and Gali, J (2009), “On the sources of the Great Moderation”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, vol. 1(1), pp. 26-57.
Gali, J, Lopez-Salido, J D and Valles, J (2003), “Technology shocks and monetary policy: assessing the Fed's performance”, Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 50(4), pp. 723-743.
Hansen, L P and Sargent, T J (1991), “Two problems in interpreting vector autoregressions”, in (R.E. Lucas and T.J. Sargent, eds.), Rational Expectations Econometrics, Boulder: Westview.
Mumtaz, H and Surico, P (2012), “Evolving international inflation dynamics: World and country-specific factors”, Journal of the European Economic Association, vol.10(4), pp. 716-734.
Primiceri, G (2006), “Why inflation rose and fell: Policymakers' beliefs and U.S. postwar stabilization policy”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 121(3), pp. 867-901.
Topics: Europe's nations and regions Monetary policy
Tags: inflation targeting, UK, policy shocks
Colin Ellis
Head of Analytics for the Financial Institutions Group, Moody's Investors Service; Visiting Research Fellow, University of Birmingham
Haroon Mumtaz
Professor of Economics, Queen Mary University of London
Pawel Zabczyk
Adviser at the Centre for Central Banking Studies, Bank of England; Associate, Centre for Macroeconomics
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1059
|
__label__wiki
| 0.831782
| 0.831782
|
The Porn Dude
Celebrity leaked, naked, nude, sex tape photos everyday
You are here: Home / Celebrity Videos / Natalie Dormer, Emily Ratajkowski Nude from In Darkness 2018
Natalie Dormer, Emily Ratajkowski Nude from In Darkness 2018
May 28, 2018 By David Santilli Leave a Comment
“The girl in the dark”, as blind Sofia is called, becomes an unwitting witness to the murder of the daughter of a dangerous international criminal. But despite the blindness, Sofia is not as defenseless as the mafia and intelligence agencies believe.
Natalie Dormer (born 11 February 1982) is an English actress. Born and brought up in Berkshire, she was educated at Chiltern Edge Secondary School and Reading Blue Coat School, and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her first professional acting role was in the Shakespeare comedy The Comedy of Errors in 2003. She made her screen debut in Lasse Hallstrom’s romantic film Casanova (2005), followed by a small part in the dramedy Distant Shores (2005). She received widespread praise for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007–08), and was nominated for two Gemini Awards for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Drama Series.
She made her stage debut at the Young Vic in 2010 in the play Sweet Nothings, and portrayed Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York in Madonna’s film W.E. (2011) and Private Lorraine in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). In 2012, her lead performance in After Miss Julie at the Young Vic attracted widespread critical acclaim. Dormer gained international attention with her performance of Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012–2016), for which she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards (2014–2015). She is also known for playing Irene Adler/Moriarty on the CBS series Elementary (2013–15), Cressida in the science-fiction adventure films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015), and Sara Price/Jess Price in The Forest (2016).
Emily O’Hara Ratajkowski (/ˌrætəˈkaʊski/; born June 7, 1991) is an American model and actress. Born to American parents in London and raised primarily in California, she rose to prominence in 2013 after appearing in the music video for Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”, which became the number one song of the year in several countries and attracted controversy over its purportedly sexist content.
Ratajkowski appeared on the cover of the March 2012 issue of the erotic magazine treats!, which led to her being asked to appear in two music videos – “Blurred Lines” and Maroon 5’s “Love Somebody”. She appeared in the 2014 and 2015 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. Ratajkowski made her professional runway modeling debut for Marc Jacobs at New York Fashion Week in 2015 and has since walked on the Paris Fashion Week runway for Miu Miu and Milan Fashion Week for Bottega Veneta. She appeared in a Buick Super Bowl commercial during Super Bowl 50. She has become the spokesperson for brands such as DKNY, The Frye Company, Kerastase, Paco Rabanne and DL1961. She has collaborated with The Kooples and designed her own line of swimwear, Inamorata.
Ratajkowski began acting as a child in the San Diego area before she gained a recurring role on the Nickelodeon series iCarly. Her feature film debut was as the mistress of Ben Affleck’s character in the 2014 film Gone Girl. Ratajkowski’s other roles have included the films Entourage, I Feel Pretty and We Are Your Friends (her first leading role) as well as the miniseries The Spoils Before Dying and the anthology series Easy.
Ratajkowski is an advocate for women’s health issues as a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood. As a self-identified feminist, she has received both support and criticism for her views on sexual expression.
Filed Under: Celebrity Videos Tagged With: Emily Ratajkowski, Natalie Dormer
Shop Beo
Asian Girls Leaks
Vietnamese model Thi. Model AKA Thi Nguyen leaked nude sexy
Khmer model and movie star Tim Rotha leaked nude sexy the fappening
JAV Model Nana Fukada 深田ナナ nude sexy leaked
Siren Gene AKA Tiffyiffyiffy AKA Tiffany Eugenio nude sexy leaked
Japanese mixed Fatima Kojima nude sexy leaked the fappening
Sex 35
Copyright © 2019 · The Fappening
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1060
|
__label__wiki
| 0.667156
| 0.667156
|
Home / Yuko Matsuzuka
Tokyo based potter Yuko Matsuzuka creates ceramic tableware. It doesn't resemble the typical Japanese style, but it still conveys the essence of Japanese aesthetics.
Yuko studied industrial design, specializing in pottery, at Musashino Art University. She initially chose interior design, but changed to pottery because she realized that she wanted to make things by hand. Yuko said that she felt a strong sense of satisfaction through using her hands when she first made a pottery piece. “That sense of enjoyment has led me to where I am now.”
Being a potter, she works quietly in her studio most of the time. She said that this way of working fits her personality well. She continues to create ceramics because it is a pleasant experience. She said that when she thinks about the purpose of her work, she feels it is about living happily, because she loves what she does.
After graduating university, she continued to create her ceramics while she was lecturing in pottery at a university in Kobe. At the same time, she worked under a Tanba ware pottery master. Yuko then established her own studio in Tokyo in 2010.
Yuko said that her ceramic style is changing over time, although her own personal taste has not changed much. She wants to try to make something new. "It is like water," she said. "If it stays at the same point, it becomes muddy." She follows new paths so that she can see new views.
However, Yuko’s basic concept is firm. It is to create tableware that people can use in their daily lives for a long time. Her ceramic style is oriented towards the modern way of living, and mixes the East and West. It is a modern design approach, yet elements of ancient Greek and Roman ceramic styles in her work also evoke strongly nostalgic feelings.
We spent the afternoon at her studio. Her studio is in a quiet residential area in Tokyo. It is a place where you can witness people’s daily lives. Yuko cares about small things. She notices the changing colors of the seasons, or how she feels, for example. The creation of her ceramic works is influenced by these small things. It is like writing a poem. When she moves her hands, she imagines a small scene like the small bud of a little flower, or the changing color of the sky, intending to evoke these senses or feelings through her tableware.
The traditional Japanese found beauty in small things, such as bonsai, a miniature tree in a pot, or haiku, Japanese poetry. Yuko also sees the beauty in small things. While her tableware doesn't resemble a typical Japanese style, it is created with a strong sense of Japanese beauty.
Tableware is used everyday. There is a story at every dining table. She has a good memory of her family's tableware from her childhood. Yuko wants to create tableware that is not used as a consumable, or used briefly, but is inherited by the next generation. She said that she feels deeply honored if someone can enjoy her tableware for a long period of time. She makes the type of tableware that people can remember for a long time and hand on from generation to generation.
Inspired by her own pleasant childhood memories, Yuko's ceramics bring a warm experience to your dining table. She hopes that her ceramics will enable you to create your own pleasant memories.
View the Yuko Matsuzuka collection
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1061
|
__label__wiki
| 0.678924
| 0.678924
|
Another setback for the GOP’s minority outreach efforts
ANOTHER SETBACK FOR THE GOP’S MINORITY OUTREACH EFFORTS…. Oh my.
The Republican-controlled Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a proposed constitutional amendment yesterday that would eliminate Affirmative Action in state government. The offical GOP reasoning for the change is that while “discrimination exists,” “I don’t think Affirmative Action has been as successful as we like to believe,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. T.W. Shannon (R), explained. But perpetual extremist Rep. Sally Kern (R) offered her argument for ending the system that helps minorities advance: “blacks” simply don’t work as hard as whites.
Seriously, that’s what she said. Kern, defending opposition to affirmative action, went on to suggest African Americans may end up in prison because “they don’t want to study as hard in school.” She added, “I’ve taught school and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
Kern went on to argue that women earn less than men because “they tend to spend more time at home with their families.”
This is the same state lawmaker who argued that homosexuality is more dangerous than terrorism, and fought for a ban on Sharia law.
Honestly, where does the Republican Party even find people like this? Is there a website where a party can order cartoonish racists to serve in state government?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1062
|
__label__wiki
| 0.668804
| 0.668804
|
After carefully, bravely listening to every song ever recorded in any language, I have compiled an objective list of the world’s 50 greatest lyrics. This ranking is definitive. I will not heed your laments.
“There’s so much beauty around us, but just two eyes to see:
but everywhere I go, I’m looking.” (Here in America, Rich Mullins)
“I try to stay awake and remember my name, but
everybody’s changing and I don’t feel the same.” (Everybody’s Changing, Keane)
Keane wedded adolescent melancholy with U2-style hooks and won the hearts of awkward, sensitive teens everywhere.
“Albert Einstein trembled when he saw that time was water
seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world.” (Lake Geneva, The Handsome Family)
The Handsome Family, a husband-and-wife folk country duo from New Mexico, deserve to be better known. Their lyrics combine Night Vale-style weirdness with realistic, Flannery-esque characterization. “Lake Geneva” describes a woman losing her husband to religious mania and mental illness while “raccoons in the darkness” drag off their hot dog buns. The story pauses briefly in the middle to discuss the nature of time. Somehow, it all works.
“There is another world
there is a better world
there must be.” (Asleep, The Smiths)
For a band that often trafficked in sarcasm, the Smiths achieved a new threshold of greatness when they decided to go earnest.
“You’ve been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation
of the sequel to your life!” (Shady Lane, Pavement)
“Walk till you run, and don’t look back
for here I am.” (The Unforgettable Fire, U2)
The creepiest Bono lyric ever. Play it on a dark road late at night and try not to be afraid that he’s walking behind you.
“She’s well-acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a windowpane.” (Happiness is a Warm Gun, The Beatles).
Ultimately I have to go with Paul as the better songwriter, but John’s hallucinatory turns of phrase were exquisite.
“Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
crying like a fire in the sun.” (It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Bob Dylan)
Nothing about these lyrics makes any sense, and yet somehow they are… perfect? Dylan had gone deep into Rimbaud and the other great French poets when he wrote this, and it shows.
“And you always had it, but you never knew.” (Flesh and Bone, The Killers)
Early Killers lyrics were biting and melancholy, but as they’ve matured they’ve included some uplift among the sass and sadness. People will break your heart, Brandon assures us, but they won’t break the fight inside of you.
“We lived in the shadows
and we had the chance and threw it away
and it’s never gonna be the same
‘cause the years are falling by like the rain.” (Hello, Oasis)
Oasis is so rambly and self-indulgent that when one of their songs resonates, it almost seems like an accident. Yet Noel Gallagher is actually a master of crafting lyrics rooted in the deepest of human feelings.
“We said we would never fit in
when we were really just like them;
does rebellion ever make a difference?” (So Long, Astoria, The Ataris)
This nostalgia-tinged ode to childhood and The Goonies is one of the better songs to emerge from the post-grunge era.
“She says, like, literally, music is the air she breathes…
I wonder if she even knows what that word means,
well, it’s literally not that.” (The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment, Father John Misty)
Father John Misty’s lyrics are typically cleverer than they are good, but they are very clever.
“Suspended clear in the sky are the words that we sing in our dreams.” (Let There Be Love, Oasis)
Oasis has been high for at least four or five albums, and at this point I don’t even think they realize they’re still recording music, but at least it’s given us some striking lyrics.
“We know the true death, the true way of all flesh;
everyone’s dying, but girl, you’re not old yet.” (Step, Vampire Weekend)
The rare “memento mori” song that manages to both encourage and break your heart.
“She said the hardest thing in the world to do
is to find somebody who believes in you.” (Sad, Sad Song, M. Ward)
“Maybe you’ll find life is unkind and over so soon;
there is no golden gate, there’s no heaven waiting for you.” (Perfect Symmetry, Keane)
Keane addresses terrorism and religious extremism, suggesting that those who kill others in the name of God may not find heaven waiting for them. It’s also possible to read these lines as a lament for the hopeless dreams of one’s youth.
“You were right about the stars:
each one is a setting sun.” (Jesus, etc., Wilco).
“Looking for evil, thinking they can trace it, but
evil don’t look like anything.” (Westfall, Okkervil River).
This is maybe the best song about a gruesome Austin killing ever written, St. Augustine by way of a murder ballad.
“And in my best behavior I am really just like him;
look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid.” (John Wayne Gacy, Sufjan Stevens)
The most chilling moment in Sufjan’s wistful song about a famed serial killer is when he turns the mirror on himself and us.
“And I have used your unbelief to set them free
so die now, die now, My Judas.” (Iscariot, Bison)
This song seems to have disappeared from recent versions of the folk band’s first album, perhaps because Jesus seeming to taunt a dying Judas was too creepy for some tastes.
“Got to be good-looking ‘cause he’s so hard to see.” (Come Together, The Beatles).
Like a good Simpsons joke, the best Beatles lyrics work on multiple levels.
[tie] 30. “Kathy I’m lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping:
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.” (America, Simon & Garfunkel)
[tie] 30. “Half of the time we’re gone and we don’t know where.” (Only Living Boy in New York, Simon & Garfunkel).
Many prefer the youthful poetic posturing of “Sounds of Silence,” but for my money these are their best and saddest songs.
“They will never forget you till somebody new comes along.” (New Kid in Town, The Eagles)
The Eagles came dangerously close to writing the definitive statement on moving on and being forgotten by those you loved.
“And now that it’s over I promise you I’ll go
and wander in the night, and never come home.” (Med School, Dry the River).
Dry the River understood better than most bands how it feels to be young and lost and weighed down by your mistakes.
“I can’t stand all the things she sticks into her skin
like broken ballpoint pens and steel guitar strings:
she says it hurts but it’s worth it.” (Your Little Hoodrat Friend, The Hold Steady).
A single Hold Steady song contains more and sharper characterization than most novels. In a typically Flannery-esque touch, the song goes on to describe the woman’s two tattoos: one says, “Jesus lived and died for all your sins,” and the other says, “Damn right, you’ll rise again!”
“It burns being broke, it hurts to be heartbroken,
and always being both must be a drag.” (Your Little Hoodrat, The Hold Steady).
Yeah, this is from the same song. I DON’T CARE.
“Tuesday night at the Bible study
we lift our hands and pray over your body
but nothing ever happens.” (Casimir Pulaski Day, Sufjan Stevens)
This guitar-and-banjo song from Sufjan’s best album is a lot of things: a gently devastating portrait of bone cancer and first love; a Job-like deconstruction and reaffirmation of faith.
“Now and then I’m wishing I’d never
let you let me disappear.” (Blue Skies, JayMay)
“The trouble with talking is it makes you sound clever
and the trouble with waiting is you just wait forever.” (Here It Is, Over the Rhine)
It goes on: “There’s a love of excuses that plays in your mind // and makes the truth even harder to find.” The best part is, this is a CHRISTMAS song.
contemplating a crime.” (Year of the Cat, Al Stewart)
But really, any line in this song.
“Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
but maybe everything that dies one day comes back.” (Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen)
The rare song to make the resurrection sound like a warning.
“Y’all don’t wanna hear me, you just wanna dance.” (Hey Ya! OutKast)
It’s a toss-up between this and “Nothing lasts forever // so what makes love the exception?” but I love the casual bleakness of this admission, in the middle of the most infectiously groovy dance tune of the 2000s.
“While her disappointed sister looked on quiet as the snow
knowing well that those who know don’t talk
and those who talk don’t know.” (Goodbye, I! mewithoutyou)
On this album of animal fables, it’s the disappointed sister who sticks out.
“On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned
‘cause there’s something in a Sunday
that makes a body feel alone.” (Sunday Morning Coming Down, Johnny Cash)
Johnny Cash was a Christian and a country-music legend, but it’s hard to imagine half his songs being played on country or Christian radio today.
“Democracy is coming…
to the USA.” (Democracy, Leonard Cohen)
A Canadian singing about democracy one day coming to America might be the greatest trolling Leonard Cohen has ever done.
“I was told the streets were paved with gold
and there’d be no time for getting old when we were young.” (The Dying of the Light, Noel Gallagher’s High-Flying Birds)
In his recent, post-Oasis albums, Noel Gallagher has taken the trademark angst of his youth and transplanted it to middle age.
“We’re burning down the highway skyline
on the back of a hurricane
that started turning when you were young.” (When You Were Young, The Killers)
I don’t know what this means. Friends have tried to draw it for me on the backs of napkins. I still don’t get it.
“Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball.” (Champagne Supernova, Oasis).
“There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away;
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets.” (Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen)
Bruce was so young, his dreams were so huge, this album is so perfect.
“And if you think you see with just your eyes, you’re mad.” (The Model, Belle & Sebastian)
In this quirky tale of two blind people who find love at a party, Belle & Sebastian attained a depth that was rare even for them.
“Climb on your tears and be silent
like a rose on its ladder of thorns.” (The Window, Leonard Cohen).
Leonard Cohen is and has been for many decades the world’s greatest lyricist. From the same song: “Oh, bless the continuous stutter of the word being made into flesh.”
“Half the town are underground and half are halfway there
and we’re the only good ones left.” (Alarms in the Heart, Dry the River)
Over the last five years, the late, lamented Dry the River crafted a handful of perfect albums that managed to capture the apocalyptic angst of early Keane and The Killers.
“Should rumor of a shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the atmosphere.” (The Traitor, Leonard Cohen)
I could quote all of Suzanne or Famous Blue Raincoat, but I love this underrated gem from 1979’s Recent Songs.
“I made a lot of mistakes.
All things go, all things go.” (Chicago, Sufjan Stevens)
When you’re young, the fact that all things are passing away seems like a curse. The older you get, the more grateful you become.
“Darkness fills the eastern sky and street lights stretch for miles
through the spring and the winter and the morning.” (Waiting for the Moon to Rise, Belle & Sebastian)
Whether they were sketching indelible characters or painting landscapes with words and music, Belle & Sebastian seemed to possess a beauty that was not of this earth.
“Another head aches, another heart breaks
I’m so much older than I can take.” (All These Things That I’ve Done, The Killers)
Baby-faced Brandon Flowers penned this lyric when he was all of 22. With every year that passes it gets more relevant.
“When I look at the television I want to see me
staring right back at me.” (Mr. Jones, Counting Crows)
Counting Crows missed a golden opportunity by not having Adam Duritz watching himself on TV in the music video.
“Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see
trying to learn how to walk like the heroes
we thought we had to be.” (Backstreets, Bruce Springsteen)
As close to a personal anthem as I have (and the opening quote of my forthcoming book).
“Sometimes I feel like it’s all been done
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one
Sometimes I want to change everything I’ve ever done
I’m too tired to fight and yet too scared to run.” (Stop for a Minute, Keane featuring K’naan)
We’ve all had those moments when we feel like the guys from Keane are the only ones who get us.
“I’m not sure any of it mattered
but all of it was music.” (All of it Was Music, Over the Rhine)
There are those songs you only play once because their beauty breaks your heart.
“We’re all gonna die.” (Fourth of July, Sufjan Stevens)
As Rainbow Rowell pointed out on twitter, it’s not even the saddest line on the album. The more I listen to it, the more I wonder whether it was meant to be sad at all.
« Ranking Every Episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot
Ted Cruz Wants You to See Him as a Biblical Hero »
5 thoughts on “the 51 Cleverest and Wisest Song Lyrics of All Time”
Angelyn
“I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.” from How Soon is Now. Morrissey of The Smiths is a good autobiographical writer. On growing up in Manchester, he notes the town was “a barbaric place where only headless savages can survive.”
Boze Herrington
it’s true, Morrisey’s lyrics are generally brilliant
Amy Littrell
Great choices, thanks for sharing! Just a note, although you probably know this – Kris Kristofferson wrote Sunday Morning Coming Down. Johnny Cash made it famous, I think, since Kristofferson is probably more talented as a song writer than singer. Love the song though – “there’s nothing short of dying that’s half as lonely as the sound of a sleeping city sidewalk and Sunday morning coming down.”
Kevin Eldridge
Great choices. How about this though?
“Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?”
Roger Waters; Pink Floyd “Wish you Were Here”
Leave a Reply to Amy Littrell Cancel reply
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1063
|
__label__wiki
| 0.710536
| 0.710536
|
Financial regulators are getting dangerously comfortable
Jeff Spross
Illustrated | phochi/iStock, Sudowoodo/iStock
Ten years out from the Great Recession, the economy is looking relatively strong and stable. Last year, Congress rolled back certain parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which put lots of new guardrails around Wall Street in 2010. And last week, regulators decided to weaken a few other rules. It seems American financial regulators are starting to relax and kick their feet up.
Unfortunately, this happy-go-lucky attitude could actually help bring on the next crisis.
A 20th-century economist named Hyman Minsky had a thesis about how current stability in the financial system almost inevitably breeds future instability. His work emphasized how the banking industry — its internal behavior and institutional culture — shapes the fate of the larger economy. Mainstream theory and modeling often ignores the banking industry, and instead treats the financial sector as just a passive intermediary — a point through which money moves to other places in the economy.
But the banking industry creates and distributes credit. It chooses what investments should get that credit, and it decides how risky those investments can be. Minsky's point was that the further you get from a recession, the more the financial sector's appetite for risk increases. At first, the industry is cautious: The credit it gives out can be fully repaid with the income that can be reasonably expected from the investment in the near future. As the trauma of the recession becomes a distant memory, the financial sector becomes more reckless. Riskier bets are more profitable in the short-term. Banks and financial firms take on more bets where near-future returns can only cover interest, and eventually move into bets where those returns can't cover either.
Right now, the portion of investments that fit into that third category is higher than it's been in decades.
Eventually, we'll hit a "Minsky moment." Like Wile E. Coyote running in mid-air, the financial sector will look down and suddenly realize its dire situation. Its appetite for risk will shrink, perhaps even dramatically and violently, and everything will go downhill from there. The 2008 collapse of the housing bubble — and the massive expansion in completely unserviceable mortgages that led up to it — is a classic recent real-life example of this scenario.
This gets us back to the new deregulatory decisions by Congress and other regulators.
Minsky's basic point was about behavioral dynamics within the financial market: how the nature of the for-profit financial industry leads it into a cycle of risk-taking. But the people who participate in financial markets aren't just economic actors; they're political and social actors, too. They vote for politicians, donate to them, lobby them, call them up on the phone, and generally try to push them in particular directions. If the financial industry's economic hunger for risk goes up over the business cycle, then so does its political hunger for rules that allow for more risk taking. Stability breeds instability, through policymaking as well as markets.
The 2018 bank deregulation bill that Congress passed and President Trump signed did a few things. Most prominently, it changed the thresholds for what banks and financial institutions can designate as "systemically important." The label gets applied to firms that regulators think could threaten the whole system if they collapse. Getting the label means much tougher regulatory standards, so of course the banks would rather avoid it. Dodd-Frank set the threshold for who can get slapped with the label at $50 billion in assets. The 2018 law hiked that threshold to $250 billion, allowing around 25 of the country's 40 biggest banks — accounting for 20 percent of all the nation's banking assets — to escape the heightened scrutiny.
Most of the votes for the new bill, needless to say, came from Republicans, who are deeply sympathetic to the plight of Wall Street. But a fair number of centrist Democrats voted for the bill as well: around 30 in the House and 16 in the Senate. The most prominent of those Senate Democrats also got hundreds of thousands in donations from the financial industry.
The 2018 law also gave the Fed and regulators more leeway in how they design and implement rules that apply to the financial sector, and last week, regulators took advantage of that opportunity. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) — a kind of roundtable of U.S. financial regulators — announced it would loosen the "systemically important" designation further and rely on a higher threshold of risk to decide who is "systemically important." It also said it will generally defer to the bank's primary regulator in making the call.
Finally, the Federal Reserve revealed some changes to the "stress tests" it performs on banks to see how they'd do in a theoretical crisis. For the portion of the tests that involve some subjective judgments about the banks' risk profile, the Fed won't give simple "pass" or "fail" grades anymore. The results of these tests have surprised Wall Street before, leading to sudden falls in a bank's stock, so the change certainly makes life a bit easier on the banks. But it arguably also makes things muddier for the public.
Taken on their own, these changes aren't catastrophic. The 2018 bank bill was more nerve-wracking. But taken as a trend, all these shifts point towards a regulatory culture and a policymaking attitude that's more and more lackadaisical about the risks that almost took down the U.S. economy in 2008. You'd think a period of economic calm and growth would be a vindication of the regulations that came before. Instead, it's being treated as a justification to roll those rules back.
Hyman Minsky, no doubt, is rolling over in his grave.
More from Jeff Spross
Your grandpa wouldn't have been impressed by Amazon's plan to retrain workers. Neither should you.
Why a pro-worker president would welcome France's tech tax
Are people who make $200k middle-class?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1064
|
__label__wiki
| 0.834458
| 0.834458
|
Home > Owners essentials > Pininfarina Battista – The World’s First Pure Electric Luxury Hyper GT Revealed
Pininfarina Battista – The World’s First Pure Electric Luxury Hyper GT Revealed
May 16, 2019 6:47 am by content team
A revolution in automotive performance, design and technical collaboration is revealed with the Pininfarina Battista, the world’s first luxury electric hyper performance GT. Delivering on a long-held Pininfarina family dream and a new target of zero emissions with extreme power, the Battista is the first solely Pininfarina-badged car and delivers unprecedented performance. The trio of beautiful Battista design models presented as part of the hypercar’s World Premiere in Geneva represent a new pinnacle of desirability for electric cars, stylishly resolving the paradox of beauty and performance in a pure, elegant and timeless Italian design.
When it arrives in 2020, the Battista will be the most powerful car ever designed and built in Italy and it will deliver a level of performance that is unachievable today in any road-legal sports car featuring internal combustion engine technology. Faster than a current Formula 1 race car in its 0 -100 km/h sub-two second sprint, and with 1,900 hp and 2,300 Nm torque on tap, the Battista will combine extreme engineering and technology in a zero emissions package.
The year 2020 is also the 90th anniversary of the legendary Pininfarina SpA design house, which has taken the design brief for the Battista and produced a classic Pininfarina: an elegant form that seamlessly integrates the car’s innovative engineering solutions to deliver unprecedented performance. It is the same design principle of form and function in harmony as seen in classic Pininfarina cars reaching back to the Cisitalia 202 of 1947 and through more than 100 Ferraris, the most recent of which was launched this decade.
The Pininfarina Battista’s place in automotive history is defined by its name. It is the first in a range of purely electric, zero-emissions, luxury cars solely branded Pininfarina, delivering on a long-held family dream that has been carried by founder, Battista, his son Sergio, and his grandson, the current Pininfarina SpA Chairman, Paolo.
Never before has a new brand and its first car been launched with such an emotive past, relevance for the present, and potential for the future – the Battista embodies timeless design as a piece of art.
Automobili Pininfarina CEO, Michael Perschke: “This is the most authentic and exciting automotive story imaginable. The Battista is the hypercar of the future, inspired by a legendary past. It combines true inspiration and innovation in its technical achievement and emotional appeal. Electrification unlocks the door to a new level of performance and a zero-emissions future, whilst a passion and respect for automotive history will define how this landmark car looks and feels. We aim for the Battista to be a future classic and automotive icon, writing its own page in automotive history books.”
The ingredients for success reach further than statistics and history. A group of automotive experts, the like of which have never been assembled before for the launch of a new car company, are working for Automobili Pininfarina and partnering with Pininfarina SpA and an enviable list of technology specialists headed by the likes of Rimac and Pirelli. The result is that the Battista will arrive next year having been developed through the expertise and inspiration of a team that have been integral to the launches of cars such as the Bugatti Veyron and Chiron, Ferrari Sergio, Lamborghini Urus, McLaren P1, Mercedes AMG-Project One, Pagani Zonda and Porsche Mission E.
The resulting hypercar will appeal to the world’s automotive connoisseurs from a technical and aesthetic standpoint, and also because of its rarity. No more than 150 Battistas will be hand-crafted in Italy and allocated equally between the regions of North America, Europe and Middle East/Asia. Exceptional customer service will be delivered through some of the world’s best luxury car retail specialists, from Los Angeles to London to Tokyo. Plans are in place for the opportunity to fully personalise each car at Pininfarina SpA’s Cambiano headquarters.
The Battista will set new standards in performance and desirability for an electric car. It will be the first poster car for the EV-generation and the halo model for a range of luxury electric cars from Automobili Pininfarina. It is more than simply a new car reveal, but a pivotal moment in time for the new automotive environment: the first zero-emissions, Italian luxury car.
THE 62-METRE CRN M/Y 138: THE NEW ONE-OFF YACHT IS TAKING SHAPE
MONTE CARLO YACHTS RETURNS TO ITS ORIGINS TO PRESENT THE NEW MCY 76
Montecristo Cincuenta Coming this Summer
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1065
|
__label__wiki
| 0.647552
| 0.647552
|
Thornton Violins
Fine Violins Made to Order, Restoration
“Lady Blunt”
Eduard Melkus
EDUARD MELKUS PERFORMS SOLO SONATAS AND PARTITAS, ART OF THE FUGUE
Rare live recordings of award winning violinist Eduard Melkus, restored from a performance at Karlskirche Vienna Austria. This recording offers a completion of Contrapunctus 19, from the ‘Art of the Fugue’ (left unfinished at Bach’s death), written by Melkus himself. The 14 page illustrated booklet includes analysis of the music and its relationship to Baroque architecture, by violinist James Thornton.
BERTIL VAN BOER – FANFARE MAGAZINE
This is a wonderful disc to have, not only for its historical value, but because it represents in my opinion one of the models for how these monumental solo violins works by Bach ought to be performed. This should be at the cornerstone of any Baroque music collection…
DAVE SAEMANN – FANFARE MAGAZINE
This CD offers a rare opportunity to hear violinist Eduard Melkus, one of the founders of the period instrument movement, play solo sonatas and partitas of Bach in concert…
James Thornton has contributed a sophisticated program note, with particular emphasis on the influence of Baroque architecture on Bach’s music.
Eduard Melkus – Music of J.S. Bach
$16.00 – CD Disc and 14 page insert
This CD offers a rare opportunity to hear violinist Eduard Melkus, one of the founders of the period instrument movement, play solo sonatas and partitas of Bach in concert. The performances of the Second Sonata and Second and Third Partitas feature an Aegidius Klotz violin from around 1760, one of the few instruments to survive from this period basically in its original state. According to Wikipedia, Melkus did not use gut strings on this violin. He also employed a chin rest, modern pitch, and continuous vibrato. All of these practices are ahistorical, so that more recent period instrument players tend to regard Melkus as something of an anachronism. In all honesty, I can’t tell how many of these details hold true for the present recital, and the album booklet presents no relevant information. That said, Melkus’s performances here are to be treasured for their passion and insight, plus a sense of style that has not gone out of date. I think Melkus had an instrument that suited his purposes, and these performances are among the essential recordings of these works on any type of violin.
James Thornton has contributed a sophisticated program note, with particular emphasis on the influence of Baroque architecture on Bach’s music. One can hear this most notably in Melkus’s reading of the Fuga from the Second Sonata. Bach erects a solid, overarching sense of structure. There is a feeling of space, within which elements of design move—creating shapes that ornament and decorate the total edifice. The movement parallels the illusion of motion in contemporary buildings. The sonata’s concluding Allegro here is like a Baroque painting of Christ’s ascension, with billowing waves and gusts of air. Melkus executes the Third Partita’s Preludio so that it offers the remarkable effect of two soloists in close harmony, as in a Vivaldi concerto. For the Gavotte en Rondeau, Melkus secures elegant phrasing, which can prove too cumbersome to execute on a modern instrument. The Sarabanda of the Second Partita here is like a courtly dance imbued with the energy of the rising bourgeoisie. Melkus’s interpretation of the climactic Ciaccona is bound to raise a few eyebrows. It is fast, requiring less than two-thirds the time of Joseph Szigeti’s performance. In place of the stately and philosophical renditions of some violinists, Melkus gives us a thing like the most outlandish fantasy of the great Italian violinist-composers, reminding us that Bach himself was a fine violinist. Melkus’s account possesses the burning emotional fervor of a painting by El Greco. Like the Spanish master, Bach via Melkus seems to alter time and space through spiritual and imaginative experience.
Melkus performs the Third Sonata’s Largo, from another recital, in a highly romantic fashion. The account of the final Contrapunctis from The Art of the Fugue is played sensitively and with beautiful tone by the Eduard Melkus Quartet plus continuo. Bach left this work unfinished, and Melkus has offered his own completion of it. Melkus’s writing is competent and in the correct style. One is aware, however, that the contrapuntal lines in general lack the aching emotional significance they have in Bach’s torso. The sound engineering for all three concerts is eminently listenable, although without the high polish one expects from studio recordings of this period. The tape of the Vienna concert shows some signs of deterioration. My favorite complete recording of the Sonatas and Partitas is the EMI mono version by Nathan Milstein. Eduard Melkus’s accounts are important both for the role they played in the development of historically informed performance, and as the document of a vital, intelligent, and feeling artist. Anyone who loves Bach’s solo violin music should hear this album. Dave Saemann
One of the great musicians of our time in terms of his work on Johann Sebastian Bach, both as a violinist and conductor, is Eduard Melkus. Over the past 65 years or so he has made so many contributions to our understanding of the music of Bach and his times that by himself has achieved a sort of iconic stature. He is not just a performer of note, but also a recognized scholar whose book Die Violine is probably the most significant on the instrument to appear since the 18th century treatises by Tartini and Leopold Mozart. Moreover, as a close friend of period performance such as Gustav Leonhardt and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, he has both participated in their revival of the art of early performance practice and been one of the significant models whose work was seminal in our ever-evolving knowledge of how the music of this period was played.
As multifaceted a performer and conductor as he is, Melkus has also devoted considerable energy to his editorial work, creating new and more critical editions of music of the Baroque. Moreover, he has also devoted compositional skills towards the completion of several fragments, including the Mozart Triple Concertante for violin, viola, cello and orchestra (K 320e) and a current project of an early Beethoven second violin concerto. So, his ordinary day job as Professor at the Wiener Musikhochschule in Austria seems almost an anticlimax for his extraordinary achievements in the discipline.
While such accolades may seem too overt to some, his 200 or so recordings are ample demonstration of his musical acumen, though many now have gone out of print (save for the ubiquitous downloads). Therefore, this disc, remastered from recordings done in the 1970s, is a welcomed reissue that reinforces the contributions he has made, both to scholarship and performance practice. Accompanying this collection of solo violin works by Bach, including his own extremely viable completion of the Contrapunctus XIV, which was “completed” by Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel as a three-voice fugue. The two solo sonatas and two partitas are some of the most complex and intricate works for solo violin ever composed. The lack of bass line exposes the performer to the need to bring out all of the voices simultaneously without help and in a manner where musical pitfalls abound. The finale of the D minor Partita, a humungous Chaconne, has been the downfall of many a violinist, amateur and professional, as its 64 sequential variations run the gamut of performance difficulty. No wonder that numerous “adaptations” of it exist, all failing to achieve the grandeur and scope of the original. Melkus attacks this monument with vigor and power, later on in the more sedate variations giving it a softer, more mystical quality, and as the intensity and difficulty increase towards the end handles the virtuosity without batting an eye. This is the way this particular piece ought to be played, and here, followed by the plaintive Large of the C major Sonata, the monumental nature of the work is all the more apparent. The complex fugue of the A minor Sonata, almost as complex and difficult as the Chaconne, is done with such clarity that all of the voices are easily distinguishable, and Bach’s hidden bass lines spring out of the text. The lilting and bouncy Gavotte of the E major Partita shows an almost playful side, for here Melkus uses a jaunty phrasing that brings out the dance-like qualities. Of course, similar comments are in order for each and every track on this re-release. Suffice it to say that this is Bach that is a revelation, both when it was first recorded and even now after four decades it remains fresh and inspirational.
The final work is his completion of the Contrapunctus, here set for a string quartet, though the original is of course for keyboard. After looking at the architectonic structure of the work, Melkus came to the conclusion that the “3 sogetti” really ought to be four, and his conclusion, beginning with Bach’s final signature motive (B-flat-A-C-B natural, for those few still unaware of the acrostic), provides a logical and effective fourth subject for the counterpoint, increasing the complexity of the work in a way that ends the monumental tome of fugues well. It may not have been what Bach actually envisioned and indeed the choice of strings was probably not on the composer’s mind, but it does work.
Along with this music can be found wonderfully entertaining notes that run about from Baroque architecture to the rather well-written and carefully documented descriptions of the music itself.
This is a wonderful disc to have, not only for its historical value, but because it represents in my opinion one of the models for how these monumental solo violins works by Bach ought to be performed. Eduard Melkus has not only earned his stature, this brilliant recording shows the world exactly why. This should be at the cornerstone of any Baroque music collection. Bertil van Boer
ThorntonViolins@Yahoo.com
Copyright © 2018 Thornton Violins - Website by Marais Music www.MaraisMusic.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1070
|
__label__cc
| 0.528918
| 0.471082
|
« How clean is your brain?
Rape and the Firehouse Effect »
Problems with gambling
Everyt day we Post readers are treated to a sort of star letter: one reader’s effort which is singled out by getting a two-column headline and a blue background. Monday’s effort, by a Mr CB Lee, picked up a point made in an earlier news story. This stated that nine out of ten problem gamblers who sought help from a Caritas centre for such people were “debt-ridden”. This, said Mr Lee, came as no surprise. Well, I suppose people with a gambling problem tend to have debts, generally speaking. But Mr Lee said the original report did not get to the root of the problem, which was “the abundance of illagal gambling and the aggressive and glitzy marketing by Macau casinos”. Mr Lee concluded that the Caritas report “misses the point and did not really add value to the debate.”
This seemed a mite unkind, so I dug out the original story to see where Caritas had gone wrong. The story quoted a spokesman for Caritas, one Joe Tang Yiu-cho, as saying that “nine out of ten of the gamblers who sought its help were heavily indebted, compared to (note to subs: that should be “compared with”) only three to four out of ten a few years ago”. Mr Tang attributed the change to the appearance of companies willing to make loans quickly and with minimal or no collateral. He also noted that the Jockey Club’s “net margin” — which is what the club calls its profit from gambling — had increased by six per cent in the last financial year.
What are we to make of all this? Clearly Mr Tang is right in supposing that something has changed in his clientele. A jump from 30 per cent to 90 per cent does not look like a random fluctuation. On the other hand Mr Tang’s version of the cause must be considered a speculation. There are other possible explanations, after all. Anyone with a gambling problem is going to run into debt sooner or later, because in the long run the house always wins. Maybe people are waiting until later before seeking help. Or perhaps the public’s perception of what constitutes a problem is changing.
We can, though, I think safely exclude the explanations offered by Mr Lee, which are that gamblers are borrowing from illegal bookies or casinos. They of all people know how slim are their chances of getting their money back. No doubt gamblers can get loans through more traditional channels. I imagine serious gambling addicts are quite ingenious at conning people into financing their habit. But people who lend money have every incentive to be careful.
What really bothered me about Mr Lee’s offering, though, was his complaint about the abundance of illegal gambling and casino ads. Hong Kong does not suffer from an abundance of illegal gambling. It suffers from an abundance of legal gambling. Addicted gamblers do not care who is on the other end of their bets. Every estate has a betting shop. Losing money could not be easier. You can even do the whole thing by phone. Moreover the glitzy advertising by Macau casinoes, wherever it is, is totally outshouted by the free advertising provided by Hong Kong media for the Jockey Club.
In the newspaper which featured Mr Lee’s letter there were no advertisements, glitzy or otherwise, for Macau casinos. There were ads for the usual things: expensive watches, expensive flats, expensive clothes, expensive schools, but not a casino in sight. On the other hand there were two whole pages devoted to horse-racing, the Jockey Club’s traditional way of parting fools from their money, and a further whole page devoted to soccer, the new attraction for eager losers. The television companies are even more generous. Whole race meetings are televised live from nose to tail. Further hours of air time are devoted to advice for punters and post race analysis. News bulletins on the relevant days inform us that “now it’s time to check your Mark Six numbers” as if any viewer who had not bought a ticket in this particular lottery was some kind of freak.
Mr Lee thought that “gaming advertising” should be tightly restricted. Somehow I don’t think the relentless plugging of the Jockey Club was what he had in mind. He lives in Happy Valley. Perhaps he works there too.
on September 18, 2012 at 1:40 am | Reply Judith
You”re right about this. This is a real case of “the elephant in the room”. The Jockey Club advertises in all the media, and they daren’t say anything negative about it. It also hands out a vast amount of funds to charities (I wonder how much to those providing services for gambling addicts?), so no one connected with any charity will say a word against them. The JC has “battled” against online gambling and succeeded in making it more or less illegal, while at the same time jazzing up the image of its race meetings. If you’ve been recently you’ll have seen the younger, international crowd milling in with those old hardened gamblers. There is beer on tap and loud live pop music blaring between races. And it’s still a huge matter of pride to belong to the club, even if you can’t pay your way in as you used to now that committee members have been found guilty of taking bribes.
But there’s another, new phenomenon that worries me: those screaming ads for loans appearing on every bus and train telling you that you can just take out a huge loan and all your worries will be solved. I don’t know why no one has complained about these ads because this certainly isn’t truth in advertising.
You’ve pinned the nove (if you had a sub-editor, that’d be “nose”, I guess) on the right end of the donkey again, Tim. Jokes aside, it’s a shocking curse but people just go on dreaming.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1073
|
__label__cc
| 0.636945
| 0.363055
|
Tiny Tino's Travels
Just a boy trying to find his place in the world
Life in La La Land
Posted on December 9, 2015 by Tiny Tino
I was unsure as of what to expect from my time in LA. I had been there only once before, for a period of less than 24 hours for a long layover on the way to Central America, and I hadn’t been that impressed. The parts of town I went to – which I honestly didn’t even pay attention to at the time – were kind of gross and dirty, and it didn’t appear to be anything like the glamorous California that everyone sings about in pop songs. And while I knew I couldn’t let such a brief and incomplete experience of the city be an accurate first impression, I’d also heard reviews from other people that were less than positive: that getting around was difficult, traffic was terrible, all the attractions were overrated and that staying there was more like a challenge than a vacation. Despite all that, my mother had repeatedly told me that she thought I would like Los Angeles and that I would probably fit in pretty well there. Given that I’d had very mixed feelings about some of the people I had ran into and rubbed shoulders with in New York, and the fact that New Yorkers and Angelenos are often pitted against each other and are constantly comparing their cities, I figured if I didn’t fit so well on one coast, maybe I’d have more luck on the other.
Waking up the morning after my first night in LA was a little surreal, given the rather dramatic events of the night before. Upon checking my phone, I found a string of more abusive texts and Facebook messages from Nathan, which I simply deleted before blocking him.
“You don’t even have to worry about him anymore,” Jake assured me. “He’s been pissing so many people off lately, he doesn’t even have that many friends left in dodgeball. His behaviour last night might actually be enough of a reason to expel him from the league.” Which Jake, given that he ran the dodgeball league, could absolutely do. I started to feel slightly guilty, but Jake would have none of it, and assured me that if anything I was finally finishing the problem instead of creating one or starting any trouble. I just had to trust he knew more about what was going on in WeHo and let it be.
“So… what do you wanna do? What was your plan in Los Angeles?” Jake asked me, before turning away and talking to himself. “What can I show you? What’s something cool, something really LA that isn’t super touristy…” The beauty about Jake’s work was that he technically worked for himself, which meant he didn’t have a regular day time job that he had to be at, which meant he had plenty of free time to hang out and show me around, which he said he would be more than happy to do. I assured him that he didn’t have to do anything special or try and entertain me – I was more than happy to just hang out and join him with whatever he did with his days. So we started out with just going for a walk through West Hollywood along Santa Monica Boulevard, where Jake showed me around and pointed out a bunch of the local spots for drinking, eating and going out. We also saw the colourful rainbow crossing, similar to the one that had been put up in Sydney for the Mardi Gras festival that year, although unlike the rainbow in Sydney, the one in WeHo was a permanent addition to the streets.
The WeHo rainbow crossing
Jake also said he had some work-related emails to send and some business stuff to take care of, so we stopped at the Starbucks, ordered our drinks, and commandeered a table for ourselves and set up our a temporary workspace.
“There’s two questions you hear every traveller ask, no matter where you go,” Jake said with a laugh. “One: is there wifi? Two: is it free?” I laughed along, although he wasn’t wrong, so I made the most of the free connection and updated my blog and sent some emails while he attended to his work stuff. It was actually quite funny just how full the Starbucks was, and securing a table was a like navigating a small-scale property market. It was full of aspiring writers working on their manuscripts and screenplays, and while I kept laughing to myself and thinking about how it sounded like something straight out of Hollywood, I had to keep in mind that right now I literally was in Hollywood. It would appear that some of those stereotypes and clichés aren’t limited to the actual movies and television shows themselves, but extend to the wider suburbs in which they’re created.
I also noticed that Jake knew a lot of people. Like, a lot. I reckon he would have finished his work in about half the time it had taken him if he hadn’t had to stop periodically to say hello to every familiar face that approached him and wanted to briefly catch up.
“What can I say? I’m kind of a big deal,” Jake said with a playful smirk when I mentioned it to him, and while he said it in a way that was more humorous than serious, I was starting to get the idea that he was somewhat of a local celebrity around the area. But not in a way that everyone knows about you and gossips about you (although I’m sure everyone does that anyway), but in a way that everyone just seemed to like him, and he was genuinely friends with all of these people. It was at that moment that I realised as long as I stuck by Jake during my time LA, I’d always be in good hands and great company.
That afternoon, Jake and I started out my tour of LA by checking off some of the more obvious attractions.
“Oh, I know! I’ve got a friend who works for Universal Studios. I dunno, does that kind of thing interest you? She could get us in for free.” As a backpacker I had learned to appreciate literally anything that was free, so we drove up to Universal Studios to meet Jake’s friend Alicia.
“Oh! Go to that side so I can get Australia in the picture!”
“Man, work had sucked today,” Alicia complained after coming down from her office to meet us and introducing herself to me. “It’s that time of year when half the office is away for the holidays. But there isn’t any less work so…” she waved the thought away, the conversational that would follow clearly already boring her. “Here, let’s get you in.” I just followed Jake and Alicia and did as I was told, and soon enough we were inside the paid section of the theme park, where most of the rides and popular attractions were. She caught up with Jake for a few minutes, but she hadn’t quite finished for the day so had to head back up to her office.
“But it was lovely to meet you, Robert. I’m sure I’ll see you around sometime, I’m overdue for a catch up with this guy anyway,” she said, motioning to Jake. “Always so busy with his dodgeball!” Turns out that Alicia was one of few people I would meet through Jake that weren’t somehow involved in the dodgeball league.
At Jake’s recommendation we went on The Simpsons ride, which was actually… I don’t want to say scary, but it definitely wasn’t a walk in the park. It was a 3D animation rollercoaster, so while physically you didn’t actually move that much or really go anywhere, the dizzying sensations played tricks on your mind to make you feel as though you really did enter their cartoon universe and experience a range of non-human sensations. After that we walked back through the Citywalk in Universal Studios, which had been decorated for the holiday season.
While Jake did have a pretty flexible schedule, he wasn’t on holiday like I was, so he did still have to work sometimes. As well as running the WeHo dodgeball league, he was also a dancer and choreographer, and during the holidays he ran dance workshops and classes for kids. So while he had to do that, I took the opportunity to do some other more touristy things that I didn’t want to have to drag anyone else along to. While I don’t know if you can technically call it a tourist attraction, Runyon Canyon was yet another Los Angeles location that I had seen numerous times in various television shows. I was probably also pretty overdue for some kind (or any kind) of exercise, so one afternoon I got Jake to drop me off at the beginning of Runyon Canyon Park before he had to go to teach his dance class.
Honestly, there were probably more locals there than tourists. It seemed like a pretty popular place to go exercising and jogging or walking dogs. I wouldn’t really consider it a “hike”, since there were pretty straightforward trails most of the way, but you cover a fair bit of ground on your way to the top, and there is a pretty decent view of the greater Los Angeles area from up there.
Los Angeles as seen from the top of Runyon Canyon, stretching into the horizon.
However, it was on my walk through Runyon Canyon Park that I discovered one of the biggest disappointments about LA: how far away the famous Hollywood Sign is. It’s definitely there, off in the distance, but you had to zoom your camera in to the point of pixilation in order to get a somewhat decent view of it in a photograph. I’m aware that this isn’t helped by the fact all my holiday snaps so far had been taken with an iPhone 4, so image quality wasn’t something I was too hung up on. Still, similar to my misconceptions of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, I had just imagined the famous visual icons of the cities to be a little closer to the rest of the action.
The Hollywood Sign, from a distance.
After working up somewhat of a sweat in my afternoon hike, it was already time to meet Jake again after he finished his class. We decided to meet down on Hollywood Boulevard, which was only a short walk away from the entrance to Runyon Canyon Park, and from there we had a quick walk up the Hollywood Star Walk, and I pointed out the names of some of the celebrities that I liked, or recognised, and laughed at some of the stranger additions. Yet this was one sight that I had seen before during my time in LA, and if I’m completely honest, I’m not one to ever get star struck or fuss that much over celebrities.
Stars on Hollywood Boulevard
Marilyn Munroe’s handprints at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
“Hey, I’ve just gotta run back to the car and put some more change in the parking meter,” Jake said after our brief stroll up the strip. “It won’t take too long.”
“Actually,” I spoke up before he had a chance to go anywhere. “Um… can we, like… just go?” I’d seen all I really needed to see of the overrated tourist trap.
“Oh, thank God,” he replied, letting out a sigh of relief. “Yes, let’s get out of here.” As we headed back to the car, he explained his own thoughts of the whole place.
“Like, yeah, I get it. If it’s your first time here, it’s kinda cool, or if you want to see the star of your favourite celebrity, that’s kind of nice. Although trying to find them is always a great way to spend the afternoon,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t mind showing it to people on their first time, but I’m so glad you’re as over it as I am!”
There were plenty of other touristy things that I visited during my time in LA (which I will get to in the next post), but honestly I think the reason I had so much fun in the city was because of the people I was with. After the while debacle that was my first night in LA, gossip about the events had spread pretty quickly, but in a weird way that turned out pretty well for me. I had a few people approach me with condolences or apologies on behalf of the otherwise lovely bunch of dodgeball teams, and I ended up bonding and hanging out with a bunch of the guys and girls. I felt like I was officially one of the cool kids or something, although I’m pretty sure initially befriending Jake had probably improved that situation. I went along with him to the evenings when Jake had to run the dodgeball league, where teams dressed up in themes and often battled out the competition in ridiculous costumes, which usually had hilarious results, and afterwards we would inevitably end up in Gym Bar.
File Under: Photos that seemed like a good idea at the time.
LA was also where I would experience my first bottomless mimosa brunch. Originally we had planned on doing such a brunch on my birthday in New York, but after the night Jesse and I had had, we weren’t really in any state to be drinking, or conscious, for the morning of my birthday. But luckily Warren, one of the guys from dodgeball and a good friend of Jake’s, was having his birthday celebrations on one of the weekends I was in town, and you best believe he was doing a bottomless brunch. I mean, there isn’t really much that I have to explain, right? We sat around all morning, talking and laughing and drank more mimosas and Bloody Mary’s than one should probably consume while the sun is still up. But hey, I was on holidays!
Other nights out in West Hollywood saw me visiting a string of gay bars, including Revolver Video Bar, Trunks, Mother Lode, Eleven, and the Abbey. I don’t have too many strong recollections about them: Revolver Video Bar had a lot of go-go dancers, which we weren’t that into, so instead Jake and moved next door to the much more unassuming Trunks for another drink. Mother Lode seemed a little more down to earth, even if a little seedy, and the Abbey, despite being one of the more well known places (it was the only one I’d actually heard about before my arrival in LA), was a flashy, overpriced bar with terrible service. When Jake ordered our drinks, they poured them for us, took our money, and then seconds later took them back and poured them down the sink, informing us that the bar was closing. I know they have last call at 2AM in California, but surely a bartender should have more sense than to serve someone a drink when they physically would not have the time to consume it. Jake was livid, but being shouted at by patrons at any level of inebriation is something they are most likely very used to, so in the end we just had to give up and leave, but I promised to leave them a terrible Yelp review.
Another of Jake’s dodgeball friends had a birthday at Eleven, which was a nicer and slightly classier venue on Santa Monica Boulevard. I drank a lot, so I don’t really know when the private function room opened up to the public, but suddenly there was a drag queen on one of the clubs indoor balconies introducing Carmen Electra. Now, I know I said I didn’t get star struck or care much for celebrities, but I suppose I just got caught up in the excitement with the crowd and started cheering along. I didn’t even know what Carmen Electra was famous for (and… I still don’t?), but I still stuck my hand out to get her attention as she walked through the crowds on her way out, and she held it briefly, and smiled and waved. It wasn’t exactly the highlight or my night or anything, but it was something.
Carmen Electra in Eleven.
While I always enjoy checking out the gay bars and the gay scene of any city that I was in, Jake was adamant that that simply wasn’t enough.
“What’s something I can show you,” he said one Saturday evening, wracking his brain. “There’s gotta be something that’s very LA and awesome, without being too touristy or too trashy.” I guess it’s no big secret that the celebrity soaked reputation of Hollywood and Los Angeles leaves many visitors believing the city is somewhat of a cliché, but as someone who lived in LA and enjoyed doing so, I think Jake was determined to show me more of his city. Since I was someone who preferred to actually stay with locals and see the more local side of things, and get an appreciation of what it really feels like to live in a city, I think we were perfectly matched in that sense.
After doing some research and figuring out what was going on, Jake and I headed to Bootie LA, a party where these relatively well known DJs play their signature style of musical mash-ups. At the time I had no idea who these Bootie mash-up DJs were, and it wouldn’t be until much later, when I arrived home in Sydney, that I would discover their vast collection of amazing mash-ups, all available to download online. ‘Bootie LA’ was simply the name of the party when these DJs were in town, and given the time of the year, the evening was slightly Christmas themed, although there were a bunch of other crazy costumes from the dancers that evening.
The eclectically costumed dancers at Bootie LA.
The party was a lot of fun. It was a big open space, almost like a warehouse, but the feeling inside was a lot cleaner. I think it might have been a theatre venue of some sort that had been converted for a dance party. We ran into a few of Jake’s friends here and there – because this was LA, and apparently Jake knew almost everyone – and they were all really awesome, and the music was amazing. Mash-ups always keep you guessing: it’s a bit of a tease when you get excited when you hear the beat of a particular song, only to have another songs lyrics layered over the top of it, but it always still sounded amazing. It’s honestly a skill in itself.
Afterwards we drove home, Jake assuring me he hadn’t actually drank that much (I’d definitely drank too much, so I honestly hadn’t been paying attention), and stopped in at Taco Bell on the way home. I know In’n’Out is supposed to be the Holy Grail of fast-food when it comes to the west coast, but I have to admit that despite that (and despite all the warnings I received from friends telling me that Taco Bell will go straight through you), Taco Bell was a guilty pleasure that I couldn’t get enough of. I mean, they have tacos made from Doritos chips!
Cheesy Doritos Taco Bell taco: my choice of of post-drinking fast food.
The best thing about my time in LA really was just hanging out with Jake and his friends and living what felt like a relatively normal life, despite being in a town where everything was so seemingly influenced by Hollywood and had a tinge of surreality. Whether it was going around to a friends house to drink and play video games and gossip, or have a sit down dinner followed by a hilarious round of Cards Against Humanity, simply hanging out and spending time with cool people turned out to be a real highlight of the city for me.
Breathtaking view of Los Angeles (obviously looked better experienced first hand) on one of our drives over to North Hollywood.
And then of course, after the almost 9 months of consistent backpacking, sometimes all I wanted to do was chill out on the couch with Jake and Peter Parker and watch Adventure Time and South Park. After being on the road for so long, no matter how much adventure you crave and new experiences you still want to seek out, sometimes it’s the little, normal things, that you’ve gone seemingly forever without, which feel the most satisfying.
The adorable Peter Parker (Jake is a huge comic book nerd) keeping my company on the couch.
Posted in California, Los Angeles, North America, United States of America | Tagged adventure, alcohol, America, bar, Bootie LA, Bootie Mashup, bottomless brunch, brunch, California, city, Citywalk, day drinking, dodgeball, dog, drinking, Eleven, food, friends, gay, gay bar, Gym Bar, Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood sign, LA, Los Angeles, mimosa, Mother Lode, party, Rainbow crosswalk, Revolver Video Bar, Runyon Canyon, Santa Monica Boulevard, Starbucks, Taco Bell, The Abbey, tourist, Travel, traveller, Trunks, Universal Studios, view, West Hollywood, writing | 1 Reply
Uptown Funk, then Jazz and the Blues: my last few steps through New Orleans
Posted on March 16, 2015 by Tiny Tino
In a lot of ways, New Orleans was a city that didn’t really feel like a city. At least, not when you were staying in the French Quarter. Well… it didn’t feel like all other other American cities – and I say that now with reference to all the other cities I visited after New Orleans, given that at the time the only reference points I really had were New York, DC, and Baltimore. Yes, it was partly to do with the architecture and the fact that the city colonised by the French and so it had a very different aesthetic about it, but there were other little things. Vincenzo had mentioned the CBD of New Orleans a couple of times, pointing off in a vague direction towards the west whenever he did so. It struck me as a little bit odd that I hadn’t been over that way yet, given that in a lot of places – or in my hometown of Sydney, at least – the CBD was very much a happening place that was very close the life of the party, so to speak. Yet my time in New Orleans hadn’t taken me that way at all. I’d wandered around the French Quarter, discovering hole-in-the-wall bars, quirky shops, and even the Louis Armstrong Park just a few blocks away from Vincenzo’s home, but I found it interesting that what would probably be considered a focal point or highlight of many other cities was simply considered a business and financial district with not that much tourist appeal at all.
Entrance to Louis Armstrong Park.
The man himself.
And his brass band – thought I don’t know that the statutes were made from.
You know jazz is a part of the city’s culture when it starts sponsoring parks.
However, I did end up going to the New Orleans CBD during my time in the city. When he wasn’t busy working, Vincenzo and I spent a lot of time together. Sometimes it would just be hanging around his house, and him surprising me by actually knowing the songs I was strumming on my ukulele simply from listening to the chords – I learnt he was a good singer when he burst into the room to join me for our own acoustic rendition of Radiohead’s Creep. Other times we would take short trips to some of his favourite cafés around the French Quarter or the Bywater and have a lazy brunch or a coffee, and afterwards we’d browse through second-hand stores and op-shops and marvel at some of their whackier wares and hidden treasures. And Vincenzo would pretend to not know me as I knew all the words and sang along to Whatever You Like by T.I. as it was playing over the store’s radio. Which only prompted me to sing louder. And add dance moves. He acted like he was embarrassed, but I was convinced he found it secretly endearing. At any rate, he didn’t kick me out of his house, so I can’t have been that bad.
One afternoon Vincenzo had to go visit his local bank, which happened to be located in the CBD. He asked me to join him, and that’s how I learnt that he owned a moped, or scooter. I shouldn’t have been surprised – I mean, his background was Italian – and so I made up for the lack of Lizzie McGuire movie moments I’d had in Rome with my arms wrapped around Vincenzo’s waist as we’d whizzed through the French Quarter and on to the city. We visited his bank, stopped to get some groceries on the way home and a rented couple of DVD’s, and spent the night snuggled up in Vincenzo’s bed watching horror movies. Later in the week – I can’t remember when, maybe when I was busy doing a load of hand washed laundry in his bathtub, or possibly after I’d just taken Princess for a walk, but Vincenzo looked at me and said, “Isn’t this nice? Living together like this? It’s like, renting a husband or something. Getting to spend time together without the necessary commitment… Think I could renew you for another week?”
I just laughed and gave him a cheeky smile, though I had to admit it was kind of crazy, the bond the two of us had formed over such a short time together. If I’d had more weeks to spare, I definitely wouldn’t have minded spending them there with him.
A lot of the time it felt as though Vincenzo felt he had a duty, not just as a temporary husband but as my host in New Orleans, to show me more parts of the city. When he had a full afternoon off he was adamant that he showed me some other areas so that when I left town, I could say that I’d seen more than such the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. In those kinds of situations I can actually be pretty indecisive, so I kind of loved that he could take charge and just tell me where we were going and what we were going to do. So on one sunny November afternoon we jumped on the scooter and he drove me right across the city, through the CBD and into Uptown New Orleans. The landscapes and scenery changed gradually from district to district, and as we rolled through the suburban streets and up St Charles Avenue, it was hard to believe we were actually in the same city. I might not have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen us ride there with my own two eyes. Most of the properties still had similar black wrought-iron fences like Vincenzo’s, but instead of smaller European style apartments they were big, beautiful houses with lush gardens and big trees.
The houses were very different to the French Quarter, but beautiful in their own way,
We went further Uptown and passed Tulane and Loyola universities, watching students moving to and from the campuses and sitting around in the sun. Eventually we turned and headed south-east – although since the geographic terminology is based on the bends of the Mississippi River, it was actually across Uptown – and drove along Magazine Street, where the sides of the road were lined with a variety of different shops and stores, all of which still maintained that authentic, slightly rustic New Orleanian vibe. We continued along Magazine Street all the way to the Garden District, a beautiful little area that is as lush and green as the name suggests, and after a few carefully chosen turns, Vincenzo eventually pulled up at a very specific house.
“This,” he announced, with something that almost sounded like a hint of pride (of which he had quite a lot for his city, so that was entirely possible), “is the house that used to belong to Anne Rice.” I’d learnt from Faith that her and Vincenzo had been, and presumably still were, huge fans of the Vampire Chronicles, and I myself had quite enjoyed reading a few of her novels in the past, so it was quite exciting to behold a building that held such a quirky and unique place in modern literature history.
Anne Rice’s former New Orleans residence.
The sign out the front of the Anne Rice house.
After we’d done the rounds on our Uptown excursion, Vincenzo turned the scooter in the direction of home… only to have it come puttering to a stop.
“Ahh…” I don’t know the first thing about anything mechanical, but I was fairly confident that that wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Hmm… that’s not good… I think we’re just out of gas,” Vincenzo said. He said there was gas station only a few blocks away, so we ended up just wheeling the bike through the streets together. It was a little different without the hum of the scooters engine as we walked along, and I think in that brief moment I truly experienced the suburban serenity that existed in this part of the city. Normally I’m not a fan of the suburbs, but in a place like this even the quiet streets and their big, haunted-looking houses had an strange kind of appeal about them.
Vincenzo walking the broken down moped through the streets of the Garden District.
After filling the scooter up with gas, we soon discovered that that hadn’t been the problem, because it still failed to start. As fate would have it, though, we were right near the place where Vincenzo said he takes the bike to get serviced. He managed to drop it off and we had lunch nearby while the problem was sorted out. As I said, I have zero clue about anything mechanical, so I don’t know what was wrong with it, but it was nothing major and it provided a little extra excitement on our Uptown tour. And it meant I got to sample some tasty tacos and a frozen margarita on Magazine Street while we waited.
Which leads me to something about New Orleans that I was particularly impressed with: the food. Once again it was largely thanks to Vincenzo that I knew all the good spots to eat at, whether it was beignets at Cafe du Monde, the best Cajun jambalaya at Coop’s Place, burgers at Yo Mama’s Bar and Grill, or oysters and fried alligator at the Royal House Oyster Bar. Even getting a Po’boy sandwich on the local deli on the way home one day was an exciting experience for me. Although Louisiana falls towards the edge of what are typically referred to as The Southern States, it’s undeniable that it falls well within the branches of the ‘Southern hospitality’ state of mind, with cheerful and friendly service in every establishment and complete with its own unique cuisine of dishes and flavours, thanks for the Cajun and Creole influences that just aren’t present in the other surrounding states.
On my last evening in New Orleans, Vincenzo and I were set to have another house guest – another Couchsurfer whose request he had accepted a few weeks prior, before I’d even shown up in New Orleans. I’d been mindful of it when I was booking travel arrangements to Austin, which would be my next destination.
“When is your other Couchsurfer coming?” I asked him, sitting at the guest computer in the lobby at his work one evening, while he sat behind the check-in desk. “When do I have to leave?”
“Well, she’s coming on Wednesday,” Vincenzo said to me. “But if your host in Austin can’t have you before Thursday, you can always stay too. There’s still plenty of room.” After all, it’s not like I was taking up the spare bed.
“Okay, well… I’m booking it now. You sure it’s okay for me to stay until Thursday?”
“Well I mean, you can stay for longer, if you like. Stay forever, I don’t mind…” he said rather wistfully as he turned back to his own computer screen. He had a nonchalance in his voice, though I think he might have just been playing it cool, because I really believed that deep down he actually meant it, and would have loved it if I’d stayed. Which actually made it a little hard for me to book that bus ticket – I really had been having such a great time with him. I would have loved to stay longer too, but I did have a set date that I had to reach the west coast by, and there were still a lot of things I wanted to see between New Orleans and Los Angeles.
So in the early evening on Wednesday, Johanna from Sweden arrived in New Orleans after a tour through Central America. Vincenzo was busy cooking in the kitchen, and I was coming back from taking Princess for a walk. We must have seemed like a pretty domestic pair, because after the introductions I had to establish that I was in fact a Couchsurfer too, and that we weren’t actually a couple living together. Although in the end I ended up playing host for Johanna that evening, since Vincenzo had some other business to which he had to attend. He was actually in the midst of recording some songs with another musician friend of his, and since his house was quite susceptible to extra sounds and noises, he’d asked if I might be able to take Johanna for a walk around the city while they were recording. So the two of us exchanged travellers tales and the obligatory US customs horror stories as I took Johanna through the streets of the French Quarter that I had called home for the last week. We did loops through the streets and down around Jackson Square, and I found myself regurgitating all the information that I had absorbed from Vincenzo and Faith about the history of the city, and the culture and the layout, and I surprised myself at how much I had actually learnt and taken in.
“And how long have you been here?” Only a week?” Clearly Johanna was pretty impressed at how fast I had acquired the knowledge, too.
“Yeah. Well… I had a good teacher,” I said with a smile, assuring her that she would be in good hands with Vincenzo as her guide to the city. We headed over to Coop’s Place for some traditional New Orleanian food for dinner before eventually heading back home.
My last night in New Orleans was a little emotional. I was, as always, so very excited to continue on with my journey, but I hadn’t felt this sad about leaving a particular city since I’d left Berlin for the first time – leaving Dublin had been emotional too, but that was compounded by the stress of the US customs and regulations. In a similar way that I’d loved the weirdness and quirkiness of Berlin, New Orleans had captured a lot of my imagination, and a little piece of my heart. And then of course, there was Vincenzo. I felt positively blessed to have met him so early on in my stay. Not only was he gorgeous and had provided excellent companionship, he was so passionate about his city that his excitement and enthusiasm just proved to be infectious. Similar to Joris and Thijs in Amsterdam, or Tomas and Matej in Prague, having a host and a guide who is so in love with the city they live in turns a typical touristic stay into quite a heart-warming and memorable experience. Vincenzo made me fall in love with New Orleans as much as he was in love with it, and for that I am extremely grateful.
We’d grown quite fond of each other, Vincenzo and I, and had become remarkably close during the nine or so days I ended up staying in New Orleans. We made this bond, this connection – it’s hard to describe, but it was quite unlike anything I’d felt with anyone else, and to this day I still don’t think I’ve ever had such a connection with another person. I tried saying my goodbyes the night before – without getting to sad or emotional – in bed before we went to sleep: my bus was pretty early the following day, and I knew that Vincenzo wasn’t a morning person at all. But he still managed to rouse himself from his slumber as morning was finally breaking, and give me one last kiss goodbye before I loaded up with all my belonging and hit the road once again. I was excited about the rest of my journey, but my current mood and overload of feelings was going to make the two bus rides to Austin rather depressing, and there was no denying how much I was going to miss Vincenzo, little Princess, and the incomparable city of New Orleans.
Candid camera shot of Vincenzo and Princess. He hates it, but it’s one of my favourites.
Posted in Louisiana, New Orleans, North America, Reflective, United States of America | Tagged America, Ann Rice house, Anne Rice, Baltimore, bars, Berlin, bond, brunch, bus, Bywater, Cajun, CBD, city, connection, Coop's Place, Couchsurfing, couple, Creep, Creole, food, French Quarter, Garden District, gay, goodbye, guide, host, houses, Jackson Square, jambalaya, Lizzie McGuire, Louis Armstrong Park, Louisiana, Magazine Street, moped, motorbike, music, New Orleans, park, quirky, Radiohead, recording, ride, scooter, singer, St Charles Avenue, suburbs, the French Quarter, Travel, traveller, ukulele, universities, Uptown, vampires, wrought-iron fence | 3 Replies
“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22”
Posted on September 24, 2014 by Tiny Tino
As my Amtrak train chugged through upstate New York, I watched the scenery pass me by. Back where I grew up, changes between the seasons were relatively mild compared to some other parts of the world. The eastern coast of Australia is populated by a lot of evergreen trees that generally don’t lose their leaves during the winter, but the eastern coast of North America was a different story entirely. The autumn equinox had occurred while I’d been in Canada, and summer was officially over. As my New York City bound train travelled through the woods, I could see that the trees surrounding us had already taken on hues of red, yellow and orange, and the normally green scenery was combined with a wash of natural fiery tones. It was something that I had only seen happen very sparsely in my own country, so I soaked in the sight and enjoyed the novelty of it all. It certainly made for a pleasant visual accompaniment on my trek back to the smog of the Big Apple.
Upstate New York at the turn of autumn.
The timing of my trip was so perfect that I observed foliage of both green and red, as the former gave way to the latter.
Returning to Manhattan almost felt like coming home. After casually jumping on the S Train across town to Grand Central Station, receiving a friendly welcome from Brandon the doorman as I arrived at the apartment, and letting myself in to wait for Melissa to get home so I could tell her all about my trip, I realised just how much time I had spent here in the the last month. “Home is where the heart is”, as the old adage goes, and there in that moment I don’t think anything could have rang more true in my mind. After being on the road for so long you start to believe that you’ve lost all concept of home, but the reality is that if you have the right attitude, and surround yourself with the right people, anywhere can feel like home – no matter how brief or temporary a home it may be.
While I’d been keen to get back and see my New Yorker friends like Melissa and Stefon, there was also another reason why returning to the city this time had been such an incredibly exciting prospect. Georgia, one of my best and dearest friends from back home, had been doing her own tour across the USA for the past couple of months, and now she and her friend Eva had arrived in NYC, just days before my birthday. She’d kept warning me that she had a surprise for me, but that she couldn’t wait until my birthday and would have to give it to me as soon as she saw me. It was well into the evening when I arrived back in NYC, and Georgia had some final plans with the girls who she had been on the tour with, so we made plans to meet the next day at Grand Central Station.
I could barely contain my excitement as I almost ran the few blocks up Lexington Avenue, and it was almost surreal to see her big golden curls of hair and big smile waiting for me by one of the subway exits.
“Oh my God! How are you, baby?” Georgia said as I threw my arms around her and hugged her tight for at least a solid minute. “It’s been so long!”
“I know! I’ve missed you!”
“Let’s never be apart for that long again, okay?”
“Deal.” And just like that, within moments, our casual banter had returned, almost as though we hadn’t been separated for the last six months. I guess that’s the sign of a true friendship.
“So, tell me everything. What’s been going on? How was Canada? How was Stuart?” We set off walking down the street as Georgia bombarding me with questions.
“Canada was great! It was really nice to-”
I was cut off mid-sentence, startled as someone bumped into me from behind. New Yorkers can be very pushy when it comes to their pavement etiquette, and for a moment I thought I might have been in the wrong somehow. “Ah, I’m sorry I-”
“Hey, watch where you’re going next time, fool!” I might have been more offended if the words hadn’t come from a very familiar face.
“Oh… Oh my God. Oh my God!” The person who had bumped into me was my other best friend, Jesse, who was – to the best of my knowledge – still in Australia. “What are you doing here?!”
“Surprise!” Georgia said with a sheepish grin, and suddenly it all made sense.
“We’ve been planning this the moment Georgia booked her tickets,” Jesse said. “I called her up and told her, ‘If you think I’m gonna let you and Robert be in New York City without me, then you’ve got another thing coming!’ The three of us are in the greatest city in the world, your birthday is coming up, and this place isn’t gonna know what hit it!”
Apparently everyone had been in on the surprise – from Ellie in London to Stuart in Montreal, and even all of our mutual friends on Facebook – everyone had known about the surprise, and nobody had let the secret slip. Jesse had blocked me on Facebook under the guise that he was “taking a break” from social media, so I’d had no idea of his whereabouts.
The three of us had lunch together and caught up about everything we’d been doing in the past few months, sharing travel horror stories and laughing both at and with each other. Afterwards we decided to visit the Museum of Sex, and as we browsed the halls of artworks and exhibitions we made crass jokes and probably nearly got ourselves thrown out on a handful of separate occasions. But I’d been reunited with some of my most favourite people in the whole world, so right now where I was at was definitely starting to feel like home.
Reunited with my best friends.
Perhaps the most definitive piece of art in the Museum of Sex.
And the reason why we can’t have nice things.
Over the next few days, it was the little things that made the time around my birthday so special. Whether it was stumbling across a little street market with Jesse and Georgia, where we bought a variety of fresh mini donuts and sat and ate them in the sunshine at Madison Square Park; or when Jesse and I bought $15 tickets to an Iggy Azalea gig at a gay bar on a Friday night; or when we trudged around Midtown for over an hour looking for a place that would cut our hair for $20 instead of $100; or when all three of us visited a phoney psychic just off Times Square, who told us we were all troubled people with shady pasts and dark futures, so we retreated back to Georgia and Eva’s Air BnB apartment with margarita mix to watch The Little Mermaid and feel sorry for ourselves – there are a whole heap of fun and slightly bizarre memories that made it a special week for me.
New York City with my best friends.
Georgia and I were a little excited to see each other again…
Strange warm-up entertainment in the gay bar before the main event…
Iggy Azalea in all her glory.
When it came to the actual weekend of my birthday, I had a few more intercity and international surprises. Mischa was making a second trip down from Baltimore to join the birthday celebrations, and I even received a little surprise from Ireland. Well, in the end I knew to expect something, since Matthew had asked for my address in New York several times over the past two weeks, obviously anxious as to whether whatever he had ordered would arrive. In the end a package arrived that was addressed to both Melissa and myself, so I know that had to be it. True to his national pride, he’d had a bottle of Coole Swan delivered to me.
“It’s like Baileys, but better,” he’d told when I finally wrote to him saying I’d received it. “Gotta have a little bit of something Irish on your birthday, no?” I could almost hear his accent in my head as I read the words, and imagined that cheeky, playful grin of his.
A bottle of Coole Swan, courtesy of my favourite Irish gentleman.
The actual day of my 22nd birthday fell on a Sunday, so we decided that we’d go out on the Saturday night for the big celebration. Melissa had offered to have all our friends from far and wide over at her apartment, so that evening Georgia, Eva, Jesse, Mischa, Stefon, Nirali and Melanie, another friend of Melissa’s, all came over to join in the festivities. Melissa and Nirali cooked an amazing dinner, and we all caught up over food and drinks. I was surrounded by so many beautiful people, friends both old and new, and it really was a fantastic evening.
The best friends at the birthday dinner.
Mischa reunited with more of his Australian friends.
The meal was delicious, and in true Australian fashion the drinks were flowing freely. Unfortunately Stefon wasn’t over 21, so he wasn’t able to join us when we eventually headed out, and a few other people didn’t end up making it to the clubs. We had vague plans, but I’d be lying if I said there was an overall aim to the night. I was in bar called Therapy with Melissa and Nirali, dropping my phone all over the floor and dancing like a hot mess for over half an hour before they managed to tell me that the rest of our friends still weren’t here yet. Jesse, Georgia and Eva had someone gotten lost, and we ended up meeting them in another place just across the road called Industry. From that point on, my memory of where I was, who I was with and what I was drinking became a pretty intense blur. All I know is that I was definitely having fun.
The one vivid memory I have is stumbling out of somewhere in Hell’s Kitchen with Jesse, jumping into a cab and screaming at the driver to drive. I don’t know where we told him to go, and I don’t even remember where he ended up taking us. But as we sped down a road through the West Village, we hung our heads out of the taxi windows and howled to the moon like wolves, shouting at the top of our lungs. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the taxi driver had stopped and told us to get out, and I know it’s a hideous cliché, but in that moment I felt absolutely, 100% alive. Young, dumb, drunk and free of cares, at least I was never going to look back on my life and regret that I had wasted my youth.
The morning after – birthday brunch.
I woke up at noon, curled up on the couch with Jesse at Georgia’s apartment. We’d gotten home just after dawn, apparently. Everyone was feeling a little tender as we attempted to sing happy birthday over a very hungover afternoon brunch, but I didn’t mind – the night had been worth it. For a night that I will probably never 100% clearly recollect, it was certainly a special and memorable birthday that I will never, ever forget.
Posted in New York, New York City, North America, Reflective, United States of America | Tagged 22, adventure, alcohol, alive, Amtrak, autumn, Big Apple, birthday, brunch, Coole Swan, dancing, delivery, dinner, drinking, drunk, equinox, fall, friends, gay, gay bar, Grand Central Station, haircut, Hell's Kitchen, hungover, Iggy Azalea, Industry, Ireland, Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, Museum of Sex, New York, New York City, party, S Train, screaming, subway, summer, surprise, taxi, Therapy, tour, train, Travel, traveller, wild, young | 6 Replies
What A Punt: Cambridge on a hangover
Posted on April 14, 2014 by Tiny Tino
Before Giles had set off on his own holiday, he sent out a couple of text messages to some of friends, briefly telling them who I was, what I was doing in London and why I was staying in his house, and giving them my phone number so that they could get in touch with me and hopefully hang out and show me around. John was the first of the friends to get in touch with me, and we arranged to meet up for brunch one morning at Hackney Village, the small main street of the borough that was lined with a whole bunch of shops and cafes, and was also conveniently located around the corner from where Giles lived. John was incredibly friendly, and we instantly got on well as we talked about everything from travelling the world, to the finer details of life in London – and the extensive geography of the city that I was still trying to wrap my head around – as well as stories of my most recent travels and how I had come to meet Giles in Berlin. John himself had done quite a bit of travelling, though it took a little while before I noticed the hint of South African accent in his voice. “England is home now,” he assured me, but he’d also visited some interesting places that were definitely on my travel wish list, as well as having a few crazy stories his life in Africa.
Towards the end of our brunch, John’s phone rang. “Oh, I’m really sorry, I just have to quickly take this.” He answered the phone and spoke for a few minutes before hanging up. “So, I promise there’s a good reason I had to take that call,” John told me. “That was my friend Richard. We’ve got some plans for a late boozy lunch with some other friends of Giles’, so I just confirming a few last things with Richard. But also, you’re more than welcome to join us. We’re going to Richard’s place, which is just down near my place.” John lived south of the River Thames, in Greenwich. “We can go back to Giles’ if you need to grab anything, and then I’ll drive us down there.” I had made no other plans for the day, and a lazy wine lunch sounded like the perfect way to end a Sunday afternoon, so after we finished up with brunch we were off and away to Greenwich. After a quick supply stop at Sainsbury’s, John and I arrived at Richard’s flat. Two more of their friends, a couple named Adam and Dan, arrived shortly afterwards, and I soon found myself in a similar group dynamic that I had when I was Joris and Thijs’ friends in Amsterdam – getting an inside view of the life of the locals – except there wasn’t a mix of languages being thrown around, so I could keep up with all of the conversation. They were all lovely guys, and Richard and John were moving back and forth between the kitchen getting the food ready. ‘Lunch’ was eventually served somewhere between five and six o’clock, but we’d all been drinking so much wine I don’t think that anyone was all that bothered.
“We’ll have to make another trip to Spain soon, John,” Richard said as he opened another bottle of red. “I’ve nearly cleaned out the cellar,” he said with a chuckle. They proceeded to tell me about how they make semi-regular pilgrimages to France and Spain, stocking up the boot of John’s car with as much wine as they could physically (and legally) carry back to England, because it was actually better value for money in the long run. I could definitely believe that, and I was insanely jealous. The fact that they could so easily drive to another country like that just absolutely blew my mind. If you drove that distance in pretty much any direction in Australia, chances are you’d probably just end up in the middle of nowhere. Granted, there could quite possibly be a vineyard in that middle of nowhere in Australia, but you didn’t exactly need to stamp your passport to get there.
It was such a fun night. A wine lunch became a wine dinner, followed by a wine dessert which eventually just turned into wine with more wine – and a few shots of some sort of spirit, if memory serves me correct (although there’s a high possibility that it doesn’t). The next day, Richard would count the bottles and inform us that we consumed 10 bottles between four people – Adam wasn’t a fan of wine and so had been drinking beer. We played music, we danced, we sat on the balcony watching dusk settle over London, and we drank a lot much wine. Despite having been to a handful of pride parties over the last few months, it was quite easily the most I had drank in a very long time. I had absolutely no recollection of the end of the night, which usually never happens to me, but I can only assume I continued to have as much fun as I was having before my memory began to fail on me.
Waking up in a strange place is always terrifying. Waking up in a strange place in a foreign country is even worse. I awoke with a start and sat up, looking around and thinking hard for a good minute or two before I realised where I was – I had passed out on Richard’s couch. I guessed that I’d been in no state to catch the tube home the night before, and absolutely nobody had been in any fit state to drive me home. The result was this, and I was greeted by a Richard who looked just as confused and hungover as me.
“What… I… what?” Fully formed sentences were a struggle for everyone at that point, and the sight of all those wine bottles in the kitchen was simultaneously horrifying and impressive.
“I’m definitely ‘working from home’ today,” Richard said sarcastically, holding his head in his hands. We’d later find out both John and Dan had both made the exact same call, for obviously the exact same reason.
I was expecting I’d just have to find my way to the Underground station and catch the tube home, but Richard began asking me what I’d seen so far in London. When I said that I hadn’t really seen much so far, I think he got a little patriotic. “I feel like I should be showing you around or something. I’ve got a car – is there anywhere you want to go?” We Googled the top 20 attractions to see around Britain, and after ruling out ones that weren’t that interesting or too far away, Richard agreed to drive me to see Cambridge. The town of university fame was only about an hour drive away, and by late morning Richard was feeling sober enough to drive, so off we went.
The River Cam.
The Cam winds through Cambridge in between the various colleges.
The main calling card for Cambridge is the university and colleges, so the small surrounding town is heavily focused on the student population and student life. “Where would you go out? I’d go crazy living here,” I said, only half joking.
“I think they just throw a lot of their own crazy parties”, Richard said. “Either that or they’re all too busy studying.” Cambridge was, I’d been led to believe, a pretty prestigious school.
But if you’re not a student living and studying there, there are really only two things to do or see in Cambridge – the colleges and the punts on the river. The terminology of ‘punt’ confused me at first – the word has a range of meanings depending on the culture you’re in – but I soon learnt that it was the name given to the kind of boats that travelled up and down the River Cam, the main waterway that ran through Cambridge. Richard and I followed the signs until we found the docks where the boats were waiting for us. For an extra fee you could hire someone to steer your punt for you, but despite the hangover I was feeling particularly hands on that day, and decided that we should have a go at directing the boat ourselves. Despite the potential for that to go very, very wrong, Richard agreed to it.
Such maturity.
Our punts name was Bronze.
It was a shaky start, and steering the punt isn’t exactly light work. You have to stand on the flat platform on the rear end of the boat and use the long wooden pole to push against the bottom of the river to propel yourself in the right direction. Then, as the boat is gliding through the water, you have to direct the boat by moving the pole to cause resistance in the water. It might sound fairly simple – the physics behind it certainly isn’t rocket science – but after a few minutes it does become a bit of a workout, especially if you’re hungover. And it can also be a bit of a challenge to get the boat to go in exactly the right direction, or to judge how much power you need to put behind each push. Despite that, we weren’t the worst ones on the river that day. We had a couple of run-ins with a few tourist families who really shouldn’t have been driving themselves, although Richard did almost lose the pole when we went to go underneath a bridge without sinking the pole down into the water – the pole is a few metres long, and it crashed into the bottom of the bridge when we tried to go under. But other than that it was mostly fine, though the one really handy thing about the hired punt drivers is that they also served as tour guides, telling their passengers lots of random and interesting facts about the history of Cambridge. Richard and I were guilty of tailing some of the boats around us in an attempt to overhear some of the stories being told.
Captain Dick.
Being a passenger on the punt (right before Richard nearly lost our pole at that bridge).
Myself having a go at steering the punt.
After punting we went to visit one of the colleges. There wasn’t much point going to all of them, since we figured there couldn’t be that much difference between them – at least in the areas visitors were granted access to – but we asked one of the guys down by the punting dock which one he would recommend, and he told us to go see Trinity College. Back home, I’d often heard my own university, the University of Sydney, being described as an ‘Oxbridge’ model – a combination of Oxford and Cambridge, two of the older, more prestigious universities in England. Walking through Trinity College did remind me a lot of the Quadrangle back home in Sydney, except this place somehow felt much more authentic. We wandered through the courtyard, paid a visit to the chapel, and admired the detailed architecture. Despite the trip down the river on the punt being fun, it was somewhat of a workout (when you weren’t being a passenger, that is,) so this was probably a more suitable hungover afternoon activity.
The front view of Kings College, another of the colleges we passed by on our stroll through Cambridge.
Trinity College from inside the courtyard.
Inside the college chapel.
Hungover strolls though the Trinity College courtyard.
As it got later in the afternoon, we realised we’d seen most of the highlights Cambridge had to offer. We’d taken a punt down the river, we’d walked through the prestigious colleges, and wandered down the classical old English style streets. I was starting to get tired, so we decided to call it a day. Richard drove us back to London, and I definitely fell asleep for at least half of the trip. Richard dropped me home at Giles’ place, and we said goodbye knowing that we would most likely see each other again during my time in London. It had been a fun and slightly crazy 24 hours with John and Richard and their friends, but now it was time to curl up on the couch with fish and chips, British TV and definitely no wine, and wait until I finally felt human again.
Posted in Cambridge, England, Europe, Great Britain, London | Tagged adventure, alcohol, architecture, boat, bridge, Britain, brunch, building, Cam, Cambridge, chapel, college, courtyard, crash, drink, drive, drunk, England, Europe, friends, gay, geography, Greenwich, Hackney, hangover, king, Kings College, London, lunch, Oxbridge, passenger, pole, punt, quadrangle, River, steer, student, Sydney, Thames, tourist, Travel, University, village, visit, wine, writing | 3 Replies
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1074
|
__label__wiki
| 0.976209
| 0.976209
|
Taron Egerton hopes people will 'accept' him as a straight man playing Elton John in 'Rocketman'
Yahoo Movies UK 2 April 2019
Taron Egerton will play musical icon Elton John in the biopic ‘Rocketman’, directed by Dexter Fletcher. (Credit: Paramount Pictures)
Taron Egerton has said he hopes the LGBT community will “accept” his portrayal of gay icon Elton John in the upcoming musical biopic Rocketman.
The Welsh actor told GQ he “approached [the role] wholeheartedly” and praised the spirit of “inclusiveness” among queer audiences.
Read more: Listen to Egerton sing Tiny Dancer in Rocketman
Egerton was cast as the singer in the summer of 2017, after the likes of Justin Timberlake and Tom Hardy were initially in the frame.
He had previously sung Elton John’s 1985 hit I’m Still Standing in the animated musical Sing, in which he played a teenage gorilla.
Sir Elton John and Taron Egerton perform onstage during the 27th annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party sponsored by IMDb and Neuro Drinks celebrating EJAF and the 91st Academy Awards on February 24, 2019 in West Hollywood,California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for EJAF)
Egerton has the singer’s approval and recently sung alongside him at a party in Los Angeles, but questions have been raised around whether a straight man should be playing such an iconic gay character.
The 29-year-old said: “I’ve approached it wholeheartedly and I hope that for that reason people accept me [as Elton].
“The LGBTQ community has always been about inclusiveness, hasn’t it? Not about ‘we’re here, you’re there’. In fact, if you want to come in, come on in.”
Read more: Egerton shares social media birthday wish for Elton John
Egerton also said it was significant that many of the most famous queer icons in music, like John and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, were at their height decades ago.
“It was a fairly revolutionary time,” he said. “Men were more outlandish. We didn’t have role models like that when we were growing up.”
Taron Egerton and Emily Thomas attend the EE British Academy Film Awards at Royal Albert Hall on February 10, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Controversy recently flared over rumours that a scene of intimacy between John and a male partner had been cut from the film, but Egerton said it was “desperately important” not to shy away from his character’s sexuality.
“It’s a studio movie. It’s Elton John. We’ve got to own that. I don’t care how well the film does in Russia,” he said.
Read more: Egerton won’t be in the next Kingsman film
Rocketman will be released into UK cinemas on 24 May.
#rocketman
#taron-egerton
#elton-john
Rob Delaney: My Elvis role was cut from Elton John movie Rocketman
Bond 25: Lashana Lynch to be 'introduced' as female 007 in new film
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1077
|
__label__wiki
| 0.987056
| 0.987056
|
BBC 6 Music
Ecouter BBC 6 Music en direct
The most listened BBC digital radio.
The first music national radio station in the United Kingdom.
BBC radio 6 is also known as 6 music. This station is one of the top digital radio stations available in the UK and it launched officially in 2002. The goal of this channel was always to be a dedicated music station for alternative rock 'n roll. Many people would suggest that the station today focuses more into iconic indie rock 'n roll but the station has been responsible for a number of different artist discoveries.
The evening and weekend programming goes across many different genres with BBC radio six. Today there are programs that range from sole, jazz, Jamaican music and more. The same dedication remains with this station and the vast majority of the programs available on the station digitally and on the FM band are all related to music.
The most famous program that's available on this channel has to be the John Peel program. This hour a week program previews new music as well as does artist profiles for famous artists every week. The program has been running since the 1960s and new DJ’s have taken over this iconic program each week for the original John Peel. This remains one of the most listened to programs across many of the CBC radio music channels.
Some of the top radio personalities on the 6 include Sowento Kinch, Craig Charles, Marc Riley and more.
Programs can be streamed from the main website of BBC radio six and you can even pick it up on satellite radio. BBC radio six is available across the UK and over 2.2 million listeners tune in almost every day.
The program can be found over social media and there is a BBC radio mobile app available.
The main page to discover all of these apps and listen online can be found here.
Information about BBC 6 Music
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/
iOS Iphone App
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/radioplayer/id563906005?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.android.iplayerradio&
https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio6Music
https://twitter.com/bbc6music
https://www.youtube.com/user/sixgroupsix
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1078
|
__label__wiki
| 0.806903
| 0.806903
|
University College History
Appalachian State University's University College, authorized by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors on September 7, 2007, marks the third in a series of major institutional reorganizations for undergraduate education since Appalachian State Teachers College became Appalachian State University in 1967. At that time, four colleges were established, including General College, which comprised admissions, financial aid, medical services, the registrar, the student union, security, advising, and other functions, some of which moved to Student Development, Academic Affairs, and Business Affairs in the early 1970s. The General College also contained several academic programs, including International Programs, Interdisciplinary Studies, Freshman Seminar, and the Honors Program.
In 1991, as the university grew rapidly, a second major reorganization occurred, which brought admissions and the registrar together with the Office of General Studies (including orientation, advising and learning support) to form a Division of Enrollment Services. In the meantime, the academic programs that had been in the General College moved to Academic Affairs either as full departments (the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences) or as programs that reported directly to Academic Affairs (International Programs, Honors, and Freshman Seminar). Between 1991 and 2006, staff in General Studies and other areas in Academic Affairs created and enhanced many of the academic support programs that have brought Appalachian State national recognition, including Freshman Seminar, Freshman Learning Communities, Learning Assistance Programs, Summer Reading, and College Awareness Programs.
Between 2005 and 2007, a variety of institutional changes, including new leadership in the divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Development, presented opportunities for creating a new framework that would support and broaden the success of General Studies with a stronger relationship with the academic side of campus, increase cooperation among a variety of student support services, and provide a home for university-wide academic programs, including General Education, co-curricular programs, and interdisciplinary degree programs.
During this time, several of the concentrations within the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies initiated proposals to become autonomous degree programs, and the administration proposed to dissolve the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and move cross-college interdisciplinary programs into a university-wide context. The first thorough review of our core curriculum in 15 years led to a proposal for increased faculty involvement in a more interdisciplinary and integrated General Education program. Support for the Honors Program increased substantially through a major donation from the Heltzer family, and a task force made recommendations for changes in the program's structure. Watauga College (an interdisciplinary residential learning community of about 100 students) and other programs in the Living Learning Center began to reinvent themselves with a conscious emphasis on internationalization. Co-curricular programs such as student research, residential learning communities, the University Writing Center, and Service Learning expanded in scope and significance. A broadly conceived model of student success, crossing divisional boundaries and encouraged by the UNC system's demand for higher retention and graduation rates, evolved through the Student Achievement Team and other collaborations between the divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Development. During these changes Appalachian closely followed the elevated state and national focus on transferable knowledge, skills- and outcomes-based learning, and accountability.
In the summer of 2006, the Provost began examining the possibility of a University College as an appropriate unit to support many of these changes. The specific model was developed over the course of the 2006-2007 academic year amid conversations with all the units involved. Many of the units in the University College already reported to an Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, whose title was changed to Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. However, several reporting lines were changed: The offices of Advising, Orientation, and Learning Assistance Programs moved from Enrollment Services to the University College, and Advising and Orientation were combined into the Office of Advising and Orientation. The Service Learning program moved from Student Development, while retaining its partnership with the other student community service programs in the Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT) program in Student Development. The Office of Student Research, which already had a close relationship with Service Learning through its community-based research programs, moved from a direct report to the provost to the University College. The Testing Center moved from Student Development to the University College, while the interdisciplinary degree programs and Watauga College moved from the College of Arts and Sciences. The Freshman Seminar and Learning Communities offices were absorbed into a new General Education office, led by a full-time Director and Assistant Director of General Education, in partnership with half-time faculty coordinators of General Education and the First-Year Seminar.
Upon its founding, the University College immediately began working on the implementation of the new General Education program, the establishment and authorization of interdisciplinary degree programs, the inauguration of a major university-side lecture series, the development of a Writing Across the Curriculum program, the initiation of a variety of faculty development opportunities, and the inauguration of the University College Council.
While the University College houses many of the units that emerged from the old General College, it exists in a very different institutional context. The General College housed a broad range of programs in a small but rapidly growing institution, providing an incubator from which many of those programs could develop on their own. The new University College, operating in a much larger institution and a different environment of institutional accountability, offers these and other programs opportunities for collaboration and sharing of resources. At the same time, it allows interdisciplinary degree programs, general education, and other programs to develop in a university-wide rather than a department context, reflecting the world's growing need for interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and habits of mind.
For general questions about University College, contact Dr. Mark Ginn, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education in B.B. Dougherty.
For University College advising questions, contact Academic Advising in D.D. Dougherty.
We support global learning outcomes for our students by:
developing globally competent knowledge
cultivating intercultural competencies, and
fostering globally competent citizenship.
B.B. Dougherty Administration Building
438 Academy Street
Boone, North Carolina 28608
EO Policy
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1081
|
__label__cc
| 0.711667
| 0.288333
|
Canon Inc to sponsor 2018 Asian Games
Canon Inc announces to become sponsor of 18th ASIAN Games. VNS Photo
TOKYO — Canon Inc announced that it has signed a basic partnership agreement to become a sponsor of the 2018 Asian Games to be held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.
The 18th quadrennial games will be held from August 18 to September 2.
This year some 10,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions will compete in 462 events across 40 sports.
As with other sporting competitions in the past, the company will provide behind-the-scenes support to media members covering the games, including camera and lens maintenance services and product loans, to enable the best possible capture of athletes at the zenith of their sport.
It offers the event management the full support of its diverse products and services, ranging from input and output products like cameras, lenses, video camcorders, broadcast equipment, network cameras, copiers, multi-function devices, and printers to medical equipment.
Canon Marketing Vietnam said it would support Vietnamese reporters at the event by lending them equipment and offering technical support.
Some staff will also be sent for the purpose. VNS
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1082
|
__label__cc
| 0.575419
| 0.424581
|
She Was Raped and Threatened With Death. Now She Has Lost Hope of Asylum.
Across New York, and the nation, on Tuesday, immigrants and their attorneys were grappling with the precedent-setting decision — and the stern warning to heed it — that Mr. Sessions issued to immigration judges on Monday.
News Story (New York)
Liz Robbins
New York Times (NYT)
Tags: Asylum, Domestic Violence
Organizations mentioned/involved: Immigrant Community Law Center (New York City), Central American Legal Assistance (Brooklyn)
Mr. Sessions effectively narrowed the definition of persecution when he reversed a decision by an appellate board in a 2016 asylum case. Because immigration courts are housed under the Justice Department, not the judicial branch of government, he has the authority to overturn their decisions.
“The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim,” he wrote in the introduction to his decision.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1086
|
__label__wiki
| 0.894603
| 0.894603
|
Stetson Prof To Join Veterans' Appeals Court
By Bobbie O'Brien • Aug 11, 2017
Michael Allen, Stetson law professor and director of its Veterans Law Institute, was confirmed to sit on the country's highest court that hears veterans' benefits claims.
Veterans’ issues were among the few things Congress agreed upon – before taking their August recess. That included senators confirming three new judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims to reduce the massive backlog of disputed veterans’ claims.
University of Stetson College of Law professor Michael Allen is one of those new judges. He’s not a veteran. But at Stetson, Allen serves as director of its Veterans Law Institute and spent his last 12 years becoming an expert on veterans benefits law.
It’s admittedly an obscure specialty. So, Allen enlivens his legal arguments with humor and animal analogies.
For example, a hamster turning on a wheel is how Allen describes the veterans’ experience when asking for VA benefits. There are applications, assessments, medication and appeals. And at each turn, a case could be remanded - sent back - for more information like a new medical exam. It’s a complex and long process.
“So, these long periods of time may not be that the veteran is waiting in one place. It’s that they’re going around and around and around and that has been a problem in this entire system for quite some time,” Allen said.
Also adding to delays were four vacancies out of the nine seats on the appeals court. That was magnified by the 1.5 million new veterans’ claims filed every year and each of those claims has the potential of being appealed.
“From the time a veteran files a claim – if you assume that each stage of the process up to a decision by the court of appeals took the median amount of time,” Allen said referencing an article he wrote in 2015, “It was 1,666 days from beginning to end.”
That’s on average more than four and a half years. Allen is fond of pointing out that is longer than President Lincoln – an icon to veterans – served in office.
Last month – Allen faced a senate confirmation hearing in Washington D.C. where Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-GA) pressed him for ways to speed up the appeals process.
“Anything you as a judge can do,” Isakson said. “We have a huge problem of a stodgy, slow system right now which you could do to make that faster.”
Allen told the senate panel that, to him, speeding up the process is the most important thing a judge should have as a “conscious upfront goal.”
The veterans’ appeals court is less than 30 years old. Prior to its creation in 1988, veterans had no where to appeal outside of the VA if their benefits claim was denied. But because it’s relatively new, there’s little case law to set precedence which also slows decisions.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) reminded Allen and the other two court nominees, Amanda Meredith and Joseph Toth, that the individual veteran must be their primary focus.
“If you have met - and I hope you have – veterans who have waited years for their claims to be resolved and you hear and feel their justifiable anger - I would like you to feel that anger yourself,” Blumenthal said.
Allen has seen that anger through his work at Stetson.
But now, as a new judge, he likens his role to a baseball umpire who shouldn’t care if the batter is out or safe, instead, only care about the integrity of the game
“I think that being a judge is exactly the same in this regard,” Allen said. “You can’t have a predisposed ‘I want the veteran to win or I want the veteran to lose.’ You can’t be an advocate for that. But you can be an advocate for the system to operate fairly and for people to feel that they had a fair shot.”
And Allen hopes to eventually give veterans their “fair shot” without having to wait 1,666 days.
Veterans backlog
U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
Florida Veterans Affairs Head: Don't Just Thank A Vet, Ask Them About Their Benefits
By Sascha Cordner • Aug 2, 2017
While the public is normally urged to “thank a Veteran” they meet, the head of Florida’s Department of Veterans' Affairs also wants people to ask a state vet about their earned federal and state health benefits.
Military Tries To Cut Through The Noise Of War
By editor • Jul 27, 2017
U.S. military units have long used technology like night vision goggles to enhance their sense of sight.
Now they're trying to get a battlefield edge with their ears, too.
The Marine Corps is experimenting with quieted-down weapons and electronic hearing enhancements that could reshape the soundscape of warfare. They want to minimize some sounds and amplify others to get more control over what they and their enemies hear.
Afghans Who Helped U.S. Troops Now Face 'Life Or Death' As They Await Visas
By Dorian Merina • Jul 17, 2017
13,000 Afghans who helped American troops are waiting for special visas to come to the U.S. Their lives could be in danger as they wait.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1088
|
__label__cc
| 0.585933
| 0.414067
|
« Life without a spouse? Unthinkable, yet likely | Main | How I spent my college years: Dragging hoses and making a feeble attempt at writing poetry »
It's no longer a secret: The really cool Des Moines nonfiction writers have united
That's a pretty nifty writing group we've got going. Thank you, Des Moines writers. To recap:
We started the Nonfiction Writers of Des Moines a couple months ago when I couldn't find a local writing group that focused on nonfiction. There are several very good general writing groups in the area but they tend to focus on works of fiction. Thus, our group was born. The group has a pretty lively Facebook page that is accessible to anyone. So far it's been a decorous place, free of the trolling and general nastiness that plagues many online forums. Check it out here.
Our membership list is slowly growing. We already count among our members a documentary film maker, a book publisher, a former Drake journalism instructor, a professional musician, an ex-priest and a prominent local freelance writer. Our roster includes published authors (traditional and self-published) and writers who are seeking inspiration and assistance in starting a project. Genderwise, it has about the same number of men and women. It's an interesting and diverse group of bloggers, historical fiction writers and other wordsmiths who share a passion for storytelling.
We've had three meetups so far, the most recent this week. Among topics covered this week were using Twitter as a writing tool, various means of promoting a blog, the value of writing every day, an update on how the book publishing business has changed over the past 20 years, a fascinating briefing on Alfred Lawson (A Detroit entrepreneur whose career ambitions crashed and burned in Des Moines) and the story of how one writer turned in a 700-page manuscript to a Beta reader and was told, "Well, it's a good start."
As good as the group is, we still have room for more. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just someone who is yearning to share a good story, we all benefit from the company of like-minded, supportive people. Please share this post with anyone who may be interested.
We'll probably have one more meeting in our home, but our group will soon outgrow our cozy living room. We'll probably be looking for another site after that. A couple of possibilities are our local Urbandale library or a coffee shop, like the gathering room at Twisted Bean on Merle Hay. We've been meeting on Wednesday nights, but we could change to whatever the group decides. If you have any thoughts, please send me an e-mail.
Again, thank you, Des Moines writers, for supporting our group. Let's keep the ball rolling.
Now, an interlude from one of my favorite guitarists/groups:
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1089
|
__label__wiki
| 0.890828
| 0.890828
|
Added on March 31, 2019 KI News
ITBP trooper commits suicide
Srinagar, March 31: A day after a Sub-Inspector of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) committed suicide in north Kashmir, another trooper of the paramilitary force shot himself dead in Srinagar on Sunday morning.
“Constable Ramphul Meena (belt number 127020492) of ITBP 11 bn today morning shot himself with his service rifle INSAS inside a camp at Sericulture Office Solina area of Srinagar while he was on duty,” a police official said. He said that the trooper suffered serious injuries in the incident.
Following the gunshot, his colleagues rushed towards the trooper and found him in a pool of blood, he said, adding that the injured was immediately taken to SMHS hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. (GNS)
KI News
Kashmir Images is an English language daily newspaper published from Srinagar (J&K), India. The newspaper is one of the largest circulated English dailies of Kashmir and its hard copies reach every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley besides Jammu and Ladakh region.
Post-Matric scholarships through online mode: Secy Tribal Affairs reviews arrangements
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1091
|
__label__wiki
| 0.854658
| 0.854658
|
Added on April 1, 2019 Press Trust of india
Confidence in forces guided my decision on Balakot, giving free hand to army: PM
New Delhi, Mar 31: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he took the decision to go ahead with the air strikes in Balakot in Pakistan as he thought that "the game" should be played from where ‘terrorism’ was being controlled.
Addressing a 'Main bhi Chowkidar' event, he said Pakistan is in a fix because if it acknowledges the air strikes, it will have to accept that there was a terror camp there.
"They have been saying that there are no terror camps. Now they have to hide it. They are not allowing anybody to go there since the last one and a half months. We've been told by some people that the Balakot area is being reconstructed by Pakistan to show that a school is being run there, so that people can be taken there and be shown that no terror camp existed there," he said.
Those abusing Modi on the air strikes are helping Pakistan with their statements, he said.
The prime minister was speaking at the event that was beamed across the country at 500 places where gatherings of BJP workers, professionals, chowkidars (watchmen), traders, farmers among others will listen to Modi and interact with him through video-conferencing.
"I could take the decision on Balakot because I have faith in my armed forces. I gave them a free hand because I have confidence in their discipline that they can do no wrong," Modi said.
"… we have been suffering due to terrorism for the last 40 years. Who commits this sin, where is the remote control, everybody knows it. Where are the masters of the terrorists sitting is known. They come and kill and go," he said.
Modi said Pakistan has started opening its airspace after the air strikes, believing that he is busy with elections.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1092
|
__label__cc
| 0.538481
| 0.461519
|
theoriginaltour.com
Prince of Wales Theatre, London
Refreshingly funny musical by the creators of South Park
About The Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon comes from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez. The Book of Mormon, winner of nine Tony Awards® and four Olivier Awards, including Best Musical for both, follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to a place that’s about as far away a from Salt Lake City as you can get.
“THE BEST MUSICAL OF THIS CENTURY”
New York Times – Ben Brantley
No Booking Fee - Wednesday Matinee
Valid Wednesday Matinee performances until 07 Mar 2020.
You can book from 15-Jul-2019 to 12-Oct-2019.
Contains swearing, sexual content, offensive content. Not suitable for young children. Ages 17 and up.
31 Coventry Street London W1D 6AS
Nearest Bus stop: (Haymarket) 3, 6, 12, 13, 19, 23, 38, 88, 139
Parking: Leicester Square, Whitcomb Street (1min)
Nearest Night Bus: (Haymarket) 6, 12, 23, 88, 139, N3, N13, N18, N19, N38, N97, N136, N550, N551
Nearest Tube: Bakerloo, Piccadilly
(2mins) Take Coventry Street and the theatre is be past the London Trocadero on your right.
Apollo Theatre, London
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1095
|
__label__wiki
| 0.864575
| 0.864575
|
Channel 4 broadcasts Sark-based Mr Pye
Mr Pye is a short novel by Mervyn Peake. Published in 1953, it is set on Sark, where Peake lived for several years, although not during the time the time he was working on the book. It’s focused on its titular character, Mr Pye, and his efforts to convert the island to God.
Pye wasn’t a local: he came to Sark to do his duty, and he did it so well that he soon started to sprout angelic wings. Worried that this might not be a good thing, Pye stops trying to convert the people of Sark, and turns to evil, but this only results in him growing a pair of devil’s horns.
Television adaptation
Channel 4, which makes none of its own programmes, commissioned a four-part mini-series based on Peake’s book from Landseer and TSI Films. Derek Jacobi took the lead role, and the series was filmed on Sark. The opening scene shows Pye taking the boat from St Peter Port to the island, and coming ashore at Maseline Harbour.
The first episode, running for 60 minutes, was broadcast on 2 March 1986. Two months later, Jacobi won the George Morton Television Personality Award for his depiction of Harold Pye, receiving a decanter, scroll and tequila.
It took three months to film the series, during which time almost everyone on Sark found themselves a small part, even if just in the background. It cost around £350,000 per episode, as part of the Channel’s £40m 1986 drama season. The crew had to adapt to Sark’s rules, transporting their equipment by bike, and removing the engine from the car they wanted to use for tracking shots. In the end, they settled on a 2CV pulled by a horse.
It was well received, with The Times of Saturday 1st March 1986 commenting that “there is a wealth of comedy in this week’s new offerings… the funniest is Mr Pye with Derek Jacobi reaching angelic proportions in Mervyn Peake’s comic fantasy novel set on the small but perfectly proportioned feudal island of Sark”.
The influence of Sark
Although remembered primarily as a writer, Peake was also a poet and painter, and it was this latter interest that brought him to Sark. He arrived there in the early 1930s to join a fledgling artists’ colony, but returned to London within four years. He spent a further four years, between 1946 and 1950, back on Sark. Mr Pye was published three years after he’d moved back to Kent.
Category: Guernsey History | Other events tagged comedy, drama, media, television, tv
Guernsey History – March
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1098
|
__label__wiki
| 0.925576
| 0.925576
|
Viktor Orbán
Alan Abrahamson
On Mr. Trump and double standards: let's all chillax
Everybody: chillax.
And while you’re at it, the time has come for everybody — this means you, you and especially you — to start thinking, and hard, about why it is that there’s such an obvious, ridiculous and totally unfair double standard when it comes to evaluating American bids for events such as the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup.
In the aftermath of President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on Friday imposing travel restrictions on certain countries, you might have thought — especially reading Twitter and the mainstream media Kool-Aid — that the freaking sky was falling.
The Los Angeles 2024 Summer Games bid: imperiled if not dead.
The notion of an American bid for the 2026 soccer World Cup: wounded, maybe fatally.
These assertions betray a wild miscalculation if not a fundamental misunderstanding of what’s at issue.
Moreover: a fevered rush to judgment never serves anyone or anything.
Deep breath.
First things first: the International Olympic Committee vote on the 2024 race isn’t until September 13 in Lima, Peru. Paris and Budapest are also in the race. Eight months from now is an eternity.
To speculate now, in January, about what might happen in September because of what Mr. Trump did in January is pointless.
Let’s all remember that our French friends have their own national elections in the spring. If Marine le Pen wins, will there be similar freak-out? If François Fillon wins, will the French trade unions go berserk and the threat of trade union uprisings threaten a Paris 2024 candidacy? Look, will Mr. Fillon even stay in the race? He has said in recent days he would drop out if he were criminally investigated over allegations, much reported on in the French press, that his wife was paid for parliamentary work she did not do.
Let’s say Madame le Pen wins. Just for the hypothetical. Is that the reason to vote up or down on Paris?
Or Viktor Orban, the populist prime minister of Hungary. He has said, “We have to change and make Europe great again.” That verbiage sounds — vaguely familiar. Does that make him the devil? Is he the reason a Budapest bid ought to soar or go down in flames?
If not — why is Mr. Trump being held to a different, and entirely unfair, double standard?
Here are Mr. Trump's words from his January 20 inauguration:
"We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world -- but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first," and that is an unchallengeable truth.
He followed, "We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow."
Let’s put the core of this right out there: you don’t have to like Mr. Trump. It does not matter whether you, you or especially you like the new president.
Repeat, and for emphasis: it does not matter.
Here is what matters:
Many of the members of the IOC like, or are inclined to like, Mr. Trump. Especially the IOC president, Thomas Bach. He likes Mr. Trump just fine.
While you are processing that, this:
Mr. Trump is the duly elected president of the United States. Advice: if he’s not your cup of tea, pour yourself a shot of bourbon or vodka or, if you prefer, pop a Xanax and proceed, quickly, through the five stages of grief and get to acceptance. Like, now.
Repeat: Donald J. Trump is the president of the United States. The American people elected him.
If you think Trump is the antichrist, you have a very short memory when it comes to Barack Obama in the international sports sphere, starting with that disaster of a show in Copenhagen in 2009 on behalf of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid followed by the delegations to Sochi 2014 led by gay athletes including the tennis star Billie Jean King and, in short order, the overreach of American executive power in the form of the FIFA indictments and an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn of doping by Russian athletes, as if the United States would or should have any interest whatsoever in doping in Russia.
Imagine if the tables were turned and the Russian federal police and prosecutors launched a purportedly doping-related investigation there of American athletes on the grounds that, say, American high jumpers had violated Russian banking laws. That’s a laugh.
At any rate:
Do you like Vladimir Putin?
What about Xi Jinping?
Do you like the Russian system of government? What about the way they do things in China? Would you consider China, even as “open” as it is now, autocratic or not? For that matter, Russia?
Let’s have a little straw vote here: would you rather, all things considered, live in the United States, Russia or China?
The 2014 Winter Games went to Sochi, with Mr. Putin making a personal appearance before the voting members of the IOC at an assembly in Guatemala.
Beijing is the first city on Planet Earth that will play host to both the Summer Games, 2008, and the Winter Games, 2022.
So — pretty clear that being Mr. Putin or Mr. Xi is not a bid killer. Yet being Mr. Trump ought to be?
Let’s have another little vote.
Would you rather, all things considered, live in Russia, Qatar or the United States?
Soccer’s World Cup will be in Russia in 2018.
And in Qatar in 2022.
Back to the news — because the president, who campaigned on a promise to implement immigration reform, took a first step in so doing, the United States is suddenly a pariah?
That logic does not hold.
To be clear: the order suspends entry of all refugees to the United State for 120 days, bars Syrian refugees indefinitely and blocks entry into the country for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
https://twitter.com/rncpeterkin/status/825462271971323904
This is why maybe just pausing before hitting that “send” button can sometimes be helpful, even for someone as thoughtful and well-intentioned as Mr. Peterkin, who is an IOC member from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
As the Washington Post reported Saturday, “Officials tried to reassure travelers and their families, pointing out that green-card holders in the United States will not be affected and noting that [homeland security officials are] allowed to grant waivers to those individuals and others deemed to not pose a security threat.”
The story adds, noting that details were for sure still being worked out and waivers would be “evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” and quoting an unnamed official, “If you’ve been living in the United States for 15 years and you own a business and your family is here, will you be granted a waiver? I’m assuming yes, but we are working that out.”
Wait — amid the tweets and corresponding rip jobs of the president of the United States, who was elected first and foremost to secure the safety and well-being of the people, and moved Friday to implement an initial, temporary strategy that he and his advisors deemed appropriate, this:
Where are the similarly heated complaints or observations about — just to pick one — France?
France has been under a “state of emergency” since the attacks in Paris in November 2015 that killed 130 people. Last month, the French parliament last month extended that state of emergency through July 2017, the interior minister warning ahead of the parliamentary vote that the country faced an “extremely high” risk of another attack.
Why not the same — or worse — outrage about a “state of emergency” now lasting almost two full years? In a western democracy?
Beyond which:
What does any of this, in theory, have to do with sport?
Answer: zero.
For those of you who would prefer to be idealists: isn’t the whole notion of the Olympics that sport can bring the world together, at least for 17 days?
“We are working closely with the administration to understand the new rules and how we best navigate them as it pertains to visiting athletes,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said Saturday. “We know they are supportive of the Olympic movement, and our bid, and believe we will have a good working relationship with them to ensure our success in hosting and attending events.”
Would you know that from reading, for instance, the New York Times?
In a story published Saturday, the Times’ Jere Longman, an excellent newsman and a longtime colleague, quotes the historian David Wallechinsky, also a longtime colleague, as saying that Mr. Trump is perceived in Olympic circles as “anti-Muslim, anti-woman and anti-Latino.”
Wallechinsky then goes on to say of the president’s executive order, “This is worse. I would consider it a blow to the Los Angeles bid — not fatal but a blow.”
Oh — as if Mr. Putin, who has waged a war in Chechnya, is considered pro-Muslim?
Or Qatar or China, just to pick two, are havens for women’s rights?
Admittedly the United States is imperfect. Any country is. But which country has maybe, just maybe, made more progress in advancing the rights of women in the workplace and other spheres — China, Russia, Qatar or the United States?
As far as the IOC goes:
Right now the United States has three IOC members. There’s Larry Probst. And then there are Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero, and she is the current chair of the athlete’s commission.
France, two members, both men: Guy Drut. Tony Estanguet.
Hungary: two men. Pal Schmitt. Daniel Gyurta.
Would it maybe have been relevant, journalistically speaking, if Longman had mentioned that Wallechinsky, who is assuredly one of the world’s foremost Olympic historians, is also a noted compiler of published lists such as “world’s worst dictators”? Maybe an informed guess how Wallechinsky views the new president?
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had a phone call on Saturday — initiated by Mr. Putin, according to the White House. The call lasted for an hour. Mr. Trump also spoke Saturday with leaders of Australia, France, Germany and Japan.
Where was the major diplomatic blowback? Hello?
Just to name one: did the prime minister of the United Kingdom criticize Mr. Trump? Uh, no.
Sure, the president of France did. But who cares? He’s about as popular in France as an “I’m with Her” button would be a White House staff meeting, and everybody knows it.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Saturday to meet with Mr. Trump during a visit to Washington on Feb. 10. The next Summer Games are in Tokyo, in 2020. So interesting.
Mr. Putin and Mr. Bach have — since the November election —already spoken by phone. Mr. Bach, since taking office in September 2013, has met with more than 100 heads of government of state — but did not meet with Mr. Obama. Odds are good that Mr. Trump will meet, and probably sooner than later, with Mr. Bach.
Mr. Bach is, of course, on good terms with Mr. Putin.
Mr. Bach knows full well that the Olympic movement needs the United States right now. That’s why he made a trip to California last year, to Silicon Valley. The movement needs the creativity of California to reach the youth audience that keeps the Olympics relevant and material. What is the IOC’s major initiative right now? The Olympic Channel. Who produces more influential content than anyone anywhere? California — Hollywood, Snapchat, Google, Facebook, Apple.
Mr. Bach knows, too, that with recent budget headaches — Rio, Sochi, London, Beijing — the IOC has to take a very, very considered look at a Los Angeles Games for 2024, where everything is mostly built, the city has a two-time legacy of producing big-time and inventive Games, the locals want the Olympics and absent colossal and unpredictable disaster the Games will make everyone involved, as Sean Penn’s character said in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, beaucoup dollares.
Mr. Bach knows, too, that this is LA’s time. Bid leader Casey Wasserman scared up $35 million to fund a 2024 bid. He can’t go back to those donors if the IOC turns LA down for ’24 and say, let’s try again. Won’t happen.
Let’s say you’re Mr. Trump. Let’s say the IOC turns LA down the way it did Chicago for 2016 and New York for 2012.
It would state the obvious to note that the new president has shown he is plainly willing to play hardball.
Repeatedly, too, he has expressed interest in the tax scheme.
It is not hard to figure out, not difficult indeed, that if the IOC shoots down LA for 2024, there might well be an inclination at the White House to say, OK, let’s take a very hard look, right now, at the tax status of all the IOC’s American-based top-tier sponsors.
Tagged: Barack Obama, Billie Jean King, Casey Wasserman, Daniel Gyurta, David Wallechinsky, Donald J- Trump, François Fillon, Guy Drut, Jere Longman, Marine Le Pen, Pal Schmitt, Patrick Sandusky, Richard Peterkin, Sean Penn, Shinzo Abe, Thomas Bach, Tony Estanguet, Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping
2024 Bid Cities
The Olympics and President-elect Donald J. Trump
A Romanian friend and I were talking the other day about the campaign for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
If Paris wins, he said, it will be a thoroughly French Olympics. But if it's Los Angeles — that, he said, would be an international Games with the potential to prove truly transformational for the Olympic movement in the 21st century.
Maybe Tuesday’s election of Donald J. Trump has changed everything.
Or maybe — actually, probably — it has changed nothing.
Take a deep breath. Things tend to work out.
Are there any guarantees? No. Promises? No. But that’s not the way life is. And, again, things tend to work out.
Did Trump say all kinds of rude, belittling and worse things during the campaign? Absolutely. Since his election, has he struck a more conciliatory, encompassing tone? For sure. On Thursday at the White House, he met with President Barack Obama, the president saying, “I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we are now going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.”
The last time this sort of weirdness settled over a significant portion of the United States if not beyond, it was January 1981, and Ronald Reagan, a former movie star, was being inaugurated. We all lived through that. Indeed, Reagan was president during the 1984 Summer Games in LA, which all but saved the movement. How much did he personally have to do with those Games? Very little.
If you stop and pause for just a moment, it’s actually quite possible a Trump presidency could be good for the Los Angeles 2024 bid. The committee issued a statement Wednesday that congratulated the president-elect, noted the bid’s “strong bipartisan support at the local, state and federal level” and said it was looking forward to working with Trump to “deliver a ‘new games for a new era.’ “
OK, good PR move. Even so, the Olympics, and particularly the bid process, is all about connections. Here’s what that statement didn’t — couldn’t — say:
Angela Ruggiero, the U.S. women’s ice hockey star, is now chair of the International Olympic Committee’s athletes’ commission. She is also a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” the TV show that Trump starred in for years. Trump was so impressed with her that, afterward, he offered her a job.
So — now the IOC has a direct conduit to the president-elect of the United States. What more do you want?
IOC president Thomas Bach on Wednesday offered a brief statement to Associated Press that said, “Let me congratulate President-elect Trump on his victory and wish him all the best for his term in office for all the people of the United States and of the world.”
Would it have been “better” for the American 2024 effort if Hillary Clinton had prevailed in the electoral college as well as the popular vote?
To be sure, she was, in Olympic circles, something of a known quantity. She led the U.S. delegation to the 1994 Lillehammer Games. She and President Bill Clinton led the American side in Atlanta in 1996. When the 2012 Games campaign was going on, Hillary Clinton, then a senator from New York, traveled to the IOC session in Singapore to lobby for New York.
No disrespect intended whatsoever to Mrs. Clinton but New York got crushed and Atlanta is hardly remembered fondly in many senior Olympic circles.
At any rate, there’s little question that California wanted Hillary. The state went for Mrs. Clinton by roughly 2-1, 61 to 33 percent. The U.S. Olympic Committee turned to LA for 2024 for a variety of reasons — one of which is precisely that California is different, about as far away from Washington, D.C., another potential 2024 candidate, as possible. Far away -- literally and figuratively.
Reflecting on Trump’s election, Stanford political science professor Bruce Cain told the New York Times, referring to California, “We will go back into the mode that we were in during the Bush administration,” meaning George W. Bush, “which is we were the kind of the rebel state.”
We got through the Bush years, too, it should be pointed out. The American experiment did not collapse in on itself. For what it's worth, Bush is a huge proponent of the Olympics, traveling to Beijing in 2008 to watch Michael Phelps and the rest of the U.S. team after opening the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
At any rate, who is the former governor of California? Arnold Schwarzenegger. We all lived through that, too.
Who is replacing Trump as host of the successor show “The Celebrity Apprentice,” his debut set for January 2017, just a few days before Trump is due to be inaugurated as president? Schwarzenegger.
People, the world turns in mysterious ways.
Here are some factors that remain immutable:
-- The United States is not Russia nor China, where the strong hand of the national government plays a key Olympic role.
— As the IOC well knows, western governments have a rude habit of change in the seven years between the time a city wins the Games and the opening ceremony. See, for instance, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Greece, Japan and others, including South Korea, site of the 2018 Winter Games, where hundreds of thousands are expected this weekend in the streets in protest against the current president.
And, for that matter, the United States.
Who knows whether Trump would even still be president in 2024?
— The recent demise of the Rome 2024 bid proves emphatically that the mayor — who killed off that bid despite national government and Olympic committee support — is more important in the Olympic bid process than anyone at the national level.
LA mayor Eric Garcetti is a rock star. Indeed, with Clinton’s defeat, a loss that simultaneously made plain how few young Democratic stars there are, Garcetti is uniquely positioned to assume an even more prominent profile.
What tends to win Olympic votes is connection and relationship. The USOC chairman, Larry Probst, and chief executive, Scott Blackmun, along with Ruggiero and longtime IOC member Anita DeFrantz have spent the past several years seeking just that. Along with, now, Garcetti and LA 24 bid leader Casey Wasserman.
For all this, if you were the bid committees in Paris and Budapest, the two remaining 2024 candidates, you might well be feeling suddenly frisky at the prospect of a Trump presidency.
To be super-American about this, and quote Lee Corso, the former American college football coach turned ESPN television personality: not so fast, my friend.
One way to interpret Tuesday’s result is that it makes for a rebuke of multiculturalism and globalization — the very things purportedly at the core of the Olympic soul. If that’s the way the IOC ends up looking at it, that’s going to be very tough for the LA effort. Or, simply put, if the members want to punish the United States for its choice of president -- see Bush 43 -- that's going to be tough, too.
Perhaps, though — “drain the swamp” and all that — it’s more a rejection of Washington and its elites, and by extension global elites. Look, there is no bunch more perceived as a bunch of global elites more than the IOC, a point proven repeatedly in recent months and years with western European rejection of bids in — deep breath — Munich, Hamburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow, St. Moritz, Vienna and, now, Rome.
This is a matter about which the IOC ought to be paying rapt attention. Its increasingly urgent mandate: to remain relevant in our obviously changing world.
So American voters just elected a rhetoric-spewing avowed nationalist?
This bears all the signals of the second act in a global three-act play.
Act One: Brexit. To put an Olympic spin on it, the British vote to leave the European Union came in the aftermath of what many consider the finest Summer Games in recent memory, in London in 2012.
Two: Trump.
Three: next year’s presidential election in France. Would anyone be surprised if the third domino fell, with the candidacy of Marine Le Pen?
Her tweet Tuesday, even before all the votes had been counted stateside:
https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/796235915387699200
Translation: “Congratulations to the new U.S. president Donald Trump and to the free American people.”
As for Hungary:
This past summer, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán said, referring to Trump, that the ideas of the “upstanding American presidential candidate” and his opposition to “democracy export” could also apply in Europe. Orbán, who has ordered fences built at the Hungarian border in a bid to stop migrants, also said in July, “I am not Donald Trump’s campaigner,” adding, “I myself could not have drawn up better what Europe needs.”
Amid the Trump victory, here was Orbán on Facebook:
Then, speaking Thursday at a European conference, he echoed, “We are two days after the big bang and still alive. What a wonderful world. This also shows that democracy is creative and innovative.”
In even more-important news within the Olympic bubble, the government is due Jan. 1 to take over much of the authority of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. The IOC has long frowned on such intrusions in what it likes to call “autonomy,” meaning appropriate independence from government.
France is not Hungary. But with the French Olympic committee comes a big dose of French government. That's the way things are.
That’s the farthest thing from an issue in the United States. By 1978 law, Congress maintains USOC oversight. But the USOC must run and fund itself.
If all this makes anyone squirm about the rise of “populism” if not nationalism, if there is suddenly a tinge of forlorn regret for the Obama years, let’s have — once more — an Olympic reality check.
Copenhagen, 2009. The president is the new winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He comes to Denmark to lobby for his hometown, Chicago, in the race for the 2016 Games. Chicago gets kicked to the curb in the first round, with fewer votes even than New York got four years before.
“… I think we’ve learned,” the president said in an interview published last month in New York magazine, “that [the] IOC’s decisions are similar to FIFA’s decisions: a little bit cooked. We didn’t even make the first cut, despite the fact that, by all the objective metrics, the American bid was the best.”
Coincidence or not: since then, it’s Obama’s Justice Department that has gone after FIFA and has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of state-sponsored Russian doping. Coincidence or not: Loretta Lynch, the former head of Justice’s Eastern District of New York, the office that is leading the charge, is now the attorney general of the United States. She reports to Obama.
It was Obama, recall, who opted to make a political statement in advance of the 2014 Sochi Games by sending a U.S. delegation that was to be headed by the tennis star Billie Jean King and two other athletes. King had to bow out of the opening ceremony delegation because of her mother’s death; she later made it to the closing ceremony.
In three years as IOC president, Bach has met with more than 100 heads of government and state. A notable exception: Obama.
Politicians come and go. That is a vivid lesson of Olympic history. The issue that matters is elemental: where is the best place for the Olympic movement to reimagine its future? That starts with 2024.
Ask your kids.
If you can get them away from their election chatter — and how it’s going to impact their lives, the very currency with the very audience the IOC is chasing — on Snapchat.
Snapchat — which of course is based in the hipster LA neighborhood of Venice Beach.
Tagged: Angela Ruggiero, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bruce Cain, Donald J- Trump, Eric Garcetti, George W- Bush, Hillary Clinton, Larry Probst, Loretta Lynch, Marine Le Pen, Michael Phelps, Ronald Reagan, Scott Blackmun, Snapchat, Thomas Bach, Viktor Orbán
About Alan Abrahamson
Alan Abrahamson is an award-winning sportswriter, best-selling author and in-demand television analyst. In 2010, he launched his own website, 3 Wire Sports, described in James Patterson and Mark Sullivan's 2012 best-selling novel Private Games as "the world's best source of information about the [Olympic] Games and the culture that surrounds them."
Read Full Bio
Subscribe to 3 Wire Sports
Get updated with latest sports news.
Thank you for signing up for updates!
You will receive an e-mail from us soon. Please click the link in that e-mail to confirm your subscription.
Copyright © 2017 3 Wire Sports. Website created by Lee.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1100
|
__label__wiki
| 0.73683
| 0.73683
|
Nashville Blues
By Sydney Mayhew
The (2-8) San Francisco 49ers arrived in Nashville, Tennessee last Sunday to avenge a close loss to the division leading Seattle Seahawks just a week before. They prepared to do battle with one of the worst teams in the American Football Conference, the Tennessee Titans.
Little did we know that they would make us the worst team in the National Football Conference by defeating us handily in the third quarter, and ending it all in another 15 minutes with a final score of 33-22. In that quarter, we became the team that everyone talks about behind our backs and that the betting lines in Las Vegas depict as the laughing stock of the NFL.
In the third such straight week, the 49er special teams unit has been abysmal. In the two games prior to this one, rookie wide receiver Rasheed Marshall had come in and filled the return specialist spot vacated by wide receiver Otis Amey. Amey has been out due to an ankle injury that he had been nursing. Mike Nolan made the decision to go with Rasheed Marshall after he had solid returns in the road game against Washington, and the home games against Tampa Bay and the New York Giants. But his stock began to crash like the New York Stock Exchange after he muffed a punt while on the road in Chicago and then fumbled a kickoff return against the Seattle Seahawks (both led to points scored by the opposition in field goals).
The 49er staff then elected to go with Otis Amey, who came out in the beginning moments of the third quarter and muffed the punt as it bounced off of him and was recovered by Tennessee at our 41-yard line. This, in effect, was the beginning of the end, even with us leading the Titans 14-9 entering the second half and finally feeling like we had just enough, despite several mistakes in the first half, to win this game.
After the Tennessee Titans recovered the ball at the 41-yard line, veteran quarterback Steve McNair worked his magic by connecting with running back Chris Brown for a touchdown. The Titans never looked back again.
"I felt like that was a big momentum swing in the game," Amey said. "We've been working on trying to get to every ball.. It was in the air, the wind was blowing hard, the ball died and my goal was to try and fair catch it, but I couldn't get to it in time. Right when it bounced, it hit me, I spun around and I couldn't find the ball."
I must say, at least Otis Amey pays attention to detail. Making catches like these is critical to keeping the offense on the field and in positive field position. This is something that has been severely tested as of late with our inexperience on special teams, because we have been on the turnover end of things far too often, which has resulted in points scored for the opposition.
The touchdown pass to Chris Brown was contested with 49er linebacker Andre Carter narrowly missing Steve McNair for a sack, and even then the 49ers had yet another shot at stopping Brown as Julian Peterson missed him on a tackle at the sideline.
Following this touchdown, veteran quarterback Steve McNair looked like the man of old when he hooked up with touchdown passes to Roydell Williams, who beat one-on-one coverage with cornerback Bruce Thornton, for a 50-yard touchdown,. On the next play, he found tight end Erron Kinney on a four-yard touchdown after driving from Tennessee's own 32-yard line.
The stress I incurred from this game was unbelievable as I watched Ken Dorsey and the offense struggle throughout this quarter by going three-and-out four straight times. They manufactured a mere 17 total yards, and then opened the fourth quarter with an interception thrown by Ken Dorsey.
Dorsey completed 23 of 43 passes for 192 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. One of those picks was not his fault, as it was deflected off tight end Billy Bajema towards the end of the second quarter. Although he gave the offensive line credit for its protection of him, he was still sacked twice by the Titan defense and was repeatedly hurried into making erratic decisions with his passes.
The most glaring penalty that I can't get over is the one we received for holding on right tackle malcontent Kwame Harris. Running back Kevan Barlow broke for a 75-yard touchdown run that could've been the bargaining chip in winning this game, especially with the turnovers in the second half. After this magnificent run, Barlow never again was a factor in the game as he finished with 14 carries for 40 total yards. In fact, the 49ers only manufactured 74 total yards on the ground in the entire game with an average of 3.4-yards a carry.
Barlow continues to hesitate and doesn't really have the instincts to find the hole and make the calculated burst when he needs to go up the middle. He is in fact a juke and jive type of running back that depends on the offensive line to make gaping wide holes for him to be productive.
Maurice Hicks is another running back in that category but has better instincts and a lot more speed when making the decision to attack the opening that has been created. In my opinion, using him more would be advantageous to us in getting something, or anything, to happen on the ground.
In my opinion, Frank Gore is the future for us at running back should he comeback healthy. He is a north and south kind of running back with tremendous power to crash through the middle and carry and run over defensive backs.
We have struggled in the rushing category since we lost Garrison Hearst and continue to be force- fed an offensive line that is riddled with injuries, lack of production, and inexperience. We must win the time of possession battle in every game by creating a grand rushing attack and regain the respect we once held in that field.
I want to give credit to cornerback Shawntae Spencer on his play right before the first half ended. It was a Steve McNair pass that he intended to throw to wide receiver Brandon Jones just short of the goal line
Brandon Jones, however, crumpled to the ground when he made a sharp cut and the ball sailed perfectly into Shawntae Spencer's hands. From there, despite still recovering from an ankle injury, he sprinted down the sideline 61-yards, leaped over a would-be tackler at the five yard line and scored a touchdown to make it 14-9 49ers.
Optimism ran deep after the first half. But it was the second half that made every 49er fan squirm in their collective seats...wherever they were seated. Anguish and frustration on a season where promises have been broken and a future that looks as if the dark ages are still upon us.
Like you, I look at every blade of grass in this season trying to identify the positives in every game despite always losing. I try and register the development of individual players on the team and hold dear to myself that their individual contributions will someday be the consistency we have been missing all season long.
"When we came out in the second half, I expected us to perform the same," Mike Nolan said. "I thought we had a great chance to win the game (judging by) how we were playing. We gave up some explosive passes in the second half that hurt us."
Don't forget the turnovers and the conservative play calling. Instead of going into a no huddle offense and working the ball downfield at a faster pace, we saw the team run three consecutive times for minimal yards with us being so far behind on the scoreboard.
"We played well for three quarters, that one quarter just messed us up," said Julian Peterson, adding the Titan's offense seemed to have a surge in confidence in the third quarter."
The San Francisco 49ers are now (0-5) on the road. They are 2-21 away from home since late 2002. We continue by knowing where we are on the season, which is in the cellar of our own division with the door shut tight.
Left tackle Adam Snyder scared me in the very first play in the game when he was beaten for a sack on Ken Dorsey and had a false start penalty registered against him. I still find him a better alternative to Anthony Clement and hope that the playing experience continues to strengthen the abilities and skills he already has produced while out on the field.
Ken Dorsey also continues to make erratic throws from time to time, making you wonder what he's contemplating while throwing the ball. He overthrew Brandon Lloyd on a critical pass in the third quarter and now admits he should've thrown the ball higher to give him a chance to leap up and grab it.
I did like the change of pace when wide receiver Arnaz Battle lined up in the shotgun, with Ken Dorsey as a wide receiver on the right. Battle effectively took the snap and ran nine yards to set-up a Kevan Barlow one-yard run for a touchdown.
I would like to see more chances taken on fourth down like the Tennessee Titans did in this game because in all actuality, what do you really have to lose when your season is already over?
And please Mike McCarthy, despite your impressive offensive successes in the past, you certainly have to agree that being ultra-conservative this far into the season is just not an option we care to look at anymore. We need more no-huddle offenses and better blocking and protection as well.
I would like to salute Jeremy Newberry who is one of the best players on this San Francisco 49er team. He is the true modern day version of a warrior in action. He is playing under excruciating pain from one week to the next and believing in what this team is trying to do and accomplish this season. His knee finally became an issue and he was placed on injured reserve in an attempt to salvage the remainder of his career by electing to have surgery. Every player on this team will confess how courageous this one individual really is. He is to be commended for his dedication and his fearlessness in the heat of battle, sometimes playing with bone crunching against bone as he is pushed back under the weight of bigger defensive linemen. The pain is something he has always been able to manage in his mind and win each and every week. He has been a rock and an enigma on this football team. I hold him up high, along with defensive tackle and end Bryant Young, as being a true 49er that wears the colors and honors our traditions as an era not yet vanished.
As fans, we recognize this and say, "Thank you Jeremy." You are a class act in every sense of the word. I hope there will be other players that follow your example on this team and have as much motivation and spirit as you.
Lord knows we need so much more to help resurrect this team and for us to determine who will stay and who will go after the 2005 season has ended. Now is the time for Alex Smith to re-enter the quarterback scenario and to prove that he is worth every penny paid to him. Answers need to be forthcoming and questions need to fade for this team to find transit over the next hurdles.
How the San Francisco 49ers do in the remainder of the season will be subject to scrutiny and change. Obviously, we have many areas of concern to recommend action for, and hopefully Scott McCloughan and Mike Nolan will work together to make the adjustments that are necessary.
However, I cannot be quiet on the need of owners Dr. John York and Denise DeBartolo to be generous with the pocket book. We must be able to attract higher priced and sought after free agents in order to make the team more competitive and viable. We cannot achieve everything through the draft but we certainly can make positive headway.
The views within this article are those of the writer and, while just as important, are not necessarily those of the site as a whole.
Baldy: 'Heads will roll' if the 49ers don't win 10 games this year
More by Sydney Mayhew
Giant sized devastation
Davis the face of triumph
Offensive juggernaut versus defensive steel wall
All Articles by Sydney Mayhew
Picking the 49ers' best player at each position from the last decade
Did the 49ers make a mistake overpaying fullback Kyle Juszczyk?
Round Table: What are your expectations for the 49ers in 2019?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1101
|
__label__cc
| 0.732539
| 0.267461
|
RULE §103.1201 Standards for the Operation of School District Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs
(a) A disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) established in conformance with the Texas Education Code (TEC), §37.008, and this section is defined as an educational and self-discipline alternative instructional program, adopted by local policy, for students in elementary through high school grades who are removed from their regular classes for mandatory or discretionary disciplinary reasons and placed in a DAEP.
(b) Each school district participating in a shared services arrangement (SSA) for DAEP services shall be responsible for ensuring that the board-approved district improvement plan and the improvement plans for each campus required by the TEC, §11.251 and §11.252, include the performance of the DAEP student group for the respective district. The identified objectives for the improvement plans shall include:
(1) student groups served, including overrepresentation of students from economically disadvantaged families, with ethnic and racial representations, and with a disability who receive special education and limited English proficiency services;
(2) attendance rates;
(3) pre- and post-assessment results;
(4) dropout rates;
(5) graduation rates; and
(6) recidivism rates.
(c) A DAEP may be located on-campus or off-campus in adherence with requirements specified in §129.1025 of this title (relating to Adoption By Reference: Student Attendance Accounting Handbook). For reporting purposes, the DAEP shall use the county-district-campus number of the student's locally assigned campus (the campus the student would be attending if the student was not attending the DAEP).
(d) An individual school district or an SSA may contract with third parties for DAEP services. The district must require and ensure compliance with district responsibilities that are transferred to the third-party provider.
(e) The campus of accountability for student performance must be the student's locally assigned campus, including when the individual school district or SSA contracts with a third party for DAEP services.
(f) Each school district shall provide an academic and self-discipline program that leads to graduation and includes instruction in each student's currently enrolled foundation curriculum necessary to meet the student's individual graduation plan, including special education services.
(1) A student's four-year graduation plan (minimum, recommended, or distinguished achievement--advanced) may not be altered when the student is assigned to a DAEP. A student must be offered an opportunity to complete a foundation curriculum course in which the student was enrolled at the time of removal before the beginning of the next school year, including correspondence or distance learning opportunities or summer school. A district may not charge for a course required under this section.
(2) The school day for a DAEP shall be at least seven hours but no more than ten hours in length each day, including intermissions and recesses as required under the TEC, §25.082(a).
(3) Notwithstanding the TEC, §37.008(a)(3), summer programs provided by the district may serve students assigned to a DAEP in conjunction with other students, as determined by local policy.
(g) A DAEP program serving a student with a disability who receives special education services shall provide educational services that will support the student in meeting the goals identified in the individualized education program (IEP) established by a duly-constituted admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee, in accordance with the TEC, §37.004, and federal requirements.
(h) Each school district is responsible for the safety and supervision of the students assigned to the DAEP; however, the immunity from the liability established in the TEC, §22.0511, shall not be impacted.
(1) The certified teacher-to-student ratio in a DAEP shall be one teacher for each 15 students in elementary through high school grades. Elementary grade students assigned to the DAEP shall be separated from secondary grade students assigned to the DAEP. The designation of elementary and secondary will be determined by adopted local policy.
(2) The DAEP staff shall be prepared and trained to respond to health issues and emergencies.
(3) Students in the DAEP shall be separated from students in a juvenile justice alternative education program (JJAEP) and students who are not assigned to the DAEP.
(4) Each district shall establish a board-approved policy for discipline and intervention measures to prevent and intervene against unsafe behavior and include disciplinary actions that do not jeopardize students' physical health and safety, harm emotional well-being, or discourage physical activity.
(i) Staff at each DAEP shall participate in training programs on education, behavior management, and safety procedures that focus on positive and proactive behavior management strategies. The training programs must also target prevention and intervention that include:
(1) training on the education and discipline of students with disabilities who receive special education services;
(2) instruction in social skills and problem-solving skills that addresses diversity, dating violence, anger management, and conflict resolution to teach students how to interact with teachers, family, peers, authority figures, and the general public; and
(3) annual training on established procedures for reporting abuse, neglect, or exploitation of students.
(j) Procedures for each DAEP shall be developed and implemented for newly-entering students and their parents or guardians on the expectations of the DAEP, including written contracts between students, parents or guardians, and the DAEP that formalize expectations and establish the students' individual plans for success.
(k) The transition procedures established for a student who is exiting a DAEP and returning to the student's locally assigned campus shall be implemented and updated annually as needed. The transition procedures shall include:
(1) an established timeline for the student's transition from the DAEP to the student's locally assigned campus; and
(2) written and oral communication from the DAEP staff to the locally assigned campus during the student's assignment to the DAEP, including the student's educational performance and tasks completed.
Source Note: The provisions of this §103.1201 adopted to be effective December 14, 2008, 33 TexReg 10152
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1105
|
__label__wiki
| 0.649185
| 0.649185
|
Hawks struggle for offence
Sports · January 8, 2014 11:58 am ·
Laurier’s men’s hockey team dropped both of their games over the weekend, losing 3-1 to Queen’s and 3-1 to Ryerson.
A year ago, the Wilfrid Laurier men’s hockey team pulled off an incredible second-half record of 9-3 to make it to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs.
It began Jan. 3, 2013 with a win against the Waterloo Warriors and continued until the end of the season, including a strong 2-0 win over the first-place Western Mustangs.
But the same can’t be said about the beginning of the second half of this season, as the Hawks have struggled to find their offence.
“It doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re not able to put the puck in the net to some degree, you’re going to have trouble winning,” head coach Greg Puhalski said.
To start off the second half of their season, the Hawks played host to the Ryerson Rams and Queen’s Gaels this past weekend.
Friday against the Rams, the Hawks couldn’t find their offence, dropping a 3-1 decision.
The next night, Laurier seemed to improve on parts of their system. They led the Gaels early in the first period and first-year goaltender Vinny Merante stood tall in net, covering any rebounds he saw.
However, the effort was still not enough as the Gaels took a 3-1 victory.
“I thought we played very well,” third-year Joe Vanni said following Saturday’s game.
“We worked hard, but when you give up 50 shots a game it’s going to happen that they score more than we do.”
Laurier’s offensive woes have been an issue throughout the season, garnering only five wins in 15 games. Laurier sits in tenth and last place in the OUA West division and will need to climb to at least eighth to make the playoffs.
The Hawks currently sit five points behind the Guelph Gryphons, who hold that eighth-place position in the OUA West.
“We need to have some guys find their offensive game and get some dirty goals and rebound goals,” Puhalski said. “We’re looking to be a little too much of a pretty team; we need to be more of a grinding team.”
“We played better [against Queen’s] than we did against Ryerson,” Puhalski continued.
“That being said, [it’s] still not good enough. Queen’s is a pretty good hockey club and they played well together … There were some positives, but we need to be much better if we’re going to garner some wins here.”
Puhalski emphasized that the Hawks need to find offence wherever they can.
Against Queen’s, Laurier gave up 53 shots and couldn’t take advantage of two early power plays. Against Ryerson, the Hawks allowed only 26 shots, but could only muster one goal off of 32 of their own shots.
With 13 games left in the season, emphasis will be on sticking to the system and finding that missing offence.
“I think myself as much as my teammates we need to just keep working hard and playing within the system and pay attention to the fine details and the wins will start coming towards us,” Vanni said.
The Hawks play their last home game in a five-game home stretch against the Toronto Varsity Blues on Thursday Jan. 9 before heading to London to take on the Mustangs on Jan. 10.
Game time on Thursday is 7:30 p.m.
Tags: slider2
Author: Shelby BlackleyShelby Blackley is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Cord. Shelby has an obsession with green tea, owns too many writing notebooks and finds solace in a nice cold brew.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1109
|
__label__cc
| 0.683867
| 0.316133
|
First Images from Hong Sang-soo’s Cannes-Bound ‘Claire’s Camera’ and ‘The Day After’
Written by Jordan Raup on April 27, 2017
After bringing one of the year’s best films so far to Berlinale with On the Beach at Night Alone, Hong Sang-soo is returning to Cannes with not only his second of 2017, but his third as well. Premiering as a Special Screening is a film he actually shot at the festival, Claire’s Camera, which stars Isabelle Huppert and Kim Min-hee, following a part-time high school teacher and writer. Also starring Shahira Fahmy and Jung Jin-young, one can see the first images above and below.
As for his other film, The Day After, it will be premiering in competition at the festival. Also starring Kim Min-hee, along with Kwon Hae-hyo and Kim Sae-byeok, not much is known about the project, but judging from the first still, it looks to be in black-and-white. Check out the images below and return for our reviews of both films in the coming weeks.
See More: Cannes 2017, Claire's Camera, Festivals, Hong Sang-soo, The Day After
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1111
|
__label__wiki
| 0.958207
| 0.958207
|
It's Only the End of the World
Cannes 2016 Review
Independent; 95 minutes
Director: Xavier Dolan
Written by Giovanni Marchini Camia on May 19, 2016
In the director’s statement included in the press notes to It’s Only the End of the World, Xavier Dolan says he considers his sixth feature to be his “first as a man.” Manifestly tired of being called a wunderkind, the 27-year-old follows up his Jury Prize-winning Mommy with an adaptation of the play by Jean-Luc Lagarce. The solemnity aspired to in tackling this contemporary variant of the prodigal son parable is evident, and Dolan delivers a strident transposition of the stage piece to the screen. And while he does, to an extent, stifle some of his more adolescent instincts in comparison to earlier films (e.g. Laurence Anyways and Mommy), Dolan generally appears to have mistaken maturity for joylessness.
In the film’s prologue, the protagonist, Louis (Gaspard Ulliel), is sitting in an airplane and in voice-over explains that he’s returning home for the first time in 12 years to announce his death to his family. Though this cryptic statement is never explicitly clarified, the implication is that he has AIDS – Lagarce died from the disease in 1995, five years after writing the play – and he wishes to reconnect with the family he’s avoided contact with all this time, except for the occasional postcard or letter. Louis hasn’t so much as stepped through the front door, and it’s already abundantly clear why he fled this viper’s nest at the age of 22 — if anything, it’s puzzling that he would have waited that long.
The family is made up of his harpy of a mother (Nathalie Baye), clad in a ghastly outfit and sporting even more hair-raising make-up; his older brother, Antoine (Vincent Cassel), a macho non-achiever with a crippling inferiority complex towards his successful playwright brother; and his younger sister, Suzanne (Léa Seydoux), a chronic stoner harboring serious abandonment issues. Then there’s also Catherine (Marion Cotillard), Antoine’s highly improbable wife, a meek and perennially discomfited presence whose only appreciable purpose in the film is to render the others even more monstrous by comparison.
The family’s idea of a warm welcome is interjecting anyone else’s attempt at a conversation with a barrage of vitriol while Louis stands by, mostly in silence, enduring it all and agonizing over his big reveal. These introductory bouts of invective are broken up by stylized, music-video-like sequences, at times to depict a flashback, at others to evoke more abstract interiority — though, as ever, what they express most forcefully is their creator’s indulgence.
The critic Adam Nayman accurately described the soundtrack to Mommy as “aural torture,” and it initially seems Dolan will be pushing the envelope even further this time around, employing hits by irredeemable bands like Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, as well as – wait for it – O-Zone’s “Dragostea din tei” (aka the “Numa Numa” song). In the past, Dolan used such teen pop atrocities to amplify his characters’ catharsis, but here they solely come across as an insistently injudicious authorial signature. Mercifully, once the narrative gets properly under way, these are dropped in favor of inoffensive orchestral numbers whose function is much more justifiable.
Namely, underlining the gravity of the situation as Louis engages in the succession of tête-à-têtes that make up the bulk of the film. Mother, sister, and brother each take their turn in discharging 12 years’ worth of pent-up resentment on Louis. Ulliel, who gave such a finely calibrated and effective performance in Betrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, is wholly out of his depth, sporting a single disconsolate expression from start to finish. That doesn’t seem to be too big a concern for Dolan, though, as the role he’s assigned him is essentially that of a punching bag for the others to pummel with an endless torrent of venom. These shouting matches disallow any emotion other than furious rancor, and the film is unable to offer an exploration of familial strife beyond the purely superficial.
More compelling is Dolan’s choice to construct an adaptation of a play almost exclusively out of tight close-ups of his actors’ faces. The film doesn’t include a single establishing shot and Dolan, who as usual did his own editing, orchestrates careful and dynamic shot-countershot choreographies. Consistently placing his actors with their profiles turned towards the scene’s primary light source, he creates an expressive and prepossessing chiaroscuro on the other half of their faces that provides much-needed elaboration of their internal torment, while the camera’s extreme proximity to the actors creates a stifling theatricality that further fuels the desired oppressiveness of their exchanges.
It’s beyond dispute that it takes talent to make a film this acutely, relentlessly distressing. Why anyone would want to put themselves through such an ordeal, however, is a much more equivocal matter.
It’s Only the End of the World premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and hits Netflix on June 30. See our coverage below.
See More: Cannes 2016, Festivals, Gaspard Ulliel, It's Only the End of the World, Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Xavier Dolan
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1112
|
__label__cc
| 0.666607
| 0.333393
|
Air Quality Workshops for Urban Students
case_study_apiopa.10.13.16.b_1.pdf
case_study_apiopa.7.18.pdf
This case study describes how one community-based organization is engaging high school students in ongoing study and action learning toward the goal of improving air quality.
In Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley, more than 25 schools are located within 500 feet of the Los Angeles basin’s notoriously clogged freeways, exposing students to high levels of air pollution. In 2013, the Asian and Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance (APIOPA) began working with some of these schools to educate and empower students to work toward changes in the air quality on and around their school campuses.
This case study illustrates how:
Students benefited from environmental learning experiences that connected to their everyday lives and communities
Short-term learning experiences became a valuable way to cultivate relationships that could lead to extended engagement
Programs benefited from collaboration with a broad network of partners working toward common goals
The mission of APIOPA is to empower Asian and Pacific Islander communities in Los Angeles County to improve their health by addressing social, cultural, environmental, and political factors that contribute to growing rates of obesity among these residents.
APIOPA works on a range of issues connected to obesity, ranging from bicycle and pedestrian safety to food access, community safety, and access to nature. They knew that issues such as air and noise pollution affected people living in urban areas, and that many people in their community lived near pollution sources such as freeways, busy streets, rail lines, and airports. As they learned more, they realized that many types of air pollution—especially the particulates emitted by vehicle traffic—are linked not only to lung problems, but also to other health issues such as obesity and diabetes.
To address these issues, APIOPA began working with Los Angeles County high school students. What started as a special project with the senior honor society at Mark Keppel High School (MKHS) has now been adopted by the school’s youth advocacy club. APIOPA supports club members in this predominantly Asian and Latino school as they work to improve air quality on and around their school campus. APIOPA has built on this work in 10 other schools by engaging more than 150 students in one-to-two-day air quality monitoring workshops. During the 2016-2017 school year, APIOPA began working with Abraham Lincoln High School to increase the program’s impact, expanding its focus on student ideas for action on environmental issues that disproportionately affect communities of color.
To engage students with air quality issues, APIOPA relies on two key program components:
One-to-two-day, hands-on air quality monitoring workshops, and
Ongoing, customized engagement with school clubs, teachers, and classes that engages students in further investigation and action, and in exploration of environmental justice issues.
APIOPA is also working with a long-time teacher to refine its classroom curriculum and is developing a train-the-trainer program to expand its reach.
The program was developed following the North American Association for Environmental Education’s (NAAEE’s) Guidelines for Excellence. Key aspects of the program include:
Connection to students’ everyday lives. Workshops started with a community mapping activity in which students mapped their favorite places to spend time at school and in the neighborhood. They also mapped where they thought the healthiest and unhealthiest air was on campus. Students read local news articles about air pollution and research about its health effects, and discussed how pollution affects schools and residents in low-income communities. APIOPA staff developed a two-page fact sheet about the movement of goods from Southern California to markets across the United States, and its effect on air pollution. They helped students reflect on how individual and societal consumption can contribute to air pollution.
Hands-on investigation in an expanded learning environment. After learning about particulate pollution in their community, students used the portable sensors to measure indoor and outdoor air quality in their school, on the campus, and in the surrounding neighborhoods. During the investigation, students collected data from the sensors and took photos using smartphones. Student teams uploaded this information to the Kids Making Sense interactive mapping website, and used the site to help them interpret their findings.
Learner-centered instruction. The air quality workshops encouraged students to build on previous knowledge as they learned about air pollution and its health effects. For example, the students used their understanding of the community to identify where residents might be most exposed to air pollution. APIOPA has also encouraged students to ask questions, hypothesize, and think about creative solutions to address air pollution. For example,
Students from Mark Keppel High School compared air quality in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains and at their school, discovering that particulate pollution around campus—even inside the school building—was much greater than outdoors in the Angeles National Forest 90 minutes away.
Students in a northern California high school who had use of air quality sensors for three weeks as part of the Kids Making Sense program hypothesized that particulate pollution would be worst in front of the school, which faced a major road. However, using the portable sensors, students discovered that pollution was worst behind the school where buses idled while parked.
For students, seeing data in the visual context of a map makes all the difference. Over time, we hope to create a global data network so students can learn about air quality in different parts of the world.
Alan Chan, Sonoma Technology, Inc.
Skill-building and personal and civic responsibility. Students in APIOPA’s workshops developed and practiced skills for analyzing and investigating environmental issues. During APIOPA’s engagement with student groups, young people have applied skills in decision-making and civic engagement in a variety of ways. These have included informing local elected officials about air quality issues, making videos to raise awareness at their schools, and working with school administrators to take action on improving campus air quality.
Connection to educational standards. The Kids Making Sense curriculum is linked to national science standards, making it easy to integrate the workshop and extended engagement into established curricula. Together with Sonoma Technology, Inc., the company that developed the Kids Making Sense curriculum and website, APIOPA is consulting with educators to help make curriculum changes and teacher workshops compelling and relevant to teachers.
A broad network of collaborators. To develop and implement its approach to engaging students in hands-on learning about air quality and the link to health issues, APIOPA worked with a variety of partners (see below).
Evaluation Plan
To evaluate its programs – including its 1-2 day workshops and its longer-term, customized interaction with school groups – APIOPA is adopting a multi-part evaluation plan.
For short-term workshops, formal evaluation has consisted largely of pre- and post-workshop participant surveys. APIOPA tested the survey in an early workshop, making revisions to both the workshop curriculum and the survey itself based on responses. Informally, APIOPA has drawn on its experiences working with communities, educators, and young people in these workshops to chart its next steps, including plans for longer-term involvement with a small number of schools.
With its longer-term engagement with school groups, such as Mark Keppel High School and Abraham Lincoln High School, APIOPA is evaluating its work over the course of the school year. They are conducting pre- and post-tests with students, with post-tests administered several months after completion of programming to help determine longer-term impact of the program. APIOPA is also conducting focus groups with teachers, school officials, parents, students, and local elected officials to investigate these key stakeholders’ perspectives on the youth-led air pollution work. These approaches are intended to help program staff identify what worked well and what changes are needed to ensure that the work is sustainable.
Finally, to continuously improve the Kids Making Sense curriculum and website, staff at Sonoma Technology, Inc. are using evaluation data and observations from workshops. Taking an adaptive approach to this work, they see the Kids Making Sense curriculum and website as works in progress.
In evaluating the impacts of its one-and-two-day workshops, APIOPA has observed changes for workshop participants in several areas (see Figure 1). Student surveys have revealed a 23 percent increase in knowledge about air pollution and related health effects. At the end of the workshops, more than half of students felt concerned about air pollution (up 17 percent from before the workshops); about a third were inclined to take action (up 14 percent); and about a third felt that they and their peers could make a significant difference (up seven percent).
For our community-based organization, some of the best outcomes so far are from building relationships with the U.S. EPA, North American Association for Environmental Education, and other partners. Having this expertise available has helped us round out our program and gain new knowledge.
Kyle Tsukahira, APIOPA
Student survey responses also showed that the workshops had helped them make the connection between air pollution and health. Some students noted that they appreciated learning about ways young people could get involved with organizations that advocate for conservation, health, and equity. Many students indicated a desire for doing similar activities in their communities, learning more about what could be done to reduce air pollution at home and school, and knowing how they could help.
In evaluating the impacts of its longer-term, customized engagement with schools, APIOPA staff and participating educators have observed that these programs have increased student awareness of air quality issues on campus, and students helped make connections with other places through the online mapping process. Further, involvement in international partnerships, such as the International Environmental Partnership, has helped students understand air pollution as a global issue. Overall, APIOPA has found that building relationships with schools is a valuable way of connecting to communities.
Through their work with Los Angeles area students on air quality issues, APIOPA has learned to:
Connect investigations with a local context. Background about health, policy, and the local context helped students make connections between the data they collected and their lives and communities.
Do your research and ask for help. Before they started the air quality monitoring workshops, APIOPA staff had already developed relationships with local professors studying air quality. Those connections helped staff develop rich, localized resources for students and helped them know where to turn for information about the problem and potential solutions.
Be prepared to answer: “What’s next?” Expanding awareness and knowledge about environmental and social-equity issues often raises questions about how students can learn more, share what they have learned, and get involved in solutions.
Get involved in partnerships. The support of partners has been a major benefit of this work for APIOPA, manifesting as technical and program-development advice, peer-to-peer learning, and international exposure. The local and international recognition emerging from these partnerships have provided validation for staff and students alike, and may be one of the most important outcomes of this work, making otherwise unlikely outcomes possible.
Use frustrations to drive further learning and new strategies. When students begin to consider and work on solutions, they may run into unexpected obstacles. Concrete activities like tree planting, advocating for campus air filtration, and receiving grant funding can involve navigating school bureaucracies, local regulations, and other power structures. These can be frustrating, but also present real-world opportunities to learn and adapt.
Use short-term workshops to catalyze longer-term engagement. Especially in public schools, short workshops may be all that schools and teachers can commit to, at least at first. Look for ways to extend this engagement to reinforce learning, expand investigations, and help students address their desire to be involved in solutions. APIOPA used what it learned in its early work to shape future efforts, which include experimenting with a multi-year engagement with a student club, summer environmental camps, and developing teacher workshops.
APIOPA’s work with youth and air quality is described on its website.
2015 Particulates Matter Workshop highlights video (YouTube)
Kids Making Sense
NAAEE Guidelines for Nonformal Environmental Education
CalEnviroScreen 2.0 Pollution Burden: The California Office of Environmental He…
Airnow.gov: Includes information on air quality for countries around the world …
2014 U.S. EPA report on air quality studies, including Kids Making Sense.
Kids Making Sense in Taiwan
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1114
|
__label__wiki
| 0.582013
| 0.582013
|
AETN > Engage > Pressroom > Community Cinema offers free advance screening of The Powerbroker in Fayetteville Feb. 17
Community Cinema offers free advance screening of The Powerbroker in Fayetteville Feb. 17
The Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN), Fayetteville Public Library and KUAF 91.3FM invite the public to a free screening The Powerbroker: Whitney Youngs Fight for Civil Rights as part of Community Cinema Sunday, Feb. 17, at 2 p.m. at the library, 401 West Mountain Street.
During the 1960s, as the executive director of the National Urban League, Whitney Young Jr. was one of the few African-Americans who had the ears of those who controlled the levers of power: Fortune 500 CEOs, governors, senators and presidents. He used these relationships to gain better access to employment, education, housing and healthcare for African-Americans, other minorities and those in need. His unique position and approach earned him not only praise, but also scorn from the Black Power movement for being too close to the white establishment. While he is less known today than other leaders of the era because of the behind-the-scenes nature of his work, Youngs legacy and influence are still felt profoundly.
Ten years in the making, The Powerbroker is both a personal portrait of Young drawing on the reflections of family members and never-before-seen home movies, personal photographs and audio recordings and a historical chronicle of how he applied the social service mission of the Urban League to realize the rhetoric of the civil rights movement. The film features rare archival footage and exclusive interviews with an array of people who worked with Young and who have been shaped by his work, including the late Dorothy Height, Pulitzer Prize winner Manning Marable, John Hope Franklin, Ossie Davis, and Howard Zinn, as well as Julian Bond, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Youngs biographer Dennis C. Dickerson, Donald Rumsfeld, Ramsey Clark, and others.
A community discussion will follow the screening. Panelists for the discussion include Dr. Gordon Morgan, who is noted as the first African-American graduate from the University of Arkansas, and Dr. Calvin White, assistant professor of history and program director at the University of Arkansas Additional information is available by calling AETN at 800-662-2386 or visiting aetn.org/communitycinema.
The Powerbroker: Whitney Youngs Fight for Civil Rights will air on AETN Monday, Feb. 18, at 9 p.m.
Community Cinema, a free monthly screening series engaging communities through films produced by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), features monthly screenings followed by panel discussions with leading organizations, local communities and special guest speakers. The program is designed to help people learn about and get involved in the social issues raised in the documentaries.
The Fayetteville Public Librarys mission is to strengthen the community, empower citizens with free and public access to knowledge, inspire imagination, foster learning, be powerfully relevant and be completely accessible. Additional information is available at faylib.org.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1117
|
__label__cc
| 0.72342
| 0.27658
|
Get Amazing Stories
Get great contents delivered straight to your inbox everyday, just a click away, Sign Up Now
You are here: Home / News & Politics / Safety is Not Just About Shootings: American Students Face Multiple Threats
Safety is Not Just About Shootings: American Students Face Multiple Threats
Holly A x Feb 28, 2018
The conversation regarding school safety cannot start and stop with guns and shootings.
Since 2018 began, at least 8 school shootings have occurred in the US involving injury or death. In the days since the most recent widely publicized shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, several conversations have erupted regarding U.S. school safety.
Similar to other shootings, gun control has re-emerged in the mainstream discourse. As well, there are discussions regarding arming teachers and increasing militarization of U.S. public schools. For example, in Broward County, Florida where the shooting took place, the police have reportedly stated that sheriff’s deputies will carry rifles on school grounds going forward. But amidst the growing discourse surrounding violence and guns, one particular discussion about school safety has been erased: that US students have been under threat and are under threat everyday.
Understandably it is a worrisome and frightening and grave situation when a school shooting occurs, but “school safety” is more than just about school shootings. And this hyperfocus on the state of US schools only when widely publicized events happen, obscures that schools have been unsafe and that teachers and students are constantly threatened and in dangerous situations.
In particular, the conversation on increasing police presence in schools or further incorporating metal detectors and other scanners or arming teachers, ignores that many schools are already militarized and policed in this way. Many schools already have policies in place for metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs, especially among schools with a greater concentration poor students and students of color. The National Center for Education Statistics notes that up to 24% of U.S. schools have random drug-sniffs by dogs and almost 9% of high schools have random metal detector scans.
Related: GUN VIOLENCE AND TOXIC MASCULINITY: WHAT HAPPENED IN FLORIDA IS NO ANOMALY
As well, around 30% of US public schools indicated they employ law enforcement officials often known as “school resource officers” (SROs) or “school law enforcement officers” (SLEOs). However, the actual number of officers nationwide is unknown, because these school police officers are not required to register with a national database. Furthermore, schools in Missouri already have armed teachers and a school in Indiana has cameras connected to the sheriff’s department.
But research indicates that there is really not enough data that conclusively demonstrates the effectiveness of measures like metal detectors in schools. As well, there is little relationship between school police officers and crime rates. In fact the police have been known to actually commit violence against students and not protect them, especially against students of color. In fact, school police officers tend to be more prevalent in schools as the percentage of non-white students increases and students of color are 20-40% more likely to attend a school with a school police officer but without a guidance counselor. And research has shown that school police officers may actual feed into the school-to-prison pipeline, increasing the likelihood of children referred to the criminal legal system. Black students in particular are more likely to be criminalized by school policies and school police officers, being suspended between two and three times more than any other race/ethnic group.
Students are also criminalized under school policies that target disability with disabled students over two times more likely suspended than abled students. As well, disabled students make up a quarter of arrests/law enforcement referrals despite only being 12% of the student population and data show that up to 85% of incarcerated youth have a disability that would qualify for individualized education classes, and are disproportionately disabled youth of color.
Queer and trans youth are also criminalized, with queer and trans youth comprising 13-15% of the youth criminal system population despite on being 5-7% of the national youth population, with over 60% of those youth Black and Latinx. Trans students in particular have been targeted and criminalized by anti-trans bathroom policies even among their teachers as about 49% of US educators do not support trans bathroom use. And queer and trans youth like other marginalized students, also face violence and harassment from their peers with 63.5% of queer and trans youth indicating they are unsafe at school.
Related: IT ISN’T ENOUGH TO TALK ABOUT GUN CONTROL, THE ROOTS ARE DEEPER.
And beyond school and state policies and policing that target marginalized students, even the very places of learning meant to provide a safe and stable environment are a threat to students. The very buildings that students enter and stay in everyday are dangerous as noted by The American Society of Civil Engineers which rated US schools a “D+” on the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card and indicated that over 53% of schools must improve infrastructure to be rated “good”.
As well, between 2012 and 2015 a sample of 350 schools representing nearly 20% of national water systems exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) action levels for lead in water while over 90,000 schools are not even under the regulation of water safety legislation. And last month students in 60 Baltimore schools, nearly one-third of the city school district, had to endure classes in 20°F and potential snowstorm conditions without heating during schools hours.
And some students are in danger of not having a school at all like students in Chicago’s South Side region facing school closures of all 4 schools in the Englewood area, bolstered by support from a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) contractor, who contracted $157,000 to do work that was mainly elsewhere in the city. Meanwhile, the city of Chicago is planning to open a $95 million police academy and placed a bid to host the next US headquarters of online shopping corporation Amazon which included a $2.25 billion package in tax and other incentives.
This plan by Chicago Public Schools is not its first mass school closing, as CPS had previously closed 47 schools in 2013 with receiving schools getting only one-tenth of the overall proposed transition budget. And this widespread closure of schools and displacement of students is a threat to their well-being and their education. The very conditions that lead schools to be vulnerable to closure are a threat to students. Broken, failing infrastructure is a threat to students. Hypothermia is a threat to students. Lead poisoning is a threat to students. And school policies that target and criminalize marginalized students are a threat to students.
Related: WHY INNER CITY SCHOOLS DON’T HAVE MASS SHOOTINGS
All these and more are threats faced by students in US schools daily. And the conditions are so dire, teachers too are threatened by state policies and laws like in West Virginia that leave them with insufficient pay and unable to pay for healthcare all while teachers are spending hundreds of dollars out of pocket for school supplies for their classrooms.
In truth, students and teachers in the U.S. education system are bombarded by threats everyday and several of them don’t involve guns. Without a doubt, a school shooting is a critical and grave issue. School shootings must be stopped. But it is by no means the only threat to the safety of students, teachers, and schools. The conversation regarding school safety cannot start and stop with guns and shootings. And in order to truly protect students, teachers, and education, each and every threat to their safety must be confronted and eradicated.
Featured Image: Chicago Public School (CPS) Students Call For Fair Funding With 606 Protest — Students lined the 606 trail Thursday in protest of staff and funding cuts affecting Chicago Public Schools. (Matt Masterson / Chicago Tonight)
[adsense1]
Every single dollar matters to us—especially now when media is under constant threat. Your support is essential and your generosity is why Wear Your Voice keeps going! You are a part of the resistance that is needed—uplifting Black and brown feminists through your pledges is the direct community support that allows us to make more space for marginalized voices. For as little as $1 every month you can be a part of this journey with us. This platform is our way of making necessary and positive change, and together we can keep growing.
Join Wear Your Voice on Patreon
These Are The Companies Profiting From Detaining Migrants At Border Concentration Camps
No, Kamala Harris Shouldn't Pen Monthly Op-Eds For Essence
Boston's 'Straight Pride Parade' Is Really About White Supremacy
Filed Under: News & Politics Tagged With: anti-blackness, disability, education, gun violence, militarization, Parkland Florida, police, race, racism, school, school shootings, segregation
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1122
|
__label__cc
| 0.684285
| 0.315715
|
A reservoir operating method for riverine ecosystem protection, reservoir sedimentation control and water supply
Petts, G.E., Yin, X.-A., Yang, Z.-F. and Kondolf, M. 2014. A reservoir operating method for riverine ecosystem protection, reservoir sedimentation control and water supply. Journal of Hydrology. 512, p. 379–387. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.02.037
Petts, G.E., Yin, X.-A., Yang, Z.-F. and Kondolf, M.
Riverine ecosystem protection requires the maintenance of natural flow and sediment regimes downstream from dams. In reservoir management schedules this requirement should be integrated with sedimentation control and human water supply. However, traditional eco-friendly reservoir operating methods have usually only considered the natural flow regime. This paper seeks to develop a reservoir operating method that accounts for both the natural flow and sediment regimes as well as optimizing the water supply allocations. Herein, reservoir water level (RWL), sediment-occupied ratio of reservoir volume (SOR) and rate of change of SOR (RCSOR) are adopted as three triggers of a drawdown-flushing-based sediment management policy. Two different groups of reservoir operating rule curves (RORCs) are designed for sediment-flushing and non-sediment-flushing years, and the three triggers, RWL, SOR and RCSOR, are used to change the “static” RORCs to “dynamic” ones. The approach is applied to the Wangkuai Reservoir, China to test its effectiveness. This shows that the approach can improve the flexibility of reservoir operators to balance the reservoir management, water supply management and the flow and sediment needs of the downstream riverine ecosystem.
Reservoir; Water supply; Sediment; Flow regime; River protection
Journal of Hydrology
512, p. 379–387
doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.02.037
Ecofriendly river management under ever-increasing environmental pressures
Petts, G.E., Yin, X.-A. and Yang, Z.-F. 2015. Ecofriendly river management under ever-increasing environmental pressures. River Research and Applications. 31 (4), pp. 403-405. doi:10.1002/rra.2902
A new method to assess the flow regime alterations in riverine ecosystems
Petts, G.E., Yin, X.-A. and Yang, Z.-F. 2014. A new method to assess the flow regime alterations in riverine ecosystems. River Research and Applications. 31 (4), pp. 497-504. doi:10.1002/rra.2817
Editorial: International Socety for River Science
Petts, G.E. 2013. Editorial: International Socety for River Science. River Research and Applications. 29 (1), pp. 1-3. doi:10.1002/rra.2640
Optimizing environmental flows between dams
Yin, X.A., Zhang, Y. and Petts, G.E. 2012. Optimizing environmental flows between dams. River Research and Applications. 28 (6), pp. 703-716. doi:10.1002/rra.1477
Meso-habitat use by brown trout (Salmo trutta) in a small groundwater-dominated stream
Gosselin, M.P., Maddock, I.P. and Petts, G.E. 2012. Meso-habitat use by brown trout (Salmo trutta) in a small groundwater-dominated stream. River Research and Applications. 28 (3), pp. 390-401. doi:10.1002/rra.1464
Reservoir operating rules to sustain environmental flows in regulated rivers
Yin, X.-A., Yang, Z.-F. and Petts, G.E. 2011. Reservoir operating rules to sustain environmental flows in regulated rivers. Water Resources Research. 47 (8), p. W08509. doi:10.1029/2010WR009991
Hydrology and ecology of river systems
Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2011. Hydrology and ecology of river systems. in: Wilderer, P. (ed.) Treatise on water science Oxford Academic Press.
Mesohabitat use by bullhead (Cottus gobio)
Gosselin, M.P., Petts, G.E. and Maddock, I.P. 2010. Mesohabitat use by bullhead (Cottus gobio). Hydrobiologia. 652 (1), pp. 299-310. doi:10.1007/s10750-010-0363-z
Instream flow science for sustainable river management
Petts, G.E. 2009. Instream flow science for sustainable river management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 45 (5), pp. 1071-1086. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00360.x
Petts, G.E. 2009. Editorial. River Research and Applications. 25 (1), pp. 1-1. doi:10.1002/rra.1227
Wood as a driver of past landscape change along river corridors
Francis, R.A., Petts, G.E. and Gurnell, A.M. 2008. Wood as a driver of past landscape change along river corridors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 33 (10), pp. 1622-1626. doi:10.1002/esp.1626
Characteristics of freshly deposited sand and finer sediments along an island-braided, gravel-bed river: the roles of water, wind and trees
Gurnell, A.M., Blackall, T.D. and Petts, G.E. 2008. Characteristics of freshly deposited sand and finer sediments along an island-braided, gravel-bed river: the roles of water, wind and trees. Geomorphology. 99 (1-4), pp. 254-269. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.11.009
Integrating climate-hydrology-ecology for alpine river systems
Hannah, D.M., Brown, L.E., Milner, A.M., Gurnell, A.M., McGregor, G.R., Petts, G.E., Smith, B.P.G. and Snook, D.L. 2007. Integrating climate-hydrology-ecology for alpine river systems. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 17 (6), pp. 636-656. doi:10.1002/aqc.800
Patterns of denitrification rates in European alluvial soils under various hydrological regimes
Pinay, G., Gumiero, B., Tabacchi, E., Giminez, O., Tabacchi-Planty, A.M., Hefting, M.M., Burt, T.P., Black, V.A., Nilsson, C., Iordache, V., Bureau, F., Vought, L., Petts, G.E. and Decamps, H. 2007. Patterns of denitrification rates in European alluvial soils under various hydrological regimes. Freshwater Biology. 52 (2), pp. 252-266. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.2006.01680.x
Global partnerships and the new international society for river science (ISRS)
Thorp, J.H., Stanford, J.A., Thoms, M.C. and Petts, G.E. 2007. Global partnerships and the new international society for river science (ISRS). River Research and Applications. 23 (1), pp. 1-5. doi:10.1002/rra.990
Turbidity dynamics during spring storm events in an urban headwater river system: the Upper Tame, West Midlands, UK
Lawler, D.M., Petts, G.E., Foster, I.D.L. and Harper, S. 2006. Turbidity dynamics during spring storm events in an urban headwater river system: the Upper Tame, West Midlands, UK. Science of the Total Environment. 360 (1-3), pp. 109-126. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2005.08.032
Trees as riparian engineers: the Tagliamento river, Italy
Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2006. Trees as riparian engineers: the Tagliamento river, Italy. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 31 (12), pp. 1558-1574. doi:10.1002/esp.1342
Initial adjustments within a new river channel: interactions between fluvial processes, colonizing vegetation, and bank profile development
Gurnell, A.M., Morrissey, I.P., Boitsidis, A.J., Bark, T., Clifford, N.J., Petts, G.E. and Thompson, K. 2006. Initial adjustments within a new river channel: interactions between fluvial processes, colonizing vegetation, and bank profile development. Environmental Management. 38 (4), pp. 580-596. doi:10.1007/s00267-005-0190-6
A decision support system for identifying the habitat quality and rehabilitation potential of urban rivers
Boitsidis, A.J., Gurnell, A.M., Scott, M., Petts, G.E. and Armitage, P.D. 2006. A decision support system for identifying the habitat quality and rehabilitation potential of urban rivers. Water and Environment Journal. 20 (3), pp. 130-140. doi:10.1111/j.1747-6593.2005.00005.x
Advancing science for water resources management
Petts, G.E., Nestler, J. and Kennedy, R.H. 2006. Advancing science for water resources management. Hydrobiologia. 565 (1), pp. 277-288. doi:10.1007/s10750-005-1919-1
Linking hydrology and biology in assessing water needs for riverine ecosystems
Petts, G.E., Morales, Y. and Sadler, J.P. 2006. Linking hydrology and biology in assessing water needs for riverine ecosystems. Hydrological Processes. 20 (10), pp. 2247-2251. doi:10.1002/hyp.6223
Hydrodynamics of floodplain wetlands in a chalk catchment: the River Lambourn, UK
Grapes, T.R., Bradley, C. and Petts, G.E. 2006. Hydrodynamics of floodplain wetlands in a chalk catchment: the River Lambourn, UK. Journal of Hydrology. 320 (3-4), pp. 324-341. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.07.028
Braided rivers: where have we come in 10 years?
Sambrook Smith, G., Best, J.L., Bristow, C.S. and Petts, G.E. 2006. Braided rivers: where have we come in 10 years? in: Sambrook, G.H., Best, J.L., Bristow, C.S. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Braided rivers: process, deposits, ecology and management Oxford Blackwell.
Suspended sediment dynamics for June storm events in the urbanized River Tame, UK
Lawler, D.M., Foster, I.D.L., Petts, G.E. and Harper, S. 2006. Suspended sediment dynamics for June storm events in the urbanized River Tame, UK. in: Rowan, J.S., Duck, R.W. and Werritty, A. (ed.) Sediment dynamics and the hydromorphology of fluvial systems (IAHS Symposium, Dundee, Scotland, July 2006) IAHS Press.
Riparian tree establishment on gravel bars: interactions between plant growth strategy and the physical environment
Francis, R.A., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E. and Edwards, P.J. 2006. Riparian tree establishment on gravel bars: interactions between plant growth strategy and the physical environment. in: Sambrook, G.H., Best, J.L., Bristow, C.S. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Braided rivers: process, deposits, ecology and management Oxford Blackwell.
Physical habitat, eco-hydraulics and river design: a review and re-evaluation of some popular concepts and methods
Clifford, N.J., Harmar, O.P., Harvey, G. and Petts, G.E. 2006. Physical habitat, eco-hydraulics and river design: a review and re-evaluation of some popular concepts and methods. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 16 (4), pp. 389-408. doi:10.1002/aqc.736
Assessment of hydrodynamic simulation results for eco-hydraulic and eco-hydrological applications: a spatial semivariance approach
Clifford, N.J., Soar, P.J., Harmar, O.P., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E. and Emery, J.C. 2005. Assessment of hydrodynamic simulation results for eco-hydraulic and eco-hydrological applications: a spatial semivariance approach. Hydrological Processes. 19 (18), pp. 3631-3648. doi:10.1002/hyp.5855
Dams and geomorphology: research progress and future directions
Petts, G.E. and Gurnell, A.M. 2005. Dams and geomorphology: research progress and future directions. Geomorphology. 71 (1-2), pp. 27-47. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2004.02.015
Dynamics of river-aquifer interactions along a chalk stream: the River Lambourn, UK
Grapes, T.R., Bradley, C. and Petts, G.E. 2005. Dynamics of river-aquifer interactions along a chalk stream: the River Lambourn, UK. Hydrological Processes. 19 (10), pp. 2035-2053. doi:10.1002/hyp.5665
Survival and growth responses of Populus nigra, Salix elaeagnos and Alnus incana cuttings to varying levels of hydric stress
Francis, R.A., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E. and Edwards, P.J. 2005. Survival and growth responses of Populus nigra, Salix elaeagnos and Alnus incana cuttings to varying levels of hydric stress. Forest Ecology and Management. 210 (1-3), pp. 291-301. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2005.02.045
Effects of deposited wood on biocomplexity of river corridors
Gurnell, A.M., Tockner, K., Edwards, P.J. and Petts, G.E. 2005. Effects of deposited wood on biocomplexity of river corridors. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 3 (7), pp. 377-382.
Vegetable propagule dynamics and fluvial geomorphology
Gurnell, A.M., Goodson, J.M., Angold, P., Morrissey, I.P., Petts, G.E. and Steiger, J. 2004. Vegetable propagule dynamics and fluvial geomorphology. in: Bennett, S.J. and Simon, A. (ed.) Riparian vegetation and fluvial geomorphology Washington, DC American Geophysical Union.
Characteristics and controls of gravel-bed riffles: an analysis of data from the River Habitat Survey
Emery, J.C., Gurnell, A.M., Clifford, N.J. and Petts, G.E. 2004. Characteristics and controls of gravel-bed riffles: an analysis of data from the River Habitat Survey. Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. Journal. 18, pp. 210-216.
Riparian zones: where biogeochemistry meets biodiversity in management practice
Decamps, H., Pinay, G., Naiman, R.J., Petts, G.E., McClain, M.E., Hillbricht-Ilkowska, A., Hanley, T.A., Holmes, R.M., Quinn, J., Gibert, J., Planty-Tabacchi, A.M., Schiemer, F., Tabacchi, E. and Zalewski, M. 2004. Riparian zones: where biogeochemistry meets biodiversity in management practice. Polish Journal of Ecology. 52 (1), pp. 3-18.
The Tagliamento River: a model ecosystem of European importance
Tockner, K., Ward, J.V., Arscott, D.B., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E. and Maiolini, B. 2003. The Tagliamento River: a model ecosystem of European importance. Aquatic Sciences. 65 (3), pp. 239-253. doi:10.1007/s00027-003-0699-9
Classifying the hydraulic performance of riffle-pool bedforms for habitat assessment and river rehabilitation design
Emery, J.C., Gurnell, A.M., Clifford, N.J., Petts, G.E., Morrissey, I.P. and Soar, P.J. 2003. Classifying the hydraulic performance of riffle-pool bedforms for habitat assessment and river rehabilitation design. River Research and Applications. 19 (5-6), pp. 533-549. doi:10.1002/rra.744
Ecohydrological and ecohydrographical methodologies applied to conservation of reparian vegetation: the Caura River
Rosales, J., Maxted, N., Rico-Arce, L. and Petts, G.E. 2003. Ecohydrological and ecohydrographical methodologies applied to conservation of reparian vegetation: the Caura River. in: A biological assessment of the aquatic ecosystems of the Caura River Basin, Bolívar State, Venezuela Washington, D.C. Conservation International.
Rivers and wood: a human dimension
Petts, G.E. and Wellcomme, R. 2003. Rivers and wood: a human dimension. in: Gregory, S.V., Bowyer, K.L. and Gurnell, A.M. (ed.) The ecology and management of wood in world rivers Bethesda, Md. American Fisheries Society.
Patterns in woody vegetation along the active zone of a near-natural Alpine river
Karrenberg, S., Kollmann, J., Edwards, P.J., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2003. Patterns in woody vegetation along the active zone of a near-natural Alpine river. Basic and Applied Ecology. 4 (2), pp. 157-166. doi:10.1078/1439-1791-00123
Using historical data in fluvial geomorphology
Gurnell, A.M., Piery, J.L. and Petts, G.E. 2003. Using historical data in fluvial geomorphology. in: Kondolf, M. and Piégay, H. (ed.) Tools in fluvial geomorphology Whichester Wiley.
Legitimizing fluvial ecosystems as users of water: an overview
Naiman, R.J., Bunn, S., Nilsson, C., Petts, G.E., Pinay, G. and Thompson, L.C. 2002. Legitimizing fluvial ecosystems as users of water: an overview. Environmental Management. 30 (4), pp. 455-467. doi:10.1007/s00267-002-2734-3
Restructuring physical geography
Gregory, K.J., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2002. Restructuring physical geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 27 (2), pp. 136-154. doi:10.1111/1475-5661.00046
Island-dominated landscapes of large floodplain rivers, a European perspective
Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2002. Island-dominated landscapes of large floodplain rivers, a European perspective. Freshwater Biology. 47 (4), pp. 581-600. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2427.2002.00923.x
Ecohydrology of riparian forests in the Orinoco River Basin
Rosales, J., Vispo, C., Dezzeo, N., Blanco-Belmonte, L., Knab-Vispo, C., Gonzalez, N., Daza, F., Petts, G.E., Bradley, C., Gilvear, D.J., Escalante, G. and Chacón, N. 2002. Ecohydrology of riparian forests in the Orinoco River Basin. in: McClain, M.E. (ed.) The ecohydrology of South American rivers and wetlands Wallingford International Association of Hydrological Sciences.
Sustaining water-related ecosystems: the role of instream bedform design in river channel rehabilitation
Clifford, N.J., Soar, P.J., Emery, J.C., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2002. Sustaining water-related ecosystems: the role of instream bedform design in river channel rehabilitation. in: Van Lanen, H.A.J. and Demuth, S. (ed.) FRIEND 2002: regional hydrology: bridging the gap between research and practice Wallingford IAHS.
A hydrogeomorphological context for ecological research on alpine glacial rivers
Smith, B.P.G., Hannah, D.M., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2001. A hydrogeomorphological context for ecological research on alpine glacial rivers. Freshwater Biology. 46 (12), pp. 1579-1596. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2427.2001.00846.x
Trends of macroinvertebrate community structure in glacier-fed rivers in relation to environmental conditions: a synthesis
Milner, A.M., Brittain, J.E., Castella, E. and Petts, G.E. 2001. Trends of macroinvertebrate community structure in glacier-fed rivers in relation to environmental conditions: a synthesis. Freshwater Biology. 46 (12), pp. 1833-1847. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2427.2001.00861.x
Sediment deposition along the channel margins of a reach of the middle River Severn, UK
Steiger, J., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 2001. Sediment deposition along the channel margins of a reach of the middle River Severn, UK. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 17 (4-5), pp. 443-460. doi:10.1002/rrr.644
Scales of hydroecological variability within a groundwater-dominated stream
Wood, P.J., Hannah, D.M., Agnew, M.D. and Petts, G.E. 2001. Scales of hydroecological variability within a groundwater-dominated stream. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 17 (4-5), pp. 347-367. doi:10.1002/rrr.658
Development, flood risk and the urban environment: experiences from the River Tame
Webster, P., West, J.R., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E., Sadler, J.P. and Forster, C.F. 2001. Development, flood risk and the urban environment: experiences from the River Tame. Journal of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. 15 (3), pp. 167-173. doi:10.1111/j.1747-6593.2001.tb00328.x
Assessing adult Trichoptera communities of small streams: a case study from Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, UK
Greenwood, M.T., Bickerton, M.A. and Petts, G.E. 2001. Assessing adult Trichoptera communities of small streams: a case study from Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, UK. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 11 (2), pp. 93-107. doi:10.1002/aqc.435
Hydro-ecological variability within a groundwater-dominated stream
Wood, P.J., Agnew, M.D. and Petts, G.E. 2001. Hydro-ecological variability within a groundwater-dominated stream. in: Acreman, M.C. (ed.) Hydro-ecology: linking hydrology and aquatic ecology Wallingford International Association of Hydrological Sciences.
Sustaining our rivers in crisis: setting the international agenda for action
Petts, G.E. 2001. Sustaining our rivers in crisis: setting the international agenda for action. Water Science and Technology. 43 (9), pp. 3-16.
Ecological gradients within the riparian forests of the lower Caura River, Venezuela
Rosales, J., Petts, G.E. and Knab-Vispo, C. 2001. Ecological gradients within the riparian forests of the lower Caura River, Venezuela. Plant Ecology. 152 (1), pp. 101-118. doi:10.1023/A:1011411020040
Riparian vegetation and island formation along the gravel-bed Fiume Tagliamento, Italy
Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E., Hannah, D.M., Smith, B.P.G., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Ward, J.V. and Tockner, K. 2001. Riparian vegetation and island formation along the gravel-bed Fiume Tagliamento, Italy. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 26 (1), pp. 31-62. doi:10.1002/1096-9837(200101)26:1<31::AID-ESP155>3.0.CO;2-Y
Flow variations and macroinvertebrate community responses in a small groundwater-dominated stream in south-east England
Wood, P.J., Agnew, M.D. and Petts, G.E. 2000. Flow variations and macroinvertebrate community responses in a small groundwater-dominated stream in south-east England. Hydrological Processes. 14 (16-17), pp. 3133-3147. doi:10.1002/1099-1085(200011/12)14:16/17<3133::AID-HYP138>3.0.CO;2-J
Regional variations in the sediment structure of trout streams in southern England: benchmark data for siltation assessment and restoration
Milan, D.J., Petts, G.E. and Sambrook, H. 2000. Regional variations in the sediment structure of trout streams in southern England: benchmark data for siltation assessment and restoration. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 10 (6), pp. 407-420. doi:10.1002/1099-0755(200011/12)10:6<407::AID-AQC421>3.0.CO;2-4
Classification of river regimes: a context for hydroecology
Harris, N.M., Gurnell, A.M., Hannah, D.M. and Petts, G.E. 2000. Classification of river regimes: a context for hydroecology. Hydrological Processes. 14 (16-17), pp. 2831-2846. doi:10.1002/1099-1085(200011/12)14:16/17<2831::AID-HYP122>3.0.CO;2-O
Wood storage within the active zone of a large European gravel-bed river
Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E., Hannah, D.M., Smith, B.P.G., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Ward, J.V. and Tockner, K. 2000. Wood storage within the active zone of a large European gravel-bed river. Geomorphology. 34 (1-2), pp. 55-72. doi:10.1016/S0169-555X(99)00131-2
Longitudinal variations in exposed riverine sediments: a context for the ecology of the Fiume Tagliamento, Italy
Petts, G.E., Gurnell, A.M., Gerrard, A.J., Hannah, D.M., Hansford, B., Morrissey, I.P., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Ward, J.V., Tockner, K. and Smith, B.P.G. 2000. Longitudinal variations in exposed riverine sediments: a context for the ecology of the Fiume Tagliamento, Italy. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 10 (4), pp. 249-266. doi:10.1002/1099-0755(200007/08)10:4<249::AID-AQC410>3.0.CO;2-R
A perspective on the abiotic processes sustaining the ecological integrity of running waters
Petts, G.E. 2000. A perspective on the abiotic processes sustaining the ecological integrity of running waters. Hydrobiologia. 422-423, pp. 15-27. doi:10.1023/A:1017062032685
Large wood retention in river channels: the case of the Fiume Tagliamento, Italy
Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E., Harris, N.M., Ward, J.V., Tockner, K., Edwards, P.J. and Kollmann, J. 2000. Large wood retention in river channels: the case of the Fiume Tagliamento, Italy. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 25 (3), pp. 255-275.
Potential role of island dynamis in river ecosystems
Ward, J.V., Tockner, K., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E., Bretschko, G. and Rossaro, B. 2000. Potential role of island dynamis in river ecosystems. International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology. Proceedings. 27, pp. 2582-2585.
River restoration: policy and practice
Petts, G.E., Sparks, R. and Campbell, I. 2000. River restoration: policy and practice. in: Boon, P.J., Davies, B.R. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Global perspectives on river conservation Chichester Wiley. pp. 493-508
Russian and Eastern European rivers
Khaiter, P., Nikanorov, A.M., Yereschukova, M.G., Prach, K., Vadineanu, A., Oldfield, J. and Petts, G.E. 2000. Russian and Eastern European rivers. in: Boon, P.J., Davies, B.R. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Global perspectives on river conservation Chichester Wiley. pp. 105-126
Instream mesohabitat biodiversity in three groundwater streams under base-flow conditions
Wood, P.J., Armitage, P.D., Cannan, C.E. and Petts, G.E. 1999. Instream mesohabitat biodiversity in three groundwater streams under base-flow conditions. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 9 (3), pp. 265-278. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0755(199905/06)9:3<265::AID-AQC342>3.0.CO;2-Q
Riparian flooded forests of the Orinoco and Amazon basins: a comparative review
Rosales, J., Petts, G.E. and Salo, J. 1999. Riparian flooded forests of the Orinoco and Amazon basins: a comparative review. Biodiversity and Conservation. 8 (4), pp. 551-586. doi:10.1023/A:1008846531941
The influence of drought on chalk stream macroinvertebrates
Wood, P.J. and Petts, G.E. 1999. The influence of drought on chalk stream macroinvertebrates. Hydrological Processes. 13 (3), pp. 387-399.
Flow management to sustain groundwater-dominated stream ecosystems
Petts, G.E., Bickerton, M.A., Crawford, C., Lerner, D.N. and Evans, D. 1999. Flow management to sustain groundwater-dominated stream ecosystems. Hydrological Processes. 13 (3), pp. 497-513. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(19990228)13:3<497::AID-HYP753>3.0.CO;2-S
Bench development along the regulated, lower River Dee, UK
Changxing, S., Petts, G.E. and Gurnell, A.M. 1999. Bench development along the regulated, lower River Dee, UK. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 24 (2), pp. 135-149.
Causes of catchment scale hydrological change
Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 1999. Causes of catchment scale hydrological change. in: Acreman, M.C. (ed.) The hydrology of the UK: a study of change London Routledge. pp. 82-98
A reference river system for the Alps: the Fiume Tagliamento
Ward, J.V., Tockner, K., Edwards, P.J., Kollmann, J., Bretschko, G., Gurnell, A.M., Petts, G.E. and Rossaro, B. 1999. A reference river system for the Alps: the Fiume Tagliamento. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 15 (1-3), pp. 63-75. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1646(199901/06)15:1/3<63::AID-RRR538>3.0.CO;2-F
A conceptual model for alpine proglacial river channel evolution under changing climatic conditions
Gurnell, A.M., Edwards, P.J., Petts, G.E. and Ward, J.V. 1999. A conceptual model for alpine proglacial river channel evolution under changing climatic conditions. Catena. 38 (3), pp. 223-242. doi:10.1016/S0341-8162(99)00069-7
Channel changes and invertebrate faunas below Nant-Y-Môch Dam, River Rheidol, Wales, UK: 35 years on
Greenwood, M.T., Gurnell, A.M., Bickerton, M.A. and Petts, G.E. 1999. Channel changes and invertebrate faunas below Nant-Y-Môch Dam, River Rheidol, Wales, UK: 35 years on. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 15 (1-3), pp. 99-112. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1646(199901/06)15:1/3<99::AID-RRR530>3.0.CO;2-I
The distribution of spiders in the wooded riparian zone of three rivers in Western Europe
Bell, D., Petts, G.E. and Sadler, J.P. 1999. The distribution of spiders in the wooded riparian zone of three rivers in Western Europe. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 15 (1-3), pp. 141-158. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1646(199901/06)15:1/3<141::AID-RRR536>3.0.CO;2-E
Morphological and ecological change on a meander bend: the role of hydrological processes and the application of GIS
Gurnell, A.M., Bickerton, M.A., Angold, P., Bell, D., Morrissey, I.P., Petts, G.E. and Sadler, J.P. 1998. Morphological and ecological change on a meander bend: the role of hydrological processes and the application of GIS. Hydrological Processes. 12 (6), pp. 981-993. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(199805)12:6<981::AID-HYP667>3.0.CO;2-S
River energy budgets with special reference to river bed processes
Evans, E.C., McGregor, G.R. and Petts, G.E. 1998. River energy budgets with special reference to river bed processes. Hydrological Processes. 12 (4), pp. 575-595. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1085(19980330)12:4<575::AID-HYP595>3.0.CO;2-Y
Floodplain rivers and their restoration: a European perspective
Petts, G.E. 1998. Floodplain rivers and their restoration: a European perspective. in: Bailey, R.G., José, P.V. and Sherwood, B.R. (ed.) United Kingdom Floodplains Ottley Westbury. pp. 29-41
Addressing the effects of siltation in a trout stream experiencing exceptional low flows: River Glen, UK
Milan, D.J. and Petts, G.E. 1998. Addressing the effects of siltation in a trout stream experiencing exceptional low flows: River Glen, UK. in: Bretschko, G. and Helešic, J. (ed.) Advances in river bottom ecology Leiden Backhuys. pp. 279-291
Hyporheic temperature patterns within riffles
Evans, E.C. and Petts, G.E. 1997. Hyporheic temperature patterns within riffles. Hydrological Sciences Journal. 42 (2), pp. 199-213. doi:10.1080/02626669709492020
Case studies in the application of geomorphology to river management
Newson, M.D., Hey, R.D., Bathurst, J.C., Brookes, A., Carling, P.A., Petts, G.E. and Sear, D.A. 1997. Case studies in the application of geomorphology to river management. in: Thorne, C.R., Hey, R.D. and Newson, M.D. (ed.) Applied fluvial geomorphology Chichester Wiley. pp. 311-365
Hydrological and ecological interactions within river corridors
Bradley, C. and Petts, G.E. 1997. Hydrological and ecological interactions within river corridors. in: Wilby, R.L. (ed.) Contemporary hydrology Chichester Wiley. pp. 241-272
Water allocation to protect river ecosystems
Petts, G.E. 1996. Water allocation to protect river ecosystems. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 12 (4-5), pp. 353-365. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1646(199607)12:4/5<353::AID-RRR425>3.0.CO;2-6
Historical channel-floodplain dynamics along the River Trent: implications for river rehabilitation
Large, A.R.G. and Petts, G.E. 1996. Historical channel-floodplain dynamics along the River Trent: implications for river rehabilitation. Applied Geography. 16 (3), pp. 191-209. doi:10.1016/0143-6228(96)00004-5
Rivers and their catchments
Petts, G.E. and Calow, P. 1996. Rivers and their catchments. in: Petts, G.E. and Calow, P. (ed.) River restoration: selected extracts from the Rivers handbook Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 1-5
Fluvial hydrosystems: the physical basis
Petts, G.E. and Calow, P. 1996. Fluvial hydrosystems: the physical basis. in: Petts, G.E. and Calow, P. (ed.) River flows and channel forms: selected extracts from the rivers handbook Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 1-6
The drainage basin perspective
Petts, G.E. and Bravard, J.P. 1996. The drainage basin perspective. in: Petts, G.E. and Amoros, C. (ed.) Fluvial hydrosystems London Chapman & Hall. pp. 21-41
The scientific basis of managing biodiversity along river margins
Petts, G.E. 1996. The scientific basis of managing biodiversity along river margins. in: Lachavanne, J.B. and Juge, R. (ed.) Biodiversity in land-inland water ecotones Paris UNESCO.
Sustaining the ecological integrity of large floodplain rivers
Petts, G.E. 1996. Sustaining the ecological integrity of large floodplain rivers. in: Anderson, M.G., Walling, D.E. and Bates, P.D. (ed.) Floodplain processes Chichester Wiley. pp. 535-551
Inter-basin water transfers: issues affecting the West Midlands in the 21st century
Petts, G.E. 1996. Inter-basin water transfers: issues affecting the West Midlands in the 21st century. in: Slater, A.J. and Gerrard, T.R. (ed.) Managing a conurbation: Birmingham and its region Studley Brewin. pp. 28-45
The nature of river habitats
Calow, P. and Petts, G.E. 1996. The nature of river habitats. in: Petts, G.E. and Calow, P. (ed.) River biota: diversity and dynamics: selected extracts from the Rivers handbook Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 1-6
Human impacts on fluvial systems
Bravard, J.P. and Petts, G.E. 1996. Human impacts on fluvial systems. in: Petts, G.E. and Amoros, C. (ed.) Fluvial hydrosystems London Chapman & Hall. pp. 233-256
The hydrosystem concept in river management
Amoros, C. and Petts, G.E. 1996. The hydrosystem concept in river management. in: Petts, G.E. and Amoros, C. (ed.) Fluvial hydrosystems London Chapman & Hall. pp. 257-297
The conceptual basis
Amoros, C. and Petts, G.E. 1996. The conceptual basis. in: Petts, G.E. and Amoros, C. (ed.) Fluvial hydrosystems London Chapman & Hall. pp. 3-17
Local variability of gold in active stream sediments
Hughes, N., Coats, S.T. and Petts, G.E. 1995. Local variability of gold in active stream sediments. Journal of Geochemical Exploration. 54 (2), pp. 137-148. doi:10.1016/0375-6742(95)00014-8
Sensitivity of alpine stream ecosystems to climate change and human impacts
McGregor, G.R., Petts, G.E., Gurnell, A.M. and Milner, A.M. 1995. Sensitivity of alpine stream ecosystems to climate change and human impacts. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 5 (3), pp. 233-247. doi:10.1002/aqc.3270050306
Patial distribution of spiders on the floodplain of the river trent, UK: the role of hydrological setting
Greenwood, M.T., Bickerton, M.A. and Petts, G.E. 1995. Patial distribution of spiders on the floodplain of the river trent, UK: the role of hydrological setting. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 10 (2-4), pp. 303-313. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450100223
The effects of water abstractions on invertebrate communities in U.K. streams
Castella, E., Armitage, P.D., Bickerton, M.A. and Petts, G.E. 1995. The effects of water abstractions on invertebrate communities in U.K. streams. Hydrobiologia. 308 (3), pp. 167-182. doi:10.1007/BF00006869
The role of coarse woody debris in forest aquatic habitats: Implications for management
Gurnell, A.M., Gregory, K.J. and Petts, G.E. 1995. The role of coarse woody debris in forest aquatic habitats: Implications for management. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 5 (2), pp. 143-166. doi:10.1002/aqc.3270050206
The scientific basis for setting minimum ecological flows
Petts, G.E., Maddock, I.P., Bickerton, M.A. and Ferguson, A. 1995. The scientific basis for setting minimum ecological flows. in: Harper, D.M. and Ferguson, A. (ed.) The ecological basis for river management Chichester Wiley. pp. 1-18
Changing river channels: the geographical tradition
Petts, G.E. 1995. Changing river channels: the geographical tradition. in: Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Changing river channels Chichester Wiley. pp. 1-23
River channel assessment: a method for defining channel sectors: the River Glem, Lincolnshire UK
Maddock, I.P., Petts, G.E. and Bickerton, M.A. 1995. River channel assessment: a method for defining channel sectors: the River Glem, Lincolnshire UK. in: Petts, G.E. (ed.) Man's influence on freshwater ecosystems and water use Wallingford International Association of Hydrological Sciences.
Assessing the river aquifer interactions within the hyporheic zone
Maddock, I.P., Evans, C., Greenwood, M.T. and Petts, G.E. 1995. Assessing the river aquifer interactions within the hyporheic zone. in: Brown, A.G. (ed.) Geomorphology and groundwater Chichester Wiley. pp. 53-74
The role of dead wood in aquatic ecosystems in forests
Gregory, K.J., Gurnell, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 1995. The role of dead wood in aquatic ecosystems in forests. in: Brown, I.R. (ed.) Forests and water Edinburgh Institute of Chartered Foresters. pp. 158-192
Floodplain Coleoptera distributions: the River Trent, UK
Greenwood, M.T., Bickerton, M.A. and Petts, G.E. 1995. Floodplain Coleoptera distributions: the River Trent, UK. Archiv fuer Hydrobiologie Supplement. 101 (3-4), pp. 427-437.
Thermal profiles within river beds
Evans, E.C., Greenwood, M.T. and Petts, G.E. 1995. Thermal profiles within river beds. Hydrological Processes. 9 (1), pp. 19-25. doi:10.1002/hyp.3360090103
Low flows and recovery of macroinvertebrates in a small regulated chalk stream
Wood, P.J. and Petts, G.E. 1994. Low flows and recovery of macroinvertebrates in a small regulated chalk stream. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 9 (4), pp. 303-316. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450090410
Influence of water abstraction on the macroinvertebrate community gradient within a glacial stream system: La Borgne d'Arolla, Valais, Switzerland
Petts, G.E. and Bickerton, M.A. 1994. Influence of water abstraction on the macroinvertebrate community gradient within a glacial stream system: La Borgne d'Arolla, Valais, Switzerland. Freshwater Biology. 32 (2), pp. 375-386. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.1994.tb01133.x
Glacial rivers: physical habitat and ecology
Milner, A.M. and Petts, G.E. 1994. Glacial rivers: physical habitat and ecology. Freshwater Biology. 32 (2), pp. 295-307. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.1994.tb01127.x
Flow allocation for in-river needs
Petts, G.E. and Maddock, I.P. 1994. Flow allocation for in-river needs. in: Calow, P. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) The River's handbook: hydrological and ecological principles. Vol. 2 Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 289-307
The impact of large dams and river basin schemes
Petts, G.E. 1994. The impact of large dams and river basin schemes. in: Roberts, N. (ed.) The changing global environment Oxford Blackwell. pp. 262-284
Rivers: dynamic components of catchment ecosystems
Petts, G.E. 1994. Rivers: dynamic components of catchment ecosystems. in: Calow, P. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) The River's handbook: hydrological and ecological principles. Vol. 2 Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 3-22
rehabilitation of river margins
Large, A.R.G. and Petts, G.E. 1994. rehabilitation of river margins. in: Calow, P. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) The River's handbook: hydrological and ecological principles. Vol. 2 Oxford Blackwell Science. pp. 401-418
Physical habitat changes and macroinvertebrate response to river regulation: the river Rede, UK
Petts, G.E., Armitage, P.D. and Castella, E. 1993. Physical habitat changes and macroinvertebrate response to river regulation: the river Rede, UK. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 8 (1-2), pp. 167-178. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450080119
Assessing the ecological effects of groundwater abstraction on chalk streams: three examples from Eastern England
Bickerton, M.A., Petts, G.E. and Armitage, P.D. 1993. Assessing the ecological effects of groundwater abstraction on chalk streams: three examples from Eastern England. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 8 (1-2), pp. 121-134. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450080115
Restoration of floodplains: a UK perspective
Large, A.R.G., Petts, G.E., Wilby, R.L. and Greenwood, M.T. 1993. Restoration of floodplains: a UK perspective. European Water Pollution Control. 3, pp. 44-52.
Groundwater invertebrates of european alluvial floodplains
Obrdlik, P., Castella, E., Foeckler, F. and Petts, G.E. 1992. Groundwater invertebrates of european alluvial floodplains. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 7 (1), pp. 1-3. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450070102
Biotic score and prediction to assess the effects of water abstractions on river macroinvertebrates for conservation purposes
Armitage, P.D. and Petts, G.E. 1992. Biotic score and prediction to assess the effects of water abstractions on river macroinvertebrates for conservation purposes. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 2 (1), pp. 1-17. doi:10.1002/aqc.3270020102
Floodplain assessment for restoration and conservation: linking hydrogeomorphology and ecology
Petts, G.E., Large, A.R.G., Greenwood, M.T. and Bickerton, M.A. 1992. Floodplain assessment for restoration and conservation: linking hydrogeomorphology and ecology. in: Carling, P.A. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Lowland floodplain rivers: geomorphological perspectives Chichester Wiley. pp. 217-234
The use of coleoptera (arthropoda:insecta) for floodplain characterization on the River Trent, U.K.
Greenwood, M.T., Bickerton, M.A., Castella, E., Large, A.R.G. and Petts, G.E. 1991. The use of coleoptera (arthropoda:insecta) for floodplain characterization on the River Trent, U.K. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 6 (4), pp. 321-332. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450060410
Freeze-sampling method of collecting drainage sediments for gold exploration
Petts, G.E., Coats, S.T. and Hughes, N. 1991. Freeze-sampling method of collecting drainage sediments for gold exploration. Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy: Section B: Applied Earth Science. 100, pp. 28-32.
Management of regulated rivers in South America
Petts, G.E. 1991. Management of regulated rivers in South America. Interciencia. 15, pp. 388-395.
The role of ecotones in aquatic landscape management
Petts, G.E. 1990. The role of ecotones in aquatic landscape management. in: Naiman, R.J. and Décamps, H. (ed.) Ecology and management of aquatic-terrestrial ecotones Paris UNESCO. pp. 227-261
Water engineering and landscape: prospect for environmentally sound development
Petts, G.E. 1990. Water engineering and landscape: prospect for environmentally sound development. in: Cosgrove, D. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Water, engineering and landscape: water control and landscape transformation in the modern period London Bellhaven. pp. 188-208
Forrested alluvial corridors: a lost resource
Petts, G.E. 1990. Forrested alluvial corridors: a lost resource. in: Cosgrove, D. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Water, engineering and landscape: water control and landscape transformation in the modern period London Bellhaven. pp. 12-34
A freeze-coring technique applied to pollution by fine sediments in gravel-bed rivers
Petts, G.E., Thoms, M.C., Brittan, K. and Atkin, B. 1989. A freeze-coring technique applied to pollution by fine sediments in gravel-bed rivers. Science of the Total Environment. 84, pp. 259-272. doi:10.1016/0048-9697(89)90388-4
Management of fish populations in large rivers: a review of tools and approaches
Petts, G.E., Imhof, J., Manny, B.A., Maher, J.F.B. and Weisberg, S.B. 1989. Management of fish populations in large rivers: a review of tools and approaches. in: Dodge, D.P. (ed.) Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium. Ottowa, Ontario Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The regulation of the River Derwent
Petts, G.E. 1989. The regulation of the River Derwent. East Midland Geographer. 11 (2), pp. 54-63.
Perspectives for ecological management of regulated rivers
Petts, G.E. 1989. Perspectives for ecological management of regulated rivers. in: Gore, J.A. and Petts, G.E. (ed.) Alternatives in regulated river management Boca Raton, Fla CRC Press. pp. 3-24
Historical analysis of fluvial hydrosystems
Petts, G.E. 1989. Historical analysis of fluvial hydrosystems. in: Petts, G.E., Möller, H. and Roux, A.L. (ed.) Historical change of large alluvial rivers: Western Europe Chichester Wiley. pp. 1-18
Water management: the case of Lake Biwa, Japan
Petts, G.E. 1988. Water management: the case of Lake Biwa, Japan. Geographical Journal. 154 (3), pp. 367-376.
Regulated rivers in the United Kingdom
Petts, G.E. 1988. Regulated rivers in the United Kingdom. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 2 (3), pp. 201-220. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450020303
Hydrological changes and river regulation in the UK
Higgs, G. and Petts, G.E. 1988. Hydrological changes and river regulation in the UK. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 2 (3), pp. 349-368. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450020312
Accumulation of fine sediment within substrate gravels along two regulated rivers, UK
Petts, G.E. 1988. Accumulation of fine sediment within substrate gravels along two regulated rivers, UK. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 2 (2), pp. 141-153. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450020208
Rivers and river regulation in the UK
Petts, G.E. 1988. Rivers and river regulation in the UK. in: Petts, G.E. and Wood, R. (ed.) Regulated rivers, research and management: river regulation in the United Kingdom Chichester Wiley.
Higgs, G. and Petts, G.E. 1988. Hydrological changes and river regulation in the UK. in: Petts, G.E. and Wood, R. (ed.) Regulated rivers, research and management: river regulation in the United Kingdom Chichester Wiley.
Morphology and sedimentology of a tributary confluence bar in a regulated river: North Tyne, U.K.
Petts, G.E. and Thoms, M.C. 1987. Morphology and sedimentology of a tributary confluence bar in a regulated river: North Tyne, U.K. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 12 (4), pp. 433-440. doi:10.1002/esp.3290120409
Large rivers and large water projects
Petts, G.E. and Mann, R.H.K. 1987. Large rivers and large water projects. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 1 (2), pp. 189-191. doi:10.1002/rrr.3450010209
Timescales for ecological change in regulated rivers
Petts, G.E. 1987. Timescales for ecological change in regulated rivers. in: Craig, J.F. and Kemper, J.B. (ed.) Regulated streams: advances in ecology London Plenum. pp. 257-266
River regulation in Europe: an historical perspective
Petts, G.E. 1987. River regulation in Europe: an historical perspective. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management. 1 (4), pp. 363-369.
Water quality characteristics of regulated rivers
Petts, G.E. 1986. Water quality characteristics of regulated rivers. Progress in Physical Geography. 10 (4), pp. 492-516. doi:10.1177/030913338601000402
Channel aggradation below Chew Valley Lake, Somerset, U.K.
Petts, G.E. and Thoms, M.C. 1986. Channel aggradation below Chew Valley Lake, Somerset, U.K. Catena. 13 (3), pp. 305-320. doi:10.1016/0341-8162(86)90005-6
Turbidity and suspended solids variations downstream of a regulating reservoir
Gilvear, D.J. and Petts, G.E. 1985. Turbidity and suspended solids variations downstream of a regulating reservoir. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 10 (4), pp. 363-373. doi:10.1002/esp.3290100408
Channel changes and invertebrate faunas below Nant-Y-Moch dam, River Rheidol, Wales, UK
Petts, G.E. and Greenwood, M.T. 1985. Channel changes and invertebrate faunas below Nant-Y-Moch dam, River Rheidol, Wales, UK. Hydrobiologia. 122 (1), pp. 65-80. doi:10.1007/BF00018961
Wave-movement and water-quality variations during a controlled release from Kielder Reservoir, North Tyne River, U.K.
Petts, G.E., Foulger, T.R., Gilvear, D.J., Pratts, J.D. and Thoms, M.C. 1985. Wave-movement and water-quality variations during a controlled release from Kielder Reservoir, North Tyne River, U.K. Journal of Hydrology. 80 (3-4), pp. 371-389. doi:10.1016/0022-1694(85)90129-5
Rivers and landscape
Petts, G.E. and Foster, I.D.L. 1985. Rivers and landscape. London Edward Arnold.
Water quality implications of artificial flow fluctuations in regulated rivers
Foulger, T.R. and Petts, G.E. 1984. Water quality implications of artificial flow fluctuations in regulated rivers. Science of the Total Environment. 37 (2-3), pp. 177-185. doi:10.1016/0048-9697(84)90094-9
Sedimentation within a regulated river
Petts, G.E. 1984. Sedimentation within a regulated river. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 9 (2), pp. 125-134. doi:10.1002/esp.3290090204
Impounded rivers: perspectives for ecological management
Petts, G.E. 1984. Impounded rivers: perspectives for ecological management. Chichester Wiley.
Channel changes following reservoir construction on a Lowland English River
Petts, G.E. and Pratts, J.D. 1983. Channel changes following reservoir construction on a Lowland English River. Catena. 10 (1-2), pp. 77-85. doi:10.1016/S0341-8162(83)80006-X
Petts, G.E. 1983. Rivers. Butterworths.
Channel changes in regulated rivers
Petts, G.E. 1982. Channel changes in regulated rivers. in: Adlam, B.H., Fenn, C.R. and Morris, L. (ed.) Papers in earth studies: Lovatt lectures - Worcester Norwich Geobooks. pp. 117-142
Habitat changes below Dartmoor reservoirs
Petts, G.E. and Greenwood, M.T. 1981. Habitat changes below Dartmoor reservoirs. Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science. 113, pp. 13-27.
Morphological changes of river channels subsequent to headwater impoundment
Petts, G.E. 1980. Morphological changes of river channels subsequent to headwater impoundment. Journal of the Institution of Water Engineers and Scientists. 34 (4), pp. 374-382.
Long-term consequences of upstream impoundment
Petts, G.E. 1980. Long-term consequences of upstream impoundment. Environmental Conservation. 7 (4), pp. 325-332. doi:10.1017/S0376892900008183
Complex response of river channel morphology subsequent to reservoir construction
Petts, G.E. 1979. Complex response of river channel morphology subsequent to reservoir construction. Progress in Physical Geography. 3 (3), pp. 329-362. doi:10.1177/030913337900300302
Physical effects of reservoirs on river systems
Petts, G.E. and Lewin, J. 1979. Physical effects of reservoirs on river systems. in: Hollis, G.E. (ed.) Man's impact on the hydrological cycle in the United Kingdom Norwich Geo Abstracts. pp. 79-91
Channel response to flow regulation: the case of the River Derwent, Derbyshire
Petts, G.E. 1977. Channel response to flow regulation: the case of the River Derwent, Derbyshire. in: Gregory, K.J. (ed.) River channel changes Chichester Wiley. pp. 145-164
Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/9q6vy/a-reservoir-operating-method-for-riverine-ecosystem-protection-reservoir-sedimentation-control-and-water-supply
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1127
|
__label__wiki
| 0.513452
| 0.513452
|
Home » Now That Federal Tax Credits Have Been Reinstated, the HVAC Market Has Room for Growth
HVAC Residential MarketHVAC Commercial MarketResidential Geothermal Heat PumpsStandards & Legislation
Now That Federal Tax Credits Have Been Reinstated, the HVAC Market Has Room for Growth
When loops go down, sales go up
Maria Taylor
KEYWORDS Geothermal Exchange Organization / geothermal market / geothermal system / renewable energy market / tax credits
Doug Dougherty is the president and CEO of the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO). He played a major role in the lobbying effort that got the federal geothermal tax credits reinstated in 2018, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2017. The NEWS spoke with Dougherty about the impact of the tax credit, trends in geothermal, and GEO’s increased focus on state-level policies.
The NEWS: When we spoke with you in early 2018, right after the credit had been reinstated, you estimated it might take a year for geothermal sales to get back to 2016 levels. How has that played out?
Doug Dougherty
President and CEO of the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO)
Dougherty: The bottom line was, when Congress left us out of the extension that solar and wind got, it went from 30 percent for residential income tax credit to zero, and sales were cut in half: 2017 sales were half of what they were in 2016. It was a steep cliff. We’re talking every business involved in the geothermal pipeline, which would be contractors, mom and pop HVAC guys … I was at AHR in Atlanta, talking to my friends at Grundfos pumps, and they saw an impact on their pump sales. Emerson saw it on their compressor sales. The smaller the business and the more geothermal-centric that business was, that’s who took the biggest hit. They got hammered. I have a friend in central Illinois who had three drilling rigs, and all he did was geothermal heat pumps. By the end of 2017, he’d sold his drilling rigs and bought directional boring equipment, and now works for telecom. Their crew got different jobs and left. All of that talent was gone, and it’s not coming back to the industry.
So in 2017, we dropped 50 percent, but then in 2018, we got 37 percent back. Even if we’re 20 percent year over year, it’s still going to be another two or three years before we get back to where we were in 2016. We actually got a tax credit extension that basically gets us back to where we were [before] Congress messed up.
If you really look at how the tax credit was given to this industry to sort of jump-start it and get economies of scale … you go all the way back to when the tax credit was first put in place, back in ’08, and in ’09, you go into the biggest slump since the Depression. There were no housing starts, no commercial permits being issued in ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12. We were starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, and then our tax credits go away. It’s going to take the full four years that we have them — ’18, ’19, ’20, ’21 — to get back to where we were in 2016.
The NEWS: Are sales back on the upswing?
Dougherty: EIA [Energy Information Association] just released data on new homes built in 2017, [which said] that geothermal heat pumps were 1.7 percent of the market. We’re a mature industry, mature technology, but we’re still nascent in terms of market share.
A lot of people tell me, “That’s why we don’t like tax credits, because you never know when they’re going to expire; they’re gonna get yanked from you. I’d just as soon not have tax credits.” From my perspective as running a national trade association, if competing industries are receiving a tax credit, we should be in the same boat. That was our argument to the Republicans: You pick winners and losers, and you [demonstrate] to homeowners and to Wall Street that the federal government likes wind and solar and nothing else. That’s the wrong optics. You’re never going to win the market with that. Everyone else has tax credits, including the fossil fuel industry, which has billions more than we have. We will fight to have parity with how the tax code is applied.
The NEWS: Now that the tax credits are in place, where is GEO focusing its energy?
Dougherty: We’re still Washington-focused, because you’ve got to be in the game in Washington or bad things will happen to you. But we’ve pivoted to working on state issues. There’s this pause, which started in New York, in relying on natural gas for heating buildings, and it’s starting to ripple around … especially in states where there’s a Democratic governor. Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker, a new Democratic governor from Illinois, signed onto the U.S. Climate Alliance, and so did New Mexico, and I think Wisconsin and Michigan are going to do that as well. New York has completely changed their energy state policy. They are recognizing that the term “beneficial electrification” has meaning, and it’s something they’re embracing. And they believe buildings should be heated and cooled with heat pumps in the northern climate, moreso with geothermal heat pumps than air-source heat pumps.
What I’ve told [the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners] is, your governor is basically saying he’s going to promote policies that his state will achieve the Paris Climate Agreement greenhouse gas reduction goals, which is 80 percent by 2050. And in northern climate states, you are never going to get to 80 by ’50 if you don’t change out combustion in buildings. The amount of emissions from combusting in buildings is one of the single largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. So, you have to start thinking about programs to incentivize either construction companies, homebuilders, individual residents, or utilities to embrace heat pump technology.
“We’re involved in a case in Minnesota where there’s a fuel-switching prohibition, which means there’s a willing utility — Ottertail — that wants to promote geothermal heat pumps as part of their energy efficiency portfolio, but they’re denied by the state because there was an order back in ’05 that says you can’t switch fuels to sell your fuel … at the expense of another fuel source. Which is just arcane; it’s outdated public policy. We’re actually a stakeholder in a proceeding in Minnesota to keep, abolish, or amend the fuel-switching prohibition. It’s just a long, torturous bureaucratic hurdle to overcome.”
The NEWS: Give us a couple of examples of the kinds of progress being made at the state level.
Dougherty: We’re involved in a case in Minnesota where there’s a fuel-switching prohibition, which means there’s a willing utility — Ottertail — that wants to promote geothermal heat pumps as part of their energy efficiency portfolio, but they’re denied by the state because there was an order back in ’05 that says you can’t switch fuels to sell your fuel … at the expense of another fuel source. Which is just arcane; it’s outdated public policy. We’re actually a stakeholder in a proceeding in Minnesota to keep, abolish, or amend the fuel-switching prohibition. It’s just a long, torturous bureaucratic hurdle to overcome. We’re working in Michigan: They had passed a law that recognized the thermal energy avoided by a geothermal heat pump as renewable energy, and that utilities can get credit for it under their renewable energy goals.
The bill was passed, but now there’s a rulemaking proceeding that has to go through the bureaucratic process. We’re involved in Massachusetts because there’s a group there that wants to end the extension of distribution gas pipelines in some communities. And in New York, [there’s a case where] the utility actually self-imposed a moratorium on extending gas pipelines in a specific county, north of New York City.
The NEWS: What’s the latest with Dandelion, Google’s geothermal system launched in 2018?
Dougherty: They’re in the sweet spot. They saw this coming. They didn’t pick New York as their target market without doing some significant analytical work. If you think about the Google moonshot, Dandelion, their initial market was 20 counties in upstate New York. They knew the policy of New York — that to meet the Paris Climate Agreement, you’ve got to get rid of all these dirty oil boilers that are prevalent in upstate New York. There’s not a lot of natural gas in rural areas. So they targeted these 20 rural counties as a market to begin their company … because they knew they were going to get support from the state.
The NEWS: Overall, what trends are you seeing?
Dougherty: I think the trend has been, ever so slightly, better consumer awareness of the product. I get that reading from guys I know who go to home shows. It used to be [attendees would see a geothermal product and ask] “What the heck is this?” and now it’s “This is your new machine; how efficient is it? What’s its COP?” The uptick in consumer awareness about how cool our technology is, is starting to take hold.
The term that has come back in vogue is “beneficial electrification.” The fuel source of the future is electricity. And it’s getting cleaner and cleaner, as it’s being produced from solar, wind, offshore wind, hydro, geothermal steam generation.
So if you have 100 percent renewable energy producing electricity, then electricity should be your fuel source for end use. And the best way to satisfy the thermal load of a building is with a geothermal heat pump. Bingo: That is going to make our market. And we’re going to go from 1.7 to 2 percent, to 5 percent, to 10 percent, to 20 percent, to 100 percent at some point. It’s going to be either by customer choice, by utility incentive, by state incentive, or by federal incentive to change consumer behavior and start adopting electricity as the use, especially for the thermal load of your building: heating, cooling, and hot water. I think we get to full beneficial electrification by 2050. Because I think by 2050, most, if not all, of the grid is going to be from renewable energy sources.
Recent Articles by Maria Taylor
Authority Brands Acquires Clockwork Inc. Companies
Joining a Franchise Got This Contractor out of Debt and Tripled His Revenue
Three Case Studies That Demonstrate Radiant Heating’s Capabilities
Tips for Choosing the Right High-End Air Conditioning
Maria Taylor is Business Management Editor for The NEWS. She writes about what it takes to run an HVAC business besides being a really great technician. She highlights HVAC excellence via The NEWS’ contractor profile, tech of the month, and video project files sections, and contributes regularly to the print magazine and website. Maria holds a bachelor’s in English from Alma College and has worked in journalism since 2013. Contact her at 248-786-1741 or mariataylor@achrnews.com.
New Technologies That Could Be the Future of HVACR
Strategic Marketing Maketh the Man — and the HVAC Company, Too
Geothermal Is Rising From the Ground Up
WaterFurnace Sees Growth Spurt After Federal Tax Credits Returned
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1129
|
__label__wiki
| 0.520316
| 0.520316
|
Home>Books>Arm the Spirit: A Woman's Journey Underground and Back
Arm the Spirit: A Woman's Journey Underground and Back
"Diana Block's Arm the Spirit is a stunning piece of work with pitch-perfect voice and strong writing. She gives voice to many of us who took up the vocation of revolution and who have remained true to the vision of a radically transformed world."
In June 1985, Diana Block, her two-week-old son, and five companions fled Los Angeles after finding a surveillance device in their car. Facing the possibility of arrest because of her militant activities in the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, Diana spent the next decade living underground: on the run from the FBI, raising two children, and juggling security, solidarity, and motherhood.
In a perfect demonstration that the personal is political, Diana's memoir offers insights into efforts to build homegrown clandestine resistance to US imperialism. With emotional depth and a poetic style, the book brings a woman's perspective to a subject typically dominated by heroic, male discourse. It also traces Diana's political development on either side of her period underground, offering a history of the culture and politics of the 1960s and 1970s-especially the decisions that led many to take up arms against the US government—and an analysis of the political terrain of the 1990s, when she resurfaced and tried to reintegrate into a very different world.
Diana Block has been an activist for forty years. She has written for political journals and women's magazines, and currently edits The Fire Inside, the newsletter of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.
"Diana Block's Arm the Spirit is a stunning piece of work with pitch-perfect voice and strong writing. She gives voice to many of us who took up the vocation of revolution and who have remained true to the vision of a radically transformed world."—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on the Border
"Arm the Spirit is one woman's tale of wanting a better world, struggling to bring that vision to fruition and then literally having to flee for her life. It is a story of internal exile that holds lessons for us all, particularly...when a "war on terror" has so often become a war against our own best citizens. Block's telling is helped by beautiful poetry and resistance to dogma. This is truly a story for every reader."—Margaret Randall, author of Stone Witness
"Diana Block elaborates a true definition of solidarity-both in words and in deeds. This is a story of victory and the will to confront a difficult life without remorse or victimization. Block offers a snapshot of many pains, sufferings, and challenges, but most importantly, she articulates a powerful lesson: life is most fully lived, when lived for others."—José E. López, Executive Director, The Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Chicago
Revolutionary Women...
A radical feminist history and street art resource for inspired...
£10.00 View Add to cart Out of stock
Outlaw Woman A Mem...
If you've read Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie , you know why...
£9.11 View Add to cart Out of stock
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1130
|
__label__cc
| 0.639671
| 0.360329
|
23 Things We're Telling You About Capitalism XIII
Thing 13 is simply that trickle down economics doesn't work. Making the rich richer doesn't make everyone richer therefore we shouldn't be planning to make the rich richer. The whole thing is based upon the marginal propensity to invest: investment is good for the future of the economy, the rich invest more of their incomes than the poor do thus if the rich get more of the money then there will be more investment and that's good for the future. Chang insists that this idea is wrong, based as it is upon the classical economists. The rich don't necessarily invest more therefore allowing them to have more of the pie won't increase investment and so no glorious future.
There's a very serious problem with this argument of Chang's. For the flip side of this marginal propensity to invest is the marginal propensity to consume. And it's an absolutely standard part of Keynesian economics (most definitely not classical economics then!) that the poor have a greater marginal propensity to consume than the rich do. Indeed, we do get people telling us that in economic hard times we should be taking money of the rich to give to the poor. Precisely because the rich will just save and invest it while the poor will spend it thus boosting aggregate demand.
Here is such an argument in fact:
“For example, in an economic downturn like today's, the best way to boost the economy is to redistribute wealth downward, as poorer people tend to spend a higher proportion of their incomes.”
The greater marginal propensity to consume is exactly the same thing as the lower marginal propensity to save and invest: if the poor are more likely to spend then this is the same statement as the rich are more likely to save. The really unfortunate thing for Chang's rejection of the idea that the rich invest more is that this sentence comes from Chang. In this very same chapter where he urges us a to reject the greater marginal propensity to invest of the rich. Oh dear, eh?
It's also probably true that Chang should be deprived of his economists' secret decoder ring or confusing wealth and income as he does in that sentence. Wealth is a stock, income a flow, and never should the two be confused.
There's a common rhetorical flourish throughout the chapter that should have been avoided as well. He veers between talking about a redistribution of income upwards in recent decades and the way in which the growth in incomes has gone disproportionately to the already rich. The two are very much not the same statement: the first is that extant incomes have been snatched, like a humble crust from a Dickensian waif's lips, to be awarded to the rich. The second is that of the new incomes that are being created the upper part of the income distribution is getting most of that new income: the crusts are still safe in the waif's hands. The truth is that there has not been a redistribution of incomes upwards: the last few decades have seen average (both mean and median) incomes rise therefore nothing has been taken away from anyone. It is true that a large portion of the new income created has gone preferentially to those already gaining high incomes.
You may be happy about that or not but that is what has been happening, not the first but the second.
And now we should look at the proof that Chang uses to show that allowing the rich those higher incomes doesn't improve the growth of the economy. It is, fairly simply, that in more equal times like the 50s and 60s then economic growth was higher than it has been since the 80s, when inequality started to rise. What more proof could we require that the rich getting more of the pie doesn't grow said pie?
At which point we'd probably recommend that Chang read his own chapter 9. In which he tells us, entirely correctly, that as economies mature growth will become more difficult and thus, presumably, slower. Chang's (and, interestingly, the correct, which is an amusing coincidence) argument is that in the long term economic growth comes from improvements in total factor productivity (tfp). This tfp is easier to increase in manufacturing than it is in services. Chang uses this to argue that therefore economies should have lots of manufacturing so that tfp can be improved: an argument we rejected as there's only so much manufacturing that we actually want.
But look at what that does to Chang's subsequent argument about economic growth. We know very well that manufacturing has fallen as a portion of western world economies in recent decades. Indeed Chang tells us that manufacturing as a percentage of total production fell, in Britain, from 37% in 1950 to 13% today. That's the manufacturing where tfp growth is easier than in the services which have grown faster (for yes, manufacturing output has still grown, just not as fast as services) which has shrunk as a portion of the economy. And it's Chang himself who tells us that this makes future economic growth more difficult as a result of that difficulty in increasing tfp in services.
Yet when it comes to comparing growth rates in manufacturing heavy and services heavy economies the lack of growth is all about how the rich have all the money. Go figure. Consistency isn't just the hobgoblin of little minds you know.
One final point about why we don't want to be taxing those high incomes too much. It isn't, as Chang purports, because only the rich can make everyone else rich by investing. Rather, it's because the process of people getting rich is what makes us all richer. Assuming no rent seeking (which we free marketeers do indeed abhor) and the lucky sperm club then the only way you can get rich, become rich, is by satisfying the desires of others. You need to be producing something that others are willing to purchase. That they are willing to purchase it shows that they value it more than it costs them: by definition this makes them richer. As the influx of cash makes you richer.
It's not the static state of being rich that makes everyone better off: it's the activity of producing what others value that makes both the producer and consumer richer. And that's why we don't want to take huge bites out of the incomes of people who are doing this: because we'd like them to be seen to be well rewarded so that others are willing to take the risks of similarly producing value that all can enjoy. After all, we know that taxing something produces less of it: thus taxing the creation of wealth will produce less wealth.
Newer Post23 Things We're Telling You About Capitalism XIV
Older PostLetter losses + parcel profits = Royal Mail privatisation
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1131
|
__label__wiki
| 0.848225
| 0.848225
|
Help (FAQ)
Forgot password? Register for free
Culture & SocietyHistory, Religion, PoliticsBeauty & FashionClothes, Hair, BodyCelebrationHolidays and OccasionsTravelVacations and ExcursionsWeddingsEverything but the groom
What is the Edwardian Era?
by JoHarrington
At the beginning of the 20th century, this was the historical period when Edward VII was on the throne of Britain. A lot happened.
What came before Edwardian times was the long and stable reign of Queen Victoria.
For many it had been a glorious period, especially for Britain. Britannia really did rule the waves and its wealth had been leeched from all over the globe. Industry had boomed and technology had progressed at a heady pace.
This was a new century with a new monarch. And a new generation was kicking back against the staid conventions of their parents.
They were young and vital. They could revel in the riches of the past; and they thought that they were the kings and queens of the world.
They were about to get the shock of their lives. An upheaval so great that, over a century on in 2012, we're still not over it.
Welcome to the Edwardian era.
British Royalty: King Edward VII Canvas Print
When Did the Edwardian Era Begin?
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, it heralded a bright new age of hope and prosperity.
No age begins and ends so precisely with a death and a coronation. The seeds are sown for years before; and the harvest is collected for decades on.
History is a continuum, each act leading into another. Lifetimes overlap and events, both major and minor, create waves which stream away from them in all directions. Like a stone being dropped into a still lake.
That said, chapters help us make sense of the past and the Edwardian age is just one of those. For sheer convenience we place the start in 1901 with the death of Queen Victoria; and the accession to the throne of her son King Edward VII.
This was more than a mere changing of the face on the coinage. It was a brand new century too.
Discover More About How to Look at History
From Anne Boleyn's Breasts to the Formation of the USA
History is an on-going tale, which directly affects the modern day. Each event is part of a domino effect causing ripples across the world.
When Was History?
If historical people move like two-dimensional shadows through isolated events, then you're looking at them all wrong.
Writing About History on Wizzley
Do you want to write a history article for Wizzley, but don't know which sub-category to select? Help is at hand! This is your guide through the eras and ages there to explore.
Buy Books about the Edwardian Period
The Edwardians: the Remaking of British Society
Everyone who lived during the reign of Edward VII was an Edwardian, not merely the rich, the literary or the scandalous. In this book, Paul Thompson records the life stories of ...
The Edwardians
Edwardian Britain has often been described as a golden sunlit afternoon---personified by its genial and self-indulgent King. In fact, modern Britain was born during the reign of...
When Did the Edwardian Era End?
Technically it was 1910, when King Edward VII died. In reality it tends to be extended until as late as 1919.
Edward was already 59 years old when he became King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India. Nine years later, he was dead.
That should have been the end of the Edwardian times. After all, it was named after him (unless you're American, in which case the Gilded Age is often used instead, while the French prefer La Belle Époque (The Beautiful Era)).
If we're going with the end of Edward, then this period stops in 1910.
No-one ever does that.
History, once the gears have been set in motion, is slow to grind down. This was particularly true when the King was so popular in his lifetime. It also makes sense to continue the period until a certain line can be drawn under it.
Four years after the death of King Edward VII, one of the most major events of recent history began. This was the First World War, which erupted out of the political manoeuvrings of the Edwardian Age. For some that era ended with this - the Great War of 1914.
But there's a kind of morality tale in letting the hubris and arrogance of the Edwardians result in wholesale destruction. They caused it, so they should remain associated with it. For historians who take this view, then the period is put to rest in 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
The end of war and the end of the Edwardians.
So what is after the Edwardian era? It's either a kind of limbo half decade of the new Georgians. That's too messy. It sounds too much like the Georgian period over a century before. Or it's the First World War.
For the majority of people, what followed the Edwardian era is none of those. It's the 1920s and the Inter-War Period. It's Austerity or, if you're looking at the positive attempts at kicking-starting the fun and games again, it's the Roaring Twenties.
Asking what dates are Edwardian is problematic though. It's 1901-1910; 1901-1914; or 1901-1919. Take your pick. We can make a case for them all.
Delve into the Culture of the Edwardians
Buy these books to learn more about fashion, art, etiquette and the everyday lives of the Edwardian era.
What was Life Like in Edwardian Times?
Elegant and gentile indeed. But also rushing headlong into social change, which would eventually see even women with the vote!
The first fourteen years of the 20th century have been described as 'a long, sunlit afternoon'. Remembered from the other side of two world wars, Austerity, The Great Depression and the grim Post-War Period, nostalgia placed rose-tinted glasses onto the most down-to-earth of people.
We tend to recall it in terms of Downton Abbey or the first class apartments of the Titanic. But it was so much more than that. This was an era of huge change, especially for the poorest in society.
Until now aristocracy and wealth could command instant respect, particularly in Britain. Here the class system kept everyone solidly in their place.
The super-rich, often the same aristocrats, lost all of their Victorian predecessors' sense of duty over spending money. Good works were still done and charity events hosted, but there was no shame now in ostentatious spending. People competed over the greatest display and purchase of luxury items.
The nobility could expect deference from everybody, even the newspapers would hesitate to print anything negative about them. They were untouchable in their large stately homes. Strict rules of etiquette dominated their lives; and an army of servants saw to their every need.
All of this was about to crumble. It's no accident that today we look at the Edwardians through the lens of such programs as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs. This is the first era in which we start looking past the upper crust to the people waiting on them; and the less wealthy per se.
This was the rise of Socialism and the Labour Party. Suddenly the lower classes became less an amorphous blob to be controlled or given alms in 'good works', but human beings in their own right.
By the end of the Edwardian era, this political and social explosion led to lower class men and even women gaining the vote. The aristocracy was in decline and a whole new democracy was taking shape. But it also led into the carnage of the Great War and the pinch of Austerity measures.
Britain simply couldn't afford to be Edwardian anymore.
Learn about Edwardian Society
Buy these books to discover more about what life was really like at the time when Downton Abbey is set.
What Happened in the Edwardian Era?
It began in smug self-confidence; and ended in the First World War.
Many Edwardian events have taken on almost mythical status in today's culture. I'll run through some of the biggies.
Art Nouveau is the biggest style movement of the era (throughout until 1914).
Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States (1901).
Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim (1901) and the Just So Stories (1902), and many more besides.
Edward Elgar began composing Pomp and Circumstance (1901), including Land of Hope and Glory (1902).
The Second Boer War ends in Africa (1902).
J.M.Barrie wrote Peter Pan (1902).
Beatrix Potter wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), as the start of a series spanning the Edwardian period and beyond.
Emmeline Pankhurst created the Suffragette Movement (1903).
The Wright Brothers had their first powered flight (1903).
Paul Poiret opened his Haute Couture Fashion House in Paris (1903).
Roald Amundsen and his team traversed the North-West Passage (1903-1906).
The first hacker interrupted a demonstration of the Marconi telegraphic system (1903).
The first World Series was held in America (1903).
W. Somerset Maugham had four plays simultaneously running in London (1904).
The Panama Canal zone was acquired (1904).
The Olympic Games were held in St Louis, USA (1904).
Albert Einstein published a paper explaining his Special Theory of Relativity (1905).
Fauvism became a major art movement with Henri Matisse at its helm (1905-1908).
E.M. Forster wrote several famous novels, including A Room with a View (from 1905).
Theodore Roosevelt negotiates the Portsmouth Treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War (1905).
Playwright Henrik Ibsen died at home (1906).
San Francisco was practically destroyed in a large earthquake and resultant fire (1906).
John Galsworthy started writing The Forsyte Saga (1906).
Mount Vesuvius erupted over Naples, Italy (1906).
Vaughan Williams and Percy Dreamer published The English Hymnal (1906).
Edith Nesbit wrote The Railway Children (1906).
A mining disaster in West Virginia killed 361 people (1907).
Oklahoma became an American state (1907).
The Olympic Games were held in London (1908).
Kenneth Grahame wrote Wind in the Willows (1908).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was established (1908).
William Howard Taft became President of the USA (1909).
Roald Amundsen led an unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole (1910-1912).
H.G.Wells wrote The Sleeper Awakes (1910).
New Mexico and Arizona become American states (1912).
The Titanic sank on her maiden voyage (1912).
George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion (1912), better known to us as My Fair Lady.
Woodrow Wilson becomes President of the United States (1913).
Henry Ford creates the modern assembly line (1913).
Emily Wilding Davison became a martyr for women's rights (1913).
World War One erupted across Europe (1914).
Gustav Holst composed The Planet Suite (1914-1916).
P.G.Wodehouse started writing about Jeeves and Wooster (1915).
RMS Lusitania is torpedoed and sinks (1915).
The Easter Rising occurred in Dublin, Ireland (1916).
The Halifax Explosion killed thousands. (1917)
Max Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his introduction of quantum theory (1918).
The Spanish Flu Epidemic killed thousands in Europe (1918-1919).
The Treaty of Versailles was signed (1919).
The Irish War of Independence begins (1919).
The 18th Amendment started Prohibition in the USA (1919).
Edwardian Memorabilia on eBay
Vintage 1970s Dress Wedding Dress Lace Maxi Gunne Sax Style Dr...
Time left: 1 month
Fixed price: $65.00 Buy It Now
Edwardian Embroidered French Knot White Cotton Batiste Filet L...
Time left: 13 hours, 51 minutes
Current bid: $56.99 Place bid
ANTIQUE EDWARDIAN VICTORIAN WHITE SHEER DRESS,STRAIGHT, IRISH ...
Antique Edwardian Embroidered Blue on White Fine Cotton Dress ...
Time left: 5 days, 10 hours
Antique 1910s Rare Crepe Peach Edwardian Gorgeous Lace Boudoir...
Time left: 1 day, 2 hours
Updated: 03/16/2014, JoHarrington
Thank you! Would you like to post a comment now?
Only logged-in users are allowed to comment. Login
JoHarrington on 05/10/2012
I'm glad to hear that you think so, thank you very much. :)
DavidPaulWagner on 05/10/2012
You have really brought the Edwardian Era to life in this page!
Awww, bless you. <3
Then I shall research her and hope to do you both proud. And if you want to write about the show in the meantime, I'll link it up too.
Holistic_Health on 05/08/2012
@JoHarrington aw shucks. You can do it. I like your writing :)
I've briefly checked it out. It looks very entertaining. I'll have to watch the series.
Unfortunately, it's only based on the Edwardian period, rather than being actually in it. Mind you, one of us could write an article on Rosa Lewis. Are you up for it?
@JoHarrington Definitely! It's based on a true story. The main character, Louisa, was rumored to be Edward's mistress, and he makes an appearance in the series. Makes me want to write a wiz on Poldark, my other historical favorite.
I've vaguely heard of that one. Please refresh my memory! Is it big enough to go into my list of Edwardian events?
One my my favorite Masterpiece Theater shows comes from this period - The Duchess of Duke Street. Thanks for reminding me of it.
WendyFinn - Thank you very much. :D That's a good debate. Living upstairs means dying of boredom. Living downstairs means working yourself into utter exhaustion, with every minute of your day accounted for. It's a tough call and I don't think I'd have liked either!
Thanks for your comment. :)
2uesday - A very tough time for those who weren't rich, which is why this is the era of all those movements aimed at social mobility and equality. We were still a long way off either coming true, but things really sped up in Edwardian times.
So many of that generation really did live in fear of the workhouse, with good reason. My Nan was born in 1915, so she was a late Edwardian baby (if we're taking this until 1919). As late as 1997, when she died, she was terrified of our local hospital. Back in the day, it had been the workhouse. The purpose of it just shifted with National Health.
Show all comments (18)
How to Dress Edwardian Style
It's been called the Gilded Age and La Belle Époque. It is an era remembered ...
Women and Children First? Titanic and the Suffragettes
Votes for Women or boats for women? In 1912, the press pushed to make it eith...
Disclosure: This page generates income for authors based on affiliate relationships with our partners, including Amazon, Google and others.
JoHarrington
706 Pages 100%
Author for 7 years
Message ▼New pages
St Tydecho's Churches in West Waleson 09/03/2014 Goodies for an Outlander Premiere Partyon 03/06/2015 Holocaust Memorial Day Interview with Rainer Höss, Grandson of Rudolf Architect of Auschwitzon 01/24/2015 Romantic Valentine Gifts for an Outlander Fanon 01/16/2015
British Royalty. British King Edward Canvas Print / Canvas Art...
100% 16 8 JoHarrington
Edwardian Era
It's been called the Gilded Age and La Belle Époque. It is an era remembered for its elegance in ladies' fashion.
100% 169 10 JoHarrington
Votes for Women or boats for women? In 1912, the press pushed to make it either/or and the Suffragettes were left floundering.
© 2019 Wizzley Imprint | Terms and Privacy | Flag content! | Marketing Tools | Forum | Support
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1134
|
__label__cc
| 0.719114
| 0.280886
|
Tag Archives: cabinet making
Back in the late 1970’s I was studying Zoology at Manchester University when my younger brother Tim came up to study… Zoology. He is now Head of Life sciences at the British Museum of Natural History. I have two other younger brothers-from-another-mother; Nathan a Geologist working in Australia and Simon – like me, and our Dad a chippy – he lives in California (and has just become a dad for the second time).
This piece incorporates some of the wood from the crates my brother Tim shipped his belongings in back from Jamaica. The doors to be precise are made from Blue Mahoe:
The rest of the cabinet is composed of American oak (legs, side panels and shelved), and the top is made of native figured ash;
I felled and machined this piece of timber from a wind blown ash tree blocking a footpath in Chancet Wood in 2005. This is a lovely ribbon of ancient woodland skirting the historic Mercian/Northumbrian border in Sheffield. The plank comes from the central section if a heavily leaning branch – hence the striated figuring which looks like watered silk.
The timber has been air dried for 8 years in my workshop. A worthwhile wait.
I decided to keep the waney edge of the plank, because it seemed faintly sacrilegious to cut it off square.
This is a multicultural cabinet, a cupboard of the Commonwealth and United Nations if you will. Like my brothers and I, parts of us have travelled far and wide, parts have grown deep roots, but all of us come from a little wood.
And here they are: Dad(The Littlewood) Nathan, Henk, Tim and Simon. All chips off the old block.
Tags: Blue Mahoe, brothers, cabinet making, Jamaica, recycling
Timber from the Sycamore tree has a pale delicate hue with a fine close grain ideally suited for carving and cabinetry. It especially suited the terms of this commission – to support an octagonal alabaster tile inlaid with semi precious stones and abalone shell – which deserves to be displayed in all its finery. The design of the table came about as an attempt to reflect the cursive designs of the lotus flowers on the tile without in any way detracting from the star piece, the tile itself.
Sycamore is an invading tree species, thought to have been introduced over 400 years ago from central Europe, unless it is managed properly it can come to dominate our native broadleaf woodlands and parks because of its ability to come in to leaf quickly and hog the light. Large palmate leaves produce a dense canopy through which little light penetrates, making life difficult for our native woodland plants like bluebell, wood anemone and lesser celandine. This same property makes the tree a welcome guest in farms – their luxuriant summer foliage provides livestock and dairies with a welcome and cooling shade.
The sycamore is a survivor. A hardy immigrant to the British Isles, it can withstand salty sea spray, cold winters, shady conditions, almost any type of soil and usually flourishes wherever it grows. I too am an immigrant.
I was born under a tropic sun in Kano, NIgeria, near the southern tip of the Sahara I emigrated to Britain, never having seen snow before. The first thing anyone said to me when I went to school in Matlock was “Why aren’t you black?” I did not understand the question at all, as I had hitherto grown up as an African.
I am second left from the back, and no, the lady on the back row is not the class teacher, the lady at the front is. I consider myself a pale man with a dark heart, contrariwise the sycamore is a tree, dark externally but revealing a pale heart.
It is not known when Acer pseudoplatanus was introduced to Britain but suggestions range from Roman times until as late at the 17th century. I was introduced here in 1964. I quite liked snow.
There was certainly a Sycamore in Dorset in 1834 when a group of labourers met under a sycamore and formed a society to protest against their falling wages. While trade unions were legal by this point, swearing oaths in a society were not, and the members were arrested and found guilty. The Tolpuddle Martyrs, as they were to become known, were subsequently transported to Australia, although they were released within two years. The Tolpuddle Tree has recently been dated and was found to have been around 150 years old when the meeting took place. This puts the tree, which still stands today, at around 320 years, far exceeding the common estimate of 200 years for the tree’s lifespan.
The tree which yielded the timber for this table was about 180 years old, it would have been a sapling around the time Samuel Holberry was a young man. Born 1816, he was a member of the Chartist Movement in Sheffield – an organisation set up to bring democracy, safe working conditions and fair wages to the working classes – he died, broken on the wheel in York prison in 1842 aged 26 after being involved in a plot for armed resistance against the ruling classes – betrayed by a co-worker. Visit his grave in Sheffield’s glorious General Cemetery and read the magnificent epitaph on the expensive headstone made from Brincliffe Blue stone paid for by the workers of Sheffield and chosen by his widow. He lies under the shade of many sycamore trees.
The sycamore, or Acer pseudoplatanus, is a resilient and adaptable tree, which grows quickly and seems impervious to harsh weather and pollution. It is an immigrant, like me. Perhaps being a common immigrant is not so bad, if the core of such a being produces shade for cows, materials suitable for violin backs, or a celebration table for an Indian tile?
Tags: cabinet making, chartists, design, immigration, race, sycamore, tolpuddle martyrs
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1136
|
__label__wiki
| 0.890572
| 0.890572
|
1812 Chalmers’ Biography / S / Robert Southwell (England; 1560–?) [vol. 28, p. 248]
Southwell, Robert
, an English Jesuit and poet, was born in 1560, and is said to have descended from an ancient family, either in Norfolk or Suffolk. Being sent abroad for education, he became a Jesuit at Rome, Oct. 1578. In 1585, he was appointed prefect of studies in the English college there, and not long after was sent as a missionary into England. His chief residence was with Anne countess of Arundel, who died in the Tower of London. After carrying on his mission for some time, he was, in July 1592, apprehended and examined with the strictest rigour, but having evaded the questions put to him, was imprisoned for three years, and as he affirmed, underwent the torture several times. He owned that he was a priest and a Jesuit, that he came into England to preach the truths of the catholic religion, and was prepared to lay down his life for it. In Feb. 1595, he was tried at the bar of the King’s Bench, Westminster, and executed the next day at Tyburn. He was a man of singular parts, says Dodd, and happy in a peculiar talent of expressing himself in the English language, both in prose and verse. Edmund Bolton, whom Warton calls a sensible critic, speaks of Southwell’s works in the same strain of panegyric “Never must be forgotten St. Peter’s complaint, and those other serious poems said to be father Southwell’s: the English whereof, as it is most proper, so the sharpness and light of wit is very rare in them.” Mr. Headley seems first to have revived the memory of Southwell, as a poet, by some curious specimens, in which he has been followed by Mr. Ellis. “There is a moral charm,” says Headley, “in the little pieces of Southwell, that will prejudice most readers of feeling in their favour.” Unless, however, there were encouragement for republication, which is not very probable, Southwell’s fame must principally rest on these specimens, as his works are rarely to be met with; yet Mr. Ellis remarks that the few copies known to exist, are the remnant of at least twenty-four different editions, of which eleven were printed between 1593 and 1600.
The titles of his principal works, are, 1. “A consolation | for Catholicks imprisoned on account of religion.” 2. “A supplication to queen Elizabeth,” Lond. 1593. 3. “St. Peter’s Complaint, with other poems,” Lond. 1593. 4. “Maeoniae, or certain excellent Poems and spiritual Hymns,” omitted in the preceding collection, ibid. 1595. 5. “The Triumphs over death,” ibid. 1595, 1596. 6. “Rules of a good life, with a letter to his father.” 7. “Marie Magdalen’s Funeral Teares,” ibid. 1609, reprinted in 1772 by the rev. W. Tooke, with some alterations to make it read easy. 1
Dodd’s Ch. Hist. —Ath. Ox. vol. T. new edit —Gent. Mag. vol. Lxvifi. by Mr. Park. Headl^y’s and Ellis’s Specimens. I’hillips’s Theatrum. Warton’s Hist, of Poetry. Fuller’s Worthies. Tanner. Censura Literaria, vol. VI.
Souchai, Jean Baptiste (?–1746)
Soufflot, James Germain (1713–1780)
South, Robert (1633–?)
Southern, Thomas (1659–1746)
Southgate, Richard (1729–1795)
Southwell, Robert (1560–?)
Sozomen, Hermias
Spagnoletto, Joseph Ftibera (1589–?)
Southwell, Robert (1560–1595)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1138
|
__label__wiki
| 0.550141
| 0.550141
|
A Walking Tour Highlighting a Mumbai Slum’s Innovative Industry
By Bianca Caruana| June 27, 2019
Dharavi, in central Mumbai, is considered one of the largest slums in Asia, but deep within this neighborhood, below the shanty grey roofs, loosely comprised of scavenged, upcycled metal, lives a resourceful and innovative community that plays an imperative role in Mumbai’s city-wide waste management.
I learned about this innovative community and its sustainable economies through a local organization that runs tours, Be The Local Tours. The group brings tourists to Dharavi to help challenge the stigma surrounding life in the slums.
“Dharavi is the land of opportunity,” says Fahim Vora founder of Be The Local Tours. Fahim is third generation Dharavian, proud of his heritage and the innovativeness of his people. “If Dharavi wouldn’t be here, there would be a landfill the size of two square kilometers in its place.”
An Economy Based on Waste
The waste of roughly 23 million people, an estimated 30 percent of Mumbai’s waste, finds it’s way to Dharavi’s 2.1 square kilometers through private means—individual ragpickers who scour the streets for waste and hospitality and manufacturing industries looking to get rid of their garbage.
Over the years, Dharavi dwellers have created an industrial economy in Mumbai, creating employment opportunities for the recycling of Mumbai’s waste, an undertaking that arguably should be addressed by local councils.
The private companies and rag pickers deliver plastic, cardboard, aluminum, metal and more, to different compounds, essentially small recycling plants inside Dharavi, where the resources are transformed into reusable materials for sale, providing income to many of the one million people that live in these slums.
Photo of Fahim Vora with a local tour guide. Photo: Bianca Caruana
Photo: Bianca Caruana
Student Tour Guides
Be The Local Tours trains young adults, who have grown up in Dharavi, as tour guides, so they can earn income to fund their college education while highlighting their neighborhood’s positive aspects.
“We hire students to run the tours and they use that money to fund their university. Seven students have since completed Bachelor’s Degrees and one has completed their MBA,” Fahim says.
As we walk through the narrow alleys with Fahim, we witness a world of innovation. In one room, three men sit, sorting through bags of various plastics including old computer parts and videocassettes (something I hadn’t seen in years.) A screeching sound comes from the next room as a crushing machine processes large pieces of plastic. The end result— small pieces of microplastics that will be sent off to be melted down and recreated into something new.
Dharavi’s Organization by Materials
The industrial area of Dharavi has compounds for various industries. As we turn the corner, we enter the wood zone. Muslim men sit carving Hindu shrines out of upcycled wood. This neighborhood is multi-religious and multi-ethnic and differences are not much of an issue in this tight-knit community where everyone’s first instinct is for survival. The next corner unveils Dharavi’s thriving leather industry, with an estimated annual turnover of $1.5 million U.S. dollars. There are industries in aluminum, textiles, cardboard and more.
It’s a surprising sight to witness so much economy here in these slums, an area stereotypically considered impoverished and unfortunate. Fahim explained to us the progress that has occurred here. “In the last ten years, a lot of support has come to Dharavi in the areas of medical, health and education. It’s now easy for people to access adequate health care and sanitation.”
On a tour through Dharavi with a local tour guide. Photo: Bianca Caruana
Middle-Class Slum Dwellers
There are over 2,500 slums in Mumbai and over 40 percent of the city’s population resides in them. To many people, slums are the sites of extreme poverty and chaos. Dharavi, in particular, was depicted in the award-winning 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire. However, slum dwellers now make up a significant percentage of India’s middle class. Their plight is the result of problems resulting from poor urban planning.
Approximately five-hundred new families move to Mumbai every day, most of whom are absorbed into the city’s slums simply because there is nowhere else to go. Photographer Peter Bialobrzeski explores Mumbai’s “Urban Crisis” in a recent photographic series dedicated to “opening up the conversations about city management and planning in Mumbai.”
While the solution to tackle Mumbai’s excessive population growth is not linear, visitors can learn that there is much more to Mumbai’s slums than meets the eye. I joined the Dharavi tour expecting to be saddened and shocked, but instead, I left feeling inspired and hopeful for this resourceful community that has a lot to teach us about driving sustainable economies in our own worlds.
Be The Local Tours offer daily tours to Dharavi. They have a strict ‘No Photography’ policy and the tours are welcomed by the local community.
Another walking tour you might be interested in:
Why the Camino de Santiago is Not Just a Religious Journey
Bianca Caruana is a freelance journalist & blogger at The Altruistic Traveller specialising in stories that ignite thoughts surrounding compassion, ethics and the happiness of all beings. She travels the world as a digital nomad with the aim to promote ethical values and give a voice to those who are making the world a better place. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
More articles by Bianca Caruana
Accessible Tourism market offers great potential for travel industry
Around the world, there are thousands of people with disabilities who truly wish to travel…
Walking Israel: An Author’s Perspective
Martin Fletcher, author of “Walking Israel,” (St Martin’s Press) provides a first-hand perspective of his…
Walking in the footsteps of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I remains one of the most popular English monarchs more than 400 years after…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1140
|
__label__cc
| 0.69123
| 0.30877
|
How should business respond to our ageing society?
That was the question I was asked to answer at the Future of Ageing conference this week. To do so, there’s another question to address first - why should business respond?
There is a strong commercial imperative; 3.5 million more older households by 2033 in England – a 60% increase on today.
By 2033, a third of all households will consist of over 65s. But these aren’t simply issues for future generations - as long ago as 2008 the proportion of households consisting of over 65s had already reached 28 per cent.
The over 50s hold 68.3% of all UK household wealth (£7.8 trillion). So they are a major consumer force.
However, as we showed in the Ready for Ageing Alliance report Busting the Boomer Myth, things aren’t that simple.
The baby boomer generation is far more diverse than often recognised. Some of the boomer generation have amassed significant wealth – but by no means all.
28 per cent of 55-64 year olds have no pension savings whatsoever. And, for many people, pension wealth is woefully short of what is needed to secure an adequate income in retirement.
Which means many more people will be in the workforce in later life. The businesses to thrive will be those which recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce brings.
As employers, it’s crucial that we support older people to contribute the most possible in the workforce. And they can contribute a great deal. According to research from the University of Manchester, older workers:
Are as effective at work as younger workers.
Take less short-term sickness and offset any reduction in speed with experience.
Are less likely to leave an organisation.
Are able to adapt to change and are more reliable and committed, and less aggressive and tardy.
The businesses to benefit from this will be those that flex to meet the needs of their older workers, with age-friendly recruitment and employment practices. And a recognition that our ageing society is an opportunity not a threat.
Mario Ambrosi is Anchor’s Head of Communications & Public Affairs
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1143
|
__label__wiki
| 0.75924
| 0.75924
|
You need JavaScript enabled to correct display page
Search the CHSR site UAlbany
Sarah Drazek
E-mail: sdrazek@albany.edu
Specialization:
Data Collection and Management
ECHO Collaborative
New York State Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP)
SAMHSA System of Care Expansion Grants
Sarah joined CHSR in April 2017 to work on the Cayuga County: Families Access to Services Team (FAST) and NYS System of Care evaluation projects. She is currently working on the New York State Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) evaluation. Her background includes public health education and research support in areas of HIV/AIDS and Maternal and Child Health. Sarah has worked in early childhood and health education settings, providing direct child/family services, conducting developmental screenings, formative research and serving as an HIV/AIDS educator/test counselor both locally and in Tanzania. She also supervised data collection efforts for Upstate KIDS, a longitudinal study (led by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany School of Public Health) following children from birth through age 3 in New York State, looking at a variety of environmental factors and health/developmental outcomes.
Sarah received her Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Health and Human Services from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She received her Master's degree in Community Health from SUNY Cortland.
Evaluation & Research
Systems & Software Development
Project Areas
Survey Research Center
CHSR Employment Opportunities
Center for Human Services Research
University at Albany, State University of New York
135 Western Avenue Richardson 315 Albany, NY 12222 PHONE (518) 442-5762 FAX (518) 442-5732
Email the Center for
Human Services Research
at chsr@albany.edu
University at Albany, State University of New York 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222 • Phone (518) 442-3300
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1145
|
__label__wiki
| 0.908602
| 0.908602
|
Lobbyist files suit against South Dakota House speaker
Claims she was banned for writing story calling lawmakers 'wackies'
Lobbyist files suit against South Dakota House speaker Claims she was banned for writing story calling lawmakers 'wackies' Check out this story on argusleader.com: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2019/01/22/lobbyist-files-suit-against-south-dakota-house-speaker-steve-haugaard/2651738002/
Jonathan Ellis, Sioux Falls Argus Leader Published 5:50 p.m. CT Jan. 22, 2019 | Updated 10:40 a.m. CT Jan. 23, 2019
Rep. Steven Haugaard, District 10, speaks at the Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019 at the Best Western Plus Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls, S.D. (Photo: Loren Townsley / Argus Leader)
A longtime South Dakota lobbyist has filed suit against the speaker of the South Dakota House of Representatives after she says she was banned from the House floor for writing a critical column.
Yvonne Taylor, the executive director of the South Dakota Municipal League, says that Rep. Steve Haugaard banned her from the House floor during a private, closed-door meeting on Jan. 14 in his office in the Capitol. Haugaard is a Sioux Falls Republican in his third term in the Legislature and first as the House speaker.
The House floor is typically open to the public, including lobbyists and members of the media, during public hours. Most lawmakers don’t have offices, and they meet with members of the public at their legislative desks after the House is out of session.
More: Air service abruptly ends at Pierre, Watertown airports
According to her lawsuit, Haugaard took issue with a May column she wrote for the Municipal League’s membership magazine. Haugaard complained the column, which was published before the June primary election, made the Legislature look like “a bunch of buffoons.”
Taylor’s lawsuit accuses Haugaard, who is a lawyer, of violating her First Amendment right to free speech and First Amendment retaliation. By banning her from the floor, she is unable to adequately represent her members, the lawsuit says.
Photos: Scenes from the Capitol
The rotunda in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Representatives applaud at their desk sits in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Sue Peterson (R-Sioux Falls) talks with Rep. Kevin D. Jensen (R-Canton) on the floor of the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Military officials listen to South Dakota governor Dennis Daugaard give the 2018 State of the State address on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Sue Peterson (R-Sioux Falls) speaks to another lawmaker on the floor the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
A marble staircase leads to the second floor of the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. David Lust (R-Rapid City) speaks with Rep. John A. Lake (R-Gettysburg) on the floor of the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Audience members listen to the 2018 State of the State address from the gallery of the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
A sign reading "Legislators Only" stands in a hallway near the senate chambers in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Chris Karr (R-Sioux Falls) sits at his desk in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Michael G. Diedrich (R-Rapid City) is recognized on the floor of the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Susan Wismer (D-Britton) applauds at her desk in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
The ceiling of the rotunda in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. Greg Jamison (R-Sioux Falls) sits at his desk in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
A marble staircase leads to the first floor of the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Lawmakers wait for the 2018 State of the State address in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Sergeant at Arms, Jim Smith, watches the floor of the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Rep. David Johnson (R-Rapid City) stands near his desk in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (right) and Lt. Gov. Matt Michels (left) pose for a photo together before the 2018 State of the State address on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
The house of representative chambers in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Sen. Reynold F. Nesiba (D-Sioux Falls) works at his desk in the senate chambers in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
A placard on the doors of the Senate chambers in the South Dakota State Capitol on Jan. 9, 2018 in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
South Dakota State Capitol Tuesday, Dec. 5, at in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
A legislator peers into the budget address session Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Legislators shake hands as they end the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Governor Dennis Daugaard holds the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Mark Willadsen, district 11, listens to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Julie Frye-Mueller, district 30, listens to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Dan Ahlers, district 25, listens to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Public utilities commissioners listen to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Attorney General Marty Jackley listens to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
Jason Kettwig, district 4, listens to Governor Dennis Daugaard during the annual budget address Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. Briana Sanchez / Argus Leader
The house of representatives chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Sen. Alan Solano (R- Rapid City) sits at his desk in the senate chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Sen. Deb Soholt (R-Sioux Falls) sits at her desk in the senate chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
The senate chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Lt. Gov. Matt Michels speaks in the senate chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
Sen. Jenna Netherton (R-Sioux Falls) sits at her desk in the senate chambers on Wednesday Jan. 10, 2018 in the capitol building in Pierre, S.D. Sam Caravana / Argus Leader
“One important aspect of lobbying is circulating bill sponsor sheets and explaining to legislators the bill they are being asked to sponsor,” the lawsuit says. “Legislators sign the bill sponsor sheet in order to become a sponsor of a bill. This activity occurs almost exclusively on the floors of the House and Senate.”
Taylor did not immediately return a message. She is represented by David Lust, a Rapid City lawyer who is a former House Republican majority leader who served in the Legislature with Haugaard.
In the May column, Taylor, who has served as the league’s executive director since 1996, complained that the number of “wackies” in the Legislature were increasing. The “wackies” oppose government and any taxation, even when groups that would pay added taxes or fees wanted them.
“First of all, in my opinion, about 80 percent of the legislators are what we’ve started calling ‘the Normals,’” she wrote. “And while we’ve always had some wacky folks, what has us alarmed the last few years is that the Wackies are getting to be over 20 percent of the Legislature.”
“We desperately need to get that ‘wacky ratio’ down – the Legislature is important and getting good quality people to serve is important,” she concluded. “Please make good decisions on June 5 and again in November!”
Haugaard did not immediately return a message Tuesday.
The Municipal League represents 309 incorporated municipalities in South Dakota.
Read or Share this story: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2019/01/22/lobbyist-files-suit-against-south-dakota-house-speaker-steve-haugaard/2651738002/
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1151
|
__label__cc
| 0.535373
| 0.464627
|
Identifying singers, songs and background music.
Goto page Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
1, 2, 3 ... , 31, 32, 33
Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Music
Jean66
celuilui wrote:
I've been rewatching the series(season 1) and chanced upon a melancholic piano track which starts around the 12:00 mark of episode 18 (where tange sensei lectures morita).
couldn't find it anywhere in the soundtrack album, nor did shazam/soundhound work... any ideas?
What's the name of the episode where you found that melancholic piano track so I can try to help you? Thank you.
DarkzKnight wrote:
Hello i'm looking for the bgm of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
it is played just before the ED of episode 7 & 8
i can't find it on the anime ost
any help is very much appreciated
I found the original soundtrack for the anime on iTunes Japan and checked the tracking list on CD Japan. Have a listen to this track. It's might be the one you are looking for. https://youtu.be/OiApmTexatE
celuilui
Jean66 wrote:
hey thanks! episode 18 is called "If Morita-san came back... ... What would she...? Then... / He came back"
it plays at the 12 minute mark
I found the soundtrack of the anime Honey and Clover on YouTube. Have a listen. I hope you will find the song you are looking for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0tqJEkGQlA&list=PLF5B6FEAB55A7D307
DarkzKnight
sorry, it's not the one i'm looking for, thanks though
if you have another lead, please let me know
Been trying to look for this song for 3 months. Can anyone help? Its start on 2:12:34
https://youtu.be/WyygDmNJSWo
Helsphmi
#891713 wrote:
This video is delete....maybe new?
bogard087
Hello, In wiche episode(s) we can find this song ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0ow4tGgZWk
Gina Szanboti
bogard087 wrote:
Comments below the video say:
"it plays when Motoko escapes from Gouta's organisation in ep 9. It also plays in ep 20 when Batou and Saito go to stop Kuze from meeting that massive cyborg. It also plays in episode 23 when the squad steals that helicopter."
Also, "It also plays when Awashima_seri walks Into a room."
So those seem like leads worth checking out.
VASH0806
dormcat wrote:
While I'm glad to help identifying anime music (I've been doing it all the time), be VERY careful where and how you post "sample music". You don't want ANN to be branded as an MP3 exchange center, do you?
Maybe a few rules should be applied, such as the length and quality of the sample music, as well as guides to crop and downgrade music.
Okay so I've been searching for months with luck
In the first episode of Magi: adventure of sinbad season 1 episode 1 the scene after dorias cries and thanks sinbad. He tells everyone his name and his story. The background song is of interest to me and I need a name. Can you help?
CyborgPatriot
So, for too many years, I've been trying to find a song. It's from GitS: SAC, (season 1), episode 24, "Kojō Rakujitsu ANNIHILATION". It's the song that plays when the Umibozu breach the doors, as Batou brings up his mini-gun. It sounds like cello or bass. I don't have a link on YouTube to the episode, sorry.
The song was then repeated (with a slightly faster tempo, and at a slightly higher pitch) in GitS: SAC 2nd Gig, (season 2), episode 5, "Dōki aru Monotachi INDUCTANCE". The recognizable part starts at 21:07 of the English dub found here:
https://youtu.be/L9Nw_d0pxpg?t=1267
I've tried SoundHound. I've tried listening to the 84 tracks of the OST's. I haven't been able to find it. The closest I've come is on OST 2, "We Can't Be Cool", and that's a stretch. Is it unreleased? Is there a name, a link to some obscure site that it was stashed at? Any help would be appreciated.
Errinundra
Location: Melbourne, Oz
I feel your frustration. I've been searching for that track for near on ten years. It isn't on any of the soundtrack albums ever released. In the end I recorded it directly from the scene you've linked to, voices, gunshots and all.
Funny that it should be so hard to find. I think it's the best Yoko Kanno track in either of the GitSSAC TV series.
Errinundra wrote:
The super funny part is I think I've now heard it four times, having binged the series again in the last few days. I'm on 2nd Gig episode 24, and it plays as the helicopters start shooting at the refugees during the invasion:
https://youtu.be/cGJiZ23dLEQ?t=329
It's sad, because, no offense to any of the composers, but a few of the songs on the OST's sound like they were made by 3 year olds, just a cacophony of sounds, and they skipped adding this to put each of those in. It makes it worse that I don't even recall hearing some of these in the show, but the song we're looking for has been in 4+ times now.
I did find the slow version on YouTube a few years ago. It involved a lot of searching. I wonder if I can find it again. I much prefer the more urgent version.
NonEuclideanCat
I've got a buddy going crazy trying to identify this song, she says it was on an old CD that had songs from a bunch of 2002-2006 anime like Inuyasha, Gundam Wing, and Ruroni Kenshin. I swear I've heard it before, or at least the artist, but I can't put my finger on it.
https://soundcloud.com/electrofunk-in-the-trunk/what-is-this
Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Music All times are GMT - 5 Hours
cloudflare ray# 4f6dbe23730cc17a-IAD
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1155
|
__label__wiki
| 0.654881
| 0.654881
|
by Laura Zats and Erik Hane on Jul 12, 2018 in Nonfiction, Slider | 2 comments
Tags: apex magazine, between the lines, column, erik hane, issue 110, laura zats, nonfiction
As the #MeToo movement has swept across various industries—film, journalism, and now the book world—we are used to talking about it in terms of individuals. We list out the abusers and harassers as they come to light, tallying the number of rotten apples uncovered and ousted. A singular person has his “#MeToo Moment.” They disappear, apologize (or sometimes both), and we move on to the next one. At some spots, we look back on this list and shake our heads. But as the list gets longer and longer, it becomes overwhelming, and we can no longer escape the implications of what the moment as a whole might mean.
We can’t speak for the other industries, but in publishing, the list has reached a point that requires us to treat the situation as more than a set of disparate points. It’s time to grapple with what this moment reveals about the core of our ongoing literary conversations.
Specifically, we’re talking about the nature of literary influence. If you’re a writer, then you most certainly have a set of older (either in age or experience) writers you draw from when creating your work. These are the people who inspired you, who taught you craft inside the classroom and on the couch, who paved the way for your work in the cultural canon. This process is basic and essential, and it’s how literary traditions happen; everyone, in some way, pulls from the things they read that they find to be the most provocative or resonant. As a community of readers, we’ve been pointed towards these older writers as influencers. We’ve been told where to look, and who the “good” writers are.
But what happens when we discover, retroactively, that many of these influential writers are toxic or violent in their personal lives? What happens when we learn that they’ve used their clout as authors to abuse those who haven’t yet risen as far? It’s not a stretch to say that the people who behave in this way must be writing from a personal headspace of misogyny or sexism, however carefully concealed.
But wait, you might think. What about separating the art from the artist? Fiction is fiction, after all. Yes, it is true that not every novel’s hero is a disguised creator, but it also feels disingenuous to apply such understanding to egregious (and often calculated) personal action. All art comes from somewhere.
What this means is that right now, there are plenty of decent and well-meaning writers who have drawn from the bad men of this #MeToo moment for their artistic inspiration. It means that they perhaps encountered these men instead of other writers who were pushed out of critical conversations by the same forces that allowed misogyny to flourish in the first place.
This is how the abuse-and-misogyny cycle reinforces itself. And we’re left with a large literary tradition that features this toxicity as a central trait, where the voices of bad actors are raised up and revered, their actions excused as genius. This is the canon, not simply an aberration that we can prune away by focusing on specific individuals 0n a list.
This situation is dire. Everyone in publishing and writing knows this. If we don’t deal with the issues underlying the literary tradition now, we’re going to be stuck with it for a long, long time. Despite how it sometimes seems, a literary canon is not a force of nature. It’s selected and curated by people and is the product of what we find to be most worth presenting to the next set of artists and critics; it’s what we deem “important.”
We have been handed a canon that is rife with men who have behaved monstrously, full of books and art created from a place that would gladly treat others as collateral in the effort to maintain its own footing.
But in the same way that this toxicity aims to reinforce itself, so, too, do the counterforces. As readers and writers, we need to give more scrutiny to who is given a space and who is afforded a platform.
Let new, diverse voices in, and suddenly the next generation of writers has a different set of influences, a set that has not been steeped in toxicity and abuse. We can disassemble this and put something new together, book by book. We have to. We will.
Do you have an issue that you’d like to see Laura and Erik address? Tweet your question to @printrunpodcast with the hashtag #betweenthelines, and your question might be featured in a future column!
Laura Zats is a literary agent in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she specializes in children’s fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and romance. She is also the editorial manager for a Minneapolis-based partner publisher and frequent workshop teacher.
Erik Hane is a literary agent, freelance editor, and writer based in Minneapolis. Before moving to the Midwest, he served as an acquisitions editor at The Overlook Press and an assistant editor at Oxford University Press.
Emma - July 12, 2018
Stop poking. Everybody is guilty.
Lynn Lovegreen - July 16, 2018
Well said–thank you.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1157
|
__label__cc
| 0.618802
| 0.381198
|
an blog | AJBlog Central | Contact me
Real Clear Arts
Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture
Judith H. Dobrzynski
No Other Word For It: Fundraising Failure
December 14, 2014 by Judith H. Dobrzynski
The Phillips Collection crowdsourcing effort, an attempt to raise $45,000 in a month to support a website abut Jacob Lawrence, has failed miserably. When the drive ended on Dec. 10, only $2,988–a mere 7 percent of the goal–had been pledged. And that took 41 supporters, for an average contribution of about $73.
All of the background is here, in my previous post on the subject.
Why would this campaign fail? I can think of several possibilities, or a combination of some of them:
–Not enough visibility for the campaign. I checked the Phillips’s Facebook page and saw just three posts about the campaign. Now, I’m guessing there were emails to supporters, perhaps a little local press, maybe some Tweets? Whatever it was, it was likely not enough.
–An over-ambitious goal. Raising $45,000 in a month from the grass roots is hard and time. Raising it for a future website, which can’t/won’t be seen for months, is harder. And there was some skepticism about the full, $125,000 cost of the website–why so much?
–An artist whose name isn’t that well known in the public. Sad, but true.
–In the visual arts, crowdfunding is less than it’s cracked up to be, most of the time. Previously, we know that the Hirshhorn failed in its attempt to crowdfund an Ai Weiwei work: it raised $555 of a $35,000 goal. The Freer-Sackler tried it for its Yoga exhibition, but few of the links then in use work now. This one does work–it shows support from 616 donors, but no total donated. This article, however, says the Freer-Sackler raised $174,000 for the show, including $70,000 from Whole Foods.
Yoga has a vast following, though, and I’ll bet the Whole Foods connection helped, too.
I’m thinking that crowdfunding is a gimmick, and one that, most of the time, requires another gimmick to make it work.
That’s the new Phillips logo above, btw. I think I like it.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Phillips Collection
12/14/14 11:58 PM | filed under: Museum Funding-Fundraising, Technology, Uncategorized |
Trish Oxford says
Crowdfunding is a hybrid beast, intertwining marketing and fundraising. If you look across the space (not just in museums), you realize quickly that a good cause or even a good idea isn’t enough. You have to carefully package your campaign to appear to be more than “help us raise money for X.”
Consider the “Bunch O Balloons” phenomenon. (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bunchoballoons/bunch-o-balloons-100-water-balloons-in-less-than-1) He had a story (a man with 8 kids who was tired of making the water balloons and wanted to be part of the fun). It was super easy to understand. It was a catchy product. I think these concepts can translate to the museum sector, much like the Freer-Sackler Yoga exhibition (a story, easy to understand, and catchy).
Stan says
The logo unfortunately calls to mind that of Philips Consumer Electronics and Domestic Appliances
Will Cary says
Judith, I wanted to draw your attention to a couple successful crowdfunding campaigns from art museums this fall.
First, the VMFA raised $62K in October for an exhibition around an exhibition of Chinese art:
http://vmfa.museum/support/buildit/
http://www.razoo.com/story/Vmfa-Buildit
On a smaller scale, here in Portland (ME) we raised more than $7,000 from our young patrons group The Contemporaries via Indiegogo:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/contemporaries-7-000-for-seven
This $7,000 was part of a larger gift of $25,000 that the Contemporaries raised towards the purchase of Robert Indiana’s sculpture “SEVEN,” which was just installed a couple weeks ago. More background here:
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/11/06/living/this-is-a-place-for-art-portland-museum-to-make-mark-with-unveiling-of-8-foot-tall-sculpture/?ref=search
Judith H. Dobrzynski says
Good to hear–what do you suppose made these successful?
I can’t speak for the VMFA, but it looks as if they had corporate partners and major donors lined up for challenge/matching gifts to help encourage donors. That reflects some great planning, I’d imagine.
For us, it was the leadership of the Contemporaries that made a difference. The Steering Committee identified and solicited a select group of peers for $1,000+ gifts so that the rest of the membership could contribute smaller amounts via the Indiegogo campaign. Knowing that $18,000 had been raised already made it easy for us to push maximum participation vs. size of contribution (this is not different from a regular capital campaign model, by the way). We’ve found that for our under-40 members, hearing from their peers is hugely compelling (hence the video featuring the Steering Committee).
Now an independent journalist, I've worked as a reporter in the culture and business sections of The New York Times, and been the editor of the Sunday business section and deputy business editor there... Read More…
This blog is about culture in America as seen through my lens, which is informed and colored by years of reporting not only on the arts and … [Read More...]
Archives Select Month June 2019 (2) April 2019 (2) March 2019 (1) February 2019 (1) January 2019 (3) December 2018 (2) November 2018 (1) October 2018 (3) September 2018 (2) August 2018 (3) July 2018 (4) June 2018 (2) May 2018 (3) April 2018 (4) March 2018 (4) February 2018 (1) January 2018 (5) December 2017 (3) November 2017 (3) October 2017 (5) September 2017 (6) August 2017 (2) July 2017 (2) June 2017 (6) May 2017 (4) April 2017 (8) March 2017 (9) February 2017 (7) January 2017 (8) December 2016 (5) November 2016 (3) October 2016 (5) September 2016 (2) August 2016 (8) July 2016 (5) June 2016 (7) May 2016 (4) April 2016 (5) March 2016 (9) February 2016 (6) January 2016 (7) December 2015 (6) November 2015 (5) October 2015 (6) September 2015 (5) August 2015 (5) July 2015 (6) June 2015 (6) May 2015 (5) April 2015 (8) March 2015 (12) February 2015 (3) January 2015 (17) December 2014 (22) November 2014 (23) October 2014 (22) September 2014 (21) August 2014 (17) July 2014 (25) June 2014 (28) May 2014 (26) April 2014 (29) March 2014 (24) February 2014 (19) January 2014 (32) December 2013 (21) November 2013 (21) October 2013 (24) September 2013 (20) August 2013 (26) July 2013 (29) June 2013 (15) May 2013 (23) April 2013 (25) March 2013 (28) February 2013 (22) January 2013 (25) December 2012 (21) November 2012 (21) October 2012 (26) September 2012 (23) August 2012 (25) July 2012 (27) June 2012 (22) May 2012 (22) April 2012 (21) March 2012 (21) February 2012 (27) January 2012 (23) December 2011 (25) November 2011 (23) October 2011 (27) September 2011 (23) August 2011 (26) July 2011 (25) June 2011 (27) May 2011 (25) April 2011 (25) March 2011 (30) February 2011 (25) January 2011 (25) December 2010 (28) November 2010 (24) October 2010 (26) September 2010 (24) August 2010 (22) July 2010 (28) June 2010 (27) May 2010 (25) April 2010 (24) March 2010 (28) February 2010 (28) January 2010 (29) December 2009 (27) November 2009 (28) October 2009 (32) September 2009 (35) August 2009 (23) July 2009 (34) June 2009 (34) May 2009 (32) April 2009 (27) March 2009 (36) February 2009 (1) January 2008 (5)
Subscribe To RCA By Email
I welcome comments from readers and I encourage debate. But I want to keep things civil. So as you write, please keep in mind I will not approve the publication of comments that are irrelevant, vulgar, profane, gratuitously derogatory or political. Nor can I approve comments that are advertisements in the guise of a comment or comments that come from phony email accounts. I reserve the right to edit a comment to conform to this policy if it makes an otherwise worthy point.
AdobeAirstream
Art Theft Central
ArtMeetsLaw
ArtWrit
Createquity
diacritical
Edward_ Winkleman
Life's a Pitch
My Art Space Blog
Painters' Table
Slow Muse
This blog published under a Creative Commons license | Log in
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1158
|
__label__cc
| 0.563102
| 0.436898
|
Al füm dala Grà
coordinate non disponibili google map: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=
There are a great many traditions linked to chestnuts, and rightly so: although we now tend only to think of them in autumn, when the smell of roasted chestnuts fills the air, chestnuts were once a fundamental part of our diet.
Every year, one of the many traditions at risk of being lost is kept alive at the grà in Moghegno, but that is not all: it is actively passed down to new generations through the involvement of local schoolchildren.
The grà
Chestnuts were a staple food in centuries gone by: their flour was less costly than wheat flour, they were eaten whole alongside vegetables, rice and meat and were added to soups and desserts... However, they were also prone to spoiling quickly due to mould and weevils, so effective methods were required to ensure long preservation. Drying them on a lattice was one of the most widespread methods in Ticino, which is still scattered with gràs – small stone buildings used for drying chestnuts – named after the lattice on which the chestnuts were placed during the process.
The tradition in more detail
The loading of the grà
Once the chestnuts are harvested, they are taken to the grà, where they are weighed and recorded before being placed on the lattice on the top floor of the building. A fire made from chestnut wood is then lit below. In Moghegno, the loading usually takes place between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm.
Once the grà has been loaded, the longest and most laborious part of the process begins. The fire is kept burning for three weeks. In this phase the most important thing is the heat that develops from the fire, so the flames are partially covered and protected by the chestnut skins from the previous year to prevent them from rising too much. During these three weeks, the chestnuts are turned every three to four days and the fire is checked and stoked three times a day.
The unloading of the grà
After three weeks the chestnuts will have lost a third of their weight. They are ready to be unloaded! The still warm chestnuts are placed in long canvas sacks to be beaten. Traditionally, it was the men who carried out this step, beating the sacks with wooden logs to break up the skins until the sound produced by the sacks began to change. This part is now entrusted to the schoolchildren participating in the project. Once they have been beaten, the chestnuts are placed in the val to separate them from the now powdered skins. The remains of the skins will be used the following year to cover the fire in the grà. The final step involves cleaning the white chestnuts by hand. This step once also served to separate the best chestnuts, intended to be eaten whole, from the broken ones that would be turned into flour. After being cleaned, the chestnuts are returned to their owners at 32% of their initial weight, as they lose more than half of their weight during the drying process.
The unloading of the grà also provides an important opportunity to teach children more about the culture of the chestnut. During the unloading, the school children are involved both in direct activities, such as the beating of the chestnuts, and in educational activities focused around a series of stations that teach them about the history of and fun facts about chestnuts and Moghegno.
This is the ideal time to walk the Moghegno and the grà themed trail and discover the secrets of drying chestnuts in a setting that retains a real flavour of the past.
Rainfall: 0%
Reliability: 100%
Rainfall: %
Reliability: 80%
Wellness & well-being
Gastronomy, restaurants & casino
Lake and rivers
On a rainy day
Search on ascona-locarno.com
We have updated our privacy and cookie policy to comply with the recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). By using this website you agree to the new Privacy Policy and to the use of cookies for analytical purposes and to provide you with the best browsing experience. Click here for more information. OK
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1160
|
__label__cc
| 0.518429
| 0.481571
|
Home / News / What Was Michelangelo’s First Painting?
What Was Michelangelo’s First Painting?
Posted on December 29, 2017 by Ask Deb in News
A painting with a suspicious provenance has been purchased by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas for an undisclosed amount.
Purportedly, the painting called “The Torment of Saint Anthony”, was the first painting of Michelangelo Buonarroti, completed when he was a young teenager, or perhaps even a preteen. If the painting is that of a young Michelangelo, it would be one of just four “easel paintings” made by the master.
Though the provenance of the painting, a historical document that verifies the painting’s past ownership and history, has long been disputed in the notoriously difficult to please world of classic art, expert opinion has shifted in recent months. Many art historians now believe that the painting is in fact the earliest known painting of the famous Michelangelo.
The work, composed of oil and tempera on a poplar wood panel, measures 47cm x 34cm, and is dated either 1487 or 1488. At that time, Michelangelo was the friend of an assistant in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio in the city of Florence. At that time, it is well established that Michelangelo copied an engraving of St Anthony by a German master named Martin Schongauer. This seems to lend some credence to the painting.
The disagreement over “The Torment of Saint Anthony” (a classic scene depicted by many artists over the years) has focused on whether this painting was indeed created by Michelangelo’s own hand or whether it may have been produced by other artists working in the same workshop. If confirmed as the “first” Michelangelo painting, the acquisition of The Torment of St. Anthony by the Kimbell would be an major coup in the world of classic art, and a huge piece of publicity for the museum.
The only other easel paintings made by Michelangelo are hanging in the National Gallery in London, with a potential fourth being shown in the Florence Uffizi. The new painting could provide new clues as to how Michelangelo selected the colour palette he used in the famous Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
The Kimbell Art Museum’s director, Eric Lee, released a simple statement on the painting, saying “This is a painting that will be studied for years and years to come.”
The painting in question depicts a grumpy and white haired Saint Anthony being attacked and tugged on by vicious looking demonic monsters. The depiction of Saint Anthony does appear to be based on the Schongauer engraving, but differs from the original in a few ways that could prove to experts that it was made by the hand of Michelangelo. For example, among the demons attacking Saint Anthony are fish like creatures. According to an early biographer of Michelangeo, the artist apparently visited a fish monger while painting “the Torment” in an attempt to more accurately portray the scales of a fish. This could be the kind of clue required of a painting’s provenance that seals the deal.
More evidence of the painting’s provenance as a work of Michelangelo has been uncovered in the past year and a half, while the painting was being restored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. During the restoration, several layers of dirt and other impurities were removed by art restorers to get to the original oils used in the painting. Even more restoration work, achieved with infrared scans and X-ray imagery, revealed the underlying “pentimenti” – a word that refers to changes an artist makes as a work of art is in progress. The evidence of the “pentimenti” convinced the Kimbell’s board and art director that the painting could not have been a copy or ripoff produced by the other members of the workshop Michelangelo was studying at. The board of the Kimbell Art Museum believe there is no other conclusion other than that “The Torment of Saint Anthony” is in fact the real deal.
Between 1905 and 2008, “The Torment of Saint Anthony” was owned by a British private collector. It was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for just $2 million – a true bargain if it is the work of Michelangelo. A New York based art dealer was convinced enough that the painting was made by Michelangelo, and made the purchase to have the painting researched further.
After completing the restoration, The Met in New York was eually convinced of the painting’s provenance, but was unable to find a willing buyer, probably due to the current financial crisis.
Should the painting turn out to be a verifiable work of Michelangelo, it could be worth somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Though we don’t know yet what the Kimbell Art Museum paid for the small easel painting, it is unlikely that they paid anywhere near the true value of the work. Could this be the greatest bargain in the history of the art market? Until we know if “The Torment of Saint Anthony” is a legitimate work of Michelangelo, and until the Kimbell reveals what they paid for the work, we can only guess.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1162
|
__label__wiki
| 0.987032
| 0.987032
|
Don’t miss Orioles players, John Means & Paul Fry, as they guest host at our Brews and O’s event!
Severna Park rallies, but falls short of No. 6 Old Mill, 17-14
Alan WidmannTHE BALTIMORE SUN
Last night, Old Mill sent a message to the rest of the Anne Arundel 4A League. The Patriots did so by dominating turnover-prone and host Severna Park, 17-14, in one of the most deceiving of final scores in recent county seasons.
No. 6 Old Mill (3-0, 1-0) enjoyed a 10-0 lead before the offense of seventh-ranked Severna Park (1-2, 1-1) even touched the ball. The Patriots were cruising 17-0 (with a 53-19 edge in plays) before the Falcons belatedly came to life.
Severna Park scored on John Jennings' 6-yard run with 8 minutes, 46 seconds to play and on Matt Glenn's 13-yard return of a blocked punt with 23 seconds to go.
However, "we had the game won," said Old Mill coach Pete Regala, whose team defeated Severna Park for the first time since 1985. The Falcons lost to a league team for the first time since 1989 and for only the fifth time in their last 35 outings.
The Patriots also avenged their only loss of last year's regular season, and severely dampened Severna Park's hopes for a fourth county title in five years.
Was it the kind of win that could put Old Mill's program permanently over the hump?
"I think so. I hope so. It was one that we really needed. But even though we're 3-0, it doesn't mean everything right now," Regala said. "There's a long way to go."
With Izzy Deschaine, Billy Reese, Matt O'Donnell and James McAdams sparkling on defense, Severna Park was rationed to 30 total yards in the first two quarters. The Falcons had the ball for only 3:56 before halftime.
Offensively, linemen Mike Mahoney, Melvin Dorsey, Jason Moore and Ernie Longazel led a charge that piled up 143 total yards by halftime and 225 (to Severna Park's 110) for the game.
The prime beneficiary of their work was running back Harold Peters, who carried 18 times for 100 yards in the first half. And it was his 1-yard plunge behind Longazel's block that capped an 11-play, 73-yard march on Old Mill's first possession.
Severna Park's Travis Koballa fumbled on the kickoff -- the first of five turnovers for the Falcons -- and six plays later Steve Oliver kicked a 25-yard field goal for the 10-0 lead.
"The turnovers killed us. If they score, then we score, it's a ballgame," said Severna Park coach Andy Borland.
"We'll just have to win them all," said Borland, whose team did just that after an 0-2 start last year.
"They [Old Mill] didn't do anything we didn't practice for," said Falcons assistant Mike McTammany. "They just slaughtered our offensive line."
Copyright © 2019, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
Matthew O'Donnell
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1163
|
__label__wiki
| 0.566481
| 0.566481
|
Flicker Proud of Players
Reds Assistant Manager's thoughts
“We’ve not got a win today and there is that disappointment,” said Flitcroft. “But we stood toe to toe with arguably one of the best teams in the league.
Assistant Manager Dave Flitcroft spoke to the press following today’s 1-1 draw at Leicester City.
“There’s pride in there yet disappointment and a burning desire for next week.
“We had a game plan to try and press and hurry. We are playing against a team I consider could win the Championship.
“We tried to match them. Luke Steele was outstanding for the first 15 minutes. Man for man we stood up to the task. They attacked us with great purpose which sometimes can expose Leicester.
“Steve Dawson, he arrived in there and he’s added that composure and a decent finish from him. Reuben’s got a rocket foot on him, he’s growing in confidence bit by bit. We’ve improved his defensive side by playing him left-back in the Under 21s. The strike was quality, he’s capable of that.
“We’re getting to the green but it’s the putting that’s letting us down at the minute. We’ll get there, we are getting there.
“It’s a brilliant league and to perform like we have done this season, we’re just missing that last little bit. We’ll strive for that seven days a week.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1164
|
__label__cc
| 0.722036
| 0.277964
| ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/dow-finishes-higher-tuesday-and-a-new-high-looks-almost-inevitable-51555450227\nAfter the Bell\nThe Dow Gained 68 Points and a New High Looks Almost Inevitable\nBen Levisohn\nUpdated April 16, 2019 6:01 pm ET / Original April 16, 2019 5:30 pm ET\nIllustration by Michael Haddad\nRunning in place. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished higher Tuesday, on another quiet day for the U.S. stock market. Earnings season is in full swing, as Bank of America and UnitedHealth Group slipped despite better-than-expected earnings, and Netflix declined after the close after offering downbeat guidance. In today’s After the Bell, we...\n•...consider whether a new all-time high is a sure thing;\n•...highlight Qualcomm’s jump to the top of the S&P 500;\n•...and explain why HCA Healthcare sunk to the bottom of the index.\nNew Highs a Fait Accompli?\nThe stock market feels like it has one step forward-one step back playing on endless loop. Don’t be surprised, though, if it eventually makes its way back to new all-time highs.\nThe S&P 500 ticked up 1.48 points to 2907.06, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 67.89 points, or 0.3%, to 26,452.66, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 8000.23. The small gains followed small losses yesterday. The Dow is 1.4% away from its all-time high.\nThe S&P 500’s new high is just 0.8% away, market technicians are out in force, predicting a new high any day now. “A breakout to a new All Time High in the S&P above 2,944 is a fait accompli with the Index less than 1% away and the cross asset backdrop strengthening around it in a low volume Holiday shortened week,” Evercore ISI technical Rich Ross writes. His next target: 3000.\nAnd he’s not the only one, Phases & Cycle’s David Tippin and Ron Meisels aren’t quite as bullish, but they too see potential for more upside. For starters, the S&P 500’s 50-day moving average recently crossed back over the 200-day, a sign of strength. The index has also spent a month above 2820, where it faced massive resistance earlier this month. Now, they expect the S&P 500 to challenge its old high near 2940. “Most importantly, the longer the S&P 500 stays above 2,820 the greater the possibility that the potential minimum target of the recent inverse head and shoulders pattern—about 3,300—is a valid one,” Tippin and Meisels write. “Any sustained move above 2,940 should silence the bears completely.”\nAnd won’t that be a trick.\nThe Hot Stock:\nQualcomm (QCOM) surged to the top of the S&P 500, helped by news of a legal resolution with Apple (AAPL).\nQualcomm gained $13.27, or 23.2%, to $70.45.\nQualcomm and Apple had long been engaged in multibillion-dollar world-wide litigation over intellectual property, but today agreed to settle the royalty dispute for an undisclosed sum. The two companies agreed to a six-year licensing agreement, and Qualcomm forecast incremental EPS of $2 as product shipments increase.\nIn the past 12 months, Qualcomm is up 28.6%.\n—Teresa Rivas\nHCA Healthcare (HCA) slumped to the bottom of the index, on yet another difficult day for health insurers.\nHCA Healthcare lost $12.71, or 10%, to $114.38.\nThe health care sector had a difficult week last week, although they managed to stage a comeback on Monday. However, today the stocks were struggling again, with Cigna (CIG), Humana (HUM), Anthem (ANTM) and Centene (CNC) rounding out the five worst performing S&P stocks today, on worries about ongoing political calls for “Medicare for All.”\nIn the past 12 months, HCA Healthcare is up 17.4%.\n—T.R.\nWrite to Ben Levisohn at Ben.Levisohn@barrons.com\nRunning in place."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1165
|
__label__wiki
| 0.997955
| 0.997955
|
World selected
Middle East selected
Mid-East talks doomed, says Iranian leader Ahmadinejad
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11175834
Image caption The Iranian leadership is known to support militant Palestinian groups such as Hamas
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as futile and doomed to fail.
His comments - the first regional reaction to the talks - came a day after the first direct talks between the two sides since 2008.
Right-wing Israeli activists and Gaza militants also reacted angrily. Hamas has vowed to step up attacks on Israel.
But moderate Israelis and Palestinians have welcomed the peace process.
The US Middle East envoy earlier said the talks, between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, had been "constructive".
The talks at the US state department had been initiated by US President Barack Obama, who gave both sides a one-year deadline to reach a solution.
The Israeli and Palestinian delegations agreed to meet again in the Middle East in two weeks.
'All options open'
Addressing an annual pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran to mark al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, President Ahmadinejad said the Palestinians should to continue to resist the Israeli occupation.
"The fate of Palestine will be decided in Palestine and through resistance and not in Washington," he said.
Echoing criticism from Hamas, Mr Ahmadinejad said Mr Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is a rival of Mr Abbas' Fatah group, which runs the West Bank.
By Jeremy BowenBBC Middle East editor
Almost exactly 17 years ago at the White House, an earlier generation of leaders signed a document that was supposed to start the process of ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
It didn't. Thousands have been killed since then.
If these talks fail - which is quite possible - it will be even harder next time around. This is no longer just a conflict between rival nationalists over the possession of land. Steadily, a religious war is being grafted on to it as well. Making deals between nationalists has so far been impossible.
Compromise between those on both sides back in Israel and the Palestinian territories who believe they are doing God's will would be much more complicated.
Leaders clear first hurdle
Iran is known to support militant Palestinian groups such as Hamas, while Egypt and Jordan, who were invited to the launch of the talks in Washington, support Mr Abbas.
Meanwhile in Gaza, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing said that 13 armed groups - including the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees - had joined forces to launch "more effective attacks".
"The actions of resistance have gone into a new and advanced stage of co-operation... for more effective attacks against the enemy (Israel)," Abu Ubaida was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Asked if such attacks would include suicide bombings, he said: "All options are open."
Earlier this week, the armed wing of Hamas said it carried out two attacks which killed four Israeli settlers and wounded two others in the West Bank. Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide attacks against Israel since 2000.
In Israel, there has also been an angry reaction to the Washington talks from right-wing activists, the BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem reports.
Some of the activists condemned Mr Netanyahu for calling the Palestinians his partners in peace.
Even some members of Mr Netanyahu's coalition government said that talks would lead nowhere because Israel could not compromise on issues like Jewish settlements on the occupied Palestinian territories, our correspondent adds.
Further talks
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted the talks, told Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu they had the "opportunity to end this conflict".
Borders and settlements
Both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas acknowledged the difficulty of the task ahead, but expressed hope of reaching an agreement "within a year".
The leaders also raised two of the issues that are central to the talks: security for the Israelis, and Jewish settlement construction on Palestinian territories.
"We call on the Israeli government to move forward with its commitment to end all settlement activities and completely lift the embargo over the Gaza Strip," Mr Abbas said.
Mr Netanyahu said "a genuine peace must take into account the security needs of Israel". He also repeated the demand that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state.
US envoy George Mitchell said the two leaders had agreed to hold further talks in the Middle East on 14-15 September, then about every two weeks after that.
It had already been agreed, Mr Mitchell said, that the two sides would work to reach a framework agreement on all the issues dividing them that would pave the way for a comprehensive treaty.
Israel and the Palestinians
World Sections
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1166
|
__label__wiki
| 0.688309
| 0.688309
|
Gas prices down for July Fourth travelers
By Erika Wells Staff Writer
Lower prices at the gas pump could encourage more travelers than ever to venture out this Independence Day.
Gasoline prices are on average 16 cents cheaper than on Memorial Day weekend, and they are set to continue dropping in the coming weeks, AAA spokeswoman Montrae Waiters said.
Georgia's current average is $2.54, while last year's was $2.69 for regular gas. The Augusta area's average is $2.48, down from last year's $2.57.
Corey Godfrey, of Martinez, plans to take advantage of the low gas prices and drive to the Gulf Shores in Alabama for the holiday.
"The economy is booming and gas prices are still good," he said.
He said he was not worried about congested roads because he plans to take his time.
"You just have to roll with the punches," he said. "I'm in no hurry to get there. I just want to get there safe."
A record-breaking 48.9 million Americans are expected to travel this July Fourth, according to AAA. That is a 4.1 percent increase, or nearly 2 million more travelers, from last year, according to AAA.
In Georgia, about 1.5 million people are expected to travel.
For much of the nation, the busiest travel day for drivers will be Wednesday as commuters join holiday travelers. In major cities, drivers could face delays of as much as four times the normal commute, according to the agency. Nationwide, delays could increase by 9 percent. In the Atlanta area, Friday might be the most congested day, with travel times possibly doubling, and the worst time of day will be from 5 to 7 p.m., AAA said.
While drivers are seeing cheaper gas prices, they are paying more for car rentals and airfare. Flights are on average 10 percent more expensive than last Independence Day, and average car rental prices are 5 percent higher, according to AAA.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1170
|
__label__cc
| 0.58841
| 0.41159
|
Trifid Nebula
The Trifid Nebula (also known as M20 and NGC 6514) is a favorite of amateur astronomers. Its name means "divided into three lobes." It was investigated in 1997 by Hubble, the orbiting space telescope, and its operating astronomers.
The Hubble Space Telescope took this stunning image of the Trifid Nebula (M20) - click on it to appreciate its true beauty - which NASA describes as “Starbirth in the Trifid Nebula .”
NASA tells us more about this image (which seems to sparkle once you’ve enlarge it):
Tremendous pillars of gas and dust are being boiled away in the Trifid Nebula.
In the center of the picturesque Trifid lies a young hot star, located above and to the right of this picture. As soon as it was born, the massive star scorched its surroundings with bright and energetic light.
Nearby stars trying to form ended up starved for gas as it was swept away from them by the bright star's light and wind. Lower mass stars should continue to form in the Trifid Nebula, as over 1500 times the mass of our Sun still exists in uncondensed gas.
Also known as M20, the Trifid Nebula is about 9000 light years away and easily visible with a small telescope in the constellation of Sagittarius.
Click on the image for a better view.
Original Release: Oct 07, 2013
Updated Last Revision: Jul 15, 2019
Image online, courtesy NASA.
Bos, Carole "Trifid Nebula" AwesomeStories.com. Oct 07, 2013. Jul 15, 2019.
<http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Trifid-Nebula>.
Learning Tasks Questions to Ponder ?
Aviation & Space Exploration
NOTABLE NEBULAE
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1174
|
__label__wiki
| 0.596985
| 0.596985
|
Banning Transgender Americans From U.S. Military Service Disgraceful
New York – Following President Trump’s announcement that his administration will attempt to bar transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, Bend the Arc Jewish Action CEO Stosh Cotler issued the following statement:
“President Trump’s disgusting move to ban transgender people from military service is made especially appalling by its timing, with today being the 69th anniversary of the desegregation of the U.S. military. We must call out this decision for what it is--discrimination against transgender people and a cheap attempt to gain electoral victories in 2018. President Truman’s historic desegregation and the decades-later repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell enabled our nation to step toward ‘a more perfect union,’ allowing any American who so chose to honor their country through service in the military and throughout society. With today’s announcement by the president, our nation has taken a huge step backward. Our Jewish faith teaches us to serve others and to honor those who do so, and American Jews remain in solidarity with all our servicemembers, cis and trans alike.
Experts estimate that there are currently tens of thousands of transgender people courageously serving our country, doing difficult jobs under tough circumstances, having proven themselves on the battlefield in our nation’s recent and ongoing conflicts. Transgender service members are not a ‘disruption’ as Trump would have our nation believe--it is this attempt to ban them from service that is a disruption. Because this announcement also follows the Obama administration’s declaration that transgender service members could openly serve, prompting many to openly declare their identities, it also represents an enormous betrayal of trust.
Despite these facts, our president and Republicans in Congress (who have already unsuccessfully tried to strip transgender service members of their health care) have put their ideology ahead of common sense and American values in reaching this wrongheaded decision. At a time when violence against transgender individuals and laws aimed at limiting their rights are on the rise, our civilian elected leaders and members of the Defense Department leadership must stand up for all our troops and demand a reversal of this absurd and discriminatory policy.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1177
|
__label__wiki
| 0.81422
| 0.81422
|
Film file
Music Box - Die ganze Wahrheit
Feb 18, 2011 | Dieter Kosslick, Armin Mueller-Stahl [...]
Feb 18, 2011Dieter Kosslick, Armin Mueller-Stahl
The festival director hands over the prize to the German actor.
Music Box | Music Box - Die ganze Wahrheit – Honorary Golden Bear
The actor proudly presenting his prize.
The actor with the Greek director, who's film was screened after the award ceremony.
Additional Information [...]
Costa-Gavras
Armin Mueller-Stahl plays a Hungarian immigrant charged with murdering Jewish compatriots under the Nazis. He pledges his innocence; but his daughter, who is defending him in court, soon realises that the evidence against her father is overwhelming. MUSIC BOX received the Golden Bear at the 1990 Berlinale, not least on account of Armin Mueller-Stahl’s subtle portrayal of a perpetrator: “Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the character completely introverted; by turning him in on himself in this way he manages to reveal a man whose soul dried up long ago, but who holds onto his obstinacy to the bitter end.” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 11.9.1990)
Frederic Forrest
Download details page
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1178
|
__label__cc
| 0.734903
| 0.265097
|
Driving up highway standards in county
Northumberland County Council's highways team has been short-listed in the most improved performer category of the prestigious annual APSE performance networks awards.
Wednesday, 13 December, 2017, 11:50
Councillor Glen Sanderson on the A697
These high-profile awards mark both the best performing authorities and the most improved for their achievements with categories being dedicated to each service area.
APSE performance networks is the largest voluntary public-sector benchmarking service across the UK.
Northumberland’s highways team has been an active member of APSE for several years, and this year has been nominated for the ‘Most Improved Council’ in the highways category.
Cllr Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for the environment and local services at the council said: “This is a really significant achievement for Northumberland at a national level. It recognises the hard work and dedication of our highways team and highlights the significant improvements that we are making to Northumberland’s roads.”
APSE Chief Executive Paul O’Brien added: “We’re absolutely delighted with the calibre of finalists in this year’s APSE performance networks awards. As budgets continue to be squeezed, using data intelligently has now become vital to ensuring excellence in frontline service delivery. In today’s digital age information is power, and these awards highlight how invaluable high quality performance information is to strengthening local government’s frontline services.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1179
|
__label__wiki
| 0.931285
| 0.931285
|
Us (horror, Lupita Nyong’o. Rotten Tomatoes: 94%. Metacritic: 81. A New York Times Critic’s Pick. From Manohla Dargis’ Times review: “Jordan Peele’s new horror movie, ‘Us,’ is an expansive philosophical hall of mirrors. Like his 2017 hit, ‘Get Out,’ this daring fun-until-it’s-not shocker starts from the genre’s central premise that everyday life is a wellspring of terrors. In ‘Get Out,’ a young black man meets a group of white people who buy — at auction — younger, healthier black bodies. What makes ‘Get Out’ so powerful is how Peele marshals a classic tale of unwilling bodily possession into a resonant, unsettling metaphor for the sweep of black and white relations in the United States — the U.S., or us. ‘Us’ is more ambitious than ‘Get Out,’ and in some ways more unsettling.” Read more…)
Lords of Chaos (bio/drama, Rory Culkin. Rotten Tomatoes: 74%. Metacritic: 48. From Manohla Dargis’ New York Times review: “The director Jonas Akerlund works hard to deliver on the title of ‘Lords of Chaos,’ a tale of bad music and terrible deeds. Inspired by a true story, the movie ladles up lots of pulpy bits and buckets of blood to tell a depressing, depressingly familiar story about what happens when young men with apparent means and a whole lot of free time get together to build their own precariously hermetic world. In this case, their clubhouse was the Norwegian black-metal scene of the 1980s and early ’90s, which combined anomie with face paint, speed metal and Linda Blair’s devilish vocalizations from ‘The Exorcist.’” Read more…)
J.T. Leroy (bio-pic, Kristen Stewart. Rotten Tomatoes: 57%. Metacritic: 58. From Manohla Dargis’ New York Times review: “‘J.T. LeRoy’ is a tougher, better movie than [2016 documentary] ‘Author’ and generally comes off as more honest. Directed by Justin Kelly, who wrote the script with Knoop, it focuses on Savannah’s role in the fraud, peeling back the details — physical, psychological — in a masquerade that rather astonishingly lasted some half-dozen years. Anchored by its two excellent leads, the movie is sympathetic and, for the most part, unsentimental.” Read more…)
The Beach Bum (comedy, Matthew McConnaughey. Rotten Tomatoes: 55%. Metacritic: 55. From A.O. Scott’s New York Times review: “‘That’s great poetry,’ Moondog says near the end of ‘The Beach Bum,’ delivering a verdict on his own work. A bit later, after a literally explosive bacchanal during which bales of cash and a sailboat are set alight, he declares the evening ‘a blast,’ inserting an expletive for emphasis. Those two statements pretty much sum up what this movie, the latest from Harmony Korine, thinks of itself. Chronicling a hectic season in the life of its hero [a defiantly unkempt Matthew McConaughey], ‘The Beach Bum’ is intoxicated by its own shaggy lyricism and committed to an ethic of unapologetic hedonism.” Read more…)
Under the Silver Lake (neo-noir, Andrew Garfield. Rotten Tomatoes: 55%. Metacritic: 59. From A.O. Scott’s New York Times review: “At one point, an issue of Spider-Man attaches itself to [lead character] Sam’s hand by means of an errant wad of bubble gum, which is a funny coincidence — no coincidence at all, in other words — because Sam is played by Andrew Garfield, who used to be Spidey. Most of the other allusions in this shaggy-dog tale of wild conspiracism and male petulance are not quite so blatantly meta. Sam and the director are both steeped in classic Hollywood, ’90s indie rock, and various kinds of vintage memorabilia. The mood borrows from Hitchcock [whose grave figures in one scene], and also from Nicholas Ray, David Lynch, and the Southern California noir tradition more generally. Also Thomas Pynchon, Robert Altman and Raymond Chandler. These aren’t esoteric references yielding themselves up to a connoisseur’s prying. They are part of the movie’s surface, and part of its point.” Read more…)
Hotel Mumbai (true-life terror thriller, Dev Patel. Rotten Tomatoes: 76%. Metacritic: 64. From Ben Kenigsberg’s New York Times review: “Anthony Maras, making his first feature, interweaves these threads with precision and clarity, conveying an impressive sense of the hotel layout, the confusion of the circumstances and the visceral fear of hiding from the gunmen. [The opulent hotel was re-created in both Mumbai and Adelaide, Australia.] But the more involving ‘Hotel Mumbai’ plays in the moment, the queasier it seems in retrospect. It reduces the randomness of real-life bloodshed to the slick thrills of a popcorn movie.” Read more…)
Wonder Park (animated feature, Jennifer Garner [voice]. Rotten Tomatoes: 34%. Metacritic: 45. From Teo Bugbee’s New York Times review: “‘Wonder Park’ thrives when it emphasizes the practical pleasures of creativity. The movie visualizes the gears and pulleys of June’s creations, producing exciting action scenes that make fantasies function efficiently. [Its uncredited director, Dylan Brown, was removed from the film after allegations surfaced of what The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets described as ‘inappropriate and unwanted conduct.’ Brown disputed the allegations.] But when these sequences fall back to accommodate the narrative, the shabbiness of the visual design drains energy from the screen.” Read more…)
Captain Marvel (superhero action, Brie Larson. Rotten Tomatoes: 78%. Metacritic: 64. From A.O. Scott’s New York Times review: “The last and least surprising thing we learn about her is that ‘Captain Marvel will return in “Avengers: Endgame,”’ a scrappy little picture that will be released in seven weeks, if you can stand to wait that long. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a script they wrote with Geneva Robertson-Dworet, ‘Captain Marvel’ is an origin story, which is to say a résumé check for the newest member of popular culture’s biggest, most heavily capitalized corporate team. As such, it’s pretty good fun, and could almost be described without sarcasm as a scrappy little picture, like most of Boden and Fleck’s other work. [Their résumé includes ‘Half Nelson,’ ‘Sugar’ and ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’].” Read more…)
New Blu-Ray
The Running Man (1963, Carol Reed-directed thriller, Laurence Harvey. From Bosley Crowther’s 1963 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “Despite all the ostentatious running that a dyed-haired Laurence Harvey does as a fleeing insurance embezzler in the new melodrama, “The Running Man,” he simply goes around in circles and, as a consequence, this Carol Reed film… makes no real dramatic progress or give the viewer a sense of getting any place.” Read more…)
L’Humanité (France, 1999, Criterion Collection, mystery, Emmanuel Schotté. From Stephen Holden’s 2000 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “If it’s possible for a film to convey a physical sensation of the world that is more intense than everyday life, Bruno Dumont’s flawed masterpiece, ‘Humanité,’ does a disquietingly good job. The raw sensory effect this transfixing movie produces might almost be described as psychedelic. Surrendering to its vision feels a little like being exposed to the sun after losing a layer of skin. In its relentlessly biological mind, what we think of as civilization is portrayed as a fragile membrane that barely prevents us from acting on our most brutal instincts.” Read more…)
La Vie De Jésus (France, 1997, Criterion Collection, drama/romance, David Douche. From Janet Maslin’s 1997 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “In a northern French village as quiet as a ghost town, trouble is brewing. It develops slowly and precisely in ‘La Vie de Jesus,’ the first film by Bruno Dumont, who works with grim exactitude to capture the essence of unhappiness in this becalmed setting. His film’s main character, with a sad, inexpressive face and a brutish skinhead look, is Freddy (David Douche). Gradually adding layer upon layer of vague dread, Mr. Dumont finally conveys the full misery of Freddy’s world.” Read more…)
Hélas Por Moi (France, 1993, directed by Godard, comedy/drama, Gerard Depardieu. From Caryn James’ 1994 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “‘Helas Pour Moi’ is about the search for faith, memory, truth and love: the deep human emotions ordinarily masked by the rigorous intellectual form of Jean-Luc Godard’s films. But here is Mr. Godard in a strangely lyrical and contemplative mood. The film opens today at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, with its title awkwardly translated on screen as ‘Woe Is Me.’ A better alternative would be ‘Alas for Me,’ which captures Mr. Godard’s meditative tone. Like his 1985 film, ‘Hail Mary,’ this new work depicts the possible appearance of the divine in ordinary contemporary lives. But where ‘Hail Mary’ outraged some Christians by reinventing one of their most sacred myths, here Mr. Godard plays it safe by reaching back to Greek mythology for his god figure.” Read more…)
Killing Eve: Season 2 (thriller, Sandra Oh. Rotten Tomatoes: 93%. Metacritic: 85. A New York Times Critic’s Pick. From Margaret Lyons’ Times television review: “This emotionality is one among many reasons “Killing Eve,” which begins its second season Sunday on BBC America, feels so fresh. Jodie Comer gives Villanelle a liveliness that almost feels like a sport. ‘Is it hard being bad?’ a child hostage asks her in Season 1. ‘Not if you practice,’ she replies brightly. She must have practiced a lot. She is great at being bad.” Read more…)
Patrick Melrose (drama, Benedict Cumberbatch. Rotten Tomatoes: 90%. Metacritic: 80. From Mike Hale’s New York Times television review: “‘Patrick Melrose,’ a Showtime mini-series … starring Benedict Cumberbatch, isn’t really able to do either side [British social satire or the recovery story, the two genres at play in novelist Edward St. Aubyn’s five Patrick Melrose novels] justice. Part of that is compression: Five hours may seem like plenty of time to tell one life’s story, but it means that each novel is squished into just an hour of screen time.” Read more…)
Kidnapped (1971, adventure, Michael Caine)
All My Sons (1948, Arthur Miller drama, Burt Lancaster. From Bosley Crowther’s 1948 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “In the light of the recent Congressional investigation of Hollywood, exposing as it did, among other things, the desperate caution of the higher echelons controlling films, it is not surprising that the stage play, ‘All My Sons,’ should have undergone a major alteration in its transfer to the screen.The play, as we understand it, made the sharp and unmistakable point that there is something horribly rotten about a system which permits huge profits to be made out of war. And in showing the ultimate come-uppance of a man who made a personal pile by selling defective materials to the Air Forces, through the failure of which young fliers died, it clearly indicated that the individual was not alone to blame, but also the whole social structure which tolerates and even encourages private greed. But that is a rather forward idea and, extended a bit, it might suggest that there are faults in the capitalist system—which, of course, would be downright treasonable. So, in putting together the screen play, Chester Erskine very carefully left out—no doubt, on higher instructions—any such general hints and confined the drama’s indictment to the greed and narrow-mindedness of one man.” Read more…)
Between the Lines (1977, newly remastered indie comedy set at alternative weekly, Jeff Goldblum. Rotten Tomatoes: 90%. From Vincent Canby’s 1977 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “‘Between the Lines’ is, technically, I suppose, a newspaper film, but what distinguishes it is the gently perceptive way it captures the emotional confusions of its characters. They are young, talented, ambitious people who once had the great good fortune to be enthusiastically committed and to have had professional lives that were the same as their private lives. Just how lucky they were they begin to realize only now that the time has passed. The 1960’s have become their roaring 20’s. ‘Between the Lines’ is about growing up after you’ve already grown up.” Read more…)
The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1967, comedy/satire, Paul Newman. From Roger Ebert’s 1968 review: “‘The Secret War of Harry Frigg’ must have been made against its own will. I’ve seen lousy movies before, but never one that seemed ashamed of itself. At times the actors seem to be in pain, and the movie itself is down-at-the-mouth and desperately boring. It is doing great business.” Read more…)
Angus (1995, coming-of-age/comedy, Charlie Talbert. From Janet Maslin’s 1995 New York Times review [requires log-in]: “As directed by Patrick Read Johnson with amiable intelligence but not a lot of dramatic verve, ‘Angus’ is an easygoing if predictable alternative to more gimmicky teen-age fare. [George C.] Scott and [Kathy] Bates help dignify the film without condescending to their material, and help bring home the universality of its familiar ideas about fitting in.” Read more…)
Huckleberry Finn (1975, Mark Twain classic, Ron Howard)
The Brink (bio, politics, fascism, Steve Bannon. Rotten Tomatoes: 82%. Metacritic: 69. A New York Times Critic’s Pick. From A.O. Scott’s Times review: “The war as [former Trump adviser Steve Bannon] understands it extends beyond particular battleground states or congressional districts, though he pays close attention to those. What Bannon calls the nationalist-populist movement — there are other, more precise names for it — has scored victories in Hungary, Poland, the Philippines and Brazil, and his current project is to knit together like-minded, far-flung rightists in an antiliberal, anti-immigrant counterglobalism. There is a lot of money behind this, and it would be interesting to know whose. But money is one topic around which Bannon insists on discretion, shooing Klayman away when terms are being talked.” Read more…)
To A More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor (gay rights, marriage equality, social justice, Edie Windsor)
Filed Under: New Releases Tagged With: 6/18/19, All My Sons, Angus, Between the Lines, Hélas Por Moi, Hotel Mumbai, Huckleberry Finn, J.T. Leroy, Kidnapped, Killing Eve: Season 2, L'Humanité, La Vie De Jésus, Lords of Chaos, New Releases, Patrick Melrose, The Beach Bum, The Brink, The Running Man, The Secret War of Harry Frigg, To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor, Under the Silver Like, Us, Wonder Park
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1180
|
__label__cc
| 0.702641
| 0.297359
|
Vendors/
Vendor Stories
Eftenoiu Paun’s Story
Monday, 3rd April 2017
Birmingham’s New Street Station now has its second Big Issue vendor on the designated pitch inside the station! Eftenoiu Paun attended an interview with New Street’s manager, where we explained Paun’s dedication to work and the long hours he has worked since he started selling The Big Issue. He is thrilled to be selling in the station, in the city he now calls home.
We took him on the proviso he would attend our ESOL class, which he did for two years. He then decided that Birmingham’s streets would be “his school” and so continued his learning through talking to customers and making friends. He has lived in a squat, slept rough outside Birmingham museum and lived on a friend’s sofa since he arrived in the city. As of today he has been offered accommodation with a provider he was referred to over a year ago. This provider is offering a room specifically for people with no recourse to public funds and he has arrived at the top of their waiting list. He is going to look at the room and hopefully sign the paperwork, meaning he has secure accommodation for six months.
'I’m lucky enough to have a special new pitch inside New Street station, arranged with Network Rail. It’s a great place to sell the magazine, with so many people coming and going. It must be one of the busiest places in the country, but there is still time to have nice little talks with some of my customers.
Birmingham is a great place, full of impressive buildings. I used to sell the magazine at the Paradise Forum, close to where the big new library was built. I’ve been back to go inside the library – it’s a very grand place. I like it a lot. I’ve always liked libraries, ever since I was a boy back in Romania.
I’m from a place in Romania called Craiova – a city in the south. I’ve been in the UK for over five years now. I wanted to come here to try to make a better life. When I first came here, to Birmingham, my situation was pretty bad. I struggled to find work. I had nowhere to stay. And I had nowhere to even wash. After about six months of trying to find jobs, I started to sell The Big Issue.
Things gradually began to improve. I earned some money and I began going to the English classes once a week at The Big Issue office. And I began to feel more at home here, more like I was part of the city.
For a long time, I was staying with a friend of mine – sleeping on his sofa. Before that I was sleeping outside. But just recently I was told I have a room in a shared accommodation place, organized by one of the housing associations. I am very happy about that. It will be a big change for me, to have a room of my own, but I hope I can adjust.'
Susannah, Service Broker Team Leader, Birmingham
We were really happy to offer the pitch at New Street to Paun, as he has really put the hours in since he started selling the Big Issue. From the moment he started over five years ago, he has worked from 6am-6pm, 7 days a week, in all of the weather Birmingham has thrown at him. At first he couldn’t quite believe that we were giving him the opportunity to sell indoors! I was very proud to take him to meet the Station Manager, who showed us around the station and where his pitch would be. On his first day, we met at New Street and were given the Big Issue flag which identifies him in the busy station. The flag was rolled up and in sections in a bag – Paun put it together in 30 seconds flat, and a minute later had his tabard on and was smiling and greeting potential customers walking past.
We struggled to communicate when he started with us, and were pleased to be able to offer our in-house English conversation class to him. This meant that his confidence grew, and his conversations with customers increased, which meant his customer base increased too! After attending our classes for a few years, he told us “the street is my school”, and continued his learning by talking to his customers. Since arriving in the UK, he has struggled with finding accommodation as he has no recourse to public funds and has lived in a squat, on the street, on a friend’s floor. Now through Big Issue contacts, he is in shared accommodation, provided by a housing association whose waiting list he was on for a year. It has been worth the wait, as he finally has a place to call his own, for a few months at least. His enthusiasm for life, positive outlook, determination and work ethic are inspiring. It is a pleasure to be able to reward these attributes with this selling opportunity, and we look forward to supporting him in the next chapter of his story.
Aaron’s Story
Alan Massey’ Story
Alan's Story
Allan’s Story
Amy’s Story
André Rostant’s Story
Bean's Story
Carlos Gonzalez Perez
Corky's story
Damian Davies’s Story
Darren's Story
Dave Martin’s Story
Dean's Story
Derek's Story
Donato’s story
Ed’s Story
Garry Buchan’s Story
Gary’s Story
George’s Story
Giovanni's Story
Istvan Kakas’s Story
James' story
James's Story
Jim Stephenson – Nottingham
Joel's story
Julie Cherry Story
June Fullerton’s story
Ken Swain’s Story
Lynne’s Story
Mahesh's story
Marc Matthew’s story
Martin Clarkson’s Story
Martin's Story
Matthew T's Story
Matty's Story
Mick's Story
Nicolas’s Story
Owen's Story
Paul A's Story
Paul Snape's Story
Paul's Story
Peter's story
Richard's story
Robin Fabian's Story
Rose’s story
Sam's Story
Sammy's Story
Sean Hodgkinson’s Story
Sharon’s story
Stan's Story
Stuart B's Story
Terry's Story
Tom Cash's Story
Viv's story
Vendor Videos
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1182
|
__label__wiki
| 0.997075
| 0.997075
|
Aaron Carter on His Off-Broadway Debut and His 'Mature' Next Album
11/7/2011 by Jason Lipshutz
After rising to fame as a teen pop star, Aaron Carter will make his Off-Broadway bow tonight (Nov. 7) in a starring role in "The Fantasticks," the long-running musical now at the Snapple Threatre in Manhattan. Although he was showcased in a supporting role in Broadway's "Seussical" in 2001, Carter tells Billboard.com that rehearsing for "The Fantasticks" has been a much more rigorous process, from practicing line to studying the music to expanding his vocal range to take on the role of Matt.
"It's a much different process," says Carter. "For the past two weeks we've been working so hard on singing, diction, diphthongs and consonants and the way to pronounce certain vowels when you sing. There's a lot that goes into it. People that come and see me aren't gonna really recognize my voice, because I am sounding like a Jerry Orbach or Frank Sinatra. And I think it's pretty cool that I've been able to transform into this completely different tone."
Carter fans still remember the singer from his carefree pop tracks "Oh Aaron," "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," among others; his second studio album, "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in 2001. However, the "Fantasticks" gig follows a tumultuous period in Carter's life that saw the singer enter a Southern California rehab facility for "emotional and spiritual issues" in January.
Since his release from rehab in February, Carter says that he has made some personal adjustments and become reinvigorated with his work. "This year has been a very intense year for me," he says. "I've changed a lot of different things in my life and I've been living a different type of lifestyle. I don't party. I don't go out. I'm just focused on my passion and my artistry, and that's what's most important to me. I love being a performer and entertaining, and when I can't do that, my world is in shambles. It doesn't work for me."
While Carter is signed on to "The Fantasticks" through mid-January, he says that he's still "extremely passionate about my music," which came to a halt after the 2002 release of "Another Earthquake." Since then, Carter has learned to produce, mix, master, engineer, and write more personal songs, and he says that his better understanding of musicianship will guide him on his next full-length, which he hopes to release "really soon."
"I'm not just going to come out with the typical dance-type music," says Carter. "I enjoy Foster the People and Coldplay and U2 and that kind of music, so I'm going to be going more towards big pop ballads and really meaningful songs based upon my experiences and my life. I think that's really where I'm going to be headed -- a more mature sound."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1183
|
__label__wiki
| 0.83512
| 0.83512
|
CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ:CYTR) Soars 19% On ongoing phase 1b aldoxorubicin combination studies
By Marilyn Mullen
Biopharmaceutical research and development firm, CytRx Corporation (NASDAQ:CYTR), specializing in oncology, has confirmed an interim analysis from the two ongoing phase 1b aldoxorubicin combination studies combining aldoxorubicin with either gemcitabine or ifosfamide.
Gilead Sciences, Inc.(NASDAQ:GILD)’s Shares Jump On Robust Earnings and Strong Guidance
By William Kent
Undisputed leader in hepatitis C drugs market, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), has come out with first-quarter financial results for the year.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Reports Pivotal Data from Phase 3 Clinical Studies of ZERBAXA
Merck & Co., Inc.(NYSE:MRK) has confirmed that The Lancet and Clinical Infectious Diseases published online results from pivotal Phase 3 clinical studies of ZERBAXA for Injection in complicated urinary tract infections as well as complicated intra-abdominal infections.
Amarin Corporation plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:AMRN) confirms Anchor CRL from FDA
Amarin Corporation plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:AMRN) has confirmed receiving the much waited Complete Response Letter (CRL) from U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Vascepa capsules ANCHOR trial supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA).
Celladon Corp (NASDAQ:CLDN) Tanks 80% as Heart Treatment Fails In Trial
By Mary Davila
Celladon Corp (NASDAQ:CLDN)’s shares plunged over 80% after the company said that the Phase 2b CUPID2 trial doesn’t meet primary as well as secondary endpoints.
GW Pharma gets Orphan Drug Designation From
GW Pharmaceuticals PLC - ADR (NASDAQ:GWPH) has confirmed that U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given orphan drug designation to the Cannabidiol (CBD) for using in treatment of newborn children having neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (NHIE).
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) confirms about Investigational and All-Oral Three-Drug Regimen of Sofosbuvir, GS-5816 and GS-9857 for Chronic Hepatitis C
By David Fowler
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has confirmed pre-clinical data as well as results from Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies which demonstrate development of an investigational all-oral as well as pan-genotypic regimen of Sovaldi. Sovaldi is the investigational NS5A inhibitor GS-5816 and GS-9857.
Great Basin Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ:GBSN) gets nod from FDA for Group B Strep Molecular Diagnostic Test, Shares Soar
Molecular diagnostics company, Great Basin Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ:GBSN), has got clearance from U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the molecular diagnostic test for Group B Streptococcus (GBS).
Calithera Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CALA) Tumbles 10% On preclinical data of CB-839
Clinical-stage pharmaceutical firm, Calithera Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:CALA), has confirmed the preclinical data for the main anti-cancer therapeutic candidate, CB-839.
The Medicines Company (NASDAQ:MDCO ): FDA gives approval to new formulation of MINOCIN for Injection
The Medicines Company (NASDAQ:MDCO)’s shares tumbled over 5% despite the company said that U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given approval to a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for the fresh formulation of MINOCIN for Injection.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1184
|
__label__wiki
| 0.716111
| 0.716111
|
https://www.blackenterprise.com/601608-2/
Olympic Champion Launches Simone Biles Legacy Scholarship Fund
by Robin White Goode
(Simone Biles with her mother, Nellie Biles on their first day of class. Image: UoPeople)
Simone Biles, American gymnast and Olympic champion, began her college education at the tuition-free University of the People (UoPeople) earlier this month. While the Winter Olympics 2018 is underway, UoPeople has announced that Biles is its Global Ambassador, launching The Education Revolution and the Simone Biles Legacy Scholarship Fund for foster kids and others.
UoPeople describes itself as “the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university, providing tuition-free higher education to qualified students worldwide, despite financial, geographic, political, or social constraints.”
“I always dreamed of going to college but decided to follow my gymnastics dreams full time, which didn’t make it possible for me,” Biles is quoted as saying in a statement. “I had planned to attend UCLA but had to defer because of my training schedule. University of the People opened up an opportunity, providing the flexibility I need to fit in my studies around my career, and I want to be able to help share that opportunity for others around the world.”
As if to emphasize both its flexible scheduling and Biles as its new Global Ambassador, I love the photo of Biles in a perfect split leap on the UoPeople site with the word flexibility emblazoned above her. See it here.
Like Daughter, Like Mother
UoPeople says that Biles is studying for a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Among the 12,000 students enrolled in the university from more than 200 countries is Biles’s own mother, Nellie Biles, who is pursuing a graduate degree in the school’s MBA program.
Biles is committed to paying forward the opportunity for higher education. According to UoPeople, the Simone Biles Legacy Scholarship Fund is designed to support foster children and others in their efforts to pursue their college dreams.
“Being a foster child myself, I know what it means to have the odds stacked against you,” Biles says in the statement. “Life circumstances shouldn’t define you or keep you from your goals. I want to help remove barriers that keep a college degree out of reach for those that truly want it.”
UoPeople President Shai Reshef is quoted as saying, “We are delighted that Simone has chosen University of the People. It’s time for a new model, where every qualified student has an opportunity to earn a high quality, accessible, affordable college degree. It’s time for an Education Revolution. Simone’s support of the university is a great milestone toward this endeavor.”
UoPeople was founded in 2009 and accredited in 2014. The school has partnered with Yale Law School for research and New York University, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Edinburgh to accept students.
For more information, see the UoPeople website.
We Need More Black Financial Planners
Olympian Simone Biles to Appear In Sports Illus...
Black History Month: Simone Biles, Gymnast
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1185
|
__label__cc
| 0.53237
| 0.46763
|
Teacher Arrested for Throwing Notebook at 9-Year Old Student’s Face
Queens, NY — Loretta Myers, a 48-year old elementary school teacher, was arrested last week at a school after she allegedly threw a book at her 9-year old student’s face last January. According to reports, the reason why she did that was that he was not listening.
Myers, who works as a teacher at Public School 253 Central Avenue near Wheatley Avenue in Far Rockaway, became frustrated during science class on the morning of January 31 because the student, a boy who was unidentified, apparently wasn’t paying attention.
Myers then angrily took a book from the student and threw it in the garbage. The student tried throwing another one of his books in the garbage but hit Myers in the leg instead.
The teacher became angrier and responded by throwing back the book, hitting him in his face, police said. Myers even reportedly said, “I could care less.”
Myers has since been charged with second-degree assault, acting in a manner injurious to a child under the age of 17, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment, according to police.
According to the Department of Education, Myers was “immediately reassigned” while an investigation is ongoing.
“This is a deeply troubling allegation,” spokesman Doug Cohen said.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1186
|
__label__cc
| 0.503738
| 0.496262
|
PERSPECTIVE | MAGAZINE
Why marijuana policies in Massachusetts aren’t strict enough
The ensuing problems will cluster among young people, low-income communities, and people with existing mental health problems.
By Timothy NaimiJune 20, 2018, 7:51 a.m.
Until now, recreational marijuana use policies in Massachusetts have been tipped in favor of the increasingly powerful marijuana industry. But there is still time for public officials to act on behalf of the majority of Massachusetts citizens who don’t (and won’t) use marijuana even when it’s legal — and to better safeguard the well-being of those who do (and will) use it. Unfortunately, many important areas of recreational marijuana policy are lax, while others aren’t covered at all by existing laws and regulations.
One critical policy area that was initially proposed by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission — and will be revisited later this year — is allowing public establishments where marijuana can be consumed on-site. This could include places like pot bars, movie theaters, yoga studios, and massage parlors. Allowing on-premise consumption will make marijuana use more visible, socially acceptable, and glamorous to youth. Research shows that cigarette smoking in bars and restaurants played a major role in the normalization of tobacco use. After smoking in bars and restaurants was prohibited, there was a substantial reduction in youth smoking statewide.
Smoking marijuana in public is an in-your-face dimension of recreational marijuana that exceeds the implied intent of Question 4, the 2016 state ballot question that legalized cannabis for adult use. If approved, Massachusetts would be the first in the nation to allow social consumption of marijuana in licensed establishments statewide. On-premise consumption would also increase the risk of marijuana-impaired driving by shifting more pot use to public locations. Patrons of these establishments would likely drive home when levels of THC the most important intoxicating chemical in cannabis — will be highest. (Although THC can last in the blood for days, levels are generally highest from 30 minutes to two hours after smoking.) Multiple studies have found that marijuana use approximately doubles the risk of car crashes and increases the risk of alcohol-related crashes among those who have also been drinking.
To complicate matters, while .08 percent is the legal blood alcohol maximum for driving, the state has yet to establish such a threshold for THC limits, or a reduction in permissible blood alcohol concentration among those with positive THC levels. Further, the state has yet to address specific penalties for retailers selling marijuana to people who are already intoxicated, as we have for alcohol sales.
Another issue that will be up for debate again is whether to allow people to sell marijuana on the Internet or have it delivered to their homes. Monitoring and enforcing marijuana regulations at home and online will be difficult. Home delivery may also make it easier to avoid tax payments, particularly for sellers without a brick-and-mortar presence, or those who skirt federal laws and deliver outside of the state.
Existing marijuana rules leave much to be desired, too. Though people will be limited to buying one ounce of dried cannabis at a time, weight limits are almost meaningless in an era when potency — or the percent of THC in the cannabis plant — can exceed 30 percent, resulting in much stronger marijuana than what was smoked decades ago. To reduce the risk of psychosis and severe marijuana intoxication, even Amsterdam limits marijuana sales to products with a potency of less than 15 percent.
While the law does limit the amount of THC in individual edible servings, there are no limits on how much total THC can be purchased or possessed in the form of marijuana edibles, oils, or extracts.
Although taxes were raised by the Legislature after the marijuana ballot initiative, Massachusetts will still have one of the lowest tax rates among states with legalized recreational use. And there are no set minimum prices or explicit restrictions on price discounting, such as low-priced weed samples for new users or all-you-can-use pot for a single price.
Another problem is the lack of state-level restrictions on the number of permissible marijuana sales outlets or the hours during which marijuana can be sold. For alcohol sales, these restrictions are among the most important state-level policies that regulate widespread availability. Cities and towns whose citizens initially voted in favor of Question 4 and don’t want to house marijuana establishments are required to opt out using cumbersome referendum procedures. After pushback from lawmakers earlier this year, the commission agreed to delay its original plan to license on-site marijuana establishments and delivery services. It plans to revisit these issues by October 31 and to adopt new regulations by early 2019.
So far, the drivers of recreational marijuana policy seem determined to sell as much marijuana in as many forms as possible, without safeguards. For a state known for education, science, and health care, that’s a short-sighted gamble, and its adverse effects and costs will cluster among young people, low-income communities, and people with existing mental health problems. Massachusetts is already racked with substance use problems; there is still time for the commission or the Legislature to remedy the gaps in marijuana regulation. They should certainly not make things worse by introducing pot bars and home delivery.
Dr. Timothy Naimi is a professor at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1187
|
__label__wiki
| 0.943159
| 0.943159
|
Who is stealing all the Bukowski and Kerouac novels?
By Steve Annear Globe Staff,September 6, 2017, 6:01 p.m.
John Wayne keeps an eye on things at Porter Square Bookstore, which has contended with thieves making off with books.(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
If it were a mystery novel, this would be the plot: Who was stealing some of the 20th century’s most iconic titles from the shelves at Porter Square Books?
At one point, volumes by such writers as Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac disappeared so often at the Cambridge shop, owner Dina Mardell and her staff tried to flip the script and set up a display of the “Most Frequently Stolen Books.”
“It was in a prominent place so that we could see it, but also so other customers could see it,” she said. “And believe it or not, books were stolen from that.”
Six months ago, Mardell resorted to more drastic measures. She removed the most likely candidates for theft from the shelves altogether, tucking them behind the check-out counter beneath a cut-out of John Wayne for safekeeping and replacing their spots on the sales floor with small signs explaining their whereabouts.
Such thefts are hardly unique to Porter Square Books. They’ve been happening for decades at Boston area bookstores and those in other major cities. The story line seems to always be the same: Bookshops are forced to keep a watchful eye on certain novels, namely those by the so-called “Beat” writers, a generation of stream of consciousness authors who bucked literary norms.
There are a few prevailing theories to explain the book-swiping. People are either planning to resell the titles, knowing they’re used at high schools and colleges; or they’d rather spend $12 on beer than on a book for class.
It could also be that as new generations of youngsters discover these authors, so too do they channel them, disregarding the mainstream and giving “the man” the metaphorical middle finger.
“These beatnik authors still get stolen,” said Courtney Flynn, manager of the Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Newbury Street. “It’s definitely been the case for a very long time.”
The quantities aren’t vast, maybe a book or two at a time, spread out, but any theft can hurt a retail shop’s bottom dollar. “Little do they know they’re stealing from small, independent businesses that are affected by that kind of thing,” Flynn said.
At Porter Square Books, works by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald have also been targets.
The shelf behind the service desk where books by some authors are kept at Porter Square Books.(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
A New York Times story from 1997 claimed bookstores across New York reported “paperbacks by a handful of writers, all of them male, 20th-century, and counter-cultural” being stolen with more frequency than others.
On the list? The usual suspects, including William S. Burroughs.
“Anything by Charles Bukowski has to be nailed down,” the Times said of the apparent trend.
In 2004, the Harvard Crimson reported that Harvard Book Store, on Massachusetts Avenue, placed books behind the register, in order to prevent shoplifting.
To this day, Harvard Book Store keeps signs on its shelves, guiding customers to the front desk if they want a copy of Bukowski’s “Post Office,” or the classic Kerouac adventure “On the Road.”
Mark Lamphier, the store’s longtime manager, told the Globe that the move is a necessary one, “because we expect they will be stolen, even now.”
“We have Kerouac, Bukowski, Burroughs,” he said of the trove hidden from view. “It’s obviously a lot of the Beats.”
Not all shops say they have had to deal with the headache of reordering titles stolen by bibliomaniacs.
Peter Win, co-owner of Brookline Booksmith, said theft is more of a “general thing,” and in his experience, there’s no particular book type or genre that gets lifted more than others.
“It’s retail, and theft happens,” he said. “It’s a problem for all of us, and it’s something that is difficult to deal with and for staff to deal with.”
The Harvard Coop, in Harvard Square, has Bukowski crammed between other authors with the last name “B” on its shelves, while Kerouac’s prose sits on a lower shelf, right before an overflowing section of Stephen King novels.
Barry Hoberman, an employee at Wellesley Books, said the store is more of an outlier. When asked about the safety of the Beat authors, he laughed.
“I can only think of one author,” he said. “Danielle Steel, of all people.”
Two years ago, the store put up a sign: If you want some Steel, see the clerk at the counter.
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.
Trump defends comments as House intends to condemn them
Boston-area sports camp abruptly canceled, leaving parents in the dark
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0000.json.gz/line1188
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.